Remain Faithful in an unfaithful world (Daniel 1:1-21)

서론

상황묘사

1) 바벨론의 침공 & 포로

- The kingdom of Judea was destructed by Babylon.

- The king of Judea was delivered to the land of Babylon. Along with the king, many Jewish people were exiled to Babylon together.

- Among the people was Daniel, the author of this book Daniel.

2) 왕 앞에 서기 위한 특별훈련 프로젝트

- The name of the Babylonian King was Nebuchadnezzar.

- He ordered chief of his court officials to train young Jewish men whose appearance, status, and education were great for three years so that they might stand before the king and serve the king after three years.

<< Dan 1:3-4 / “from the royal family and the nobility” / “to teach the the literature and language of the Babylonians”

- It’s a kind of special training project for standing before a king.

- Daniel and his three friends were there.

문제발생

1) 음식

- By the way, there was a problem for Daniel and his three friends. It was food.

<< Dan 1:5

- According to verse 5, the trainees had to eat the food and wine the king assigned. The food and wine were best quality things brought from the king’s table.

2) 왜 음식이 문제인가?

- Why is this food a problem? There are two reasons. <PPT>

- First, many Babylonian food would have been unclean according to the law of Moses written in the Old Testament. For example, there is a possibility that the blood might not have been drained from the meat. Because the OT orders Jewish people not to eat the blood in the meat, it is unclean for Jewish people.

- Second, the food and wine would have been undesirable because they were first offered sacrificially to the Babylonian idols before being sent to the king. So, it means that Daniel had to eat the food that had been used for idolatry.

- Of course, this kind of food issue does not apply to us today because Jesus Christ already fulfilled the laws regarding food. Now we are free to eat every kind of food.

- But at the time of Daniel, it was a problem. Strictly speaking, it can be a disobedience to God’s word.

다니엘의 결단과 요청

1) 다니엘의 결단과 요청

- In this situation, Daniel resolves not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. And he asks the chief official to allow him not to eat the royal food and wine.

2) 이 요청이 어려운 이유

- At first glance, Daniel’s request seems simple, but it is never easy. It’s an act requiring a great deal of courage.

- Think about this!

- (1) To refuse to eat the king’s food could have been taken as an insult and direct disobedience to the king.

- (2) Pressure from other trainees might have made the decision difficult. It is not easy to make a different choice from others in the situation where everyone is doing the same thing naturally.

- EX: You guys all are sitting like this! Is there anyone who can lie upon this floor now?

- (3) Daniel’s this behavior may have a bad effect on his success in the land.

- (4) Can you refuse the best quality food lying before you? The king’s food must have been the most delicious in the land.

- (5) It may be natural to argue that, since God did not protect them from captivity, they did not have to be careful to obey God’s commands.

3) 그럼에도 다니엘은 요청! 왜?

!! These reasons could have made Daniel reluctant to obey God’s law and made him compromise. Nevertheless, Daniel made a courageous request that is not easy.

!! Why? To remain faithful to God and His word! <PPT>

적용

- Now this issue of food does not apply to us any more.

- But Daniel and we have common point in that Daniel and we all as God’s people have duties to live faithfully to God in an unfaithful world.

- At the time of Daniel, the nation Babylon was very rich and powerful, but people did not serve God. They were evil.

- In that circumstance, it was not easy for God’s people like Daniel to remain faithful to God. They had to bear loss, and they need courage to ramain faithful to God.

- The same is true of the world where we live. In this world, people seek success, money, pleasure, exaltation, going up to high positions. But the value of God’s kingdom is different. God wants and requires His people to seek God’s glory and others’ peace, not our own success. Our God wants us to live according to His “word.”

- The thing is that God’s “word” and this “world” are not compatible. <PPT> This is the difficulty that Daniel was confronted with at that time and we are confronted with now.

- Now there are still a lot of challenges and temptations that hinder us from being faithful to God in this world.

- EX: When most of your class mates are cheating in tests, you shouldn’t cheat because you are Christians and cheating is a sin in the sight of God.

- And let’s see our worship service. As Christians, we have service to worship God every Sunday. It’s our duty and natural response to God’s love. But sometimes your close friends may want you to skip service to meet them. It may be really serious temptation.

- The voice of this world continuously says to you, “you have to be successful. You should be higher than others. You should be respected by others.” But this voice is not God’s voice.

- There are too many fancy and spectacular things in this world. So they make us not look to God.

- Games are so fun and exciting. Youtube is fun. I don’t wanna say these are bad things. But it is clear that, when we are addicted to this kind of things, these make us not think of God.

- There are too many evil things around us in this world. There are too many things that make us not remain faithful to God.

- In this situation, there is what we have to learn from Daniel. <PPT>

>> Don’s compromise with the world!

>> Remain faithful to your God no matter what situation!

결단의 중요성

- By the way, we can see a very important expression in verse 8.

<< Daniel 1:8

Daniel 1:8 ESV

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.

- Daniel made up his mind not to defile himself but to remain faithful to God.

!! A resolution is important! <PPT>

- A resolute determination is needed to remain faithful to God in this world.

- Human mind had three faculties: intellect, emotions, and will. Three all were given by God.

- God gave us will as well as intellect and emotions. Why did God give us will? For us to make a resolve to live out our faith!

- EX: 목사님이 제일 좋아하는 음식이 있어요? 뭘까요? 아이스크림

- I love ice cream a lot. But icecream is not good for health and makes me fat.

- So I think I need to control eating icecream for my health. But I always fail. Especially, when I come back home after exercising or playing tennis at night, it’s real temptation. I know that it is bad for me, but I am eating ice cream.

- One day, I made a resolve not to eat ice cream at night, and I brushed and flossed my teeth to make strong my will before going to play tennis

- Can you guess the result? I succeeded. I did not eat ice cream that night.

!! Making a resolution is really effective to practice what we know and want to do.

- In order not to compromise with this world, we “should resolve” not to compromise.

- In order to be faithful to God and to live according to God’s word, we “must resolve” to do it.

- EX: 김주찬 전도사님 메시지 Live for God!

- On the second day of this Retreat, the Guest Speaker, 김주찬 전도사님, gave us a powerful and proper message. He told us that the encounter with God turns us upside down. And he encouraged us to live for God and others, not for ourselves. Yes! Right!

- Encountering God should lead to a resolution to live for God. Resolution is needed!

>> 결단하라!

>> Make up your mind to remain faithful to God in this evil world!

>> Make a resolution not to compromise with your situations!

>> Resolve to live for God!

>> If you wanna pray more, make up your mind!

>> If you wanna experience the sweetness the Word gives, make up your mind to read the Bible every day!

- Some day, I desired to walk with the Lord 24/7, so I resolved to do my best to be aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence and to look to Jesus as often as possible for one week.

- During the period, I could experience what the walking with God is. It was almost heaven. It was so peaceful and happy.

!! Resolution is important.

>> If you are lazy these days, make up your mind to be diligent!

>> If you confessed to God in this retreat that you would live for God or return to God, make up your mind to really do that.

~ In today’s text, Daniel made up his mind to be faithful to God like this.

그 결과

- Can you guess the result that Daniel made up his mind not to eat the king’s food?

- God caused the chief official to show favor to Daniel.

<< Daniel 1:9

- God made Daniel experience a miracle. Daniel and his three friends ate only vegetables instead of the King’s quality food for ten days, but they were healthier than those who ate the royal food. It’s a miracle.

- God gave Daniel more wisdom. He was inherently wise, but God gave him more wisdom and even ability to understand all visions and dreams.

<< Daniel 1:17

- Eventually, Daniel stood before the king after the three years of training, and he was acknowledged by the king as the wisest man in the nation.

<< Daniel 1:19-20

>> When we resolve to be faithful to God, we can also experience God’s faithfulness and power like Daniel.

>> It seems to make a loss, but our God doesn’t let us lose out.

~ Our conclusion is this.

결론

!! To be faithful to God, our resolution is needed. <PPT>

- We know that God has been always faithful to us, to the point that He gave us his only Son’s life for our salvation.

- Before we were born to this world, he resolved to give us Jesus and planned for this.

- Our Savior Jesus also showed us his faithfulness to us with his sacrificial death. He had made up his mind a lot for this, and he has never compromised over this. Never!

- Now, It’s time we have to show our faithfulness to God with our resolute determination.

함께 기도

1. 성령님의 역사를 위해서

- Work in me and touch my heart so that our broken will may be restored.

- Give us the mind that we wanna live for God and live according to God’s Word!

2. 결단하면서 기도하기

- Let’s pray, making up our minds!

- Pray with what you learned in this Retreat, felt, experienced, and resolved.

- Before God, resolve to do that with your best.

- Resolve to live for God! Resolve to cut off your sins!

3. 진헌이를 위해!

마지막 찬양: 주님 큰 영광