Kingdoms Colliding

CONTEXT AND INTRODUCTION

Last week we began our Daniel series by seeing how the people of God ended up in Exile in Judah.

They had broken covenant with God and He was using the Babylonian Exile to bring them back to Himself.

The first wave of Exiles leaving Judah and being taken to Babylon took place in 605 BC.

Daniel and his three friends are a part of that group.

They are the cream of the crop of the next generation of Judah and Nebuchadnezzar wants them for his court, so that he can eventually give them authority and then use them to subdue their own people

KINGDOMS COLLIDING

This morning as we study the rest of chapter 1, what we will see is that the reality of Exile has brought about a collision.

It is a collision of Kingdoms.

First of all, there is God’s Kingdom.

Daniel and his three friends belong to it.

Secondly, there is the Kingdom of Babylon.

Daniel and his three friends do not belong to it, but they live in it.

And more than that, we will see this morning that one kingdom is attempting to invade the other.

We will see that Babylon comes for the minds of the young Jewish men.

It comes for the will of the young Jewish men.

It comes for the identity of the young Jewish men.

The question is, How will Daniel and his three friends respond?

And how does their response inform the way we relate to our world?

Because as we will see this morning—our situation is not so different.

TEXT—these are the very words of God

Daniel 1:3–21 ESV

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.

OUTLINE

This morning our outline comes in the form of four questions that we want answers to regarding the collision between Babylon and Judah.

1. What is the conflict between God’s people and Babylon? (v. 3-7)

2. How do God’s people respond to the conflict? (v. 8-14)

3. What is the result of the response of God’s people? (v. 15-20)

4. Who wins the conflict? (v. 21)

QUESTION 1: What is the conflict between God’s people and Babylon? (v. 3-7)

We can look at this passage and see the answer to this question pretty easily.

The conflict between God’s people Babylon is one of kingdom, authority, values and identity.

KINGDOM (v. 3): First of all, Nebuchadnezzar is seeking to change the kingdom of the people of God.

In verse 3, he commands Ashpenaz to bring some of the people of Israel...

The temporary Kingdom of Israel was a physical expression of God’s rule and reign on the earth.

Nebuchadnezzar wants to move the people of God out of His Kingdom and into Babylon’s Kingdom.

AUTHORITY (v. 5): Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t want the people of Judah to look to their God.

He doesn’t want them to look to their human kings.

He wants them to look at him and count HIM as the ultimate authority.

You see this in the assignment of good and education in v. 5.

They are to be fed from the king’s table and learn in the king’s palace and then they will stand before Nebuchadnezzar to see if they meet his approval.

You can see how the King of Babylon is, at this point, seeking to change the ultimate authority and Judge in the lives of the Jews from Yahweh to himself.

VALUES (v. 4-5): The king orders that the young Judeans would learn the literature and the language of Babylon.

They would be educated in this way for three years.

This is obviously an effort from the Babylonian king to re-program the minds of these young men and in the process, to change their values.

Nebuchadnezzar has big plans for the young people if they are fit to stand in his court after three years of being educated by the King.

If he was going to endow these exiles with authority, he wants them to wield that authority with Babylonian Exiles.

IDENTITY (v. 6): In verse 6, we find out that among those who are going to be submerged into this re-programming, are Daniel and his friends.

And we also see that Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t just want their kingdom and their authority and their values to change.

What we see is that Babylon wants the entire identity of these young men to change.

This is evidenced in what happens with the names of the friends from Judah:

Daniel will now be called Belteshazzar

Hananiah is called Shadrach

Mishael has his named changed to Meshach

Azariah will be called Abednego.

To understand the significance of this, we need to understand what those names meant in their original language:

The Hebrew names of the boys did not necessarily say something about them, but about God.

Two of their names end with “Yah”

That is a shorthand version of Jehovah

Two of them end in “El”

That is one of the names of God in the Old Testament

Daniel means “God has judged” (appropriate for Exile)

Hananiah means “Jehovah has been gracious”

Mishael means “Who is like God?”

Azariah means “Jehovah has helped”

These names all tell us something about God and His character and His actions within His covenant with His people

The Babylonian names that these names are replaced with also say something about deity, but it is not the one true God.

Instead, the names tell us about the false gods of Babylon:

Daniel becomes Belteshazzar— Keeper of the hidden treasure of Bel

Hananiah becomes Shadrach—We don’t know what this name means, but it includes the false god “Marduk” in it

Mishael becomes Meshach—a name that contains an ancient form of the name of the deity for the planet Venus

Azariah becomes Abednego—The servant of Nebo

So instead of being worshippers and servants of Yahweh—citizens of His kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar aims to make the next generation of Israel worshippers and servants of his gods:

Bel, Marduk, Venus and Nebo

In taking their names, he is stealing away their physical and spiritual identity.

CITIZENS AND EXILES

For all my Christian brothers and sisters in this room, this is one of those times where I will make the connections, but I’m not sure you need me to.

We can see our own world in the world of Daniel.

And we can see our own conflict in society in Daniel’s conflict.

This is where we have to remember what Peter has said about us in his letter:

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

This is not always who we were.

We used to be a part of the world, doing all the things the world did and thinking like the world thought, but this is no longer who we are.

We were born into the Kingdom of the world, with with the world and the flesh and Satan as our authority, we had the world’s values in our hearts and we found our identity in the world.

But with His voice of grace, the Spirit of Christ has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

He called us to trust in the God the Son so that we could be reconciled to God the Father.

He called us put the hope of our eternal souls in the hands of our Lord who lived and died and rose again.

He called us out of death and gave us eternal life.

He chose us to represent Him to the world

He chose us to be distinct from the world

And because of His loving call and His gracious choice, we no longer have citizenship in the world.

Our citizenship is in heaven.

Philippians 3:20 ESV

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

And because of this, we are putting off the kingdom of the world, the authorities of darkness in the world, the values of the world and the identity of the world.

And in its place, we are putting on Christ.

We are now in a life-long process of identifying the things in our lives that are not of His Kingdom, or obedient to His authority, or in line with His values.

We are taking off the identity of the world and putting on the identity of Christ.

Colossians 3:9–10 ESV

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

CONFLICT BETWEEN KINGDOMS

The conflict comes in the fact that the image we are putting on—the image of Christ, our Creator—is hated by the world.

The world hates Christ.

And this is something you can hear from Him and take His Word for:

John 15:18–19 ESV

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

It’s pretty straightforward, right?

The evil world hated Jesus.

We left the world to love Jesus.

Now the world hates us.

Ever since the Fall, the world system created by the morality and movements of human being, has been opposed to God.

There are two Kingdoms in the Bible.

The Kingdom of Man and the Kingdom of God.

And because of sin’s effects in the world, the Kingdom of Man is ALWAYS opposing the Kingdom of God.

So as a result, our Kingdom is at odds with the world’s Kingdom.

Our Authority—Christ—is at odds with the temporary authority at work in the world, “Satan—the Prince of the Power of the Air”

Our values are at odds with the world’s values.

Our entire identity is incongruent with the world’s identity.

This incompatibility between kingdoms reaches its ultimate conclusion in the book of Revelation.

There we see the kingdom of the world depicted as none other than the great city of Babylon.

Revelation 18:10 ESV

They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

But in the meantime, we are in the world, but not of the world.

John 17:15–16 ESV

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

And as Jesus prays for us in John 17, He prays that we would be kept from the evil one as we are in the world, but not of the world.

That tells us that these are dangerous times.

THE WORLD’S STRATEGIES

These are times in which those strategies used by Babylon to re-program the young men are still being utilized.

The Kingdom of Babylon and its ruler—Satan—want to re-program us to be who we were.

And the Kingdom of Babylon wants Christ eradicated.

This is what the pride of this world has always wanted from the day that Adam disobeyed.

It wanted God dead.

This has not changed.

Babylon wants the same thing in 2025 AD that it did in 605 BC.

It wants the people of God to forsake their kingdom—their faith.

Instead, it orders us look to self or nature or the Universe or some false god for the satisfaction of their souls

It wants the people of God to forsake their King and find a new authority here in this world.

It wants the people of God to forsake the Word, and take on their values in the place of the Word’s values.

And lastly—most importantly—they want our whole identity to change.

The world wants Christ eradicated.

And the church represents Him here.

Therefore, the world desires what Nebuchadnezzar desires.

They want us to become fully Babylonian.

They want us to return to who we used to be and to leave Christ, who has become our spiritual home.

QUESTION 1: What is the conflict between God’s people and Babylon? (v. 3-7)

The conflict between God’s people Babylon is one of kingdom, authority, values and identity.

That was the case then and it is ongoing now.

QUESTION 2: How do God’s people respond to the conflict? (v. 8-14)

We can see the answer in verses 8-14.

THE KING’S FOOD (v. 8)

In verse 8, we see that Daniel is resolved in his heart that he will not eat the king’s food.

He asks the chief eunuch to allow him to “not defile himself.”

Now some have said this is about not eating food that is unclean, but I don’t believe that is the case, because they also refuse the wine.

Instead, I believe this has more to do with the fact that the food and wine are coming from the King’s table.

See—before every royal Babylonian meal, there was an act of pagan worship.

Nothing was eaten and nothing was drank until it had all been dedicated to pagan deities like Bel, Marduk, Venus and Nebo.

I believe this is what Daniel means when he talks about being defiled.

It would be defiling to eat this food dedicated to these false gods.

If he did it, it would be like him saying, “I am not dependent on Yahweh for food. I am dependent on Marduk.”

Daniel is not going to say that.

WORKING THE SYSTEM (v. 9-14)

Now, when Daniel makes the initial request, the chief eunuch has compassion on Daniel because God gives Daniel favor with him (v. 9)

The chief responds by saying that he is fearful for his life if he allows Daniel and his friends do this.

The king will see that these Judean boys are looking scrawny and have the chief’s head for not doing his job (v. 10).

So then Daniel goes down a rung and speaks with the steward in charge. Maybe he figured this guy would have less to lose since he wasn’t the hand of the king. And Daniel proposes a deal:

He essentially says, “Give us a 10 day trial run and see what we look like after eating our diet.” (v. 12-13)

The steward agrees to the test and they will eat the vegetables and drink the water for a ten day trial period.

But notice that Daniel’s response to the initial fears of the eunuch is to go to someone else and calmly propose a solution.

One one hand, he is not compromising his convictions at all.

But on the other hand, he is using the system that exists in Babylon to be a witness to those uncompromised convictions.

This is what Josh Wredburg and Tyler Eason call “convictional kindness” in their little commentary on Daniel.

CONVICTIONAL KINDNESS

I believe this is a great term that gives us guidance on how we are to live in this world that is not our home.

It speaks to how we live and move as exiles in Babylon.

CONVICTION

There is no doubt that Daniel gives us a model of what it means to be convictional here.

He is resolved, as a member of God’s Kingdom, to not eat the food of the gods of the kingdom of Babylon (v. 8).

The line is drawn in the sand on that. He is not budging.

To illustrate this, let me explain a little bit about the Hebrew phrase that translates to the English word resolve.

The Hebrew used here is the same that would have been used to talk about installing something or fixing it in place.

Now—I am not a DIY guy.

So I am pretty much always amazed at what DIY people can accomplish.

Recently, one of our members sent me a picture of this beautiful luxurious shower he installed on his own, and he might as well have sent me a video of him pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

It looked like the work of a wizard.

And here is the thing about his luxurious DIY shower—it isn’t going anywhere.

It is fixed. It is set.

The fact that the same Hebrew word that would be utilized to speak about installation is being used to describe the conviction in Daniel’s heart tells us something—Daniel is not budging on this.

He is fixed. He is set.

We need more of this in the church today. We need more resolve.

We live in this world where skin is thin, offense comes easy and nobody wants to get canceled.

And I think that sometimes the temperature of Babylon can cause us to be silent.

I think the temperature in the room can cause us to want to caveat things a thousand times over.

But there are certain things that we don’t need to caveat because God has spoken in His Word and we have every reason to draw a line. We have every reason to be fixed. Every reason to be resolved.

Here in Daniel, he is resolved not to eat this food because of what God has commanded in His moral law:

Exodus 20:3 ESV

“You shall have no other gods before me.

That’s the first one. That’s what God led with in His revealed eternal law.

Therefore, this is not hard math for Daniel.

God’s command equals his obedience.

It should be the same for us.

The revealed Word of God drives our resolve.

So we are unapologetically resolved that:

God created the world out of nothing and humans did not evolve from apes by random chance, but were created in the image of God.

There are only two genders and your gender is according to your biological sex because God created us in His image and made us male and female.

Because we are made male and female in the image of God, all male and female humans of any race should have equal rights of protection from the womb

Human beings are not born good, but are depraved because of the Fall in the Garden.

The only way those humans can be made right with God is through Jesus Christ and anyone outside of Jesus Christ is in danger of eternal perishing.

This world will not end in a climate apocalypse like we see in Mad Max due to an anthropogenic climate catastrophe. This world will not end because AI robots take over the planet.

This world will end because Jesus Christ is going to return in power and glory and judge the nations and bring about the full consummation of His eternal Kingdom.

We don’t need to be apologetic about any of that. We don’t need to caveat any of that.

That is the truth as God has spoken it and it is on these things and others, that we are resolved as people of the Word and people of God.

And not only that.

I believe that when we are resolved, and we start drawing those lines in the sand as boundaries of belief and behavior, it will be refreshing to many in the world who are tired of the jellyfish convictions that they see all around them.

When they realize we truly believe these things and that our faith in Christ has brought us to this place of Daniel-like resolve, it will be like a breath of fresh air to some who are desperate for someone to tell them the truth about God and this world.

But with that said—resolve doesn’t mean being a jerk.

KINDNESS

This is where we go from talking about conviction to talking about kindness.

Notice how Daniel handles himself in this situation.

While he is resolved and he is unapologetic about his convictions, he also lives and moves through the system of Babylon in a manner of kindness and gentleness.

In the face of the king of Babylon’s orders, Daniel doesn’t become prideful or angry.

He doesn’t shout and scream.

Instead, he uses the system in place to respectfully and kindly express his resolve.

First he goes to the chief eunuch and makes a request.

He even expresses his spiritual conviction in the request.

He doesn’t merely ask to not eat the food, but to not eat the food, lest he would be defiled.

He is clear about his convictions.

When the chief eunuch has more concern for his own head than Daniel’s spiritual stand, Daniel remains holy.

He doesn’t shout the man down or call him names.

Instead, he turns to the steward, who is not as close to the king and who will be less fearful, and he tries to make headway with him and by God’s grace, he does.

So you can see then the sort of kindness than Daniel maintains, even as he holds the convictional line in Babylon.

He will not be defiled by food offered to pagan gods.

He will also not be defiled by be unloving toward his captors.

Through convictional kindness, Daniel is remaining holy in his actions before God and man.

He stands for God’s law without breaking God’s law.

THE ANSWER TO QUESTION 2

So then, our second question was: How do God’s people respond to the conflict?

The answer is Convictional Kindness.

We must hold the line without budging on that which God as revealed in His Word.

And yet, we must express these things and represent these things to the world in such a way where our attitude and speech and actions are also consistent with God’s Word.

The New Testament calls us to no less than this standard:

If we are born again, blood-bought, Holy Spirit-indwelt believers, kindness is a fruit that should be blooming on the vine of our lives:

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

And that fruit should be present in all that we do in life as disciples of Christ, and that includes evangelism:

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

To get your point across with brashness and disrespect is the flavor of the day in post-modern America.

During the summer of 2021, I went to a few concerts and sporting events where the crowd broke out into loud profane chants about the President.

They were mad about the government, so they chose to voice it with blasphemy.

That might be convictional, but it isn’t kind.

Right now, we have a bunch of absolute clown people running around burning Teslas and attacking people for driving them.

They are mad about the government, so they are choosing to voice it with violence.

Again—that might be convictional, but it isn’t kind.

As believers, we rise above the flavor of Babylon and we show the world the flavors of the New Jerusalem by how we take our stand and how we engage with evil and falsehood.

Our Gospel comes with gentleness and respect.

When we are upset with people in high places, we pray for them.

When we are upset with government, we protest it according to the means provided in the Constitution of our land.

Like Daniel—we work the system.

When we are given orders that we cannot fulfill while being obedient to God, we express our inability to fulfill them.

We explain why.

We offer wise solutions we believe God will bless.

But we don’t mimic Babylon as we respond to Babylon.

Instead, we mimic Christ.

Instead, we model ourselves after faithful Daniel.

We remain convictional about the truth.

And we remain kind about how we take our stand.

This is all going to be incredibly important for us as the church here in Virginia for the next 18 months.

There is a bill moving through legislation that would enshrine unfettered access to abortion in our State Constitution.

It is SJR 247.

It is from the pit of Hell.

It is demonic.

And the church needs to stand against this.

All of us.

Every believer in this state who holds a conviction that we do not create subsets of human beings and treat them as second-class.

That includes unborn babies.

But as we stand against this evil in our state with phone calls and letters and marches and votes, we do so with convictional kindness.

As we stand for life, we cannot make the mistake of bruising the fruit of the Spirit as we seek to preach the truth of the Spirit.

Because on this issue and all issues, Convictional Kindness should be a mark of the church in Babylon.

This is how God’s people respond to conflict with Babylon.

QUESTION THREE: What is the result of the response of God’s people? (v. 15-20)

This question’s answer is pretty straightforward:

The answer is blessing.

v. 9: God gave Daniel favor...in the sight of the chief of eunuchs

v. 15: He blesses their bodies so that through the diet, they look better than the youths eating from the king’s table

v. 17: God gives them learning and skill in their studies and Daniel is specifically given understanding in the realm of dreams and vision—something we will see as soon as the next chapter.

v. 18-20: The favor of God lands them in the place where they are ten times superior to the other youths as they come and stand before the King

When God’s people hold the line of truth and do not give into Babylon, God gives His favor to them.

It is no different for us today.

As we represent Christ as exiles in the world, God will bless our efforts to take a stand for Him.

If our Gospel-preaching and convictional kindness land us in a place where we are leading someone to Jesus—well that is clearly a blessing.

But if our Gospel-preaching convictional kindness leads to persecution and reviling—guess what?

According to Jesus, you are still blessed because you are glorifying His name through suffering:

Matthew 5:11–12 ESV

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This should instill a fearlessness in us to be like Daniel and stay on course with our convictions.

If you are faithful and God uses it to glorify Himself through saving souls, then praise God.

If you are faithful and God uses it to glorify Himself through your suffering soul, then praise God.

Either way, God is pleased and you are blessed.

If that’s true, you have all you need.

If you please God, it doesn’t matter whom you displease. But if you displease God, it doesn’t matter who you please!

Adrian Rogers

Obey God in conflict with Babylon and He will be pleased.

If that is true, not much else matters—even our self-preservation.

So this is question 3—3. What is the result of the response of God’s people? (v. 15-20)

The answer is God’s blessing.

QUESTION FOUR: Who wins the conflict? (v. 21)

We won’t go deep on this question today, because the rest of Daniel will bear it out.

However, we don’t have to wait to see it.

Daniel has a little spoiler alert tucked away at the end of chapter 1.

Daniel 1:21 ESV

And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.

Cyrus was not a Babylonian King.

He was the Persian King that conquered Babylon after the days of Nebuchadnezzar.

This is a small twist of the knife from the Bible and an important one.

Here the Word is telling us:

This King Nebuchadnezzar who appears to be in control will die and his kingdom will go to another.

BUT God’s prophet—His faithful remnant—They are still there.

In other words—Babylon is gone and God is still moving the chess pieces of history.

Babylon is in the grave and God is still governing.

In other words—in this conflict, God’s Kingdom defeats the Kingdom of Babylon.

And more than that, this is the message of Daniel and even all of Scripture.

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

So often, sermons from Daniel tend to be like this, “Dare to be a Daniel.”

But here is the truth—that is not your eternal hope.

The message of Daniel is not, “Be like Daniel.”

We can make some application there and we have this morning.

But ultimately we will not overcome this world by being LIKE Daniel.

We overcome by being IN Christ.

He has an everlasting dominion.

His Kingdom shall not pass away.

And until it comes in full, may He see His church responding to the collision of Kingdoms with a God-glorifying convictional kindness that rends His approval and pleasure from heaven.

And until it comes in full, we work and build the Kingdom to come.

This is not our home. But our home is coming.