God’s Word for You
Daniel 1:9-10 The good of fear
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, August 22, 2025
9 Now God gave the chief eunuch favor and compassion toward Daniel. 10 The chief eunuch said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink. Why should he see your faces looking worse than the other young men who are your age? You would risk my head with the king.”
This man dealing with young Daniel is experiencing a kind of fear that parallels Daniel’s fear. First we see that he has been touched by God. God has placed favor and compassion toward Daniel into this man’s feelings. This was a gift and an inclination in this man, but it was placed there in his heart by God. The eunuch might have thought to himself, “I don’t know what it is about that boy, but I like him and I feel like I want to help him out.” He didn’t know where this feeling came from. This was the same thing that had happened many years before when Joseph, Jacob’s son, was a prisoner in Egypt: “The Lord showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden” (Genesis 39:21). And Solomon wrote: “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7).
This makes us sit up and take notice of God’s view of his called servants. “He allowed no one to oppress them; for their sake he rebuked kings: ‘Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm’” (Psalm 105:14-15). In fact, this passage from the Psalms flies like a broad pendant flying over the whole book of Daniel. It would make a beautiful painting, a long, wide flag flying majestically in the breeze, with those words emblazoned, perhaps in Latin: In prophetis meis nolite malignari! (Among my prophets, refuse to do any harm!).
Luther laments the shameful treatment of both the Catechism and of called ministers by so many people: “Many regard the Catechism as a simple, silly teaching which they can absorb and master at one reading. After reading it once they toss the book into a corner as if they are ashamed to read it again. Indeed, even among the nobility there are some louts and skinflints who declare that we can do without pastors and preachers from now on because we have everything in books and can learn it all by ourselves…” (Preface to the Large Catechism). We hear similar shocking remarks today from people who want to replace pastors with Artificial Intelligence (AI) because the computer doesn’t need to take a vacation, doesn’t get tired, doesn’t have scheduling conflicts, and so forth. But what is artificial is not called by the Holy Spirit, nor can it be properly ordained by the church. Let the machines clean the garage, or take out the trash, but do not think that they can correctly handle the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
The eunuch’s fear of his master was genuine. He was insightful enough to imagine that the king would know something was wrong just by looking at the young men. We notice that one of the original requirements of choosing these young men in the first place was that they had to be “without blemish and of good appearance” (1:4). Despots and tyrants often surround themselves only with very good looking people, men and women, so that a false impression is given that beauty must equal success or goodness in some way.
The eunuch was worried about the assigned food from the king’s table. The theory was that the richer food would make more attractive and healthier young men. The eunuch says literally, “What if your faces look wretched?” Curiously, this is yet another nod to the account of Joseph in Egypt, although here it is the sad expressions and body language of the other prisoners: “When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were ‘dejected’” (Genesis 40:6).
If Daniel and his companions did not show improvement, it could mean the life of Ashpenaz. He puts it this way: “You would risk my head with the king..” Here the Hebrew verb means “to make, cause, or show to be guilty.” A guilty head before a dictator is a head that has no more use.
We see in the fear of this man the fear that the believer has, or should have before Almighty God when confronted with our sins. Indeed, his trembling and terror are what the believer should feel long before we have sinned; when we merely approach the danger of sinning. This, too, was demonstrated by Joseph. Confronted by a temptation from his master’s wife, he said, “How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9).
This man was a pagan. He did not yet know who the true God was, although much more contact with Daniel and his friends would bring the gospel to his ears. As for us, terror over sin and temptation is also described in the Bible as contrition, and the two parts of repentance are contrition and faith. Urbanus Rhegius (Reiger) said: “The gospel teaches repentance, which is to grieve from the soul over sins committed, to be truly frightened of the judgment of God, so that the heart becomes contrite and humble, and at the same time firmly believes that all sins, however many there are, are forgiven by God because of Christ’s merits.”
If terror of punishment keeps us from certain sins, this is a good thing. But God would have us turn away from temptation out of love for him. Being sinful human beings, we acknowledge the first and pray for the second. And it is good to pray with Hosea the prophet: “Forgive all our sins, O Lord, and receive us by your grace, so that we may offer the fruit of our lips.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.