Daniel 1:14-16




Would you want to be an overcomer? Is there some way to become one? Read the following verses:

Daniel 1:14-16

"So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead"


It is a good translation, if you have compared with the Hebrew original. Observe that the diet which was supposed to cause them to lose weight, had the opposite effect.

Wow! Is vegetarianism better, then?

This is the idea supporting that food choice. But, hold your horses! It is not the same to be a "professional" vegetarian - whom includes soybeans, milk, eggs or other protein sources, to replace meat protein - and to take away from the common diet all animal products (nor Babylonians neither Hebrews practiced vegetarianism). It is not the same neither to be a vegetarian for some time - with the body used to that - than to take away suddenly every meat from the diet. The "normal" consequence should be that their would lose weight, and even could occur that they would contract some diseases because of the lack of protein (millions of people become sick and die in the world because of poor nutrition)

How did they get better with an incomplete diet?

We need to remember that God had a plan for them and through them. In Romans 8:28 the Apostle writes that "... in all things God works for the good of those who love him. who have been called according to his purpose". Now, to "love God" and to be called "according to his purpose" are dependant each other. If somebody loves God, then he's been chosen by Him, and if somebody is chosen by God, that person will love Him. They rejected the royal food and the royal wine (in few words, the royal luxury) and chose that food they knew wasn't defiling, even at risk of become sick. They did it because of their obedience to God. Now that's something that only those who love God do! And if you love God, it means you've been loved by Him (it is a spiritual gift).

Their decision was blessed by the Lord. The diet which should make them weaker "worked for the good" of them. How God did it we don't know, and the Word of God doesn't say something about it. We could speculate that they got meat in secret from the guard, or from Elijah's ravens (1 Kings 17:6); or that they included milk, eggs... But it would be only that: speculations. It is one of the ways to deviate from salvation, which has misled many souls. The revealed things belong to us, but the secret ones are in our Father's hands - and believe me, it means that they are in good hands. We can affirm that they won - because it is written. And they won because they trusted God.

How can I become a winner?

Revelation 17:14 declares that the Lord Jesus Christ will defeat a coalition of evil rulers in His second coming - with the Antichrist as head - and the Lord will become the defeater of evil in this earth, right before the beginning of the millennial kingdom. And the authority of being the commander of the winner armies was given to Him by the Father. Why? Because He won another battle, a very difficult and uneven one, in the cross of Calvary. There He defeated the spiritual hosts of evil, those who induce evil in humans ("powers and authorities" in Colossians 2:13-15), and He defeated them through His blood (Revelation 12:11). That victory - which Satan's worshipers believe to be the evil's - is only understood by the one who receives the Savior and realizes the significance of the salvation that He won for us. It is His victory, but it is also OUR victory, because it was won in our favor.

Jesus won the battle in the cross. He didn't do His will, but the will of His Father - and it was to be punished and to die on a cross. He didn't made himself respectable, admirable, well paid or leader of millions (as many in this world who are considered "winners"). On the contrary, He was despised, abandoned, humiliated and deprived of his human dignity, his clothes and even of his life. But He was the winner in that cross! He is the winner for us who follow Him and who adore Him. And He will be the winner over the evil in this world, when He comes back and brings eternal justice.

Do you want to be a winner? Only Jesus can teach us. And it is His task, to be our leader. Hebrews 2:18 affirms that "he is able to help those who are being tempted" because He himself suffered, He himself was human in this earth, and He himself was tempted, as humans are. If you're sick of being called a "loser", your key is in the Son of God! He was, and He is, and He will always be a winner. Put your life in Jesus' hands! He will lead you from victory to victory.

May the Lord bless you.

In Jesus Christ's love, your brother

Israel Leonard

PS Jesus is coming soon!




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