Daniel's Story
Exiles- In the World, Not of the World • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:28:47
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Key Passage
Key Passage
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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 food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
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.
At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.
The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service.
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.
And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
Pray
Pray
Introduction
Introduction
We are making a transition in our sermon series today
We navigated through the book of Habakkuk for a very important purpose and we talked about that purpose during that series
How to live as Godly people in a pagan culture
Very simply put, we live in a world that is sinful and is becoming more sinful by the day.
This year and this season will cause us to become distracted from the things that are eternal and put our hearts, our identities, and our motivations on temporary things.
We will navigate this, but just because they are temporary things does not mean that they are unimportant.
But they are temporary and they are less important than eternal things.
Our transition today will be moving from Habakkuk to the book of Daniel
We begin in Daniel 1:1-2
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.
I know we just spent our last month in the book of Habakkuk.
I want you to know that we did that because of verse 2.
Daniel says, “The Lord delivered Jehoiakim into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar”
That idea needs more than just a note in a sermon. That idea is the foundation for the entire book of Daniel.
If it were the Babylonians who had done this, it would be a very different outlook on the situation.
However, if it were God that raised up the Babylonians, then Daniel could know for sure that the Babylonians were not the sovereign power in play. God was the Sovereign power in play.
Daniel knew that he needed to obey God in how he lived in exile.
God brought their nation into judgment and exile for a purpose. SO THEY WOULD REPENT.
So in this, I want us to make the transition from Habakkuk to Daniel.
We need to understand why they were defeated
We need to know what happened next.
We need to discover principles from Daniel that can relate to our context today.
Topic
Topic
Before we dive into this, I want to discuss the book of Daniel before we go any further.
Intro to Daniel
Not an adventure story
Daniel is not put into the Bible so we have fantastic stories of adventure and excitement to keep us engaged.
Certainly every children’s ministry curriculum carries stories with vivid pictures of fiery furnaces and lion’s dens.
But this isn’t why Daniel is in the Bible
Not a “God will rescue” principle
Some will read this book and see how God rescued the three men from the fiery furnace and how God rescued Daniel from the lion’s den.
They then conclude that if God rescued Daniel, He certainly will rescue me.
This is not a rescue story… at least not entirely.
God shows His nature in this book.
We see that He is a God who sees what is going on.
We see that God is all powerful and miraculous
But there is not a principle here that God will rescue us any time we need rescue.
We find in Hebrews that Christians were persecuted and killed for following Jesus. This isn’t because they were Spiritually inferior to Daniel.
It is because God had a different plan.
This is not a prophecy manual
In the latter chapters of this book, Daniel reveals dreams, visions and prophecy given to him by God
It is amazing how the prophecy given to him that was already fulfilled was done in precision and perfection.
There are also prophecies spoken about that are yet to be fulfilled.
Here is the thing about prophecy, it is crystal clear in the rear view mirror and incredibly foggy out the front window.
I’m not saying we don’t read them and try to make sense of them.
I am saying that if God wanted it clear, it would be clear. We have to trust Him with the future rather than figure it out so we don’t need to depend on him.
MY OBSERVATION IS THAT MANY PEOPLE SPEND MORE TIME ON THE OBSCURE, NOT THE OBVIOUS.
The purpose of the book
The purpose of the book is in line with what we have discussed.
Daniel lived in one of the most evil and godless cultures that have existed on the face of the earth.
He lived in the reality of God’s justice and righteous judgment on the people of Israel.
The purpose was for His people to turn to God and learn to depend on Him.
The purpose of this book is for us to see examples of Godly people in ungodly circumstances.
WE ARE NOT WALKING THIS OUT VERSE BY VERSE. WE ARE MOVING TO MORE OF A TOPICAL SERMON FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS.
We will look at Daniel and his friends and see how they developed faith, hope, humility and wisdom while in exile.
Our context today
There is a verse that we are going to use to parallel our readings in Daniel.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
Live 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.
Daniel lived in a pagan culture and so do we
In this passage, we see that Peter is imploring the church to understand its identity and live in a certain way so that God would be glorified.
When we look at the story of Daniel, it is as if he is following this exact template, hundreds of years before it was written.
We will find that Daniel lived so that they would see his good deeds and glorify his God.
This was true and necessary for Daniel. It was true and necessary for Peter. I believe it is true and necessary for us today.
When this passage was written, Nero was the leader of the Roman empire.
When Daniel lived, Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the Babylonian empire.
Both were incredibly evil.
I would like to navigate through the rest of Daniel 1 and highlight a few things that may escape our eyes:
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. 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.
There are a few things we need to see in this text:
First, the Babylonian empire would take the best, brightest and most influential and indoctrinate them into Babylonian culture, custom and religion.
These people would then lead the rest of the nation into becoming Babylonian.
Rather than conquering the world and having to keep all of the civilization from rebelling, the Babylonians would teach and train the custom and culture out of these civilizations making them Babylonian.
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—
Second, we see in the NIV Bible that Ashpenaz was called the chief of his court officials.
That is a very delicate way of saying something that we may be uncomfortable with.
The Hebrew word for that was:
Sarisay- (Hebrew) Eunich
In fact, I am going to read a few other verses here that point us to a conclusion that we probably didn’t learn from our Sunday School teachers.
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.”
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.”
Daniel was put into training under the chief eunuch.
God had said that some of their descendants would become eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon
There is no mention of Daniel ever getting married or having any lineage after him, which would have been a very important fact for a Jewish man.
We can conclude that likely Daniel had to become a eunuch as part of his indoctrination into Babylonian culture.
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.
Daniel- God is my Judge
Hanahiah- God has been gracious
Mishael- Who is what God is?
Azariah- God has helped
Belteshazzar- Bel’s prince
Shadrach- Command of Aku
Meshach- Who is what Aku is?
Abednego- Slave of the god Nego
Part of their indoctrination was to take on names of the Babylonian gods and replace the name of God in their name.
In its place, they would put the name of a pagan god. In this way, the very name of these people would honor Chaldean gods.
And the gods of the conquered nations would be forgotten in the indocrination.
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.
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.”
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.
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 food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
Daniel and his friends were given food to eat from the king’s table.
We might assume this was just not kosher, so they didn’t eat it.
But asking to only eat veggies is also much stricter than kosher law.
It is likely the food on the kings table was prepared and sacrificed to the pagan gods and then eaten by the king.
The Jewish boys wanted no part of this. They recognized that the food they would eat was simply veggies and this would keep from defiling their bodies.
I want you to see this.
There were issues where Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah did not fight against the Babylonians.
But there were issues where they stood up to their authorities for what they believed was right.
Something I want to draw from this passage and series is not that we are to be pacifists in our world regarding anything except religious issues.
Rather, we need to learn when to stand and how to stand for what is right.
Live 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.
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 food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
“Better nourished” literally means “fat”
So for those of you who follow something like the Daniel diet where you eat a bunch of veggies, you know it is working if you gain an extra 15 or 20 lbs.
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.
Who gets the glory for their obedience? God does.
God gave them knowledge and understanding far beyond everyone else.
In fact, here is what Nebuchadnezzar discovered:
At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.
The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service.
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.
The last point I want to make about Babylon here is this, do you see what company the Hebrew boys were placed into?
They were better than all the magicians and enchanters in the whole kingdom.
Now if you said, “Jared, you are the best basketball player of all of the golfers” that would be a ridiculous thing to say.
They were compared to the magicians and enchanters because they were schooled to be magicians and enchanters.f
Babylon was so connected to the dark arts, all of Nebuchadnezzar’s advisors and leaders were schooled in the practice of witchcraft.
And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
Daniel remained in service to that king until he was no longer king.
As we will discover as we progress through this series, Daniel’s manner of obedience to God and honor to a pagan king earned him the right to speak to the King on matters of national policy.
Big picture here:
Babylon was an evil empire. In fact, it was so evil, we find that when the Babylonians were destroyed, God said Babylon would never be rebuilt.
But we find Babylon make an appearance again in the Bible:
With a mighty voice he shouted: “ ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’ She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
In describing the evil in the world, God uses Babylon as the word to describe it.
He doesn’t use Rome. He doesn’t use the Philistines as the personification of evil.
He uses Babylon.
I’m in a hole
Here is one of the things I love about Daniel
He is in a situation that is very difficult
But the situation is not his fault.
I have spoken with a ton of people about a variety of issues in life.
When it comes to perplexing situations, I never cease to be amazed at the depth and variety of problems that people find themselves in.
I tend to reduce things down to the basic facts in my mind.
I think it is because God may have blessed me in a lot of ways. But He did not bless me with a mind that can comprehend deeply complex things.
I have to reduce them to simple things, then I can understand them and process them with others.
Every struggle, situation, problem or issue you find yourself in can basically be boiled down to a few categories:
It was my fault
We often find ourselves in a hole in life because of the stupidity or sin of our own decisions.
It was someone else’s fault
We will also find ourselves in a hole in life because of the stupidity or sin of someone else.
It was no one’s fault
Sometimes we even find ourselves in a hole in life because that is just the way it is.
When I find myself in a hole, I tend to try to figure out why I am in a hole.
If it is me, then I get frustrated with myself.
If it is someone else, then I get angry and hold a grudge
If it is no fault, then I complain that life is not fair.
Here is a truth that we all need to understand. It does not matter how you get into a hole.
What matters is that you do what is right to get out of the hole
Daniel was in a hole
He was living in a pagan culture.
Was it his fault? No.
It was the fault of a rebellious people that God brought judgment upon.
Daniel could have sat in the hole blaming and pointing his finger at everyone to blame, but that would do nothing for him.
But Daniel realized the truth of why his nation was in a hole. God had put them there, so they would repent and look to him for hope.
So we see Daniel say, “It was the Lord who handed us over to the Babylonians.”
When you know God’s hand is at work, it changes your attitude as you try to get out of the hole.
Daniel’s hole was Babylon
When we think through the difficulties of our situations, we think that this is as bad as it has ever been.
Our current situations often feel worse than anything we have ever had before.
But I want to think through something right now.
This world has always been evil.
We may say that it was less evil than it was 20 years ago. But we tend to brighten up our memories of the past.
Sin is always sin. THERE WAS NEVER A TIME PERIOD IN HISTORY THAT WAS SO PURE AND RIGHTEOUS THAT HUMANITY WAS RIGHT WITH GOD, JUST FOR LIVING IN THAT TIME.
We may want to think that this is a sermon about how to live as a Christian in the United States.
There will certainly be some applications for that. But I want to pull our perspective out further than that.
If we lived in England, would we be called to live as strangers and exiles?
Yes, What about in Africa or Asia or South America? Yes.
It doesn’t matter the government you live in, we are called to be strangers and exiles to that place.
That means that we are not strangers and exiles to a form of government or a nation.
WE ARE STRANGERS AND EXILES TO A SINFUL WORLD THAT HAD SURROUNDED HUMANITY SINCE GENESIS 3.
But we all find ourselves in a hole. It may not be the size of Babylon.
But it is big enough to threaten everything we know to be right in our lives.
There is something about being in a hole that messes with our head.
We need to prepare for the hole before we get in one
We need to understand the hole we are in
We need to set our eyes on our source of hope while we are in the situation we are in
Conclusion
Understanding we are strangers and exiles, I want to highlight a few points we will need as we continue to navigate this topic.
As strangers and exiles, we have problems in this world that will test our faith.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
1 Peter 2:9-10 graphics
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
Live 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.
If we are of the light, we must look different than if we were of the world.
There is a difference in what we do and how we do it as we live in a sinful world.
This has to do with our personal situation, our church situations, our cultural, national and world situations.
Daniel knew his identity
Daniel knew who his king was
Daniel knew his life would bring glory to God
Faith
Hope
Humility
Wisdom