Sunday, September 7
2025-09-07
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0vKtZGDGpQ

He was one times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus. All right, we're in the book of Daniel this morning. Our plan is to be here for about the next 10 weeks. I want to just begin by sort of centering ourselves and giving us a sort of a brief overview of this book, not necessarily in terms of themes or stories, but in terms of sort of the importance and what we are going to learn from this book. So I want to begin with sort of what the center of this, what we just sang, is this vision that Daniel has in Daniel chapter 7. "I saw in the night visions and bold with the clouds of heaven. There came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the ancient of days and was

presented before him, and to him was given dominion and glory in a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. And his kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed." And what's interesting about Daniel, and if you're familiar with this sort of section of the Old Testament with the major prophets and the minor prophets, most of the prophets in the Old Testament are bad news bringers. You have messed up severely, and now you are in trouble. And in some cases, God is going to send an enemy nation, and he's going to come, and he's going to defeat you, he's going to destroy your cities, and he's going to drag you into captivity. And so for most of the minor prophets, what you find is sort of this repetition of failures, of

brokenness, of judgment. And in them, there is also hope that God receives and redeems. But Daniel stands different, because Daniel is a prophet of good news. And what we find throughout this is that God reigns, whether you are facing judgment in Babylon, whether you are in opposition because you refuse to pray to the false gods, or whether you pray at all with Daniel in the lion's den. When you see the writing on the wall in Daniel chapter 6, God is in control of kingdoms that rise and fall, and as we see in those prophetic visions, sometimes very difficult to understand, sometimes filled with imagery that is strange to us, you see that God is not just in control of the past and the present, but he's in control of the future as well. And so Daniel is a book of

good news. And one of the things that Daniel does that is so wonderful is he sort of shines a light on how God works in our world. And there's sort of three perspectives, especially in these first six chapters that we'll see. One is the perspective of the Babylonians, right? They come in, they destroy, they take, they impose their will in a lot of different ways. And in fact, the picture of the Babylonians is one of pride. It says in Daniel 1:2 that they took them back to Shinar. Some of your translations will say Babylon, but the original term there and the term that is used and that we'll be using is Shinar. And what that is is actually the location where the Tower of Babel was. And by using that term specifically in Daniel 1:2, it's calling back to the pride of those who thought they were above

God themselves. And so you see the pride of Babylon. We'll see it a little more when Nebuchadnezzar has a vision from God and ends up in his pride taking credit for everything and suffers the consequences of that. So on one hand, you have a group of people who think they're undefeatable and greater than anyone else. And then you have these Hebrew captives who have been torn from their homes and their families. Some people think they're as young as like 14 or 15 years old. Daniel, Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah. They're Jewish names. These are not guys who have been to seminary and are in their 40s and they're able to stand up. We're talking about, in many cases, likely what we see in Daniel 1. We're talking about teenagers. And we see them in the midst of this sort of darkness and brokenness,

and they're able to stand for their faith. And so we see the perspective of the pride of Babylon, the obedience of these Hebrew captives. And behind it all, what Daniel does is shines a light on how God works. That Daniel and his friends are able to stand firm because their God is the Ancient of Days. He's on the throne, and he's in control of all things, from the deportation to Babylon, to the hand of the king's steward, to their wisdom they demonstrate before Nebuchadnezzar. And so most of all, what we see is we see this book directing us both to God's greatness, to how he is at work, sometimes even behind the scenes. But most of all, it directs us to Jesus. In fact, we'll see that literally in Daniel chapter 3, with the fiery furnace. But more than that, one of Jesus' favorite ways to refer to himself, from

both Ezekiel and Daniel, was this term, "the Son of Man." In fact, one of the places where Jesus has one of the greatest controversies is he refers back to the book of Daniel and says, "the Son of Man." We'll see that in Daniel chapter 7, this picture. And Jesus says, "Hey, that's me." And so this book very clearly directs us to Jesus. So this morning, what we want to try to answer is this question, "How can I stand firm when it seems as if everything is out of control?" And what we will see as we move through this chapter is that God is in control of all things. And we can be unshaken in him even when everything falls apart. So I'm going to go ahead and pray, and we will dive right into what we're doing this morning. Let's pray. Father in heaven,

we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your grace. We ask this morning that like Elisha's servant, she would open our eyes to see your work in this world, that we would be attuned to what you are doing, that we would trust you deeply, and that we would be able to live courageously, not because we're strong, but because you are strong. So encourage our hearts this morning. Bring us to repentance in those areas where we have compromised, and help us to be encouraged by this book. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Montgomery Wards or Ward Plaza here in Winchester on Valley Avenue. Since I have lived here in 2004, it's been a fixture. Montgomery Wards has been empty. The roof has been falling in for years. I got my first haircut in Winchester

in that plaza, probably the most awkward haircut experience I've ever experienced. I rented a U-Haul truck in that plaza, and if you were to drive by it today, what you would see is just a giant field with some piles of dirt. And it seems like they just barely started tearing that down for the new development, and all of a sudden this Winchester abandoned landmark has gone from a bunch of buildings and parking lots and some traffic and some stores and some people to now it's just a completely flat piece of dirt. All the debris from the buildings has been removed and not much is left. And there are times in our lives where it feels like everything that we have tried to belt and everything that we have experienced can just fall apart into nothing. And it seems like sometimes it

can happen so fast that we're left wondering where did everything go wrong? And as we begin Daniel chapter 1, we see that is the story of God's people. As we begin in these verses, everything is broken. Everything has fallen apart. What was once a thriving group of God's people are now defeated and many in exile? So I want to just walk through as we begin the brokenness that we find in our text this morning. So let's start in Daniel chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the vessels of the house of God, and he brought them to the land of

Shinar, to the house of his God, and placed them into the treasury of his God." And so I want to just walk through the destruction that is wrought upon God's people. The first of all, what we see is that there is this massive political destruction. And what has happened in the words, in the time period leading up to this, and if you want to read some of this history, you can pick it up in 2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 35, is that there is a king by the name of Josiah. He becomes king at eight years old, and he is a godly king who serves God. But for whatever reason, seemingly in opposition to God, we see this in 2 Chronicles 35, in an attempt to gain politically, he goes out and he seeks to fight the

nation of Egypt, even though Egypt says to him, "Hey, we're not fighting you, and God has told us to go fight this battle, and here you are trying to stop it." And so almost in opposition to what God has said, the godly king opposes God, and he is killed in that battle. And as a result, his son becomes king.

And it's only just a few months while his son is king, because the Egyptians, insulted by his desire to interfere, they come in, and they depose his first son, and they add his other son, Jehoiakim, to the throne. And it's about this time Babylon shows up, they defeat the Egyptians, and sort of in defeating Egypt, they've also defeated the vassal state of the southern nation of Israel, Judah. And so now Babylon controls Judah. And things seem okay for about three years, until Jehoiakim says, "I'm done giving money to Babylon," and he raises up an army, and he begins to rebel. And so Babylon shows up, and this is where we begin. The king of Babylon comes, Nebuchadnezzar, comes to Jerusalem, besieges it, conquers the city, and takes and plunders its wealth and its people. The second thing we see is that there is a

spiritual devastation that happens. Not just that the city is attacked and destroyed, and there is war, but God's temple is desecrated, and it says Nebuchadnezzar will take some of the vessels of the house of God. We'll see this again in Daniel chapter 6. It's sort of foreshadowing of some things that are going to happen in Daniel chapter 6, but God's vessels are taken and taken into Babylon, and this is not a small thing in that culture, because what the Babylonians would have thought was that, "Look, not only have we defeated the nation of Judah, but we have defeated the God of the nation of Judah." And so one of two things has happened. Either he now serves our gods, or he has been defeated and he is no longer in power. And you have to remember, too, that for many

people, they thought of God sort of regionally. There's gods in Babylon, there's gods in Israel, and so some of these people who are struggling and who will be deported will think, "Well, we've left God behind in Israel." So not only is there sort of a broken politics and your city has been plundered, there is a spiritual issue. And then we begin to see in the next verses that these captives who are taken, their names are changed and they're sort of forcefully assimilated into Babylonian culture. And you're going to have the chief eunuch, and we're going to begin to focus on four of these captives: Daniel, Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah. And what is going to happen is they're going to be brought into the Babylonian court, and they are going to be the best and the brightest. And so not only is there

political and physical devastation, there's spiritual devastation, but the reason Babylon takes the best and the brightest, right, is it strengthens Babylon, but it also weakens the nation of Judah because all of their best people are gone. But there's also sort of an unspoken threat hanging here because some of these families are left behind. Babylon will install a puppet king. And so by taking some of the royalty and the nobility into Babylon, you have some hostages that if you guys don't obey, if you guys don't listen, will kill the people who are in Babylon. And these people who are taken in, and as we begin to zoom on, we find into these four people, they are beginning to be immersed in Babylonian culture. They're going to have to learn all of the different things that need to be learned.

They're going to learn the literature and the language of the Indians. They're going to eat the food that the Babylonians eat. And probably one of the biggest things, their names are going to be changed. And biblically, names are more than just names, right? They picture hope, and they talk about God. In fact, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, their names all point to the God of Israel. And they're given new names that point only to the Babylonian gods. So their names are taken away, their home is taken away. Remember, these are not old men. We're talking 14, 15 year old people. And so here you find that there is sort of this insult added to injury. There's political devastation, spiritual devastation. The best and brightest are taken away. And it's not necessarily because the Babylonians are great, but it's because God's people have disobeyed. If you remember from Isaiah 39,

several weeks ago, Isaiah will say to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of hosts. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and which your fathers have stored up till this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord, and some of your own sons who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good, for he thought there shall be peace and security in my days." And so everything has fallen apart, and not only that, it's their own fault. And it seems like if you were simply to judge by outward appearances, it seems like God has lost all control. That is, people politically, spiritually, physically

are taken away from His land. And maybe you've been there, maybe you are there, maybe you will be there in the future. And the question is, how do we respond when it seems like everything has been turned into rubble? How do we respond when life collapses? Sometimes we respond with anger, right? We get very, very angry. And I was listening to a guy speak about this a couple of weeks ago. His name is Victor Marks. You can look him up on YouTube. He has a remarkable story, but he said this about anger. He said, "Anger is not the problem because God says in your anger, do not sin." It's how we deal with anger. There's a right time to be angry. There's a wrong time to be angry. But for many of us, we don't

know how to deal with anger. And so what we do, it's like a grenade. We either swallow it and become bitter angry inside or we start throwing it on other people. And you and I have probably seen this and maybe experienced it to people who have, or in our case, if we have experienced great loss and struggle and a bitterness and an anger that eats us up inside and just tears down other people. So sometimes we become angry. Sometimes we become discouraged and just sort of sit down and say, "I can't go on." Sometimes it's complaints and comparison. Why is this happening to me? Why isn't it happening to them? They're far worse than I am. But most frequently what we try to do is we seek to compromise as we look at the rubble

of our lives and say, "Is there an easier way to go through this pain?" And so we've seen what happens here when everything falls apart. And we've seen that sometimes we respond angrily, sometimes with discouragement, sometimes with compromise. Let's see what happens in Daniel chapter 1. We're going to pick it up here and beginning in verse 8 of Daniel chapter 1. "But Daniel resolved, 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 to not defile himself." Now this sounds like in all the places you could have taken a stand for righteousness. This seems like a strange place to take a stand, right? It's the food you have a problem with, right? Not with the fact you've been torn from your family, taken into a foreign land.

Your name has been changed. Some commentators think because of Isaiah 39 and because Daniel only deals with the chief of the eunuchs, that not only were these guys captives, but they also became eunuchs in the service of the king, right? And Daniel is choosing to argue about the food, right? You need food to live. They've just been through a highly traumatic event, and it seems like the only perk that they will get from this job is the food, right? The same food the king eats. And the king doesn't eat bad food. He doesn't drink bad wine. And he says, "Hey, I'm going to share with you guys," and Daniel guys, "No, no, this is where I draw the line, right? At the steak, the potatoes, and the wine." It might seem strange to us, why would Daniel reject this food? I think in part, it may be in part because of Jewish dietary laws,

maybe in part because the food was sacrificed to idols, likely. But I think it goes much deeper than that. And the reason I think it goes deeper than that, than just following the Levitical law, although Daniel does do that, is because later on in Daniel chapter 10, he's eating the rich food. He's drinking the rich wine. I think in this moment, Daniel takes a stand here for the same reason that Abraham does as he follows God. For he was looking forward to a city that has foundations, who designer and builder is God. Or as it says a little further in Hebrews chapter 11, Moses, rather than enjoying the pleasures of sin for a short time. And it seems like cleanliness and of the food and idols may play a part, but it seems like that if Daniel is saying that if we give in to this culture, if we

bend on this point, we lose everything about who we are. And by accepting the food, Daniel is accepting the king's provision. He's accepting the king's authority. And Daniel simply says, "I'm not going to do it." We might say, "Well, just try it. It's not that big of a deal. It's good food. Why wouldn't you eat it?" And Daniel says, "No, it's not just food. It represents something much deeper." And we might dismiss this stand of Daniel's. Refusing to eat the food is something small, but here's the reality. Small things turn into big things very, very quickly. And Daniel chooses to trust God rather than compromise, no matter how small we think those compromises are. And this is a big deal because angering the king doesn't just get you in trouble. It gets you dead. And I want you to see not just that Daniel and his

friends stand firm, but I want you to see how they stand firm. And as you read through these verses, you find it's with wisdom and reasonableness. And we often think that taking a stand means we need to be abrasive. Now, sometimes, right, we have to be very clear and very firm, but notice what it says. Daniel resolved 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 to not defile himself. And God honors his faithfulness, gives him favor with the steward, and they find that they thrive under God's care. This is such an important thing. You see, standing firm doesn't mean we are able to control everything that surrounds us, but it means that we trust in God and we stand firm because he enables us to in the

midst of the storm. We trust the God who controls all things, and we'll see in a few moments that he can even make you fat eating vegetables. What happens next is I want us to see how God's hand has been moving through all of these things. The brokenness, and then Daniel and his friends as they stand firm. Let's see how Daniel and how this happens here. In these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions. At the end of the time when the king commanded they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king spoke with them. And among all of them, none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king, and in every matter of wisdom and understanding

about what the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and the enchanters that were in his kingdom. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Sirius. Cyrus, we've seen the brokenness. We've seen Daniel and his friend's faithfulness. Let me show you this. There is a phrase that's repeated three times in this text. In Daniel chapter 1, we find Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar comes and besieges Jerusalem, and look at what it says at the beginning of verse 2, "And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand." Daniel 1:9, "God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs." And in 1:17, "As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom." And Daniel had understanding of visions

and dreams. One of the keys to understanding Daniel 1 is this theme that God gave. In judgment, he gives Judah and Nebuchadnezzar's hand. He gives to Daniel and his friends favor and compassion. He protects them, and he gives them learning and skill and equips them. We don't just see God, though, working behind the scenes. We see a miracle in Daniel 1. Remember, Daniel is asked to eat only vegetables and to drink only water, and the chief of the eunuchs says to Daniel, "I fear my heart of the king, beside your food and your drink. Why should he see that you are in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? You would endanger my head with the king." As Daniel asks for different food, the chief eunuch says, "It's going to kill me." Not just because it's going to be a struggle,

but because the king could literally chop off my head. Now, we have to explain this just a little bit because in our thoughts, healthiness means that we're skinny, we have muscles, we're able to do a lot of work. In Babylon, for warriors, that was true, but for people in the educated class, the magicians, the guys who are learned, who can interpret dreams, Daniel's group, you find in Babylonian art that these guys are always depicted as very, very plump guys. And so part of this is you're going to be a wise man in the nation of Babylon, you got to look the part, so let's fatten you up. And then four of your dudes show up and go, "Hey, we're only going to eat vegetables." And the chief unit goes, "Well, if you only eat vegetables, you're going to be skinny, you're not going to be fat, and I'm going to get my head cut

off." So Daniel, I think in the wisdom and provision of God, poses a challenge. Ten days. Daniel said to the steward, the eunuchs who had been assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and I was right, "Test your servants for ten days, and let our appearance and the appearance of the ewes who eat the king's food be observed by you. So deal with your servants according to what you see." So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. Look at what happens. At the end of ten days, it was seen they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the ewes who took and ate the king's food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables. You see the miracle that is happening here? These guys are getting fatter while eating vegetables. I was

reminded a couple weeks ago that probably ten or so years ago, I was asked to judge a barbecue competition at a church in West Virginia. So after our church got done, I ran over there, and we tried all the food, and the judges we conferred, and they gave me the opportunity to be spokesmen. And so I have all the plates out in front of me, and I get up and I say, "Well, you know, this was really good. They did good really here." And this guy over here put vegetables on the plate, so we're just disqualifying him completely, right? And so here is the steward, and he's doing the opposite, right? Get rid of the meat. Get rid of all of the good food. Get rid of the wine. Everybody is on celery and water, and somehow Daniel and his

friends are getting fatter. The only way this works is if the hand of God is happening. And then can you imagine how annoying? Like Daniel and his friends are now like the kids who are like, "Hey, you forgot to give us a test today. Are you going to make sure you send home homework with us?" Because now everybody is on celery and water for the rest of this three-year period. But what I want you to see is even in the darkest exile, God rules, He gives, and He accomplishes His purposes. That is, Daniel and his friends are taken from their home when they find themselves in a strange place with everything about them being changed. God rules. So for us, often in the middle of darkness and difficulty, we look specifically at our problems, and we try to find our own solutions. So I want to encourage you this morning to look again, but

not at the problems and the struggles, but to look at the reality that God is in control, to look closely and more deeply. The psalmist says, "Lift our eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from?" And what will you do when you find yourself in these situations? You see, without a foundation of the fact that God is in control, it's so easy for us to complain and to compromise, to compare, to become angry. And so the call in this text is for God's people to trust Him, that He's trustworthy even in the darkest moments. And we'll see this later in face of the fiery furnace, in the face of lions and political opposition and strange visions about the future. God is trustworthy. And we'll see as we proceed. This trustworthiness is reinforced by knowing Him more deeply, by prayer, by fasting,

by worshiping together, by obedience. And I want to encourage you to trust God in the small decisions. We're tempted to say sometimes that's not that big of a deal. Notice how Daniel sets the tone for what happens by being faithful in what he eats. He becomes faithful in all the other things. Don't discount those small decisions that we face every day. We see here that God is sovereign over both our losses and our gifts. So I want to call you this morning to lay down your burdens and to trust in the sovereign God who rules over all things. To rest in the truth that God who gave his Son for you, he is in control of all things, even in those moments of darkness. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this book. And as we begin to dive in and to study more deeply, may you encourage us in your

sovereignty over all things. May we not be people of compromise. May we seek to serve you even when our lives are on the line. It's in your Son's name we pray. Amen.