Daniel: Faith under Fire
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The Bible tells us that, as Christians, we are to be salt and light to the world around us. The implication is that we are meant to be different. We are supposed to stand out. Salt adds flavour to bland food. Salt also preserves food that would otherwise rot and die. If the food is already flavourful, it doesn’t need salt. If it already preserved, it also doesn’t need salt. Light is useful in a dark place but if the place is already lit, then bringing a light doesn’t really help anything. In both cases, we are being called to be different. The problem with being different is that you stand out. And when you stand out then you often end up with a target on your back.
If we are supposed to live differently to the world around us, and living differently means we are going to be singled out for being different, how do we do that? Were do we get the strength to stand for God and live His way in a world that hates anyone being different and tears down anything godly? The answer comes from an eternal perspective—knowing that you will live beyond this life and that choices you make in this life affect you forever.
We continue our look into the lives of young people in the bible. These young people show us that age is not a requirement for godliness. You don’t have to wait to live for God and also that there is no leaway for youth in God’s plan. God calls everyone to honour and serve Him, both old and young.
Today we’re going to look at Daniel and his three friends, Hananniah, Mishael, and Azariah, also known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Daniel taken to Babylon
Daniel taken to Babylon
Nebuchandnezzer besieged Jerusalem and carried off the treasures of the temple and placed them in the treasury of his god. The king also conscripted some of the people of Israel to come and serve in his palace. They were to be trained in knowledge, understanding, and learning and the language of the Chaldeans.
As part of their training, the king assigned them a daily portion of what they ate and the wine he drank.
This was a three year training programme.
Daniel and his friends, Hananniah, Mishael, and Azariah were conscripted and placed in the training program.
Daniel recognised that the food and drink was not in accordance with Jewish law and resolved not to defile himself. He asked the person in charge to allow him and his friends to be served vegetables and water.
Daniel made his decision without knowing how things would end. He decided to do things God’s way even though he didn’t know up front how his choices would be accepted.
God calls us to live in faith without knowing how things are going to turn out. He asks us to do what He has said we ought to do and to trust Him with the outcomes. Sometimes, like with Joseph, the outcomes aren’t good for many years and God works in our lives to position us for His purpose. Sometimes the outcomes don’t ever appear to be good for us in this life. But sometimes God honours our choices more quickly.
The chief eunuch wasn’t convinced. He knew that if those under his charge ended up looking worse than the rest of the young men then the king was likely to kill him.
Daniel asked for just ten days. After ten days if the chief of the eunuchs wasn’t happy with their appearance compared to the others, then Daniel would submit to his decision.
After ten days they were examined and found to be better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food. So the steward continued to feed them only vegetables and water.
God honoured these four young men by giving them learning and skill in literature and wisdom. Daniel was given understanding in visions and dreams.
When they graduated, the king found none like Daniel, Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah. They were given positions in the kings council and when he inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his kingdom.
He called all the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers to help him with an interpretation of his dream. The problem was, he didn’t trust them to give him a true answer. They stood before him and said, “tell us your dream and we will give you the interpretation.” The king replied, “If you don’t tell me both what I dreamed and its interpretation then you will be torn limb from lib and your houses will be laid in ruins.” The king knew if they could tell him his dream, then they surely had the interpretation as well. He and his councillors knew that the only way that was going to happen was if the gods revealed it to them.
They clearly couldn’t help the king so a decree went out to kill all the wise men.
When they came to kill Daniel he hadn’t heard about this and asked what was going on. Daniel made an appointment to see the king that he might show the interpretation to the king.
Daniel went to his friends, told them what was going on and asked them to seek mercy from God concerning this mystery so they might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
God revealed the mystery to Daniel in a vision during the night. God blessed God by saying:
In Jerusalem it would have been far easier for Daniel and his friends to live God’s way. The same applies to you. While you live at home, your parents have fairly strict control over how you live, even if you are currently fighting them for your independence. They require that you come to church and to youth group and so, under their influence and that of the church, it’s pretty easy for you to live a ”godly” life.
The real test of your faith and submission to God comes when you are no longer under that protection. Daniel and his friends were taken from their home and away from the temple. They were placed in a foreign land and offered all the food and drink of that land. They could have had all the bacon they wanted. But they knew that God was God no matter where they were. They knew that God’s way was best no matter what situation they were in. And they knew that to honour God was going to be better for them than doing the things of the culture they found themselves in.
One day your faith will be challenged like Daniel’s was. One day you will leave school and your parents home and venture into the big wild world. You will go to university, perhaps even in a different place, and be exposed more fully to the culture of the world. That is where your faith will be tested. If your faith is simply riding on your parents, then you will quickly be caught up in the things of the world. If your faith is sure, then you will be able to stand strong even in the face of the challenges you face “out there.”
The Fiery Furnace
The Fiery Furnace
Some time later the king set up a golden image. We don’t know what it was, whether a statue of a man or some other structure. It was 27 meters tall, about eight stories high, and only about 3 meters wide so it is unlikely that it was of a man. The king ordered everyone to come to the dedication of the image he had set up and when everyone was gathered they were all commanded to fall down and worship the image whenever they heard the sound of many instruments. When they heard the sound of the instruments, they all fell down and worshiped the image the king had erected.
Some came forward and accused the Jews of not bowing to the image. They reminded the king that he had made a decree that whoever didn’t bow to the image when the music played, that they would be cast into a burning furnace.
Then they pointed out that certain Jews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were ignoring the decree and refusing to bow down or worship the kings’s gods or the golden image he had set up.
The king, in a furious rage, commanded that the three be brought to him. There he confronted them and asked if it was true that they do not serve his gods or worship the golden image he had set up. He then gave them another chance.
15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”
The three friends knew exactly who the god was who would be able to deliver the from the king’s hands.
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
Note their faith. They had faith that God could deliver them from the furnace but they also had complete confidence in God’s sovereignty that if He chose not to rescue them from the furnace, they would still honour God above the king.
Too often we approach God on a conditional basis. Lord, if you do this for me, then I will serve you faithfully. But if we truly recognise God as God of the universe then we wouldn’t dare do that. Our right approach should be, “Lord I will serve you because you are God and if, by your grace and mercy, you choose to do anything for me, I will be eternally grateful.”
Yet God is incredibly gracious. He doesn’t just command us to obey him because He’s God. He is a good and loving God and has established life in such a way that if we do things His way, that is always best for us. He honours and blesses those who live His way. He continually affirms that He will honour those who honour Him and He offers rewards to those who serve Him faithfully.
Are you willing to honour God no matter what and trust Him to do what’s best for you and for the furtherance of His kingdom. If our only perspective is this life then that is harder to do. But if we know that there is a life after death then our perspective changes and we have a much bigger picture to consider. What happens to me in this life is almost inconsequential when I consider that I will live eternally with God in heaven. I want Him to be pleased with me when I get there.
Back to the three friends. The king was furious that they refused to bow to his image and he ordered the furnace be heated up seven times hotter than usual. Then he ordered his soldiers to throw the three into the furnace. The furnace was so hot that it killed the soldiers who threw in the three friends.
Then king Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in astonishment because he saw something in the flames. He asked his councillors, “didn’t we throw three men into the furnace?” They agreed. He then said, “but I see four men unbound, walking in the fire and they are not hurt and the forth looks like a son of the gods.”
The king called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of the fire. He also referred to them as servants of the Most High God. When they came out everyone gathered around and noticed that the fire had not affected them in any way. Their bodies were unscathed, their clothes unharmed, their hair was un-singed and they didn’t even smell like fire.
28 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.
The three friends had determination to follow God no matter what the cost and their decision was honoured by God. They were willing to die knowing that God could save them but might not. What are you willing to die for? It’s hard to think we’d die for anything less than an absolute certainty. You’re not going to put your life on the line unless you are completely sure that what is going to happen after you die is better than what you could have in this life right? Do you have an eternal perspective or are you living your life only thinking about your time on earth?
The Lion’s Den
The Lion’s Den
Daniel served under King Balshazzar after Nebuchadnezzar and then under Darius the Mede. Under Darius, Daniel served as one of three high officials who’s task was to ensure that the king suffered no loss. He was highly distinguished and the king intended to set him over the entire kingdom. Those under him looked for ways to discredit him but found nothing. Eventually they concluded that they would find no complaint against Daniel unless they could find it in connection with his God.
What about when people look at you? Would people find it difficult to find fault with you? The Bible refers to this as being above reproach. If someone wanted to cause trouble would they be able to find something to accuse you of or would every accusation be easily discredited. With Daniel, they couldn’t find any accusation that would get him in trouble. The only thing they could do was to cause him trouble based on his faith. Why? Because they knew that when it came to Daniel’s faith, he was always consistent.
So they set up a plan to entrap Daniel.
They got the king to issue a degree that whoever made any petition to any god or man except the king for thirty days should be thrown into the den of lions. The king signed the law into affect. Remember, when we studied Esther that when the king established a law, it could not be revoked, not even by the king.
10 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.
Daniel knew the danger yet he continued to worship and pray to God as he always had. He knew that to honour God was far greater than to obey some human establishment.
Those men knew Daniel would not bow to the new law and so they found him praying and then went to the king. They reported that Daniel paid no attention to the king or his law and continued pray three times a day. The king was distressed when he heard the news. He looked for some way to help Daniel but the men pointed out that no law the king established could be changed. So the king commanded that Daniel was thrown to the lions. But the king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” Then a stone was placed and sealed over the den. The king then went back to his palace and spent the night fasting and could not sleep. Early the next morning the king went quickly to the lions’ den
19 Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. 20 As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” 21 Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! 22 My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”
The king was glad and had Daniel brought out of the lions’ den. Then the king ordered that the men who had acted maliciously against Daniel be thrown in to the lions den along with their wives and children. Before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions destroyed them.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We’ve looked at three stories from the life of Daniel. In each one of them we see young men choosing God above everything else. Daniel and his three friends would rather eat vegetables and drink water than eat all the fine food the king set before them. Are you willing to give up some of the attractive things of life in order to honour God or are you compromising and living more like the world than God wants you to?
When the three friends were told to bow to the golden image they refused even though they knew they might die. When Daniel was told to stop praying or face the lions’ den he continued to pray even though he might die. In both cases they didn’t know that God was going to save them. They hadn’t read to the end of the book of Daniel. They had to make their choice for God then, in that moment. What will you choose? Is your faith in God strong enough? Do you trust God to always be working for your good and for His ultimate good that you’re willing to die. Sometimes choosing death seems like the easier choice because living an uncompromising life is much harder. Jesus said that if we want to follow Him, we must deny ourselves. He asked the rhetorical question, what benefit is it if we gain all the world has to offer but in the process lose our soul? The answer is, no benefit. But too often we still choose all the world has to offer over living for God.
As you’ve heard me say many times before, you do what you do because you want what you want. You want what you want because you believe what you believe.
Daniel, Hananniah, Mishael, and Azariah wouldn’t compromise because they wanted to honour God above everything. Those four young men wanted to honour God above everything because they believed deeply that there was a God and that His way had eternal value.
How does the way you live show your desires? And what do your desires truly reveal what you believe?