The Courage To Not Eat, And The Courage To Not Be Eaten

We look at the courage of Daniel walking into the Lion’s Den or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walking into the fiery furnace and we may ask ourselves how could they have possibly been so brave. It started by being brave over something small. I’m sure that these were not the only four bright young men that were chosen to be trained as the King’s wise men but they were the only four who were brave enough to defy the orders of the cook and stand firm in their convictions over what kinds of food they would eat. It would have been such an easy thing to just do what they were told and eat as much of the awesome food that was prepared for them and drink as much wine as was offered to them, you know, when in Babylon, do as the Babylonians. But because they chose when they were young to be brave enough to dictate what kinds of food went into the oven, then later on down the line, they were brave enough to walk into the oven themselves. Because they chose to be brave enough to choose what they would eat, they were not afraid of being eaten when they walked into the lion’s den. God gives us many opportunities to be brave over small and simple things. And if we choose to be brave, then He gives us bigger tests of our courage, partly because He wants us to grow, and partly because deep inside we know that we are brave because we were able to overcome the small and simple things, so we know that God will be with us once again when we face the big and complex things. In the Parable of the Talents, because one of the servants was able to take five talents and add to them five other talents, the Lord gave Him responsibility over five cities. The deeper we get into the gospel path, the harder it actually gets. But that’s OK. Because with each challenge we overcome, we get braver and stronger and humbler and wiser and more patient with ourselves and with the Lord. To them that receive, more shall be given. When we face a test of our faith and don’t back down but keep pressing forward against the fear and the pain and the doubt, more tests shall be given. Harder tests. More complicated, more demanding, more impossible tests. But if we can have the courage to stand up for what’s right over something so simple as refusing to eat, then later we can have the courage to stand up for what’s right and refuse to be eaten even as we are thrust into the lion’s den. God is with us against the small things so that we can trust that He will be with us when we have to face the big things.