Daniel 1 - Resolved faith

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Thank you, Jason and the team, and just add my welcome to that of Doug's and Penny's, especially if you are with us for the first time today. Great to have you with us as well. If you've got your Bible there, please take it out or open up your app. If you read a digital version, we're going to go into the Old Testament book of Daniel. We're kicking off a new sermon series today, working our way through over the course of this term, looking all the way through the book of Daniel. If you grew up around churches and Christian things, you probably have all sorts of images about Daniel, things you might have learnt as a kid. Maybe the incredible stories which we'll get to of Daniel in the lion's den, or Daniel and his three friends in the fiery furnace. As we work our way through this book over the coming weeks, my prayer is that we'll discover that this is more than just a collection of incredible stories about Daniel and his mates. I think it's an important and incredibly helpful book that helps us and shows us what it means to hold on to God and to his promises in the midst of difficult and uncertain times. That's why we've titled the series Resolved Faith, because this is the type of faith we see on display in Daniel. It's the type of faith that we need today. You only have to turn on your TV or open up your web browser or jump on social media, and you'll notice that we are living in turbulent times. As we look around the world, as we look around our nation, maybe even as we look locally, it seems that there are many out there who are less certain about the future than ever before. As Christians, as people who follow Jesus, we need a resolved faith if we're going to serve God as disciples of Jesus in these difficult and uncertain times. We need a faith that's firm, that's determined, that's steadfast and purposeful. Otherwise, we might be tempted when the going gets tough to just hide ourselves away in some kind of holy huddle. Cut ourselves off from the world, from that lost and dying world. Or we go the other way. We're tempted to surrender to the world. We give in to the culture of our day, and we become like it, and therefore we lose our witness to it. As followers of Jesus, we need a resolved faith if we're going to be God's people in his world, in the place in which he's placed us. So that's kind of where we're going to be going with all of this. And my prayer, the prayer of the partial team, is that we will discover what it means to have this resolved faith. The faith that we see Daniel and his friends had a faith that allows us to remain faithful to God in all situations and circumstances. Join me as we pray before we open God's word. Lord God, we want to thank you that you are sovereign over all. Lord, that you're a God who speaks, a God who reveals, a God who desires to be known. And so Father, as we open your word together, we ask and pray that you might speak to us, that we might see in the pages of Scripture what it is that you want to say to us today. Lord, open our hearts, open our ears. May we be receptive, Lord, to what it is that you want to teach us today. Thank you for your spirit that is with us now, and we commit this time to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Because we've got no Kids Church today, I've added some pictures to go with the reading today so the kids can follow along. We're going to read Daniel chapter one, but we're going to break it up along the way, make a few comments as we go. So kids, there's some pictures up there for you. Let's have a look at Daniel chapter one and verse one. We read these words. Temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his God in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his God. We'll just pause there for a second, kind of catch the scene of what's going on here. It's not a pretty scene. In fact, it's a traumatic one for God's people. I think it's pretty easy for us as modern readers to kind of skim over these first few verses and miss the weight of what's going on here. For God's people, this is a deeply traumatic time for those that find themselves in it. You've got to remember that these were God's chosen people. These were the ones he'd rescued out of slavery in Egypt, and then he'd made that covenant with them at Mount Sinai. Whichever way you look at it, this land of Judah, this land of God's people appears to be lost. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen some hundred years earlier, and now the spotlight comes onto this southern kingdom, and it's under attack. Jerusalem is besieged. We read that the temple of the Lord Almighty, the true and living God, Yahweh, has been overrun by pagans, by the Babylonians. This is bad. This is really bad for God's people because the temple was right at the heart of their identity as a nation. It was the place where God dwelt. It was where his presence rested with his people. Daniel tells us here that this pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar, had now come into the very heart of their nation, and he'd ransacked the temple. It kind of looks like Yahweh, the God of Israel, has lost. It looks pretty grim. In the ancient world, when there was conflict between nations, between kingdoms, it was understood that it wasn't just a battle of nations and their armies, but rather it was a conflict between the nations and their gods. It wasn't just a human battle, but it was portrayed as a divine one. And so in this situation, it looks like the gods of Babylon have overthrown the God of Israel. And we see all these holy items from the temple being cut off to Babylon and put into the temple of their God. It seems like darkness is prevailing over the light. I wonder if you've ever felt like that in our day. Does it ever seem like God is losing the battle and darkness is triumphing? At first glance, it looks like that in our text today, but it looks like that for Daniel and his friends. But keep reading. Have a look at verse three. We keep reading on. Then the king ordered Aspenas, the chief of his court officials, to bring into the king's service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility. 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 the 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 went to enter the king's service. Among those who were chosen were some from Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names, to Daniel, the name Belta Shaza, to Hananiah, Shadrach, to Michelle, Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar, this king of Babylon, he has ordered that the best of some of the young men be brought to Babylon as part of his assimilation strategy for the kids' assimilation. It's just a strategy of trying to grab people and encourage them to be like you. And this is what the king wanted to do. He wanted to train these men in the language and literature of Babylon. He wanted to immerse them in the culture, train them in the ways of Babylon. And this is where we meet Daniel and his friends for the first time. We're introduced to them by their Hebrew names, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah. You notice in verse 7 that they were given Babylonian names. This is a further attempt to kind of strip them of their identity as a people of God. Daniel's Hebrew name meant God is my judge. Hananiah means Yahweh is gracious. Michelle means who belongs to God. And Azariah means the Lord is my helper. You can see in their birth names there's this very sense of identity as children of the living God. And yet as they're cut it off to Babylon, their names are stripped away and they're replaced with Babylonian names that reflect the Babylonian gods, which is just another way of assimilating these guys into the Babylonian culture. They weren't just trained and sent to Babylon University. They were also given positions and privilege in Babylonian society. They were given jobs in the king's palace. They were assigned a daily portion of food and wine from the king's table. Just pause for a moment there and try and place yourself in that scene for a moment. Just imagine what it must have been like for these young men living in the palace, in the courts of their enemy, the most brutal dictator in this period of history. Someone who had no difficulty in throwing people alive into a fiery furnace if they happened to displease him. Someone who had no problem allowing his armies to do unspeakable things to the civilians in the cities in which he conquered. I wonder, can you imagine what it would have been like for Daniel and his friends to be there in the courts, unable to leave, forced to study, to be surrounded by this culture and given these new names? I reckon it'd be a pretty dangerous place to live. Nebuchadnezzar, history tells us he wasn't a nice man. One wrong step, one misplaced word, and it could be your last, which is what makes what Daniel does next remarkable. Talk about resolved faith. Have a look at verse eight and keep reading. 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. Seems like a bit of a crazy request. If you understand what I just said about Nebuchadnezzar, this would be like wild crazy. To reject his food and his wine, to say no to the king, it seems crazy. I was brought up as a young man, as a young boy, with the understanding that if you went for dinner at somebody else's house, you ate whatever was put on your plate. Every mouthful of it, whether you enjoyed it or not. I remember this one time, it was really hard. The family we were visiting liked to eat steamed Brussels sprouts with their meat and veg. That was a big problem for me. I really, really, really didn't like Brussels sprouts. Because I was brought up to eat everything that was on the plate, I forced it down. I don't know how. I think it was a lot of salt and a lot of drinks of water to try and wash it down. Yeah, lots of chewing and not trying to think about the taste. But I would have been in so much trouble if I went home or went to the person who was there and said, hey, do you mind if I don't eat the Brussels sprouts? Yet that would have been nothing next to the danger of Daniel and his friends saying no to King Nebuchadnezzar's food. What's he thinking? Why such a bold request? Look again at verse eight. He asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. It's about spiritual defilement. What might this mean? In what way would this food and drink defile Daniel and his friends? Well, there's a number of different ideas that the Bible scholars have here. A bunch of different ideas. Maybe the food and wine was offered to idols before it was put on the king's table. And so maybe that's why Daniel is saying, hey, we don't want to eat this stuff. Maybe. But the veggies would have been offered to the idols as well. So why would he choose not to eat the meat and the wine but still eat the veggies if it was all about that food had been offered to idols? Maybe that's not the case. Maybe the food or wine wasn't the food that they're allowed to eat under the Mosaic law, under the Old Testament food laws. Maybe the food that the king had on his table was unclean and forbidden foods that God's people had been told not to eat. Again, maybe. But why then refuse the wine? Because there was no law in the Old Testament that said they couldn't drink or partake of wine. There's no prohibition against that at all. So maybe not that. Was it an opportunity just for Daniel and his mates to kick up a stink and to stage a protest? Was it to try and prove some sort of point that we won't let you turn us into Babylonians? I don't think it's about kicking up a stink. I don't think it's about a protest because we see in the verses that we'll read next that there's extraordinary grace in the way in which Daniel makes this request privately to the head official and then to the guard who's over them. He makes the request in this gracious way that puts all of the risk on himself and on his friends. And he protects the guard, the official who's been put over him. So maybe it's not an opportunity to protest. Is it because the food or wine on the king's table was just an inferior option? You know, Daniel and his mates discovered some secret veggie superfood. Are they onto some sort of new diet that they know is going to kind of be really cool? Despite there being today a bit of a mini-industry of Daniel diet books that are out there, I don't think Daniel's resolve was because he found a secret food or discovered a fad diet. I'm sorry to the Daniel diet fans out there. The results of the 10-day test that we'll read about later on in verses 15 and 16, they show us that this was a supernatural result. In fact, God actually did something amazing to sustain them. And so I think it's less about food and more about Daniel's resolve and about God's ability to sustain and protect those whose resolve is to trust him. So what is it then? Well, I wonder if maybe food was a gateway to becoming loyal to the king or loyal to Babylon and disloyal to God. If you understand anything about ancient Near Eastern civilizations, eating meals together was a central and profound symbol of relationship. A meal was more than just a vehicle for gaining nourishment. It was a primary mechanism for building community, for affirming kinship and establishing covenants. Sharing food was a tangible gesture of friendship, of trust, of peace between individuals, families, and even enemies. Eating at the king's table for Daniel and his friends, perhaps was a gateway to him becoming loyal to the king in a way that would make him disloyal to God. And for Daniel, with his resolved faith, this was a step too far. This was the line in the sand that he wouldn't cross. Because for him, indulging in the king's finest food, eating at his table, it was a sign of fellowship, a depth of relationship and friendship that would undermine his love and loyalty to God. And so that's where Daniel draws the line. This is where he resolves faith. And it's a frightening move. It's a dangerous one. Notice what the king's official said in verses 9 and 10. We keep reading. God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel. But the official told Daniel, I'm afraid of the 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 have my head because of you. Officials are afraid and rightly so. He fears the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar. I'm going to lose my head, mate, if I let you do that. And so Daniel then talks to the guard whom the official had placed over him in verses 11 to 14. Keep reading there. Daniel says to the guard whom the chief had put over him, test us, verse 12, test your servants for 10 days. Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. And 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 Daniel graciously lays out this plan. Doesn't make a big scene. He doesn't kick up a fuss. He takes all the risk on himself. And he says, test us. Verse 15, at the end of the 10 days, they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. And so the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. God supernaturally sustains them in the midst of this test. At the end of the 10 days, they were better nourished. They were fatter than the other guys, just from veggies and water. It's kind of supernatural. And then have a look at the following verses 17 to 21. 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. 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, Michelle 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 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus. God sustains them. He gives them all that they needed. He blesses them with learning and skill to a degree that is evident and tangible to Nebuchadnezzar. And then in verse 21, don't miss that. He remained there in the palace until the first year of King Cyrus. Cyrus was the Persian king. He was the Persians who overthrew the Babylonians later on. And so Daniel even outlasts this kingdom of the Babylonians because God is at work. And so what can we learn about this chapter about how to have a resolved faith? We're going to move pretty quickly now. I think there's three key lessons from this. Number one, God is sovereign and we belong to him. Number two, God is holy, we're to live for him. Number three, God is able. We can rest in him. The book of Daniel is not so much a book about Daniel and his three friends as it is a book about God. As tragic and traumatic as this situation that we read in chapter one is for Daniel and his friends, God hasn't lost control. Quite the opposite. He's sovereign over all. He rules and reigns even when it looks like all is lost. We saw that in verse two, the Lord delivered Jehoiakim, King of Judah, into his hand. And then in verse nine, we read that God caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel. It's clear that all that happens here in this chapter is under the sovereign hand of God. As we work our way through the book of Daniel, we'll see this time and time again. God is sovereign and in control. Even in situations and circumstances that seem hopeless, God is still on the throne. In Daniel chapter seven, just quickly flip over to Daniel chapter seven in your Bible, verses nine to 10. It's not on the on the screen. Daniel chapter seven, verses nine to 10. This is a little picture, a vision that God gives Daniel of the throne of God, the one true King. Daniel chapter seven, nine and 10. He says, as I looked, thrones were set in place. And the ancient of days that's God took his seat. His clothing was white as snow. The hair on his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire. And its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him. 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court was seated and the books were opened. That's a majestic, powerful picture, right? This is the picture of the true King, the true ruler, who's over all and in all and holds it all together. The sovereign God, the Lord Almighty. And as we've read in Daniel chapter one, thus far the gods of Babylon have yet to touch him. They can't. They're not even in the same league as him. The scriptures tell us that God is working out his good and sovereign purpose, even in this situation that Daniel finds himself in, in chapter one. Friends, take courage in that. God is the one who reigns. No matter what happens in our world or in your life, whatever happens in my life, as difficult as things may be for us, God is sovereign and he is good. And we belong to him. He's working out his purposes in this world. If we're going to have a resolved faith in difficult times, we need to hang on to this truth, because only then can we endure such times by trusting in his good purposes. Only if we believe that God is ultimately in control, even if we don't understand all the detail of how he's working his purposes out. If we hold on to that truth and trust in the sovereignty of God, that's how we can hope to endure such turbulent times. I mean, think of the alternative for a moment. Just think of the negative. If God has lost control, then it would be near impossible to have a resolved faith. There would be nothing left to put our faith or hope in. If God has lost control, then all that's left for us is despair and fear of what might happen when evil is unrestrained and can do whatever it wants. If we forget that God is in control, well, our worldview and our confidence, it gets kind of pulled apart like a tapestry or like a shirt with a thread that's loose. We live in a world that's increasingly putting us under pressure to make us look more like the world, to forget God and who we're called to be as his children. And this one simple fact can give us hope, sanity and steadfastness. God is in control and we belong to him. There is nothing or no one that can kick him off the throne. People can mock God, they can mock us, but God still reigns supreme over all. We see that in Daniel chapter one. It was God who stayed faithful to his covenant when his people walked away. He still protected this remnant of his chosen people even in exile. God, we know in the pages of the Old Testament, he sent prophets time and time again to warn people to call them back. God never abandoned that he made with his people. This is the good news of the gospel. That God is faithful to all who would put their trust in him. The Bible says we come to faith and hope and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. He adopts us into that chosen people. We get to be sons and daughters of the living God. We belong to him. That's who we are by his grace. It's our identity if we have accepted Jesus. And then no matter what happens in this life, we can know our identity in him is secure. Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse 28, he said, I give them eternal life and they, he's talking about those who would trust him, they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. Friends, God is sovereign and we belong to him. Don't let our culture tell you otherwise. Lesson number two, God is holy and we are to live for him. Verse eight, we saw Daniel's resolve not to defile himself with the food and wine. He didn't want to participate in this thing that would jeopardize his love and loyalty to God. He chose to honor God and to put him first. Daniel recognized the danger of allowing himself to be assimilated into the culture of his day. That wasn't where he belonged. It wasn't where God's people belonged. To become no different than the people around them would deny God's beauty and glory and eventually defile their hearts. And so Daniel and his friends resolved, they determined not to defile themselves with the king's food and wine, but to love and trust their God who is holy. They chose to live for him alone. Jesus taught us in the New Testament in Mark chapter seven, that first and foremost, it's not the things that come into us that defile us. It's not about the food that we eat that makes us unclean. Jesus said, nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them, rather it's what comes out of a person that defiles them. Verse 18, Mark there, he says, don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? It doesn't go into their heart, but their stomach and then out of their body. In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. He went on, what comes out of a person is what defiles them. It is from within, out of a person's heart that evil thoughts come. Sexual immorality, immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evil come from inside and defile a person. Jesus said, it's not what we take in that defiles us. It's not what we eat, but it's what comes out of our sinful hearts. He's diagnosing the sin problem. In and of ourselves, we know the Bible teaches us that our hearts are evil, and therefore we cannot hope to stand before a holy God. We need to be rescued and saved. We need to be cleansed by Jesus and indwelt by His Spirit so that we can be made new from the inside out. God is holy, and we should live for Him. I think once we have put our faith and trust in Jesus, once He has given us His Holy Spirit and cleansed us and made us right with God, some helpful diagnostic questions that we should ask ourselves often. To what degree have we settled down in the world with all that it has to offer? Where are we going to draw the line? To what degree have we settled down in the world with all that it has to offer? Where do we draw the line? The second diagnostic question I think we should ask is, what is it that takes you out of loyalty and love to God and into self-indulgence? There are many things this world has to offer that when we indulge ourselves, we just build little idols for ourselves, and we try and find satisfaction in life, and in doing so, we corrupt the worship of our heart. God is sovereign, He is good, He is kind. We belong to Him, but He is holy. He is set apart. Christ has made us clean, so let's not defile ourselves with an undivided loyalty and misplaced loves. We need to live our lives in love and loyalty towards Him. Our third key lesson this morning in our final one, God is able, and we can rest in Him. Daniel chapter 1 verses 15, 17, 19 to 21, we see time and time again just how powerful and how able God is to save, to provide, to equip, to use for His glory and for our good. Daniel and his friends live with this resolved faith, and God sustains them in the midst of a dangerous and difficult time. Rather than being overcome by the culture of their day, God is sustaining them within it. They trust God and come to this experience that He is able to save and sustain all who put their faith in Him. Friends, this is a key lesson for our following after Jesus. For living as obedient disciples in our day, if we don't believe this, if we don't believe that God is able to sustain us in His world, then we're going to struggle to find our rest in Him. We're going to be anxious. We're going to be worried. We're going to be fearful. We're not going to be courageous. If we don't find our rest in Him, then it can affect our service for Him. We can be hesitant to step out in faith for God. We can be hesitant to take risks for Him. We may even struggle to confess Him before others, let alone tell others about Him. If we don't believe He is able and struggle to find our rest in Him, then it can affect our daily living for Him. I think we see that in one of two ways, and I mentioned them at the beginning of the message. One is, we'll be tempted to hide away from the world. We kind of just hang around with Christians only. We hide away in these holy huddles, and in doing so, we lose our God-given purpose in the world, because we're only looking in at each other. We're not looking out at the lost that need this good news that we have been given, the good news of Jesus, our Savior. Or we go the other way. We seek to engage with the world in our own strength, not looking to God, and we won't see any impact for the kingdom of God when we do that, because the danger is we assimilate, we become like the world, and we lose our witness. Friends, our God is able to sustain us, so we can rest in Him and be dependent on Him. We don't need to hide away, we don't need to get swallowed by the world, but we can live with the resolved faith and glorify God no matter what comes our way when we remember these three key truths. God is sovereign, we belong to Him. God is holy, we're to live for Him. God is able, we can rest in Him. So let's resolve to live for Him this week. Let's pray. Lord God, we do just want to thank you for Daniel and his friends. We want to thank you, Lord, for this account of their resolved faith. Lord, we thank you for these lessons that we learn about you, our God, and what it means to live as your children in difficult and trying times. Lord, help us, guard us from those two extremes. Let us not hide away in a holy huddle, lose our purpose. Lord, let us not become like the world around us and thus lose our witness. Give us, Lord, a resolved faith, one that rests in your sovereignty, in your power, and in your heart to save. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.