Scroll down to see and play Audio.
Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
One week from today is Christmas Eve, but I wonder how you would compare your world this Christmas season to past years?
Yesterday, as we began looking at Daniel, we considered the strategic miracle that sometimes God is working His global, eternal plan for our world WITHIN the high level political or military aspirations of governments. That miracle is central in the Biblical Christmas story, have you ever thought about that?
Do you remember what brought Joseph and pregnant Mary to Bethlehem? The Roman Empire’s budget deficit problem and their need for more tax revenue! And what caused Mary to give birth in a stable of all places? The census/tax registration plan and the fact that Bethlehem was the ancestral home of a great many people, all of whom came at the same time to register for taxation, and there were simply not enough hotel rooms in Bethlehem!
But there was more. Do you remember what caused Joseph to gather up his little family in the middle of the night and flee out of Bethlehem? And rather than going back to Nazareth, where did they go? Egypt! So what caused baby Jesus to live as a refugee in Egypt for a while? King Herod’s out of control response to news that a new king of the Jews was born in Bethlehem! And who did he hear this news from? Magi, wise scholars who had traveled from a far distant country to the east! Now think about how God was working in all the international, political and Roman government tax management processes in the Christmas story that we know so well, as we continue to consider Daniel today! My friends, if you’ve been ringing your hands as you’ve watched governments face elections and Brexit and COVID-19 pandemics and all kinds of other things this year… consider for a moment that maybe, just maybe, God is at work in all this!!!
Yesterday we left Daniel, a young teenage Jewish man, in a Babylonian leadership institute being radicalized! I think the use of that modern terrorist related term is appropriate for what was being done to Daniel as we see in Daniel 1:3-7. Daniel couldn’t prevent his forced radicalization, but he still had control of his heart and mind so Daniel 1:8 says “But Daniel RESOLVED not to defile himself with the royal food and wine…” and yesterday I ask you to consider what your RESOLVE looks like this December 2020.
Now today, let’s look at the remainder of Daniel 1. Do you see Daniel took action on his resolve NOT to eat the kings’ food or drink his wine, since it would defile Daniel as a Jewish man. He approached his supervisor requesting a diet exemption. Look at verse 9 and see something miraculous that shows us how God works to accomplish HIS purposes. “Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel…” Have you ever had the experience that you’ve taken a risky step feeling strongly led by the Holy Spirit to do so, and you discover God has already prepared the way? That’s what happened to Daniel. As he risked asking for an exemption to the kings’ diet mandate, he discovered God had gone before him and touched the heart of the official making it possible for Daniel to propose an alternative diet. Grasp the importance of that my friends. One of the ways you can tell that you are in fact ‘walking with Jesus’ is when you see the practical evidence that God has gone before you!
As you read further, you’ll see the 10 days vegetables and water diet worked great for Daniel and his friends, for they were well nourished. But more than that, in response to their RESOLVE to not defile themselves, God anointed them with great wisdom and discernment. Look at vs. 17 “To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds…in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and sorcerers in his whole kingdom.”
My friends, do you see what is happening here? As the kingdom of Judah is imploding as a society of God’s people, and foreign armies invade Jerusalem four different times in 23 years, (609-586bc) God is working His dual strategic plan. First to execute judgment on His unrepentant people and second to have Daniel in a highly influential role in the Babylonian government as wave after wave of Jewish captives are brought to Babylon from Jerusalem! Daniel, of course, had no idea God had this plan. Daniel thought he was simply a young man whose dreams were being crushed as he was arrested and marched off 500 miles away from home, as a prisoner of war. This is very important for us this December 2020 my friends, as we’ve watched the governments of the world try to battle an unseen enemy, the COVID virus, as well as handle the fear pandemic which has swept the world. I wonder how all of it has affected you, your family, your business, your church, your society? How do you see that God has been working where you live?
Finally, in closing today, please take note of the last verse of Daniel 1: “Daniel remained in the royal service of the emperors until the first year of the reign of king Cyrus.” Do you see God’s long term strategy? God had Jeremiah remain in Jerusalem as God’s primary spokesman to His people through the final years of the kingdom of Judah in which Nebuchadnezzar invaded the city twice more (597bc and 586bc) before finally destroying Jerusalem and the Temple in 586bc. Over and over Jeremiah warned the people with fresh messages from God, calling them back to God, but their hearts and their leaders refused to hear and finally Jerusalem was demolished, the great Temple of king Solomon burned to the ground, and thousands of Jews marched 500 miles to captivity in Babylon.
I’ve often wondered what it must have been like to be an eye witness to the final destruction of the city of David and the great temple of God. Do you remember several chapters (2 Chronicles 2-7 & 1 Kings 5-9) which describe in amazing detail the remarkable construction project of building that great temple? Nothing quite like it existed in the world at that time! Now almost 400 years later, 2 Kings 24 & 25 give the sad details of these final years of decline and devastation of what was once the great kingdom of Israel. Everything of value was taken from Jerusalem, including all the golden artifacts of worship from the temple, and the Ark of the Covenant, all of it taken to Babylon. (2 Kings 20:16-18) God’s long promised judgment finally was executed on Jerusalem, the city He loved so much and had protected so often.
Meanwhile, God had led Daniel, in Daniels’ great resolve, to be God’s strategically positioned spokesman, at the very highest level of government in the Babylonian empire! Amazingly, God sustained Daniel there in Babylon, as advisor to the emperors through several changes of government, for the next 70 years, while nearly 100,000 Hebrew captives lived in Babylonian captivity! Oh the long suffering love of God for us, a rebellious people.
Finally it was old, faithful Daniel who told emperor Cyrus about Jeremiah and his remarkable prediction years before, (Jeremiah 29:10-14) that after 70 years of captivity an emperor would issue an edict allowing all Jews in captivity to return and rebuild both their city Jerusalem and their Temple! (Ezra 1) And it was Daniel who told king Cyrus that Isaiah, another prophet of God, had actually named Cyrus to be the emperor who would release the Hebrew captives, more than 150 years before Cyrus was born! (Isaiah 44:28-45:9; 13)
So my friends, as you contemplate the amazing work of God in the details of leading Jeremiah and Isaiah and Daniel to their strategic involvement in God’s purposes over many decades in different parts of our world, I urge you to take encouragement today that God is doing something very similar in 2020 as He works His global, eternal purposes in our world in our generation. The question is… are you and I people of RESOLVE who like Daniel will trust God and live our lives fully available to Him, each day, regardless of the circumstances? And are we helping our children and grandchildren see that God delights when He can involve young people like Joseph, Daniel, and Mary in His great purposes to touch our world. And if we do, what is God planning for 2021 and how does God see you and me, our families and churches fitting into His great plan?
May I invite you to take your journal and give some prayerful thought to what God is doing in our world and how HE is involving YOU in His great purposes, for His glory. And as I share with you this Christmas song with young boy voices, it made me think of Daniel and wonder what songs he may have been singing into those Babylonian nights?
Click to read today’s chapter: Daniel 1:9-21. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
NEW FEATURE: Click here to listen to a dramatized reading of Daniel 1.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
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)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.