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ESTHER 8.3-6
ESTHER was a very beautiful girl, and Ahasuerus the great King of the Medes and Persians chose her to be his Queen, and he loved her very much.
Esther was not only beautiful in face, but she had a very beautiful character.
She belonged to the people of God, called the Jews, who had been carried away captives from Palestine, and were now living in Persia.
Among these Jews was a man called Mordecai, who was much respected for his goodness, and he sat in the King's Gate.
When Esther's father and mother died, Mordecai took the little girl and brought her up as his own daughter. He taught her about God, and Esther was very obedient, and loved Mordecai very dearly.
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Mordecai took the little girl and brought her up.
Then Esther was made Queen, and things went on peacefully; until one day Mordecai heard that there was a plot forming to kill King Ahasuerus. He at once secretly told Esther, and she told the King; and the two conspirators were both hanged. But the King forgot to thank Mordecai, though it was written down in the Chronicles of the Kingdom.
About that time the King took a great fancy to a man called Haman, who hated the Jews, and especially Mordecai, because he did not bow down to him when he passed.
So Haman obtained leave from the King to fix a day when all the Jews should be killed in the whole Kingdom.
But the City Shushan was much perplexed; for they knew, though the King did not, that his beloved Queen was a Jewess!
When Mordecai found out all that was happening, he was bitterly grieved, and sent an urgent message to Esther, and implored her to go in and tell the King, and beg him to spare her people.
But Queen Esther sent back a message to Mordecai, to remind him that if anyone ventured to go in to the King's inner Court, that person would certainly be put to death unless the King should hold out his Golden Sceptre.
So Mordecai sent another urgent message to tell Esther that perhaps she had come to be Queen, to do this very thing. But if she did nothing, then she and all the Jews would perish!
Then Queen Esther begged Mordecai to gather all the Jews together who were in Shushan, and to bid them fast and pray for three days; and she and her maidens would fast too; and at the end of that time, she said, "I will go in to the King, which is not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish."
Esther was brave because she knew that she had God on her side; and she believed that He would answer the prayers they were all offering up.
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QUEEN ESTHER BEFORE AHASUERUS.
So on the third day Queen Esther put on her Royal robes, and went into the Inner Court and stood before the King.
When King Ahasuerus saw his beautiful young Queen standing there so meekly, he held out the Golden Sceptre which was in his hand. And she drew near and touched the top of the sceptre.
And when he asked her what request she had to make, the King must have been astonished at her reply, for she only asked that the King and Haman should come to a banquet which she had prepared for them. So when they came to the Banquet, the King asked the Queen again what her petition was? And she said if the King and Haman would come to a Banquet with her, again to-morrow, she would then tell the King what her request was.
So Haman went out from Queen Esther's Banquet very proud; and he told his wife and his friends of his second invitation, but he said that nothing was any pleasure to him, so long as Mordecai, the Jew, sat in the King's Gate.
Then his wife and his friends advised him to make a gallows fifty feet high, and to get the King to let him hang Mordecai on it.
But that night the King could not sleep, and one of his servants fetched a roll of the Chronicles of the Kingdom, and he read to him how Mordecai had once saved the King's life.
And in the morning the King asked Haman what would be suitable to do to "the man that the King delighted to honour?"
But Haman little thought that when he proposed to set the man on the King's own horse, dressed in the King's Royal clothes, that it would be Mordecai who was to be honoured, and not himself!
But the King told Haman to lead Mordecai round the town, and to proclaim: "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour."
After this Haman went to the Banquet that Esther had prepared. He little knew what the Queen's request was going to be! For Esther told the King that a great plot had been made to destroy her and all her people, and that this wicked Haman was the one who had planned it all!
Then Haman was afraid before the King and Queen.
You can picture the anger of the King, and when he was told of the gallows which Haman had prepared for Mordecai, he ordered that Haman should be hanged there at once.
Then the Queen begged that letters might be sent to stop all the Jews being killed, and Ahasuerus sent urgent posts on mules and horses and swift dromedaries to tell the Jews that they might stand up for their lives, and destroy any enemies who rose up against them.
Thus God answered the prayers of that young Queen and her maidens, and of the Jews who joined with her in fasting and praying, and sent them a great deliverance, the remembrance of which has been handed down from generation to generation ever since.
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So Ahab ate and drank—but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and cast himself upon the earth with his face between his knees, and he said to his servant: "Go up now and look towards the sea."
And the servant returned, saying he could not see anything.
Then Elijah said: "Go—" seven times. And when he came back the seventh time, he said he could see a little cloud in the sky, no bigger than a man's hand.
So Elijah hurriedly sent a message to the king, to prepare his chariot, and get to his home quickly, or the rain which was coming would stop him!
And as he spoke, the heavens became black with clouds, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.
And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he ran before Ahab's chariot, right to the entrance of Jezreel.
But when Ahab told his wife, the wicked queen, Jezebel, that all her prophets were dead, Jezebel sent a message to Elijah that she would kill him, as he had done the prophets of Baal, by that time the next day!
And now, Elijah, who had been so wonderfully strong and full of faith for this great scene, fled for his life when he heard the threat of Queen Jezebel!
Hungry, thirsty, tired-out, he fled till he had passed Beersheba, and had gone a whole day's journey into the desert, before he felt he might be safe from Jezebel! Here he cast himself under a juniper tree, and asked the Lord to let him die!
Poor Elijah! For one brief moment his faith failed him! If God had answered his prayer, Elijah would have missed the great honour of going up to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire without death at all!
And let us pause here, just to think for a moment about our own prayers.
It seems to me that we are encouraged to tell God everything; and then we are wise to leave the choice with Him: asking Him to do that which, in His wisdom and love, He knows to be best for us.
So the poor wearied Prophet prayed that he might die; and then overpowered with fatigue, he fell asleep. And meanwhile God was preparing for him, while he slept—as He does so often for His faithful, and sometimes faithless, children—and behold! An angel touched him, and said to him: "Arise and eat!"
And when he looked up, there was a little cake of bread, freshly baked, and a cruse of water standing ready by his pillow!
And he ate and drank; and then, still so weary that he could hardly hold up his head, he slept again!
Then the angel of the Lord came the second time and touched him, and said: "Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee!"
Oh, the compassion of God, Who knows just how we feel! So Elijah obeyed; and he went in the strength of that food, for forty days and forty nights, till he reached Horeb, the Mount of God, where he found a cave and lodged there.
By and by he heard a Voice from the Lord speaking to him, and it said: "What doest thou here, Elijah?"
Then Elijah said: "I have been very jealous for the Lord, but now the Children of Israel have forsaken my God, and I, even I, am the only one left, and they are going to kill me!"
And the Lord said: "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord."
Then the Lord passed by, and a great wind tore the rocks and the mountains, and there was a great earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake nor in the fire that came afterwards; and then there was a still, low voice. And when Elijah heard that voice, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood by the mouth of the cave.
Then the voice spoke to him again: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" And again Elijah said that he was the only Prophet left!
But the Lord told him that He had seven thousand Israelites who had served Him faithfully, and had never bowed down to Baal!
Then the Lord told him to go and anoint two kings; and also to anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, as a Prophet instead of himself.
So Elijah went to Abelmeholah, and found Elisha ploughing in the fields; and as he passed by him, he cast his mantle upon him.
Then Elisha left his oxen and ran after him, and said: "Let me go and kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee!"
Elijah said: "What have I done to thee?"
But I think Elisha knew what the Prophet had meant by casting his mantle upon him!
So Elisha took a yoke of oxen, and with the ploughing instruments for his fire, he boiled their flesh, and gave to the famine-stricken people to eat, and then he went after Elijah and became his devoted servant.
Then many years passed on, and there were great wars between Ahab and the King of Syria.
But Ahab did not leave off his wicked ways, and at length God sent Elijah to Samaria to warn him that God's judgment would come upon him in the very spot in which he and Jezebel had sinned against Him.
I have not space to tell you here about Ahab coveting Naboth's vineyard, nor how Jezebel had Naboth killed in order that Ahab might possess it.
But God's judgments always come true, and though Ahab was killed by a chance bow-shot in a great battle, yet, as God had said by Elijah, "dogs licked up his blood" in Naboth's vineyard, which was close by the king's palace in Samaria, where the men were washing out his chariot after the battle!
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SOLOMON, the son of David, was anointed King, as the Lord had promised David.
Solomon loved the Lord; and when he was made king, the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and told him he might ask for anything he wanted.
And the Lord was very pleased with Solomon's choice; for he asked that God would give him an understanding heart, that he might have wisdom to rule the people over whom he reigned.
So God abundantly answered his prayer, as he was the wisest king who had ever reigned; but God gave him besides, riches and honour and everything that could make him happy. At the same time the Lord warned him to walk in His ways, and keep His commandments that it might be well with him all his days.
Then Solomon awoke from his dream; and he hastened to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord, Whom he loved and worshipped.
Very soon the young king had to use the wisdom which God had so freely given him.
As he sat with his servants and soldiers round him, ready to judge anything that was brought to him, there came two women before him to plead their cause.
"And the one woman said, 'O my Lord, I and this woman dwell in one house, and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night because she overlaid it.'"
"'And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while I slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I arose in the morning to feed my child, behold it was dead; but when I had considered it in the morning, behold it was not my son!'"
"And the other woman said, 'Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son.' And this said, 'No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son!' Thus they spoke before the king."
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He was the author of three thousand proverbs.
"Then said the king: 'The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is dead; and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.'"
"And the king said, 'Bring me a sword.' And they brought a sword before the king."
"And the king said, 'Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.'"
Then the woman, who was really the mother of the living baby, said to the king, for she was heart-broken to think that her child should be killed, "O my Lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it!"
"'But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.'"
Then the king turned to the first woman, and gave his verdict: "Give her the living child," he said, "and in nowise slay it: she is the mother thereof!"
And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they saw that the wisdom of God was with him to do justice among them.
And it was not only in the affairs of the State that Solomon was so wise.
His fame spread to all the nations round about; and his wisdom exceeded all the wisdom of the East. He was the author of three thousand proverbs and many songs. He was learned in trees—from the great cedars of Lebanon to the hyssop that springs out of the wall.
He understood all about beasts and birds and insects and fishes. He knew what those words in the hundred and eleventh Psalm meant: "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein."
By and by Hiram, King of Tyre, who had always loved David, on hearing that David's son was king, sent his servants to convey his greetings to Solomon.
Then Solomon sent back a message to Hiram, asking him to allow his servants to help him in hewing cedar trees from Lebanon, as he was purposing to build a beautiful Temple for the Lord.
He explained to Hiram that it had been in David's heart to build the Lord's House; but he had been a man of war; and though the Lord accepted the desire of David's heart, He told him that his son Solomon should be a man of peace, and should build Him a House.
But the Lord had allowed David before his death to collect a vast number of materials of all sorts, as we read in the 22nd chapter of the First Book of Chronicles.
David had employed clever masons to hew wrought and polished stones; he had prepared iron in abundance for the gates and hinges, and brass without weight.
Then Hiram sent abundance of cedar and fir trees, for as David had said, "The House that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical."
That is a long and a strange word, and it is only used that once in all the Bible! But it conveys this one lesson to us—that if we want God to dwell in our hearts, we must spare no pains to make them ready for His abode!
Jesus says: "If any man love Me, My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him!"
So Solomon began to build with all his heart, and such a Temple as he raised to the Lord was a glory and a joy to all beholders.
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WE read of Jehu first in the time of Elijah, when God commissioned the Prophet to anoint Jehu as a future King of Israel, and announced that he would be used to punish Ahab and the Children of Israel for their idolatry and departure from the Lord.
For some reason which is not told us in the Bible, it was not Elijah, but Elisha, who was in the end sent to anoint Jehu. We read the story of this in the 9th chapter of the Second Book of Kings.
Elisha was now the Lord's Prophet in Israel.
One day he said to one of the younger prophets with whom he lived: "Prepare yourself for a journey, and take this box of oil in your hand, and go to Ramothgilead."
"When you get there, find Jehu, the son of Nimshi, and ask him to come with you into an inner chamber away from the rest of the company, and when you are there, take the box of oil and pour it on his head, and say: 'Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.' Then open the door and flee, and do not wait a moment."
So the young man went to Ramothgilead, and when he got there he found all the captains of the host sitting round Jehu.
So he said: "I have an errand to thee, O Captain!"
And when Jehu understood that the secret message was to him, he went into a private room.
So the young prophet did as Elisha bade him, and anointed Jehu king of Israel, telling him that God had appointed him to execute His judgments against the house of Ahab, and that the dogs should eat Jezebel in Jezreel, as the Prophet Elijah had told Ahab years before.
Then the young man opened the door and fled.
So Jehu came back amongst the other captains, and they inquired: "Why did this mad fellow come to you?"
So Jehu said he expected that they knew the errand. But they assured him they did not, and asked what the news was.
Then Jehu told them the young man's solemn message, and that he ended by saying: "Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel."
Then the soldiers and those around him spread their garments for him to step on, in token that they accepted him as king, and they blew a special blast of the trumpets, saying "Jehu is King!"
So Jehu charged the soldiers that no news should be carried to Jezreel, where King Joram was lying to be healed of his wounds received in battle against Hazael, King of Syria.
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Then the soldiers spread their garments for him to step on.
Then Jehu rode in a chariot, and hastened to Jezreel, and there he found Ahaziah, King of Judah, who had come to visit the wounded king.
Now on the Tower of Jezreel there stood a watchman who told Joram: and as Jehu came fast in his chariot, Joram sent a messenger to meet him with these words: "Is it peace?"
But the watchman said: "The messenger has not returned; he came to them but has not come again. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously."
Then Joram got into his chariot, and Ahaziah got into his, and they started to meet Jehu. But they only got as far as the vineyard of Naboth when they met Jehu face to face.
And Joram said: "Is it peace, Jehu?"
And Jehu answered: "What peace can there be so long as thy mother Jezebel and her wickedness remain?"
Then Joram turned and fled, crying out: "There is treachery, O Ahaziah!"
And Jehu took an arrow and drew the bow to its full strength, and aimed it at Joram's heart. So Joram sank down in his chariot.
Then Jehu told Bidkar his captain to throw the king's body into the field of Naboth, "for remember that when I and thou rode with Ahab his father, the Lord laid this burden upon him."
Then Jehu followed after Ahaziah and smote him, and he was carried in his chariot to Jerusalem and died there, and was buried in his own sepulchre.
So Jehu came into Jezreel, where Jezebel lived; and when she heard all that had happened, she painted her face and put ornaments on her head, and came and looked out of a window.
And as Jehu entered in at a gate she tauntingly said: "Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?"
Then Jehu looked up to the window and said: "Who is on my side? Who?"
And two or three of the queen's chamberlains looked out at him.
So he said: "Throw her down!"
And they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses, and he trode her underfoot.
Then Jehu came in, and he ate and drank; and when he rose up from table he said: "Go, and see now this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter."
And they went to bury her, but found nothing left of her body but the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
So they returned to Jehu and told him.
And he answered in these solemn words—
"This is the Word of the Lord, which He spake by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel: and the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel: so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel."
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KING SAUL had disobeyed God, and the Lord had rejected him from being king.
The Prophet Samuel had set his heart on this first King of Israel, and he grieved terribly that the Lord had reject him. So he went down to his house and mourned over all that had happened.
But at length the Lord spoke to Samuel and He said words like these: "How long will you mourn for Saul? Take your horn of oil and go to Bethlehem, for I have provided me a king among the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite."
So Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and took with him a heifer for a sacrifice to the Lord, and called Jesse and his sons to share in the sacrifice.
Samuel did not know which of Jesse's sons was to be the king, and as one and another passed before him, the Lord told him that He had not chosen that one.
At length Samuel said to Jesse: "Are these seven all thy sons?"
And Jesse answered: "There is still the youngest, and he is with the sheep."
So David was sent for, and the Lord said to Samuel: "Arise, anoint him: for this is he."
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that time forward.
By and by the Philistines, who were enemies of Israel, gathered their armies together to battle, and Saul and the men of Israel went out to meet them; and the two armies stood on two mountain sides, opposite to each other with a valley between them, ready to begin to fight.
Then the Philistines sent out a great giant as a champion, and he defied the armies of Israel, telling them to choose one of their men to fight with him; and promising if their champion was able to kill him, then the Philistines would be their servants: but if he killed their champion, the Israelites would have to serve the Philistines.
When Saul and his soldiers heard these words, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
And day after day for forty days, the giant came out and defied the Children of Israel.
David's father, Jesse, had three sons at the war, and one day Jesse told David to go and see how his brothers were, and to carry a present of food to the captain of their thousand.
When David got near to the trench, he found that the armies were preparing for a battle.
Then his brothers told him about the giant and his threats, and how Saul had made great promises to any one who should be brave enough to kill him.
And David said indignantly to every one he met: "Who is this Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
At length Saul heard of the words that David had said in the camp, and he had him brought before him; but when he saw how young he was, he told him it would be impossible for him to fight the giant.
But David said: "When I was keeping my father's sheep, there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. I went after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him . . . The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine!"
So Saul offered him some armour, but when David had tried it, he took it all off, and chose instead five smooth stones out of the brook, and with his sling in his hand, he went to meet the giant.
You can imagine that great, tall man with his heavy armour, looking down on the young and beautiful youth before him, and disdaining him!
So the giant came on and drew near to David, and he said to him: "Am I a dog, that you come to me with stones? Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field!"
But David's courage was not of earth, as his brave words show—
"Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand! And I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee: and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know, that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's!"
Then he ran swiftly towards the giant, and put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it, and it struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that he sank down on the ground with his face to the earth.
So David ran and stood upon the giant, and took the giant's sword from its sheath and slew the Philistine, and cut off his head.
Then the men of Israel arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines till they reached the gates of Ekron. Then they returned and took all the spoil from the tents of their enemies.
And David was brought before Saul, carrying the head of the giant in his hand.
No wonder that King David in after years wrote in the 18th Psalm: "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord . . . so shall I be saved from mine enemies!"
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DANIEL 5.1-31
BELSHAZZAR was the last King of the Chaldeans, and though he little suspected that this was the last Feast he would ever make, the time had suddenly come when his proud reign was ended, and his enemies would be victorious.
But all this was among the hidden things of the very next day. It is only God who knows the end from the beginning, unless He makes it known to His own servants, who serve and love Him.
So it came to pass that Belshazzar made a great Feast to a thousand of his lords, and he drank wine before his lords.
While he was drinking the wine, he thought that he would show off some of the Holy Vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from God's Temple at Jerusalem.
And Belshazzar knew very well that these Vessels had been made entirely for the Service of the Great God, the King of the whole earth.
But knowing this, he went on in his profane determination to have the Vessels brought into the feast; and he and his princes, and his wives and concubines, drank wine in them, and praised their gods of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and iron, of wood and of stone.
But there fell a sudden hush on the great assembly, for without the slightest warning, there appeared the fingers of a man's hand which were writing on the plaster of the Wall, just above the candlestick of the King's Palace; and the King saw the part of the hand that wrote.
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THE WRITING ON THE WALL.
Then his face grew white with fear, and his knees trembled and smote one against another, for he could not control his terror.
So he called aloud to fetch the soothsayers, and promised, that if any one could tell him the meaning, he should be clothed in purple, and have a chain of gold, and be made the third ruler in the Kingdom.
Then all the wise men hurried in, but they could not read the writing, nor give the interpretation.
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Belshazzar commanded his servants to clothe Daniel in scarlet.
Belshazzar was very frightened. Then the Queen hastened into the Banqueting Hall, and told him not to be frightened, as there was one man in his Kingdom who could tell dark sayings, and in whom there was the spirit which, she supposed, could only come from the gods.
She little knew that this man of whom she spoke, loved and served the only True and Great God, who lives in Heaven.
So Daniel was brought in before the King, and Belshazzar asked him if he were one of the Captives whom Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem? And the King hurried on to tell him of all the gifts which he should receive, if he could tell him the meaning of the writing.
Then Daniel answered before the King: "Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing to the King, and make known the interpretation."
Then Daniel went on to explain to the King that the God who lived in heaven had given Nebuchadnezzar a Kingdom and majesty: but when his heart was lifted up with pride, he was deposed from his throne, and he had to live with the wild beasts, till he knew that the most high God ruled in the Kingdom of men, and gave it to whomsoever He willed.
And then Daniel went on to say that Belshazzar had not humbled his heart, but had lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven, and had even taken His holy vessels to be used at the feast, and had praised the gods of silver and gold "which see not, nor hear, nor know." And Daniel added these solemn words: "And the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified."
Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN—"This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE—God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.""TEKEL—thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.""PERES—Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."
Then Belshazzar commanded his servants to clothe Daniel in scarlet, and to put a chain round his neck, and make a proclamation that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
But in that very night, Belshazzar, the King of the Chaldeans, was slain, and Darius, the Mede, entered into the City and took the kingdom.
That writing on the wall, written more than two thousand years ago, contains a living lesson to all of us to-day.
It was God who sent that message to Belshazzar: "Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting." For God judges every one's life. We read in the Revelation, "There shall in no wise enter into His presence, anything that defileth."
But there is another Writing, not like the one on Belshazzar's Wall—and that is in a Book in heaven, which is called "The Lamb's Book of Life."
Do you wonder what is written there?
It is the name of each one who has come to "The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
Let each one of us ask God to wash away all our sins, and to write down our name in that Book of Life.
That is the writing which will mean endless happiness and joy.
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THE people of Israel—the Jews—had so departed from serving and obeying God, that at length, in the reign of Jehoiakim, God allowed the King of Babylon to come up against Jerusalem with a great army and to besiege it, and eventually to take the city. He carried away not only Jehoiakim, the king, but afterwards Zedekiah (whom Nebuchadnezzar had set up in Jerusalem instead of Jehoiakim), and with him, he took all the nobles who were not killed in the siege, and every smith or craftsman who might be useful in Babylon.
He carried away also the whole of the sacred and precious vessels from the Temple of God, and put them into the house of his own idol in Babylon.
Thus the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were completely destroyed; and none were left in the land but the very poorest of the people.
So now you must picture to yourselves how Nebuchadnezzar instructed his lords and officers to choose, out of the ten thousand captives whom they had brought to Babylon, all the best of the young men: all that were skilful in wisdom or clever in science, who should be brought into the king's palace and should be taught the learning and language of the Chaldeans.
These young men were given into the charge of Ashpenaz, one of the king's trusted chamberlains, and Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to be fed from the king's table, and nourished, so that at the end of three years, they should be able to stand before the king.
Now among these high-born young men were four, whose names in Judah had been Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; but Ashpenaz named them afresh, and called them Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
So you will now understand why these young men were sometimes called by one name and sometimes by another in the Book of Daniel.
When the orders came, and Daniel was told that he and his companions were to be fed with the king's food, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with it, nor with the wine which the king drank.
The reason of this was, that the food was not prepared as the Jews' food was; for God had given them strict rules as to how their meat was to be killed; and also, the wine of these heathen kings was often offered to their idols before they tasted it themselves, and thus, in the Jews' sight, was defiled.
So Daniel spoke to Ashpenaz, and begged him earnestly to excuse him and his companions from eating the king's food.
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Their wisdom and understanding was far beyond that of any of the others.
Now God Himself, Who was watching over His servants, these captives in Babylon, had great purposes which they were to carry out, not only for the Jews, but by and by for the whole world.
But as God takes care of the little things as well as the great things, He had softened the heart of Ashpenaz, so that he tenderly loved Daniel.
And when he heard Daniel's request, he did not speak roughly to him, as those great princes generally did in those days, but explained to him how difficult it would be for him to comply with what he asked.
He told Daniel that if he did not give them the king's food, they would not look as well fed or handsome as the other captives, nor as the king would expect them to look; and if he yielded to Daniel's request, he might endanger his own head to the king! For in those days, life was of no value in the eyes of the great sovereigns. They did exactly as pleased them at the moment.
Then Daniel explained it all to Melzar, who was the man whom Ashpenaz had set over them to control these smaller matters, and asked him to "prove" them by allowing them to have only "pulse to eat, and water to drink"; and if, after ten days, they looked less well than the others who were having the rich food from the king's table, then Daniel and his friends would do what Melzar wished.
I think Daniel knew that his God would make it all right for them!
And so it proved; for at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter than the others did, who ate the king's meat. And Melzar took away the wine and the good food, and gave them pulse and water, as they had asked.
As for these four young men, God gave them skill to learn; and He gave Daniel the power to understand visions and dreams.
So at the end of the three years the prince of the eunuchs brought them, and a number of the other captives, in before King Nebuchadnezzar; and the king communed with them; and among them all, he found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. So they remained near the king, and when anything was wanted of them, they were there to do it.
The king found, when he talked with them, that their wisdom and understanding was far beyond that of any of the others, and ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his kingdom.
These four young men, captives in a strange land, eating and drinking nothing but bread and water, were brave, faithful and obedient.
"They had set the Lord always before them." Their one aim was to please Him; and as we go on with their story, we shall see that God was with them, and enabled them to be "more than conquerors through Him Who had loved them."