EXPOSITION:
The call to keep our garments clean (white) is an everyday duty – Let your garments always be white (Ecclesiastes 9:8a, NKJV). Just like Daniel and his three friends in the land of Babylon, we are sometimes pressured to give up on our identity. We are pressed on every side, just to say a “little” yes to the world. In doing this, we are told by the enemy: “this is nothing; a little bow to the world, will not take your Christianity away.” Child of God don’t give in to this deception!
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:11 that, we are not ignorant of the schemes of the enemy. Daniel and his friends were not ignorant of the schemes being rolled at them; to get them to voluntarily strip off their holy garments. In our reading we are told that they purposed in their hearts, not to defile themselves with the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. In another instance, they faced the possibility of being destroyed in a seven-fold heated furnace, yet they purposed in their heart, never to bow down to the pressures of their time. What about Joseph who also purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the constant demands of Potiphar’s wife?
If you are about giving up to a constant pressure that comes upon you to defile your garment, you are being encouraged to stand your ground. Don’t give up! God believes in you; He knows you can stand to the end.