Sermon Tone Analysis

*Pray slowly*

*Introduction*

/Where do we draw the line?/

Friends of ours moved to Kenya a few years ago, so the husband David could take up a job lecturing at a Bible College there.

Their house didn’t have a water meter for a while, due to an oversight by the Water Authority, so for a time they got all their water for free.

Being a Christian David went to the Water Authority to try and open an account to pay for their water.

He had to queue in 9 offices over the space of two days just to open an account.

He wrote in his newsletter ‘even in their wildest fantasies, the officials had never experienced someone voluntarily asking to pay for water.’

Would you have done the same?

Try a few more scenarios:

            1) You are sitting in an American High School classroom, when two hooded youths burst in carrying guns.

They demand that all those who love Jesus stand up.

The young girl at the front of the class stands, only to be shot dead.

Will you stand up?

            2) You are on a bus in Indonesia, when some militant Muslims stop the bus and get on.

They tell all the Christians to get off.

A man near the front stands up and is herded off.

You see him pushed to the ground and clubbed senseless.

Will you get off?

They were real scenarios.

But let’s try some closer to home perhaps:

            3) Your tax agent is showing you the return he has just prepared for you.

He has put down some expenses connected with your job that you never spent.

You ask him what these amounts are, and he says that in your line of work you can claim that amount without having to prove it, so you might as well.

Would you claim it?

4) You have just bought a new computer.

Your friend comes around with a copy of the latest software, which you know is already loaded on his computer.

It’s just what you want and need, and he offers to give it to you.

Will you take it?

The issue in all those scenarios, and countless others we face as Christians, is - where do we draw the line?

Where do we stand up for what God wants and say to the world ‘this far and no further’?

What cost are we prepared to pay to maintain our obedience to God? Or do we keep compromising our faith?

They are some of the big questions dealt with in the book of Daniel, for Daniel and his friends faced those sorts of very real pressures.

As we look at Daniel 3 & 6 my prayer is you will leave tonight encouraged to stand up for your faith in Christ every day in every way, regardless of the cost.

For our God is worth it.

So you might like to turn to Daniel ch 3 in your Bibles and to the outline in your Bulletins if you don’t already have it handy.

Daniel is just after the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

*1.

Is God king?

(Daniel 1:1-2)*

/            Yes, but to see it we must look beyond physical events./

But first some background, because jumping straight into Daniel is like watching the second series of Sea Change without having seen the first.

You feel a bit lost, and not sure of what’s going on and who is who.

So, what is the story thus far?

            You’ll remember that God promises to Abraham to make a great nation out of him, and from his grandson Jacob come the 12 tribes of Israel.

God brings Israel into the Promised Land and dwells with them in the temple built by Solomon, in His city Jerusalem.

But for centuries Israel has rebelled against God, despite God’s clear warnings that He will punish them.

And in 722BC it happens - the northern tribes of Israel are wiped out by the Assyrians.

But the southern tribes don’t learn, and in 605 the unthinkable happens - the Babylonians come and invade Jerusalem, the city of God, taking away some articles from the temple, and taking away the cream of Jewish youth to re-programme them.

Including a young man called Daniel, and three of his friends.

And so opens the book of Daniel.

Read vv1-2.

It raises big  questions for us.

Has God lost?

Where is God?

Is He still king?

What will He do?

What of Israel?

As we go through ch 1 we see that God is still very much in charge, and responsible for Israel’s situation.

So v2 - the Lord delivered Jehoiakim in to Nebuchadnezzar’s hand.

v9 - God caused the official to grant Daniel’s request.

v17 - God gives to Daniel and the other 3 great wisdom and to Daniel himself the ability to understand visions and dreams.

On the surface it seems that Nebuchadnezzar and his gods have shamed and overcome the God of the Jews.

The reality is however that the One true God is still in control.

But to see it we need to look past the physical events themselves.

As we look around our world, it often seems that God is missing in action.

Or as someone once said - God is dead.

But friends God is still working to fulfil His plan and nothing will thwart Him.

Daniel’s dilemma then is how do I live out my trust in God, in a very pagan nation.

And how can my faith even survive in a pagan world?

Hence point 2.

 

*2.

Living under a pagan king (Daniel 1)*

/            Bend with the wind, but resolve not to break!/

            Daniel is taken from the city of God, to the city opposed to God.

The NIV footnote calls Babylonia Shinar.

It takes us back to Gen 11, where the tower of Babel was built in Shinar.

Babel represented humanity in its arrogance setting itself against God and his kingdom.

Babel of course becomes Babylon, and throughout the Bible Babylon is *the* image for mankind opposed to God, until Revelation 18, where Babylon finally falls, never, ever to rise again.

It is to this city Daniel is brought, to be indoctrinated into its ways and culture and lifestyle as we see in ch 1.

            Daniel himself is, v3, a young man from either the royal family or the nobility of Israel.

He is, v4, physically fit, handsome, and intelligent.

Just right to help the Babylonians run their vast empire, and in the process destroy the Jewish culture by reprogramming the next generation of the leaders of Israel in the culture of Babylon.

So Daniel is to be indoctrinated for three years.

The programme is, v4, to teach them the language and literature of Babylon.

Then, v5, to give them food and wine from the royal table.

And finally, v7, to give them Babylonian names.

But look at v8 - read.

Daniel will not defile himself.

He accepts he is in Babylon, but refuses to become a full part  of it, so draws his line.

He can cope with a new name, and new learning, but resolves not to eat the king’s food or drink his wine.

Why not?

Some say the meat was unclean, but that doesn’t account for the wine.

Others say the food had been offered to idols, but so too vegetables.

The better suggestion seems to be that to eat the king’s food was to implicitly enter a covenant relationship with him.

So, in 11:26 it is seen as very disloyal to eat from the king’s provisions and then turn against him and try and destroy him.

There is apparently an Eastern saying ‘to share a meal means a commitment to friendship’.

We say, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

For Daniel this is too much.

His commitment is to God first, not anyone else.

He will not let any other loyalty take the priority over his relationship with God.

To eat the king’s food would compromise for him his freedom to serve God above all others.