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"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." [Daniel 1:8]

Maintaining very high lifestyle standards is extremely important to the Lord. So the Prophet Daniel had ALWAYS been faithful to live according to the very highest biblical standards. While in Babylonian captivity, though, he and three of his Jewish buddies named Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah had been put into a possibly very bad compromising predicament. One may recall that the names of Daniel and of his three buddies had been changed by a Babylonian official to Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, respectively. Daniel 1:6-7 says, "Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego ." In fact, after the current compromising predicament, those same three young men would later have their own chance to stand up to the king of Babylon. But Daniel for some unknown reason had NOT been part of that conflict.

On the current occasion, however, the four young men had been placed in a group of very promising Jewish boys that had been brought to Babylon from Judah. The idea had been for them to be given the very best of everything so that they could mature, excel in all of their physical and mental characteristics, and then enter into the king's service. Daniel 1:5 says, "And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank : so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king." The compromising predicament for the four Jewish young men had been that their diets were to be managed for them in a way that would have been most unsuitable for any faithful Jewish person. They would have been eating meats that had been offered to Babylonian idols. So in Daniel 1:8, which was quoted above, Daniel had asked for permission to NOT defile himself with the king's meats. As a result, his three friends and he had been allowed to have a vegetarian diet and had NOT been required to consume the king's food and drink. When the three years were ended, they had been at the top of their class.

On another occasion, Daniel had found himself at the center of a plot against him. By that time, however, he had been up in years. But some of the more ambitious, younger men in the Mede-Persian kingdom had wanted to get him out of the way. So they had coerced the king into signing a decree saying that it would be against the law for any person to pray to any god or to any man except the king for the next thirty days. Daniel 6:7 says, "All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions ." The penalty for breaking their new law was that the offender would be cast into the lion's den. But Daniel had not been so easily deterred.

In Daniel 6:10, he had continued to pray three times to the Lord each day just as he had ALWAYS done before . That verse says, "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime." He had NOT changed his routine just to satisfy the new law. He also had NOT moved away from his window just to avoid being detected. Instead, he had done just exactly as he had always done. Then when they had thrown him into the lion's den, the lions did not hurt him. He had trusted the Lord, and the Lord had protected him even from a bunch of hungry lions.

But the above types of victories do NOT often just casually happen in a person's life. In the case of Daniel and his three young friends, they had purposed in their hearts BEFOREHAND to take a stand against any living conditions in Babylon that would have violated their Jewish dietary standards. In the later case of the same three young friends standing up to King Nebuchadnezzar, they had BEFOREHAND purposed in their hearts to NOT bow to the image that had been set up by the king. Then in the instance of Daniel praying as he had always done, he had BEFOREHAND purposed in his heart how he would live for the Lord before that conflict had ever come. Thus, successfully living for the Lord usually involves making BEFOREHAND decisions about compromising predicaments before they ever arise. Daniel had purposed in his heart to NOT defile himself with the king's meat. But the greater reality is that he and his three friends had probably made many more BEFOREHAND decisions to keep themselves on track for the Lord.