Ten times better!

Religious.

Four Hebrew friends had just finished the day’s work and
were lounging in the front-yard of their house eating roasted
maize, coconut and also recounting the events of the day
when news filtered in that enemy soldiers had attacked their
city and besieged it. Adrenaline surged up in their bodies
naturally and they became terrified. They looked at one
another in despair and before they could say ‘Jack
Robinson’, enemy soldiers had them shoved into trunks and
and shipped outta their beloveth city with uncertainty boldly
written on their faces as whether they’d see it again.
Oh! So cruel.
And so, Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego were
carted away from Jerusalem to Babylon by a tyrant
named Nebuchadnezzar .
However though, It was such that when they got to the
foreign land, their God-given gifts were expressed and the
Babylonians discovered this.
The men were indeed ‘omoluabi’ ; as the Yorubas say, I
mean, well- mannered Hebrews who had adhered to the
teachings of their people to the letter such that they
purposed in their hearts not to defile themselves with the
portion of the King’s meat, or with the wine the King drank
too, no matter how tempting and sumptuous it might look.
Who knows, perhaps the food had been offered to some
gods first. #shrugs
What did they do? They went to the chief cook of the king
and told him that they’d prefer to eat their own local food
prepared by themselves which their GIT was already used to
rather than eating the King’s food, which was as foreign to
their GIT as it was to them. Daniel further
beseeched Melzer , the cook, to ‘’prove’’ them in ten days
and let their appearances be compared with the other men
eating the King’s exotic banquet. The cook objected at first
fearing for his job but the fantastic 4 were able to convince
him. And this, after the ten days were past, it was glaring to
everyone that they were indeed ‘ten times better’ than their
peers. Girls ‘’famzed’’ them, men alike smiled at them and
wanted to be-friend them. This was even evident to the King
himself as he realized that they had more stuff than all the
magicians and astrologers that were in his realm in matters
of wisdom and understanding.
That was the fate of Daniel and his friends as recorded in
Daniel 1. These men never forgot that they were brought up
in God’s way and refused to succumb to pressure even
while they were in a foreign land. They stuck to their guns
and refused to give in to sin.
Nowadays, we see youths, who once they are away from
home, turn into something else once they taste the so-called
‘’freedom from home’’. We see such people who have a ‘dual
persona’, such that the person at home(‘a so-called lamb) is
completely different from the one outside the home
(probably a black sheep). Then they fall prey to sin and turn
deaf ears to what the Bible says.
Daniel refusal to eat the King’s meat -in our days now can
be said to be for one to refuse to partake in examination
malpractices, fraudulent activities, wearing of indecent
dresses, attending ‘wild parties’, smoking, drug abuse,
drinking and other vices one wouldn’t do under the watchful
eyes of one’s parents.
Well, when one’s on the Lord’s side, one always benefits;
just like commensalistic relationship. Recall that the Hebrew
quartet asked to be proven in 10 days and at the end were
found to be ten times better; that is to say, they became
better than their peers with each passing day. Repeat. Each
passing day from day 1-10! Well, it could also mean that if
they had agreed to eat the King’s meat and red wine, they
might have become poorer with each passing day. Or what
do you think?
Now friend, You and I have a choice to make for ourselves.
To be either better each day or to be otherwise.
Shalom,
Jesus’ kid

Author's Note

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