Sermon Tone Analysis

*Faith Away from Home*

 

 

Text:    Daniel 1:1-7

 

There comes a time in every young person’s life when they eventually leave home.

They may leave because of school, work, military service, or any number of reasons.

While they were at home, their parents looked after them and encouraged them, sharing all those life lessons that are important:  How to care for others, how to take good care of themselves and the things for which they are responsible, and how to be faithful to God.

But when our children leave home, we really see the extent of the learning that has taken place.

Will they brush their teeth without being told?

What if they get sick when they are away from home – who will take care of them?

And more importantly, will they remain faithful to God?  Will they pray?

Will they study their Bible as they ought?

Tonight we are going to take a look at the life a young man who left home.

In this particular case it was not a voluntary departure.

We are going to be looking at the early years in Daniel’s life.

His mother and father would have been proud of the way he lived after he left home.

Let’s start our study in Daniel 1:1 this evening.

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 in 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.

6 Among these 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.

In this passage we see King Nebuchadnezzar besieging Jerusalem and carrying off not only items from the temple, but also some of the people from Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar decides to prepare the best of the best of the Hebrew youth for service to him, and so he rounds up all the brightest young men for his “King Nebuchadnezzar scholarship”.

It is a full-ride scholarship, including tuition, room and board, and the program lasts 3 years.

Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah find themselves as unwilling benefactors of this scholarship to Nebuchadnezzar University.

They were godly young men headed into university that was anything but godly.

The Babylonians were an idolatrous people who did not follow the one true God.

*/è/**/  Obedience /*

The very first thing that we see from this passage is Daniel’s willingness to be obedient.

He did not say, “Well, I am a long way from home, so I guess I can toss all those things that I have been putting up with at home all these years.”

Nor did he say, “I am in a tough situation – nobody would expect me to hang on to what I have been taught, now that I have been taken from my home by these heathens!”

What we will see in our study this evening is quite the opposite.

In fact, Daniel and his friends demonstrated their faithfulness through obedience to the one true God.

Paul told the Corinthians that men would praise God because of their obedience that accompanied their confession of the gospel.

In 2 Corinthians 9:12-13 we read:

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, */men will praise God for the obedience/* that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

And what Paul wrote Titus in chapter 3 verse 1, could just as easily been written to Daniel and to us today:

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, */to be obedient/*, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

We are called to live obedient lives, and to show our faithfulness through our obedience, just as Daniel did.

 

*/è/**/  Courage /*

King appointed daily food from his table for these young scholars.

Daniel 1:8-16

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 sympathy 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.

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.