Faithful in a Foreign Land

Welcome to Encounter. Grateful that you’re all here tonight. God’s been really good to us as a church, as a body of believers, and we get another opportunity today to sing together, to hear from His word, and to be reminded of His goodness and His greatness.

When I was in elementary school, there was a thing that, a tool the teachers used quite a bit. You may be familiar with it, Schoolhouse Rock, and it was just a set of tunes that taught us different things about the government or about America, and one of these songs was called The Great American Melting Pot. The premise of that was this idea that America is a country filled with people from all over the world, and they come together into this melting pot and become Americans. In the little clip, you see Lady Liberty, the Statue of Liberty, holding a book, and it just mimics the book opening, and it has these recipes, and this is the recipe for the American melting pot. And as you can see, there are multiple different people groups, and from nations, all come together, and everyone becomes American. And what American history has shown is that a lot of these people groups that came in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, all just slowly became American. That’s the common thing that they had, even though they came from different languages, and different heritages, and different traditions, even in different religions, they all became American. They assimilated, and they became one people, essentially. Their culture and who they were shifted completely, and today they’re just American, and some have even forgotten their heritage.

And so that concept is a similar one that we see, and tonight we’re going to be studying here in Daniel chapter 1. You can turn to it. The verses will also be on the screen, but there’s a similar concept that we see throughout this chapter, and it’s kind of the background of what happens to Daniel, but it happens more at a fast pace. And so we’ll start in just 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 handed Jehoiakim, king of Judah, over to him, along with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and brought the vessels into the treasury of his God.

So the background of the story of who Daniel is, where he is, starts with the naming of these kings, namely Jehoiakim. And so what we know about him, it comes from 2 Kings 23:36-37. We read that he became king when he was 25, and he reigned for 11 years. We see his mother’s name, but the important thing is that he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he did in accordance with what his forefathers have done, which was evil.

And so for him, as you know in the Kings, his father was Josiah, who was a good king. He was a king who found the book of the law, he instituted reforms, but his great-grandfather was a king named Menasseh, who was not a good king. And so you see a chart here of kind of his heritage and his background. You see on the bottom left, the king that we’re reading about here, his father and his great-grandfather, Menasseh, did great evil things before God. For example, he put altars in the temple. He created a carved image of another false god and brought them to the temple of God. The temple of God was supposed to be the place where God’s name was supposed to be forever, and here he’s rejecting who God is and is worshipping other gods. There in the Scriptures show that he practiced divination and dark arts and even takes up innocent blood, and so the evil that he did was a great, great evil.

And so because of this and what had happened over the generations amongst these sons of Israel, amongst the people of Judah, God had determined that they would be conquered by another king. And the beginning of that is what we read here in Daniel 1, of the king of Babylon besieging Jerusalem, and not only besieging it, but taking vessels from the house of God, and the people are being taken from Judah.

We read in 1:3-4,

Then the king told Astronez, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and the nobles, youths in whom there were no impairment, who were good-looking, suitable for instruction in every kind of expertise, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, who had ability to serve in the king’s court. And he ordered Astronez to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.

So this is the background, this is the setting of what Daniel was entering in, and what’s happening in his life. And what happens here is no accident. It’s actually a prophecy that also is read in 2 Kings. Isaiah goes to the king Hezekiah, which if you remember from that chart, is the great-great-grandfather of Jehoiakim, and he gives him this prophecy, and it says,

Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days are coming when everything that is in your house and what your fathers have stored up to this day will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your sons who will come from you, whom you will father, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah,

The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good,

for he thought,

Is it not good if there will be peace and security in my days?

And so this is no accident that we see happening here. This is something that was prophesied years ago, generations ago, kings prior to the time of Daniel. And what’s concerning and sad here is that even though this prophecy was there, Hezekiah is unconcerned. He’s unbothered. He’s very short-term focused. He’s focused on himself and his days. He said, peace and security in my days, I’m good. That’s your problem. That’s the next generation’s problem. And his short-term focus presumably has an effect on his son, who has no fear of God, does evil before God. And so the consequences of that short-sightedness leads to the effects generations later, to where now Daniel and other youths, as we’ll read, are taken from their homeland and taken to Babylon.

So 1:5,

The king also allotted for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and ordered that they be educated for three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service.

So essentially, they’re taken from their homeland and they’re put into a three-year program, three-year training to become into the king’s guard, essentially. And so the king of Babylon, he’s forcibly trying to do what we — the story we heard of America, what happens over years — he’s trying to do it very quickly. He’s assimilating them very quickly. He wants these young men of Judah, these sons of Israel, to simply become Babylonians. He’s brought them from their homeland, he’ll be giving them a new name, he’s teaching them a new language, and he’s educating and indoctrinating them to become those who would be entered the king’s personal service. And so he knows that if he can change everything about them, that their allegiance will be completely to him. That’s his goal. His goal is to take these foreigners and make their allegiance him.

One commentator says it this way:

The intent in Nebuchadnezzar’s order was clear, take some young Israelites and make Babylonians out of them. The king wanted people who would stand before him and serve in his court. So for three years, these Israelite youth would be immersed in the curriculum of Babylon. Education is discipleship, and Nebuchadnezzar wanted disciples for his own purposes and glory.

That was his purpose. That was his aim. He wanted these individuals, these young men, to come and to be formed, what? To be his disciples for his purpose and his glory.

And so for us in our lives, there are many things that want for us to become his disciples. Simply for us as believers, the enemy wants us to become disciples of anything other than Jesus. And the enemy uses many ways and many things to inform us and form us to become something other than followers of God.

One of the ways that he does it is through the culture around us. And the culture around us is forming us whether we want to believe it or not. And that happens in many ways. One of the easy ways is simply how we talk. Scripture teaches us and instructs us this, what? Not to have any unwholesome talk come from amongst you, but instead build each other up. But if you look at the world around us, what do we see? All we see is communication, and talk, and language that tears people down. Whether you look at politicians, their aim and their easiest method of rising up is by what? Tearing others down. Or conversations amongst coworkers, or friends, or other people. What’s the easiest way to get up? It’s to tear others down. So naturally, one of the easiest ways that we can be formed is how we speak to others or about others.

And there are other ways that we might be formed that aren’t inherently wrong, but can be in how we approach it depending on how we approach it or how we handle it. In our country, there are certain values that we hold dear. In America, we value individualism. We value our freedoms, our freedom of speech. Our culture values the freedom to speak your truth, or the freedom to be yourself. And these aren’t, you know, bad things inherently. God’s the One that created us. He created us uniquely. He knitted us together in our mother’s wombs. He’s given us all unique identifiers. If every person in this room were to get a fingerprint done, a fingerprint stamped on, everyone would have a different fingerprint. God has made us beautifully and wonderfully for His glory individually. But if we, you know, value individualism and what benefits us more than loving our neighbors ourselves, we’re letting that culture form us in a way that it shouldn’t, right? Or speaking our truth freely and emphasizing that rather than the truths of God’s word, we’re letting the culture form us. Or, you know, if the view of the world changes of what is right and wrong becomes so it’s not that bad, and it’s okay, it’s not a big deal, our hearts slowly began to surrender to other things other than God. Culture can form us whether we realize it or not.

And the other reality is that it’s not just outside of the church. The culture inside the church can form us to value things other than God. These are things that can be good things but may cause us or keep us from fully keeping our eyes on the Lord. And so, for example, when our pursuit is just good morals rather than dying to self, we’re letting the culture of church and its values form us rather than being formed by Christ. When we worship music more than the One the music is meant to worship, we are letting the culture form us in a way it shouldn’t. When we praise the preacher more than the person that the preacher is praising, we’re letting the culture form us. When we find greater comfort in the people of God than in God Himself, we’re letting the culture of the church form us rather than Christ.

So here in Daniel’s situation, he is being taught and formed to become a disciple of the culture he’s brought into, and so he has a choice: submit to that culture, be formed by it, or to not be.

1:8-9:

But Daniel made up in his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or the wine which he drank, so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now, God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials.

“Not defile himself,” what does that mean? Simply, amongst these foods that are being given to him, there’s something there that if he were to eat it, it would be defiling himself according to God’s word. The understanding is that it might be food sacrificed to idols or food and drink that he shouldn’t be consuming as an Israelite, as a person who follows God’s law. So he, even though he’s in a different place, he’s decided that he doesn’t want to defile himself. And that word there is one that we want to focus on, set his mind to. Another word for mind that’s used here is setting his heart to. And so Daniel is setting his heart and his mind to not defile himself, or in other words, to be pure before God.

That’s what we read earlier in Psalm 119:9-11:

How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. With all my heart I have sought You. Do not let me wander from Your commandments. I have treasured Your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against You.

Now, as a church, we love God’s word. That’s one of the things that we love about our church. We believe and we practice being a Bible-based church. We preach through the Bible. We study the word of God in our small groups, in gatherings like this here tonight. We’re studying straight from God’s word. But the question that I have, the question that we should ponder on, the question that this Scripture is really teaching us is, do we treasure God’s word in our daily lives? Do we love God’s word in our hearts? Does our hearts and our minds actually love and treasure the word of God? Do we do as Psalm 1:2 instructs us to meditate on God’s word day and night? Not just when we gather, but day and night in our lives, Monday through Friday. When we’re not at church, when we’re not with believers, when we’re not going to a Bible study, do we treasure God’s word in our heart? Do we fill our lives and our minds with the word of God? Do we value the word of God so fully?

John Mark Homer says it this way:

What you give your attention to is the person you become. Put another way, the mind is a portal to the soul and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you have your attention to.

So Daniel’s mind had to have been filled with God’s word. His heart had to have treasured God’s word and God’s laws so that in this moment, when he is in a different place, when he is not at home, when he is in a different country, when he is being forced to assimilate, his heart is set to, his character is set to God’s commandments. And that’s why he’s seeking to and he’s striving to what? Not defile himself.

So in our lives, that’s a real test. It’s not just when we come to a point when we’re in a moment and we’re being influenced by the culture or when we’re alone and we’re being tempted by sin or when we’re with friends or when we’re out and about and we have the opportunity to sin, it starts when we’re alone. It starts in our homes, in our bedrooms. It starts with what we ponder about as we lay at night. If our hearts and our minds are being set to God’s word, if we’re valuing and treasuring the truths of God’s words, then in those moments, in the moments when our character is tested, what’s going to happen? We’re going to be filled with His word and be able to walk in the purity that Psalm 119 teaches us or what we see here, Daniel is choosing to do. Having your hearts being so full of it that our natural decisions are seeking to walk in purity before Him.

1:10-13:

The commander of the officials said to Daniel, I am afraid of my lord, the king, who has allotted your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking gaunt in comparison to the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.
But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Please put your servants to the test for ten days and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food, and deal with your servants according to what you see.

So Daniel here, he basically makes two attempts. Attempt one, commander of the officials, the same person that we read about in 1:3, the one that came and collected them, had been giving them the instruction from the king, “Hey, we can’t eat food like this, this is defiling us, give us some vegetables and water.” You know, frankly, if I was given the choice between a nice steak and some veggies and water, I don’t know what decision I would make. I mean, obviously, if it’s, you know, according to God’s word. But it’s taking him, there’s a decision that’s being made, there’s a sacrifice being made, he’s giving up something, getting veggies and water, but he’s also asking the guy that just dragged him over from Jerusalem to Babylon, “Hey, we don’t know if we can eat this, can you just give us some vegetables and water?” And what’s that commander’s response? “I fear the king. Are you trying to, like, make me lose my head?” So Daniel, what’s he living for? He’s living under the fear of God. This commander, who is he living under? The fear of his earthly king.

And so his first attempt fails, he goes to attempt number two, he goes to the guy who has been placed under this commander and says, “Hey, just put us to the test. Give us ten days, give us some vegetables and water, so we’ll see what happens afterward.” Even that should sound a little odd to us because typically, if we go somewhere and there’s an employee or there’s someone we’re dealing with and they tell us the answer we don’t want, what’s our response? Where’s your manager? Let’s talk to him. Daniel does the opposite. He doesn’t go to the commander’s manager, he goes to the guy below that commander and says, “Put us to the test.” And that’s kind of a foreshadowing of what’s to come.

1:14-16:

So he listened to them in this matter and put them to the test for ten days. And at the end of the ten days, their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food.

“Fatter,” that’s a little confusing. There’s two takes on that. One, they look healthier and their appearance is healthier and this is just translation, but the other is that they actually did look fatter. The veggies and water look fatter. There’s confusion. Clearly, there’s confusion. The purpose of what Daniel is doing here is this. His purpose is he wants to honor God. That’s the purpose. He wants to honor God with what he’s eating. The kings and the commanders, their purpose is to make them assimilated to the culture, to make them disciples of Nebuchadnezzar. And one take is that simply a miracle happens. A miracle happens at the end of the ten-day test that when they’re supposed to not look fatter, they are, and God opens a way for them to be able to walk in accordance to His word by doing a miracle in a foreign land, doing a thing that only God can do.

And so the result of that ten-day test is that they are given vegetables and water throughout their three-year program here, and they’re able to live in a way that honors God. They’re able to live in a way that’s following His commands. He’s able to live in a way that is pure before God because he was faithful to God and because he made that choice of wanting to honor God.

1:17:

And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every kind of literature and expertise. Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.

God gave them this. Their lives have been uprooted. They were born in their homeland with their families. They were born amongst the people that they are from, the people of Judah, the sons of Israel. They’re taken to a different place. Their king is gone, a new king is here, but yet who’s still in control? God is. Who’s still the One that’s working all things out? God is. God is the One that gives them what they need.

1:18-20:

Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king talked with them, and out of them all, not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah; so they entered the king’s personal service. As for every matter of expertise and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them to be ten times better than all the soothsayer priests and conjurers who were in all his realm.

So they’re at the end of their three-year program. And they graduate, and they’re at the top of their class. How does that happen? Only by God. Their success is not based on their works and their achievements. Their success is not based on, “I have assimilated the most of the culture. I’m the one that eats the most of the king’s choice food.” Their success is not based on their natural skills and talents. But their success is based on the fact that they decided to do things in God’s way. God had a specific work for them. And we know the story of Daniel and the things that God’s going to do through Daniel and through their three friends. And what they decided to do is they prioritize, rather than short-term achievement, following God fully with their whole heart and their whole lives.

The background of how they got here are men who follow God and didn’t follow God doing things in their own way, right? That’s the background, the context of it. I mean, if you think about it, the Scripture refers to Daniel and his three friends as youth. The king that we read about at the beginning of the chapter, he is also a young person. He was 25 years old when he becomes a king. But there’s a clear contrast in how these individuals handle themselves. Daniel and his friends, they value what? God’s word, God’s way. The others value what’s easiest for them, what they think is best, what’s good in their eyes. And the results are very different. The results are, when you do things in accordance to God’s word, God will give you what you need, right? There’s that quote that says, “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.” In our lives, we might have success, we might have failure, we might have the skills, we may not have the skills, we may have the achievements and the talents to do things, but it’s not the measure of the talents and the achievements of, are we the most talented, are we the most educated, are we the smartest person, are we the most gifted? It’s, are we following God’s commands, God’s ways? Are we living out His words when we have the options not to? Are we seeking to fill our hearts and our lives with His words and His ways? And knowing that He will always provide what we need to do His will, we don’t have to do the shortcuts. We do not need to bring our knowledge in. But if we seek to do His work in His way, He will provide all we need.

1:21:

Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus, the king.

And so, this chapter begins with the mention of two kings: the king of Judah, who’s being besieged by the king of Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon, which would eventually conquer Judah. And here at the end of this verse, we see King Cyrus, whom we will know, conquers Babylon. So there’s three kingdoms here, three kingdoms that happen all in this chapter. And what that teaches is it’s a simple truth that we know in history: kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall. But there’s only one kingdom that outlasts it all, and that’s God’s kingdom, right? There’s only one kingdom that, there’s only one king who will reign forever.

Reading in 1 Chronicles 29:10-15,

So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly, and David said, Blessed are You, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Indeed, everything that is in the heavens and on earth, Yours is the dominion, Lord, and exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all; and in Your hand is power and might, and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Now, therefore, our God, we thank You and praise Your glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given to You. For we are strangers before You, and temporary residents, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.

And so, he reads this towards the end of his life. He reads this towards the end of his reign. He’s had a long reign. He’s had success. He’s had failure. And what he acknowledges as a king is that there is a King greater than him. What he acknowledges is that he is like his fathers, but a shadow, meaning that his life is temporary. His reign is temporary. And he’s simply found as foreigners and citizens. That’s where his eyes are. He’s a temporary resident. He’s a foreigner in the place that he’s in. He’s not truly a citizen of this earth. He acknowledges who is greater than him. He acknowledges who truly reigns above it all.

Hebrews 11:13-16:

All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen and welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country which they left, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

The mindset that we live in, the mindset that we operate out of, determines what kingdom we truly submit under. If we submit and we live on this earth understanding that we are foreigners, that we are strangers, we understand that we live under this fact, that there is a greater kingdom that we are looking to. There’s a greater city that we are looking to. And we understand that there’s one kingdom that does last forever, and that’s God’s. We sit today here as believers who have put our faith in Jesus, who have been filled by His Holy Spirit, who seek to live out His word every single day. And how we operate matters. How we live our day-to-day lives matter.

You know, we’re able to live with this greater hope. We’re able to live with this greater surrender, knowing that our lives here on earth, we’re just but shadows. On earth, we’re just like mist. We’re here today and we’re gone tomorrow. But even in that short term that we have, we can live like Hezekiah, right? His short-sightedness. He was good before God. He’s considered a good king. He’s considered a person that followed God’s commands. But he had a mistake because he wasn’t thinking about what was to come ahead. That was the difference between him and David.

And so, in our lives, we have that choice to evaluate it. If we operate in this world as foreigners, right? That’s how Daniel operated. He knew that he was not of the people of Babylon. He understood the difference between him and the people of that place. And so, when he had to make those tough decisions, when he had to make those choices that he could have lost his life, right? If the chief official would have lost his life, imagine him. He’s even lower than any of them. He could have lost his life, but his fear was before God. His fear was God, and God’s way, and God’s law. And that’s what concerned him the most.

And so, for us, how we operate is determined by that. If we allow the culture to inform us, if we allow the world around us and its values to inform us, or whether we’re going to allow God’s word to inform us. Whether we allow our hearts to meditate on God’s word. Whether we allow church culture to inform us or Christ to inform us. Whether we value our individualism or dying to ourselves. Dying to our desires, dying to what we want in ourselves. That’s the truth of our lives.

And so, these are truths and simple reminders that we know. These are things that we know as believers, but things that we should ask ourselves about. And so, I want to spend a moment of prayer before we sing.

Let’s close our eyes.

Father, we just thank You, Lord. We just thank You, my God, for this time that You’ve given to us. These reminders from Your word, and these reminders of who You are. God, in this moment, we just submit and just surrender to God. We are nothing without You. We are sheep without a Shepherd. We are sheep who do not know what to do. But God, You, being our Shepherd, we seek to follow You. And so, tonight, as we read through these Scriptures and as we’re reminded of these things, I just pray that Your Spirit would help us to evaluate in our hearts and our minds right now. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would help us to think in our hearts and minds whether we are in submission to You and Your word, or whether we are being in submission to this world. Whether we are being formed more by the values and the cultures of the things around us, or we are being formed by who You are, Lord Jesus. My God, I just pray that, God, in this moment, that Your Spirit would help us to be reminded of the hope that we have in You, Lord. That we do not belong to this world. That we belong to a kingdom that is Yours and a kingdom that reigns forever. And that if we live in that, that You are not ashamed of that, but that there is a city that You are preparing for us, Lord. There is a place that You are preparing for us. So, God, tonight, I just pray that You would help our hearts to be reminded of those truths. Help us be reminded of those realities that we live in, and help us in our lives to live out what You’ve called us to. And I pray that Your Spirit would do that in our lives. I just thank You for this time. In Jesus’ name, I pray.