Living With Resolve Part 2 DANIEL 1:8 PAGE 1370

Making Resolutions…  2 Chronicles 20:3,  Daniel 1:8,  Psalm 17:3, and  1 Corinthians 2:2.

Living with Resolve is Counter-Cultural

 Resolve means to “work at coming up with a solution”, “decide firmly on a course of action”, and as a noun it is “a firm determination to do something.” Resolve Defined:

 “Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and proclaimed a fast in Judah.”  The resolve was to go to God to ask for his input and direction before deciding how to respond.  It is a resolve to live life God’s way instead of our way. 2 Chronicles 20:3 Page 700

 “ But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. “ Daniel 1:8 Page 1370

The Context:  Daniel 1:1-7  …Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— 4 young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. 5 The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table…

Today’s Verse:  Daniel 1:8  “ But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.”

What Is The Issue?  The meat, and wine, that was being served was meat that had been sacrificed to Nebuchadnezzar as a deity.  Daniel, and the three others, want to serve God and him alone and so they do not want to eat this meat, or drink the wine, so they ask for vegetables and water instead (vs 12).

Going Deeper:  Is the point of the passage about the health benefits of being a vegetarian or a diet plan?  What about the king’s diet was “defiled”?  How did Daniel, and the others, react when they were faced with options that impacted their conscience?

Scriptural Reminders:  1 Thessalonians 5:21-24 “Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”

Scriptural Reminders:  Galatians 5:19-21 “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Scriptural Reminders:  1 Corinthians 6:12-13 “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”

Scriptural Reminders:  2 Corinthians 6:14 “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”

Scriptural Reminders:  Ephesians 5:3-5 “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”

Scriptural Reminders:  Ephesians 5:11  “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”

Questions : 1.What do you consider “defiled” or “unholy” that you work at avoiding? 2.How well attuned is your moral conscience? What tunes your conscience and what dulls it? 3.What biblical wrongs have become cultural norms and how do you keep yourself from being defiled by them?

Led by Conscience  Daniel resolved to follow his moral conscience and we need to have our conscience trained by God’s word and be resolved to not go against it.  1 Corinthians 4:4 “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.”

Conclusion!  2 Chronicles 20:3 reminds us to resolve to live life God’s way instead of our way and Daniel 1:8 challenges us to resolve to live a life that is undefiled.

1 Timothy 1:18-19  “Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.”

Next Week:  Psalm 17:3 and a resolve to live a life of purity.  Ps 17:3 Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing; I have resolved that my mouth will not sin.