The Babylonian Captivity - Water and pulse

Behold: early pro-vegan literature

Once upon a time, there was a significant Hebrew minority living in Babylon (Iraq). They were there because after hundreds of years of heartache, Jehovah got sick of his chosen people not doing everything he commanded. To punish them for being lame, Jehovah had the Babylonians conquer Israel and take most of the people back to Babylon to live.

Now the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar was an OK guy and he had some of the Hebrew youths move to the palace so they could be trained in the ways of courtly life. Well, here’s the thing: one of the things Nebuchadnezzar did for these youths in the palace was provide a daily ration of meat and wine so they would grow strong and wise over the next three years, then they were to be presented to the king.

This all happened before Jesus came on the scene and made wine drinking popular (Jesus was all about wine, all the time), so these kids were operating on the assumption that wine was bad for you, as was indicated by Jehovah in the Torah (see Leviticus 10:9).  Daniel and his buddies Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego decided to abstain from the wine and meat as part of their plan to serve Jehovah’s whims. Daniel had a chat with the head eunuch in charge of feeding the palace trainees and asked for other food options.

The eunuchs all really liked Daniel and would normally do just about anything for him, but the head eunuch was in charge of making sure the youths were well-fed and became strong and he was afraid the king would punish him if some of the youths looked too weak or thin. After hearing this concern Daniel proposed a test to prove Jehovah’s awesomeness. Daniel and his friends would eat only pulse (think of whole-grain porridge and you’ll be close to pulse) and drink only water for 10 days; then they were to be compared with the consumers of meat and wine.

Because Jehovah still didn’t like wine and meat back then, he helped Daniel and his Hebrew friends so after the 10 days, they were fatter and healthier looking than the other youths. The chief eunuch was so happy with these results he took away all the wine and meat and made everyone else eat pulse and drink water too. I’m sure this made Daniel very popular among the youths who had suddenly had their meat and wine taken away.

You would think that was the end, but it’s not! After the three years when the king examined the youths he discovered that the Hebrew youths were way smarter than anyone else. Yay Hebrews! In fact, because these hebrews were so awesome, Daniel eventually worked his way into the position of the ruler of the Babylonian provice and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were put in charge of Babylon's affairs.

Moral: when you pray remember to thank Jesus for liking wine so much that it’s no longer bad to drink. Amen!

Ref: Daniel 1