“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5:14
Nobody I know likes to take tests. Starting in elementary school we begin to learn that we have to take time for someone to test how much we learned or howwell we are doing. In academics and in sports tests permeate every area of our lives. Tests take all kinds of forms. They might be true-false, multiple choice, word problems, essays and tests of skill and endurance. They may be oral or written. Some tests are planned and we know when and where they are coming and we have time to prepare. Others are pop tests, sprung onus in the moment often when we are least prepared.
There is one thing that is true about all tests. You don’t know how well you will do until you take it. Sometimes we are very confident and do poorly. Other times we are quite unsure of ourselves but do well. Sometimes we take tests and then have to retake them because we did not do as well as we hoped. (SATs, driver’s license.) Sometimes we run out of time and the test is over and ta grade stands on our permeant record. Some tests determine if we go in one direction (to more advanced courses) or in another (a different major or career).
We should not be surprised that tests are important in our spiritual life as well. God shows us tests as early as the Garden of Eden when He gave the first man and woman one rule to obey. They were tested – would they believe God and obey Him or not? Spiritual tests are harder however because in addition to having to know the content to pass the test, there is a deceiver who tries to make the test taker make the wrong choice. Therefore to pass a spiritual test one must be confident in what they know otherwise the wrong choice will be made to look like the right choice.
When we come to Daniel we find a young man bombarded by tests early in his life. He is ripped away from his family, he is made a slave, he is taken on a long grueling march to a foreign country known for its cruelty to prisoners of war, he is made a eunuch. Any of those major life changing events would be enough to make some reject the God they thought they knew – the one they thought they thought would take care of them. Remember at each step the test deceiver is whispering in Daniel’s ear that his faith is misplaced and he should give up on the God he claims to worship. Through all these catastrophic events we find that Daniel raises no objections, throws no tantrums, does not deny His God. Then another test emerges. A small simple test. One that just requires him to eat some tasty and well prepared food and suddenly Daniel draws a line in the sand. He will not do this. He becomes unyielding. This is a hill he is willing to die on. When we first read this, we scream “why?”. You put up with all this other abuse and yet when you are offered some good food to eat, you decide to draw a line in the sand? What gives?
What can we learn? One of the keys to taking a test is to recognize it. The deceiver likes to try and hide tests, make them look like a benefit or a reward rather than the danger it really is. Daniel recognized this test because he hid God’s word in his heart. He knew God’s word and God gave him discernment. This a key for us. Today the world tries to change God’s Word. China is rewriting the Bible. AI is sup posed to come up with a more “tolerant” version. If all we know is a few Bible stories we will be subject to being deceived by the test.
Remember! “Hide God’s word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”