[This sermon is contributed by Hal Seed of New Song Church in Oceanside, California and of www.PastorMentor.com. Hal is the author of numerous books including The God Questions and The Bible Questions. If you are interested in The Bible Questions Church-wide Campaign, please visit and watch Hal’s video at www.PastorMentor.com.]
The Making of Wise Men
Future History, Part 1
www.halseed.com
Editor’s notes:
(1) All capitalized words were made into PowerPoint slides for this message. If you would like a copy of the PowerPoint, contact jan.funchess@gmail.com.
(2)This is the first in a 10 part series which saw New Song grow by 17% during the final 7 weeks. Hal Seed promised the church he’d write a book on it, called Future History. Future History is available at www.halseed.com; it includes sermons, interactive Bible studies, and can be used as a church-wide campaign.
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Good morning New Song!
This morning we are beginning an adventure in the sticky pages of the O.T. Find a Bible and turn to the table of contents in the front.
The O.T. is divided into three major sections. Gen. – Esther is the historical section,
Job – Song of Songs is the poetical section,
Isaiah – Malachi is the prophetical section.
The prophetical section is divided into two smaller sections. The first section is the Major Prophets. The second section is the Minor Prophets. The majors are called major because they had more talent and worked their way up from the minor leagues…
No. They’re called, “Major” only because the length of their books is a lot longer than their minor counterparts. There are four Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jer, Ezek, and Daniel. Isaiah is 66 chapters long. Jer is 52 chapters long. Ezek is 48 chapters long. Daniel is only 12 chapters long. So he’s kind of a minor major prophet.
But you’ll notice as you’re there that his story begins on 873. TURN TO DANIEL 1, P. 873.
Daniel’s story is the story of an exile. He was an unwilling immigrant who moved from his homeland of Israel, across almost 1000 miles of desert, probably roped or chained to several other Israeli’s, possibly after witnessing the death of his parents when the Babylonians conquered the nation of Judah in 606 B.C.
Here’s a map, for those of you who are visually oriented: SHOW MAP OF MIDDLE EAST
While you’re turning there, how many of you were born in countries other than the U.S.?
(Interview one:
Where born?
How old when moved here?
How learned English?
What did you find different about the people here?
Was it hard for you?
Did you come here against your will?)
How hard it is to succeed in life, really?
Is it easy for someone born in America to rise to the top of whatever profession or organization they join? – No. It’s not. Most of us dream of things we never attain. Dreams are good because they drive us forward and motivate us to work hard and learn more, but rarely does anyone exceed their dreams.
If it’s hard for a native born person, how much harder for an ex-patriot?
How much harder for someone who speaks the language as their second language? For whom the tastes and ways of doing things aren’t second nature? How much harder for someone who is view with suspicion because of the accent of his tongue or the background of his ancestors?
Succeeding in life is a challenge for most of us under the best of circumstance. Isn’t that true?
One reason God put Daniel chapter 1 in the Bible is so that you could study a blueprint for success.
Daniel and his buddies put on a success clinic in their day and age. We ought to learn from them.
In fact, look at this verse friends. This is from the N.T., describe the value of books and stories like Daniel from the O.T.
THESE THINGS HAPPENED TO THEM AS EXAMPLES AND WERE WRITTEN DOWN AS WARNINGS FOR US… 1 CORINTHIANS 10:11
So listen and learn, about THE MAKING OF WISE MEN.
Here’s the situation, just before we read:
Daniel and several thousand other Israelites would have traveled this direction (trace the route) because of water. If you’ve seen the movie Lawrence of Arabia, you know that it is almost impossible to come across the Arabian Peninsula because of the lack of water. Since time immemorial, troops and travelers have followed this route known as the fertile crescent.
Daniel and his friends were brought to a refugee champ on the outskirts of Babylon by a river called the “Chebar.” Let’s read the full story: Dan. 1:1
v. 5 – See what he’s doing? He’s going to call on the brightest and best from Israel to help him assimilate the Israelites into his empire. And of course, to assimilate them, he has to a-acculturate them. He has to make them Babylonian Israelites. So they must learn the language of Babylon and the customs of Babylon and the tastes and values and ways of thinking and theology of Babylon.
Most of culture is morally and spiritually neutral. How one culture does something or says something or eats something is neither right now wrong. But here’s where the plot thickens: (read vs. 6-7)
Or, as my son calls them Hat Rack, Tool Shack, and A Billy Goat.
Look at this for a second:
NAMES:
DANIEL = “MY JUDGE IS ELOHIM.”
BELTESHAZZAR = “BEL IS MY JUDGE.”
HANANIAH = UNDER YAHWEH’S GRACE.
SHADRACH = UNDER AKU’S COMMAND.
MISHAEL = WHO IS WHAT GOD IS?
MESHACH = WHO IS WHAT AKU IS?
AZARIAH = SERVANT OF YAHWEH.
ABEDNEGO = SERVANT OF NEGO.
The Babylonian strategy was to take the brightest and best from each culture and make them Babylonian in their thinking and Babylonian in their religion.
Daniel and his friends are humble enough and smart enough not to balk at being renamed, they know that sticks and stones and Babylonian spears can break their bones, but changes of names couldn’t really harm them.
Whereas, when it came to their eating habits, that was another story. Long before we knew about germs and microbes and the nature of diseases, God knew. So He forbade the nation of Israel to eat certain foods that were prone to disease, if not handled right. Foods like pork and crustaceans. Foods that King Neb was likely to serve for dinner.
In addition, the Babylonians had a practice of offering their animals to their gods as sacrifices before they ate them. So for Daniel and his friends wanted to stay away from eating any meat that had been offered to idols.
Let’s continue the story: (read vs. 8 – 21).
Daniel chapter 1 is a real-life drama in three parts.
ACTS:
Act 1 takes place in captivity. ACT 1 (vs. 1-4) = IN CAPTIVITY
Act 2 takes place in the palace court. ACT 2 (vs. 5-17) = IN THE COURT
Act 3 takes place with the king himself. ACT 3 (vs. 18-21) = WITH THE KING
According to the NT, each of them happened as examples for us and were written down so we could learn from them.
So what do we learn from them?
In Act 1, Daniel and his friends are dragged away into captivity. When they get to Babylon, they’re identified as “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.” DANIEL 1:4
Young men without defect, who were handsome. They had good genes.
But they also showed aptitude for learning, were well-informed, quick to understand and had the kind of character a king would count as an asset in his court. These are character qualities. – Where did they get those, friends?
My contention is, they got it from home. ACT 1 = GET IT FROM HOME.
(OR GIVE IT AT HOME.)
Daniel and his buddies were probably about 16 years old when this happened. They must have been raised by parents who took time to teach them problem solving skills, probably by talking through and solving problems with them. They made sure they knew how to read. They taught them manners and values. They taught them the value of learning. These won them attention from the court, and helped them succeed in life.
Even more important, they taught them about God. This enabled them to stand up to the tremendous pressure they must have felt to become like the Babylonians in their beliefs.
A very interesting thing happened just a few decades ago within the field of clinical psychologist. Psychologists began to notice and then verify with testing that a child’s basic personality and character tends to be almost fully formed by age 8. Once a child reaches that age, his or her basic inclinations, work ethic, outlook on life, is about 80% set. – With God’s grace, if you’re older than that and need some improvements like we all do, you can change and grow with God’s help. But psychologists tell us that a child’s basic personality is pretty much formed by age 8.
Which is exactly what the Bible says in Pr. 22:6
TRAIN A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO AND WHEN HE IS ODL HE WILL NOT TURN FROM IT. Proverbs 22:6.
So if you want to be a wise man, or wise woman, get it from home – or, if it’s too late for you because you’re already grown up and out of the house – give it at home. That’s the lesson of Act 1.
Act 2 actually has 2 lessons sewn into it.
One has to do with the attitude with which these four guys approach life. They’re thrown into a foreign culture, taken into the palace of the most powerful man on earth, and ordered to eat certain foods that were against their religion.
You’d think that that would be just a little bit frightening, wouldn’t you?
This king has the power to take their lives at any moment. The chief officer is so afraid for his life that he can’t fathom not following the king’s orders to a tee.
But Daniel says, “Couldn’t we bend them a little bit so that it’s a win for everybody? Couldn’t we eat just the vegetables that are put before us, and skip the meat and wine that were offered to your gods?”
It’s a bold move, friends. Bolder than we’re probably able to comprehend in a society where citizens have rights.
Daniel didn’t have any rights.
What he had was a conviction that there was One in the world more powerful than the king. See, Daniel lived with a view of the world that says, “Heaven rules.”
And I believe that if you want to succeed in life, really succeed, you to must
ACT 2 = LIVE LIKE HEAVEN RULES.
Like God is in control. You must see that when you are tempted to do something that would be wrong, but might impress a lot of people, there is an ultimate source who will not be impressed, and He’s the One you want to impress.
You must live as if obeying Him matters more than obeying immoral requests from others.
The Bible says, IF GOD IS FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? Romans 8:31 You must live like that. You must live with an abandon to the applause of men and an ear to the applause of heaven. You must live a risk-taking life, as if what you do for God is right and worth doing. In a few chapters, we’re going to see how Hat Rack, Tool Shack and A Billy Goat decide that it is better to obey God and trust Him with their lives than to obey the king and bow down to a false god.
Living like that is freedom. It was a key factor in Daniel’s becoming the prime minister of the largest empire in the world at the time.
A second lesson from Act 2 is one that you might not have really expected, because in our culture, we feel free to criticize just about anything we disagree with.
A second lesson from ACT 2 = DON’T CRITICIZE THE CULTURE, LEAD THE CULTURE.
Did you notice while we were reading that Daniel and his friends never said anything negative about the Babylonian culture. They didn’t agree with it, they didn’t enter into the parts of it that were against their morals and religions, but instead of seeing the culture as their adversary, they saw it as their ally. Because God’s ways are always better, they simply followed God’s ways. And instead of competing with the other young men of their culture, they wound up leading them. They wound up with the best jobs and the respect of the king.
How did they do that?
Well, they understood that heaven rules. And therefore, their placement in the palace of a foreign king was not a mistake, but an opportunity. They believed that God had them there for a purpose. So the culture didn’t threaten them, it motivated them.
A few years before Neb came and dragged the nation into exile, God spoke to the people just exactly about this situation. He said through the prophet Jeremiah, SEEK THE PEACE AND PROSPERITY OF THE CITY TO WHICH I HAVE CARRIED YOU INTO EXILE. PRAY TO THE LORD FOR IT… Jeremiah 29:7
As a result of seeking the best for the king’s court, these four became the king’s best men. In his own words, TEN TIMES BETTER THAN ALL THE MAGICIANS AND ENCHANTERS IN HIS WHOLE KINGDOM. – Daniel 1:20
If you want to be wise and set yourself on a course for success, you don’t have to go along with everything in the culture of your workplace or school or unit or group, but don’t feel like you need to criticize the culture, that will just alienate people. Instead, live with the freedom of knowing that heaven rules. That will help you to rise above and lead the culture.
In Act 3, when Daniel and the fellahs are taken to the king for testing, the king finds them way smarter than the rest of his advisors. Way smarter. How did that happen?
Well, every Jewish boy in that day, as well as every Jewish boy in this day, is taught by his father to read, study, and memorize Scripture. And Scripture carries with it a promise of making your wise and smart. – Which might explain why over 90% of all Nobel prizes have been won by ethnic Jews, even though ethnic Jews make up less than 1% of the world’s population. They study the scriptures.
The write of Ps. 119 says, I HAVE MORE INSIGHT THAN ALL MY TEACHERS, FOR I MEDITATE ON YOUR STATUTES. I HAVE MORE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE ELDERS, FOR I OBEY YOUR PRECEPTS. – Psalm 119:99-100
This is a principle that is hard to believe at first, but it’s born out in experience. Nobel prizes don’t lie.
Daniel and his friends had high I.Q’s. because they had high B.Q’s. They had high intelligences quotients because they had high bible quotients. They read and studied and discussed the Bible together like it was their most precious possession.
So if you want to become wise, ACT 3 = IMPROVE YOUR I.Q.BY IMPROVING YOUR B.Q.
That’s what we’re going to be doing around here for the next 7 or 8 weeks. Studying the examples and warnings in this book so that we can succeed by becoming wise men and wise women.
Closing illustration
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