Daniel Chapter 1
The Writing is on the Wall • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Let me open us in prayer to start this new series today.
In Somalia, young men (ages ranging from 7-12) are taken by a militant group known as Al-Shabaab. They are removed from their families and taught the ways of this militant group.
Al-Shabaab main goal is to isolate and indoctrinate these young men to fight against the government. This is an Islamic group associated with Al-Qaeda, so they are taught that religion, how to read Arabic, and all forms of terrorism.
There is no exact number of these children taken, but it is estimated that this year alone it could be as high as 5000 children.
Why am I telling you this?
Simple. We read the old testament and think that it is ancient history.
Ask any historian, they will tell you, history ends up repeating itself. The bad thing is as advancements grow, so does the devastation that happens.
The story of Daniel is not too dissimilar to the what I expressed about Somalia.
Let me ask you this, what if someone came and took your child or grandchild at the ripe old age of 12 to make them part of another culture?
The book of Daniel starts at the time of the exile which happened around 605BC. Daniel would have been around 12 years old.
So we know that Daniel grew up during the reign of King Josiah.
King Josiah is remembered in the Bible as one of the greatest and most righteous kings of Judah. He came to the throne at age eight and reigned for 31 years, working hard to turn the nation back to God despite the evil actions of his father and grandfather before him.
In addition, Josiah eradicated the mediums, the spiritists, household idols, images, and all the abhorrent things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this in order to carry out the words of the law that were written in the book that the priest Hilkiah found in the Lord’s temple. Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him.
He was the last of the good kings.
So this means that from an early age, Daniel would have been taught the Torah and the ways of God.
Which was by God’s design, because this gave Daniel the ability to know and understand his Jewish background.
I say by design because after King Josiah came one of the worst kings in Israel’s history, King Jehoiakim and then his son Jehoiachin.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight just as his father had done.
God told the Israelites that he would bring about curses if they disobeyed Him and that it would come from a military defeat and exile.
“But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all his commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you:
Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.
And guess what, God always keeps His Word.
The Babylonians (also known as the Chaldeans) came and took Israel by force and started deportation of the Israelites to Babylon.
This happened in three different deportations( 605BC, 597BC, 586BC).
The reasoning behind this some scholars believe was to take the noble and royal families first, to leave Israel without any true leadership or guidance.
It was also to isolate and indoctrinate the nobility to the Chaldean way, to make it easier to do the same to the masses later.
Let’s get started into the book of Daniel and look at what we are talking about today
In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. The Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels from the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar carried them to the land of Babylon, to the house of his god, and put the vessels in the treasury of his god.
The king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family and from the nobility—young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to attend the king. Among them, from the Judahites, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The chief eunuch gave them names; he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah.
The tactics of the enemy has not changed over the centuries, he has just gotten better at his job.
He still uses isolation and indoctrination in our society today.
Isolation
The bible tells us that they took these young men, the Hebrew word was yeladim; which meant child or youth, and they separated them. Isolating them from family, friends and the familiar.
Imagine their home has just been ransacked, their lives were thrown into a whirlwind of chaos.
They are in a vulnerable state, just what the Babylonians wanted. The reason why is because they were at their most susceptible state to receive this new life they were thrust into.
This increased the Babylonian strategy of removing their faith in God and converting them to a worldview of the Babylonian religions and belief system.
Just a minute ago, I said the enemies tactic has not changed. But he has made it from an involuntary thing like in Daniel’s time, to a point where we voluntarily make our kids choose the worldview.
Bare with me as I explain this.
In Daniel’s time, they were taken away. Today, we send our kids away.
We do this by shutting our kids up at such a young age, because we don’t want to hear them scream or pester us, that we sit them in front of a device and let it parent our children.
And that device starts to tell them what to believe and what to think, because we don’t want to deal with it.
And when they get older, we send them off to colleges that tell them to stop believing in an all powerful God and that they are god.
A Chaplain friend was telling me that his daughter had to take a required class called LatinX.
It is a class that wants to separate the latino and Hispanic culture to a more worldview of acceptance.
Now I am not saying don’t send your kids to school. I am saying is give your children the base of faith in Christ, so they have a better chance out in the world.
Don’t let some device or some professor tell your child how how to believe.
If you do not live like Christ is first in your life, then your children will live like they do not need Christ, and then your grandchildren will not know who He is.
Isolation at it’s finest.
And when this type of isolation happens
Indoctrination
becomes easy.
Notice back in our verses
young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to attend the king.
Their brainwashing was to start right away.
They were to start to learn the Chaldean way.
The language, the litature.
They were going to learn everything from philosophy, art, science, history and religion.
Things like mythology, omens, polytheistic deities, everything that we would consider today as a New Age belief system. As you can see, it is actually very old.
many of you may have heard of Stockholm syndrome.
Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response where a captive or abuse victim develops an emotional bond, sympathy, or positive feelings toward their captor.
This is what the Babylonians were doing to these young men.
Most captures will call their victims by a different name, to break them psychologically.
In Daniel’s time, their name meant something and was very important to them.
Daniel’s name meant Elohim is my judge...they changed his name to Belteshazzar which meant Bel protects his life.
We also know Daniel’s three companions...most of us know them by their name given to them by the Babylonians...Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Their true names were Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah.
Talk about indoctrination...we don’t even call them by their given names.
It was even a Jeopardy question, no knew the answer.
Today, this world is trying so hard to change our view of Christ.
For us to accept the world into our belief system, and guess what, the enemy is winning.
And it is all because of our last point for today.
Determination vs Motivation
It is the tortious vs the hare equivalent.
Let’s look at another verse
Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief eunuch not to defile himself.
Her is a boy...around the age of 12. And he stood up to his captures and determined in his heart that he would not defile himself with things outside of his Jewish beliefs.
Someone who is motivated is good for a short time, and when it gets rough, their motivations waivers.
Someone who is determined is good for a long time, and they stick around when it gets hard.
Me and my wife have had some rough times. We have had some knock down dragged out fights.
But when we got married we determined that this is going to work.
Our statement when things get rough is...put on your big girl panties because we are not leaving...we are fighting for our marriage.
Now let’s look at this determination vs motivation in a spiritual since.
Those who are motivated to change their lives, to do things at the church, to be the Christian everyone expects them to be...usually burn out, have things get hard at home and the first thing they do is pull away from the church, and they either go looking for another church to hide in or they leave the church and leave Christ all together.
The very doctrine of our beliefs are built on the backs of those who are determined and were determined to fight.
My favorite verse in the bible gives us a glimpse of those determined to not let the past or future isolation and indoctrination take hold
Now Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.
Are you motivated or are you determined?
Are you determined to not let the schemes of this world infiltrate your life, your children's lives, your grandchildren's lives?
Determine today to call off generational curses in your family. Determine today that as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
In a few minutes we will be having an altar call...this altar call will be different.
This altar call is not to have a pity party before the Lord.
This is for you to determine in your heart to follow him no matter what. Cry your tears if you need but let them strengthen you not destroy you.
