Singing the Songs of the Lord in a Strange Land November 14, 2004
Daniel 4
Exiles in the Corporate World
Read the Story
What the story teaches us, from Nebuchadnezzar’s point of view is pretty simple – Pride comes before a fall. Nebuchadnezzar fails to recognize that he has been placed where he is by God. He failed to recognize the hand of God in his success and took all the credit himself. So, just as you mother used to say “I brought you into this world, and I can taske you out of it, God takes Nebuchadnezzer out of his position of extreme power very quickly.
It is an important lesson to learn – Pride comes before a fall – Proverbs 16:18. In every success that we might have, we must recognize the grace of God, and stay humble.
But, As we’ve been reading Daniel to discover how we are to live as Christians in the world, I want to look at Daniel’s role in the story as a model of how we behave in the workplace or other sphere of creation that we walk in.
Living as exiles the Daniel way – Daniel as a good model.
1 Peter 2:11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
We are called as Christians to be in the world but not of it. Last week I mentioned that most often, Christians separate themselves from the world so that they are not in it but are completely of it. We take ourselves out of uncomfortable situations because, we reason, we do not belong there. But we take all the values of the world with us. This picture of Daniel as a model does not allow us to do that.
Speaking the truth
When the king goes to his astrologers and magicians to have his dream interpreted, they can’t do it – you have to wonder if they couldn’t, or if they wouldn’t. The dream is a bit of a no-brainer in terms of interpretation – the details might not be easy, but the fact that it is bad news for the king is not hard to understand. It may be that they just do not want to be the bearer of bad news in a time and place that wasn’t averse to shooting the messenger of bad news.
Daniel, on the other hand tells the interpretation of the dream – it doesn’t put the king in a good light – he is great and mighty, reigning over one of the largest empire to date… but he is arrogant (surprise, surprise) and because of his arrogance, he will fall.
James 4:6
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
We need to be known as people of the truth – even if the truth is not to palatable.
There may be times at work, or in the family, here in the church, when there is something that is not right. It may be like the rhinoceros in the middle of the room – everyone sees it, but no one talks about it because they do not want to be the messenger of bad news.
We are good a speaking the truth after the fact – once the mighty have fallen, society is quick to kick him while he is down. You can imagine how the Magicians were going on about the king’s arrogance when he was out in the field eating grass. But they would not say it to his face. Everyone knew Conrad Black was insanely arrogant and most likely dirty, but you didn’t see a statement about it even in the papers he didn’t own until his world came crashing down.
As people of God we must be the speakers of truth in Good times and bad.
Ezekiel 33
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: ’When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, 4 then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. 5 Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’
7 "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ’O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for [1] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 9 But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.
If we see our friends, co-workers, employers or corporations are going down the wrong path and say nothing; we are not living up to our call to be watchmen for the people God has placed around us.
Daniel calls the king to repentance: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue – verse 27
We might be good at naming what is wrong with our boss, but that insight isn’t helpful unless we talk to them about it and give them a way out.
Chuck Colson was in Nixon’s inner circle when Watergate broke open. It was at that time he became a Christian. He spoke truth into Nixon’s life and he invited him to confess and repent – to God and the American people. Colson thought they would both be merciful. But Nixon did not receive the truth.
Nebuchadnezzar may have heeded Daniel’s word for a time but it did not stick – a year later his pride gets the better of him, and God humbles him.
In Love
Speak the truth in love.
Verse 19
Daniel is speaking to the pagan king that would destroy his country and beloved Jerusalem, he is speaking to the man who had him captured and taken far from home.
All the same, he has great compassion on this King. Where you might think that an exile might wish this fate on the conquering king, but Daniel wishes it on the kings enemies
– it God that has given the dream as a warning, and Daniel pleads with the king to repent to save his own peace and prosperity.
Daniel understands his call as servant of the king, and he demonstrates the attitude that we should have as “aliens and strangers in the world.”
When the third and largest wave of exiles are taken away to Babylon years after Daniel, the exiles stay in tents, waiting for God to rescue them and take them back to their land. God tells them to do the opposite through his prophet Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 29:7
4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."
I think that the culture of the workforce is one of exile, but not in God’s way. Because corporations are seldom loyal to their workers, workers are seldom loyal to their employers. It is like we join two exploiters together for a time of mutual benefit, until one or the other gets a better deal.
As employees we can go and set up our tent in a corporation for a short time, making the most of what we can, until we get rescued by a better offer.
Neil
As Christians we are exiles – our primary citizenship is in the Kingdom of God. But we do not take on the attitude of an exile, as a resident alien for our own benefit; so that we are not responsible for the people around us, or for the good of the community or the corporation, but we are only responsible for the little patch of green that God has given us. No, we take on the attitude of the exile for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
We do not say “I am not of this place, so I’m going to make as much as I can& cut out.
We are not of this place, so we are free to serve God in a potentially hostile environment.
We are not of this place so we are not afraid of the “firing” that may come from not bowing down to the idols set up by the corporation, because we have a hope outside the corporation. (like Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego)
We are not of this place so we are able to love the boss, our coworkers, even our enemies because we have an inheritance that they don’t know about.
I have a friend who works for the Royal Bank. The Bank still pays his salary, but they pay it for him to set up a community banking system in Regent Park through Yonge Street Mission. He hasn’t left the bank, but he has been seconded to YSM for a particular task, and to bless them. He does the work of the bank in and through YSM.
It is the same with us! If you are a Christian, you are first a citizen of the kingdom of God, you will never loose that citizenship, but you have been seconded to your corporation, to your school, to your city, to you family, your neighbourhood – to do the work of the Kingdom in those places. You don’t belong, you don’t fit, but God has sent you there to do his work.
He sent Daniel to Babylon to help turn the Kings heart to the true God. If Daniel refused to serve the king, and only got what he could out of the situation, God would have had to find a different means to bring the Kingdom to the kingdom of Babylon.
The prayer that Isaiah has for Jerusalem, that I have reworked for Toronto,
“Because I love Toronto, because my heart yearns for her, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn, and her salvation blazes like a burning torch “
– Isaiah 62:1 (revised)
we can apply to our corporation, our family, our city, any of the people in our lives. We can pray this because they do not own us: God does!
This is what Jesus says: 31So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans (people from other kingdoms) run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Matthew 6:31-34
Our place of work might supply all those things that Jesus tells us not to worry about, but it is the place where we must seek the things of the Kingdom – because that is our first citizenship.
This is Jesus’ prayer for us just before the cross:
13"And now I am coming to you. I have told them many things while I was with them so they would be filled with my joy. 14I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not. 15I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. 16They are not part of this world any more than I am. 17Make them pure and holy by teaching them your words of truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. 19And I give myself entirely to you so they also might be entirely yours.” - John 17
