Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Analytical
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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Barefoot Dusty
It started as a simple thing.
I think I was 16 years old.
I was the “kid from California.
Running around barefoot like a surfer or something.
Cool, right?
Then people started being surprised I could walk on things without hurting my foot.
Like hot pavement.
It did hurt my foot, but I couldn’t show that.
Pretty soon, going barefoot became “my thing.”
And I started going barefoot more and more often… until it was barefoot everywhere.
And then at college… and church… I was barefoot guy.
At restaurants… at public restrooms...
It’s getting gross, isn’t it.
But how do you stop if it’s part of your identity.
That’s who I am! I’m barefoot guy.
Cool, quirky and different.
(Arabelle said she should preach this sermon because she’s “not like other girls”).
This is a meme
Only a boy named Daniel
So what’s the purpose here?
To indoctrinate the kids.
They are “youths” and it isn’t super specific how old they are.
Scholars usually estimate 17 or 18 years old.
They miraculously found some teenage boys without acne, “without blemish”, and the smartest, most skillful around.
To be servants, slaves.
Honored slaves… but slaves.
They were to be “educated in the Chaldean way.”
Learn how we learn, speak how we speak… eat like we eat.
This is the “undergraduate” degree, get your Babylonian Bachelors Degree… just 3 years and you can be a slave to the king.
And among these smart, skillful, beautiful Israelite boys...
And the indoctrination / re-education starts right away:
The boys are renamed to honor Babylonian gods instead of YHWH.
Daniel (God is my judge) - Belteshazzar (a servant of Bel)
Hananiah (the Lord is gracious) - Shadrach (inspired by the sun god)
Mishael (who is what God is?) - Meshach (who is what the moon god is?)
Azariah (the Lord helps) - Abed-Nego (servant of Nebo)
What a powerful way to disconnect them from worship of YHWH, from family and home.
Give them new names!
The Daniel Diet
The Daniel Diet or “Fast” involves an entirely plant-based diet that incorporates vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, and lentils.
You give up all the heavy meats and dairy and alcohol and eat plants.
Or, as KK calls it, “life”.
What was it about the food that “defiled”?
“Defile” is a strong word, isn’t it?
I don’t “defile” myself by eating something “icky”.
This is pollution, desecration, staining myself.
The Bible uses this word when people get covered in blood...
But it doesn’t say why the food would “defile” Daniel.
It could be “unclean” meats, like pork.
It could be food sacrificed to idols.
It could be the symbolism: this is the king’s food.
This is a supreme honor the king is bestoying on these young men… a portion of his food, of his wine.
Why is it the food?
There are a LOT of other things Daniel could or maybe should be upset about.
Captivity
Daniel and his posse are captured in the first seige and attack on Jerusalem.
Not the one we have been mostly focused on with Jeremiah and the author of Lamentations.
That is going to come almost 20 years later, in 586 BC.
This is 605 BC, which means Daniel is in the kings court for almost 20 years by the time that happens.
How about making a stand for “Hey King, stop attacking my home country!!!”
Or… you know, free me and my friends!
We aren’t your slaves or your servants!
The Names
They are in the process of rewriting Daniel’s identity.
In fact, what are the names of Daniel’s friends?
Anyone remember?
Maybe a little jingle?
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
We remember their Babylonian names!
Isn’t that weird???!
Belteshazzar doesn’t roll of the tongue as well.
We remember “Daniel.”
The names are a big deal, why isn’t Daniel fighting about the names!
Daniel 1:8 (ESV)
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.
I think it’s this.
Daniel is a stranger living in a strange land.
And of all the things and places, God gives him this conviction.
He is a holy vessel.
Of all the things the King stole from the temple… it is the people of God that are the most precious.
Containers of His Holy Spirit, they are His people.
They are holy vessels, set apart for the purpose of the Lord.
So what would defile God’s purpose, God’s calling, their “set apart-ness?”
I don’t know why it’s the food, but I believe God gave Daniel that conviction.
So he and his friends draw a line.
This is a line I’m not willing to cross, a God-given limit, and I’m going to honor God, I’m going to honor the way He has called me to be holy over the commands of the king.
How Daniel does it.
Respectfully.
As respectful as he can be.
Just arguing for a chance.
He trusts God to prove it.
How long does your diet take to take effect?
10 days??? Nope!
This is a miracle that there would be ANY visible effect after 10 days!
(This is a funny piece when folks do the “Daniel Diet”.
I don’t think this result is what they’re going for.
“You look fatter in flesh than all the other youths!!!”)
This is just the start of Daniel and his posse’s story.
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