Well this morning we begin what we are calling our January Intensive where we take one whole book of the Bible, covering it in its entirety in the space of the month of January on Sunday mornings and evenings and on Wednesday nights. Ordinarily, we would take many weeks, months, to work through the teaching of a whole book of the Bible. There is some real value in doing it that way. It allows us to go deep. But sometimes it’s easy, isn’t it, to forget the beginning when we’re only halfway through, and so by covering a book in this way, in a short space of time, we get to see the scope of the whole and the consent of all the parts. We get to see the forest as well, I hope, as the trees.
This year we are looking at the book of Daniel. Daniel was written in the context of the Babylonian exile of the people of Judah in the 6th century BC. It’s composed in two languages. Chapter 1, which we’ll consider this morning serving as an introduction, was written in Hebrew. And chapters 2 through 7, were written in the international language of trade and diplomacy in the Babylonian and the Medo-Persian empire language of Aramaic. And then chapters 8 through 12 return to Hebrew, maybe because they are speaking especially words of hope and encouragement to the exiled people of God. So there are two linguistic divisions, but the book also has two major literary divisions. Chapters 1 through 6 are narratives that all take place in the royal court of the king. But chapters 7 through 12 are apocalyptic visions, designed to reveal the sovereign purposes of God for the nations and especially for His own people. So two languages, two literary styles divide the book into two major sections.
And what holds them together is a single, overarching theme. But to be clear, the theme is not the heroic example and faithfulness of Daniel. You might know the old chorus, “Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known.” But that’s not entirely wrong as an approach to the message of the book. Daniel’s faithfulness is an important theme, and we have a great deal to learn from his example, but it’s not the theme. The key theme of the book of Daniel really gives us the explanation for why Daniel was able to stand firm, as we will see him do in the first place. The theme is the sovereignty and faithfulness of Daniel’s God who reigns over history and in whose loving care all His children may rest secure, no matter the evils of this world’s Babylon.
And so with that in mind, let me invite you now, if you would, take your Bibles in hand and turn with me if you are using a church Bible to page 737 and to Daniel chapter 1. We’re going to see three themes in Daniel chapter 1. First, the perverse power of the world in verses 1 through 7. The perverse power of the world. Then, the courageous stance of Daniel, verses 8 through 16. And then finally, we’ll take in the chapter as a whole and think about the sovereign grace of God. Alright? So perverse power, a courageous stand, and sovereign grace. Before we get to that, let’s bow our heads and ask for the Lord to help us. Let us all pray.
O Lord our God, we come to You crying out for the help of the Holy Spirit to give us light and understanding, to open our hearts and our minds to the truth of Your Word. So pour Him out upon us now as Your Word is read and proclaimed. For the glory of the name of Christ we pray, amen.
Daniel chapter 1 at the first verse. This is the Word of God:
“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 gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.
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. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, ‘I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.’ Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ‘Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.’ So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.
As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.”
Amen, and we praise God for His holy, inerrant Word.
This passage puts perverse power on display first of all. Notice the two principal strategies that perverse power tends to use. There’s direct confrontation and there’s indirect subversion. The book opens, doesn’t it, like a breaking news story. “We interrupt this program to bring you this report from Jerusalem. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.” Now that locates the action in the year 605 BC. Just to help us orient our understanding to what’s going on, perhaps some history would be helpful at this point. After the reign of King Solomon, you remember, the kingdom of Israel split into two parts – Israel in the north, Judah in the south. Tragically, the story of both kingdoms after this point is one of general spiritual decline. Despite some exceptional periods of national revival, both north and south fell into persistent idolatry. They turned away from the Lord. The prophet Isaiah warned the northern kingdom Israel would be destroyed by God if it did not repent. And in 722 BC, the Assyrians invaded and took Israel captive and the northern kingdom essentially ceased to exist. Jeremiah, likewise, warned of a similar fate of the southern kingdom. The kingdom of Judah did not repent, and in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar finally invaded, which is where the book of Daniel begins. The judgment of God has fallen on His wayward people.
And it was in that invasion that Nebuchadnezzar took Daniel along with many other leading members of the kingdom into exile in Babylon. The vessels of the temple, verse 2, were taken as vivid symbols of the apparent defeat of Israel’s God at the hands of the Babylonian pantheon and placed in the temple of the Babylonian gods. And taking members of the royal family and the nobility into captivity, verses 3 and 4, that was a way to ensure that the Jewish king, Jehoiakim, and the now conquered kingdom of Judah did as they were told. We might say they were taken as hostages, held by the Babylonian cartel, to ensure favorable political outcomes. And so the threat to Daniel and to his compatriots living in Babylon was very real – tow the line or face terrible consequences. That’s direct confrontation on a grand scale, isn’t it? The enemies of the people of God using military force and violence to achieve their ends.
But there’s also a more subtle, indirect strategy of subversion at work here too. First, notice Daniel and his friends were chosen because they were elite; they were elite members of the royal family and of the nobility. And verse 4 says they were selected as youths without blemish, of good appearance, and skillful in all understanding, learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace. So this was an impressive group of young people. They were the cream of the crop of Judah’s society and they were given rare privileges. Verse 5, the king assigned to them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and the wine that the king drank. So this was the best of the best. Luxury and indulgence. It would have been comfortable, dangerously easy for them all to feel right at home. Exile never felt so good. How easy to begin to think themselves better off in Babylon than back in Jerusalem.
And then the third part of this strategy of subtle subversion involved indoctrination. They were to be educated for three years, verse 4, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Now we know from Babylonian sources this period of education for privileged youths typically began at 14 years of age. That means that Daniel and his pals are young teenagers. They’re junior high kids at this point in the story. They’re being told they are the best of the best and they are being given the best of the best, and all the while they are being trained to speak and think and believe like good Babylonians. They are even given new names, aren’t they? You see that in the text? The Hebrew name Daniel means “God is my Judge.” Hananiah means “The Lord has been gracious.” Mishael means “Who is what God is?” And Azariah means “The Lord has helped.” But in verse 7 they are given new names, and those names are all based on the false gods of Babylon. And so Daniel becomes Belteshazzar, which means, “May Baal protect his life.” Instead of Hananiah, Shadrach means, “Aku is exalted.” Instead of Mishael, Meshach means, “Who is what Aku is?” Instead of Azariah, Abednego means, “Servant of Nabu.” These new names are meant to put the nail in the coffin of their final assimilation into the culture and religion of Babylon.
A bit like Victorian immigrants arriving at Ellis Island with names that sounded strange and unpronounceable to the New York City immigration officials that processed their papers, these young men were given new names, names that rolled off Babylonian tongues. Names that hid entirely their Hebrew past. Names that made them fit right in. The pressure now to put the Lord and His people and His purposes forever out of mind was enormous. And of course these two strategies – direct confrontation and indirect subversion – they’ve always been the favored tactics of hell. Haven’t they? Remember the massacre of the innocents when word of Messiah’s birth reached King Herod. That was direct confrontation. Murder the children. Flex your political, tyrannical power to achieve your ends. But then think about the sly temptations of Satan assailing our Lord Jesus, not just in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry, but coming even on the lips of Simon Peter, His intimate friend. At the height of His ministry, Peter told the Lord – do you remember this – that He could not go to the cross. And Jesus had to say to him, “Get behind me, Satan!” That was indirect subversion.
Or think about the devil’s strategy in opposing the growth of the early church in the book of Acts. Again and again, he used political opposition and mob violence in an effort to snuff out the growing Gospel movement. That’s direct confrontation. But in Acts chapter 5, he tried a different tactic – moral failure. Ananias and Sapphira gave generously to the church but they lied about just how generously. Then in Acts 6, he sowed the seeds of discord and division. When the Hellenistic widows were being neglected in favor of the Hebrew speakers in the daily distribution of the food. And then later again he tried false teaching, Judaizers insisting that Gentiles had to convert to Judaism before they could really be saved. Do you see the pattern? There is direct confrontation and then there is also subversion, indirect.
And friends, if like Daniel we are to survive and to thrive as the people of God living in exile in our own modern Babylon, we cannot afford to be ignorant of the devil’s schemes. These are the same tactics we are all bound to face as we follow the Lord Jesus Christ today – direct confrontation and indirect subversion. I read a recent survey that reported that 48% of evangelical leaders say that they have been cancelled, disinvited, or blacklisted from public forums because of their faith. More and more, you are likely to find yourself marginalized, left out, mocked and excluded in the workplace and in the classroom if you are open about your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and your commitment to living according to God’s Word. Direct confrontation, even in our own context, is an increasingly common reality and we need to be ready for it.
But the pressure to conform to the world’s standards will also be more subtle and indirect and pervasive. Let’s take as an easy example your commitment to ensuring that your family is in worship on the Lord’s Day. That will likely mean saying “No” to many alternatives. You’ll have to say “No” to travel sport or to training or practice sessions. That might mean that your child won’t get to play in the big game or perform in that show. Other parents, some of them even professing Christians, will tell you you are being needlessly strict. They will roll their eyes at your narrowmindedness and tell you, “You’re letting everybody else down.” And your child, your child might beg and plead and cry and whine and throw temper tantrums until you begin to wonder if it might not be easier after all just to give in. What can it hurt to compromise just a little? And so you commit to Sunday practices and Sunday games, and now for a significant portion of the year, you and your family are gone from worship in your own congregation more than you are present. As a result, invariably, you will begin to drift spiritually. You don’t notice it at first, but soon, compromising one area of your life leads to others and still others in the rest of your life until a year or so down the line your testimony lies in tatters and your life is all but indistinguishable from the world around you.
And beloved, that’s not a hypothetical scenario. I have seen too many people who seemed at one time to be bright followers of Jesus Christ, following precisely that trajectory. A combination of direct confrontation and subtle subversion has led one small compromise at a time onto the jagged rocks of fatal, spiritual shipwreck. Such was the perverse power Daniel and his friends had to deal with, and we need to be warned and to be ready to stand firm in the face of it when it will, as it surely must, come against us too.
And that brings me neatly to the second thing that I want you to see here. First, perverse power. Now, notice please Daniel’s courageous stand. Three parts to this that I want you to see. Daniel’s courageous stand displays costly resolve, characteristic humility, and confident faith. In verses 8 through 16, you’ll see his costly resolve. Look at verse 8. “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.” Now don’t overlook the fact that Daniel has been placed into the care of the chief of the eunuchs. That implies, as was the general and ordinary custom in the ancient near eastern courts, that implies that Daniel and his friends have themselves been made eunuchs. And if that is what’s happened to him, Deuteronomy 23:1, now excludes him from the assembly of Israel. We talked earlier about direct confrontation as a Satanic strategy. Well, here it is again. If Daniel has been emasculated, he has been forced into the category of outsider, cut off from the congregation of the people of God, and he can do nothing about it. This was done to him. This is exile to the max, etching itself, literally, into his own flesh.
But here in verse 8 when it comes to eating the king’s food and drinking the king’s wine, Daniel refuses to surrender his agency. Do you see that? He is unbroken and unbowed. He shuns the delicacies of the royal table, probably not because they weren’t kosher. The king’s wine wasn’t forbidden by the Mosaic dietary laws, and Daniel refuses even the king’s wine, after all. More likely, Daniel will not defile himself with the king’s food and drink because the custom of the court was to dedicate the king’s food to one of the gods of the Babylonian pantheon. Remember, the primary reason for the exile of God’s people in the first place was idolatry. And Daniel knows the king’s food and drink will involve him in that very sin, and so he refuses it outright.
But if ever there was someone who has reason to throw out whatever remained of his own faith, given all the brutal treatment that he has endured, surely it was Daniel. “Where was the Lord when Jerusalem was besieged? Where was He when we were taken captive and castrated and reprogrammed and every vestige of our old life was obliterated from view? Who would serve a God like this, who seems to care nothing for us?” But that’s not Daniel’s stance at all. He is meek under the afflicting hand of providence and he sees an opportunity for obedience, even though that obedience sets him on a direct collision course with the culture all around him, even though it could cost him his life, he sees an opportunity for obedience and he takes it.
I imagine Daniel repeating Job 13:15 to himself, over and over and over as he musters the courage to walk into the chief eunuch’s office and tell him that he refuses to eat the royal food. Job 13:15, “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him. Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him. Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him. I belong to the Lord. He has every right to do with me whatever He wills, but even if this is the end for me, I will never turn from trusting in Him.” I imagine him preaching Habakkuk 3:17 to himself. “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vine and the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no fruit and the flocks be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, if everything should go horribly wrong, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer’s; He makes me tread on high places.” This is costly resolve, isn’t it? Costly resolve is the rebar of living faith. Daniel stands firm and resolute, no matter the cost, because he trusts in the Lord. Costly resolve.
But then notice along with his resolve, notice his characteristic humility. Sometimes when we know we have to take a stand and face down opposition we know we can overcompensate, can’t we? We become sharp and angular and ugly and pugnacious. In our own day, when following Christ is often weird and unwelcomed in the eyes of many, it’s not at all uncommon, particularly I have to say in the online behavior of young Christian men, but it’s not at all uncommon to hear them sounding belligerent and angry as they make their stand. Don’t forget, Daniel’s about 14 years old at this point in the story, and yet he demonstrates remarkable humility and mature judgment, doesn’t he? He doesn’t throw his refusal to eat and drink from the royal table in the face of the chief of the eunuchs. He doesn’t have a martyr complex. He isn’t trying to be a hero. He’s just trying to be faithful.
And so when he approaches the chief of the eunuchs in verse 8, he comes with a request and not a demand. And when the chief of the eunuchs responds in verse 10 that if the king sees Daniel and his friends looking the worse for wear, the king may decorate his gates with the chief of the eunuch’s head, Daniel, with great wisdom, moves down the chain of command one click and approaches the steward in verse 11 and merely suggests a modest trial. Verse 12, “Ten days of vegetables. Let’s see how we look at the end of that. And then you do whatever you think is right.” And again, listen to his respectful tone. “Test your servants for ten days. Deal with your servants according to what you see.” Godliness is marked by costly resolve, but that resolve is always wedded to characteristic humility. Humility without resolve would be no defense against compromise. Resolve without humility leads to arrogance and entitlement, but resolved wedded to characteristic humility is a powerful witness. Resolve wedded to characteristic humility is a powerful witness. Costly resolve. Characteristic humility.
And back of all of that, we mustn’t miss Daniel’s confident faith. His whole approach here – his boldness, his humility, the test that he proposes – all of it rests, doesn’t it, on an unshakable trust that whatever happens the Lord will provide for him, the Lord will be his defender, the Lord will keep him. Here, dear believer in the Lord Jesus, here is the principle that must animate all your work and all your ways in the world. Act always from confident faith, rest in the goodness and grace of the living God whose purposes, to be sure, are often hidden behind dark clouds of suffering and difficulty, and yet whose designs are always for the everlasting good of His people. Trust Him, and act for a principle of confidence in the goodness of God who does good and is good toward His people at all times.
And that brings me to the last thing I want you to see here. First, perverse power. Then, a courageous stand. And now finally, notice sovereign grace. Sovereign grace. At work right through this story, what is the explanation for the remarkable strength of character and the godly wisdom this young teenage boy displays? He’s been abducted from his home, brutalized, and brainwashed, and yet he stands firm. How come? Verse 21 tells us that Daniel stayed faithful to the Lord – this is really something – he stayed faithful to the Lord until the beginning of the reign of King Cyrus. That puts Daniel in his 80s! Isn’t that amazing? The book of Daniel covers this man’s entire adult life – from junior high, as we would say, all the way past retirement. And through it all, Daniel walks in faithfulness and obedience to his God. He perseveres.
How do you account for that? We might reasonably point to the godly upbringing he obviously enjoyed before Babylon swept in. His original Hebrew name and the names of his three friends all testify, don’t they, to the bright faith of believing parents who entrusted their children to the Lord. Or we might also point to the strengthening power of godly friendships. All four of these young men took this stand together. And to be sure, the Christian nurture of faithful parents and the reinforcing impact of believing friendships, they should never be underestimated in their effectiveness in helping us stand firm when following Jesus comes at a cost. We need those things. What a gift of God to us they are. But these are only the means. These are the instruments used to promote Daniel’s perseverance.
The passage itself actually points beyond both, back behind both to the grace of a sovereign God. Did you hear the grace notes tucked away all through the chapter as we read it together? Verse 2, the Lord gave Jerusalem into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands, not the false gods of Babylon after all. In verse 9, it was God who gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. And the clear implication of the text, after their ten days of eating vegetables and drinking only water is that it was the miraculous provision of the God of all grace that made them shine at the end of that trial. And in verse 17, God gave the four youths learning and skill in all literature and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. None was found like these four, and the king found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters of his kingdom. Daniel lives in the grip of sovereign grace and his faith rests on sovereign grace and he acts in holy boldness because of sovereign grace.
And verse 20, that note about Daniel and his friends being more useful than all the magicians and enchanters, tells us part of God’s agenda as He operates in sovereign grace in the lives of Daniel and these three friends of his. What is God doing? What is the purpose of sovereign grace? It is to outstrip and triumph over the pagan competition, all their direct confrontation and indirect subversion notwithstanding. The magicians and enchanters of Babylon are left in the shade by Daniel and his friends. It looked to casual observers, didn’t it, like Babylon had beaten Jerusalem. When they stole the temple silverware, it looked like Marduk and the other demonic counterfeit gods of Babylon had triumphed over the Lord, submerged under an avalanche of Babylonian reprogramming. It looked like Daniel and his friends would be lost to the paganism of their new context forever. But actually, this whole time the sovereign God was working to subvert the schemes of men and the malice of demons and the weakness and suffering of His servants so that despite all appearances to the contrary, the victory of the Lord would shine all the brighter.
And that is the pattern really only hinted at here that comes to its fullest expression at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn’t it? There at Calvary, in weakness and suffering and darkness and death, when the Son of God seemed to all who saw Him to be the very epitome and embodiment of defeat, there the victory of sovereign grace was secured. Satan’s schemes overthrown, sin paid for in full, the demands of the law that we have broken satisfied, salvation won for sinners. Daniel’s trust in sovereign grace, in the end, points us not to Daniel but to Daniel’s Savior, in whom the pattern that we see here comes to its full fruition. Jesus conquers sin and death and all the powers of hell, triumphing over them in the cross, Colossians 2:15.
And that, I think we have to say, is the real explanation for Daniel’s courage and humility, his wisdom and his perseverance. The sovereign grace of God in the life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ in whom the victory of God over the enemy of our souls is secured, that’s where Daniel got it. That’s where we get it too. It comes from Him. We’re not supposed to fix our attention admiringly on Daniel. We’re meant to look at Daniel’s sovereign God, and ultimately to Daniel’s glorious Redeemer. We are meant to look adoringly to a crucified and conquering Christ who upholds and keeps us, even in the midst of our contemporary Babylon. And so may the Lord help you, this week, to fix your eyes upon Christ who will keep you and sustain you, no matter what opposition the evil one may throw at you.
Let’s pray together.Our God and Father, we praise You that You are the sovereign Lord who reigns over all. And in the Lord Jesus, who came in weakness and in suffering and in death, in the Lord Jesus, You have triumphed over sin and death and hell for all who trust in You. Help us now, all of us, to trust in You. For Jesus’ sake, amen.