Trusting God in the Chaos
Book of Daniel Series- CCCAG 1-5-24
Text: Daniel 1:1-21
Today we are going to be starting our series on the Book of Daniel. This is a study I’ve been wanting to do for a few years. Due to circumstances in our church life and my personal life, I wasn’t able to give it the attention it deserved- it’s a series that requires hours and hours of study.
Now that I’m off of work for a little while, and to a point where I don’t need heavy pain medication, I can do it the justice it deserves.
So let’s dig in.
Understanding the book of Daniel is important because it’s the key to understanding biblical prophecy, especially the book of Revelation.
In that spirit, I will begin with this verse from Revelation to set the stage on what is about to happen here in Daniel chapter 1.
Cross-reference: Revelation 2:10 (Church of Smyrna) Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will experience affliction for ten days. Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Keep that in mind as we go through today’s message.
Daniel was a teenager during the reign of King Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was an evil king, and the 3rd to last of the kings of Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered by Assyria almost 100 years prior and Assyria had now been conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The kingdom of Judah had popped up on Babylon’s radar because Jehoiakim’s father Josiah had attempted to stop Egypt from reinforcing Assyria against Babylon.
The reason is that Josiah felt that Assyria was the greater threat, so if he could let Babylon take them out, the Kingdom of Judah would be better off.
Long story short- didn’t work. Babylon eventually defeats both Assyria and Egypt.
That’s what was happening from the historical perspective.
However, there is also a spiritual perspective we need to understand.
Jeremiah and Habakkuk both identified Babylon as God’s instrument to judge and punish the nation of Judah for the horrific sin they had begun to practice.
At the beginning of Daniel- Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar ransacks Jerusalem for treasure, and also takes captive a lot of royal family and the families of those who are rich and powerful in the kingdom- what we would call nobility in our time.
That’s where we will start today- with first few verses of this book-
Daniel 1:1-21 In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. (2) The Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels from the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar carried them to the land of Babylon, to the house of his god, and put the vessels in the treasury of his god. (3) The king ordered Ashpenaz (ash’-pen-az), his chief eunuch, 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. He was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. (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 attend the king. (6) Among them, from the Judahites, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. (7) The chief eunuch gave them names; he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah.
Prayer
For the first few moments of this message, I want you to put yourself in these four young men’s shoes for a moment.
Keep in mind- you are a teenager probably 15 or 16 years old - who had lived a privileged and pampered life to this point.
• You are part of the nobility of Judah- You are very rich, you have had servants your whole life. Very well educated and used to being looked up to by everyone you come into contact with.
• You have a great life- best clothes, best food, best friends, best education available in your nation.
• But then Babylon comes, and chaos ensues. Everything changes. You go from first, to worst.
• You go from the finest clothes, to the rags of captives.
• You go from being respected, to being enslaved.
• They even take away your name- something that was of the upmost importance in Hebrew culture.
And possibly the worst thing for these young men is seen in Isaiah’s prophecy to Hezekiah after Hezekiah stupidly showed envoys from Babylon how rich and protected his kingdom was-
2Ki 20:18 ‘Some of your descendants?—?who come from you, whom you father?—?will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
Couple this with the fact that these boys were also placed under the care of the chief eunuch, it’s very possible that was their fate as well. We can’t be 100% sure, but none of them are ever referenced to being married or being fathers in the bible or any ancient writings of that time…well, talk about your whole world being destroyed.
From first to worst.
From order to chaos.
Consider all of that as you picture yourself as one of these young men.
Now let me ask you something- If you are one of these young men, How do you feel about God at this point?
Let’s just be real- people leave church’s and forsake Jesus for much,much less in our time.
Looking at our own light and momentary afflictions and comparing it to what these young men were going through really puts things into perspective doesn’t it?
The only thing that helped them-
Their formative years were under one of Judah’s most righteous rulers, Josiah. That means that they had good torah and religious education while he was alive.
It’s what saved them- it gave the Holy Spirit something to work with to keep them faithful in light of the chaos that had been thrust into their lives.
Let’s read a little further in Daniel 1
Scripture-
Daniel 1:8 Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief eunuch not to defile himself. (9) God had granted Daniel kindness and compassion from the chief eunuch, (10) yet he said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and drink. What if he sees your faces looking thinner than the other young men your age? You would endanger my life with the king.” (11) So Daniel said to the guard whom the chief eunuch had assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, (12) “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. (13) Then examine our appearance and the appearance of the young men who are eating the king’s food, and deal with your servants based on what you see.” (14) He agreed with them about this and tested them for ten days.
Making the Hebrews eat this food and drink this wine was intentional on the part of Babylon- they wanted to strip away any vestige of Jewish faith and culture from these men so that they would only be faithful to their new nation.
The chief eunuch understands this. He has probably gone through the same process and knows that his life depends on these young men thriving because they are the best that Judah had to offer the king.
The problem is- Hebrew’s had very restrictive dietary laws. Much of what was being offered at the kings table would not have been what we call today Kosher- meaning allowed under the Hebrew dietary laws. Pork, certain birds, certain seafood, and anything with blood in it would not have been kosher to these young men.
In addition, all of this rich or luxury level food, which would have included the wine at the king’s table, had first been offered up as a sacrifice to their pagan gods, or blessed by their priests, making it unclean to an observant Hebrew.
In addition, the wine was most likely also used as a pain killing medicine. Keep that in mind- Daniel was choosing to stay faithful to God while experiencing extreme amounts of pain if he was indeed made a eunuch.
From a purely human standpoint- they have no reason not to just give in to get along.
They are no longer in their land,
all of their possessions and rank in society is gone,
and even their ability to have family’s has been taken.
Again from the human perspective- their best option is to do as they are told, to eek out as much ease and comfort as they can in their new lives. That’s the human thing to do, and if satan was anywhere close, what he was whispering in their spirits right now.
This is their first of many tests to come later in the book of Daniel, but remember the scripture we started with?
Revelation 2:10 (paraphrase)They will be tested, and you will experience affliction. Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
• Despite the risk, they choose to honor God and refuse the king’s food, requesting vegetables and water instead.
• Application: how many of us could have done this?
Illustration- I can’t say that I’ve faced anything to this level in my life. Probably one of the bigger challenges I faced was as a new paramedic. The place I worked at had a station that everyone wanted to work at, because they did nothing but 911 responses, but you had to work the other stations that did non-emergency type calls for at least a year before you had a chance to work the 911 station in Lake Geneva.
You also had to be approved by the senior paramedics and the station manager of that station to transfer there. After almost 2 years, I finally got my shot. They scheduled a couple of shifts with a senior paramedic who would make the decision if I was good enough to work at that station.
I got there 15 minutes early for the 24 hour shift. The previous shift was just waking up. I walked into the bathroom to recycle some coffee and hanging in the bathroom were of posters of nude women. On the stand next to the toilet, I saw adult magazines stacked up. Keep in mind this was the mid-1990’s, but I was still a bit shocked that this was allowed.
Not only that, but when I went into the day room, there was a few porn movies in the cabinet. This wasn’t just a guy thing as apparently the two females that worked that station brought them in to watch.
So I was stuck- I finally got the dream job- 911 with the best EMS protocols in the state of Wisconsin- we were light years ahead of everyone else, but the price was being surrounded by one of my biggest weakness at that time- I had only been saved 3 years.
I know this example wasn’t even close to what Daniel and his friends went through, but it does represent a conflict between being obedient to God and just going with the crowd to get along.
Again, referring back to the verse in Revelation-
Cross-reference: Revelation 2:10—“Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
This is a promise in God’s word- faithfulness to HIM always brings favor into your life.
In my case, I got the situation taken care of without angering the entire station, and about a year and a half later, I was running the station.
We also see it here in Daniel’s case-
2. God’s Favor on the Faithful
Daniel 1:15 At the end of ten 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.
Here comes the Favor of God-
(17) God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind. (18) At the end of the time that the king had said to present them, the chief eunuch presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. (19) The king interviewed them, and among all of them, no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they began to attend the king. (20) In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and mediums in his entire kingdom. (21) Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
God is Faithful
This first chapter of Daniel brings to light an uncomfortable topic and one of the hardest things to understand. The concept of God testing us.
When I first began to read the bible, one of the questions I always had regarding this truth that God will test us was that if God is truly omniscient or all knowing, then He shouldn’t need to test us at all since HE Knows what we will do.
But that is the wrong understanding of this truth. Our testing is not to provide God some inside information about us.
As I’ve matured in our faith, I’ve come to understand this at a deeper level.
Illustration:
When I was 5 years old we lived in a brand new house in a brand new subdivision on the west side of Kenosha. The street we were on was a low traffic cul-de-sac.
My father had bought me a brand new bicycle and he took me onto the street to teach me how to ride the bike.
Now, the first time he was holding me he didn’t expect me to stay upright.
I fell right over but he caught me.
He said you need to pedal and keep yourself centered on the bike.
Second time, I managed to pedal once and fell over with him catching me.
He gave me a few additional things to try.
I managed to get about 10 feet with him walking behind me before I fell over again.
My Dad noticed something- I was looking my feet on the pedals. This time, he got me up and pedaling, and ran in front of me at and told me to keep my eyes up and looking at him, and then I was able to ride past my house and down the street.
Until I crashed trying to turn.
Here is the point- God’s isn’t putting us in uncomfortable situations because HE gets joy from watching us struggle and fail.
These times of testing aren’t for HIM, it’s for us. God is the best Father in existence.
He knows that in order for us to mature,
that He need to let us experience the problem,
fall down a few times,
and then allow us to get back on the bicycle of life and try again, learning from our mistakes.
This develops maturity, and just as important, develops perseverance.
During a newspaper interview, Thomas Edison was asked how he found the desire to keep trying to make the electric light bulb after failing 3000 times over 2 years.
He replied, “Good sir, I did not fail 3000 times, I found 3000 ways to not make a light bulb”.
That’s the key to understanding God’s testing of us- it’s to help us mature in HIM, trust in HIM to the point of developing the perseverance we will need to handle whatever the future has for us .
All rise
That is what the first chapter of Daniel teaches us this morning. In Daniel’s case-
• Because of their faithfulness, Daniel and his friends are blessed by God with exceptional knowledge, understanding, and wisdom (Daniel 1:17).
• This favor from God positions them for influence with the Babylonian king- the ruler of the largest superpower in the known world at that time.
Conclusion:
Rom 8:28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Prayer
