We had an interesting lesson about King Nebuchadnezzar. The king commanded his palace master to bring in some young Jewish men to be trained to serve in the King’s palace. This may have been an attempt on the king’s part to win over the Jews. if these young men learned the Babylonian language and culture, they were assigned to work in the King’s palace. The King thought it might encourage all Jewish people to be loyal to Babylon.

As part of the training program, Nebuchadnezzar fed the Jewish men food from his own kingly menu. Think of the food you would eat every day if you were the king: this might have been the richest, most decadent food in all of Babylon, and these Jewish men would be able to eat it simply because the king allowed it. Daniel, however, knew that his food was more than a gift from the king—it was a gift from God. And to show that he was grateful to God for his food, Daniel declined to eat the king’s food. The chief official told Daniel that eating the king’s food was a requirement. For ten days Daniel arranged a test; for ten days Daniel and his friends ate vegetables and drank water. Mosaic Law allowed the Jews to eat more than vegetables and water, but Daniel thought that the meat and wine may have been given as a sacrifice to Babylonian gods, and he wanted to honor God in all his choices. God rewarded Daniel for his faithfulness.

We had a wonderful class of 6 youngsters that got to experiment with a different type of painting! I can’t say enough about these well-behaved youngsters! See you in church Sunday. Blessings!