In one of the songs behind the video is “The Words I Would Say”
Be strong in the Lord and never give up hope. You’re gonna do great things, I already know. God’s got his hand on you, so don’t live life in fear. Forgive and forget, but don’t forget why you’re here. Take your time and pray. These are the words I would say.
It says, “don’t live life in fear” but obviously he was never a parent about to send off someone to college or to live on their own. You’ve watched someone grow and mature over 17 or 18 years and they are so infinitely precious and you’ve worked and prayed that you would be ready for this moment, but now they are at the age when they can choose to ignore you and, what’s worse, is that they do. Just to be clear, I am *not* talking about my own daughter Shannon, because I was given explicit instructions to not use her in a sermon illustration…oh, wait.
So, as a semi-distraught father of a soon-to-graduate unnamed individual going out into the big-bad world, and given the job of speaking from God’s word a challenge, the Spirit directed me to the book of Daniel which describes a young man and his friends who are sent to get their education, in Babylon. Now that’s a college road trip. And why do they have to call it a bachelor’s degree, anyway? Anyway, back to Daniel. The story picks up in Daniel, chapter 1.
1. The Situation Is Bad, But God Is Good
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
In these few verses, God gives us a bleak and ugly picture of the physical and spiritual condition of the nation of Israel.
1. First, there is the king Jehoiakim. Who is Jehoiakim? Well, his dad was Josiah, the last of the godly kings of the southern part of Israel, called Judah. During this time, Israel occupied an important trade route between the Babylonians and Chaldeans to the east and north and the nation of Egypt to the south.
So Jehoiakim had a godly heritage from his father, but things went downhill fast. First, his brother, Jehoahaz gets captured by the Egyptians and will later die in exile. Then, in a game of international abusive relationships, Jehoiakim ping-pongs back and forth between friendship with the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Eventually, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, gets tired and attacks and Jehoiakim is killed, his body tossed over the wall by his own people. So much for the king of Israel, God’s chosen man.
2. Second, there is the temple. During this whole process, all of the valuable items that had been made for the temple, the gold and silver, the special plates and bowls and instruments used in the worship ceremonies of the temple are all given away to the Babylonians and they put them all in the temple of their god. So, in the eyes of many people, God is defeated and his worship services stop.
3. Third, there is the city of Jerusalem. Zion. The original city on a hill. The place where God put his name. The army comes in, sacks the city and thousands and thousands of residents are lined up, chained together and marched off into exile.
If I was keeping score at this point, I would say Babylon, 1. Israel, 0. Babylon’s gods, 1. Yahweh, 0. God’s king killed or exiled. His temple defiled. His worship stopped. His city stripped and occupied by a foreign power.
Sometimes that’s the way it looks to us. World 1, Us, 0. Secularism, 1, God, 0. Life, 1, Lewis Family 0. Many times, it is my own choices that bring me to this place of failure. For years, the Israelites had been playing around with worshiping the gods of the countries around them. Is it any surprise that one day, they would fall to one of those countries? We who take the name Christian dabble in the worship of popularity, and money, and sex and success and security and comfort. We secretly long for these things. Is it any wonder that one day, we find ourselves conquered? Is it any wonder that Christ-ians can drag down the name of Christ because of our divided loyalties?
But, when the situation is bad, God is still good.
“…if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” – 2 Timothy 2:13
And more often than not, I am not the victim. I am the willing participant in my own downfall. My choices, my decisions, my attitudes, my words
2. You Are Going Where God Will Meet You
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 – Daniel 1:3
After the sack of Jerusalem, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar tells his chief of staff to gather up members of the leading families for a free, all-expenses-paid trip to Babylon…in chains. They would never return to Jerusalem; never see the temple of God again; never see their families again; dragged from their home to the home of people who had raped and looted and pillaged Jerusalem. The Bible records one of their songs of sadness and bitterness in Psalm 137:
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
Remember, LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. – Psalm 137
They are hurt. They are devastated. They are angry. And they face a disappointing future. And worst of all, it is their own fault.
Sometimes we end up in places we never thought we would see. The man divorced finds himself sitting alone on a couch; the dorm room; the homeless shelter; the smaller apartment; the hospital room or hospice care; the strange bed; the wheelchair; the foster home; the unemployment office; the AA meeting.
We create our plans for the future. We forecast the future. We pay thousands of dollars per year in college tuition in order to manipulate the future of our children. Some make lavish weddings in vain tribute to future marital success. But then life happens. And we don’t end up where we thought we would.
We don’t know where we are going. But we know that God is there. And we know that God has the ability to take advantage of any situation, starting right now. Listen to these words that God gave to these exiles as they left their home, through the prophet Jeremiah:
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. – Jeremiah 29:11-13
3. You Are Ambassadors To A Broken World
…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. – Daniel 1:3-7
This plan of the Babylonians was not without design. You take the best and brightest from the city of Jerusalem and you take them away from home and their family. You give them the good life. You teach them the best of literature, languages, mathematics, and science for a few years. You give them a new mission as an official in the largest of the Middle Eastern empires. You help them forge a new identity by giving them a new name. Soon, by blood they were Israelites, but culturally they would become Babylonian.
Sounds like college. Separated from your family. The best and the brightest of El Dorado Hills. Give them free room and board. Teach them the best of literature and science and mathematics. Prepare them for positions of importance in the world. Craft a new identity. Soon, by blood they might be the same, but culturally, what have they become?
The world has a plan for your life, whether it’s at school, work or home. The world has a path of success, and each step along that path is positively reinforced for good behavior and negatively reinforced for straying. The world is filled with fun, likeable, intelligent people.
But the world got ambushed by Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Babylon thought it was going to press these four followers of Yahweh into the jello mold that stamped out good little Babylonians. But because of their trust in the power of God and their unwavering devotion, they would break the mold.
But they didn’t do it by avoiding the culture. In fact, they couldn’t avoid the culture. They were dunked in it. No culture is good or bad per se, but all cultures are twisted by persistent sin patterns. No culture is right or wrong per se, but God is working redemptively in each culture. We all have a culture; a collective pattern of habits and expectations that we share. We are all placed in a culture. My wife Helen grew up in Filipino culture. I grew up here in American culture. In the Philippines, the husband’s family pays for the wedding. In America, the wife’s family pays for the wedding. That’s why we got married here. No, not really… But regardless of which culture, the culture of marriage is broken and scarred by sin and needs to be transformed. I’ve been married into Filipino culture for 20 years, and was a member of a Filipino congregation for 4 more, and I am still surprised by what I don’t know. I’ve been in American culture my entire life. Both are flawed and need redemption, but at different places.
Look at Daniel and his friends: they learned the “language” of Babylon. Then, 3 years later, when they speak to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, they are able to converse with him in his own language, Babylonian. They were ambassadors. They were go-betweens. They would be the translators of heaven. And time and time again in the book of Daniel, he and his friends are called in to interpret for God, making his words and even his handwriting (Daniel 5).
This was God’s invasion plan. Young men and young women, sold out for Jesus, conversant in the culture, transforming the world with the gospel from the inside out. That is the invasion plan.
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. – Matthew 16:18 (ESV)
Sometimes we read this verse as if the church has to hunker down and fight off the attacks of hell. But read it again. It is the church who is storming the gates of hell, not hiding in some holy bunker. And God is doing it by placing us into the schools, the businesses, the government, communities and countries where He wants to make a difference. Jesus wasn’t some rabbi guru hiding on the mountain, waiting for people to somehow find him; he was a tradesman and a rabbi, right in the midst of the people.
We are the ambassadors. We are the invasion force.
4. You Will Be Tested By The World
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 1:8-10
Babylon was not exactly a believer-friendly environment. For the rest of the Bible, all the way through Revelation, the term “Babylon” would be used to describe a depraved society, opposed to the ways of God. But strangely enough, this was where God had brought these four young men. Jesus said:
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. – John 17:15
The reason for protection was that the world tests your commitment. It tests your commitment to follow God’s purpose. It tests your commitment to God’s way. It presents numerous questions about the right way to deal with tricky situations. And, frankly, God’s reputation wasn’t looking so good. Remember what we learned at the beginning of the chapter. God’s king deposed. God’s temple defiled. God’s city sacked and looted. God’s people deported. Next to the cross, this was the real low point in divine history. So, if Daniel was looking to chuck God and choose something else, this would be the time.
And it’s not like this was some big issue. What’s up with those strange dietary laws in the Old Testament anyway? And was that veggie and water diet really necessary? I mean, what’s a little pork, a little blood sausage? And who is watching anyway?
But what did Daniel do? He resolved. Before he got into the tough situation, he resolved not to cross certain boundaries. And in this case, he could not be sure about whether the strict requirements of God’s law regarding food were being followed. No matter how people felt about God at the moment, in his current environment, he resolved to follow the same commands he knew at home.
This was the real test to see whether his faith belonged to him.
1. Here comes the court official; a sympathetic friend, one who has been with Daniel since his arrival. He says, “I’d love to help you, but…” He is sympathetic, but he is a slave. A slave to fear. No matter where you travel, you will find people like this guy, who are nice people, generally good people, but when it comes down to it, they are slaves to fear. Fear of someone’s opinion; fear of discomfort. Sympathetic but a Slave. Nice But No Guts.
2. Then what happened to all of the other young men and women who were brought from Jerusalem? Why were there only four? Why only Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah? Maybe for those others, every Sabbath they went to synagogue, because their parents got them out of bed on time, and made sure they didn’t stay up too late the night before. But here in Babylon, whoa, no alarm clocks or alarming parents, you know I think I’ll just sleep in. The faith was just parent forced… Read the Bible? I’ll catch up on that later. Pray? Sure, before my final exam.
Daniel’s faith was his own. No matter that his parents were gone, and the people around him thought it was weird and his boss didn’t care, and his acquaintances thought it was a chance for the good life. And, based on that faith, he resolved.
Now is the time to make your decision. Before someone closes the bedroom door. Before they hand you the pill. Before you open that e-mail or link. Before you repeat the hurtful words. Before you slip it into your pocket. Resolve now. Because while it may seem like a small thing, it is really just the first test. We haven’t gotten to the big test, where Daniel can decide to keep up the habit of praying to God, or he can go to the lion’s den. We haven’t gotten to the big test, where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego can either follow the thousands bowing down to the king’s statue, or they can go to the fiery furnace. No one fails the big tests without slipping up on a series of small tests first. Tossing out the pizza is just the first step.
Resolve now. Here’s what Paul said about focus:
Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. – 2 Timothy 2:3-5
5. When You Obey, You Learn
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. – Daniel 1:11-17
Let me tell what this is not: it is not a recommendation that all Christians should run out and become vegetarians. Nor is it a condemnation of Persian food. But does show that God rewards obedience.
Many times when you are put in a new situation, when you first start thinking about God, when you move to a new place, a new school or a new job, God will allow a test to come. Sometimes it will be a new thing, or it might be a repeat of an earlier issue you have dealt with. It might be minor, it might be major but it will definitely be customized. Because God cares less about whether you win, or whether you are comfortable than he is to show out what kind of person you are. Tests do that, in school and in life.
5.1 Resolve To Be With Others
Even though Daniel resolved alone, he didn’t stay alone. Verse 8 says “Daniel resolved…” but verse 11 indicates that the four of them had resolved and were taking the test together (“Please test your servants…”). In this new and difficult environment, these four banded together. Commitments shared are far more likely to succeed, because there is accountability. After the ten days of the test “they” looked healthier and better nourished.
When my family moved here to El Dorado Hills 11 years ago, we were aware that this was not our home town. We were in a new place, but our first instinct was to find a church and on our first Sunday, we were here. Why? Because God’s people are here and I…we need you to make it through life in this place. Some of you are planning to move away this year. Some of you are not planning to move away this year but God will move you anyway. Let me challenge you that you need to find a church, first Sunday, and then not just as an observer, but as one willing to serve.
5.2 First You Obey, Then You Learn
Don’t miss this. Daniel obeyed. He turned the test around. And it was to these young people (the ones who obeyed) that God gave knowledge and understanding. They were smart already. They were educated already. But God doubled the measure of their blessing after they obeyed. Trusting God in obedience was not, as so many presume, an act of shutting down their brains; of narrow thinking. Trusting God in obedience actually made them ready to learn from God. There is no such thing as spiritual truth. There is just truth.
In my 20 years as a computer programmer and a dozen patents filed, it has been clear that I am not the inventor of new ideas, rather I am the discoverer of ideas. How many times I have struggled with my job, trying to solve a difficult problem, when I will stop and pray (usually after my wife Helen says, “Why don’t you pray about it?” Wise woman) I stop and pray and after a short or long time, the kernel of an idea germinated in my brain? I am convinced that he gives me a glimpse, however imperfect, into the genius of God.
Here’s the point: before you go for that degree or masters or AP class, go for obedience. The best learners are those who have first obeyed God.
…because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. – James 1:5
6. When You Serve, You Change The World
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. – Daniel 1:18-21
If you want to change the world, you must learn how to serve. Daniel and his friends are brought in before the king, after their 3 year intern program, to see whether they were fit for the job. This is their final exam; it’s an oral exam with the most powerful man in the kingdom. The test will be in Babylonian, will cover a huge range of topics and you are competing with the most brilliant thinkers and politicians in the entire kingdom.
The final test is not whether you choose this major or that major; the final test is not whether you go to this school or that school; the final test is not even what grade someone will give you or what job you will end up with or what city you live in. The final test is what God you will serve. If you serve the God who came as a servant, Jesus, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, then you will pass the testing of your faith. But if you settle for the lesser gods of comfort, success, being liked, or thrill, you will ultimately be disappointed.
God used many men and women who were extremely talented and intelligent and good looking. But what he really needed was someone who was willing to serve someone else, even when that person wasn’t so godly. Joseph served Pharoah, Mordecai advised Xerxes, Nehemiah checked Artaxerxes’ cup for poison, Daniel administered for Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, one of the Mary’s served Herod and, of course, Jesus came to earth, “taking on the form of a servant.” Put yourself in 2nd place and make someone else look good. God will take care of your reputation where it counts.
Maybe this morning, you have realized that you never had that faith of your own; you have relied on your parents or your friends to prod you along to do the right thing. If so, today is the day to graduate to a faith that is all your own. They can’t get you to heaven, they can only point you in the right direction: to Jesus. Jesus changed the world by laying down his life to make up for my foolish, selfish choices and yours. Now Jesus says, “Come, follow me” If you realize you’ve never accepted his invitation, just stop now and tell him.
Here is what God told the people of Jerusalem who were taken away to Babylon:
This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 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. 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.” – Jeremiah 29:4-7
Maybe this morning or this week, you came here complaining to God about where he put you. But God told his people, settle in, grow, and multiply. Sometimes we are so busy complaining about how terrible, ungodly and hell-bent the city, or state, or nation that we live in that we just write the whole thing off. Well, frankly, I don’t know where we rank on the Babylon scale, but I do know that God said to them: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you…because if it prospers, you too will prosper” God didn’t put you here so that you could wish to be somewhere else!
Maybe you are one of those about to start a new chapter in your life. Time to start praying, because it will be a test. It will be a test of your faith, not anyone else’s. Time to find that trustworthy band of believers, a church who will help you when you resolve ahead of time not to stray from God’s purpose and plan for you. Time to serve, because it is the servants who change the world. Will you resolve now?
Epilogue
Daniel lived to see the end of the story. Verse 21 says, “And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.” We know from the book of Ezra that this was the year that King Cyrus ordered the exiles to return and rebuild the temple of God. Remember their sad, bitter song before? Now listen to their new song, from Psalm 126.
When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, LORD, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. – Psalm 126
Daniel got to see it. His service extended long enough to see God purify and restore his people.
