After King Astyages was laid with his fathers, Cyrus the Persian succeeded to his kingdom.  Daniel was the king’s favorite and was held in higher esteem than any of the friends of the king.  The Babylonians had an idol called Bel, and every day they provided for it six barrels of fine flour, forty sheep, and six measures of wine.  The king worshiped it and went every day to adore it; but Daniel adored only his God.  When the king asked him, “Why do you not adore Bel?” Daniel replied, “Because I worship not idols made with hands, but only the living God who made heaven and earth and has dominion over all mankind.”  Then the king continued, “You do not think Bel is a living god?  Do you not see how much he eats and drinks every day?”  Daniel began to laugh.  “Do not be deceived, O king,” he said; “it is only clay inside and bronze outside; it has never taken any food or drink.”  Enraged, the king called his priests and said to them, “Unless you tell me who it is that consumes these provisions, you shall die.  But if you can show that Bel consumes them, Daniel shall die for blaspheming Bel.” Daniel said to the king, “Let it be as you say!”  There were seventy priests of Bel, besides their wives and children.  When the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel, the priests of Bel said, “See, we are going to leave.  Do you, O king, set out the food and prepare the wine; then shut the door and seal it with your ring.  If you do not find that Bel has eaten it all when you return in the morning, we are to die; otherwise Daniel shall die for his lies against us.”  They were not perturbed, because under the table they had made a secret entrance through which they always came in to consume the food.  After they departed the king set the food before Bel, while Daniel ordered his servants to bring some ashes, which they scattered through the whole temple; the king alone was present. Then they went outside, sealed the closed door with the king’s ring, and departed.  The priests entered that night as usual, with their wives and children, and they ate and drank everything.  Early the next morning, the king came with Daniel.  “Are the seals unbroken, Daniel?” he asked. And Daniel answered, “They are unbroken, O king.”  As soon as he had opened the door, the king looked at the table and cried aloud, “Great you are, O Bel; there is no trickery in you.”  But Daniel laughed and kept the king from entering. “Look at the floor,” he said; “whose footprints are these?”  “I see the footprints of men, women, and children!” said the king.  The angry king arrested the priests, their wives, and their children. They showed him the secret door by which they used to enter to consume what was on the table.  He put them to death, and handed Bel over to Daniel, who destroyed it and its temple.

Daniel unmasks the priests of Bel.

We see here the danger of creating a god that servers our needs.  Just as the priests fashioned Bel out of their own self-interests, to fill their bellies with the offerings people brought, so we too can be at risk of fashioning a god which lets us fulfill our lusts, or our bellies, without sting of conscience.  In time this delusion and self-justification can become idolatrous, since we abandon the one true God of revelation and his eternal Word Jesus Christ, in favor of one constructed by us and how we believe a god should be.