Once again, what a year 2020 has turned out to be.
Evidence of that is obvious this morning. Who among us could have possibly predicted that a Sunday morning service at Risen King Community Church in 2020 would look like this? If we had taken a photo of today’s service in the future, I suspect that no one could have imagined why we would be seated separated as we are and why all of us are wearing masks. And we’re in a different place—a different facility.
Yes, our lives have in many ways been upset, even turned upside down in 2020.
And of course, we’re all looking forward to and hoping that things will sometime soon get back to normal. However, the Covid-19 virus rages on in America, unlike any other nation on earth, seemingly impervious to summer heat and resistant even to social distancing. And now we’re sending our children and their teachers back to school, face-to-face with cold and flu season lurking just around the corner. Dr. Robert Redfield, U.S. Director of the Communicable Disease Center predicts we will have a cold and flu season like no other. It makes you wonder if this is only the beginning of our problems.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen social unrest and violent protests related to the Black Lives Movement like we haven’t seen for decades. At least 20 major U.S. Cities have decided to heed the protests as shootings, violent crimes and protests are on the rise. They’re defunding the police and cutting back on police protection. Is this perhaps also a recipe for disaster?
As it now appears Congress will not be immediately funding any economic relief as tens of thousands of unemployed face the prospect of failed businesses, homelessness and joblessness.
And we are in an election year with our nation’s political leaders more hostile, and more divided than at any time since the Civil War. It seems that neither political party trusts the other, that whoever loses in November will contest and protest the election just when our health and wealth as a nation cannot afford any more looting or reckless exposure to the highly contagious virus.
Our world has been turned upside down, and there are plenty of indicators that this might be just the beginning.
And for the believer, this morning, the question is this: What will you do if even some of these crises worsen, if there is chaos, and everything changes? How will you behave? What kind of priority will the Lord continue to have, if any, if things in your life go from bad to worse?
Toward answering that question is why we’re beginning a new message series based on the Book of Daniel this morning entitled, “When Your World Is Turned Upside Down” Because 26 centuries ago a group of godly young men witnessed the deterioration of their formerly godly society until God brought judgment upon it from a foreign, idolatrous, kingdom called Babylon.
It completely rocked their world. Four young Jewish men were deported among many from Judah as Babylon conquered their nation. Their world has been completely turned upside down. There was now no temple to worship their God at, no Jewish feasts, few observant Jews, but rather a pagan tyrant who was intent on training them in the same pagan idolatry and sorcery that he thought was the source of his success. Their response to a seemingly impossible situation stands as an inspiration and instruction for us to this day. They teach us that even when God allows our lives to be turned upside down, don’t compromise. Honor God and He will honor and use you for His glory.
Of course the four young men I’m referring to here are headed by Daniel. They consist of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The book of Daniel was written by Daniel and its introduction to the series of absolutely incredible events contained in the book is remarkably straightforward and objective. It tells us that the God of Israel had brought judgment upon the southern kingdom of Israel, Judah. It’s 605 B.C.
Verse one: “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim King of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of His God.”
Now notably Babylon was the place where idolatry originated thousands of years before as Genesis records it under Nimrod. It was located along the Euphrates River about 500 miles east of Jerusalem. It had become a great kingdom that was conquering the then-known world, including the mighty Assyrians to the north of Israel. And in 605 B.C., as long predicted by many prophets, including Daniel’s contemporaries in Judah, Jeremiah and Habakkuk, Nebuchadnezzar’s armies came against Jerusalem and besieged it.
Judah and Jerusalem had long fallen into idolatry. King Jehoiakim was among many kings of Judah who had no regard for the God of Israel or His Word. As I mentioned the last time I spoke, we get a sense of Jehoiakim’s character and his absolute disdain for the Word of God in Jeremiah 36. In that chapter King Jehoiakim’s officials bring the scroll of Jeremiah’s prophecies before the king and begin to read his predictions of judgment coming from the King of Babylon. As each few lines of the prophecy are read to the king, he cuts those lines off the scroll and throws them into the fire. Then he sought to arrest both Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch. Instead, Jehoiakim and his nation, due to their unrepentant attitudes toward the Lord God and idolatry, would be thrown into the fire of God’s judgment within a year or two.
The sin of idolatry had been a major problem in Judah, Israel’s southern kingdom for hundreds of years. However, it had reached its climax during the reign of the wicked Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, who reigned for 57 years, and involved the nation in witchcraft and idolatry to the point that the sacrificed some of his sons in the fire to the detestable idols of surrounding nations. Though Manasseh would ultimately repent, God had said enough was enough, and judgment became inevitable. Now, a couple decades later, it had finally come.
Now, the most notable thing I see in verses 1 and 2 is that Daniel did not believe what befell him or his people was any accident. He saw God as sovereign, in control of all things. Therefore, he writes that the calamity that came upon him and his people was because “The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand, just as the prophets predicted.
Now this is a very salient point for us to consider at this point in our nation’s history. It tells us that God is just, and though He is patient, He will ultimately bring judgment upon the nations of the earth who are unrepentant, even his own people in Judah. It tells us this: Watch out, God’s judgment will ultimately come upon unrepentant nations—even like our own. We are not exempt from God’s justice. And we are a nation that has long been sliding into a moral and spiritual bankruptcy that our founding fathers would have had great difficulty imagining.
Now in my opinion it was about 57 or 58 years ago when that descent into the moral abyss in which we now find ourselves began. I’m old enough that I remember the Supreme Court decision that eliminated teacher-led prayer from public schools. It was 1962. And very quickly, right along about the same time, there were a couple of decisions that eliminated Bible reading from public schools—in other words, we began kicking God out of our public institutions about 60 years ago, a number not unlike the amount of time that it took for God to be fed up with Judah’s sin. Of course those Supreme Court decisions were followed by others that it made it a crime to even display the 10 Commandments, or for a teacher to even have a Bible displayed on his desk. Of course, there was the Roe v. Wade decision that then followed which legalized the murder of our unborn babies, something unthinkable even 15 to 20 years before, and now tens of millions of babies have been sacrificed at the altar of sexual freedom and convenience. And then there was the 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized sodomy, and yes, I use that word purposefully, because that’s what it was called when it was illegal one hundred years ago. And given the liberal anti-family agenda of many in our land yet today, you’ve got to wonder, as Habakkuk wondered just before judgment came, “How long, O Lord, will you allow such violence and lawlessness to go on.” We’ve got to know from this passage and many others, we need to watch out, beware, for God will ultimately judge unrepentant nations like our own. And it could be happening in our day.
Is it possible that we have come to the end of God’s patience for America? Is it possible that the unthinkable events of 2020 are harbingers of a greater judgment yet to come upon our nation if we are not willing to repent? I think so! I think we need to eliminate this thinking that plague and economic disaster and famine are mere accidents of history. We need to take Daniel’s view of history, that God is sovereign, and He judges nations when time for judgment has come. But He does say this, at least He said it to Israel when it was ripe for judgment: “ If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, 14 and My people [a]who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land” in II Chronicles 7:13-14.
I think it’s significant at this point that there is a move among God’s people to respond to the disasters that have befallen us this year in just this way. A National Day of Sacred Assembly has been declared by spiritual leaders in our nation for Saturday, September 26. The event will actually be held over 10 days, from the 18th to the 28th, but Saturday the 26th will be the focal point with a day full of prayers of confession and repentance which will be held on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Our plan as a church is to participate in this solemn and critical event via simulcast, though the simulcast will be delayed for a couple of hours due to the time differential. But if we can work through the technical challenges, our plan is to host at last for our own congregation a telecast and participation in that event at our church office beginning at 8 a.m. on Saturday the 26th. Yes, we will socially distance, but as many of you as can spare a few hours during any time that day to come and seek God’s face for his forgiveness upon our nation, we will do our best to accommodate. That’s Saturday, September 26th.
Sadly, in Judah, King Jehoiakim had not seen fit to repent, quite the opposite, and so the nation and Daniel and friends experienced the consequences. As verses 3-8 told us, Daniel’s life was completely turned upside down and potentially inside out. He was no longer in the land of Judah, part of the royal family, with the temple of God just down the street. We don’t know where his godly parents were. The Jewish feasts were impossible to celebrate anywhere but Jerusalem. Now he was in the seat of an idolatrous kingdom, and he and his friends had been selected by the king and his officials to attend the King’s Academy of Babylon. The goal was to erase, to eradicate their godly upbringing and Jewish culture and to replace it with all the wisdom, literature and learning of the Babylonians. They were to be taught all about the many gods of Babylon, and sorcery and they were appointed a daily ration from the king’s choice food and wine. It was a three-year program to train them so that they could enter the king’s service as part of his advisors, his wise men.
And as we’re told in verse four, these young men were the cream of the crop. They were probably in the mid to late teens. And among all these young men from Judah were four who would stand out because they chose not to fit in. Verse 6 tells us that their names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. It’s evident that these young men had had a godly upbringing from the names which they were given: Daniel meant “God is my Judge.” Hananiah means, “The Lord shows grace.” Mishael means “Who is What God Is?? And Azariah means “The Lord Helps.”
The Babylonians spiritual intentions are just as clear. They changed the names of the four young men to reflect the idolatry that they intended for them to participate in. Daniel was re-named Belteshazzar, which was a prayer to Bel or Marduk, chief God of the Babylonians, that meant “Bel protect his life.” Shadrach meant “command of Aku, the Sumerian Sun-god. Meshach means, “Who is What Aku is?” Aku being another Babylonian deity. And Abednego means servant of Nebo or Nabu, still another Babylonian deity.”
Now the pressure was really on, to be converted from godly young men to worldly young men, to the kinds of idolaters and sorcerers who were typically in power in Babylon. And the edict had been given by a brutal pagan king who had no problem resolving disobedience in the ranks by means of execution.
Now it would seem that Daniel and friends would have no choice but to submit to their captor’s pagan ambitions. But the turning point in the Book of Daniel, and in Daniel’s life comes in verse 8. Despite the impossible situation he had been put in, we read, “But Daniel made up his mind, he resolved, that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself, or make himself unclean in his God’s sight.”
Now this was a difficult, dangerous and even monumental decision. It was an absolute resolution on the part of this otherwise powerless very young man to stand for God despite all that he was being deliberately subjected to. What faith, what courage, what determination it took to make such a resolution in the face of the potential consequences. I think it represented his general attitude toward all that He would be re-educated or brainwashed in. Certainly he could learn all of the literature and language of the Babylonians without accepting it all as true. But here he and his friends would be required to practice all that they were learning, and in direct opposition to the kosher laws of the Old Testament. They would also be required to eat of unclean meats, meat most likely sacrificed to idols, and so in that respect to participate in idolatrous and even demonic worship. And with regard to the wine that they would be given to drink, what was different about it from Jewish wine is that the Babylonians did not dilute their alcohol. Jews diluted their wine with 3 to 8 parts of water so that it could not be considered strong drink or intoxicating as prohibited by the Book of Proverbs. But Babylonians were great drunkards, who delighted in intoxicating beverages.
And when our world is turned upside, this is the critical juncture for each of us. Will we fit in, go along with crowd, do what’s easy, or will we resolve to follow the Lord our God and His ways, no matter what.
And that’s our second point this morning. Resolve not to compromise, no matter what. When your world is turned upside down, and it’s easy to make excuses for why you no longer participate or follow the Lord. Will you conform to the pressures of this world, or will you be transformed by the Word of God, for the Lord and His glory? What will you do? What’s easy? Or what’s right? Will you stand out for the Lord Jesus Christ, or fit into the world’s ways like a chameleon?
The next question for Daniel is just how he was going to accomplish his resolution. The answer is with persistence, and a creative alternative. He was in an impossible situation. He needed to handle his circumstances with great care. And so he first went to the commander of the officials as verse 8-10 tells us. I take it that’s Ashphenaz. And God had already worked in his favor, he had been given favor in the sight of Ashpenaz, but still the answer was no. Ashpenaz feared the King would have his own head if he disobeyed the King’s command. But Daniel did not give up. Verse 11 tells us that Daniel persisted and came up with an alternate plan—a test of ten days, and went to one of Ashpenaz’ subordinates, the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel and his friends. Verse 11: “But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ‘Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see. And so he listened to them in this matter and tested them for 10 days.”
Now why did Daniel request only vegetables and water? Because no vegetable had been declared unclean by Old Testament Law, and of course, water was not intoxicating in any way. It was all for the purpose of keeping Jewish dietary laws. But his proposal, of course, was slightly different the second time. He was creative. He recommended a ten-day trial period. And after the ten-day trial period, if their appearance were better than the other youths—Jews who were just fitting in—then treat your servants accordingly. And lo and behold, according to verse 15, after 10 days, guess what, Daniel and his friends seemed better and fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food, so the overseer continued to withhold the choice food and allowed Daniel and his friends to obey God’s word. Now was this because God’s food was better for them? Probably, but I think there was a supernatural aspect here, so that God worked miraculously to confirm Daniel’s dedication, and that as long as Daniel was resolved not to compromise, God would honor him and those who followed Him is in his dedication.
The lesson: Persevere, seek creative alternatives and trust God. Daniel didn’t give up when his first proposal was rejected. He became creative and determined a test that would allow him not to be involved with ungodly practices for the entire three years but would prove God’s blessing upon their health. And when God came through, Daniel and his friends were free not to defile themselves with the King’s food.
And the final lesson is this: Honor God no matter how difficult, and He will honor and use you for his glory. Honor God even when He turns your life upside down, and it’s not easy, in fact, it’s incredibly difficult, and He will honor and establish you for His glory.
What became of these four resolute young men who would not be defiled by the King’s choice food? Verse 17: “As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom: Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah”—notice the use of the godly names here rather than their pagan names—"so they entered the king’s service. As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm. Wow! These four young men, because of their dedication to the Lord God, even when their lives had been turned upside down, and obeying God seemed impossible, because they took their stand for the Lord God of Israel, were blessed way beyond all their contemporaries even in this pagan king’s sight.
And then don’t miss verse 21. And Daniel, their leader, was established in the kingdom as the king’s advisor, even beyond this kingdom’s tenure.
Verse 21: “And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the King. In other words, God so established Daniel in his high position within Babylon that he outlasted the Babylonian kingdom. He endured even into the time of the Kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, and even served their king, Darius, as an advisor, a grand advisor, a ruler in their kingdom.
And what was the result of 75 to 80-year career? How did God bless? Nebuchadnezzar, the terrible king of the Babylonians, came to repent and believe in the God of Israel and even published his testimony to the God of Israel for his Kingdom. And so did Darius the King of the Medes and the Persians. And Daniel, being the Jew in the highest position of authority in the Kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, would be the man who would finally confess the great sins of his people against their God, who would be heard after 70 years in exile, and from whose prayer Israel would allowed to return to their land
Wow! When Your World Is Upside Down, when life seems impossible, when it seems you must compromise just to survive, what will you do? What will you do? Will you give in, and fit in, just to survive? Or will you thrive for God’s glory and the good of your people by refusing to compromise--by honoring the Lord in good times and bad so that He will honor and use you and establish you for His glory?
Let’s pray.
