Good evening. Get your Bibles. Let's go to Daniel chapter one. I had this printed out on a piece of paper to give you, but it's on the printer at my house, so I forgot to bring it. But I'll post this whole thing again right after. This outline is not from mine. It's actually from the ESV commentary. But this is chapter one. It's kind of have this, this structure actually is kind of a characteristic of a lot of Hebrew writings. It's called a chiasm, right? There's each of these things. They build all the way to the middle, and then they kind of build back out, but these things are the same. So you can see we're starting with Babylon besieging Jerusalem. Then they're trying to educate him. Daniel asks not to eat. I'll let you read through them, but you can't read that. But I will give you a copy of this, because this was kind of, I hadn't really seen this before, but this scholar in the ESV commentary said, no, it kind of fits this. kind of thing. So again, I will print this as soon as we, or post it as soon as we get done tonight. All right, verses one and two. Can I get somebody to read verses one and two for me? Daniel chapter one. All right. So, this is Daniel is telling this story now from his perspective. But let's go back, take your Bible, go back to 2 Kings chapter 24. And if someone, when they get there, would read 10 through 17. Go ahead. At that time, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to the city while his servants were besieged in it. And Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign, and carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the Lord had foretold. He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land, and he carried away Jehoiakim to Babylon. The king's mother, the king's wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon All the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war. And the king of Babylon made Mataniah, Jehoiakim's uncle, a king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah. All right. So a couple of interesting things in that king's passage. It seems like they put up much of a fight. Nebuchadnezzar came in, and they just said, I give up. And you notice, again, Nebuchadnezzar's a lot of things, but he's no dummy. Who does he take captive and take away from the land? The best, right? Takes away all the king, all the royalty, the upper, and he takes all the mightiest men, and he takes what else? The craftsmen. The guys who build things, took all of them back to Babylon, and Kings tells us he left the poorest people in the land. Again, this is strategic, right? He takes all the people that are in danger to Babylon, where he can assimilate and monitor them, and then he leaves the poor to fend for themselves. Question. because verse two says, and the Lord gave Jeholakim king of Judah into his hand. So the question I'm throwing out to you is God justified in putting the Israelites into exile? Yes. Yes, okay. Why? Why is he justified? OK, that's a good reason. There's more to it than that, though. He warned them during Moses' time that this is exactly what would happen if they sinned. Well, but they obeyed him all the time. Right? The Israelites are known for their persistent obedience to God. No, no. Right, of course. No, they can't. It's like they have this circle they're going on. Trust God. Oh, don't trust God. Follow idols. Get punished. Oh, cry out to God. Come back, right? This is over and over. They're doing this. And Mr. Siebold is absolutely correct. Let's turn to a book we don't go to very much, Leviticus chapter 26. And we're not gonna read all of these, I'm just gonna pick out, it all fits together in context, but in the interest of time, I'm just gonna. Pick out a couple of verses, but you can follow along. Turn to Leviticus chapter 26, and the whole thing is 27 through 29, but listen to what he says in verse 27. But if, in spite of this, you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. So this is the Lord, they're setting up the laws, and the Lord's building out how this relationship between the people of Israel and Himself is going to work out, and He's saying, if you disobey Me, if you go after other gods, then this is what's coming for you. Verse 33 says, I will scatter you among the nations. And I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Verse 39, and those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies' lands, because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquity of their fathers, they shall rot away like them. Lengthy history of disobedience, This threat is going to be carried out in several stages, right? This is the first one, right? He comes in, captures him, takes him away. Later, Jerusalem gets destroyed. They burn down the temple in 586 BC. And all of these things were foreshadowed by this exile in which they took the vessels of worship from the temple and took them back and used them in the houses of their God. Destroyed some of them, but then took some of them back and used them in the houses of their God. This is a complete and utter God giving everything that the Israelites put their faith, giving them over to the Babylonians, completely. So yes, God is justified. God has a reasonable expectation of obedience from his people. He provides and cares for us, and so he is the creator God, and all of his creatures owe him obedience. So when you don't, There are consequences, right? We know that, speaking of gospel, when you don't obey God, then you're a sinner, and all the wages of sin is death, right? Here, God is trying, trying to put them in exile to get them, to get the message. You're not getting it. I've told you over and over again. It's almost like they're a small child. Parents, do you relate to that? That's kind of, you tell them something over and over again, and they keep disobeying you. But he finally says, OK, this is what I told you would happen, and it does. All right, verses 3 to 7. Would somebody read? Any questions before we go on about that? Can I just share a verse? Yeah. From Jeremiah. You know, Jeremiah was a prophet. And he said he'd been prophesying to him for 23 years and got involved in prophets persistently. So he's been very specific. Right then. Right. and I'm just gonna come and take you over, like, my name, you know, don't worry, talk to me. Yeah, absolutely. Daniel 1, verses 3 to 7. Then the king sent his commander to ask him of his chieftainess, to bring some of the people of Israel, folks of the royal family, and of the nobility, to meet at the south limit of the city. to stand in the king's palace and teach them the literature and languages of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time, they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the humans gave them names. Daniel, he called Balthazar. So, again, Nebuchadnezzar is being very strategic. He's taken the brightest, the best, right, the elites, and he's going to bring them in and trying to assimilate, feeding them like wanting to eat like Babylonians eat, right, treating treating them, wouldn't even let, change their names, right? Which, of all the things that you can do to somebody, is that not the most kind of personal, kind of, you know, change your name and what it means? And we're going to see about that here in just a minute. But he does two different things. He tries to remove their cultural and religious identity, right? He wants to remove that completely. That's part of what changing their name is, right, is completely change the identity of this person And he also, by offering them the food, he's trying to create them to be dependent upon the court, right? All of their food and everything is going to come from the Babylonians, and so they're going to grow and say, like, well, this is where I want to eat, you know, this is what I have to do. Nebuchadnezzar changes their name, and this is actually, I mean, these four guys have really good names. Okay, and you're gonna change them to like, just yucky names, right? That's a biblical word right there, yucky. First of all, Daniel means God is my judge. Good name, right? Daniel means that God is going to, look over me, he's going to judge my actions. And he is, that's a reminder, right? The name is a reminder that obey God, right? Because he is your judge. And they change it to Belteshazzar. which literally means, oh lady, protect the king. And the lady is in reference to Bel. Bel is one of the Babylonian deities. And so it's, again, completely opposite, using a reference to their deity to change his name completely, Belteshazzar. Trying to change, really, who they are. Hananiah, Yahweh is gracious. Again, what a good name. How does that, how much does that describe after being, after being in Romans 5, the end of Romans 5, right? How would you like to have the name God is gracious, right? That's just such a good name. It says so much in the name. But they change Hananiah's name to Shadrach, which is command of Aku. Aku is one of their moon gods. Okay, so again, it's a direct reference to one of the Babylonian deities. Trying to completely change the focus, change their identity. Mishael, who is what God is? Who is like God? Right, again, what a great name. Who is like God? Who is what God is? And here, they really, they really, come back and this one's just like completely the opposite. Meshach is who is like Aku, who is like their god, one of their gods. I mean, that's just almost a slap in the face, right? They're trying to change where their name is drawing attention to Yahweh, and now they're drawing attention to the Babylonian god. Azariah, I mean, Yahweh is the helper. Yahweh is my help. Again, Why does that describe the character of God, that Yahweh is the one who helps you, the one who lifts you up? And they change his name to Abednego, Servant of the Shining One, which is a reference to the god Nebo. So, in each of these cases, this is part of what they're doing to erase all references to their old identity. Say, we brought you here so you can be Babylonians. And we want to erase everything about your past life so that you get assimilated into it. Now here's really the meat or the important story part, verses 8 through 16. Somebody read verses 8 through 16 of Daniel chapter 1. 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. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion on the side of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord, the king, who has signed your food and your drink. For why should he see that you were And Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Ananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and the word of God. So he listened to them in this manner, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days he was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all of the youth who ate the king's food. So the stewards took away their food, and the one they ordered drank of it. As for the four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all the literature of wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all the literature of dreams. Okay. Daniel is a very charismatic, powerful guy that immediately gains the respect of the court, the people who are taking care of the captives, right? That's what I was gonna say. That's right there, right? Verse nine, and God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the king of the eunuchs. There's nothing mentioned here about Daniel's character. It's pretty good, okay, but that's not what's driving the narrative here. God intervenes in this situation and gave Daniel favor with the court, the eunuchs. Does that sound familiar? Esther, right? That's immediately what I thought. I was like, we just studied something just like this, like when we studied Esther. Esther, God gave Esther favor in the side of the king's court, right? She was, so Daniel, though, does have good character because he uses this favor and compassion to try, all right, to try to put a stop. You know, we don't want to do this. We don't want to become like the Babylonians. We don't want to be Babylonians. We're Israelites. We want to be Israelites. And so, I think that's part of what they're doing. I mean, you tell me. What else are they doing here besides that? Do you think they're doing more than that? Right. Yeah, all of these things that they're, now, there's all, there's actually like three or four ideas that are kind of goofy, I think. One of them was like, well, Daniel was vegetarian. He didn't want to eat. I was like, he asked for vegetables, but I don't think, He's a Jew. Vegetarianism is not like a characteristic of Jew. And drink and wine, they're not opposed to that. But there's something going on here, right? Him and his family, first of all, they want to follow God. They want to keep following God. They don't want to follow the Babylonian gods. And that's part. So one of the ideas is that maybe the food has probably already been sacrificed to idols. Maybe. Again, it's not really said there. But that's an interesting idea. That might be partially true. But even the vegetables would have probably been offered to the idols, too. So that's where that kind of falls apart. but they want to remain pure, right? That's part of the idea here. They're wanting to not defile themselves, not because the food is bad, but because of what the food represents, right? It's representing following the Babylonian customs, eating the way Babylonians eat, right? You might think about it, and so they're trying to say, we want to stay pure and not do that. And they want to, again, they're not gonna have a distinctive diet, right? Everybody else is eating all of this great food, this smorgasbord of delights, cakes and all kinds of meat and probably everything you'd ever imagine, but they're gonna eat vegetables and water. Please do not go find a diet book, the Daniel Diet, and try to figure out how to eat, because that has nothing to do with what's going on here. But I'm sure, I bet if we look, there's probably several books about the Daniel Diet or something. So anyway, not biblical, but such as it goes. And again, they're wanting to avoid assimilation. Well, why do you, I mean, they took on a name which honored that guy, and then they were educated to do the what? I don't know. Right. I mean, I think ultimately, like, everybody in Babylon's going to call them by the other names. They're not going to call him Daniel or Hananiah or Azariah. Huh? Yeah. I mean, they didn't choose their name. And ultimately, they really shouldn't have a choice here. Well, But again, God gives him favor, and he uses it, right? He uses God's favor to sort of take a little bit of a stand, right? And say, okay, I'm not gonna do this. I'll do all the other things, but I'm not gonna do this. No, but it's a distinction, right? They're trying to draw a line. Really, they're drawing a line, and because God granted them favor, they're able to do it, right? They shouldn't be. Why on earth would they let him? Well, they didn't want to, right? Because what happens? The eunuchs, and then they go to the chief of the eunuchs, And he says, let's do this. Just the four of us, for 10 days, we're gonna eat vegetables and water, and 10 days, everybody else can eat all the king's stuff. So they say, well, put God to the test in a way. They're not testing God, but they're saying, look, they're saying, we trust this way is God's way, and so we're gonna do it that way, and we believe at the end God's way will be the way that is better. And what happens, right? Well, it says that after 10 days, they looked fatter in flesh. I don't know what that means. It means they look better than the other guys. Right? So after 10 days on this really strict diet, right, probably I wouldn't think it was enjoyable. It would not be my thing. Vegetables only, that's like the opposite of my ideal diet. So, but anyway. Yeah? I mean, he actually did that with them during this time, so they could pass it on. I think that's right, because it's kind of obvious that the Unix thought the other food would be better. But they were trying to make everybody healthy. And they probably had experience in that food making them healthy. Yeah. But when Daniel and Linda just ate vegetables, they're like, wait a minute. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, again, I think that's exactly right. I think this is something supernatural going on here. Because the truth is, if you examine what the humans are designed to eat, it's hard to eat a vegetable-only diet and get all the nutrients that you need. It really is. It's possible, but it's really hard. In reality, this is completely opposite. But somehow, after 10 days, they looked and says, working for them. The steward took away their food and just gave them vegetables and said, okay. You don't have to eat all the royal food. You don't have to eat all that. Just keep eating your vegetables and water. Because they took, God gave them favor and they used that then to take a stand. I think that's like, something we should think about. If you have favor in a certain situation, in your job, in your whatever, your sphere of influence, God has given that to you to take stands when they're appropriate, and trust him with the results. This is not the first time things like this happen in the Bible, right, where people say, do it God's way, and which way turns out better? It's always God's way. This is from the ESV study Bible, their notes. I thought this kind of succinctly said everything I just said. I'm going to say it again in a much more academic way. Daniel and his friends avoided the luxurious diet of the king's table as a way of protecting themselves from being ensnared by the temptations of the Babylonian culture. They used their distinctive diet as a way of retaining their distinctive identity as Jewish exiles and avoiding complete assimilization into Babylonian culture. which was the king's goal with his conquered subject. With this restricted diet, they continually reminded themselves in this time of testing that they were the people of God in a foreign land, and they were dependent for their food, indeed for their very lives, upon God their creator, not Nebuchadnezzar. They trusted God would use the food they were eating to provide for their needs, not Nebuchadnezzar's food. Yeah? When you think people take a stand, and it's not clearly commanded in Scripture, and then you think that God's going to bless me. You know, like the man who wouldn't fight. What's it called? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Proverbs 23 says, when you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. So I'm just wondering if you have that sense of wisdom, like we're sitting down with this ruler, these delicacies. Yeah, I mean, I think it's clear God gave him favor, and then God put it on Daniel and his friends to take this stand, right? I think God directed him to do this. I don't know how. Somehow Daniel knew that this is what God wanted him to do. Desmond Doss, Heartbreak Ridge. OK, thank you. Yeah. And did he have some females? Oh, well, I was just going to say, I mean, saying that it's holding onto their Jewish identity is sort of, you know, this is more sort of six to one, half a dozen to the other, but there's a couple of verses, I don't have a reference in my head right now, but there's a couple of verses that clearly indicate that, you know, the reason why all of these laws were given to the Jews, you know, the weird laws, like you can't wear wool and cotton together, you can't eat a pig, you know, all this kind of stuff. It's not because it's better for them. It is to keep them separate. It is to make them clearly holy and distinct. you know, I can see that being more of their guide here than even just, you know, oh, we have to be Jews in the face of the Babylonians. I think it's probably more about their relationship with God. Yeah, because clearly it only says, the Bible only, the Daniels here, only draws attention to those four. Because what did we just learn before? There's thousands that were taken, but somehow these four made this commitment. Again, I don't know why, but it's clear that somehow this, for them, was, you know, this is as far as we're gonna, we wanna go. And they make the stand, God puts them. But it does, this took, let's not, I don't wanna sugarcoat or downplay here. Daniel and his friends exhibit extraordinary faith here. that eating vegetables and water for 10 days is gonna be better than the king's food? And it is. Because God supernaturally did something, but it was their faith in God to provide for them, and God vindicated their faith, which he does in so many ways. for us. Quickly, Daniel 1, 17 through 21. Someone read that. Or is it 20? The end of the chapter, yeah. Yeah. Just wow. They obey God in this little thing with eating of the food and at the end of the time of their training, they're brought before the king. I don't know if they had a test or something, you know, the ACT at the end, the Babylonian ACT to figure it out, but somehow it immediately became apparent when they came before the king. These dudes know what they're, they know what they're, they're smart, right? And they're wise, right? They're more, not just knowledge, they're wise in how to deal with things. All literature and wisdom, and Daniel even is able to handle visions and dreams, which is pretty important for the rest of the book. So, and again, because they obeyed God, they, tried to keep themselves from the world they were in, God then lifts them up. They gain a tremendous influence. Daniel is one of the favorite advisors of King Darius when we get to that point. He's the one that he trusts the most. And what does Nebuchadnezzar, when he inquires about them, what does it say? They're 10 times better. Not just a little bit, they're 10 times better than any of our guys. These four, if I go to them, they're going to have a good answer. They're going to be able to help me make a good decision, better than all the other guys. So that's, to me, that's amazing. That's all God's hand moving. God's sovereignty and providence, putting them in the situation that is just, it's unfathomable to imagine, can you imagine being taken away and taken to another country and being forced to learn the language, have them change your name, assimilate and become part of that culture, and yet they're, They're standing strong. God's sovereignty in this first chapter is clear in at least two ways. God uses the Babylonians to discipline his people. If God hadn't wanted to use the Babylonians to discipline his people, they wouldn't have, right? They wouldn't have taken over Jerusalem. They wouldn't have conquered, but God Obeying his promise, right? This is the way it's gonna be. And so he took Babylon to discipline his people. So what's going on here is not necessarily about Babylon and its greatness. It's about God using Babylon to discipline his people, right? That's clearly God's sovereignty and providence. And then, in the midst of their deserved punishment and discipline, God protects, preserves, and promotes His people. All of this happens, ultimately, so that at some point, there's a remnant remain. There's a remnant in Babylon, and there's a remnant in Israel. And at some point, God's preserving His people so that those in Babylon can go back to Jerusalem. God is using all of this to protect his people. And he promotes them to the places where they're gonna be protected in just ways that are gonna be absolutely necessary. If Daniel doesn't have influence and Shadrach or the other three don't have influence, what could have happened, right? Who knows? God putting them in that place, it was for a reason. Lots of reasons, some we'll be able to see later on. Can we live and how do we live faithfully in exile? It's a good question, right? We have an example here, but there actually might have had an idea what they needed to do. Let's turn to Jeremiah chapter 29. This is God speaking through Jeremiah to this group of people, specifically this group of people, starting in verse 4, Jeremiah 29 and verse 4. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses. and live in them, plant gardens, eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there and do not decrease, 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." I think Daniel and his friends know something about that, right? And so they're trying to, this is what God has told Jeremiah, go there and help them, not your people, help the city where you're living for their welfare, not for the benefit of you or your people, but go there, keep having families, you know, Fulfill the creation mandate, be fruitful and multiply, have sons and daughters, and let them marry, because, and live there, do well for the city, because some, in the back of their mind, someday, this exile's not gonna be forever. Amen? Isn't that good to know? The exile's not forever. They're gonna come back, and he's saying, be prepared for that by living. Don't go there and, I mean, The ultimate sign of resistance to this would be for them to just not eat, not participate, just let themselves die. And Jeremiah says, no, God wants you to go and live. Live where God has placed you. Have an influence where God has placed you. Yeah, how many missionaries would want to be, have their first, the call to missionary? Well, I got captured by the enemy and taken into their Not the first time it's happened though. There's all kinds of stories where people get taken captive and God uses them because they live for God in the midst of a pagan culture. Again, Jeremiah 29, four through seven. All right. That's all I've got. I think this is just just awesome that we see God's sovereignty and we see faithful men of God who who do live by God's commands. And and what happens is God is glorified ultimately in everything that they do. Yeah. Chapter 1, verse 14. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in our conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. And if you call on him as father, you judge as impartially according to each one's deeds. Conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the few foul ways inherited from your forefathers. Amen. It's a good way to close. Mark O'Neill, would you close us in a word of prayer? in the eyes of the people that are around you. you can work. And I pray that you would in all situations.