How to Make it in Babylon

Daniel 1:1-15

It is not difficult to look around us in the world we are living in and get discouraged. Sometimes we think, how in the world are we going to make it in a world that seems to just increasingly becomes more and more anti-God and wicked and promotes wicked things? If youre like me it sometimes gets to the point where you think there’s no way we’re going to make it, evil will eventually prevail. How long is God going to let this continue? We are certainly living in our own modern day Babylon.

But here in our passage, Daniel was in a similar boat. Israel had been disobedient to God for a long time and would not repent and as a result, God was going to bring judgment by allowing wicked Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to come and conquer Israel and capture all of its people. He and all his countrymen had been captured by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians and it surely seemed like evil was going to overtake God’s people. But by examining Daniel and his 3 friends, we can gain insight into how we can make it in our own Babylon.

I. Confident in Our Identity (6-7)

When the Babylonians brought these 4 young Hebrew Boys in, One of the first things they did was they changed their names.

They did this to get the captured Hebrews to forget their former identity with Israel and its God and to identify with Babylon and its gods, because if they could get the Hebrews to forget where they came from and begin identifying with them, they would be easier to control.

Daniel = Belteshazzar

Daniel means “God is my Judge”

Belteshazzar means “Bel protects his life” or “Bel’s Prince”

Hananiah = Shadrach

Hananiah means “beloved by the Lord”

Shadrach means “Illuminated by the Sun-God”

Mishael = Meshach

Mishael means “Who is as God?”

Meshach means “Who is like Shach” (a Babylonian Goddess”

Azariah = Abednego

Azariah = “The Lord is my help”

Abednego = “Servant of Nego”

Satan tries to do the same thing to you and I today. He uses the pressure of the world around us to try and get us to conform to the identity of this world.

If the Devil can get you to forget who you are and Who’s you are, then he has you right where he wants you

Look around us in the world today. Our nation and even our world has a major identity crisis. Nobody knows who or what they are anymore.

But nowhere in the text does it say that Daniel ever fought back against this re-naming of himself and his friends. Why is that?

Daniel understood and embraced his identity in the Lord!

Daniel in a sense said “you can call me whatever you want to, but I know who I am and Who’s I am. God is my judge”

And if you take the time to read through the entirety of the book of Daniel, not one time did Daniel ever refer to himself as Belteshazzar

Daniel 2:26 “The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?”

Daniel never referred to himself as Belteshazzar, even though other people did.

It is time for you and I to embrace who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ and not allow the world or the devil to try and change who we are or Who we identify with!

1 Peter 2:5 KJV 1900

5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:9–10 KJV 1900

9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

1 Peter 1:18–23 KJV 1900

18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

This, Church, is WHO WE ARE!!!

The world may call us bigoted, out-dated, hateful, out-of-touch, or just plain weird, but that’s ok, because we are a “peculiar people” we dont belong here!

The world is going to try to convince us to identify with them so we can stay relevant, inoffensive, and politically correct, but we must, like the Prophet Daniel stand against that temptation and remember who we are and Who we belong to!

II. Concrete in our Beliefs (4)

Another thing the Babylonians did when they captured these young Hebrew boys is they attempted to indoctrinate them in the ways of Babylon (v. 4)

Nebuchadnezzar wanted the Hebrews to be trained in their ideologies and beliefs so that they would not desire to go back to Israel. The hope was that if all the Hebrews loved the Babylonian way of life, theyd be less likely to fight back and desire to go back to their homeland.

And just like Satan wants us to identify with the world, he also wants to indoctrinate us with the world’s philosophy and ideology!

Are we not being bombarded with it every day in our entertainment? Our news? our schools? our jobs? Satan is trying his hardest to indoctrinate all of us!

But once again, the text does not mention anywhere that Daniel objected to this teaching? Why is that? Because Daniel was concrete in what he believed!

He knew WHAT he believed and WHY he believed it.

Daniel had a close relationship to the Lord and he was deeply rooted in his faith

Daniel 6 - the only thing they could accuse him of was his faithfulness to God

Daniel also knew and understood scripture

Daniel 9:13–16 KJV 1900

13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. 14 Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. 16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

He knew the Law of God and the prophets and he prayed that God would accomplish the 70 weeks spoken of in other prophecies.

Daniel wasnt going to be able to avoid the indoctrination of Babylon, he had been captured by them, and he wasnt going to escape. So the only defense he had against the attempted indoctrination of Babylon was for him to be firmly rooted in what he believed.

Daniel embodied what Paul spoke of in Ephesians 4:14 “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;”

If we are honest with ourselves, we also cant completely avoid the bombardment of the worlds ideologies. We can try, but it always pops up somewhere. Therefore, our best defense is to be as Daniel and be firmly rooted in what we believe and WHY.

This is important, because we are really good at telling each other what to believe, but really bad at explaining WHY.

So many teenagers leave the faith after High School because they were only told what they needed to believe, but were never told WHY

Example: Paul going to Athens and Berea

So while the Babylonians attempted to get Daniel to be indoctrinated in the ways of Babylon, Daniel was unmoved, unshaken, and uncompromising because he was firmly rooted. He was concrete in his beliefs.

III. Courageous in Our Stand (8)

There was one thing that Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians attempted to do to Daniel that he DID fight back against, and that was in what he consumed (v.8)

When I first read this I was a little confused. Why would Daniel not speak up against the name change and the indoctrination, but then speak up about the food he ate? The other 2 seem like a much bigger deal. Here are 3 reasons:

It was undoubtedly not kosher, it would be a direct disobedience of God’s command to Israel to eat this food

It probably had been sacrificed to idols

eating the food implied fellowship with the king’s system. In ancient cultures, sitting and eating a meal with someone implied friendship and agreeance with that person. Daniel wanted it to be clear he was neither friends with Babylon or in agreeance with the Babylonian way of life

Notice the words which Daniel used “that he would not DEFILE himself” this carries the thought of polluting or staining. Daniel understood sin and its seriousness.

He did not make light of the situation. He couldve said “its JUST food and i have to eat something, God will understand”. He also couldve said “ everyone else is doing it, so i will too” but he did not! He was courageous in his stand!

He also made it clear it was for a spiritual reason. He did not try to make some other excuse for why he couldnt eat it, he was very clear “I cannot defile myself because I want to be faithful to my God!”

Daniel made a big deal over a little thing. This is the only way to be truly faithful to God, is to be faithful in the little things. It is not insignificant that the very first sin in history was tied to eating forbidden food!

This world is going to try to get us to compromise our faith and our walk with God over seemingly “little things”. They’ll try to convince you its not a big deal, but it is! We must stay true to God in even the “little things”!

Its not just a little sin, it is a defilement to our souls!

Who cares if everyone else is doing it! Are you going to stand true and faithful to the Lord?!

Daniel then made a courageous decision to make a request to have vegetables and water instead of the kings meat and wine.

It was courageous because of the potential consequences: he could have been executed for rebellion, they could have prevented him from ever moving up the ranks in the political sphere

You and I have to make a courageous decision to take a stand and make the choice to not defile ourselves with this world’s meat!

God honored their courage - he made them fatter and healthier than everyone eating the meat!

IV. Collective in Our Unity (11-15)

Daniel and his friends did it together

He initially made the decision that he would not defile HIMSELF. But then when he made the request for something else to eat, he included his friends

Them doing this together may have very well been the only reason they made it through

Church, we need eachother to make it in our Babylon!

The world is already doing enough to tear us down and tear us apart, lets not add to it. We’re all in this thing together!

God honored their efforts

Conclusion

Daniel is one of only a handful of characters in Scripture where not one negative thing is ever said of him. I believe it was because of what we have talked about this evening. These 4 things are what helped him stay faithful and true all the way through to the end even though he was stuck in Babylon the whole time

In order for us to make in Babylon were going to have to be

Confident in our identity - know who we are and who we belong to

Concrete in our beliefs - know what we believe and why

Courageous in our stand - have the courage to stand against sin and be uncompromising

Collective in our unity - were going to have to do it together