The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank…..But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. Daniel 1:5,8

The king’s food is sometimes viewed as a temptation to worldly indulgence, and Daniel provides a model of refusing to be tempted in that way. But there is another aspect to this food. It is viewed as the best food for producing healthy and attractive servants for the King. The concern of the chief of the eunuchs is that if Daniel does not eat the food assigned by the king, he will appear “in worse condition” than the other youths, and the king will be upset with the chief of the eunuchs. Putting this in a work context, the king’s food was considered necessary for being the kind of worker that was required. Rather than being an indulgence that was pleasing to the servants, the food was a provision so that the servants would be pleasing to the king. This is why not partaking of the food could upset the king.

Here is an application to our work….is there an aspect of the way that your work is practiced that is viewed as necessary to be the best worker that you sense is somehow “defiling”? The notion of being defiled can sound like an archaic OT concept that is hard for us to relate to. For Daniel, it was clear that the king’s food was not in keeping with the food laws that God required of Israel. We are not under those food laws, and in Christ we are not defiled by something like food. I think the idea of being defiled is captured when Jesus says in Mt 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” An aspect of your work that is defiling would mean that you have lost a sense of identity as a follower of Jesus by participating in that practice.

An example that comes readily to mind could be the number of work hours that your profession presents as necessary to be the most effective workers. This would be defiling if that amount of work hours diminished your ability to perform other roles in your life, possibly including your pursuit of God. Your profession would say that level of work was necessary for you to be a good worker, but you recognize that level of work is not good for all the aspects of your life. To what extent are you being called to not partake of that “food” even though it is considered to be necessary for you to flourish in your work?

I have recently shared this Daniel Fast idea with two clients and they both immediately identified aspects of their work that seemed to fit. One client shared that in his field, he is encouraged to base his sales on developing an influential relationship with a potential customer rather than on the excellence of the product. This “schmoozing” approach was considered to be the most effective, particularly with government contracts where productivity is not as highly scrutinized. The goal is for the customer to give you the contract because they enjoy the relationship, not necessarily because your product is superior. You can imagine the kind of things that could generate that kind of influence with a customer.

But even if the schmoozing techniques are all benign, my client sees that this practice defiles the entire industry. By focusing sales on this technique, rather than the value of the product, the pursuit of excellence is undermined. The government ends up with products that are not as good as they could be. Further, companies like his lack the incentive to produce more excellent products if that is not what is driving sales. This is not how his industry is meant to function in the Kingdom of God.

He has determined to not participate in this sales strategy. Instead he will focus his sales on the value of the product while emphasizing to his productive team the necessity of having the most excellent product. This may end up costing him with his company because the schmoozing strategy is pretty well entrenched. But imagine how the entire industry would be impacted if the value of the product was driving sales instead of the schmoozing technique.

As followers of Jesus, we are being salt when we practice our work according to Kingdom of God principles ( Phil 4:8…. what is true, honorable, just, pure. lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy) rather than that which provides an apparent short term gain. Can you identify where you might be called to practice this kind of Daniel fast in your work?

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.