Intro to Daniel: Resistance & Redemption in Babylon
Download MP3You have a bible, I invite you to turn to Daniel chapter one. For the next ten weeks, we will be looking at Daniel. I've heard it said that if you want to to make a successful movie, all you have to do is hire Matt Damon and tell him to try to get home. Whether it's The Odyssey or whether it's The Martian or whether it's Interstellar, same plot, he's always trying to get home. It's a theme in the new the Old Testament as well.
Speaker 1:Next time you read through the Old Testament, I want you to just notice how many people have to live far from their home. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Ruth, Naomi, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah, just to name a few, spent much, if not almost the entirety of their lives away from their home. It almost seems like if you want to follow the Lord, he's gonna take you away from your securities and your comforts, take you away from home to teach you that he's your home. Daniel is one of these faithful people in the Old Testament that had everything stripped away from him. He was taken all the way out to Babylon.
Speaker 1:Yet, even in Babylon, he decides to live according to the laws of his true home. He teaches us how we could be citizens of the kingdom of God while also having to live among the kingdoms of this world. And so let's read Daniel. I'm gonna first just read some of Jesus' words to kinda set the context from Jesus in Matthew five. You're the light of the world.
Speaker 1:A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket to put on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. Daniel chapter one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the vessels of the house of god.
Speaker 1:And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed vessels in the treasury of his god. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful and all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time, they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.
Speaker 1:And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names. Daniel, he called Belteshazzar. Hananiah, he called Shadrach. Mishael, he called Meshach. And Azariah he called Abednego.
Speaker 1:But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself, and God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king who assigned your food and your drink, for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king. Then Daniel said to the steward, who was the chief for whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, test your servants for ten days.
Speaker 1:Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see. So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days, it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.
Speaker 1:As for these four youths, god gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with them, and among all of them, none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore, they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.
Speaker 1:And Daniel was there until the first year of king Cyrus. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks to God. And pray with me. Father, thank you for your servant, Daniel.
Speaker 1:And, Lord, I pray that we would listen to his wisdom. I pray that he would point us to you, Jesus, that you would grow as an ever increasing treasure in our hearts and our minds, that we'd be willing to lay down everything in order that we might have you and you alone. Lord, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Amen. Although most of the Bible is is really clear as to how we should go about living our lives and following Jesus, there's certainly some gray areas in which, you know, we we have this call to be salt and light, to be a city on a hill. But at times, we're not exactly sure what that looks like, what we should do and what we shouldn't do. You know, we're called to be the salt of the earth, and salt is a preservative. And so we know we're supposed to work our self, ourselves into systems and people that would rot without us.
Speaker 1:And, we're supposed to preserve them. But, what exactly does that look like? The bible's ambiguous a lot of times. For instance, what should you do if let's say you're a financial adviser, and one of the wealthiest families just ask you to take over all of their accounts, and you do. But then a few weeks in, you find that this family is one of the largest contributors to Planned Parenthood, and that they also fund just a number of politicians that go against Christian values.
Speaker 1:So you realize the more money they make, the more money they can give to all of these things that are imposed Christian values. What what do you do? Do you quit? Or do you just say, I'm just gonna do my job to the best of my ability to the glory of God? Do you become subversive and try to tank their portfolio?
Speaker 1:What do you do? What if you ran a ad agency and you were asked to promote some things that are clearly anti christian? Do you say no? Absolutely not. And you you lose any ability to interact with the with the people who who desperately need to hear the gospel.
Speaker 1:Do you just say yes and then you're no different than the rest of the world? Or maybe you just should run a crappy campaign. What do you do if your best friend asks you to be a part of her wedding? She's a Christian, but she is clearly marrying somebody who is clearly a non believer. A matter of fact, she's pretty opposed to the faith.
Speaker 1:What do you do? You you want to support your friend, but you also don't wanna say that that's okay. How do you go about navigating that? Let me give you just one more scenario. I mean, I could do this, I could give you hundreds.
Speaker 1:But, say, you're a parent of a child who plays soccer or whatever sport and is and is on a team that just advanced in the playoffs and yet you just got the playoff schedule and all the games are on Sunday mornings. You've been teach your child the importance of following Jesus and going to church, and you've also been teaching your child the importance of being a good teammate. It seems like these worlds are colliding and you're like, what does it look like? How do you navigate this moving forward? Let's go ahead and acknowledge that in these areas, we're all hypocrites.
Speaker 1:Okay? Don't be thinking of anyone else. All of
Cole Ragsdale:us are
Speaker 1:hypocrites when it comes to trying to navigate this. A lot of times, we'll say this or have a position over here and we completely change with the position over here. I know people, for instance, who gladly, I mean, gleefully boycotted Target because Target and its its promotions during pride month. And yet, those same people gleefully, joyfully bought tickets to go to a concert in which the artist just spouted out every form of sexual immorality you could imagine their money went directly to him. You can't make sense of it.
Speaker 1:It's hypocrisy. I'm a hypocrite. For instance, I draw the line at I will not watch any show that's just like, it's it's it's filled with sex or nudity or like that. No. No.
Speaker 1:I will not do that. And yet, can I tell you, when John Wick killed 77 people because someone killed his dog, I was like, this is awesome? Like, violence, oh, that's perfectly acceptable, but but the sex and nudity, it's not. I'm a hypocrite. How where's the lines?
Speaker 1:This is where Daniel is such a good guide for us and will be over the coming weeks because this is a world that Daniel had to live in. Daniel had to make decisions like this all of the time. He lived and he worked and he served in the most pagan city on earth at the time. And, he did it without losing his soul. And, he became an extraordinary witness in which we'll look at later, many many generations felt the impact of it.
Speaker 1:The story here begins in the year six zero five BC with the mightiest power of the day, Babylon, coming and invading Jerusalem. This invasion didn't just happen out of the blue. God had been warning warning Judah that he was gonna do this because of their sin. For over three hundred years, he'd been sending prophets warning them. Judgment day finally arrived though.
Speaker 1:God's patience was over and he brought in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar came, laid siege to Jerusalem, raided it. He would return eighteen years later to completely destroy the city and the temple, But this time, he just kinda came in to show who was boss and he took what he wanted, and he took it back to Babylon. Here, it it seems like Babylon, the great city of Babylon is the one that has won the culture war. Once again, Babylon rebelling against God.
Speaker 1:Babylon sits on the same place as Babel. You you see that little phrase Shinar in the land of Shinar, that's where the Tower Of Babel was built in Genesis 11. Babylon is the new Babel. It's a real city, but it also represents any kingdom that has put man at the center and not God. Any kingdom that refuses to acknowledge that it is God who reigns over this world, instead, they wanna put man as king.
Speaker 1:And, it seems like when Babylon, the kingdom of man has taken on the kingdom of God, it looks like Babylon won. I bet the headlines in the Babylonian times, you know, they ran they were probably like Marduk defeats Yahweh or maybe Babylon. Babylon crushes its enemies. They probably had a lot of memes, you know, going around, you know, God's name, Yahweh means I am, and I bet it was I am, question mark. I am insufficient.
Speaker 1:I am Marduk's servant. I am a fraud. Verse two lets us know that Yahweh wasn't defeated. We read that God gave Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. Jehoiakim wasn't taken away.
Speaker 1:God gave him away. He'd been prophesying about that, but we see that God is the one who is in control. Everything is going exactly as God has planned. He is sovereign over the nations. In addition to raiding the temple treasury, we read that Nebuchadnezzar took some of Judah's best people and he took them all the way back to where back his into his home city of Babylon.
Speaker 1:And this is the first of multiple exiles. We like to talk about the exile as if there was just one exile, but there was actually multiple exiles. The big exile comes eighteen years later when Nebuchadnezzar comes back and levels Jerusalem. This is a small one. It's more like a kidnapping, if you will, in which he takes the best and the brightest back to Babylon to reeducate them.
Speaker 1:My middle daughter, Natalie, she's a Sanford student and she is at Sanford's study abroad program in London right now for the next three months. And, I am sure that she takes in the sights and the sounds and the culture of London, she's gonna come back a different person. She did to me one of the very first pictures she sent me. She went to Croatia for the weekend, and she shows a picture of her hostel and it is cement steps going downstairs to a basement without windows. Not not the image you wanna get from your child.
Speaker 1:And I was like, are you being trafficked? And her response is, it's okay. I've got five other girls with me. I just you know, the amount of times we have said, make good decisions, make good decisions, but yet, you gotta release. We we release.
Speaker 1:But she's she's gonna pick up all these old things in the culture. She's pick up new phrases, she's gonna start using funny words like gobsmacked, knackered, bits and bobs. She's gonna come home talking about some good crack, which hopefully means a good time. And, I'm fine with all of it. As long she doesn't say it with a with a English accent, I'm fine because she sounds like a pirate.
Speaker 1:This is the Babylonian mandatory study abroad program. But instead of three months in London, these teenagers are gonna spend three years at the University of Babylon where they would be completely immersed in Babylonian culture. They learned all about Babylonian religion and their gods and their arts and their songs, their history, what they view as right or wrong, how they view sex or money or people. They would learn everything through that Babylonian lens. And, Nebuchadnezzar's objective in all of educate these young men, he wanted to change their entire identity.
Speaker 1:His goal was to reshape their world view, to to reshape their allegiances so thoroughly that they were essentially Babylonians, way more than they were Judeans. I mean, he even gave them Babylonian names. The end goal of all of this is that once these young men have been fully integrated as Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar could then go on to conquer Judah without so much as raising a sword. It's strategy and it's one that the enemy still uses today. I mean, today, people become Babylonians not because they were threatened, become a Babylonian or die, it's simply because they have been surrounded by all things Babylonian.
Speaker 1:It's because they're just immersed in a Babylonian culture and it is such a gravitational pull. And just through osmosis, unless you make certain decisions,
Cole Ragsdale:just through osmosis, you will come out of Babylonian.
Speaker 1:So what did Daniel and his friends do? I mean, what could they do? They're just teenagers. I mean, they're probably 15. I mean, that they should be worrying about homework or maybe like who to ask for the to the homecoming dance.
Speaker 1:They shouldn't have to be dealing with this, yet they are. This week, I've really tried to put myself in their shoes. Imagine what they felt, what their first impressions were when they walked into the city of Babylon. I mean, after walking 700 miles, they finally reached there. And let me tell you, Babylon was an impressive city, much more impressive than anything they had ever seen in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1:At the time, Babylon was actually the largest city in the world. It covered more than four square miles. You could see the city from far far away because just like Babel before it, they had built themselves a giant Ziggurat, 300 feet tall, which is about the height of many of our skyscrapers downtown. You entered the city through one of their eight gates. Each of the eight gates were 38 feet tall.
Speaker 1:And then, right when you walked in, you would pass by their main temple to the god of Marduk. Temple's massive. It was over two football fields long. I know we we we often think of, you know, ancient civilizations as being they're primitive, they're unintelligent, but did you know that this time, the Babylonians even had air conditioning? I didn't.
Speaker 1:I mean, they're they're not primitive. This was an impressive city. And, Daniel and his friends, they were being given the very best that this city had to offer. The best education, the best food, the best wine, the best culture, you name it. It said they ate the same food that the king ate.
Speaker 1:And, they're going out, I mean, they're going to, you know, or going out to automatic or hot and hot fish club every night. It's theirs. It may be hard to resist, especially when you're so young and you're so far home. So what exactly could these teenagers do? Verse eight is the turning point in the entire story.
Speaker 1:But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself himself with with the the king's food or with the wine that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. Daniel resolved that he he would would not not defile himself. You don't read that Daniel just talked about it, pondered it, or that Daniel, he he thought, you know, I wonder like, you know, maybe I should just like kind of put a toe in and just see where the chips fall or I'll make this up as I go. You know, we we he resolved.
Speaker 1:He would not defile himself. I find it interesting what he didn't resolve himself over. He did not protest the education he was to receive. He didn't protest serving the king or even being renamed. We're actually going to see later that he got the most out of his education.
Speaker 1:He excelled in their school system, rose to the very top. We'll actually read they did the same in his service to the king. And, he actually seemed to have a genuine affection or concern for the king, which we'll see later. But there was something here, something about eating the king's food, he goes, but here's a line I will not cross. And, can I just say, we're not really sure why?
Speaker 1:We're not really sure why this was the line he said, cannot cross. You'll have to ask Daniel someday. There's a lot of theories about it, but none are certain. My best guess is that the the meat the meat that was being offered was meat that had been sacrificed to idols. And so, perhaps thought, if I eat that meat, it's like me participating in idol worship.
Speaker 1:I draw the line there. No. But it's a guess. I'm actually glad we don't know for sure and possibly the the author, which was Daniel, likely, he didn't include the exact reason why because he wants us to ask the question, what exactly is the equivalent to the king's food for me? What am I being offered that I need to resist?
Speaker 1:What are the lines that I've got to say I will not cross? Because if you don't show resolve, remember Babylon has a gravitational pull, and it's going to pull you all the way in. So where is the line? We read in verse nine that Daniel, he resolved himself, and then as a result, God gave him favor and compassion in the sight of the chief eunuchs. This is the second time we find the phrase and God gave.
Speaker 1:God first, he gave Jehoiakim into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. Now, God gives Daniel favor in the eyes of his boss. Later, god will give Daniel this kind of supernatural knowledge and intelligence. God gives and god gives and god gives. This is the narrator's way of letting you know, god is the central figure in this story, not Babylon, not Nebuchadnezzar, not even Daniel.
Speaker 1:It's a story about God. He's the one. He's the sovereign one. All of this is happening according to his plan. He's in complete control.
Speaker 1:This is why Daniel actually has the ability to resist. If you don't see God as the main character in your story, you'll never have the power to resist Babylon. Never. If you don't see that, oh, the real power, the real character and all the circumstances that are happening in my life, the real story behind all the media feeds and everything I get, it's really about God. If you don't see that, you'll never resist.
Speaker 1:You'll never be resolved. This is what allows him to resist all those pulls of Babylon. It doesn't mean that things are easy. Notice that just because he found favor, God gave him favor in his boss' eyes, he didn't get what he wanted initially. He had to go to his boss' underling, like his immediate supervisor.
Speaker 1:And he said, hey, I know your boss doesn't wanna get in trouble, I don't want you to get in trouble either. How about this? How about you give me a ten day test? Ten days. You've got me for 300 and I mean, you've got me for three years.
Speaker 1:So, ten days, it's not gonna hurt anything. Just give me vegetables and water for ten days and then, you can judge for yourself because that's what the world is doing, it's always looking and they are always judging to see how it's gonna turn out. You could judge for yourself who does better. Daniel's boss agreed and then after ten days, he and his friends were noticeably healthier than everyone else. Now, apparently, according to the old Internet out there, the point behind this is to show you the superiority of a vegetarian diet.
Speaker 1:It's known as the Daniel Fast, which for some reason is supposed to be a twenty one day fast even though Daniel did it for ten. I don't really care because I'm not doing it. The the point here is not that this vegetarian diet was superior. The point is it was an inferior inferior diet. They should have lost weight.
Speaker 1:They should have not been as healthy. The point is God did a miracle. They actually gained weight. They became healthier. And here's the principle you see here, obeying God with a little will bring you way more health than feasting on everything Babylon has to offer.
Speaker 1:Daniel trusted that what God gives was going to be superior to anything Babylon could give. That's the point. And God continued to give and continued to give. And over the next three years, he will have given so much to Daniel that the end of that three year time and the the king has him stand before him and he's gonna say, they were 10 times better than everyone else. Daniel, he believed ultimately the promises of God over the promises of Babylon.
Speaker 1:He resolved himself to live according to the laws of his true home rather than where he was just living. Church, we're living in Babylon. This world isn't our home. We're living in Babylon, which means you will inevitably become a Babylonian unless you show resolve. You resolve yourself not to defile yourself unless you draw the line on certain things.
Speaker 1:There are certain lines that as citizens of the kingdom of God and as followers of Jesus, we cannot cross. Like I said earlier, most of these lines are very clear, really clear. I I know that, you know, in our culture, there's all this debate that the hot button issues, you know, at this time, questions about gender, sex, abortion, the immigrants, the poor, those issues are they're not unclear in scripture. The bible's actually very clear on this. God created us male and female.
Speaker 1:Sex was God's gift to be enjoyed only within marriage. What is marriage? Well, marriage is the covenantal union between a man and a woman that lasts until death do they part. Life, the sacredness of life that begins in the womb, goes all the way to the tomb. And you could debate all you want about how many immigrants should be let in our our country or how many should be put out.
Speaker 1:That's fine. You could debate all that. You know what you can't debate? It's how immigrants should be treated with dignity because they were created in God's image. You can debate all you want about the best way to take care of the poor and like what should you do, but you know what you can't debate?
Speaker 1:Is that they're created in God's image and worthy of respect and dignity. I mean, all all those issues there, there should not be a debate, not among Christians. If if those are things that are really confusing in your mind, you've already become Babylonized. You're already there. It's these other things, these other issues of how do you navigate these these gray areas, areas we're not crystal clear on.
Speaker 1:How do we where do we draw the line? What resolve do we show there? And what I can say there is be prayerful. I can't give you the formula, but what I can do is just you keep going to the Lord and you ask, in this situation, how can I honor you? How can I follow you in this?
Speaker 1:Because I know if I that's not the prayer of my heart, I know what I will become. I mean, the gravitational pull of Babylon is just too strong. You need to be aware that we live in a city full of idols. There's there's, of course, all the normal idols. Babylon had these too, the idols of of money, idols of sex, power.
Speaker 1:Here in Birmingham, I think we see some some more particular idols. I especially see idols of beauty, comfort, sports, education, idols of family. And what I mean by idols is like you go to those things and you expect them to give you what only God can give you. That's that's what I mean when I say an idol. For instance, we live in a culture that is obsessed with beauty.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking about, you know, just kinda dressing nice or, you know, you guys look great. You know, most of you took showers. Thank you. I mean, that's a great thing. This is just where now now where's the line?
Speaker 1:When I'm talking about people obsessed with beauty, I'm talking about a culture where every wrinkle is seen as a blemish. Every gray hair or love handle is seen as a flaw. And so, extraordinary amounts of time, energy and money go towards sacrificing towards that idol. And, here's how you know if it's really become an idol, it's really part of your life. Have you become more anxious or less anxious you've been making those sacrifices?
Speaker 1:These idols, they don't rid you of anxiety, they bring it. They don't give you freedom, they enslave you. Do you think you've become a healthier person as you've given yourself to these things? And guys, we don't have to live like the Babylonians who were scared of aging and dying because death is not the end for us. So to be different.
Speaker 1:I mean, besides beauty, we live in a culture obsessed with comfort. And, there's nothing wrong with enjoying the comforts of this life. I hope yesterday, you were able to kick back with some friends, eat some good food and drink, watch a game, laugh, those things are God's gifts to you, to be enjoyed. They're gifts though and God's gifts make terrible gods. When you begin to to focus on the gift itself and think that's where your satisfaction is to come from, the idol of comfort is going to promise you rest, but it's going to promise you a rest that always comes just around the corner.
Speaker 1:Not right now, but a rest will come. Actually, all the idols do this. Their promises are always not for right now, but it's you'll be satisfied, you'll find rest right around the corner. You'll find comfort after you purchase your next car. You'll finally find that comfort and rest you want after you remodel.
Speaker 1:You'll finally find the rest that that you really crave when you finally get married. It's just around the corner, guys. Or when you have kids, just around there, then then you'll find it. But rest is always around the corner. And, I know that you experienced this because I experienced this because the things that we, five years ago, we prayed for, hoped for, those things we now have and yet, they haven't satisfied us.
Speaker 1:We actually have the very things we were longing for just a few years ago. And they haven't satisfied us because we treated them as gods. They can't carry that weight. Babylon has this gravity to it. It just sucks you and just pulls you in.
Speaker 1:And over time, if you don't draw those lines, if you don't resist, you'll become a Babylonian. And we don't resist just to resist people. Daniel resisted and it brought him more health. It brought him more life. He resisted be and he because he wanted to live like his true home.
Speaker 1:So don't spend your life making sacrifices to idols in exchange for another empty promise. Even while we live in exile, live according to your true home. Babylon fades. The kingdom of God endures forever. Notice how this book ends or this chapter ends.
Speaker 1:The last verse, And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus. King Cyrus is the king of Persia, which means the Persians come and they defeat the Babylonians. This text, that that last line means two things. First, it means this, Daniel never got to go home. Because that happened sixty eight years later.
Speaker 1:Daniel never got to go home. He spent his entire life in exile. But, it also means this, that 15 year old kid outlived the Empire of Babylon. The great empire of Babylon fell, Daniel remained. It's because that's where he put his hope was in being a citizen of God and not just living amongst the kingdoms of this world.
Speaker 1:Let's pray to god. God, I love how we just keep hearing in this passage, you gave, you gave, you gave. But ultimately, the greatest gift you have given any of us is the gift of your your son. He is the only one who satisfies the deepest longings of our heart. He is the only one who can say, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Speaker 1:Not around the corner rest, but rest now. So pray I I pray, Lord, through your spirit, you will show us how to navigate this city. We live in Babylon, we're not sure what to do at times. Would we seek you in everything for your glory and for our health and life. And we pray this in the sweet name of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Amen.
