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Let This Mind Be in You, March 10
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2:5-7
.
Daniel was but a youth when carried away captive into Babylon. He was about
fifteen or sixteen years old, for he is called a child, which means that he was in
his youth. Why did Daniel refuse to eat at the king’s luxurious table? Why did
he refuse the use of wine as his beverage, when it was at the king’s command
that it was placed before him? He knew that by use wine would become to him a
pleasant thing, and would be preferred before water.
Daniel could have argued that at the royal table and at the king’s command,
there was no other course for him to pursue. But he and his fellows had a council
together. They canvassed the entire subject as to how they would improve their
physical and mental powers by the use of wine. They studied this subject most
diligently. The wine of itself, they decided, was a snare. They were acquainted
with the history of Nadab and Abihu, which had come to them in parchments. In
these men the use of wine had encouraged their love for it. They drank wine before
their sacred service in the sanctuary. Their senses were confused. They could
not distinguish the difference between the sacred and the common fire. In their
brain-benumbed state they did that which the Lord had charged all who served in
holy office not to do. They put the common fire upon their censers, when they had
been expressly charged to use only the sacred fire of the Lord’s own kindling, that
never went out....
A second consideration of these youthful captives was that the king always
asked a blessing before his meals, and addressed his idols as deity. He set apart a
portion of his food, and also a portion of his wine to be presented to the idol gods
whom he worshiped. This act, according to their religious instruction, consecrated
the whole to the heathen god. To sit at the table where such idolatry was practiced,
Daniel and his three brethren deemed, would be a dishonor to the God of heaven.
These four children decided that they could not sit at the king’s table, to eat of the
food placed there, or to partake of the wine, all of which had been dedicated to an
idol god.... There was no presumption with these youth, but a firm love for truth
and righteousness. They did not choose to be singular, but they must be, else they
would corrupt their ways in the courts of Babylon.—
Manuscript 122, March 10,
1897
, “Daniel.”
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