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PLAIN LIVING INSURES GOOD HEALTH IN BABYLON

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 27, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 9.

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PLAIN LIVING INSURES GOOD HEALTH IN BABYLON.

By William Warren Prescott

Although the king of Babylon changed the name of Daniel, and gave him the name of Belteshazzar, according to the name of his god; yet Daniel's character remained unchanged, and he continued loyal to the King of heaven and the principles of that kingdom, as is shown by the record.
“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king.”
It is clear that Daniel understood the gospel of the kingdom, and how eating and drinking are related to it. He did not ask for a change of diet merely because the food provided for him was different from that to which he had been accustomed, nor because he wished something that would please his palate better. He was acting upon principle. He had learned that “the kingdom of God is within you,” that he was “the temple of the living God,” that “the Spirit [life] of God dwelleth in you,” and that “if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy.”
Although he was a captive in the dominion of the king of Babylon, yet he did not forget that God was his king, and that the principles of his kingdom were still to control in his life. The test came upon the question of food and drink. Should he follow the diet prescribed by the king of Babylon, or that prescribed by the King of heaven? The basis upon which he rested his choice reveals the true relationship between food and character, and shows how we may work with God or against him in his plan to restore his image in us, and thus to place us again in dominion over the works of his hands.
God created the body as the dwelling-place for the mind, a living temple, “wonderfully made.” The mind was to rule the body, using its members as its servants to do its bidding. Thus was the divine nature revealed in the flesh, and man shared in the dominion with the King of heaven, because he was a member of the royal family, and the royal blood (the life of the King) was in him. He was “crowned with glory and honor,” and was invested with the power of a king in the very character that was given to him. A scepter of righteousness was the scepter of his kingdom.
Thus his dominion depended upon his character, and was not an arbitrary gift apart from it. Through the loss of character the dominion was lost; “for all have sinned, and come short of [lack] the glory [character] of God.” Rom. 3:23. And therefore “now we see not yet all things put under him;” Heb. 2:8. It is the work of the gospel to restore to man the kingly character, and thus bring him back to his place of dominion. This is accomplished by the gift of righteousness, the true scepter of the kingdom, “even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” But this righteousness is simply the Lord's own life in its purity, just as it was first imparted to man when God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”
To accept the gift of God's righteousness by faith is therefore to accept his life, recognizing it as his life and submitting to it, so that it may be “God which worketh in you both to will and to do.” Now we may co-operate with God in his purpose by accepting this gift of his life as it comes to us in its full strength and purity, or we may work against this purpose by refusing the life altogether, or by putting various hindrances in the way of its working in us. We can not give life; but we can take it. We can not save ourselves; but we can effectually hinder the Lord from saving us. We can not put ourselves upon the throne again, but we can prevent the Lord from putting us there.
The body, the home of the mind, “the temple of the Holy Ghost,” has been placed in our care with full instructions from the Creator as to the treatment that we are to give it. So close is the relationship between the mind and the body that they react upon each other, and the condition of one has a marked effect upon the other. In order, therefore, that the body, and the mind through the body, might be properly nourished, God himself in the beginning prescribed a diet, simple yet varied and satisfying, by means of which his own life might be imparted to man. “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Gen. 1:29. This diet is nourishing, but not stimulating; and although the curse of disease and death is upon all things in the earth, yet its effects upon the fruits and grains are so manifest, when they appear at all, that they may readily be avoided.
Thus the diet prescribed by the King of heaven for those who are to share with him in the dominion is clean and pure, and can be kept so, even under the curse. It does not rouse nor feed the fires of passion, and thus make it harder to keep under the body and bring it into subjection. It does not impart a tainted life, nor load the system with poisons that have been generated in other living organisms filled with disease. It does not defile the temple of the body.
Not so with the diet provided by the king of Babylon. His food is made up of “delicacies,” those mysterious and complicated dishes that tempt the appetite to overindulgence, and bring heavy burdens upon the delicate, living machinery. His wine, instead of being the pure blood of the grape, has been transformed into the fiery liquid that “biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” There is as wide a contrast between the two bills of fare as between the two kingdoms.
Daniel understood all this, and so “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.” Now comes the practical difficulty. In response to Daniel's request that he might not defile himself, the officer in charge says, “I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink.” The test is a plain one. The two kings and the two kingdoms are brought into direct opposition. The servant of the king of Babylon fears his lord the king, and the servant of the King of heaven fears his Lord the King. Shall the principles of the kingdom of Babylon prevail over the principles of the kingdom of heaven?
Of course the officer, like many a modern advocate of “a liberal diet,” thinks that the effects of such a way of living as was chosen by Daniel would be very marked at once in faces that would be “worse liking” than the others; and thus he himself would be brought into trouble: for the temper of the king of Babylon is just what might be expected from the nature of his diet; and when he “loses his head” and becomes “angry and very furious,” an offending subordinate is likely to lose his head also.
But the Lord has sent Daniel and his companions to Babylon that they might proclaim the gospel ofthe kingdom of God in the court of the king, and thus “in all the world for a witness.” They were not arbitrarily chosen for this work. If all the people had been as true to principle as they were, it would not have been necessary to give Jerusalem into the hands of the king of Babylon in order that the gospel of the kingdom might be spread abroad. These young men had the kingdom of God within them, and they knew their King. They believed that the principles of the kingdom were true, and that they would justify themselves whenever they were given an opportunity. They were willing to accept the test suggested by the officer's objection, and to trust God for the result.
“Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.”
The food that this Hebrew captive asked for himself and his companions was practically what is now considered the proper diet for a prisoner when undergoing punishment—bread and water. Right principles were brought into “confusion” by the king of Babylon, and the best diet was provided for his prisoners when in disgrace; while that which was really the poorest, the most death-dealing, was supplied for his own table. Thus are men persuaded to choose death instead of life, and a stigma is placed upon that which is really good.
But God sets his seal to his own principles of right and truth. Life in its simplicity and purity has a greater power to build up than when burdened with a weight of useless or poisonous additions. When the glory of God is had in view in the eating and the drinking, and faith in God and the principles of his kingdom controls the demands of a perverted appetite, then the way is open for the beauty of the Lord to appear upon us, as he works out in form and feature his original idea of a man—“the image of the invisible God.”
But of course some will ask if this remarkable change in the appearance of Daniel and his companions was not miraculous rather than the natural result of their diet. But what is a miracle?—It is not the confusion of natural law, but simply the uncovering of natural law, with a more or less evident disregard of the element of time, in order that the working out of God's agencies may be clearly understood. Nature is not simply an impersonal force. Natural laws are only the observed method of God's usual and habitual action in bringing about definite results. When he would emphasize the fact that “power belongeth unto God,” and that he in his own person is behind what are called natural laws, then he sometimes draws aside the curtain, puts cause and effect in their true connection, regardless of the usual time limit, and we have what is termed a miraculous result.
So in the experience of Daniel and his companions. The Lord gave the best diet to man in the beginning. The king of Babylon has not improved upon it. When received by faith as the free gift of God's own life, it is designed to make one “fairer and fatter in flesh” than all the children who partake of the Babylonish diet. And thus the gospel of health is preached.
The whole question of the kingdom was brought to a test in this case in the matter of the true principles of eating and drinking. Daniel and his companions were steadfast in their loyalty to their King, and God honored their loyalty, and bore unmistakable testimony to the superiority of his own provision for sustaining the life of man over the perversion of that provision by the king of Babylon.
The truth is eternal. This lesson is a present one. The failure of the first Adam was revealed in his accepting from the enemy as food that which the Lord had told him would cause death. The children of Israel failed in the same way on their way to the promised land. Christ conquered where man had failed, and thus has assured victory to everyone who will accept it. In these closing days, just before the coming of the King, we are warned against the danger of “surfeiting and drunkenness.”
The true gospel of the kingdom is the power of God to give man victory over appetite, to give him self-control, and thus to make him a king indeed, even though he be for a time in the territory of the king of Babylon. The whole experience of Daniel, as recorded in this book that we are studying, grew out of his loyalty to the principles of the kingdom of God, as revealed in this chapter, and is an object lesson for all time. W. W. P.