Daniel Purposed in His Heart Before the Food Arrived

A man told me he keeps losing the same argument with himself in the same forty seconds.

The work comes in. It is the kind of work he has decided he is not going to take any more. And there is a window, about forty seconds long, between the question being asked and his answer, and in that window he has to make a decision he has already made and somehow has to make again.

He said he wins it about half the time. He said he can predict which half by how tired he is and how the month has gone, which he finds humiliating.

I know that window. Mine was about bookings and it was not a moral question in the way his is, and I still know exactly what it is to relitigate a settled thing at the worst possible moment.

There is a sentence in Daniel about the timing of a decision, and it is the most practical verse in this whole subject.

The decision is made before the situation arrives

Here is the verse.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. (Daniel 1:8, King James Version)

Purposed in his heart. The verb is a settling word. It is a decision made, filed and closed.

And read the timing. It happens at the start of the chapter, before any food has been served and before anybody has asked him anything. He is not deciding in a dining hall with a plate in front of him.

That is the entire difference between him and the man with the forty seconds. Daniel is not stronger. He simply moved the decision to a different hour, one where he was rested and alone and nothing was on the line yet.

A decision made in a quiet room is a completely different act from a decision made in a doorway, and Scripture puts his in the quiet room.

You are able to settle it in a different hour from the one where it gets asked. Daniel 1:8 has him purposing in his heart before any food is served, and it is His Spirit, Philippians 2:13 who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure, who supplies the willing that a doorway never produces.

He is not difficult about it

What he does next is the part that makes the story usable, because it is not a scene.

Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. (Daniel 1:12)

He does not announce a position. He does not lecture the steward. He proposes a practical trial, with a duration, that protects the man responsible for him from getting into trouble.

The text says he had already asked the prince of the eunuchs and that the man was afraid for his own head, which Daniel takes seriously and works around rather than through.

So the decision is immovable and the manner is entirely reasonable. Most people manage one or the other. Either they hold the line and make an enemy, or they keep the peace and lose the line.

You are able to hold a decision and be easy to work with at the same time. Daniel 1:12 proposes a ten day trial rather than a confrontation. It is the Holy Spirit, Galatians 5:22 naming gentleness among His fruit, who supplies the manner that a firm decision usually costs somebody.

Joshua says it out loud in front of witnesses

There is a moment where a man states a settled thing publicly and does not require anybody else to agree.

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15)

As for me and my house. He states it, out loud, in front of a nation, and he does not put it to a vote.

Notice he does not tell anybody else what to do. He offers them a genuine choice and states his own position, and those two things sit in one verse without contradiction.

Which is worth having, because a person who has decided something at work is not required to convert the room. Stating it once, plainly, and then doing it is the whole of what is being asked.

You are allowed to state a settled thing without requiring the room to agree. Joshua 24:15 offers a genuine choice and states one man's position in the same verse. It is the same Spirit, 2 Timothy 1:7 giving power and love and a sound mind, who supplies the steadiness that does not need everybody on board.

And if the decision has begun to cost you sleep and you are carrying it alone, say it out loud to a person: a counselor, a pastor you trust, or the 988 crisis line, which answers every hour there is. A man losing the same argument with himself twice a week for a year is wearing something down, and it should be said out loud to somebody.

What Jesus says about the length of an answer

There is one instruction about answers that is aimed exactly at the forty second window.

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. (Matthew 5:37)

Yea, yea; Nay, nay. Short. He is telling people that an answer does not need scaffolding.

And that matters practically, because the forty seconds usually go wrong in the explanation. A person says no and then, because the silence is uncomfortable, begins offering reasons, and the reasons are negotiable in a way the answer was not.

So the instruction is a mercy rather than a rule about oaths. A short answer is harder to argue with and easier to keep, and it does not hand anybody a lever.

And Proverbs says where the whole thing actually lives:

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

Out of it are the issues. The output comes from what is settled inside, which is why Daniel's chapter begins where it does.

You are able to give an answer that has no handle on it. Matthew 5:37 says let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay, and it is the Spirit of God, John 14:26 who brings all things to remembrance, who supplies at the door what was settled somewhere quieter.