Wisdom Warrior

Intro & Recap

Good morning, we are into our third week on our series "Embracing Exile”

In our first week on Exile what we talked about the first and biggest exile of the Bible…It is the exile out of the garden.

There are actually three major scenes of Exile in the bible

Exile into Egypt…And Moses lead the Hebrew people out of exile to the promised land

Exile into Babylon…And God used the King Cyrus the great to release the exiles to return

But the biggest of all of them is the Exile out of the garden…Away from the broken relationship wth God…But wait…who will lead out of that exile? Who is qualified to lead humanity out of exile back to relationship with its creator? We will unpack this next week...

But, Last week we looked specifically at the church of today and where we are at in society…I made the case for you that there are tons of similarities to the Exile of the Jews in Babylon to where the church in America is today…

We live in a post Christian Culture. I showed you that how for over a thousand years the Judeo-Christian worldview was dominant…

Over the last 50 years we have seen a huge breakdown in that and where we are at is something called a post-Christian culture.

We looked at Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles and how he dealt with the people of God moving from Jerusalem to Babylon.

They went from having all power to no power…

They went from their values being shared by society to being the minority …

They went from a place where everyone just went to the temple on the Sabbath to a place where everyone worshiped many foreign Gods…

We looked at what are the ethics of an exile…

And during that time there were these two competing Prophets…

There was this guy named Hannaniah who told the people: A king will be raised up…get ready…within two years we will be back in our home! This was code for: get ready for a fight, prepare for war…

But there was this other prophet named Jeremiah: Jeremiah would eventually be proved to be right…Jeremiah said…Hey Build homes, plant gardens, get married and have kids…Bless the towns you are living in…because you will be here for 70 years…

He was reminding them that you are God’s covenant people and you cant just pick and choose when you want to be God’s covenant people.

When you are in Jerusalem: Act like God’s covenant people

When you are in Babylon: Act like God’s covenant people…

And this week we are picking up on where we were last week.

Because last week we talked about settling into exile…and living out your christian ethics in the land of Babylon...

And this week is really how do we engage the world?

I am calling this sermon today, “Wisdom Warrior”

Its part of the ethic of how we live as exiles in this strange land…

There is this author I have been reading for this series named Daniel Smith-Christopher, and he has a chapter in one of his books called “Wisdom Warrior” and I want to read to you what he means when he says this

“I have intentionally avoided “wise warrior,” because that is precisely part of my point – we are not speaking of a warrior who has added wisdom as part of his arsenal. Rather we are to intentionally contrast the wisdom warrior with the standard warrior.”

The idea is a conventional warrior still has weapons at his disposal…He has a sword, a shield an armor, he has a calvary and an infantry behind him...

But the wisdom warrior is stripped of all of that...

The wisdom warrior only had wisdom as a weapon

No sword or shield.

So in the book of Daniel…You see a situation where he couldn't fight back.

He couldn't sneak in a dagger and assonate this evil guy Nebuchadnezzar…

Daniel’s conventional weapons were removed at exile, all power was removed from him.. so he had to figure out this new ethic of which he was going to live in Babylon…

And guess what Church so much is true with us today

There used to be in society the shared conviction that the Bible had authority

Sundays used to be sacred

Pastors had pastoral authority and were invited to speak into society...

But we are just in a radically different world.

So before we get into looking at the book of Daniel today. I want to track something through the Bible…

The movement of God

The Biggest question that the exiles had was, will God be with us in exile?

Is God bound to this time and to this space in Jerusalem?

And this is a valid question, because It has been a long time since Israel were wonderers in the dessert…And God had always lived in this temple at the center of society…

So first when they are wondering in the dessert before they got into Israel:

So let me take you on a journey for a minute and track the movement of God with you:

From the mountain top

Exodus 24:16

“ and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud.”

So early in the Bible…God is on a mountain top...

To a mobile sanctuary closer to the people

In Exodus 25:8 God makes this promise.

Exodus 25:8

8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.

So then God sort of goes out ahead of his people in this mobile sanctuary…But he also moves down from the mountain and is near his people...

But then when the Jews get their own city here is what happens next

To the center of town

1 Kings Chapter 8 When Solomon completes the temple

1 Kings 8:10

“When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord.”

So now God is in his permanent home in the center of town right?

God went from the mountain, to the tabernacle and now to the temple....

So everyone was wondering….Will God’s presence be on foreign soil?

If I get sent out of everything that I know, where will God be?

And I think this is a huge point for us today, because Christian influence used to be more prominent than it is today just in all of society…Look with me at Isaiah 4

In the first part of Isaiah, He is dealing with this stiff-necked people who are staring down the barrel of this foreign power who is just coming to take them over…

And here is what he says

Isaiah 4:5

5 Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy.

Isaiah is like: listen as you assemble to evacuate this land: God won’t be in the temple he will be over you!

The same cloud of his glory that was over Sinai, will be over his people in exile.

This is one of the main theological points of the book of Jonah, Daniel, Esther That God is present in the land of your enemies! Just because you are away from home you are not distant from God.

This is the same point for us today. God is not far off. He is present in and through his Holy Spirit. He is closer than the air you brethe…And God is especially present in the midst of challenging times!

So today I want to look at this character Daniel to look at a portrait of a wisdom warrior

As many of you might know: Before Daniel and his friends were ever taken out of Jerusalem there was something called the siege of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah writes about this in the book of Lamentations and it is horrible! It talks about people starving to death and mothers mercy killing their own babies so that they wouldn't starve…

It is an absolutely horrifying event…Many people die. But there was a group that was carted off into exile. These were people who the cream of the crop. These were people who were in the royal court, the priests and the scribes…

Babylon took all of the people who knew how to run a government and who had religious and cultural knowledge. A great many people were killed…and very few people stayed back in Jerusalem.

But I think Daniel Chapter 1 tells the whole story the best so I am just going to read it..>Flip with me to Daniel 1

Daniel 1

1 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[a] and put in the treasure house of his god.

3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service 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 those who were chosen 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.

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 compassion to Daniel, 10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your[c] 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.

17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.

18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.

21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

What you need to understand is that as Daniel is conscripted into the kings service, He is forced to eat from the King’s table…and where one might think

Thats awesome…You get conquered but you get to go right to the top and eat what the king eats..

But eating at the kings table was not a neutral act

One of the things that we see in Daniel 1 is that the king takes the treasures of YAWAH and puts them in Babylon…It is the kings way of saying your God now serves my god.

Eating from the kings table was to make a covenant with the god’s of the king

To any good Jewish person, eating from the kings table would have been blasphemy, high treason and completely impure

I mean this is the usual pattern of a conqueror…You get conquered and you’re like…well ok I have to follow your god now…

so the first major ethical hurdle that he needs to clear…Eating from the kings table made a statement about which god you showed allegiance to.

So Daniel makes a case, he says, I will eat Vegetarian and if that works will you keep giving me that diet?

And what the author of Daniel is actually doing here is so brillant…I just want to point it out in the hopes that maybe there a few other Bible nerds just like me...

In the garden of Eden, God gives humanity all seed bearing plants to eat…Well in Hebrew the Seed bearing plants and the word for vegtiables are the same root word. Daniel and his friends…needed to eat kosher to keep the law…

So Daniel Didn't take his bible out and say, Ok bro, lets get into the book of Leviticus there is just some food I can not eat…I need kosher meals dude

The wisdom of Daniel was that he just asked for vegetables and water…He didn't invoke his religion at all and say “I need to eat kosher…”And as a sneaky work around…Daniel just went back to the garden diet of seed bearing plants ....

Daniel had no power…He didn't fight with the guards...and He didn't make it obvious.

He never said I won’t follow your God…out loud at least…

Everything Daniel did was show that he wouldn't resist the king but that he wouldn't dishonor his God.

He still served in his court…He entered into the occupation of telling him what his dreams meant…This was usually reserved for the magicians of Babylon…But Daniel just kind of waded into that territory and reclaimed that space for YAWAH…

But with everything that he did he never said your god is fake or you’re power is all based on lies…

See I think the wisdom of Daniel was that he realized that he was in a total cultural war. & Daniel had no power

But if Daniel were to use conventional weapons, he would be dead really quick….

Daniel engaged in this war by using wisdom…because with everything he did in his life he gave all of the glory to YAWAH...

And there are really specific moments in the book of Daniel where this all pays off!

There were other times, one specifically that King Nebuchadnezzar is so proud of his empire

He has the best schools…Everyone wants to be in Babylon

They are the most powerful and they feel safe

They have the best food

The best technology

Home values are skyrocketing

So things are going pretty well and when things are going really well you can’t afford to have a rebellion right?

So king Nebuchadnezzar sets up a huge statue and calls everyone to worship it…

We know that Daniel’s 3 friends do not defile themselves…Even though we imagine other Jews did…and they are thrown into the furnace…Only to be rescued by someone that looked like the “son of God”

Here are a few things that I want to point out

Wisdom warriors choose their battles

Now all through the book of Daniel we see him standing up for what he believes in…What I want to point out is that to choose your battles is not to compromise your faith or your witness to this world.

Choosing your battles isn’t the same as denying Jesus

We don't pay attention to the fact that King Nebuchadnezzar gave totally new names to Daniel and his friends, their new names referred to Babylonian deities and even in the book of Esther one of the main Characters Mordaci’s name means Marduke the god of Babylon …and that they spent three years learning a new language and learning the Babylonian system.

And they are kind of like fine give me a new name, make me learn a new language…fine I will be loyal to this king…But my ultimate allegiance lies with YAWAH. And whenever that’s tested, they stand up for YAWAH.

Daniel showed this almost subversive loyalty that seems like it would be a contradiction…

Israel had always been a dominant military power and now in exile they had to really rethink this. There was almost this attitude of, “Why die for the state?” Like, we know that the god of this country is false so why pretend that this place is dominant?

So the most common ethic that the exiled community developed was one of non-violence & subversiveness

You see this in Daniel as he remains a top official for all of these foreign powers that come into town after the fall of Babylon.

Where other officials might fall on their sword or die with the king…Daniel is like well I’ll just serve the next guy…Why? Because Daniel chose his battles wisely and he was ultimately loyal to YAWAH

Now he did go to battles…Daniel Told Nebuchadnezzar his dreams even when it could have hurt him. He still prayed even when there was an edict in the land to not pray to YAWAH…He ended up in the lions den...

There were battles for Daniel worth fighting

Wisdom warriors embody holiness:

It strikes me that whenever Daniel has the opportunity to take the credit, he always gives it to God. As the one true God. He always stands up for what he believes in.

What the stories of Daniel and Esther all have in common (Because these are both exile stories) Is that when these Jews in high places stayed true to holiness then that is when God revealed himself and showed up in magnificent ways

In Babylon the holiness of the Jews did not go unnoticed. There was this understanding and recognition that these people do not act in the same way that we do.

The Holiness of God’s people made them sort of blend in and stand out. Kind of like the Amish today…Like you don't think of them ever but when you do you realize its kind of remarkable the way they live their lives..

One of the ways that God’s people displayed holiness was by loving their enemies.

I mean this is the story of Jonah. A God who showed compassion and mercy to the enemy of God’s people. To embody holiness simply means to act like God would act if he were you. It means to think about the nature of who God is and to bring that into your own life.

Daniel Smith Christopher puts it this way, “A wisdom warrior will not return evil for evil but will see the welfare even of his enemies”…They never return evil for evil or pay others back for what they have done.”

See how this is holiness and God’s character: Because of our sin, we should be enemies of God, yet he does not treat us as our sins deserve! He loves us and forgives us!

Loving enemies is so close to the heart of God and a way for us to embody holiness that the apostle Paul wanted to remind us of this he said:

Romans 5:9-10

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Wisdom warriors are always on mission:

It is interesting to do a study on the book of Daniel to see whose lives that Daniel affects. None of these people in the book of Daniel were like, Well we are in exile now…We don't have to follow God…We don't have to stand up for our ethics…It was just the opposite

Really this exile of the Jews became the surprising way in which the people of God actually begin to fulfill their mission as being priests to the nations…

When you track Daniel’s interactions, most of the kings in the book of Daniel all of them end up acknowledging Daniel’s God in a way..

In fact I think one of the most fun chapters is chapters to see this is Daniel 3.

When Nebuchadnezzar sets up that huge statue and makes all of Israel worship it…

You know the story, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego end up not bowing, being thrown into the furnace, only to be rescued by this “Glowing son of god character” and being rescued and how does Nebuchadnezzar respond?

Daniel 3:28-29

28 Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way.”

None of the people in the book of Daniel said, here are the 4 spiritual laws, turn or burn…

They simply chose their battles, embodied holiness and always understood that they were on mission in this land of exile.

They sometimes had to act very boldly just like we do today.

What the exiles came to learn is something that we need to experience as well…When you step out for God in a big way, he reveals himself in even bigger ways…

For the church today: I think we all try to influence culture for Good right. And it's a battle!

But the wisdom warrior in exile realizes that there are no human weapons that they can use and come out unscathed.

The wisdom warrior realizes that the only weapon that they have is the wisdom of God. That God is with them and that if they are bold with living like Jesus then kings will come to worship him.

Challenge

So today as we begin to wrap up here...

Just like God moved from the mountain…To the tabernacle…To the temple …And finally into exile…That same God became flesh and dwelt among us. He breathed onto the church the power of the Holy Spirit.

Church the spirit of God that Can give you wisdom

That spirit of God that can help you to engage a secular world

That same spirt of God that fell on the early church at Pentecost wants to be with you today.

When you lean into the spirit of God

He will help you choose your battles

He will transform you to embody his holiness…His life…He will help you love your enemies

And finally…He will help you live on Mission.

Church! Jesus loves this world…He wants to reach it, he wants to bring people back…You are his plan for that to happen!

Let’s pray.