In his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster discusses in one of his chapters the idea that meals in literature are much more than meals. Essentially, meals are symbolic of relationships. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. You don't invite your enemies to sit at your table. Unless you have ulterior motives, of course, but that's only in action movies. 

But this idea of meals and stories is interesting, and in Daniel 1, there's a story that takes place, centered around meals. 

In the book of Daniel, Israel has been taken over by Babylon, and the Babylonians hauled off all of Israel’s biggest and brightest, Daniel among them. In chapter one, they're all invited to eat at the king's table. Think about this: the king of a great empire inviting a regular everyday Hebrew like Daniel to eat with him. That’s a significant thing.

Think about it this way. Regardless of your personal opinions, being invited to a meal by the president or the queen of England or the Pope would be an incredible honor. Most people would count it significant because not just anyone gets an invite to the queen’s table.

Yet Daniel, along with several other Israelites, refuses to eat the food.

Why? 

It may be easy to think that it just had something to do with Hebrew dietary laws. That pork and shellfish and so on were unclean. But I think it was something a little more than just that. You see, eating something makes it a part of you. So if you look at the situation, the Babylonians are trying to influence all of Israel's best and brightest in order to get them to be a part of their society. 

The same is shown with their names as well. When they came to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar gave them different names. Daniel became Belteshazzar. In this same way, the Babylonians were trying to remove the Israel from the Israelites.

When they refused to eat the food from the king's table, it was their own way of saying that they were not willing to accept all of the cultural nuances of Babylon. In fact, when they maintain their own regular diet, they become healthier and more fit than the other Babylonians.

When they refused to eat the food from the king's table, it was their own way of saying that they were not willing to accept all of the cultural nuances of Babylon.

We have to be careful when we determine what aspects of culture we're going to ingest. Jesus called us to be in the world, but not of the world. Sometimes we might stray a little close to being of the world by ingesting the ideas of our culture. Be wary. Be cautious. Are there areas in your life where you’ve ingested too much of the world and not enough Jesus?