Under Pressure - Daniel 1

Welcome to the Willington Church podcast. At Willington Church, we exist to follow Jesus Christ personally and carry on his ministry. You're listening to our Sunday sermon podcast. You can watch our full services over on YouTube. Today's message is entitled under pressure, under pressure. Have you ever felt pressure to fit in with the crowd? Well, of course you have. Every person faces pressure to find their way in a new school, a new job, a new culture. The process of conforming to the world around us is called assimilation. Here's a dictionary definition of this term. A process where individuals or minority groups adopt the ways, language, and customs of a dominant culture often losing distinct aspects of their original heritage. So every immigrant wrestles with these things pretty much on a daily basis and there's at least five pressure points language. What do you say? Also nonverbal language. How do I greet people appropriately? Do I bow? Do I hug? What do I do? How much personal space should I give others? How can I avoid offense, stereotyping? Then there's social norms. What does it mean to be on time? Five minutes early, 15 minutes late. What's considered to be funny? That's nuanced. What's the understanding of authority, of family, of dating? What kind of clothes should I wear? Education and work. What's the school culture like? What's the work culture like? How do I build a new network? Identity. As I adapt to this new culture, who am I becoming? And what if I'm adapting to the new culture faster than my parents and grandparents? How do I deal with that tension? Religion. If I am of a minority faith, how do I thrive in a world where almost everyone else carries different beliefs and different values? So all of us face this pressure consciously, unconsciously if we're living within Canadian culture. Because in Canadian culture, the individualized self is at the center of all of our conversations around what it means to be a human being, what's the value placed on human life? What does family look like? What about sexual ethics? The message is clear in our culture. Put yourself first. Put yourself before family, before society, before God. If God is going to be talked about at all, leave him at the margins. So how do we remain faithful to Jesus when all of us live within this pressure cooker? The historical accounts of Daniel were in Daniel 1 today. The historical accounts, they take place in the furnace of a pagan society. The book of Daniel is first and foremost a revelation of who God is. And it also inspires us to live our faith with courage today. Daniel 1 teaches us that God has his hand on all of history. Number one, number two, the dynamics of assimilation remain unchanged. It's important to know that. So the kind of pressured Daniel faces, we also face. And three God favors and he equips and he sustains his servants. Daniel chapter one takes place about 2,630 years ago. After the death of his father, Nebuchadnezzar, he rises to the throne and he becomes the king of Babylon. And he wants to restore the Babylonian empire to its former glory. He wants the city of Babylon to be the most magnificent, famous city in the world. It's a make Babylon great again campaign. I'm glad you can chuckle. So in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, he besieges and he conquers the city of Jerusalem. The Jewish elite are deported to Babylon, including Daniel and his friends. And so you can see the journey that they would have made. In verse two, we read that some of the temple vessels are taken to the land of Shainar. Shainar references Babylon. So if this word Shainar, it first appears in Genesis chapter 11 where the tower of Babel is being constructed. From Genesis chapter 11, all the way to Revelation chapter 18, where we read about the fall of Babylon. Babylon, it symbolizes a society that's constructed with pride in its own achievements and rebellion against God. So in history, we read that the Jewish elite are taken from Jerusalem to Babylon in 605 BC. That's the historical record. That's the perspective of history. What was God's perspective? Well, as we read through Daniel chapter 1, we see that God's perspective is that he actually has his hand on the story. God has his hand on all of history. In verse two, we read the Lord gave King Jehoyakim, King of Judah, into his hand. So the fall of Jerusalem was not a historical accident. God handed King Jehoyakim over to Nebuchadnezzar. It was his doing. The name for God in verse two is the Lord Adonai. The Lord emphasizes God's incomparable power, his universal sovereignty. God judges King Jehoyakim and the nation of Judah. Why does it happen? Well, God ordains it because of a very long history of disobedience. And I mean long history. Centuries of rampant idolatry and just a blatant refusal to listen to the word of God. Jehoyakim, he's the king of Judah when Daniel is taken into exile. In his fourth year as king, the prophet Jeremiah is instructed by God to write down everything that the Lord has spoken to Jeremiah. So Jeremiah writes it all down and then what has been written down is taken to King Jehoyakim. God's intent is that Jehoyakim and the people of Judah have an opportunity to repent, to change their ways. It's an act of grace. So how does King Jehoyakim respond? It's in Jeremiah chapter 36 verse 21 and forward. Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. And Jehudi read three or four columns, sorry, as the king read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid. Nor did they tear their garments. So the word of the Lord is despised. It's burned for centuries, about 800 years. From the law of Moses all the way through the prophets, God had warned Israel what would happen should they rebuild. Here's an example, Leviticus chapter 26. And I will scatter you among the nations and I will achieve the sword after you and your land shall be a desolation and your cities shall be a waste. So God had clearly communicated what would happen. God keeps his word. He gives King Jehoyakim and the kingdom of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar. Even without knowing it, Nebuchadnezzar is serving the deeper eternal purposes of God. The Jewish people in exile would need to know this truth, especially in the most difficult periods. This was true in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. It was true in the days of Mount St. Thong. At the time, it didn't appear that God had his hand on all of history. Ron Boyd McMillan writes this about the cultural revolution in China. Mount St. Thong launched the fiercest anti-Christian campaign of the 20th century in the 1960s called the Cultural Revolution, in which he swept away all churches, burned all Bibles, and imprisoned all the pastors. Yet all he succeeded in doing was pushing the church deep underground where it came embedded in the family structure and Chinese culture in a way 300 years of evangelism had failed to accomplish. From this fire emerged the world's largest revival where the church grew from 2 million in the late 1970s to over 60 million today. Glory be to God. He always gets his will done. Estimates today are from 70 to 100 million. Ron Boyd McMillan was writing it into the 20th century. God had his hand on Israel when the people went into exile. He has his hand on China. He has his hand on Canada in 2026. While living under God's sovereignty, we need to know that the dynamics of assimilation that we face remain unchanged. So what does Nebuchadnezzar do? He separates Daniel and his friends and other youth from the royal family, from the Jewish nobility. Daniel and his friends are probably about 15 years of age. So they're young teenagers. What are Nebuchadnezzar's criteria in the selection process? Well, this is like Babylonian idol here. One without blamish, no physical defect, good appearance, handsome, skillful in all wisdom, showing aptitude for every kind of learning. In doubt with knowledge, they're well informed, understanding learning, they're quick to learn, they're intelligent, competent to stand in the king's palace. So they're fit for the king's service. These are their criteria for selection. The world's values haven't changed a whole lot. Nebuchadnezzar wants to restore the splendor of Babylon. So he separates the all stars to participate in his empire building enterprise. How will these young men be prepared to serve in Nebuchadnezzar's court? Well, they're enrolled, what we'll call the Babylon Academy of Assimilation. And their schooling, it's going to cover religion and it's going to cover language and education and social norms and identity. It's a three-year reprogramming process. Publicly humiliate the God of Israel to separate from the influence of trusted voices, from family, from mentors, immerse them in the Babylonian ways of thinking. Get them to depend on the state, change their identity. Class begins with religion. Religion is always at the heart of culture. So in the conquest of Jerusalem, as I said earlier, Nebuchadnezzar, he takes the sacred objects from the Jerusalem temple and places them in the treasure house of his God. The message is clear. Not only was Judah defeated, so was its God. Imagine that you're a young Jewish person like Daniel just kind of scrolling through the temples of Babylon and there you see the sacred objects of the temple of the Israelite God. What would be the message? Well, the God of Israel is weak. He's defeated. The God's Babylon are powerful, the ones you should worship. One recent example of Christianity being humiliated was the 2024 Paris Olympics and the abomination of what was presented around the last supper. So imagine you're a Christian athlete participating in the Olympics and you see that scene. What's the message to you? What was the message to the world? What I find interesting is the resurgence of the church in France. You can check that out online after the service, not now. So secondly, I've already mentioned this, but these young men are separated from the teaching of the Hebrew scriptures. They're separated from the godly influence of family and Jewish mentors. Third, they're immersed in Babylonian language and literature. It's systematic indoctrination with Babylonian thought to replace the scriptures as their source of wisdom and knowledge. The goal is to eradicate any memory of the God of Israel. Make them think like Babylonians. If you've just started college or university, make sure you stay connected with family. Stay connected with trusted members. Stay connected with Christian community. University, college, it will form you. Every university professor is preaching a gospel. Not everything you hear will be true. So process what you're learning with people that you trust. Fourth, the young men are fed royal food, Babylonian food. Comes from the king's table to remind them of whom they depend on. People, they're more easily assimilated if they are well fed, entertained and provided for. There are so many examples in ancient history, modern history, where governments and politicians are providing people with food and tax benefits and medical and dental benefits. We're seduced into thinking that our blessings depend on someone other than God. It's an old tactic used to this day. Fifth, the Babylonians try to change their identity. Write down to the names they carry. Verse 7. "And the chief of the unix gave them names." Daniel, he called Belshazzar, Hennonaya, he called Shadrach, Mishaiel, he called Mishaq and Azaraya, he called Abednago. So each Hebrew name carried a divine name. Each Babylonian name carries a new Babylonian divine name. Daniel, it means God is my judge. God is my judge. Belshazzar, Bell protects your life. So Bell is a title for the main Babylonian God, Marduk. What's the message? The God of Israel is not the judge of anything. The only one who can protect you is Marduk, with the title Bell. Hennonaya, it means Yahweh is gracious. Yahweh is the Hebrew name for God. Shadrach, order command of Akku, another Babylonian God. He was the God of the moon. Determine the times and the seasons. So what's the message? You do not live under the grace of Yahweh, the Hebrew God. Your days are determined by Akku. Mishaiel, it means who is what God is or who compares to God? Mishaq, who is like Akku. Message? Akku is greater than the God of Israel. He is incomparable. As Ziraya means Yahweh is a helper. Beautiful name. A bednago, servant of Nibu. So Nibu, again, was one of the Babylonian gods, the God of science. Still worship today, the God of science, the God of astronomy, the God of intelligence, the God of knowledge. How often do we hear? Trust the science. So in your new role, Daniel, friends of Daniel, you don't need Yahweh as a helper. He can't help you. You need Nibu. You need Akku. You need Marduk. Nebuchadnezzar wants to wipe away their religious and cultural identity. Forget that Yahweh is your judge. Forget that Yahweh is gracious. Forget that there is not equal to Yahweh. Forget that Yahweh is your helper. He wants to remove any confidence in Yahweh, the God of Israel, because the way that they think about God, no, get this. The way that they think about God, the way that they think about their relationship to Him will determine how they live more than anything else. And that's true for us as well. The way that we think about God, the way that we think about our relationship to Him determines how we live more than anything else. So can these Babylonian schemes, can these dynamics of assimilation be resisted? Is it possible? Or do we just give in? What are some of the names that were asked to carry today? Well carry the name of self-realization. Put yourself first. It carry the name of hedonism. Just live for your pleasure. This life is all you got. Carry the name of nihilism. Your life has no ultimate meaning. Don't even think about it. Carry the name of materialism. Your identity is based on how much you can accumulate in this life. There's so many ads that appeal to these desires within us. Consider the recent ad campaign of the premium fitness brand Equinox. Question everything but yourself. So the added encourages you to like filter out the external noise. But all of this is bad. Filter out those hyper curated personas on social media. Filter out the expectations of people around you. The core takeaway is this. You can question the authenticity of everything and everyone. But your belief in your own potential, your body, your personal truth, that should remain absolute. It's the essence of sin. Substitute God for yourself. Worship yourself. everything but yourself. So a question that we need to ask ourselves on a fairly regular basis is this, are we taking on the names of the gods of our culture? Are we assimilating to the ways of thinking of the world around us or are we grounded in the scriptures, the truth of God? Do we carry the names of Daniel, the names of Daniel and his friends? So Yahweh is my judge. All of history is in his hands. Yahweh is gracious. I live by his grace. There's no God like let like Yahweh. He satisfies my soul. Yahweh is my helper. I can depend on him no matter what. Daniel and his friends, they know that God has his hand on all of history. They also recognize the dynamics of the dynamics of assimilation and they know that God favors, equips and sustains his servants, point three. So Daniel and his friends, they're offered my imagination here, slow-cooked, tender lamb, served over seasoned rice, topped with roasted nuts and raisins and the finest Babylonian wine. That was put before them. Verse 8 says, "But Daniel resolved." But Daniel was determined. Daniel purpose something in his heart. Here we have a remarkable decision taken by a young Jewish teenager, as I said, around 15 years of age. He's endured all kinds of pressure to assimilate, but he draws the line. Why? You see the word defile in the text, that means polluted. And so this food that was being offered to Daniel and his friends most likely had been offered to the Babylonian gods. For Daniel and his friends, this food would have been ceremonially unclean. Most certainly their restrictive diet was going to remind them that they depended on the God of Israel, not the gods of Babylon. They depended on the God of Israel for their very survival. God was to receive all the glory for their physical well-being and their intellectual capacity. So Daniel and his friends are saying, "Babylonians, you can give us new names. You can call us by the names of your gods, but we know who God is. We know who we are. Nebuchadnezzar, you selected us for your empire building enterprise. But we will serve the purposes of God." In verse nine, Daniel gives Daniel favor with the chief of eunuchs. There's that same verb "gave" that we saw in verse two. Daniel is given favor with the chief of eunuchs, but the chief of the eunuchs is worried. What if Daniel and his friends are not as healthy as the others that are chosen? And what will happen if these young Jewish youth are all of a sudden before King Nebuchadnezzar and they are malnourished? What will happen to the chief of the eunuchs? So Daniel says to him, verse 12, "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 use who eat the king's food be observed by you and deal with your servants according to what you see." At the end of the trial period, Daniel and his friends are in amazing health, their tone, their fresh, whatever language you want to use. They've done a glow-up. Jonathan Edwards was an 18th century philosopher. He was a preacher. He was a theologian. He served as president of Princeton University. But long before he exercised any kind of leadership, he wrote down some resolutions. Things that would govern his life. Here are three of them. Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life. He's writing these things down at 19. So I'm going to live with eternity in mind. To resolve to study the scripture so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same. I'm going to commit myself to growing in my understanding of the scripture. The scriptures are going to form me. Three, resolve, never hence forward till I die to act as if I were anyway my own, but entirely and altogether, gods. I belong to God, to God alone. You see, we make our heart resolutions in private in private, worshiping, praying, reading the word, writing down our resolutions. We make our heart resolutions in private long before we live our resolutions in the public sphere. So do you and I know what our resolutions are? What we have resolved to do? What we have determined to do for the glory of God? If you've never written down your resolutions, I would really encourage you to do that. It's such a good exercise. To clarify for yourself what you are resolved to do by the grace of God in the world that you live within right now. If you're in a new job, you've gone to a new school, you're in a new culture. What are your resolutions? God favors those who purpose to honor him. God gives Daniel in his friends exceptional knowledge and understanding of Babylonian literature and wisdom. Again, you see the same verb gave. It's in verse two, it's in verse nine, it's in verse 17. God gives Daniel the special ability to understand visions and dreams. Daniel finds these four young Jewish men 10 times better than all of his pagan advisors. The four, they're uniquely positioned by God to faithfully serve him to remain true to him even under extraordinary pressure and to bless the society within which they live. Let's remember the words of the prophet Jeremiah, words that were given to those living in Babylon, those living in exile, Jeremiah 29.7, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare, you will find your welfare. For I know the plans I have for you, to clear the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and hope. So Daniel and his friends, they were to be blessed in Babylon, in Babylon, and be a blessing. The same is true for us. We can experience God's blessing living within this culture and be a blessing to the people around us. The last verse of the chapter reads as follows, verse 21, and Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus. So that's the year 539 BC. In that year Cyrus, the meadow Persian ruler, he conquered Babylon. In that same year, Cyrus decreed the Jews would be freed to return home. Daniel was in Babylon for 66 years. That's longer than most of us have been alive. God sustained him for 66 years in Babylon. And then after serving several dynasties in Babylon, he began to serve Cyrus. In other words, he outlasted his conquerors. He served several dynasties, two empires, kings, they come, they go, but God's faithfulness is eternal. God's faithfulness can be trusted. God's faithfulness is more than sufficient. God's faithfulness sustained Daniel and his friends. God's faithfulness can sustain us wherever we are today. The God who gave King Jehoia, came to King Nebuchadnezzar, also gave Daniel favor with the government officials and gave Daniel and his friends wisdom and knowledge. And the same God who gave Daniel and his friends that wisdom and knowledge also gave his only son. For God gave his only son. Sorry, for God's soul of the world, that he gave his only son. That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Under God's sovereign hand, Jesus became one of us. He lived as a Jewish man in the first century, under the Roman Empire, speaking Aramaic. He was fully human, but he did not assimilate with the beliefs and values of his time. In all that he said and did, he reflected the character of God his father. Jesus commitment to his father, it did cost him his life. On the day that he was crucified, it looked from a human perspective that everything was out of control. Where was God. But if there ever was a day, when God had his hand on history, it was the day of Jesus crucifixion. In Acts 2, verse 23, we read, this is the apostle Peter proclaiming, "This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." God raised him up, losing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. Death couldn't keep him down. Because Jesus remained faithful, death has lost its grip on us. Shortly before his death, Jesus prayed for us. Beautiful prayer, John chapter 17. What was the focus of this prayer? Well, let's read a few verses, John 1711, holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me. Keep them. That, you say, Father, protect them, guard them, sustain them, just as you have sustained me, just as Daniel and his friends depended on God's grace and faithfulness to persevere so do we. Jesus asks his Father to protect us from the influence of the world around us, to protect us from spiritual danger. Let's keep reading his prayer, John 1715. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. Jesus asks the Father to sanctify us in the truth. This is God's gracious work. God separating us, consecrating us, sanctifying us. Our part is to sit in the Word, to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our thinking, to have our minds renewed, to incorporate the beliefs, the thinking, the values, the behaviors of Scripture. Through the Word, and by the Spirit, we absorb the divine wisdom that runs counter to Babylon, where receiving the wisdom of Babylon every day, we have to remain in the Word, be formed by it, so that we might be in the world, but not of it, so that we might discern the false idols that present themselves, so that we might understand how to glorify God in these fragile jars of clay. And to be sanctified, we need to walk with others. Daniel had his friends. We need to be walking with people that understand that God has his hand on all of history. Others that help us recognize these dynamics of assimilation, what's pulling at our hearts in the world around us. Others that understand that, yes, God is faithful and he does favor his servants. He equips them, he sustains them. So if you're not in a community of belonging, Pastor Richard was talking about, you know, men's ministry, women's ministry, a number of different groups forming there. There's discovery. There are life groups. There are so many opportunities to connect with other people at Willington. Please do not walk alone. Do not walk alone. We are not meant to face the powers of this world on our own. God is with us. He's present. God has not changed the God that sustained Daniel can sustain us. We also are to walk with our brothers and sisters. May we do that, amen? Let's pray. So Father, we are so grateful for your goodness and we're so thankful that you are sovereign overall of history. We are so thankful that we're not on our own, but we live under your gracious care. We thank you, Jesus, that you have identified with us, revealed the Father to us, that you went to the cross and died in our place, taking our sin upon yourself. And you have opened up the way for us to be in relationship with our Father in heaven. You have opened up the way for us to receive your Holy Spirit. So Jesus, as you abide in us by your Spirit, may we be transformed? May we learn to think as you think? May we carry your values? May we walk into this fall semester full of faith because you have gone before us because you are present with us in every circumstance because you will not leave us. And so we entrust ourselves to you for your glory. And it's in your name that we pray Jesus. Amen. Thanks for listening.