Eating the King’s Food

“I don’t want to eat the king’s food.”

“You can’t do that. If you don’t eat the king’s food then you’re not going to look nearly as healthy as the other people your age. And doing that is going to get my head lopped off. If you want to be healthy you’ve got to eat the king’s food.”

“How about you give us ten days, I’ll pick my menu without any of the king’s food and you feed your guys the king’s food and we’ll see who looks better?”

And Daniel and his men looked healthy and continued to find favor with the Lord. Whenever the king would enquire of these young men he’d find them “ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters”.

Eventually we see that the King ends up praising Daniel’s God as the true God.

—

“We want to reach this community for Jesus”, says Podunk Baptist Church.

The seasoned pastor at Podunk responds: “Me too, but we all know how difficult it will be to reach this community. They aren’t the kind who are just going to show up on a Sunday morning and be interested in the sermon. They can barely read. Most of them are drunks and/or drug addicts. If we’re going to reach them then we’ll need something to hook them. If we don’t, then our church isn’t going to grow, and if I’m being honest I know that means I’ll lose my job and be seen as an ineffective pastor.”

“Very well, then,” the church decides, “we’ll mix a bit of the king’s food with our gospel presentation. We’ll figure out what they want and give it to them and then once we’ve got their attention we will tell them about Jesus. We’ll devote our entire summer to reaching this community and at the end our time we’ll see how effective our mission has been.”

But Podunk and her pastor didn’t look much healthier. In fact she looked much worse. Bedraggled, discouraged, and starting to bubble over with bitterness and anger. It became apparent that after only a bit of time that this community really only wanted the king’s food and not the King’s gospel.

—

So, pastor do you, as Daniel did, trust that God’s Word and God’s methods are best? Or do you think you need to add a bit of the king’s food to your diet in order to maintain an appearance of health?

You don’t need the king’s food. We serve the lion of the tribe of Judah. Uncage Him, he’ll do the work.

A great many learned men are defending the gospel; no doubt it is a very proper and right thing to do, yet I always notice that, when there are most books of that kind, it is because the gospel itself is not being preached. Suppose a number of persons were to take it into their heads that they had to defend a lion, a full-grown king of beasts! There he is in the cage, and here come all the soldiers of the army to fight for him. Well, I should suggest to them, if they would not object, and feel that it was humbling to them, that they should kindly stand back, and open the door, and let the lion out! I believe that would be the best way of defending him, for he would take care of himself; and the best “apology” for the gospel is to let the gospel out. Never mind about defending Deuteronomy or the whole of the Pentateuch; preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. Let the Lion out, and see who will dare to approach him. The Lion of the tribe of Judah will soon drive away all his adversaries. –Charles Spurgeon

Go gospel or go home!