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Day 240, or August 28. You must do what you believe.

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Our thoughts today come from Daniel chapter 1 verse 8. But Daniel resolved not to defile

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himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission

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not to defile himself this way.

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And now the big picture surrounding this verse. Daniel is one of the best-known Old Testament

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prophets. His name means God is Judge, which is a very suitable name for a prophet to a

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people who are enduring God's judgment in exile. The Bible tells us that Daniel was

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taken into exile with three other men who have a great record of faithfulness alongside

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Daniel. Even when all three of Daniel's friends are threatened with death in a blazing furnace,

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they continue to trust God, and he saves them against all the odds. Daniel's God-given gift

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of interpreting dreams bolsters his reputation as the wisest man in the whole of Babylonia.

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He sets a great example. His book is a rarity insofar as it's written in two languages.

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Chapter 1 is in Hebrew, chapters 2 to 7 are in his exilic language of Aramaic, and the

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remaining five chapters are in Hebrew.

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And now our action step for today. Daniel resolves never to compromise what he believed

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as far as his diet is concerned. However, this is just a sign of Daniel's attitude

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to life as a whole. He is a man of firm convictions, who knows the right thing to do and does it.

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For most of us, if we had written down on paper all the resolutions that we have made

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over the past year, never mind during our lifetime, then we would not need to buy wallpaper

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for our next decoration project at home. Of the four men named, who were deported from

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Judah to Babylon, he is the only one who firmly resolves not to change his name. The Babylonians

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rename Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and give them their better-known Babylonian names

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of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. All the time Daniel stood firm for God. He's

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a great example to follow.