Introduction
2024 is not far from coming to a close. And living in 2024 means that we recognize that our world is changing… or maybe better said… we live in a world that has changed. And I I know this sounds a little cliché maybe… but I think its true that the world is not what it used to be.
I’m a Colorado native… a fairly young man… I got a little grief a few weeks when I turned 30… some of the 60 year olds in the room scoffed at me… I wasn’t trying to complain, but I can see how it maybe seemed like I was… sorry about that… but even being a young, Colorado native… I can say that this state is different than the one I grew up in… and not just this place, but this world is a different place than the one I grew up in. I would say that the world today is different from the world my parents, or my grandparents grew up in.
The world is not the way it used to be… things are different… for one, there’s a lot more people in it. In the last 20 years or so the world has ballooned from a population of about 5 and half billion to almost 8 billion. That’s a lot more people living in this world.
And for the first time in history, over one third of the human population is under 20 years old… which is either a little awesome or a little terrifying depending on how you think about it.
Things have changed pretty dramatically even in the last decade or so… if you go back to 2011… the average American spent about 2.5 hours engaging some form of digital media (whether it be screens or listening to music or the like)… and last time I checked… the average is now over 6 hours engaging media… that’s a lot more time.
In a lot of ways, you could say that for many of us life might be harder than it used to be. Just a few generations ago in the 1950s a gallon of gas cost on average 27 cents… and fast forward to today, it’s over 12 times that much now.
In the 1950’s the two most common reasons that kids got in trouble in school was for chewing gum and talking to people in class. That’s what the teachers worried about when they went to school. And now kids go to school through metal detectors and parents pray for their kids every morning that nothing crazy would happen so that their kids can come back home.
In many ways, the world is a scarier place than it used to be. It’s also a much busier place than it used to be. We leave this place after service and we go back to ball games, back to work, back to commitments, and responsibilities, back to school, back to the daily grind of life in Northern Colorado. We fit this hour and half into our schedules, but most of us will head back into the busyness of life as soon as this is over. This world is different and it’s changing fast.
And if we can continue to be honest this morning… in a lot of ways it’s probably harder to be a Christian than it was in the past… maybe because of our particular culture and the time and place we find ourselves in… and the challenges that we face in following Jesus in a land where following Jesus is no longer mainstream or culturally expected… and maybe not even culturally benevolent or favorable as it once was.
And if we’re going to maintain faithfulness to Scripture… and if we want to be fully surrendered as followers of Jesus… then the people in this world might look at us and make fun of us, and they might laugh at us, and they might call us obsolete, behind the times, stupid… they might call us bigots, they might say we’re on the wrong side of history… and I don’t know, but they might get violent towards us… and they might put us in prison, or they might take our lives. And I know that took an extreme turn…
But I want the body of Christ at DaySpring Christian Church to have a firm faith established as the foundation of your life… because things have changed… and not necessarily for the better.
And I want to be very clear here… I’m not complaining… and I’m not saying we can’t go back and I’m also not even saying that we should go back… I’m not saying that harder is better or worse… I’m just saying that things are different and the world has changed and it might not slow down it’s changing any time soon… and we as followers of Jesus must find a way not just to keep up with the changes… but rather to maintain our faithfulness to Jesus in a world that has turned against Him. To not just keep up but to stay true to who we are as followers of Jesus Christ.
Because if history has taught us anything… its that as things change, we might be tempted to forget. And forgetting might not be a big deal if we forget the kinds of things that don’t really matter… but it gets a lot more serious when we forget who we are and what we’re here for.
We’re gonna be finishing out 2024 in the book of Daniel. And I believe this is a perfect book for our time and place because Daniel and his friends were living in a world that was changing fast and not necessarily for the better… definitely not in the way that makes things easier. And Daniel is kind of about how to maintain and grow a stable faith when the ground beneath you refuses to stay still… it’s about staying true to God when the times are always changing. It’s not just about how we can remember who we are and what we’re here for… but it’s also about how we can avoid forgetting… let’s jump in to chapter 1… it sets the stage for the rest of the book…
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 The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, 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 he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.”
Now let me just pause here for a second. I want to acknowledge that some of you are new to the Bible and that’s nothing to be embarrassed about… all of us were new to the Bible at some point and I want you to know that our leadership would be happy to help you learn your way through Scripture. If you’re a person that didn’t grow up in church and someone like me steps up here and says, “everybody turn to Daniel” and half the people are like “oh yeah no problem” and you’re like “I didn’t even know there was a book called Daniel.” I’m happy you’re here and we’re excited to learn and grow with you as you start to study God’s Word.
With that in mind, I just want to back up a bit and give you all the bigger picture… and even for those of you who know the Bible like the back of your hand, I’m assuming that many of you haven’t spent the last few weeks soaking up the story of Daniel… so it might be helpful to get a little context so that we’re not lost as we walk through this text.
The Bible begins with God creating all things. He created everything. All the beautiful things testify to who He is… this place was made to be filled with His presence. His intention has always been for humanity to experience Him and enjoy Him and live in His love and to reflect this love to one another. So, God created all things and He created people to have dominion over this world in relationship with Him.
But very quickly… Adam and Even decided that they didn’t really want to do things God’s way… they’d rather do things their way… and God gave them free will to make that decision… and they were deceived by the devil, and they rejected the Kingship of God, so that they could choose to run things on their own. And as soon as this happened, everything became a mess and everything went to junk and the whole world fell apart. And this is only Genesis 1-3… relationships fell apart… relationships with God and with man, our relationship with the Earth is broken now too… everything got worse and continued to get worse.
But God wasn’t going to leave this world and abandon us in the mess we made… He was going to do something about it. He started working through one family, which would become a nation… Abraham’s family would go on and become the nation of Israel. They were called to be His people… to be holy… to be different from everyone else… to live life the way He designed it to be lived… and to be a contrast to the world… they were blessed to be a blessing… so that the world would see them and realize that whatever they were worshipping was a waste of a time, and destructive to their lives, so they would turn their attention to YAHWEH and embrace His plan to save the world.
And the rest of the Old Testament tells this narrative of the people of Israel… and sometimes they were faithful to God in hard times, but more often than not they repeated the same mistakes Adam and Eve made and chose not to do things God’s way.
And instead of people looking to them as a blessing… Israel looked out at the other nations and thought “they’re having more fun than us” or “they have more power than us” or “they have more safety than us,” so we’re going to be like everybody else. And it created this cycle of rebellion and God continued to pursue them… and in the midst of that rebellion He warned them, “Hey, if you keep rejecting Me, then I’m going to let you have what you’re asking for… which is life without Me. I’m going to discipline you by giving you what you desire.”
They continued to ignore Him and so eventually He said, “I’m going to remove my hand of protection. And I’m going to send this Pagan nation, Babylon, to come in and take over your land and to spread your people everywhere…”
And that’s the moment in this meta narrative we find ourselves at the start of Daniel. The people of Israel have been unfaithful to God, so God sent Babylon and their King, Nebuchadnezzar, to take over the land of Israel… they destroyed their buildings, and their homes, and they forced the people to move 900 miles away to live in Babylon.
The rest of the book of Daniel is about Daniel and his friends living in Babylon. They were raised in Israel… where things were centered around worship of God, and now they find themselves in Babylon. A foreign place with strange customs and little to no room for the God of Israel.
Let’s pick up with the rest of the text… I’m gonna finish the whole chapter, and there will be a test after this, so lean in with me…
Daniel 1:3-21, “Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, 4 youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. 5 The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service. 6 Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.
8 But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. 9 Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials, 10 and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.” 11 But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then let our appearance be observed 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.”
14 So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. 15 At the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food. 16 So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.
17 As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.
18 Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s personal service. 20 As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm. 21 And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.”
Here’s the test… turn to your neighbor and summarize what we just read. You have 1 minute.
Chapter 1 sets the stage for where we’re headed for the rest of the narrative… it kind of presents us with a question that I think we ought to honestly answer – how well will you remember what matters most?
The Israelites got taken captive by a pagan King from Babylon… he brought the Israelites to live in his territory and he wanted a number of young men to be part of his service… so he picked up the young men who were smart and handsome and capable and brought them into this three-year training plan where they were supposed to learn how to be Babylonians… they were going to eat the food and learn the language and figure out all the various things they practiced in this culture and then at the end of that time 3-year period they would recruit the best of them for service.
Daniel was part of this program but didn’t want to eat the food assigned to him… his reasoning is that it would have defiled him. He didn’t want to dishonor God, so he asked the guy who was in charge of this assimilation program (or maybe brainwashing program, or disinformation program)… he asked if he could eat vegetables and drink water… and the leader in essence said, “I like you guys.” Verse 9 tells us that God was granting Daniel favor with this guy… and he’s like “I like you guys, but I will get in trouble if I do this and doesn’t go well.”
So Daniel makes a proposal, “Let’s just give it a shot for 10 days… we’ll just eat vegetables and drink water and then after 10 days you compare us to them and we’ll see what happens.” That seemed agreeable to the leader (Ashpenaz – what a name, right?), and they did it… and after 10 days they looked great, so Ashpenaz said, “Everybody is doing the Daniel diet! Vegetables and water for the rest of the 3 years!”
At the end of that time, Daniel and his friends were in great shape and the King brought them into his service. And that’s a quick summary of our text this morning.
It’s kind of a strange little narrative… but it offers a framework on maintaining our allegiance to Jesus in a world that seduces us. This is what happens in Babylon! The song of seduction is played and it draws us to our doom. The culture of Babylon was trying to seduce Daniel and his friends away from faithfulness to God. And this seduction was not outright persecution (at least not yet)… the persecution will come… sometimes the enemy just outright attacks you and obviously that’s hard to endure… but I don’t know that seduction is any easier to resist.
Honestly, evil might be at its worst when its being subtle and sneaky… do you think we maybe should spend some time thinking about this if we find ourselves in Babylon… maybe we should be aware of the tactics of our enemy because 1 Peter 5 says that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And Paul says in Ephesians 6 that we need to stand firm against the schemes of the devil…
And sometimes those schemes come straight at God’s people like fiery arrows… like violent persecution, but sometimes he comes at you in much more subtle ways… sometimes his schemes are just a little seduction. What is the nature of this seduction? How does the world try to pull us away from faithfulness to Jesus?
I think the clear example from Daniel 1 is that Babylon invites you to forget!
- Forget the God stuff… take advantage of these new opportunities, new pleasures in front of you. You’re in a new world… forget who you were… who you are… we’re offering you something better. Something new.
- Did you see how this happened in the text? These young men were handsome, they were gifted, they were the cream of the crop… new opportunities were presented to them… opportunities to have positions of power…
- You’ve got new clothes, new foods, new potential to reach new heights… Babylon seduced them with flattery!
- You’ve got all these talents… why would you think about giving your life to ministry when you’ve got skills that can make you a lot of money over here… and why would you think about being faithful to Jesus when it might cost you friends or family or favor in the workplace… look at everything available to you… you just need to forget who you were and step into this new world.
- They even gave them new names! All of their old names had something to do with their God. Daniel means “God has judged;” Hananiah means “the Lord is gracious;” Mishael means “who is like God;” Azariah means “the Lord helps.” Their names were given to them by their Hebrew mommies and daddies… their names were reminders of their identities founded in God.
- Babylon comes along and gives them new names that honor pagan deities…
- And if food is the fastest way to our hearts (and it certainly is for me)… then we’ll change their diets, too! And we need to talk about this food issue a little bit… why did it matter so much to Daniel and his friends?
What was the big deal here? Do we need to abandon steaks and stick to cucumbers and lettuce? Not that there’s anything wrong with a vegetarian diet… but that’s really not what this text is about… if any of you have spent any time overseas you know that food is a really big deal. Every culture has its own rules and regulations when it comes to food.
We don’t exactly know what the problem was with this food, but we know that Israel had their own food laws given to them by God… and those laws were supposed to be part of Israel being different from the nations… so they had foods they could eat and foods they were supposed to avoid. But that’s not exactly what’s happening here because it wasn’t like God told them to go and be vegetarians… and it’s not that this was just breaking their laws… it could be that the food had to do with festivals offered to idols… we don’t really know… but I have a speculation (and that’s all it is, a speculation… so you can take it or leave it)…
Daniel knew that eating the food the king offered meant giving the king credit for Daniels’ success. To accept the king’s food might have been to accept his protection and maybe even to pledge his allegiance. Daniel understood that eating the food from the king meant that the king would be glorified for whatever success Daniel had. Maybe there was a connection between what food you put in your mouth and what Lord rules in your heart. And I don’t know if that’s the case, but I do think this is clear… small things are big things when your allegiance to God is at stake. Small things are big things when the real issue is your heart! The seduction of the world is real and it wants you to forget who you are! The subtleties are vying for your allegiance!
I wonder if we trick ourselves when we think these “what if” moments in our lives are going to be these major tests of faith… like where we’re in a dangerous situation and someone is threatening pain or death if I don’t renounce my faith… and I don’t know, maybe we will face those moments… I hope not, but maybe we need to be prepared at all times for those moments… but I wonder if it’s the small moments that make us who we are. And it’s the small temptations and what we do with them that determine whether or not we’re ready for the big ones.
Whether big or small, our allegiance to Jesus is under constant pressure whether we realize it or not. So the question is less about whether we’re going to use our mouths and bodies and actions and priorities to just stay out of trouble when temptation arises … or is it more about maintaining our allegiance to Jesus and letting that allegiance drive our actions when faced with temptations.
The world has changed and is changing fast… and not necessarily for the better. The world has no interest in you maintaining your faithfulness to Jesus. We’re kind of like exiles. We’re kind of like strangers living in a strange land… and that makes us vulnerable. We might be tempted to forget about our allegiance to Jesus because assimilation into forgetfulness might seem easier or more advantageous to your career or your popularity.
Daniel and his friends traveled 900 miles away from their homeland and they’re living in a foreign nation and they were probably feeling pretty isolated… their home was gone, their families weren’t around, I would think they would be a little upset about their predicament at the moment… separated from everything they knew and worshipping their God might not look the same as it did at home…
And they might have thought about just forgetting… they were in a program to designed to help them forget… and letting it all go might have seemed like a better option at times. But if we follow Jesus… the things around us probably won’t support the things within us. And those are the moments where we’re faced with the temptation to forget… to imitate the people around us. But if we’re going to maintain our allegiance to Jesus we have to develop the capacity to look around us and say, “I don’t care if everybody around me is living one way. I will be the one who lives different.”
If everyone around thinks that all those people at DaySpring Christian Church are crazy… then so be it because we will never abandon our allegiance to Jesus, no matter what process of forgetting is placed before us. We almost need to develop this capacity to not care about what everyone else thinks.
And that’s hard to do because we’re not wired that way… it’s much more natural to live like kids who imitate one another or imitate their parents, or want to be like and be liked by their teacher, so they dress and act and follow in ways that are like everyone else…
And that’s the way it was supposed to be before it got perverted… like we’re supposed to look at other people and imitate them because they’re made in the image of God, and they’re supposed to show us how to follow God… but when the paradigm has to shift when following God is no longer the norm, no longer acceptable, when its no longer what those around us are doing.
Otherwise, the whole system gets messed up and our game of follow the leader might take us to some destructive places. Our habit of imitation can become a temptation to forget our allegiances.
We need to develop the resolve to say, “I will not do what everyone else is doing.” That’s how Daniel and his friends navigate these issues through this entire narrative… they don’t take the bait and they don’t bite. They don’t mind serving the king, but they were not going to sacrifice their allegiance to the Almighty in order to do so!
They were living in a new kingdom and yet they maintained their allegiance and their loyalty to the One, True King. How do fight subtle forgetfulness? The best way to resist the temptation to forget is to remember!
- We remember who we are.
- We remember who we belong to.
- We remember who alone deserves our worship.
The narrative at this point leaves us with this lingering question – how well do you remember what matters most?
This is how we fight subtle forgetfulness… Daniel and his friends resisted the seduction of Babylon because they remembered who they were… they remembered who they belonged to… and they remembered who alone deserved their worship.
So what about us?
Pray.