1
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 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 the vessels in the treasury of his god. 3 Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief
eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of
the nobility, 4 youths
without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with
knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace,
and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. 5 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. 6 Among
these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. 7 And the chief of the
eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called
Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.
8 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.
Daniel 1:1-8
The third year of Jehoiakim King of
Judah was estimated around 606 or 607 BC.
Daniel and his three friends were probably about 15 years old when this
event happened. Nebuchadnezzar
deliberately wanted young people from the royal family to be immersed in the
Babylonian culture and education. They
were supposed to be without blemish both physically and mentally. Nebuchadnezzar wanted young people in their
teenage years because young people were easier to mold. These young men faced three massive
temptations that attempted to change them.
The first temptation was the temptation
of knowledge. They were to be taught the
literature and language of the Chaldeans.
Knowledge is important, we know that.
However, with the specific knowledge of the literature of the Chaldeans,
Daniel and friends were tempted to listen to different voices. People insert their beliefs, worldviews,
philosophies, and way of life, besides informative data, in order to persuade
the readers and hope for mind transformation.
With such intensive study into the culture of the Babylonians, Daniel
and friends were tempted to change their minds regarding beliefs, worldviews,
philosophies, and way of life. The
prestigious education in the palace of the king paved the way for these young
men to be easily molded into the Chaldean way of thinking. It was a great temptation for these young
minds. Rodney Stortz and Kent Hughes in
their commentary of the book of Daniel pointed out one of the worst subjects
Daniel and friends had to learn:
Through
archaeological evidence Tremper Longman III concludes that undoubtedly one of
the subjects Daniel and his friends would have been taught was the Babylonian
art of divination. They learned how to make predictions by interpreting unusual
terrestrial and celestial phenomena and by examining sheep livers.[1]
The
new knowledge could easily sway Daniel and friends to a different way of life
as they learn them to heart. What they
had been taught in Judah was very different than what they were learning
now. God forbade them to practice divination. But here in Babylon,
divination was one of the most prestigious knowledge. For this knowledge was believed to open
access to the gods and the mysteries of the future. Mastery of divination was believed to
determine the rise and fall of kingdoms.
This is the first temptation.
The second temptation had something to
do with pleasure. Apparently king
ordered for all the young men going through the kingly education to be given
the choicest food and drink. Thus they
were all to eat and drink what the king ate and drank. While many would interpret this matter with
food and drink as something that relates to the way the Babylonians offered
their foods to idol before eating and drinking them, I do not think that that
was the case. Although some of the meat
might be ‘unclean’ according to the Law of Moses, but it seems that Daniel’s
concern was more than just the ‘uncleanness’ of the meat category. Because there was nothing ‘unclean’ about the
wine, yet Daniel resolved not to touch it.
John Calvin shed light on this matter:
For Daniel
not only wished to guard himself against the delicacies of the table, since he
perceived a positive danger of being eaten up by such enticements; hence he
simply determined in his heart not to taste the diet of the court, desiring by
his very food perpetually to recall the remembrance of his country. He wished
so to live in Chaldea, as to consider himself an exile and a captive, sprung from
the sacred family of Abraham. We see, then, the intention of Daniel. He desired
to refrain from too great an abundance and delicacy of diet, simply to escape
those snares of Satan, by which he saw himself surrounded. He was, doubtless,
conscious of his own infirmity, and this also is to be reckoned to his praise,
since through distrust of himself he desired to escape from all allurements and
temptations. As far as concerned the king’s intention, this was really a snare
of the devil, as I have said: Daniel rejected it, and there is no doubt that
God enlightened his mind by his Spirit as soon as he prayed to him. Hence, he
was unwilling to cast himself into the snares of the devil, while he
voluntarily abstained from the royal diet. This is the full meaning of the
passage.[2]
The
temptation of the pleasure of the world, whereas Daniel and friends were
treated as special people amidst all others from Judah being treated as
prisoners and exiles was a temptation that was extremely difficult to
refuse. Calvin was right that this was
the devil’s snare. Young men like Daniel
and friends would find it difficult to turn down. After living in difficulties being
transported from the comfort of their homes into a foreign land, it was only
natural for them to seek comfort. The
king’s strategy was to provide such comfort.
This was done so all the young men in this situation would realize that
their life was at the mercy of the king, that the king was their fortress, that
the king was the source of their comfort, and that they owed the king
everything. The purpose was then to
imprison them in their fear of losing comfort.
The second temptation is a mighty temptation.
The third temptation is something
else. It is the name change. This name change was meant to dispossess and
repossess the young men. In other words,
this third temptation was deliberately designed to strip Daniel and friends of
any ties to their heritage and more importantly to their God. Stortz and Hughes elaborated the name change
here:
The
name Daniel means “Elohim is my
judge.” Elohim is one of the Hebrew
names for God. The name Belteshazzar means “May Bel protect his life.” Bel is
one of the gods of Babylon. Hananiah means, “Yahweh is gracious.” Yahweh
is the personal name of the God of the Bible. Shadrach means, “Aku is exalted.”
Mishael means, “Who is what Elohim
is?” while Meshach means, “Who is what Aku is?” Azariah means, “Yahweh is my helper,” and Abednego means
“The servant of Nebo,” another Babylonian god.[3]
Their
identity was at stake. It was changed to
signify the gods that conquer their nation.
The Ancient Near East people believed that when two nations were at war,
their gods were fighting. When a nation
won over the other, it was understood that the greater god won over the lesser
god. So the name change here was not
because the Babylonian had difficulties pronouncing the Hebrew names. But it was more of a change of ownership. The gods of Babylon now, then, “owned” Daniel
and friends. The impact was massive as
Daniel and friends were forced to take up a new identity and thus to shift
their allegiance to the new gods. The
simple mind of the young would normally be easy to influence. They must have been told over and over again
that their God was defeated and was a lesser god. When they were given the new names that bore
the names of the gods that defeated their God, they were tempted to be proud
when they wore the new names. If they
internalized their new identity, they would have abandoned their belief and
worship of the God of Israel. This
temptation is not something one can take lightly.
Three massive temptations were launched
at the young men of Judah immediately after they arrived at the foreign
land. They were not threatened to be
killed if they disobeyed. They simply
were immersed into the new culture and way of life. This kind of temptations are also with us
today. The 21st century are
loaded with similar temptations.
The temptation of knowledge surrounds
Christians today. As we go to school,
new information, knowledge, and worldview are being taught to us. One of the biggest attempts to tempt the
Christians is through the theory of evolution.
Many Christians have succumbed to this temptation. If one is to pursue the academics and get the
prestigious knowledge in the world today, somehow there is this unwritten law
that dictates that he/she must embrace evolution. Not just as a theory, but as fact and
truth. Subscription to evolution is
considered advanced. A lot of famous
Christians, Christian schools and universities, Seminaries, and churches have
embraced evolution as fact and thus render the belief in Creation as told in
Genesis 1 and 2 as myth. This is a
massive temptation. This ‘knowledge’ of
evolution has been adopted into schools and is taught to us and our kids since
young. It is also in many popular books,
TV shows, movies, and even textbooks.
The younger the mind, the easier it is influenced. How should Christians deal with this
temptation?
The second temptation deals with
pleasure. We all are tempted in this
area. To gain the worldly pleasure is
now one of the most important goals in life for most people in the world. Even Christians also secretly put worldly
pleasure at the top of their priority.
The imagination of the worldly comfort is one of the greatest
temptations of all time that is responsible for the fall of many
Christians. Tagging along with this aim
for worldly pleasure is being rich.
Because wealth is understood as the gate to the immeasurable pleasure
the world got to offer. Thus, instead of
seeking the Kingdom of Heaven, Christians seek the kingdom of the world. Even people who hold the position as shepherd
in God’s church seek this. Those false
shepherds have turned God’s church into a business company. They have turned the house of God into the
den of robbers. Young people growing up,
their parents teach them to be number one, so that they would get ahead and be
endowed with a fantastic job security, thus riches, and eventually the pleasure
of the world. So young Christians today
have abandoned the pursuit of the Kingdom of God in record numbers. Be very careful with this kind of
temptation. It plays right into the
weakness of our flesh. The world has
besieged us with this lure. Our family
also teaches us to pursue it. Even our
own flesh commands us to aim at it, following our sinful nature. This second temptation is the smoothest and
yet the deadliest.
The third temptation is greatly
disturbing. The change of identity can
now be found in every corner. It is as
easy as changing the definition of a term.
The church has been undergoing many pressures from the world to change
her skin. In the 19th century
the name of the game was Liberalism. The
church was under pressure to strip the Scripture of its authority. Some have succumbed to liberalism. And now, the 21st century world is
pressuring the church to be tolerant toward LGBT. Even more, the world is forcing the church of
God to accept LGBT as natural, thus not a sin.
Many people in the church have embraced this notion that LGBT is not a
sin. What must be done then when the
Bible clearly declares that LGBT is a perversion? R. C. Sproul talked about liberalism in the
church and I think what he said is also relevant to our 21st century
challenge with LGBT:
The most
obvious option and the first expected of honorable men is that they would
declare their unbelief and politely leave the church. If they control the power
structures of the church, however, they have practical questions to consider.
By vocation and training their jobs are tied to the church. The church
represents a multi-billion-dollar financial investment, an established cultural
institution with millions of active constituent members, and a proven effective
vehicle for social reform. These factors make declaring unbelief to the world
and closing the doors to the churches less attractive. The course of least
resistance is to redefine Christianity.[4]
We
witness today that many churches redefine Christianity. They change their identity in order to
inaugurate LGBT as a no sin lifestyle and preference in the church. They go around the back door and re-interpret
all the obvious texts of the Bible that speak of LGBT as sin in order to be
accepted by the world. By doing so, they
have shifted their allegiance. They
exchanged the one true God with the gods of the world. Because they are afraid the church won’t be
relevant anymore. They are afraid that they
will be rejected by the world. So they
opt to abandon God. This third
temptation is indeed very disturbing.
Brothers and sisters, what should we
do as these temptations attack us at our weakest? Daniel and friends faced three massive
temptations when they were exiled to Babylon.
They could have just came up with excuses to go along with the king’s
order. Besides, they were just
teens. What kind of resilience they
would have at 15? It would be
understandable if they succumbed to the pressures and thus fell into the
temptations. But surprisingly, they
resolved to refuse the temptations.
Verse 8 represents the story of these four fine young men in the
following chapters. Listen to this
wonderful testimony in v. 8:
8 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
believe it was not only Daniel that decided to stay pure. Daniel represented all four. Then verse 9 shows how God approved what they
did:
9 And God gave
Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs
We
know how the story unfolds. Daniel and
friends rose to prominent and ruled over Babylon. Yet it all started with them resisting the temptations. Even though they were educated with all the
knowledge of the Chaldeans, they maintained their belief in the Lord, the God
of Israel. They did not make the
pleasure of the world as their aim. And
they never redefined their belief in the one true God. They did not shift their allegiance to the
gods of the Babylon. Remember the
incident of the worship of the golden image in chapter 3? Remember Daniel and the lion’s den in chapter
6? Those are proofs that they did not
fall into the three temptations. Surely
they could not reject the prestigious education. They also could not reject the name
changing. But those two temptations did
not make change them to become unbelievers.
They did what they could do. They
rejected the pleasure of the world. So
the four young men won over the temptations.
This is the heart of our passage today.
How about us living in the 21st
century today? Will we stand firm like
Daniel and friends? They were
unshakeable, although all their surroundings were shaking and always attempting
to shake them. They followed the Lord
wholeheartedly and rejected temptations.
This story is written for us as well.
2600 apart but yet this story is still relevant for us. It is piercing our very soul. It is evaluating our lives. Are you tempted by knowledge and thus abandon
the belief in God? Are you tempted by
the pleasure of the world and thus abandon the Kingdom of Heaven? Are you tempted by identity change because
you are afraid to be rejected by the world and thus abandon the one true God?
I was tempted by all three. The church I pastored in Canada was a
Christian Reformed Church. As a
denomination CRC has accepted evolution in their church teaching. As a denomination CRC has been leaning toward
accepting LGBT in the church. And as a
rich denomination, CRC pays their pastors a handsome salary. Without going into the details, because we
have no time here, I’ll just tell you that I faced a very fierce opposition by
important people in the church because I preached that LGBT is sin and that
evolution is not fact. So I had to
resign from the church after my hope that the church council would make the
right decision upon the matter of evolution vs. creation was denied. As I resigned, I also abandoned the handsome
salary and the comfortable life they offered.
Many pastors have shifted their allegiance to the gods of the world
because they cannot imagine living uncomfortably. I thank God for His providence as He gave my
family and I the courage to stick with Him even though the world rejected us.
Brothers and sisters, how about
you? Will you stand firm in the midst of
temptations that bombard us every day?
Will you stay faithful to the One True God? Will you have the courage to deny the
pleasure of the world and thus suffer for Him?
I pray that you will stand firm.
I pray that you will stay faithful to Him. And I pray you will have the courage to
reject pleasure for the sake of our loving and gracious God. Amen.
[1] Rodney Stortz
and R. Kent Hughes, Daniel: The Triumph of God’s Kingdom,
Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 17.
[2] John Calvin
and Thomas Myers, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Daniel,
vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 97–98.
[3] Rodney Stortz
and R. Kent Hughes, Daniel: The Triumph of God’s Kingdom,
Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 18.
[4] R.C. Sproul, Following Christ (Wheaton, IL:
Tyndale House Publishers, 1996).
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