Faith in the Fire #1 (Studies in Daniel)

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Text: Daniel 1

It is good to be together again this first day of the week. When you think about this day, it could have been on a morning just like this when two women went to a tomb in Israel and found it empty and soon the message was being sent throughout the world that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. It is because of that life that we are here today worshipping his name.

In the latter part of John chapter 8 Jesus has a very confrontational conversation with the Jews. Jesus offers freedom to all believers. If you believe in me you will be free. Here is this man whose offer is only good. However, this offer is rejected by a claim and denial. The Jews claim they are Abraham’s children and deny they need to be offered freedom. Jesus then confronts them by declaring they could not be Abraham’s children or they wouldn’t be attempting to kill him.

So, Jesus basically says, you must be someone else’s children, you don’t believe in me, you want to kill me!
In verse 46 Jesus lets us in on a tragic characteristic of some people in our world:
which one of you convicts me of sin?

In this question the characteristic is revealed and we as Christians are all told to be on guard!
You see they hated Jesus. They didn’t like him and they even got to the point that they wanted to do harm to him. But, here is the key to Jesus’ defense:
which of you convicts me of sin?

The warning for us all is clear:
Jesus repeatedly told his followers that they were not to judge but only judge righteously. Never were they to judge according to appearance, or their own perception. The warning is you may not like what someone else does, but can you convict them of sin?
Unfortunately at times in our experiences, men and women who live by faith will end up on the wrong side of others and falsely judged. In so doing the question that is most important for people of faith is not 'am I being challenged by other men?', but have I kept my integrity before God? Am I truly guilty of sin?
1 Corinthians 4:3-5

This week we are beginning our new series on the great biblical heroes Daniel and his three friends. We are going to see that they had to face the same kind of criticism that Jesus had to face but yet their integrity always remained in tact.

Turn in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 1!

Over the next 6 weeks we are going to cover some of the most exciting stories of the Bible. These stories are taught to boys and girls in their earliest years in our Sunday school and early on the desire to be like Daniel is instilled.
When one considers the part Daniel plays in Israel’s history:
few Jews have ever reached the splendor that he did. Yet, the stories of overcoming the fiery furnace and the lion’s den have a lot to give us as we walk in faith today.

Let’s begin reading 1:1-4..
The scene of this book is really important:
The Jews are in exile; they have lost the good life and are now in desperation. What we are going to find out here is that the purpose of this book is not to give an account of Daniel or to even tell us how Israel lived in captivity but to tell us among other things:
  1. God of heaven is still in control. This is important:
    when Israel lived in some what security in their land, their view of the world was basically small. Once world empires came sweeping in and their secure little lives were greatly disrupted and in fact totally destroyed: their world-view widened extremely.
    What happened to God? Does the destruction of God’s people mean the destruction of God? This is a question for people of faith isn’t it? God had promised Israel to be this great kingdom but now they have been conquered by a warrior who, more than likely, gave credit to other gods! Imagine the great debate:
    Some would say the reason their life is not as good is because they failed to follow God. Others would say the reason their life had turned sour was they failed to follow these other gods. Who was right?
    Although in James we learned that the testing of our faith makes us stronger:
    heavy trials also cause many people of faith to waver, some will even abandon God but Daniel teaches that the God of heaven is still in control and maintaining your integrity brings great reward.
  2. Whatever else might happen, it’s better than sin!
    Losing God is the worst thing that can happen. The challenge for us today is we live in this world and forget at times that life is to be lived always mindful that there is a God in heaven and He is in control. Instead of living for self-indulgence we live as He is present.
  3. This God works out His purposes for His people. This is really important. Our view of God is almost as important as His view of us. When we learn to view God as a God who is not a burden but a burden bearer His call for faithfulness in any area of life is made sensible. At times the argument over what is right to do comes down to:
    what does God allow me to do? Or what can I do and what can’t I do? This is focusing too much on what is wrong! It’s like the father who took his son to the mall parking lot to teach him how to drive. There was one pole in the whole lot and there was one instruction:
    don’t hit the pole. Guess what?
    We need to see God’s instructions as good news: as lifting burdens from us. This then allows us to focus more on what is right.
Okay, so the Jews have been overrun and Nebuchadnezzar wants to take of the royal family some youths! These were mere boys (maybe 12-14 years old). Look at their description:
this is amazing: The NCV: King Nebuchadnezzar only wanted young men with nothing wrong with them, handsome & well educated.

Vs.5-7- we get some more information: they were to be trained for three years and basically be assimilated to Babylonian culture. Now, one of the greatest pressures for people of faith is the pressure to conform!
If the world around you does this and it is acceptable in culture: why hold up under the pressure? Romans 12:1,2- do not conform to this world…
We also learn that Daniel and his friends all had their names changed: there would be a reason for this:
The four Hebrew names all gave some kind of glory to Yahweh, Israel’s God! They would challenge the Babylonian’s gods so they need to change them.
Here we have Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego who are to be trained by the Babylonians and given a portion of the King’s diet.

Vs.8-14- the key verse of the first 6 chapters might be vs.8!
Daniel ‘resolved’! CEV: Daniel ‘made up his mind’!
We talk about pressure or stress. We are seemingly going to always find pressure to not live the way God wants us to live. We get stressed out in our daily lives and soon the direction of God seems so much like a heavy problem. Imagine being among the people of God when by force soldiers and others would try to make you eat unholy things?
But Daniel made it his purpose to not defile himself!
This is so important: this is where it all begins: what is our resolution?
Have we truly made this resolution?
Daniel made it a purpose of his that he would not be defiled and he simply was not going to waver on this no matter what the cost.
How deviant behaviour becomes acceptable! Sociologists have studied this subject. Sometimes people will live by a certain code of conduct that to cross this line is unacceptable. Then a situation comes in and all of a sudden they are making allowances that before would have broken that code of conduct. What sociologists did was to first ask the question: how could people do one day what before they considered unacceptable?
A couple of things emerged:
  1. People tend to justify actions they engage in! Meaning nobody wants to be self-condemning so they engage in new patterns of behaviour and make excuses for it.
  2. People will re-define what deviant behaviour is. Once this new definition comes into play—you are free to do what you used to say was unthinkable.
The problem is, once you make one re-definition, it is easier to make another one and another one until eventually there is no more deviant behaviour! (The movie Alive was an example of this)
A lot of people fall into ‘accidental’ sins because of this:
we move to a place where it is not really wrong but we are a lot closer to being wrong and we just fall into it. Paul’s instructions to the Thessalonians:
‘keep away from every form of evil’ (1 Thess.5:22) is really important.

Daniel however, would not allow himself to re-define anything: he had a purpose that he was going to be pure and he would not put it aside.
The example of four young men making the decision to remain pure even under extreme pressure is amazing.
So, Daniel asks for permission as he does notice how God moves:
God gives Daniel favour in his sight!

We might be tempted to ask where was God when so much pressure was being applied and the answer is He was right there all along blessing!
Here is a point: God acts in every moment even when it seems He has actually abandoned His people. God will not abandon people who live by faith (Hebrews 13:5,6)
What Daniel bargains for is a 10 day trial. Another lesson here:
Give God some time! See if keeping pure works out in the longer run. It may seem more expedient, less stressful but in the long run is it better?
There is an amazing theme in the scriptures that we should pay attention to:
The idea of ‘proving’ God! Malachi 3:8-10
This is not putting Him to the test, but proving Him.

Vs.14-20- here it is: the four were found better and thus were allowed to continue in their diet but it didn’t end there: God’s blessings were always on them. God blessed them for not giving in. God blessed them for enduring. God blessed them for having a purpose to not be defiled.

Here are these 4 youths:
strangers in a foreign land and they excelled above all their contemporaries! As they do: glory is not given to them but to the God of heaven, the God of their Fathers.

A few things:
  1. The blessing of being faithful to God! I want you to notice that the text doesn’t really say the food & wine were offensive to God. The point was though that to the 4 boys the diet seemed as if it would pollute them. It would cause them to be unholy. Feeling about the critical condition they were in—they made this decision to ensure they would not be defiled. The question was not ‘what can we get away with here?’ the question was ‘How to live with integrity before God?’
    In so doing, whether the meal was breaking the rules or not, the boys regarded this as a duty to their God. You know, in Genesis 39, Joseph is repeatedly being petitioned by his master’s wife to commit immorality with her. Now, Joseph sees this as a sin against both his master and his God. He recognizes that God is present. But there’s an interesting twist to the story:
    There is no sin in Joseph staying put in the same room with her. He could justify it very easily by saying well it’s not really wrong but instead he runs away, why?
    He has a purpose he will not be defiled!
  2. They taught without speaking! Here these 4 boys lived in simplicity and refused to indulge. Yet, after three years they had excelled. To all those who had indulged, a great lesson was given about simplicity and the beauty of holiness. They may have asked how these 4 grew above them. How come they advanced?
    The answer: they were devoted to their God. Luxury can corrupt but Daniel & the 3 were kept safe in the midst of temptation to self-indulge: they lived as in God’s sight—1 Corinthians 10:13.
    Think about it today: those who uphold the purity of marriage, those who live with fiscal restraint, those who won’t dabble in a little pornography, those who don’t need to berate and belittle their children…don’t they teach without speaking the lesson of simplicity and the beauty of holiness?
Lastly—
Vs.21- Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus! The importance here: Cyrus is a new king of a new empire. What is the point? Daniel survived!

The challenge with us at times is how can we maintain this way?
How can God expect us to go through life like that? Is it worth it? Is it worth being holy?
Daniel continued: Daniel survived and his answer to us is yes it’s worth it.
As Jesus said, ‘What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?’ (Matthew 16:26)

Romans 6:20-23

It all begins with a decision: a resolve in our heart that we will not defile ourselves before God and trust that God will bless this life in the end!


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