Integrity Established
Ezekiel and Daniel • Sermon • Submitted
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· 9 viewsBelievers can live with integrity when tempted to compromise
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Daniel Introduction
A teenager when he arrived in Babylon in 605 B.C.
The Jews placed Daniel in the Writings section of their Bible. They did this because Daniel was not a prophet in the sense in which the other Hebrew prophets were. He functioned as a prophet and wrote inspired Scripture, but he was a government official, an administrator in a Gentile land, rather than an official prophet.
In contrast to Ezekiel, his contemporary in Babylon, Daniel lived and worked among Gentiles primarily, whereas Ezekiel live and ministered among the Israelites.
Written in two languages:
Aramic - the common language of the ANE
Hebrew (for predominantly Jewish concerns and God’s plans for Israel)
Purpose
At such a time as this, God revealed His supernatural power. He did so to demonstrate that He is the one true God and that He is still sovereign over the affairs of humanity and history. He manifested his power to the supreme rulers of Babylon and Persia that they might know that He governs over all from heaven.
Themes:
God’s sovereignty
The persecution of God’s people
The salvation of God’s people
1. A Commitment Expressed
1. A Commitment Expressed
8 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. 9 God had granted Daniel kindness and compassion from the chief eunuch, 10 yet he said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and drink. What if he sees your faces looking thinner than the other young men your age? You would endanger my life with the king.”
What if your whole life you had been restricted from doing something the rest of the world thinks is good:
Eating bacon, pork
Going to movies
Dancing
Playing cards
How many young people would refuse to take advantage of this situation?
v. 8 What was wrong with the king’s food/wine?
Ceremonially unclean (e.g., pork, or cooked in an un-kosher manner, e.g., with blood)
Associated with idol worship
Wine may have been unmixed
Whatever the reason, the result would have been defilement (unclean)
“He asked permission” - even to avoid defilement he was not demanding.
v. 9 “kindness and compassion” - kindness = hesed, loyal faithful love, lovingkindness
v. 10 “I fear my lord the king” - displeasing the king put your life in jeopardy!
2. A Test Passed
2. A Test Passed
11 So Daniel said to the guard whom the chief eunuch had assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then examine our appearance and the appearance of the young men who are eating the king’s food, and deal with your servants based on what you see.” 14 He agreed with them about this and tested them for ten days. 15 At the end of ten days they looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. 16 So the guard continued to remove their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.
v. 12 “Please test your servants for ten days” - not a long time - but long enough for God to work.
In some ways this might have been as much a test of God - did he *really* want them to continue to follow the ceremonial law when they wouldn’t be going to the temple any time soon anyway?
“vegetables” - anything that grows from seeds: fruits, vegetables, grains.
Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible C. Daniel’s resolve to please Yahweh 1:8–13
Omitting meat and wine from one’s diet does not normally result in obviously better health. Perhaps Daniel was relying on God to cause him and his friends to look better at the end of the test period miraculously. Another possibility is that the youths may have been served such rich food that they could reasonably expect to look and feel better if they abstained.
The ANE diet was fairly simple and basic in comparison to ours. Eating meat was not an every day occurence.
Grains - barley, wheat
Olive oil
Legumes - lentils, beans, chickpeas, peas
Vegetables - leaks, garlic, onions
Fruit - grapes, figs, dates, pomegranates
Poultry, Fish
Honey
Meat - beef, pigs, venison
v. 14 “He agreed” - this was a reasonable request. Worst case scenario - how bad could they fare after a ten-day diet of an “inferior” food
v. 15 “better and healthier” - Traveling to Mexico, “don’t drink the water!” A diet from a foreign culture can be hazardous.
3. A Recognized Difference
3. A Recognized Difference
17 God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind. 18 At the end of the time that the king had said to present them, the chief eunuch presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king interviewed them, and among all of them, no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they began to attend the king. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and mediums in his entire kingdom. 21 Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
v. 17 “God gave…knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom”
God didn’t have to bless them in this way - but He did!
Ancient literature had stories about the creation of the world and the flood. Daniel know from scripture how these events truly happened.
6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
I am a “knowledge worker” - I am rewarded as I am able to solve computer problems for customers. Sometimes I can do things because I already know how to do them. Sometimes I will seemingly “stumble into a solution” - God gets the credit.
“dreams and visions” - a truly supernatural gift, reminding us of Joseph. It was also highly valued in the court.
v. 19 “no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah”
They were head and shoulders above their peers
“Summa cum Laude and Then Some”
“Ten times better than all the magicians...”
The Bible Knowledge Commentary 1:18–21
“Ten times” is an idiom meaning “many times”
Isaac to Laban “You have changed my wages 10 times”
Daniel and his friends were “first round draft picks”
Conclusion: “Believers find knowledge and understanding when they trust God. God is able to take what He has given us and use it powerfully for His kingdom. His Word challenges us to live with integrity when we face the world’s suggestion to compromise. Who knows what God plans to do through our lives in the future? Standing strong in our convictions regarding little things may indeed provide a foundation for God to do a great work in our future to His glory.”
This may seem like a simple story, but it sets the stage for the events of the rest of the book of Daniel!