IN HIS FAVOR

We continue in our year-long journey through the book of Daniel]

Greetings church family!

Daniel 1:9-10 - God had granted Daniel kindness and compassion from the chief eunuch, yet he said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and drink. What if he sees your faces looking thinner than the other young men your age? You would endanger my life with the king.”

Last we we looked at Daniel’s conviction to adhere to a specific diet that was contrary to the Babylonian king’s diet. However, to carry this out, he would need to have the king’s blessing. In order to receive the king’s blessing, he would need his supervisor, the chief eunuch of Babylon, to advocate for him. Daniel seems to have found favor with the chief eunuch, as verse 9 reads  “God had granted Daniel kindness and compassion from the chief eunuch…” 

This is synonymous with the “favor” we’ve been addressing in our sermon series on Joseph. The Hebrew word interpreted as “favor” in the Joseph story has a connotation of “divine providence operating through human channels. Daniel needs this type of God-given favor through the chief eunuch in order to finally obtain the king’s blessing on his special diet. However, the chief eunuch is worried for his life that the king will not only balk at the potential less-than-ideal outcomes of the request, but have the chief eunuch’s head because of them. So, David comes up with a plan.

Daniel 1:11-16 - So Daniel said to the guard whom the chief eunuch had assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then examine our appearance and the appearance of the young men who are eating the king’s food, and deal with your servants based on what you see.” He agreed with them about this and tested them for ten days. 

At the end of ten days they looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. So the guard continued to remove their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.

After reading Daniel’s diet plan and the results following the 10 days, a question came to mind. Would there really naturally be a substantial difference in appearance between the Hebrew boys mentioned and the other young men who were eating the king’s food after only 10 days? I’m not saying there wouldn’t be any difference, but the text seems to imply a substantial difference.  

Many theologians agree that some part of Daniel, Hananiah’s, Mishael’s and Azariah’s superior health and physical appearance after only 10 days must be attributable to divine intervention.

God’s favor over these four did not stop at physical health.

Daniel 1:17-21 - God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind. At the end of the time that the king had said to present them, the chief eunuch presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king interviewed them, and among all of them, no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they began to attend the king. In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and mediums in his entire kingdom. Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

Perhaps most striking thought is the final note in verse 21: “Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.” King Cyrus was not a king of the Babylonian empire, but of the ensuing Medo-Persian empire. Empires rise and fall. Kings change. Policies shift. But the favor of God preserves His servant across decades of upheaval.

Daniel 1:9-21 reminds us that God’s favor is not fleeting encouragement—it is steady presence. It may not spare us from exile, but it will keep us through it. When we choose faithfulness in small decisions, God’s favor quietly works in ways that outlast circumstances and outlive opposition. Wherever you find yourself today—uncertain, pressured, or overlooked—take heart. The same God who gave Daniel favor is still at work, faithfully sustaining those who honor Him.

Have a great rest of your week church family!

Pastor Chris