Resolved Series

Fearless in Babylon

Daniel 1

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

1-08-2023

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God’s Sovereignty

The year is 605 B.C. and the world is in chaos. The Egyptians attempted to invade Babylon. A young prince, by the name of Nebuchadnezzar, soundly defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish. Not satisfied with his victory, he pursued the Egyptian army all the way down the Sinai peninsula.

Along the way, he conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been loyal to Pharaoh instead of trusting in their God. Israel had been conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. and now Judah is subdued by these Babylonian blasphemers.

The inhabitants of Jerusalem must have felt completely abandoned by God as they watched the Babylonian army walk right into their temple and take the articles used to worship their God.

“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.” (Dan 1:1-2)

Taking those treasures back to their god’s temple was a way of saying, “Our gods are more powerful than your God.”

God took away their power, their pride, and their people.

But notice one little phrase, “The Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand…”.

God is allowing these foreign countries to conquer his prized possession as a consequence of their idolatry.

Two of the gods the Israelites “cheated” on God with were Baal and Asherah. Baal was the god of the weather and for people living in an agricultural setting, the rain was a must.

Rain leads to money and success.

Asherah was the goddess of fertility and you worshiped her by engaging in prostitution at the temple.

They worship sex and money instead of God. Man, I’m glad things have changed!

Daniel wrote this as an old man and he is looking back and he sees the hand of God in this memory of the Babylonian invasion.

A theme that we will see again in the prophets is that God is sovereign. He is orchestrating events to fulfill his plan to rescue the world. Much of this activity is behind the scenes.

There are huge tapestries that hang in art galleries. If we stood on one side of the tapestry it would like like a jumbled collection of yarn. It would seem random and not make sense from that perspective.

But if we were to be able to see the other side, the whole picture, then all these pieces of yarn come together to make amazingly intricate pictures.

I’ve quoted John Piper many times,

“God is always doing 10,000 things in your life and at any given time you may be aware of three of them.”

So, somehow, the invasion of Jerusalem, the razing of the Temple, and the deportation of the people, all fit into God’s plan.

The Royal Babylon High School

The ultimate blow came as the officers rounded up the best and brightest of the Jews and marched them right out of Jerusalem and back to Babylon.

“Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace.” (Dan 1:3-4)

This was prophesied by Isaiah:

“The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” (Isaiah 39:6-7)

Four of these deportees were teenagers. They were honor society students. They were to be trained in the Babylonian arts, literature, and culture.

“He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.” (Dan 1:5)

Yes, they would learn the language, math, and literature, but also they would be expected to know incantations, and astrology, read omens and worship their gods.

They were isolated away from everything they had ever known.

They were indoctrinated into the Babylonian system. The Babylonians knew that if they could get these young leaders to buy into their culture, then they would help the other exiles see that it wasn’t so bad to live in Babylon.