It's the Little Things

Do you recall the story of Daniel? He was among those sent in exile to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar took Judah. Now, that's bad, but Daniel was among a select group of young men "in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king's court" (Dan 1:4). Oh, that's good. So these guys were set up to receive the best three-year education Babylon could give along with the best in food and wine. Oh, that's really good!

And then we read, "But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine" (Dan 1:8). Wait ... what? Hey, Daniel, what's up with that? I mean, it's not a big deal. It's only food and wine. Hey, Judaism doesn't even prohibit wine. What is this all about?

Well, it doesn't take much of a thought to realize that there would be things on that menu that Daniel could not eat without violating the Law. Babylon had no prohibition against pork or shellfish, for instance. They could eat rabbit. They could cook a goat in its mother's milk. These were all specific commands from the Law that Daniel had to avoid breaking. But surely not all the food fell in that Law category. And we can be pretty sure that the wine wasn't forbidden. So what was that all about? Why not pick and choose instead of going through the problems? Just go along to get along. This isn't a big thing, Daniel. You have to know what hills to die on, so to speak, and eating right just isn't that important. Is it?

Apparently it was. He sought and obtained special permission to become a vegetarian and God blessed him for it. But ... why?

Well, as indicated, there was the problem of "unclean foods". Surely kosher laws (even the Mosaic version without the upgraded version with other rules alongside) weren't followed. Pork was available. Animals were strangled. Various banned foods were on the menu. And then there was the whole idolatry thing. It was customary in Babylon to offer foods to idols before eating them -- meat and wine specifically. That certainly had to be avoided.

I suspect, though, that there was a little more to it. You see, in my experience it's the little things that get you. You check out a pretty woman (not a problem on its own) and then you think a little further down that path (headed for a real problem) and then you end up in sin. It could have been avoided by not starting down that path. As every adolescent male can tell you, it begins with titillating pictures of women you could see at the beach and moves from there to stuff your mom would be horrified to find you looking at and soon you're addicted to all sorts of sinful lusts. For some women it starts with romance novels of women swept off their feet by lovely young men and moves to stories of wives saved from sad marriages by lustful "bad boys" and ends up in an adulterous affair to try to find that fantasy herself.

We don't typically start out thinking, "You know, I think I'll jump into some of the most perverted pornography I can find and see how that goes." We start out thinking, "Ooh, this might be fun. And it's really not sinful, is it?" We don't start out thinking, "I'm going to cheat on my husband." We start out thinking, "I could use a shoulder to cry on because I've got some problems with my husband and this guy is nice. What could be wrong with that?" Eve started out with a pretty piece of fruit. What could be wrong with that? Well, we all found out, didn't we?

For Daniel it was food and drink. He saw the danger and made up his mind that he would not defile himself with what might appear to you and me to be relatively harmless little pleasures. He took drastic steps to avoid the problems that "the little things" would surely produce. Like Moses, he chose "rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin" (Heb 11:25). David told God, "I will set no worthless thing before my eyes" (Psa 101:3). If worthless is bad, how much more the pleasures that lead us to sin? What "little things" are dangerous to you?