3.9. Daniel & Friends Refuse the Kings Food

This includes a couple of options for review.

For preschool, we talked about doing what God wants.

That includes taking care of their bodies.

Our Bible study today is found in the Old Testament Book of Daniel. A new king came to Jerusalem and took over the city. He was King Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon.

King Nebuchadnezzar told his man in charge to bring some of the young men that were from Jerusalem to Babylon for 3 years of training. The young men had to be able to learn the language and be quick to understand new things. They had to be good-looking and smart. After the training, they would serve the king. Some of the young men were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

Their names were changed to: Daniel=Belteshazzar (but he is still called Daniel all through the book), Hananiah=Shadrach, Mishael=Meshach, Azariah=Abed-Nego

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were given some of the king’s delicacies to eat and wine to drink. Daniel didn’t want to eat that kind of food. Daniel asked for vegetables to eat and water to drink for 10 days instead.

Daniel asked the man in charge if he would look at them after the 10 days to see how they looked compared to the other young men after eating the vegetables.

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were healthier than the other young men that ate the king’s provisions. Of course, they looked better, so the king’s man gave everyone the vegetables to eat instead.

God was with Daniel and his friends, and they were given wisdom. God gave Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego ‘knowledge and skill in all literature”. God gave Daniel the ability to understand people’s visions and dreams.

When Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were taken before King Nebuchadnezzar, he questioned them and “none were found” like them! They were chosen to serve the king. When the king questioned them, they were ten times better than the king’s men in all areas of wisdom and understanding! They were faithful to God and God was with them.

We used the plates and stickers below and the foldable booklet. This is a simple print, fold and use and great for review. It includes color and black & white. Click here to download.

Scripture is Daniel 1. For this week's review project, I purchased color paper plates and these vegetable stickers at my local teacher's supply store. I also found these food stickers. I drew a slanted line on the plate. They put their vegetable stickers on the paper plate and we talked about the foods Daniel and his friends ate. Then, we gave them the food stickers and they had to decide if it was a vegetable. The vegetables could go with the other stickers, but the assorted food stickers were on the other side of the plate. We discussed different foods and taking care of our bodies. Simple and they love stickers!

We also took some vegetables and bottled water as part of the lesson.