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Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
Where were you living and what was going on in your life, your family, your world when you were about 15 years old? Have you thought about how our world looks through the eyes of our young people in every culture this December 2020? Many Bible scholars believe Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus, may have been about age 15 when the angel Gabriel appeared to her with shocking news of her Holy Spirit enabled pregnancy!
We know Joseph was 17 when sold by his brothers and we don’t know for sure, but we suspect Daniel may have been about age 15 when suddenly his world was turned upside down! Daniel lived in Jerusalem and was evidently part of an elite school which was training young Jewish boys for future leadership roles. The good times of king Josiah had turned ugly in recent years as king Josiah had been killed in battle and Egypt had taken control of Jerusalem, as we have recently studied. Life had become uncertain, unstable, and very unpredictable for everyone in Jerusalem including Daniel, his family, and his leadership training institute. In some ways it was a time very much like December 2020 in many places around our world, maybe where you live!
Suddenly young Daniel’s world was shattered! The Babylonian army, under the leadership of emperor Nebuchadnezzar, invaded the land and attacked Jerusalem. Daniel’s school was ransacked and Daniel, along with several of his fellow leadership students, were put in shackles and dragged off as prisoners of war. Some of the Babylonian commanders, having heard so much about the great Temple of God in Jerusalem, went into the Temple and took some of the precious artifacts of worship, and they returned back to Babylon with both the treasures and the prisoners in tow.
As Daniel marched, shackled and shocked, I wonder if he thought God may have given up on him and on His people? Did he recount to himself how similar his situation was to the story of Joseph, sold by his brothers to a caravan of traders heading to Egypt a few centuries before. Did Daniel conclude there was little hope that anything good would ever come into his life again? The journey was a long one, over 500 miles, and likely Daniel and his friends were treated like slaves, with little to eat, little sleep and having no idea what awaited them in Babylon.
What Daniel didn’t know, is something you and I often forget. God is the greatest strategist of all time. He is constantly working His eternal, global purpose. You’ll find God’s purpose expressed throughout the Bible, both Old and New Testament. Do you know what it is? Here’s one way it is stated in Psalm 33: “The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of HIS heart through all generations… Let all the people fear the LORD, let all the people of the world revere Him.” (Psalm 33:8,11)
While God’s focus is often on Israel, His chosen people, God’s heart is always yearning for EVERY person in the entire world to come to know God, honor God with their lives, and live life as God designed it to be lived, for the benefit of other people and the glory of God. But that seemed so very far away as Jerusalem was trying to clean up the mess and recover from the recent invasion of king Nebuchadnezzar in 605bc, only four years after they had recovered from the attack of Pharaoh Neco in 609bc. Daily the people of Jerusalem could have asked: ‘How is the mess of our world contributing in any way to God’s great purpose’? Have you thought that this troubled year of 2020?
Jeremiah continued warning the people of Jerusalem that this was just the beginning. The heart of their leader king Jehoiakim was hard and unrepentant. In God’s great love, He disciplines and if necessary He sends judgment upon the wicked and unrepentant. Why, we might ask? So that people will recognize that holy, loving God is inviting them to turn to HIM for help and hope. And that turning away from the God who created them will only yield heartbreak and crumbling families and societies.
For Daniel’s family and friends, who watched young Daniel dragged out of Jerusalem as a captive, I presume they were devastated. What they didn’t know was that young Daniel was actually being rescued by God from even more disaster which was soon coming to Jerusalem! More than that, neither they nor Daniel could imagine how Daniel was going to be positioned, very strategically, in God’s larger, eternal purpose in his generation. Now pause for a moment, my friends. Look back in your life. Do you see times when you thought things were a mess, but actually God was working His larger, greater plan, and it was only much later that you saw how things fit together for God’s glory and your good? So how will 2020 fit into God’s larger, global, eternal purpose?
Today I invite you to read Daniel chapter 1:1-8. You likely will recognize the story. Upon arrival in Babylon, Daniel and his three Jewish friends were immediately put into Nebuchadnezzar’s leadership training school in Babylon. From Nebuchadnezzar’s viewpoint, it was a genius idea: Train young captive leaders to be loyal to him and the Babylonian plan to dominate the world, and then place them into positions of leadership over their own people living in captivity.
From God’s perspective, God could use Nebuchadnezzar’s plan in significant ways to accomplish God’s eternal purpose! But it all hinged on Daniel’s attitude and the strength of his trust in God. Would Daniel turn angry, sullen, disgusted with God and turn away from God, or would he, like Joseph the son of Jacob centuries before in Egypt, remain faithful to God even in very difficult, unexplainable, life circumstances?
Daniel had no idea what God’s plan was, nor how strategic he could be, if he would remain faithful to God. It was a ‘crisis of belief’ for Daniel. What did he really believe about God, and how far would Daniel go in trusting God in confusing, difficult times? These same questions were asked of Mary and Joseph in Nazareth 2000 years ago, and are being asked of you and me in December 2020 my friends all around the world. YOU and I could be strategic in the plans of God…but will we remain faithful and trust God fully, or will we stumble in the confusion of difficult, unexplainable circumstances?
So please read Daniel 1:1-8 and notice that upon their arrival in Babylon, probably after weeks of walking a very rugged road, bound as captives, Daniel and his friends were thrust into a three year, intensive, Babylonian, leadership training school. The first step was that they be stripped of everything that defined them as young Jewish men, every link to their past, so they could be totally reshaped as Babylonian leaders! Their names were changed, removing their Jewish identity and giving them Babylonian identity. It wasn’t simply a name change. Daniel’s Jewish name meant “God is my judge”. His new Babylonian name ‘Belteshazzar’, meant “Bel, protect his life”. ‘Bel’ also called ‘Marduk’ was the chief Babylonian idol god. Do you see how every mention of Daniel’s new name would be a mockery of Daniel, his Jehovah God and his Jewish heritage? Do you have a name which should draw people to think of God or a special person in the Bible?
But there was much more. Daniel and his friends were made eunuchs, through castration. Thus they would never be able to continue their Jewish family line. They were taught the Babylonian language, history and culture. And finally, they were to be fed a royal diet, which included food likely offered to Babylonian idols and some of it was food which Jewish men could not eat if they were to be true to the commands of God given through Moses.
While Daniel couldn’t stop the name change, nor his forced castration, nor his indoctrination through education, he could refuse the food and risk either starvation or execution. Daniel again faced a ‘crisis of belief’! What did he believe about God’s Sovereignty, God’s global purposes, God’s direct involvement in his life? What should he do to remain faithful to God and available to God’s purposes in his life, even in captivity? When you and I face ‘crisis of belief’ situations, how do we process the options before us? How do we know where to draw the line and where to compromise?
We’ll stop at Daniel 1:8 today: “But Daniel RESOLVED not to defile himself with the royal food and wine.” Do you see where Daniel’s action plan began? Deep in his soul! In his heart and mind, he RESOLVED… he determined to NOT do anything which would dishonor God or disqualify Daniel from God’s continuing work to develop him as a God honoring leader.
How is your RESOLVE this December my friends? Your resolve both to BE as God honoring a person as you can be, living in a growing, developing relationship with Jesus Christ, and also to faithfully DO those things, as led by God, which honor God and contribute to the betterment of your society, and to NOT DO or say those things which dishonor God and contribute to the downward spiral of your society? It’s a matter of RESOLVE, isn’t it?
As you read or listen to Daniel 1:1-8 watch closely to see what led Daniel to RESOLVE that despite his incredibly painful and difficult circumstances, He would honor God in captivity in Babylon! This God honoring RESOLVE defined the rest of Daniel’s life! And this RESOLVE is what I believe is desperately needed in God’s people all around the world in these last two weeks of 2020 and into 2021. So I invite you to take some time today as you read Daniel 1, and pray… asking God to help you do as Daniel did. RESOLVE not to defile yourself, rather than giving up in the mayhem of the craziness of our world right now. And then watch carefully to see how God might work in a strategic way in your life these next days!
While Daniel would not have known this song, I wonder if he often thought these words in his RESOLVE:
“God will make a way, when there seems to be no way,
He works in ways we cannot see, God will make a way for me
He will be my guide, hold me closely to His side
With love and strength for each new day
God will make a way for me…”
Click to read today’s chapter: Daniel 1:1-8. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
NEW FEATURE: Click here to listen to a dramatized reading of Daniel 1.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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