Courageous Living: Faith Lessons from Daniel
06/22/2003 - Courageous Living in the Every Day
Picture the scene. First they come and take away the children. The best and the brightest students are ripped away from their parents, their homes, their schools and taken to a far away land for "re-education." Next the artists, the musicians, and the craftsmen disappear. Not content to just plunder the national treasures, the invaders round up ten thousand skilled artisans in one massive deportation and ship them like prize cattle to the fatherland. Their works of art will now become government property, the product of slave labor, and the possession of their enemies.
Deprived of its youth and of its beauty, the conquered nation falls into deep despair, but the worst is still yet to come. A country with its heart torn in two will be subjected to the cruelest abuses ever conceived by man. The occupying army is not content until it has squeezed every drop of life from the wounded land.
So the enemy shakes the crippled country so violently that the land is completely drained. The capital city is surrounded and placed under siege for so long that starving mothers begin to eat their own children to survive. And when the destruction is complete a whole city is reduced to smoldering rubble far greater than that produced by the Twin Towers on September 11th.
Not only is the nation looted of its resources, but its people are either slaughtered, put on the run, or forced to join tens of thousands on a 800 mile death march to slave camps in enemy territory. In less time than it takes for a child to reach puberty, the occupying army pillages an entire nation of its wealth, its people and its rich heritage of more than fifteen hundred years.
These are not the atrocities of Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin or Saddam Hussein, but the work of a sadistic king reigning down terror from the city of Babylon called Nebuchadnezzar. The victim is the nation of Judah in the time of Daniel, about six hundred years before Christ's birth.
Nebuchadnezzar's defeat of Israel's southern kingdom, Judah, was the final blow in the glory days of Israel's history. The northern kingdom had already been defeated by Assyria over a century before. The dynasty of Saul and David and Solomon was long past. Wicked kings with sinful passions had ruled and divided Israel for most of the last 350 years.
Weakened by sin, division, and decadence, its people were no match for the onslaught of Nebuchadnezzar, the pagan king whose conquest was brutal and whose rule was savage. In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar razed Solomon's glorious temple and leveled the city of Jerusalem.
And onto this Middle Eastern stage of rubble walks a boy named Daniel. He was probably 14 years of age when he was stolen from his family in Jerusalem and marched 800 miles along the fertile crescent to Babylon in modern day Iraq, about 50 miles south of Baghdad. And now he finds himself far from home, enslaved in a strange land. His country is shattered. His family and friends are scattered and his people feel abandoned by their God. What's Daniel going to do?
Today we begin a summer series called Courageous Living: Faith Lessons from Daniel. It's a series that's going to take us through some of the most amazing passages in the Bible. It's a series that's going to show us how to live a courageous life in an outrageous world full of temptation and compromise. It's a series that's going to inspire and encourage us to be men and women of character. Before we go any further, I want to credit the teaching ministry of Don Cousins at Willow Creek Community Church and books by James Montgomery Boice, Donald Campbell, Bryan Chapell and Charles Dyer that have all had a significant impact on the development of this series.
Right now you might be facing some intense assaults on your faith. The pressures at work, the expectations of friends, tensions in your family, demons from your past, doubts about God and his love, you name it, they can be enormous and they can cause us to cave in. But Daniel's example of character and integrity will show us what it means to stand firm and live out our faith courageously even when our world is collapsing.
So for the next six weeks we're going to immerse ourselves in the stories of Daniel. Make it the book of the Bible that you read this summer and you'll get the most out of this series. Now if you have a Bible turn with me to Daniel 1.
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. 2 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.
Stop right here and let me point out something very significant. In verse 2 it says and the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand. The Lord delivered Jehoiakim. God is behind everything that is happening here. As bad as it is, God is still in control. For centuries God's people had worshiped idols instead of God and in his grace he had sent prophet after prophet after prophet to warn the people to turn from their wicked ways. But they didn't listen. And so God's patience finally ran out. And God brought judgment on his people specifically in the form of captivity to Babylon, the world's super power at the time.
God has a fuse. It's a long fuse, but it's still a fuse. And he will come to us in all kinds of gracious ways to bring us back to himself. But after a while, if we continue to resist as Judah did, he'll bring a Babylon our way. He'll flatten us, so that we'll return to him. And when we think he's most distant, that's when he's actually the most near.
Now look at verses 3-5, Then the king, Nebuchadnezzar, ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility 4 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. 5 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.
Nebuchadnezzar the king orders his chief of staff, Ashpenaz, to find the cream of the crop, the whiz kids, the best and the brightest among the Jewish youth. He gives him very specific criteria. First they have to be physical specimens, boys who are handsome and fit. They can't have any defects, no disabilities or handicaps. Next they have to be intelligent. They have to be book smart with high IQ's and SAT scores. They have to be street smart too, quick to understand. And finally, they need to bring an attitude of service into the king's palace.
Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the most powerful nation on earth and he wanted the best of the best to serve in his palace. He wanted to develop a capable cabinet of counselors to help him make the decisions necessary to lead his empire. And these were the young men who were going to help him do it. So to prepare them he enrolled them in an intensive, three-year college education, the best program the world had to offer, covering every subject imaginable. He covered all the bases down to the very food they were going to eat, the king's food.
Old Testament scholars across the board believe that these boys were between the ages of 13 and 15 years old. These are middle school kids, maybe freshmen in high school, but that's it. Nebuchadnezzar wanted them young so he could reprogram them into the values and the culture of his kingdom.
So look at the first thing he does to them in verse 6, Among these boys were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hanaiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.
The programming begins with a name change. Think about it. These boys have been ripped away from their families, brought into a strange culture with a strange lifestyle, given a strange education and a strange diet and if that's not enough, Nebuchadnezzar says, "I going to give you strange names too."
So Daniel, whose Hebrew name means "God is my Judge," becomes Belteshazzar, "Belti, protect the king." Hananiah, whose name means "God has been gracious" becomes Shadrach, "I am fearful of a god." Mishael, whose name means "Who is what God is?" becomes Meshach, "I am despised before my god." And Azariah, whose name means "God has helped" becomes Abednego, "Servant of Nebo."
Pagan worship is forced on these young Jewish boys to transform them from the inside out into Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar wants these boys to walk and to talk and to think and to worship and to eat like Babylonians. And the pressure to conform is enormous.
Look at verse 8, But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. But Daniel chooses not to follow the crowd. Instead he takes a stand, digs in his heels and says, "No way! I will not eat off the king's menu." Why not? What's wrong with the king's food? Was it tainted? Were the vegetables rotten and did the beef have ecoli? No. There was nothing wrong with the king's food. It was the best the land could produce.
Except that it came from animals that had been sacrificed to idols, which was a common pagan practice. It also may have included meat entrees that were forbidden by Jewish law in Leviticus 11. And that presented Daniel and these boys with a real dilemma. They knew that God's Word forbid them to eat certain kinds of meat and food sacrificed to idols.
So what are they going to do? Are they going to conform or are they going to take a stand? "Do we eat the food and honor the king? Or do we refuse the food, disobey the king, and honor God? Honor the king or honor God? What's it going to be? We can't do both."
Which leads us to the first insight from this passage and that is this. Courageous living chooses to honor God above all else. Fourteen year-old Daniel made a decision. But you see Daniel's first decision was not the decision to pass on the king's food. That was his second decision. His first decision was to honor God above all else. His first decision was to keep the first commandment. You shall have no others before me. And that decision made his menu decision a no brainer, because he wasn't going to violate God's Word.
Everyday we make hundreds of decisions. We make decisions about how we use our time, how we spend our money, how we invest our energy. We make decisions about how we act at home and at work and at school and how we handle people and relationships and purity and our bodies and what to eat and what to drink and what to wear and what to watch and what to look at and what to listen to and on and on and on. But all of these decisions reflect a much more basic decision and that is who will I honor with my life? Have you made that decision yet? Courageous living chooses to honor God above all else. Fourteen year-old Daniel made that decision and so what he ate was simply a reflection of whom he worshiped.
Now look at verse 8 again , so he, Daniel, asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, 10 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 registers his request and the commander comes back and says, "Daniel, hold on! You're a great kid, but think about what you're asking. All the other boys are eating this fantastic food and you want to go on some slim fast diet! The king's trying to beef you up and if you start looking like death warmed over, I'm going to have my head on the chopping block! I don't think this is going to work."
But Daniel has a come back. Look at verse 11, Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 "Please test your servants for ten days. Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 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."
And all the health food junkies went, "Amen. There's my life verse. Daniel 1:12!" But Daniel cuts a deal and says, "Let's try it for ten days and see what happens." That's a pretty shrewd move for a 14 year-old. Verse 14, So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
Which brings us to the second insight and that is this. Courageous living expresses convictions before they are rewarded. Wouldn't it be great to know the outcome before we take a risky step of faith? That would take all the stress out of it, wouldn't it? But it would take all the faith out of it as well. Daniel was counting on the fact that God would make him physically strong in spite of his diet even though he had no guarantees that would happen. He was putting his future on the line. Not only did he believe that God could make him strong, but he believed that God could give him favor in the eyes of his Babylonian commander, Ashpenaz.
Courageous living means that sometimes we make decisions to honor God in very tough situations before we know the outcome. This week I heard about a woman who was working hard to put her husband through seminary. She was a quality-control inspector for a major pharmaceutical company, not in this area. One day she noticed a large order of syringes that were contaminated and so they failed inspection. She told her boss about it and after doing a quick cost analysis he decided to make a "cost effective" decision. Send the syringes anyway. So he ordered the woman to sign off on the inspection despite the contamination. And when she refused to do it, she was threatened with the loss of her job. But she wouldn't budge.
The next day the president of the company got involved and urged her to do the same thing and when she refused again he said she'd have the weekend to think it over. But on Monday, if she didn't sign the clearance forms her job would be in jeopardy. Not only was her job on the line, but her husband's education and their future and their dreams were all on the line as well.
That's crawling out on the ledge of faith. What would you do? Do you have the courage to live like that? Daniel is out on the ledge of his faith. He's placed his future and his life on the line.
Let's see what happens in verse 15, At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. 17 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. 18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them in, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king's service. 20 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.
They pass that ten-day test and emerge chiseled and buffed! And they stay on that slim fast diet for three years. And in the end God gives them knowledge and wisdom in every branch of learning and Daniel even gains the ability to understand visions and dreams. There's no one like Daniel and his buddies in the whole kingdom. They're ten times better than all the king's counselors. That's not half bad for boys who had just turned 17 living in the most powerful nation in the world!
Which brings us to the third insight. Courageous living that honors God always brings God's blessing. God loves to reward faith and in some way, at some time, God will bless those who honor him. That's his promise. I love 1 Samuel 2:30 where God simply says, Those who honor me I will honor.
When the weekend was over the woman went to her boss and said, "I can't do it. I can't sign those papers." She made a courageous decision and she was relieved of her job and for a time it looked like God had abandoned her. So the syringes weren't sent and the company that ordered them looked into the situation and when they discovered that this woman, because of her integrity had protected them, they hired her and increased her salary. She was able to put her husband through seminary and now he serves as a pastor out west.
That story had a happy ending. But you might be thinking, "Hey, I chose to honor God, but it cost me my job or it cost me a promotion or it cost me a relationship or some financial hardship. I don't see any blessing coming my way."
All I can say to that is that the game is not over. The final chapter has not been written. Wait on the Lord. Sooner or later in God's perfect way and in God's perfect time he will honor you. That's his promise. And God will not break a promise.
It doesn't always come in some external way, some job or relationship, big contract or something financial. Many times God's blessing comes in the form of character traits like love, joy, peace, contentment. God does a deeper, internal work. But his promise to you is, "If you honor, I will honor you. Bank on it!"
Daniel honored God in something as small and as every day as his diet. It sounds like such a little thing. But it's the little decisions that we make that turn around and make us. And so one final insight. Courageous living understands that if you honor God in the everyday decisions of life, God will honor you for a lifetime.
Look at verse 21, And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus. Daniel served a lifetime in positions of authority for four different kings. He's the only person in Scripture, other than Jesus, for whom there is no recorded sin. That doesn't mean he didn't sin, it's just not recorded. God honored Daniel for a lifetime and it all started with an everyday decision he made when he was 14 years old.
Are you honoring God in the everyday decisions of life? It all starts with the big decision of honoring God above all else. And that affects the little decisions we make every day. And it's out of those little decisions day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year that we build a life. The decisions we make today and the decisions we make tomorrow are the decisions that will determine where we go with God in the next 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 years.
There were other boys that were chosen along with Daniel, but they're not mentioned because they compromised. And God can't do his work through compromisers. He does his work through those who live courageously for him. Are you ready to?