Daniel, Honoring Holiness

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Have you ever daydreamed about doing something great!

Maybe you wanted to invent something that would make our lives easier.

Or maybe you wanted to save someone’s life.

Maybe you wanted to excel at some sport,

or write a bestseller.

How about writing a song that moves someone to worship,

Or

Create Tension

None of us may ever do things that the world would consider great. And honestly, that’s not that bad, but there is a greatness we should strive for, Greatness in God’s eyes!

Today we are going to look at someone who was considered great in the Bible. We will see what he did to get there and what the outcome was.

Provide Solution

Today we are starting a new series called “Majoring in the Minors.” We will spend the next 12 or so weeks looking at the 12 minor prophets and a major story they deal with.

This morning we are going to look at Daniel

Daniel 1:1-7

During the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign in Judah,* King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 The Lord gave him victory over King Jehoiakim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects from the Temple of God. So Nebuchadnezzar took them back to the land of Babylonia* and placed them in the treasure-house of his god.

3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives. 4 “Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men,” he said. “Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and are suited to serve in the royal palace. Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.*” 5 The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service.

6 Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. 7 The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names:

Daniel was called Belteshazzar.

Hananiah was called Shadrach.

Mishael was called Meshach.

Azariah was called Abednego.

It was common practice when a nation captured another nation, the invading nation would bring some of the young men of the royal family and other noble families to serve in the royal palace.

There were requirements for these individuals:

Strong, healthy, and good-looking young men (aka boys 14ish),

Well versed in every branch of learning, gifted with knowledge and good judgement.

Suited to serve in the royal palace

Trained in the language and literature of Babylon

Given a daily ration of food and wine from the kings kitchen

Trained for 3 years.

Not only that, they were given new names.

Daniel was called Belteshazzar.

Hananiah was called Shadrach.

Mishael was called Meshach.

Azariah was called Abednego.

These new names were an attempt to assimilate the Jews into the Babylonian culture. Trying to give them a new Identity and erase the old!

This was an attempt by the devil to completely destroy God’s people. He wanted them to forget that they were God’s people called to a greater purpose!

His tricks haven’t changed…

We read in 2 Corinthians 5:17

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

When you give your life over to Jesus, you become a new creation, you have a new identity. You are no longer a child of the world, but you are now a child of God.

Just like Satan, through Nebuchadnezzar, tried to change the identity of Daniel and his friends, so he tries to convince us to revert back to our old selves, our old identity.

We have a new identity in Christ that can never be taken away!

But I must add that it can be given away. While we can’t lose our identity in Christ, we can give it away!

SO…

How do we hold onto our Identity?

Daniel 1:8-16

8 But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods. 9 Now God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel. 10 But he responded, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has ordered that you eat this food and wine. If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded.”

11 Daniel spoke with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief of staff to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 12 “Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said. 13 “At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king’s food. Then make your decision in light of what you see.” 14 The attendant agreed to Daniel’s suggestion and tested them for ten days.

15 At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king. 16 So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the food and wine provided for the others.

What we see Daniel and his friends do is nothing short of astounding, refusing to eat from the King’s table!

Their refusal was not a form of disrespect for the king, but a form of obedience to God! As Israelites God had given them the law to live by that showed the Israelites were dedicated to God, and God alone. They were his chosen people.

When Daniel and his friends asked to only eat vegetables, it was not our of rebellion but out of obedience to the law God had given them on Mt Sinai.

They chose to keep their identity and they did this by eating according to the Law Moses had handed down to them.

You will also see later in the book of Daniel that the Shadrach Meshach and Abednego also kept their identity by not bowing down to the image of the King, and Daniel did I the same by praying to God when ordered not to.

These things were a way of keeping their identity given to them by God, it is called holiness!

We also are called to be Holy before God. 1 Peter 1:15–16 “But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

So what does it look like to be holy?

Two types of Holiness in the BIble.

Perfected Holiness - which is holiness in God’s sight, where we are made holy in God’s eye because of the sacrifice of Jesus

Practiced Holiness - this is holiness from Jesus’ perspective. As disciples of Jesus, he will judge us for everything we do, the good and the bad.

Romans 12:2 “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

The Message Bible paraphrases vs 1-2 of Romans 12 this way…

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Being holy, being transformed, being the new person God has made you is about how you think.

Changing the way you think in 12:2 is actually renewing your mind

Changing the way you think is about what you put in!

Daniel 1:17-21

17 God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for understanding every aspect of literature and wisdom. And God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meanings of visions and dreams.

18 When the training period ordered by the king was completed, the chief of staff brought all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and no one impressed him as much as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they entered the royal service. 20 Whenever the king consulted them in any matter requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, he found them ten times more capable than any of the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.

These four teens excelled and were put in royal service of the King. They were 10x better than all else, why because they put God first! They sacrificed their desires for God’s Greater Good!

Encourage Change

What are you willing to sacrifice to do something great?