Daniel 1

NB These are my sermon notes and not a transcript.

Q: If you wanted to rid the country of Christians, how would you do it?

605BC
Middle East – full of various tribes & ethnic groups with deep loyalties.
Three great powers – Egypt, Assyria & Babylonia.
Assyria going through a bad patch – decline.
Egypt – recently defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, commander-in-chief & prince of Babylonians.
Now Babylon is the great power.

But each of the great powers in their turn have found the smaller ethnic groups & nations a constant thorn in flesh.
When Nebuchadnezzar became king, he decided to deal with the problem once and for all.

First, v2, carried off religious artefacts from temple of God in Jerusalem & put them in the temple of his god in Babylonia.
Q: Why?
Demonstrate that his god more powerful than the God of Israel.

Then, vv3-5, he selected some of the young Israelites – those who were well connected and wealthy, fit & strong, intelligent & well educated and he took them off to the University of Babylon.
They were enrolled on the three year BA(Hons) Babylonian language & literature course, and were given a grant which provided all their meals and accommodation.
Once they'd graduated, they would be put on the government's fast-track scheme as special advisers to the king.

Among the youngsters who were exported to Babylon were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael & Azariah.
But the head of the department for education decided that to help with their integration to Babylonian society he'd give them new names: Daniel → Belteshazzar; Hananiah → Shadrach; Mishael → Meshach; Azaraih → Abednego.

But why choose language & literature for these guys to study?
Because that's what would integrate them into Babylonian society.
If they knew the language they could be influenced by other Babylonians.
And the study of literature? Well that was the study of the history & influences that shaped Babylonian thought, religion, culture, society etc. The idea was that these young men would be so saturated in Babylonian thought that they themselves would begin to think and act like Babylonians.

Today, the universities eventually shape our society.
The professors spend their long summer holidays coming up with weird & wonderful ideas to impress their students.
Then they teach their ideas to intelligent but impressionable young people.
The youngsters then go on to write books, make films & tv programmes, write for magazines & newspapers, write & sing songs, go into politics etc., and 20 years later, what the academics were theorising about on the beach in Spain becomes part of our culture.

So many years ago, something happened to make Richard Dawkins hate Christians – perhaps his vicar upset him; perhaps his university tutor indoctrinated him; perhaps his girlfriend became a Xn & dumped him...
For some reason, he began to believe atheism, and he began to write books.
Some of his ex-students wrote glowing reviews about their professor's books, and they began to sell well...

It's not just the new religion of atheism that has developed like this – extreme feminism, approval of homosexual practice & ideas about civil partnerships all developed in this way.

So Neb's plan was a good one. Indoctrinate these intelligent young people now & they'd influence all the Israelites tomorrow.


But in v8, Daniel makes a bold and courageous decision: he resolved not to defile himself with the royal food & wine, and asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way.
Now Daniel didn't have to avoid the royal food & wine – Jewish food laws allowed him to drink wine and eat meat.
So what's Daniel doing here?

Well, he seems to be making a point to the chief & to Nebuchadnezzar.
By refusing the king's food & wine, Daniel was saying, 'Look, I'm not one of you. I'm not completely in cahoots with you – I'm different from you, and I won't become one of you.'
For Daniel, this was a way of drawing a line in the sand and saying, this far but no further.

And it really worried the official – read vv9-14.

Daniel has put down a marker and said, 'I believe God will honour my decision. As I honour God, so he will honour me.'

And that's what happened – read vv15-16.

And on one level, we can read this and say, 'We too must stand up & be counted. We mustn't allow ourselves to be compromised. At some point, we need to say, 'this far and no further'. Exactly where we draw the line will vary depending on our circumstances.
It may be that you don't go to the pub with certain friends, or go to certain parties, or that you don't do sleep-overs.
It may be that you refuse to have a lift from certain drivers, or do business with certain clients.
The bottom line is that we will all want to put down some kind of marker which demonstrates that we're not going to be integrated in to the non-Xn world of our friends & colleagues.

But there's also something bigger going on here – something behind the scenes.
At the beginning, it seems as if God is powerless:
the capital city of his kingdom has been beseiged;
his king has been delivered into Nebuchadnezzar's hands;
his temple has been ransacked – the articles from the temple have been carried off to the temple of Neb's god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god;
The top men of God's people have been taken into exile.

So what's happened to God's promises to build a great nation in the land around Jerusalem?
Has he given up?
Has he been outwitted?

Well a couple of words in v2 show us that God's still there & still in charge: READ.

Not only that, but look at what happens to the young students in Babylon: READ v17
it's not the professors & lecturers who teach them, but God.
God gives them knowledge & understanding of all kinds of literature & learning.
God teaches Daniel what no professor could teach – understanding of visions & dreams of all kinds.

And so, after 3 years at uni, they go before the king for their finals.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael & Azariah all get firsts – read vv18-20.

So God is at work - as the rest of the Israelites sit by the rivers of Babylon and weep, God is at work in their young leaders.

And the final sentence again points to the fact that God is doing something much bigger than the people can imagine.
Daniel is still there when Nebuchadnezzar has gone and has been replaced by King Cyrus. Daniel outlasts Nebuchadnezzar.

New Testament trajectories: John 17:13-19; Romans 12:1-2