Let me tell you an amazing story. It’s about three fellows named

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They were what I’d call the first vegetarians listed in the Bible.

Never heard of them? Well, maybe you’ll recall if I name a fourth fellow…a friend of theirs named Daniel. And you’ll remember more if I give you the names that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, after the four were taken prisoner and hauled off to Babylon.

The king had directed that the young prisoners be checked out, with the ones with the best judgment, gifted with knowledge, and good-looking, being chosen for training, after which they would enter the king’s service.

Well, these four were chosen, and were put on a rich diet, but it was not according to what God had said His people should eat, so Daniel asked the one in charge of the prisoners, to let he and his three friends eat only vegetables. The chief was afraid the king would kill him for disobeying, so Daniel asked that he allow the four to have the vegetable diet for ten days, then compare them with the others. And they passed the test.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar showed himself as foolish as many other kings of that day…he had a dream and demanded his wise men to tell him the meaning. The catch was that he couldn’t remember what he had dreamed. Of course his wise men said he was asking the impossible, so he ordered all of them, including Daniel and his friends, to be killed. But Daniel saved the day…God told him the dream and the interpretation, and the slaughter was cancelled.

So did the other wise men appreciate his saving their lives? No no no.

They rigged some lawyer language that the king kill all who wouldn’t

worship his gold statue should be executed, and he foolishly agreed. Then they told him a certain one was not obeying and should be thrown into a den of lions they had on the premises for sport such as this.

And Daniel was thrown into the den, despite the king’s sorrow for agreeing to such a thing. Next morning, he rushed to the den and found Daniel safe, because God had protected him. Then the trickey dickies and their families were thrown in the den, and the lions attacked them before their bodies even hit the floor.

And is that all? No…the other three also refused to bow down and worship the king’s golden statue, so his wise men had them put in a furnace, heated seven times normal…so hot that the ones who threw them in, were killed by the heat. But again, God protected them. As the king watched, he asked his co-horts, “Didn’t we throw three persons into the fire? But look…

I see four men, unbound and walking around, and the fourth is like the Son of God! And they, along with Daniel, lived in splendor from then on.

Read it for yourself in the first three chapters of the book of Daniel in the Bible. Then you have the opportunity to give your life to that same God.

Think about it.