Living in Exile: Stand Firm

Life of the Church

Good morning everyone, it’s good to have you here to share in our worship service.

We’re still a little thin on announcements given that it’s the first of the year, but I do have a couple things to mention.

The men’s group will be resuming their meetings tonight, looking at Lifestories by Mark Hall. All men are invited to attend that.

You’ll see some cards in the windows foe our homebound folks. Please take one of those and let them know you’re praying and supporting them.

And would you please continue to be in prayer for all of our church members and friends who are ailing or in the hospital or who are sick. There just seems to be a lot of that going around, and you’ll see a few of them listed in your bulletins. Reach out to them, check on them, let them know you’re here if they need anything. And check on their families as well.

Jesyka, do you have anything this morning?

Sue, do you have anything?

Opening Prayer

Our Heavenly Father, We thank you for everyone gathered here in Your house. Thank you that you know each of us by name and have caused us to walk with You. Each day, each moment we are dependant on You. May our trust in You be complete.

As we surrender ourselves in adoration we ask that You would come by Your Holy Spirit and inspire our hearts today. Come fill our lives with Your love, Fill our conversations with Your grace and truth, Fill this service with Your presence. We ask this for Your glory and praise. Amen.

Sermon

You’ve heard that story about putting a frog in a pot of boiling water, haven’t you? If you boil a pot of water and stick a frog in it, he’ll jump right out. But if you put that frog in a pot of cold water and then turn the burner on, he’ll stay where he is. That frog will just sit right there as the water gets hotter and hotter, until he gets boiled alive. I don’t know if that’s true or not. Don’t try that when you get home.

But I think the church in America is like that frog being boiled alive. In a lot of ways we’re shocked that kids can’t pray in school anymore, and that Christians are made fun of in popular entertainment, and that so many people say that not only do they not believe in God, they don’t even care whether He’s real or not.

We act like all of this has happened in the last few decades, but that’s not true. The last few decades are just when we’ve started noticing that the water we’re in is getting hotter. The truth is that this all started centuries ago, even thousands of years ago.

Christians have seldom had it easy, but we’ve never had it easier than in the last few hundred years here in America. That’s slowly changing, though. We’re coming into a new time when being a Christian doesn’t bring you certain advantages in society, it actually brings you disadvantages.

Much of our culture is becoming more and more hostile towards faith. Believe in God is becoming more rare. So is belief in any sort of afterlife. And a lot of the reason why things like God and heaven and hell aren’t important to people now is because words like “truth” and “sin” have fallen out of fashion.

You can’t say you know the truth, because culture says there is no truth. And you can’t call something a sin, because then culture says you’re being judgmental. So the result is a lot of people walking around who don’t just think the Christian faith is offensive, they don’t understand the Christian faith at all.

After a few centuries when anywhere from 80-90% of the country called themselves Christians even if they didn’t act like it, we’re now becoming a minority.

We’re starting to find out how it feels to not belong, and we don’t like it. That’s why you see so many Christians on the news sounding so mad and defensive. We’re stuck with the reality that what we believe isn’t accepted by society anymore. In a lot of situations, we’re not even allowed to talk about our faith.

But like I said last week, there’s some good in all of that bad. We’ve been living like comfortable Christians for too long, and our faith has grown a little soft as a result. Now we’re being reminded that this broken, messed-up world is not our home.

We’re starting to realize that the Bible is right — we really are aliens in a strange land. We’re not supposed to be settling in and putting down roots like we’ll be living in this world forever. We’re not supposed to be looking at this life in the same way that everyone else does. We’re set apart, and we’re called to live that way. We’re supposed to consider ourselves as living in exile because our true home is somewhere else.

So how do we do that? How do we live in exile?

The Bible has a lot to say about that. In fact, a good portion of the Old Testament deals with Judah — God’s chosen people — being conquered by the Babylonians, a nation of many gods and all sorts of strange practices.

Almost everything Babylon did was geared toward maintaining the respect and power of the state. And the rule was simple: fit in, or die.

One person stands out in the Old Testament story of the Babylonian captivity, and that’s Daniel. He and his friends had grown up in Judah, in the Promised Land, only to be taken into exile to a foreign city that couldn’t care less about the God they worshipped. Daniel would spend the rest of his life there, until finally dying sometime in his nineties.

His fellow countrymen with him in exile couldn’t understand what had happened. They didn’t know what God was doing. They didn’t know if they could — or even should — keep on obeying Him. But as we’ll see throughout Daniel’s life, God is powerful; God is in control; and God is always worthy of our complete trust.

So let’s get introduced to this great man. Turn with me to Daniel chapter one. We’ll be reading the entire chapter:

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.

Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.

And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.”

Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.

As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.

And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.

And this is the word of the Lord.

This story begins in the middle of a national emergency. God’s chosen people are living in Judah, but in verse 1 we find that Nebuchadnezzar, king of the world’s greatest empire, “came to Jerusalem and besieged it.”

You can imagine, though, that a lot of people in Jerusalem kept pretty calm about this for a while. They’d been attacked and invaded plenty of times before, and every time God had been there to rescue them.

But this time was different. God had been warning His people over and over through the prophets that if they kept turning away from Him, they would be punished. And they kept turning away, so Nebuchadnezzar is their punishment.

The Babylonians don’t just conquer Judah, they take some of the holy relics from the house of God and bring them to the house of Nebuchadnezzar’s god. And notice in verse 2 where that place is. It’s in Shinar. It’s the city of Babylon.

Do you know where we first hear about Babylon in the Bible? Genesis chapter 11. Babylon was where the Tower of Babel had been built. This is the place where people had come together to say, “We’re going to show God who’s really in charge.” That’s where God’s vessels had been taken.

But that’s not all. In verses 3 and 4, the king also takes the royal family, the nobility, and all the smart and handsome young people. There’s nothing left of Jerusalem, nothing left of Judah. Everything’s in ruins. For the exiled Jews, it sure did look like the gods of Babylon are more powerful than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Which left some questions, didn’t it? Like if God was so strong, why couldn’t He protect His people? Where is God in all of this? Did we follow Him for nothing?

Those are some familiar questions now, aren’t they?

Nebuchadnezzar was a smart guy. He knew how to run a nation and how to hold on to power, because look at what he does. He empties Judah of its most skilled and powerful and knowledgable people, and brings them to Babylon. Especially, according to verse 4, the young people.

Now why would Nebuchadnezzar do that? What’s his goal? It’s simple. He wants the people of God to forget they’re people of God. He wants them to think they’re Babylonians now.

So if the Babylonians can get their hands on Judah’s most influential people and relocate them, re-educate them, and rename them, it won’t be long until the Jews as a whole change their entire way of thinking about the world. They won’t live like Jews anymore, they’ll live like Babylonians. That’s what the Babylonians did to every nation they conquered, and it was hugely successful.

So first, Daniel and his friends are moved. Taken from the safety of the Promised Land and into a foreign land of false gods. And usually that’s all it takes to change somebody, especially somebody young. Look at how often that happens when kids go off to college.

But then the pressure on Daniel is made even greater, because he’s given a Babylonian education to replace the Jewish learning he’d received at home.

Verse 4 says he was taught the literature and language of the Chaldeans, who were the Babylonians. Why was that so important? Because Nebuchadnezzar knew what modern science has proven over and over — what you read changes the way you think, and the way you think changes who you are.

But it doesn’t stop there either. Next, they change Daniel’s name. Now, Daniel isn’t alone. He has friends from Judah with him who are also exiles — Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. That’s verse 6. Verse 7 tells us the new names they’re given.

Now pay attention to this. The Jews always gave their children names that pointed in some way to their religion. So did the Babylonians. Daniel’s name means, “God is my judge.” But he’s given the new name Belteshazzar, which means “Bel’s prince.” The chief god of the Babylonians was Baal.

Hananiah’s name means “Whom Jehovah has graciously given.” His new name is Shadrach, which is taken from the Babylonian god of the sun.

Mishael means “Who is what God is.” He’s now Meshach, which means “He who belongs to Schach,” who was a Babylonian goddess.

And Azariah, which means “Jehovah has helped,” is now Abednego, which means “Servant of Nebo,” who was one of the most important Babylonian gods.

Aside from maybe being relocated from Jerusalem to Babylon, being renamed is the biggest change these four young men go through. Their new names were still god-honoring, but they were names that honored false gods.

More than that, think about how important your name is to your own sense of self. In a lot of ways, your name is who you are. So it’s more than that Daniel was given a new name. He was given an whole new identity.

And you know what? Daniel goes right along with it. So do his three friends. They do exactly as they’re told, because what else are they going to do? It’s either go along with things or be killed.

But at the start of verse 5, we see this seemingly innocent mention of Daniel and his friends being given a daily portion of the king’s food and wine. Then down in verse 8, we see that “Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.”

So you’re telling me that Daniel went along with being taken into exile in a pagan country, because to disobey would mean death.

And he went along with being re-educated and told that the Jewish way of thinking was wrong, because to disobey would mean death.

Daniel even let his name be changed from one that honored the true God to one that honored a false god, because to disobey would mean death.

But here, when it comes to eating the most delicious food and drinking the best wine in the entire kingdom, Daniel says no even though he knows he’ll probably be killed for it.

Doesn’t that seems strange to you? But remember, in the Old Testament one of the most important ways that God used to separate His chosen people from all the other nations was what they could and couldn’t eat and drink. And the Old Testament Jews followed those rules because it was an outward way of showing what it meant to belong to God and God alone.

Daniel said, “Take me away from my home and put me in a foreign land, God will still be with me.” He said, “Teach me your ways, I’ll just use them to better know the one true God.” He even said, “Change my name, I know my real identity rests with the Creator of all and the God of my people.”

But when Daniel’s told, “You have to eat this food, no matter what it is, and drink this wine, no matter what it is,” he understands this is it. Following the rules for food is his last connection to both his people and his faith, and so Daniel says no. So do his friends.

It is so easy to read this passage through our modern eyes and picture these four young men making a whole scene here. Protesting, shouting, marching around the castle with signs that say, “God is great, God is good, we won’t eat your stinking food.” It wasn’t like that at all. Daniel wasn’t a troublemaker.

There’s a huge difference between being godly and being obnoxious. In fact, verse 9 says that Daniel found favor and compassion with the chief of the eunuchs, the man in charge. And down in verses 19-20, we see that Daniel and his friends were the wisest and most insightful of all the students, even the ones who’d been born in Babylon.

They weren’t trying to break the system, they were trying to contribute to it. They weren’t out to overthrow the king, they were working their hardest to make themselves useful to the king. Daniel and his friends would honor Babylon, but they would honor God first.

That takes a huge amount of faith and strength. To swim against the current of an entire culture and risk being made fun of, or being hated, or in Daniel’s case being killed, takes the sort of faith that doesn’t just show up in a moment. That’s a faith that takes a lifetime to develop and grow. And it has to be strong, because it’s easy for Daniel to start rationalizing things, easy for him to start thinking:

We’re a long way from how things used to be. Why not just go along with the times?

People’s opinions have changed, and nothing I can say will change them back.

All those things our parents taught us, those things we’re supposed to believe, they’re all old-fashioned. They won’t work where I am now.

But Daniel and his friends don’t even allow those thoughts in their minds. They’re going to honor God as best they can by helping the nation of Babylon. But they’re also going to make sure that God is kept first in their lives, even if it means putting themselves in danger. And as soon as they say No to the king’s food and wine, they’re in danger.

Daniel’s only hope is to convince the chief of the king’s eunuchs to let them eat other food. That doesn’t mean Daniel’s going to give in if the chief eunuch says no. It’s just going to be better and easier for Daniel if his boss agrees.

But in verse 10, his boss doesn’t agree at all. He says, “Look, Daniel. You’re a nice guy and all, but the king isn’t. You might have your own beliefs to think about, but I have my own head to think about. And if the king sees you walking around all puny and skinny, he’s going to kill me.”

So then Daniel goes to the steward. The big boss man said no, so now Daniel’s going to try the second-in-command. And he offers the steward a deal. Look at verses 12 and 13:

“Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

It’s one thing to have faith. It’s quite another to put that faith to the test. That’s exactly what Daniel does with the steward. Daniel knows what’s right according to God’s word, and he’s made God’s word the center of his life. So now he’s going to stick with God’s word and trust God to come through.

And the steward, for his part, agrees. He gives Daniel and his friends only vegetables and water, and after ten days, not only are the young men okay, they look healthier than any of the youths who had eaten all that fancy food of the king. So for the next three years, vegetables and water is their diet. And Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego all prosper.

Now does this mean that as Christians we should stand against what the culture says is good and right and true by becoming vegetarians? Boy, I hope not. That would be terrible. These verses aren’t giving us diet advice, because look what happens — Daniel and his friends don’t get skinnier, they actually get fatter. The reason that happened was God. God worked a miracle. But that miracle was made possible because Daniel and his friends stood firm.

So here’s my question: how do we as Christians stand firm now, in the modern culture of 2023 America? We’re called to be different. What does that look like? We’re exiles in a foreign land of false gods. How should we live?

We’re told exactly that in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is all about the fall of Judah to the Babylonians, and in Jeremiah 29, God tells his people how they are to live in exile:

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Wow, right? Pray, and desire, and do everything in your power to support your nation, because when it prospers you’ll prosper, and when it suffers you’ll suffer too.

God is saying that it is our duty as citizens to do all we can to make our nation strong. He says we should submit to the government that protects our earthly livelihoods. And if that government is an enemy of truth, even if that government is responsible for persecution, that is God’s to judge and not ours.

But, God also says, “Know where your lines are.”

Know where your lines are. Work hard and love everyone and get along and lift up those who rule over you — but know where your lines are. And as a Christian, you need to have lines.

For Daniel and his friends, they could go along in good conscience with being dragged to Babylon. They could be re-educated and even re-named. But when it came to eating food that God said not to eat, that was their line. They went along with all the rest, but they refused to cross their line.

So where’s your line? There’s a whole lot of stuff out there being promoted by our society that flat-out opposes what the Bible says. And do we as Christians hold that the Bible is God’s Word to us, and our authority when it comes to what’s right and wrong? You better believe it. So you better know where your lines are drawn. You better know where God will tell you, “You can do this and this and this, but I don’t want you doing that.”

If you take any major issue now that broadly speaking puts the Bible on one side and secular society on the other, they all follow the same pattern.

First, we’re told that we have to tolerate this issue, or this lifestyle, or this way of thinking about the world. You might disagree, but these are still people, they’re human beings, and they have the same rights and freedoms as everyone else. They have a right to their own choices and opinions so long as they don’t harm you. So this issue, or this lifestyle, should be tolerated.

After some time has passed, though, tolerance is no longer enough. Now the demand is acceptance. Hey, you know that times change. People and societies grow. We look at how things were when our parents were our age and just cringe. Things evolve. We know and understand more. This is just the way it is now.

It’s a little tricky, because acceptance doesn’t really mean acceptance when it comes to the things society says are good but the Bible says are wrong. When culture preaches tolerance, it actually means acceptance. When you tolerate something, you’re accepting that something exists that you don’t agree with but also don’t go out of your way to oppose.

When culture preaches acceptance, it really means agreement. You agree that this is just the way things are, and there’s no point in arguing it.

But we’re not done. There’s something after acceptance too. Celebration. It’s to celebrate the issue, it’s to champion the people who adopt this lifestyle. And for a whole host of social issues in this country now, that’s where we are. If you don’t celebrate it, then you don’t accept it, and you certainly don’t tolerate it. That means you’re a bigot. And there is nothing worse in our culture today than a bigot.

So how do you know where do you draw your lines? That’s where reading your Bible comes in. That’s where prayer comes in, and the Holy Spirit working inside you.

There are some issues where God will say you have to draw the line even at tolerance. He’ll say, “For you to even tolerate this would damage your relationship with Me. So don’t do it, because your relationship with Me is the most important thing in your life.”

For other issues, God will tell you to draw the line at acceptance. Or celebration. And sometimes God will say, “This is something that you as My child really should celebrate.”

The important thing isn’t where your lines are drawn. It’s that you draw them. And once those lines are drawn, it’s vowing to never cross them.

Daniel and his friends refused to cross their line. They had the courage to say no, and that courage came from one thing: they knew God was in control.

Not the chief eunuch. Not the steward. Not even Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man in the world. God. God was in control of all of it.

Look in verse 2: “And the Lord gave Jehoikim king of Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand.

Look at verse 9: “And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs.”

Look at verse 17: God gave the youths learning and skill.

God was in control of everything. Not a single thing happened without His direction and approval. God took Daniel to Babylon. God oversaw his new education. God gave him the courage to make his stand. God was with Daniel before Babylon and in Babylon, and God will use Daniel in Babylon.

God was in control. God is in control. Of all of it, and everything. And so the key to standing firm and knowing where your lines are drawn is to know God. Daniel knew God. Daniel knew God’s great command: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

That was the heart of Daniel’s life. That was the truth he lived by. And that’s exactly how Daniel endured a different home and a different name and a different language but still remained true to the faith he had. Because he still loved God, and he knew that God was in control.

And that is the God who reigns over all things today. We live in Babylon. We have always lived in Babylon, because this world is not our home. We don’t belong here, we belong in another world, and listen — if we confuse those two, if we mix up where our real home is, we are going to end up with loyalties that are confused and faith that is compromised.

We’re in Babylon, and so we’re going to face challenges. But God is still on His throne. God is still in control, and we’ll have to answer to him and no one else. The moments are coming when you’ll have to decide whether to follow the culture or follow God, and those moments are going to shine a light on what you really believe. So be ready. Be like Daniel, and know where your lines are drawn.

Let’s pray:

Father in a world and a nation that is increasingly turning against You, we are called to bear Your witness even more. We are called to be salt and preserve the truth in a world that does not believe in truth. We are called to be light in a world that favors darkness. Give us the wisdom, the courage, and the strength to be that salt and light. Speak to us through Your word and Your spirit to grant us the wisdom to know when to say yes and when to say no, when to agree with the world and when to make our own stand as David did. For we know, Father, that You alone will judge us, and You alone are our salvation. For it’s in Christ’s name we ask it, Amen.