S - Daniel Pt. 1 (Daniel 1)
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8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel,
10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”
11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,
12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.
I don’t really have an illustration today, or an interesting story to kind of introduce what we’re going to be talking about. Instead I want to introduce what we’re going to be reading over the next couple of weeks. We are going to read the first 6 chapters of Daniel together. We are going to read through half of the book together and see what God has in store for us.
Before we dive into Daniel’s story, the book of Daniel sets the stage. Do you know what it means to set the stage? It means that the writer of this book is gonna tell us a story, but before he does he wants us to have some background to understand what’s going to happen next.
And in the first 5 verses this is what it says:
Daniel 1:1–5 (NIV)
1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
2 And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.
3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility—
4 young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.
5 The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.
So King Nebuchadnezzer walks into the City of Jerusalem and takes it over. Think of it this way, what city are we in today? We are in Thomasville. We’re going to pretend for just a second that Mr. Lahmar is the King of Thomasville. But Mr. Erik lives in Jonesville. He is actually the king of Jonesville. Mr. Erik sees Thomasville and says, I like Thomasville so I am going to go into Thomasville, take all of their money, businesses and take their people so that they can come and work for me.
And that’s what King Nebuchadnezzar does, He is the king of Babylon and he takes over the city of Jerusalem. Takes all of their money, food, animals and even takes their strong and young men so that they can work for him.
Imagine for a second if you were one of those people. You are taken away from everything you know, you are taken away from your family, you are taken away from your bedroom, from the things that bring you joy. Imagine for a second that some unknown force takes you from everything you love and you end up in a different place, with different people, with different clothes, and food.
How would you feel? For some of you, this might be your story. But the book of Daniel tells all of this because now, the author wants us to focus on 1 guy and his 3 friends for the rest of the book.
Let’s learn their named:
6 Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.
7 The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.
There four young men were taken from everything they knew, and they even lost their names. How awful is that? It adds another layer of pain, because now these people are trying to change your identity.
I don’t want us to miss what’s happening here though. Everything they are going through is awful. Absolutely disgusting. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. To loose everything, even your identity? God help us so that may never happen to us.
While this may never happen to us, as Christians, we can sometimes live in spaces that are uncomfortable or be surrounded by people who do not think like us.
I know all of you guys are going to be going back to school soon, and many of you in here are Christian. Let’s be honest, how easy is it to be Christian here at church? How easy is it to be Christian at Mountain Camp? It’s pretty darn easy isn’t it? Why? Because we are surrounded by Christians. And even those that aren’t Christian they behave around us. Because we are the majority.
But you are about to go back to school, is school a Christian place? Do they read the Bible with you? Pray with you? What about your friends at school? Are they all Christians? probably not right? What do they believe? What are the words they say? Is their speech clean? Do they worship or even believe in God?
It is harder for you to behave like a Christian in non-Christian spaces
It will be harder to pray for your food during lunch, it will be harder to listen to firm foundation on youtube, it will be harder not to curse or to behave like some of your friends. But did you know, that God puts you in those spaces for a reason? Sure, God places you there so you can learn, continue your education. But He also places you in those spaces so you can share the Gospel with people who’ve never heard it.
See, we all know that what’s happening to Daniel and his friends is awful, but God will use them while they are there. Let’s take a look at what happens next:
8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel,
10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”
11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,
12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.
13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.”
14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
What you may not know is that Jewish people were forbidden to eat certain foods back then. Especially foods that had been sacrificed to other Gods.
See, Daniel and his buddies chose not to behave like the people they were surrounded by. Verse 8 says:
8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
Daniel resolved not to defile himself. In other words, Daniel chooses not to behave like the people around him. Daniel chooses not to curse, or to listen to garbage on the internet, or to act a fool for attention. Daniel chooses to behave like a Christian. Daniel chooses to follow Jesus. What will you do?
I know it sounds like I’m preaching to kids only but I’m not. Let’s be honest, it is easier for adults to be Christians. Especially in our field. We don’t go to school where we can picked on for our faith, we aren’t surrounded by non Christian people. My coworkers are Christians, the people I get lunch with love Jesus, every single adult in this room loves God.
But just because it is easier to be a Christian in public for us, that does not mean that we always do a good job when no one is looking. What’s on our phones friends, how do we treat people when we get pushed to the edge? how are we raising these kids in this room?
I’ve said this a couple of times. I love my parents, they helped me with a lot. But sometimes they raised me like I wasn’t gonna remember what happened. how are you approaching the kids in Care? With love? with patience?
I say this because when I was house parent I made tons of mistakes. I would be in a bad mood sometimes and I caught myself looking for a reason to lecture one of the boys. I did, and Mrs. Stephanie would point that out thank God for her. As a house parent I realized that living like Jesus meant I was supposed to that all of the time. Even when I was angry or frustrated. I don’t want to raise our boys and girls like they aren’t going to remember what happened because they will.
And your witness is the most powerful tool at your disposal. If your witness is bad, then it won’t matter if you preach Jesus. If you aren’t BEHAVING like Jesus, your words don’t matter. Because your words are backed up by your actions. Your actions are what gives your words weight.
This bit of Scripture teaches us something very important:
Behaving like Jesus is a choice
In the same way you decided to follow Jesus, you must also choose to behave like him. It’s not the easiest thing to do. We want to do the things we want to do instead, but if we behave like Jesus in spaces in which people don’t know Him, God will bless us.
15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.
16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
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.
See, this doesn’t mean that you will all of sudden know a bunch of things or that you will have the gift Daniel had. But Daniel and his friends chose to seek God, so God blessed them by giving them a better understanding of who God is and how they could worship Him better.
God provided a way for Daniel to succeed. See, this reminds me of this awesome verse in the New Testament:
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
You seek God first, and He will provide the other things you need as well. But you have to make the choice to follow him, even when it’s difficult. If you do, then he will bless you. How will he bless you? There are a couple of ways in which God will bless you, but why don’t we see what ways God blessed Daniel and his friends:
God blessed them:
Physically.
14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.
16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
God blessed them:
Physically.
Mentally.
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.
20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.
God blessed them:
Physically.
Mentally.
Spiritually.
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 verse 17 we see how God blessed Daniel with the ability to understand dreams and visions. And I know that as we read these it sounds like we see an emphasis on dreams or maybe you’ve heard of someone having visions as well.
Now I don’t doubt for a second that people have dreams. I’ve had dreams before. plenty. Mrs. Stephanie loves to talk to me about her dreams and will occasionally get mad at me for doing bad things in her dreams. But ultimately I want to point something out about dreams and visions in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament God used visions and dreams to speak to people and they were not easy to understand. But God used visions and dreams because the people from the Old Testament did not have 2 things you and I have today.
The first thing is: The Bible. The people from the Old Testament had a little bit of the Bible. They might have had the first 5 books. But they did not have the whole thing like you and I do because it wasn’t all written yet.
And the second things we have that they don’t is Jesus.
Let be clear, Jesus already existed during the Old Testament. He just hadn’t showed Himself physically as the Messiah yet.
We have God’s Word and we even have Jesus who came to earth and He spoke to us and He speaks to us today through the Bible. So, we don’t necessarily see God speaking to us today through visions and dreams. God speaks to us through the Bible and through Jesus. God speaks to us through other people and He uses the Holy Spirit as an internal compass to guide, teach and comfort us in time of need.
what this verse really point to is super simple:
If you take the time to seek God, He will give you a better understanding of Him and a better understanding of the Bible.
Why is it important to have a better understanding of the Bible?
Do you guys remember in Mountain Camp when one of the leader came up to speak? And they taught us about the 2 guys that were on the road to Emaus?
well, we learned that those 2 people were walking with Jesus and they didn’t even know it was Jesus. And they didn’t realize it was Jesus but they also didn’t realize Jesus was God because they didn’t have a good understanding of what the Bible says.
The guy who spoke that day said this:
It is important to have true knowledge of the Bible so that we can have true knowledge about God.
If we don’t know what the Bible says about God, you and I and even the rest of the world can believe wrong things about God. God wrote the Bible to tell us about Himself. The best way to know God is to see what He says about Himself. And that’s what Daniel did. He wanted to know more about God, so he sought out God. So God blessed Him with knowledge. And gave him the tools he needed to better serve God.
God blessed them:
Physically.
Mentally.
Spiritually.
Socially.
18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.
19 The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service.
20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.
21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
I’ve noticed something about Christianity. It’s the religion the world can belittle, demean and pick on and no one get’s upset. If you said anything offensive about Islam, Atheism, Buddhism, or any other religion people will get mad.
I added Atheism because it is its own religion.
But if people say anything offensive about Christianity or about God, then it’s not a problem. Some people will claim that Christianity is the religion of dumb people. And as you head back to school you will more than likely get picked on for being a Christian. At least I was when I was in High school.
But regardless of what people say, when the world is in trouble who do they seek out? They seek God. They seek out Christians. Because Christians are the ones sending help to other countries. They are the ones sending food, building shelters, going on mission trips, helping the poor and adopting the orphans.
I’m not saying that non-Christians don’t do that. But Christians do it 2 times more than anyone else.
Christian people are the most trustworthy people and I’m not saying we are perfect, we make our mistakes. But if we are people of principal, if we are people that stand on God’s word, the rest of the world WILL turn to us when their word, or their god fails them. Because our God doesn’t fail.
So, we may be in some socially awkward positions sometimes. But if you walk with Jesus no matter what others say, He will bless you. He will give you confidence, growth and even the people that don’t accept you today, they may be the ones looking to you tomorrow, why? Because you have Jesus.
But we must choose to follow Jesus, even in spaces in which it is hard.
How will you be different than everyone else? How will you point others to Jesus?
If you don’t know who Jesus is, and you want the confidence He gives us, talk to me after service today.
If you don’t know who Jesus is, and you want to know who He is, I’d love to have that conversation with you today.
Let me ask our house parents one question: Are you preparing our kids to share the Gospel with the nations? Or are you just trying to make sure they survive today? If good morals are their baseline for salvation they will miss heaven by a long shot. If cleanliness and good behavior is the most important things to you, then our kids will miss heaven by a lot.
I am not saying that we should not value those things, we should. But value the Gospel and the Kingdom of Heaven more than those things. Are you preparing our kids to share the Gospel with the nations? Don’t say: “They aren’t ready” Because God used us when we weren’t. And what makes us better people is not the good things we do, It’s the blood of Jesus. The blood of the lamb is the only thing that has caused a change in our lives. He can cause that change that in the lives of our kids, and God has called you to share the message of the Gospel with them.