We have been following The Story from the beginning with Adam and Eve
and now we have come to the stories of Daniel and his three friends.
The Babylonians conquered Judah and took exiles to Babylon as early as
605 BC. This was one of the ways the Babylonians made sure they had control of
the newly conquered land. They would take the wealthy and influential people
away from their new land and move some Babylonians or people from other nations
they have conquered to live in the new land. The people deemed as having the
most to lose or the most influential were moved to Babylon.
The king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar wanted the best of the best to come
and serve him.
Daniel 1:3-4
“3 The king ordered Ashpenaz, the
chief of his court officials, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal
family and from the nobility— 4 young men without any physical
defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable,
perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace—and to teach them the
Chaldean language and literature.”
Daniel 1:6-7
“6 Among them, from the descendants of
Judah, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 7 The chief
official gave them other names: he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel,
Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah.”
Daniel and his friends were teenagers and had been selected to serve
their new king. They were strangers in this new land; they did not know the
culture, language, geography, and so much more.
1 Chronicles 29:15
“15 For we live before You as foreigners
and temporary residents in Your presence as were all our ancestors. Our days on
earth are like a shadow, without hope.”
Daniel and his buddies were foreigners in Babylon and we as Christians
are foreigners in the world we live in.
We are strangers in a foreign land where violence is on the rise. You
can’t watch the nightly news without hearing about someone being attacked,
murdered, or even beheaded.
We are strangers in a foreign land where greed impacts so much, how
business is done, and how people manage their finances.
We are strangers in a foreign land as morals and ethics continue to
deteriorate as same sex marriage is becoming more common, people think about
how they can get ahead and don’t worry about who they hurt in the process.
We are strangers in a foreign land that looks at results as being more
important than people or even how you got those results.
We are strangers in a foreign land where over 1 million babies are
murdered each year through abortions.
We are strangers in a foreign land where faith is no longer important,
with beliefs that there are many paths to heaven or that we should all
co-exist.
These things seem pretty foreign to me.
1 Peter 2:11-12
“11 Dear friends, I urge you as
strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war
against you. 12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the
Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what
is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of
visitation.”
We are strangers in a foreign land and we need to learn how to live in
this foreign land and continue to retain our identity and to be seen as the
Children of God. Peter tells us to ‘abstain from fleshly desires’. The reason
is two fold, first if we fall to the fleshly desires we will fall into sin
which will separate us from God. The second is one of the things we have been
talking about for more than a few weeks now. God wants us to be witnesses to
the world around us. He wants those trapped in the world to see that we are
different, He wants the world to see that God blesses those that Honor Him.
That is what Daniel and his three friends do in Babylon and in doing so
give us a wonderful example of what it means to live ‘in’ the world but to not
be ‘of’ the world. This morning we are going to look at three examples from
Daniel and his friends that show us how to live out God’s agenda in our lives.
Part of the Babylonian strategy to force captured people into their
society is to separate them from their people, change their names, and train
them in Babylonian culture, history, language, ethics, morals, and religion. We
have already seen how they changed their names and how they pulled these four
teens aside to train them.
Daniel 1:5
“ The king assigned them daily
provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be
trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to serve in the
king’s court.”
Part of changing their culture was to give them the best food and wine
from the kings table. At first glance it sounds like the king is being a good
host. Daniel and his friends believe eating of this food and drinking of the
wine would defile their bodies. This was not a political statement or
rebellion, they were wanting to stay pure and to honor God.
At first the guard was afraid to allow any deviation from the kings
menu out of fear of what would happen to him if they looked malnourished. Daniel
proposed to the guard a 10 day trial of them eating only vegetables and
drinking only water. After 10 days they would let the guard decide how to
proceed after that. God blessed them.
Daniel 1:15-16
“15 At the end of 10 days they looked
better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. 16 So
the guard continued to remove their food and the wine they were to drink and
gave them vegetables.”
Now this is not the Bible telling us that we should be vegetarians, it
is an example of not letting things of the world defile us. See the food and
wine from the kings table would have been offered to pagan altars. Daniel and
his buddies did not want to eat or drink food or wine that had been offered to
idols. To some that is worship and to many it would have been viewed as
accepting the idol worship. Daniel and his friends were blessed by God as they
continued to live as strangers in Babylon.
Daniel and his friends were concerned about the negative impact of eating
food offered to pagan altars would impact their witness. What in our lives can
have a negative impact on our witness? Going to a party where people are
drinking? Going to a bar to hang out with your friends, even if you are having
an iced tea? How about being a gossip, can it have a negative impact on your
witness?
There are a lot of things that the culture around us sees as normal that
would have a negative impact on our witness. Like Daniel and his buddies we
need to avoid these things.
So far God has been blessing Daniel, he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s
dream which led to his promotion to ruler over the province of Babylon and
leader over all the other wise men. This has obviously irritated some of the
others who may have been around longer or thought they were more deserving. In
chapter 3 we find that Nebuchadnezzar builds a 90 foot statue of himself and
decrees that all must worship this golden wonder. Some of those who are jealous
use this as a chance to attack Daniel’s friends. They remind the king of his
decree and point out a few guys who did not bow down.
Daniel 3:11-12
“11 Whoever does not fall down and
worship will be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire. 12 There
are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon: Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. These men have ignored you, the king; they do not serve
your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
Nebuchadnezzar summons Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
and gives them a chance to bow down once more but they do not. Instead they
speak boldly about the Power of the One True God.
Daniel 3:17-18
“17 If the God we serve exists, then He
can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the
power of you, the king. 18 But even if He does not rescue us,
we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the
gold statue you set up.”
Talk about having faith! They say plainly that our God
can rescue us from the fire and from you Nebuchadnezzar. They had faith that
will get you through just about anything that this world can come up with.
Think about it for a moment. Do you have enough faith to say that God will
deliver you from surgery, financial ruin, relationship problems, cancer,
depression, you name it. Do you have enough faith to say that if God does not
deliver you from those things that you will be ok? That is faith! They were
keeping their eyes on the One True God, we need to keep our sights focused on
Jesus Christ.
Daniel’s buddies boldly stood up to the king while having faith that
God would protect them. To say the king was angry would be an understatement.
He threw the 3 young men into the furnace. The furnace was so hot that those
who threw them in were killed in the process.
Daniel 3:24-25
“24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in alarm. He said to his advisers, “Didn’t we throw three men, bound, into the fire?” “Yes, of course, Your Majesty,” they replied to the king. 25 He exclaimed, “Look! I see four men, not tied, walking around in the fire unharmed; and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
The king had 3 thrown in and now they see 4. Every Biblical scholar I have read says this 4th person was the pre-incarnate of Jesus Christ. This was roughly 600 years before Jesus was born, and here He was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Jesus was with them and they walked out of the fire without a single hair singed.
These guys stood up for their faith and were thrown into the fire, but they were never alone. If you stand up for your faith it can be very hard. You may face ridicule, you may not get invited places, and you may lose friends. Things may seem pretty lonely, but as a child of God you are never alone. Jesus Christ is with you through everything. If you are being treated poorly for your faith in Him, He is with you!
Now that was Daniel’s friends, but we also find in chapter 6 that Daniel had to face a similar situation. The Persians had conquered the Babylonians and Daniel found himself serving a new king. Daniel continues to be blessed by God and is seen as one of the top performers under the new king. This drove the others crazy and they were looking to find a way to trap Daniel. Knowing they would not be able to catch Daniel making a mistake or stealing from the king, they come up with another plan. They came to king Darius and convince him that having all the people pray to him for 30 days would be a wonderful idea. Of course an egocentric king does not take much convincing and he decrees that everyone must pray to him and only him for 30 days or be thrown into the lion’s den.
Daniel knowing that Darius decreed this, still honored the One True God and prayed to God as he always did in front of an open window facing Jerusalem. While the king did not want to do it, he followed the decree and had Daniel thrown in the lion’s den but ran to find out if God protected him at first light.
Daniel 6:20-22
“20 When he reached the den, he cried out in anguish to Daniel. “Daniel, servant of the living God,” the king said, “has your God whom you serve continually been able to rescue you from the lions?” 21 Then Daniel spoke with the king: “May the king live forever. 22 My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths. They haven’t hurt me, for I was found innocent before Him. Also, I have not committed a crime against you my king.”
Daniel was faithful to God and God was faithful to Daniel. Daniel and his friends showed the world that being strangers in the world is not a bad thing as long as you have faith in God. We to can live as strangers in the world, with the presence and power of Jesus Christ. With His help we can be ‘in’ the world, but not ‘of’ the world.
Trust God daily to be with you!
Thanks for Reading!
Have Faith like Daniel and his buddies and God will move in your life!
Blessings to All,
Robert
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