This short message was written as a follow-up to a discussion in church about the kingdom of God, which never comes to an end.
The book of Daniel begins with the exile of the nation of Judah to Babylon.
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 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” (Dan. 1:1-2 NIV).
The significant things which are mentioned in these first two verses are the king of Judah, who was delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and the articles from the temple of God, which are put in the treasure house of the god of Babylon. These two verses actually tell us what to look out for in regards to the themes of the book. The book of Daniel is about kings and gods. The action in Daniel revolves around kingdoms and worship: which kingdom will be the one which triumphs and which g/God is the true God and should receive worship?
The first chapter of Daniel introduces Daniel as a godly man and sets the scene for the rest of the incidents in the book. From the start Daniel positions himself with respect to Babylon, with respect to what kingdom he is aligned with and with respect to which God he will worship. Just like ancient Babylon the questions of kingdoms and G/gods still arise for us. We also need to position ourselves with respect to the world, with respect to what kingdom we are aligned with and which God we will worship. Let’s first consider how that works out in Daniel’s life and later consider how it will work in ours. There are three things in Daniel chapter 1 which I will focus on today: worldview, identity and honour. The story of Daniel begins after Daniel has gone into exile.
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—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. 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. Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. (Dan. 1:3-7 NIV)
Daniel was a young man at the time he was taken into exile in Babylon. The Hebrew word can mean anything from an infant to a youth. It seems that the king of Babylon wanted some suitable young men so that they could be trained in the ways of Babylon. Since they were young there was more chance of being able to mould them in the Babylonian culture and thinking. They were to be taught the language and the literature of the Babylonians. This was a deliberate attempt to make the Hebrew young men into Babylonian young men so that they would serve Babylon’s king and worship Babylon’s god. To put this another way, the training was intended to get rid of their Hebrew thinking and replace it with Babylonian thinking. Daniel’s worldview was one in which the God of Israel was central. Although the Babylonians tried to reshape Daniel’s worldview, we find in 1:17 that “To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning.” Instead of learning the Babylonian literature and culture, Daniel learned God’s literature and thinking. The rest of the book makes this quite clear as Daniel repeatedly hears from God and is wiser than all the wise men of Babylon. He is given insight into the kingdom of God and what will come in the end times. This is a result of Daniel’s choice from the start to hold tight to his Hebrew worldview. He does not allow the Babylonian way of thinking overtake his thoughts.
The second matter is that of Daniel’s identity. Part of the process of training involved giving the Hebrews new names. Daniel means ‘God is my judge’. But he was renamed Belteshazzar after the god of Babylon (4:8). Hananiah means ‘Yah has been gracious’ and he was renamed Shadrach etc. Names are important since they say something about the personality and the nature of the person. Changing a name would indicate a new status or a new personality or a new nature. The patriarch Jacob had his name changed to Israel after he wrestled with God (Gen 32:24-28). In the New Testament, Saul had his name changed to Paul when he began to follow Jesus. The fact that the Babylonian official changed the names of the Hebrews suggests that he wanted the young men to abandon their Hebrew lives and thinking and become worshippers of a new god. It is interesting then that Daniel is rarely called Belteshazzar in the rest of the book. He does not call himself Belteshazzar, but always refers to himself as Daniel. This says that he held onto who he was as a person who refused to become Babylonian and refused to worship any other god than the God of Israel. This is about identity. Daniel held onto his identity as a worshipper of Yahweh, just as his name testifies about him.
My last observation is about honour. Who does Daniel give honour to? The first action which Daniel took in Babylon was to refuse the royal food. Verse 8 reads, “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine”. Resolve here means setting of his heart to do a certain thing. He set his heart to consider the honour of the God of Israel over that of the king of Babylon. Daniel was concerned that if he ate the food which came from the king’s table then he would overtly or inadvertently eat something which was forbidden by the Law of God. Apparently the Babylonian diet included pig, shellfish and turtles, none of which are kosher. Any meat from the king’s table could have contained these forbidden foods, so Daniel refused all meat and ate only vegetables. In this way he aligned himself with the kingdom of the true God and against the kingdom of Babylon. He chose to honour Yahweh over any rivals. Because Daniel honoured God in choosing to obey the dietary laws of Israel’s God, God also honoured him by giving him favour with the Babylonian officials (1:9). Daniel’s diligence showed and the king saw that Daniel and his three friends were much wiser than the wise men and magicians of Babylon (1:20).
So what do these observations about the life of Daniel tell us about living as kingdom people? Like Daniel we are people living in exile in a way. As 1 Peter 1:1 reminds us, we are strangers in the world. This world is not really our home, since we are citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20). If we are to live as people who align ourselves with the kingdom of God and not with the kingdoms of this world, which are passing away, then it is good to remember the three things mentioned in Daniel 1: worldview, identity and honour.
First, it is obvious that the culture in which we live tries to mould our thinking against God and restrict our thinking to either materialism or false spirituality. The media is overtly anti-Christian. This is true of TV dramas, movies, current affairs programs and political commentary. Christians really have become a minority in this country. The controversy over same sex marriage has made this quite evident. If we are to hold onto a Christian worldview, that is, to continue to think like Christians and not simply take on the values of our culture, then we need to be deliberate. We need to make choices to know God and his word, to pray and to read the Bible and good Christian literature. In doing this we are aligning ourselves with the kingdom of God which does not end. Our culture will collapse, quite probably very soon, but God’s kingdom will last forever. So let’s not be ashamed to hold to a Christian worldview.
Second, we must hold onto our identity as people in Christ. Instead of allowing other people to decide for us what our identity must be, we look to Jesus for that. Daniel’s identity was very much tied up with the God he worshipped and the Babylonians tried to give him a new name associated with a new god to worship. This works the same way in our culture. The gods of Australia are materialism and false spirituality, so identity in Australia is often tied up with how much money you have or what your job is. People might take identity from false spirituality. False spirituality might come from consulting mediums or it may be about yoga or even being a member of a society like the surf club. Spirituality can encompass many things from which people draw identity. But our true source of identity is none of these things. “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). Your identity and mine cannot be determined by money, capacity, what you do, or false spirituality. It is always bound up in Jesus Christ, since he is our Lord. Therefore, we should not allow others to “name” us something other than people who belong to Jesus. We must hold fast to our identity as people who worship Jesus.
And finally, decide to honour Jesus Christ over all other competing demands. Compromise with the world comes easy. The choice to follow Jesus as Lord is difficult but worthwhile. “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt. 7:14 NIV). The narrow way is not easy but it leads to life not death. Daniel made a choice to avoid the hidden non-kosher food. We also need to make a choice to look for the less obvious things which may cause us to disobey God. Are we being distracted away from doing what is right in favour of what is convenient? Are we taking the easy path because what is God-honouring takes effort? Do we honour God in private, but fail to look like Christians in public? Or perhaps we look like Christians when we are with other Christians but not when we are at home. Honouring God over the gods of Babylon was a choice which allowed Daniel to be used by God and he received revelation about the kingdom of God because he was a man of character. Honouring God with our choices will also put us in a place where we can be used of God and he will reveal things to us about what he is doing.
If we consider these three things—worldview, identity and honour—then we can remain aligned with the right kingdom, the kingdom which cannot be shaken and which will not pass away. This will help us to be godly people while living in a foreign land, which is where we reside until Jesus returns for us and takes us home.