God Gave... (Daniel 1)

Imagine yourself relaxing at home one evening, reading a book, recovering from a long day of work. All seems to be right in the world. All of a sudden you hear sirens. Not just police sirens, warning sirens—the type that go off warning us about tornadoes. But it’s beautiful outside, there couldn’t be any tornadoes. You get up from your bed and run for the door. You throw the door open and all you see is smoke rising from Beaver Dam. Someone attacking your city and they are completely destroying it. The school is leveled. The grocery store is leveled. Nothing but a pile of rubble. People are dead in the streets. Total devastation. Your head is spinning. You don’t know what to do.

Then it hits you. You know who’s doing this. It’s a group of Islamic radicals. They have all banded together in an effort to destroy the American people……..and it’s working. They are massacring people left and right. Whoever isn’t killed is being tied up and hauled off to “God knows where.”

You’re standing there in shock—paralyzed by what you’re seeing. All of a sudden someone grabs you, ties you up, and haul you off.  They load you on a plane and fly you off to Syria, or Iraq, or Afghanistan. You find yourself in a foreign country, a country that is very different from your home land. Surrounded by people who hate Christians and people who worship foreign gods.

As you’re getting off the plane, you notice someone inspecting every passenger—every captive. He is giving them a very thorough inspection. He is sending the majority of the people to the right but every once in a while he sends people to the left. He gets to you, looks you over, asks you some questions, and eventually tells you to follow the people to the left—the “special” people. You have no idea what this means but you listen to what he says and head to the left.

Eventually everyone is inspected and the two groups are finalized. The man doing the sorting approaches your group—the special people—and explains why they’ve been sorted out. This group—the group that you’re a part of—has been chosen because they are especially good looking and intelligent. This group of people may be suitable to serve the leader of the Islamic Extremists. You will be trained in their schools for three years. You will be fed from their table.  Your lot in life will be to serve the leader of the people that destroyed your country.

As they begin to enroll you in their schools, they also change your name. Going into that country you had names that represented your Christian faith. Your names may have been Paul, Peter, Martha, or Mary. They changed them to names that represented Islam—their religion. Names that sound more like Mohamed. Their goal is to completely erase your Christian identity over the next three years. They will change your name. They will change your food. They will begin to teach you way things “really” are in their schools. Every effort is made to eradicate your Christian identity and give you an Islamic identity so that you can faithfully serve their leader.

The question is: How would you respond? In a nutshell that was the exact story that happened to Daniel and his friends—and the nation of Israel. Let’s take a look at our passage: [Read Daniel 1:1-21]

The first scene of the story is set in verses 1 and 2. It says, “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.” (Daniel 1:1–2, NIV).

These two verses are packed with things we need to look at. I’m going to focus on two of them.

First, the words Babylon and Babylonia (Shinar) are very important for us to understand. They draw tight connections with Genesis 11. This is where the people were enemies of God and tried to make a name for themselves by building a tower into heaven. Throughout scripture, Babylon and Babylonia (Shinar) represent everything that is hostile to God’s people, God’s plan, and to God himself. That’s the picture being painted for us.  A people—hostile against God and God’s people—attacking God’s people and bringing them into a land that is hostile against God and his people.

You may ask, “Why? Isn’t God powerful enough to stop this from happening?” It’s the same question some of the Israelites were asking. Even the Babylonians would have believed they were able to conquer Jerusalem because their gods were stronger, mightier than Israel’s God. Yet, that isn’t how the picture is painted in Daniel.. It says, “And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand…” God’s people weren’t conquered by a hostile people because God wasn’t strong enough. They were conquered because God gave them into the hand of the hostile people. God had been rebuking his people for centuries, warning them that this day would come. They ignored him. Now, God fulfilled his warnings and gave them into the hand of a hostile people.

Add that to the picture I painted at the beginning. The Islamic Radicals have conquered your nation and hauled you off to a foreign country, not because they were stronger, not because Allah was stronger, but because your God gave you into their hands as a result of your disobedience. How does that make you feel?

Daniel and his friends are hauled off to Babylon, and because of their good looks and intelligence, they are brought into the king’s court. They are to be educated for three years and fed from the king’s table. Their names are also changed. In Hebrew Daniel means “God is my judge” and his name was changed to Belteshazzar, meaning “May Bel protect his life”—Bel is the head God of Babylon. Daniel’s friends names were also changed from Hananiah—“Yahweh has been gracious”—to Shadrach—“The command of Aku,” from Mishael—“Who is what God is?”—to Meshach—“Who is what Aku is?”—from Azariah—“Yahweh has helped”—to Abednego—“Servant of Nebo”. This was a complete re-education program—a reprogramming—a brainwashing. They worked on changing them into Babylonians through their names, through their education, and through their food.

Then it says, “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 in this way.” (Daniel 1:8, NIV).  Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the king’s food. He draws a line. He couldn’t help his name being changed, although there is evidence that he always considered himself Daniel. In some ways he couldn’t help going to their schools. He could, however, resolve what he would and would not eat. He refused to become a Babylonian. There’s a parallel between this verse and the previous one. They decided to change his name--try to make him Babylonian--and Daniel decided to refuse their food. They could do whatever they wanted in order to “make” him a Babylonian—he wouldn’t allow it to happen. He was an Israelite--a servant of God.

Then, God gives something else. In the same way that God gave his people into the hands of Babylon, “Now God had caused the official to show favour and sympathy to Daniel,” (Daniel 1:9, NIV). God gave Daniel favor and sympathy in the eyes of the chief official. God began to bless his “quiet rebellion.” If God had not given Daniel favor with the official, this could have been a deadly request. The king was a hot-head and killed people for less. Yet, God gives Daniel favor in the officials eyes.

However, the official doesn’t grant his request. He’s afraid of the king. He looks as Daniel and says, “The king would then have my head because of you.” (Daniel 1:10, NIV). Daniel doesn’t pout or argue with the chief official, but simply goes to the next person in line--the guard. He gives his a reasoned explanation and lays out a plan. The guard agrees to the terms. Guess what? “At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.” (Daniel 1:15, NIV). Sidney Greidanus says, “Of course, God gave Daniel and his friends a miracle so that they, in only ten days, looked better nourished than the other young men” (50). Although the text doesn’t explicitly says “God gave...” it is easily assumed. God was blessing these young men.

A couple verses later, God gives them something else. It says, “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.” (Daniel 1:17, NIV). They were enrolled in the school of their enemy, they trained there for three years, but it was God who gave them learning, skill, and wisdom. All of these come from the hand of God. I’m sure the Babylonian king thought that his schools and his education and his food brought these young men to the point of being the best in the land. Yet, we are reminded that this only happened because God gave it to them. They were “ten times better” than anyone else in the land because God had given it to them. It had nothing to do with Babylon’s education system, or even the young men’s skill. It had everything to do with God.

I want you to see the bigger picture in this passage. It’s all about God. God gave them into the hand of their enemies (v 2). God gave them favor in the sight of their enemies (v 9). God gave them learning, skill and wisdom (v 17). God is in control.

God was in control when his people were taken into a foreign land by a hostile people. God is still in control when those people are in the hostile land. He hasn’t left them. He is guiding them. He is blessing them. He is equipping them in a way that they are a bright light in the king’s palace. God is working in his people in a way that everyone around them notices something is different.  

We don’t have to be attacked by Islamic Extremists in order to experience this in our lives today. Our enemy is much sneakier than that. The world we live in is already hostile to our faith—a foreign land, surrounded by foreign gods. Take a moment to look at the world around you with eyes wide open. Ask the Spirit to open your eyes to the world around you. Can we say that we are surrounded by people who love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and their neighbor as themselves? If we look closely at the world around us, we are surrounded by people telling us to worship ourselves. Do what feels right to YOU! All of the answers are inside YOU! Take care of YOUrself. Do what’s right for YOU.

Let’s be honest with ourselves and call this what it is—a foreign religion. This is not Christianity. This is not the worship of the God of the Bible. This is the worship of OURSELVES. This is the religion of the “atheist.” They believe there is no higher power than the human race, so they worship themselves. This IS a foreign religion and a false god. They are operating out of a set of beliefs in the same way that Christians are operating out of their beliefs. Yet their beliefs--their religion--are all directed in worship toward the false god of SELF.

Just like Daniel and his friends, we are exiles in a foreign land, a land that is hostile toward God’s people, God’s plan, and God himself. We are surrounded by a culture that is constantly evangelizing their religion, constantly looking for converts to their religion, constantly working at equipping, catechizing, and discipling followers to their religion.

This can be overwhelming—almost paralyzing--BUT God is in control. Remember, that’s what this entire chapter is about. God is always with his people. God is granting us favor and God is granting us knowledge, skill, and wisdom. He will have his way with this church, this city, and this country. You may look around and feel that God has left our city, left our country, maybe even left you—but he’s still there. He is always there and always in control. He is always guiding things toward His perfect plan and He will win in the end. He’s always equipping the saints for works of ministry and using them for his kingdom in this world. The world may be against us, but God is for us and He is in control.

How will you respond to God’s faithful presence in your life and the life of His people? Respond in faith, trusting God. Have faith that God is in control as you faithfully follow Him. The world may tempt you, allure you, threaten you, scare you into following their religion. Trust God. Believe what He has told you in his Word. The world will repeatedly tell you that they know what’s best in the world. Have faith that what is best in this world is to love the lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Have faith that God is guiding you in a path that leads to life and peace....and that the false religion of this world only leads toward death and destruction. Respond in faith, resolving not to be swept into the current of some foreign religion and become like the rest of this world.

God is in control and God is actively involved in the life of this church and the life of his people. Let us trust Him and seek Him above all things.