The Rhythm of Faithfulness

Introduction

We are starting our new series this morning, “Longing for a Savior”.

We are going to take the next 16 weeks and look at how in the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures, they were longing for a Savior. They called Him the messiah, He was going to save the people from their sin, they were looking for God to do what He said He was going to do.

Genesis 3:15 “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

2 Samuel 7:12-13 “When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

They found themselves so often at the mercy of the empires around them, the culture invading their lives, and corruption from within that would lead them astray. God in His love and mercy would purify them, correct them, and continually send them prophets that would call them to faithfulness.

They would be unfaithful, but yet God would remain faithful.

“History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” -Mark Twain

We have a lot of parallels to the ANE follower of YHWH… it’s not the same, because Christ has come, Messiah has been revealed, come, lived, died, rose from the dead, ascended and is coming again.

While He has inaugurated His Kingdom, it is not fully consummated.

We find ourselves in Exile. We find ourselves longing to be home…

John 14:3 “If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.”

John 17:24 ““Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation.”

Philippians 3:20 “Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

2 Corinthians 5:1 “For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands.”

My hope for this series is that we will allow this longing to rise up within us, give us permission to feel the weight of the brokenness of this world, in light of Jesus returning. That whatever we are facing today that we look through the lens of the inevitable return of Christ.

The next few weeks we are looking at the book of Daniel. How is this that they are longing for a Savior.

They’ve rebelled. God sends Nebuchadnezzer to take them into exile (605 B.C.)

They were brought into subjugation by Egypt, but as Nabopolassor came to power and overtook the Assyrian empire, his son made Israel a vassal kingdom. They supplied tribute, goods, and people to support the Babylonian empire.

But this is what Jeremiah says that God is saying, Jeremiah 29:1-14

Jeremiah 29:1–14 (CSB)

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining exiled elders, the priests, the prophets, and all the people Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the court officials, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metalsmiths had left Jerusalem. He sent the letter with Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The letter stated:

This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Find wives for yourselves, and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.”

For this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you, and don’t listen to the dreams you elicit from them, for they are prophesying falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them.” This is the Lord’s declaration.

For this is what the Lord says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place. For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “I will restore you to the place from which I deported you.”

Church, we are in Exile… This is not our home, God will bring us unto Himself and eventually will establish His kingdom here on Earth. What we are going to see this morning is that from the very first verses we see that this book is not essentially about Daniel, but rather about God. It is a revelation of who he is and how he acts for our redemption. It’s to point us to God.

There is no relationship between the history of the world and its superpowers and the fulfillment of God’s ultimate purpose in the world. The superpower is not part of the creation order. Creation envisaged no such exercise of authority; this came about only through humanity’s rebellion against God. The superpower is both an expression of rebellion against God and a means God uses to restrain rebellion. The histories of the nations “are not God’s history. They are not the way God would have his kingdom present in the world.” The true history of the world “is not carried by the nation state.… This history is the history of godlessness.”

Our task is not to think that by taking the helm of international history we can contribute to bringing in God’s kingdom, but to witness to the fact that a superpower will never do that. Paradoxically, one of the ways Daniel and his friends do so is by involving themselves in the history of the superpower, but by doing this in a way that shows how in itself it is not God’s history. Daniel and his friends, and Mordecai and Esther, have to work out what it means to “render to Caesar and to render to God”—when they can work with Caesar and when they cannot. People such as Joseph, Ezra and Nehemiah (and Paul) also do so by making the superpower the unwitting agent of Yhwh in furthering the divine purpose even while it is actually concerned for itself.

Goldingay, J. (2009). Old Testament Theology: Israel’s Life (Vol. 3, pp. 540–541). InterVarsity Press.

Main Point: God desires to reveal Himself in our lives (every facet), relationships (in the life-giving and the life-sucking), and circumstances (good and the difficult). In that we see Him, we know Him. In that we know Him, we love Him. He is our hope in this life. Every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, our entire life. (To borrow our point at Easter) Our every desire has its perfect fulfillment in Him (repeat).

If you have your Bibles, let’s read our text this morning… we’re going to read Daniel 1

Daniel 1 (CSB)

In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. The Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels from the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar carried them to the land of Babylon, to the house of his god, and put the vessels in the treasury of his god.

The king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family and from the nobility—young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to attend the king. Among them, from the Judahites, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The chief eunuch gave them names; he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah.

Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief eunuch not to defile himself. God had granted Daniel kindness and compassion from the chief eunuch, yet he said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and drink. What if he sees your faces looking thinner than the other young men your age? You would endanger my life with the king.”

So Daniel said to the guard whom the chief eunuch had assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then examine our appearance and the appearance of the young men who are eating the king’s food, and deal with your servants based on what you see.” He agreed with them about this and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days they looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. So the guard continued to remove their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.

God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind. At the end of the time that the king had said to present them, the chief eunuch presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king interviewed them, and among all of them, no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they began to attend the king. In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and mediums in his entire kingdom. Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray… Amen… please be seated.

ME

Ever get into a room and have people share with you what they think about you?

I’ve been in a couple settings where in a group (team building exercise) one person was in the middle and everyone in the group went around and said one to two things that was true about that person from their perspective.

Maybe this happens in an annual review at work where your supervisor is able to inspire you and speak life into you about who you are, what you bring to the organization, and that they are glad to have you? In a work setting you can even build in constructive criticism in that moment that gives tools for the individual to excel even beyond their current effort.

WE

This happened this last week as the City Youth gathered together on Tuesday and are studying … this particular lesson was on identity. My daughters were telling me that in their small groups they told each other who they thought the other is.

If you have ever done it, you know its so uncomfortable… but if you can press through that, it can be so life giving.

I want to take a moment and do that now:

Peter B- When we lost our project manager just as the project started, you jumped in and haven’t looked back. Your schedule is normally full (and sometimes chaotic), but you have pressed in and given the church a level of service we could never afford. In the midst of family commitments, stressful job situations, ministry obligations, on top of all of that… you continue to give and knock this out of the park.

Paul & Pam W- Pam we affectionately call the general. She speaks, we all listen and wisdom drips off her words. She is humble, wise, kind, gracious, steady, faithful, tenacious, and tireless. Paul shows up big. Paul commanded and subdued the dismantling, transporting, sanding, staining, waxing, and care of the pews. Paul then jumped in and is organizing spaces, jumping in on the bathrooms, areas in the sanctuary, and has even made a blood sacrifice in the foyer :) Both of you are a gift.

Tim & Linda H- My goodness… your passion, steadiness, commitment, talent, skill are amazing. You have given countless days, weekends, you are here when no one else is here, you are the quiet faithful servants who are helping transform these spaces we love, we worship in, we serve the community in to be something that will be enjoyed and used for ministry for decades to come. Humble, kind, knowledgeable, and literally no ego in any of this… just steady obedience.

There are so many of you that we don’t have time to go through everyone… but don’t worry, as I am able, I want to honor the work of the Lord in you and in this place… but church, in all that is happening here in this big project, there has not been one hint of ego, hint of issue, hint of ill-motive… all of you have given of time, talent, treasure… thank you. It’s been so good…

In the Kingdom of God, we begin to see that circumstance and situations reveal who we are… what’s already inside. Like our brothers and sisters who have given of their time, talent, treasure, expertise… I hope to speak life into them, to honor them. Our cup has been shook… but you know what has come out… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control… some at varying degrees (speaking for me)… but it’s been so good.

When we look at the book of Daniel, we begin to see in the ancient context, the faithfulness, the goodness, the longsuffering, the compassion, and mercy of God.

Your probably very familiar with some of the amazing stories of Daniel, this is to testify to God’s faithfulness for our current struggle, our longing until He comes again.

GOD

In our text this morning we see from the very first verses we see that this book is not essentially about Daniel, but rather about God. It is a revelation of who he is and how he acts for our redemption.

This text is not primarily about how we behave, but rather it is to point us to God. Daniel is first and foremost a revelation of God.

God reveals Himself in relationship, not in the abstract, but rather in relationship to His people through His actions in history.

God desires to reveal Himself in our lives (every facet), relationships (in the life-giving and the life-sucking), and circumstances (good and the difficult)

In the three movements of our text we see that it is:

God gives them over (v2)

God grants Daniel and the three favor (v9)

God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. (v17)

Daniel and his friends are selected for the King’s service. The Bible lets us know the orientation of their hearts Daniel 1:8 “Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief eunuch not to defile himself.”

It’s problematic to say that it was dietary law that kept Daniel from eating the King’s food. Don’t have time to work through that, but it’s often thought that food sacrificed to idols was then given to the king and then his court… this too is hard to say whether this is the case that Daniel would have this knowledge of what was sacrificed and what wasn’t.

What is customary in the ANE is that if you ate at someone’s table, you became aligned, one with them in heart and purpose. This could very well be Daniel and his friends saying, “We’re here, we are taking these new names, we are accepting these positions you are giving us, but we are not making your god our God, we are not compromising who we are at our core for you.”

(from up top) Daniel and his friends have to work out what it means to “render to Caesar and to render to God”—when they can work with “Caesar”/Nebuchadnezzer and when they cannot. People such as Joseph, Ezra and Nehemiah (and Paul) also do so by making the superpower the unwitting agent of YHWH in furthering the divine purpose even while the empire is actually concerned for itself.

We’ll find in the book of Daniel, that even Nebuchadnezzer will come to realize and confess YHWH as God.

A very important piece that we are going to see throughout the Jewish Scriptures is what we call Abrahamic Righteousness… we call it that because we see Abraham demonstrates this faithfulness/allegiance first and God accounts it to him as righteousness (right standing before God):

Dimensions of Abrahamic Righteousness (write this down or take a picture… commit to memory)

1) Loyalty (Hesed) to the LORD (Josh. 24:2; Gen. 12:1-8)

2) Trust (Amen) the LORD even when it makes no sense (Gen. 15:1-6)

3) Keep (Shama) the LORD's way of righteousness (Tsedekah) and justice (Mishpat) Job 31

4) Look to the LORD’s provision (Yireh) in Messiah (Gen. 22:1-14)

Daniel and his friends fit all of these categories.

YOU

God desires to reveal Himself in our lives (every facet), relationships (in the life-giving and the life-sucking), and circumstances (good and the difficult)

What might happen if we sought to demonstrate Abrahamic Righteousness in our own lives?

What might happen if we learned to pause when we have desires/longings and thought to ourselves… God is this good/right? How are you revealing yourself to me in the midst of this longing/desire?

In the middle of the desire/longing we say… I am loyal first and foremost to Jesus, I will trust Him even when it doesn’t make sense, I will seek the right thing to do and make sure I do not wrong myself or anyone in the process, and I will look to the Lord to provide a way of salvation?

What took place in Daniel’s day, the LORD is still the same today as He was then. GOD DOES NOT CHANGE.

God is working His purpose and His plans can not be thwarted no matter how big the bully, no matter how scary the situation, He is good and working His purpose

God is granting His children favor

God gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding that is completely other than the world’s wisdom. (Daniel 1:20 says they had 10x the wisdom)… because it starts with the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 1)

US

What might happen if we were a people, scattered through out our community, that were looking for the ways that God is revealing Himself to us… in that we might point others to the faithfulness, the unrelenting kindness of God, the never-ending mercy and love of God… how might that change us, our family, our community?

We don’t have another country invading us, but we’re continually tempted and lured to align ourselves with that empire mentality of might makes right. Peace through strength. Fall in line or you can leave.

May we be a people that looks to our eternal home, not made with hands, but one that God is preparing for each of us. May we live to a Kingdom of God ethic because of who Jesus is and what He has shown us in His life, death, resurrection, and the giving of the gift of the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer.

God desires to reveal Himself in our lives (every facet), relationships (in the life-giving and the life-sucking), and circumstances (good and the difficult)

Response:

We are going to have another time of response this morning (invite the worship team up).

Pastor Josh and I are going to be up here to pray with you.

If you are wanting to respond to what we’ve looked at this morning, we want to pray for you. We don’t want you to just leave without taking a moment to respond to what God is doing in your heart. If you want to follow in the footsteps of our brothers Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael… living out Abrahamic Righteousness… being conduits of God’s grace, goodness, kindness, love, and mercy, being salt and light in your home, neighborhood, and work place… as the team is playing, come forward.

Come down and receive prayer… let us pray for you. You don’t need to say anything, just in the act of coming up we want to pray for you.