Daniel and the King’s Food

God kept telling his special people to listen and follow his rules. He said, “If you don’t obey me, I won’t be able to protect you from your enemies.”

Now, one of those enemies was a king named Nebuchadnezzar. He was the ruler of a strong country called Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar had a not-so-nice plan. He wanted to ruin the special city of Jerusalem and destroy the beautiful temple where people worshiped God.

Because some of the kings and lots of the people didn’t follow God’s rules, God let King Nebuchadnezzar win.

King Nebuchadnezzar visited Jerusalem not just once, but three times. The first time, he took away many folks, even young ones, as prisoners. Then, he came back a second time and caught the king and his army, along with 10,000 more people, as prisoners.

But here’s the really sad part.

The third time he came, King Nebuchadnezzar did something terrible. He smashed the temple and ruined the city of Jerusalem. He took away almost all the people, and they had to go live in a faraway place called Babylon.

It was really hard because God’s people couldn’t stay in their own country anymore. You see, these bad things happened because a lot of the people didn’t choose to obey God.

Not everyone in Jerusalem was bad. There were these four really good and kind young Jewish boys who got taken away as prisoners during that first capture.

Their names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

These boys were special because they loved God a lot. They followed all of God’s rules and prayed to Him. They were even careful about what foods they ate because God had special rules about that too.

Now they were prisoners!

They had to leave their parents behind and go live far away in the city of Babylon.

King Nebuchadnezzar thought these boys were really clever, so he picked them to be his special helpers. The king wanted them to become friends with Babylon and help him out.

So, off they went to the king’s palace!

There, they were taught all about Babylon’s laws and even got new names.

Daniel became Belteshazzar, and his friends became Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They also learned cool stuff like science, math, and all the twinkling stars in the sky.

While these boys were busy learning, the king put a special person in charge of them. This person made sure they ate the tastiest food in all of Babylon!

But, oh dear, there was a big, big problem!

Daniel and his friends knew that the food the king wanted them to eat was not allowed by God. It might have even been used for worshipping idols, which was a no-no.

If they ate that food, they would be breaking God’s rules.

So, brave Daniel went up to the king’s helpers and said, “We can’t eat this food, sorry.”

The nice official really liked Daniel and his friends. He saw that they were good boys who always did their best. But he was worried because he didn’t want the king to get angry with him for not letting them eat the king’s food.

Then, clever Daniel had a great idea!

He said to the official, “Let’s do a test. For ten days, we’ll only eat veggies and drink water. After those ten days, you can see if we’re as healthy as the other young folks in the palace.”

So, Daniel and his three friends stuck to their plan. They ate only yummy veggies and drank clear water for ten whole days.

And guess what happened?

After those ten days, the kind official saw that these four friends were even healthier than all the other young folks in the palace. He was super impressed!

So, from that day forward, he let them eat the food that was okay with God. They didn’t have to eat the king’s food anymore!

When the study time was over, the king wanted to see how smart all the young men had become. He asked them questions to test their knowledge.

The king thought Daniel and his friends were the smartest and wisest of them all! They were clever and ten times better than all the magicians and wise folks in the whole kingdom.

So, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego became really important in the king’s court.

They were became the king’s wise advisors because they were so smart!

They always loved God and followed His rules, even when they were prisoners.

And you know what’s amazing?

God looked after them and gave them blessings and protection. They were like God’s special friends, no matter where they were! 😇🙌