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.
I’m sure they were intimidated being in Babylon. They had come from a fairly rural environment to one of the greatest cities in the world.
I remember standing in Time Square with 15 teenagers from Illinois. We all realized that we weren’t in Kansas anymore.
It was a metropolitan city, much like New York or London. The walls were 325 feet tall and 26 feet thick. In the palace, the Hanging Gardens were considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
They were given a card with an unlimited balance to the king’s cafeteria where they could eat anything and everything they wanted. This was probably a huge change from their diet back home.
It was to be a three-year program. They were in their mid-teens and would be almost 20 when the schooling was finished. Then they would take their places as leaders in the king’s palace.
Identity
To add insult to injury, they even changed their names.
Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.
Each of their names was related to the worship of God and the Babylonians wanted to give them a new identity.
Daniel’s name means “God is my judge.” His name was changed to Belteshazzar, which means, “Bel’s prince.”
Hananiah’s name meant “Beloved by the Lord.” His name was changed to Shadrach, which means “illuminated by the sun god.”
Mishael’s name meant “Who is like God?” His name was changed to Meshach, which means “Who is like Asherah?”
Azariah’s name meant “The Lord is my help.” His name was changed to Abednego, which means “the servant of Nebo.”
The goal was total indoctrination so they would forget that they were Hebrew and soon talk, walk, and speak like a Babylonian.
In Iceland, a baby was born and the parents named her “Blaer.” The Icelandic government stepped in and said that wasn’t a proper Icelandic name and legally changed her name to “girl.”
She finally did win the right to her name. Do you think she ever answered to girl? No, her name was Blaer.
There was one problem though. The Babylonians sorely underestimated these four teenagers.
Living in a foreign land, fifteen hundred miles away from family and anything familiar, these four students drew a line and said that they were going to follow God no matter what.
They stood out
Daniel, Hanniah, Mishael, and Azariah were living in the king’s palace and had the opportunity to enjoy all the enticements of royalty. In particular, the food was wonderful. They were offered an expensive bottle of wine and a steak and shrimp dinner every night. The other Hebrews lined up to eat. To them, it just wasn’t that big a deal. To Daniel, it was a matter of loyalty to God.
“But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.” (Dan 1:8)
We are told that Daniel:
“He purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the royal food and wine.” (V. 8) The word purposed means “to place upon your heart.” This was a decision made beforehand out of a strong conviction. The food being offered was not kosher and had, most likely, been offered to idols. This was a no-brainer. There was no way he was going to defile himself before God.
It’s interesting that they didn’t balk at the idea of going to Babylonian school or even their names being changed. But this was a step too far and they were not going to do it even it everyone else was.
Martin Luther once wrote:
“Resolved: that every man should live to the glory of God. Resolved second: whether others do this or not I will.”
He proposed a compromise. (V. 9-10)
He approached the head official and politely explained the situation. Because of their deeply held religious convictions, they would not be able to eat the royal food. While the official felt for Daniel and his friends, he was not willing to put his neck on the line by changing their diet.
“Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.” (Dan 9:9-10)
So Daniel proposes a compromise to the guy that actually brings the meals to their rooms.
Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
Daniel’s proposal was for Azariah to give them only veggies for ten days and then see how we look, and “treat your servants according to what you see.” This is the original vega-tale. Daniel proved you can be contrary to the world without being contrary to the world!
They prospered physically and socially. (V. 15-20)
“At the end of the ten days, they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice of food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.” (Dan 1:15-16)
It seems like these four teenagers were the only ones who declined the food.
The other good Jewish boys might have said to them,
“Who will know if you eat the food?”
“What does it matter? Don’t make a big deal out of this. It could get us all in trouble. Just go along and get along.”
God has obviously abandoned us. I’ll eat whatever I want. Why do you still want to follow a God who brought us to this God-forsaken place?”
While the rest of the good Jewish boys were eating hamburgers and oysters on the half-shell and drinking all the wine they wanted, our four Hebrew heroes were munching on broccoli, cauliflower, and a variety of grains.
By day ten, the rest of the group looked like they just came back from Spring Break in Daytona.
But Daniel, Hannah, Mishael, and Azariah proved your mother right – eating your vegetables does make you healthy.
Not only did they prosper physically but God blessed them with wisdom ten times greater than any of the wise men in Babylon.
To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds…In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. (Daniel 1:17, 20)
Influence
The chapter ends with these words:
“And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.” (Dan 1:21)
For more than 70 years, Daniel influenced four world leaders and stood boldly for God in the midst of a pagan culture.
RESOLVE
Let’s try to see what lessons we can learn from this story.
Biblically, Babylon becomes a metaphor to represent a world captive to evil, worldliness and being far from God. From the captivity on the Bible represents the place where the people of God live, but never belong.
In fact, at the end of time, in Revelation 17&18 the judgment for all the world’s evil is described as the destruction of Babylon. Peter refers to the equally worldly Rome as Babylon in I Peter 5:13.
For those of us who follow Jesus, we are far from home. We live in Babylon – a place where the language, customs, beliefs, values, and actions are completely opposed to Jesus’ teachings and his ways. For the next five weeks, we’re going to look at how Daniel and his friends actually lived fearlessly in Babylon historically to learn how we can do the same.
Remember who you are and who God is
Daniel and his friends had been raised in Godly homes and had names that represented their relationship with God.
They had probably just had their bar mitzvah before the exile where they become “sons of the law,” a Jewish man devoted to God.
Daniel didn’t make the decision not to eat the king’s food on the fly. He had already tethered his heart to the rock of his God long before that.
They could send him to Babylon high school but he knew what was truth and what wasn’t.
They could change their names but Daniel knew that his name meant God is judge. He knew that God was watching him, even though he was a thousand miles away from home.
In our culture, we have a choice when it comes to our identity. Many are defined by their sexuality, or by their past, their last name, or by the title they have.
One time in college, I walked past a girl named Deborah and called her Debo. She spun around and told me, loudly, never to call her that again. Her name was Deborah, the child of the true King. Debo was what she was called in the past. But she wasn’t defined by her past.
In this crazy culture, we must find our identity in Christ and Christ alone. In Christ, we are accepted, we are loved, we are forgiven, and we are more than conquerors. God made you on purpose with a purpose and for a purpose.
Engage the culture in a respectful way
Notice that Daniel approached the servant of the King respectfully, tactfully, and with gentleness.
This is something missing from our Christian culture today. Christians are just as likely to insult and fight on social media as pagans. There are videos of people engaging the culture with hostile, mean-spirited hearts.
Maxine and I encountered a guy trying to evangelism to college students on the beach during spring break. I cringed as he screamed at them through a bullhorn about how they were all going to hell. The more he screamed, the more they laughed at him.
What he was saying had some truth to it, but he said it in such a way that they couldn’t hear it.
Peter wrote:
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (I Peter 3:15)
For refusing to eat the king’s food, Daniel could have endangered all the exiles. But God had caused the “official to show favor and compassion to Daniel…” (v. 9)
Suggest alternatives
The king’s food was a line that Daniel wouldn’t cross. Daniel had a plan. He suggested that they be given vegetables and water and then see how they look after ten days.
My brother was with some guys and they decided to go to lunch. The group decided on Hooters. My brother said he wasn’t going to go in and the group made fun of him. He proposed several other restaurants but they made up their minds. Mark stood his ground and sat outside while the others ate.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
We live in Babylon and are saturated by this culture’s customs and ways. But we can resolve to fight against the culture’s influence.
Here are some alternatives to just soaking in the culture:
Fast from social media for a day, a week a month. There was actually a time when Instagram and Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist. How did we live without it?!
Fast from cable news. For some of you, Fox, CNN, or MSNBC is on for hours each day in your house. Take a week off.
Resolve to read or listen to the Bible all the way through this year. You can do that with the Daily Audio Bible Community.
Listen to Mike Talks in the morning or another podcast that will encourage your soul.
Journal your way through this year. That way at the end of the year you can look back and see what God has done.
Opportunities will come from this
I imagine Daniel approaching Ashpenaz and saying, “Look, I’ve got an issue here. I can’t eat this food. Let me explain why.” And then Daniel had an opportunity to share his faith with him.
When I first became a Christian, I had a roommate that would have parties. The whole apartment would be full of people whose only goal was to get as drunk as they could and hook up with someone else.
I remember laying in my bed, listening to what I used to consider “fun,” when the door opened and a girl came pulled up a chair, and sat by my bed.
She said, “Don’t be such a prude. You are making a big deal out of nothing. There’s nothing wrong with all this.”
That gave me an opportunity to stay, “It’s not about being a prude. It’s not about not drinking. It’s not about me judging you. It’s about my heart. I have resolved to follow Jesus the best I can and that doesn’t include blackout drunkenness and casual sex. It’s not about not doing something. It’s about protecting my heart from things that can hurt me and my testimony.”
Because I made a decision to stand, or lay down, on my convictions, I got the opportunity to share the Gospel with her.
Pray as you navigate this culture. You will eventually be in a position to draw a line and say “no.” When that happens, make sure you are alert to the opportunities that God will open for you.
Let God fight the battle
Daniel and his three friends ate the vegetables and drank the water for ten days. They were not in control of the outcome but trusted that God would help the test turn out in their favor.
Even though they were exiles, even though it seemed as if God had abandoned them, and even though there was no one watching, they had determined not to pollute themselves.
They didn’t know how it was going to work out but they placed their trust in the God they had followed since their childhood. God was sovereign and He could be trusted.
After ten days of gorging themselves on steak and lobster and lots of wine, the other exiles looked rough.
But these four looked great. They had passed the test and Ashpenaz decided to honor Daniel’s request.
As we live as exiles in Babylon, let’s remember Paul’s words:
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:12)
People are not our enemies. We have to realize that cows don’t lay eggs. Non-Christians act the way they do because they are…not born again! There is a spiritual war going on behind the scenes and we have to trust God to fight the battle for us.
Our theme verse for the year is from Psalm 20:
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Psalm 20:7)
Maybe there is a family member, friend, coworker, or boss that is hostile to Jesus. The more you try to share with them, the more they push back.
Let the Lord fight that battle. Resolve to pray for their eyes to be opened to God’s amazing grace.
Value community
Daniel didn’t stand alone. These four teenagers stood together in refusal to defile themselves.
In my experience, it’s much easier to compromise when you are alone. But if you have a group of people who agree and have your back, anything is possible.
Every year, students gathered at the flagpole at the beginning of the year to pray for their school, their classmates, and their teachers. It’s called “See you at the Pole.”
One year, four girls at the Christian school found out that the public junior high didn’t have anyone willing to be at the pole that morning.
So these seventh-grade girls went to a school they didn’t attend and the four of them circled the pole.
I sat across the street with tears in my eyes. Students got off the bus and started mocking them. By the end of the time, the group of four had become twelve, including two teachers!
All four of these girls were shy, quiet, and introverted. Individually, they couldn’t have done this at all. But the four of them ended up on the front page of the paper the next morning!
This is why we are planning on having three small groups here by the end of the year.
Ecclesiastes says:
“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecc 4:9-12)
Embrace God’s Sovereignty
We see in the first verses that God gave Jehoiakim into the Babylonian's hands.
We see that God caused Ashpenaz to show favor and compassion to Daniel and his friends.
We also see that God allowed Daniel to influence a pagan culture, and four world leaders, for more than seventy years!
Some people are thermometers, the go up and down with the temperature.
Daniel was a thermostat. He was steady and regulated the temps around him.
It might have seemed to exiles that all was lost. It might have seen to the Babylonians that they had “won.” But that is just looking at it from a human perspective.
God allowed the exile to position Daniel in Persia because He had a much bigger picture.
About 600 years after this, Magi from the east, (Persia!), followed a star looking for the King of the Jews. How in the world do they know anything about a Messiah to come in a little sliver of land one thousand miles away?
Because there were at least four Hebrew teenagers who spent decades telling these pagans about a coming King!
Thoughts and Prayers
Many of us prayed for Buffalo Bills safety Demar Hamlin this past week. On the air, the announcers didn’t know what to say.
Dan Orlovsky, a former NFL player and an outspoken Christ-Follower, was on NFL live and talked about how everyone was talking about thoughts and prayers. He said, “I don’t know if this is the right time but I feel led to pray.”
This clip went viral and even non-Christians were talking about what a beautiful prayer it was. What an amazing opportunity he got simply because he was willing to be obedient to what God was leading to do.
Ending Song:
Firm Foundation (He Won’t)
