2. Foundation For Life!

3. Daniel 1:1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim

4. 3 Then the king ordered …to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— 

5. 4 young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning,

6. well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace.

7. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.

8. 5 The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. 

9. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.

10. 8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine,

11. and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.

12. Deuteronomy14:10 ...for you it is unclean.

13. Deuteronomy 14:21 …But you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

14. Ezekiel 22:26 Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things;  

15. they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean;

16. and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 

17. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, 

18. 10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. 

19. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age?

20. The king would then have my head because of you.”

21.  12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 

22. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food,

23. and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.”

24. 15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.

25. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

26. 17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. 

27. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.

28. 19 The king talked with them, and he found none equal

29. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them,

30. he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.

31. 21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

32. Isaiah 45:13  I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:     I will make all his ways straight.

33. He will rebuild my city     and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the Lord Almighty.”

34. 9:2 “…Daniel, understood from the Scriptures,

35. according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet,

36. that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.

37. Jer 29:5  “Buildhouses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 

38. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters;

39. find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters.

40. Increase in number there; do not decrease.

41. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.

42. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper

43. Daniel 9:3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting....

44. 5 we have sinned and done wrong.

45. Proverbs 28:13 Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper,

46. but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

47. Daniel 9:18 We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 

48. Isaiah 30:18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
Isaiah 30:18  Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;      he rises to show you compassion…

49. 19 …How gracious he will be when you cry for help
19  …How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.

50. Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’