New Resolutions

We open a new series in Daniel by facing catastrophe, exile, and the quiet power of God’s severe mercy. Daniel 1 shows how resolve, small communities, and public accountability help us resist assimilation and live with holiness and influence.

• Judah’s collapse and the claim that God is at work
• Severe mercy as discipline that purifies and restores
• Lessons from loss shaping where we place trust
• Babylon’s assimilation strategy and its modern echoes
• Christians as exiles called to sober watchfulness
• Daniel’s practices: acceptance, study, excellence, clear lines
• The role of small communities, leadership, and accountability
• Setting our hearts because Christ first set his for us

Let us pray

Chapters

• 0:00 Daniel Begins And Scripture Reading
• 2:00 What Has Not Changed Amid Loss
• 3:05 Exile As God’s Severe Mercy
• 7:40 Lessons From Loss And Discipline
• 11:10 The Danger Of Assimilation In Babylon
• 16:00 Christians As Exiles Today
• 18:45 How To Live: Resolve And Community
• 22:30 Leadership, Accountability, And Public Faith
• 25:30 Set Your Heart On Jesus And Pray

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

But for the for now, um, we are beginning a new series in the book of Daniel. We're going to be doing the narrative sections of Daniel, the stories about his life. And so if you would stand with me out of respect for God's word for our scripture reading this morning, which comes from Daniel chapter 1, verses 1 through 8. The word of God reads this way. 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 the vessels in the treasury of his God. 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, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's place, and to teach them the literature and the language 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, Meshael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names. Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Meshael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego. 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. This is God's word. Thanks be to God, you may be seated, and may God bless this reading and preaching of his word. Elizabeth Elliot was twice widowed. Her first husband, the famous missionary Jim Elliot, was martyred on the mission field as a young man. But she married again, and her second husband, the theologian Addison Leach, died suddenly of a heart attack at the young age of 58. Elizabeth's world collapsed around her, not once, but two times, as she was widowed two times. In her writing, she described how meditating on the Apostles' Creed helped her deal with these losses. And she approached the Creed with this question: What things have not changed even though my husband has died? What things have not changed even though my husband has died? This is a very Christian question. When life appears to change for the worse, life is full of painful and unexpected change, and so we need to be diligent to remind ourselves, especially in those times, of things that have not changed. What things have not changed? And the Apostles' Creed, of course, rehearses the eternal truths that have not and will never change. The book of Daniel is about life for God's people in the aftermath of a catastrophe. Daniel's story begins in the early days of Judah, Judah's collapse. The glorious kingdom of David, which once was on top of the world, by that time has significantly declined. Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed or in the process of being destroyed by their enemies. God's people are living in exile in Babylon. So much has changed for the worse. But the book of Daniel exists to teach us that when things fall apart, when things change for the worse, some things have not changed, and some things will never change. God is still at work, even when it seems like it's all over. In the message of Daniel, I'm excited to study it together. It's so relevant for us because Daniel teaches us how to sing the Lord's song in a foreign land. He shows us how to live faithfully in a world under the power of the evil one. Christians also are strangers in exiles on earth, and so we must learn how to be, as Jesus said, both shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves, because we live as sheep in the midst of wolves. And we have the book of Daniel, among other things, to help us. But today we begin here that God is still at work, even when it seems like it's all over. When it seems like our goose is cooked, God is still at work. There will be times in your life, maybe you've lived through some of them recently, or if you haven't, you certainly maybe maybe you will face some this year. Times in your life when it feels like everything that you've counted on has collapsed. Whether it be a shipwrecked career or a poor financial decision or a failed marriage or a ruined reputation, what do we do? How do we trust in the Lord when it falls apart? There's three questions that this passage challenges us to ask when we find ourselves in those situations. Why am I here? What are the dangers here, and how do I live here? Why am I here? What are the dangers here, and how do I live here? So, first, why am I here? When things collapse, this is often the first question, or maybe one of the first questions that we ask. How did this happen? Why am I here? And for different situations, there might be a multitude of different factors that go into that, but there is one thing that's always the same, no matter what situation we're in. Verse 1 tells us in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. Scripture tells us, you can look at 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles as well, that Jehoiakim was a wicked king. He had no regard for justice. He heavily taxed his own people in order to pay tribute to Egypt and then later to Babylon. He sold his own people essentially for his own security. But eventually he got bold enough to rebel against Babylon, and so Nebuchadnezzar came with an army and besieged him. Sometime during that conflict, Jehoiakim died. The temple was plundered, as we read. All of this, Daniel says, is the Lord's doing. It is the Lord who raised up Babylon. It is the Lord who brought Babylon to Judah to besiege it and to destroy it. And it is the Lord who has given over his people to be carried into exile. The Lord often warned Judah through the prophets that he would do this if they did not repent. And sadly, for many decades and many hundreds of years, they did not listen to the prophets, or barely listened, and now the chickens have come home to roost. The exiles, however, have an opportunity now to reflect on all that has happened and to reflect on why it happened. Why are we here? And the answer is God. More specifically, the answer is God's sovereign discipline or God's severe mercy. Severe mercy. It's severe because it's sudden, it's painful, it's violent, it's disorienting. But at the same time, it is merciful because God's ultimate aim in all of this is to purify and to restore his people and to rebuild something that has become unredeemable. He gave them many chances to repent and not to do this the hard way, but ultimately they chose the path of God's sovereign discipline. When things collapse, it could be for many reasons. It could be because of a dumb decision that we made. It could be because of an injustice that someone else inflicted upon us. It could be because of what seems to be random chance. But when things collapse, God is at work, and he is at work disciplining his people for our ultimate good. I've been reading through Thomas Soule's Basic Economics. It's about this thick, and it's a wonderful book. If you're looking for a great read this New Year's, um choose either some fiction, exciting fiction novel, or Thomas Soule's Basic Economics. One point that he makes is that in economic terms, losses are just as important as profits for businesses. Losses are just as important as profits, even though no business owner or no business person wants to experience losses. Why are they just as important? They're important because they teach us something. Losses teach us where not to put our resources. So for example, if a car and Ford has recently learned this, if a car company makes electric vehicles, but no one is buying them, that's an important lesson. It should teach us not to put resources into something that is not producing a profit, but is but is actually creating a loss into something that's not working that no one will buy. The same lesson, economics lesson, is true in all of life. Our losses in life are just as important as our wins, because they have something to teach us if we will listen to them. They have something to teach us if we will listen to them. They have the power to teach us where not to put our resources in the future and where not to put our trust. And this is God's discipline in our lives. God sometimes allows things that we have trusted in to fail. And when that happens, it's really painful, and we can be tempted to turn bitter and angry and uh distrustful. But in those times, if we will turn to the Lord, our losses can become our most important lessons. We can learn from them where not to put our faith, where not to put our confidence in the future. And we can learn the only one who is worthy of our faith. If we will only ask the question, why am I here? It's important when things fall apart to ask and to understand why am I here and to see that it is God. What does God want me to learn here? How is my father disciplining me here for my good? This is what the exile was for Israel, and this is what God's discipline is for us. When things that we trusted in collapse and no longer work, we need to pay attention to what God is doing, because our biggest losses can become our most important lessons if we will listen. Case in point, if you look at the prophetic history of Israel, Israel's prophets before the exile had basically no success. No one listened to the pre-exilic prophets. But after the exile, the only prophets that had success were the ones after the exile. Israel listened to the post-exilic prophets like Malachi and others. Um, and it's as if the exile was disciplined them and it taught them we ought to listen to these crazy guys because remember what happened before. If we will listen, they can become our most important lessons. I can't put it any better than the author of Hebrews. Hebrews 12, 9 through 11 says this. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. So what does the author of Hebrews say that we should do when undergoing God's discipline, when things collapse? Hebrews says that we should be subject to God. He says, be subject to the Father of spirits and live, which means that when we crash and burn and when life collapses, we stop and we say, Okay, God, you have my attention. Now you have my attention. I'm listening. What is it that you want me to see here? What is it that you want me to learn? What am I supposed to learn through this? So when when these things happen, don't get so discouraged and bitter that you cannot subject yourself to God. Turn to God and learn something and listen to him because he has something good for you to teach you that will help you. Why am I here? God's severe mercy, God's sovereign discipline. Point two, what are the dangers here? The great danger while living in exile is assimilation. Like every empire that came before it, Babylon's goal was hegemony, that they would have cultural control over the many peoples of their empire. They were something of a worldwide empire. Babylon sought to organize the world that it controlled under its own vision, apart from the God of heaven. In verse 2, the land of Babylon is called Shinar. This was not a name used in Daniel's time, but is actually an ancient name that comes from Genesis 11. Shinar is the plain where the Tower of Babel was constructed. Genesis 11, 4 tells us what their ambition was, the people that built it or tried to build it. They said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. The Tower of Babel is a picture of humanity organized under one government that is set against the God of heaven. It's humanity organized against God. And like every empire that came before, the Babylonians knew that the most important tool to accomplish this was assimilation. So they have an assimilation program. The Babylonians would conquer a smaller nation. They would deport the skilled, educated, and influential people to Babylon for re-education. And their goal was that these people would slowly become pro-Babylonian. They could still worship their own gods, their ancestral gods. These Jews could still worship Yahweh, but only insofar as their devotion to Yahweh did not get in the way of their ultimate commitment to Babylon. So look at what they do in verses 3 through 4. It says that the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, 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. And FYI, Chaldean just means Babylonians. So first, they target young, influential men. These are the nobility and the educated class in Jerusalem. They bring them to the capital, leaving the working class and the poor behind in Jerusalem. They bring these to the capital for re-education. And for three years, they are to be educated in the language and the literature of the Chaldeans, which would include Babylonian history, mythology, religion, medicine, which included like reading the signs of the entrails. It was like witchcraft, magic, and astrology, all of these things they would learn. And for good measure, they mollify them with just a little bit of luxury. Verse 5 says, the king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, so it's they're eating the very best, and of the wine that he drank. No one drinks better wine and eats better food than the king, and that's also what they were served. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. So Babylon wants the young Israelite nobles to slowly but surely become more committed to Babylon than to the God of their fathers. Yahweh could still have a place in their life, but they were to become pro-Babylonian. Living in exile is dangerous. It's not necessarily because of persecution, although there's plenty of that in Daniel, and we'll get to those stories. But living in exile is dangerous because Babylon is very persuasive. So all who live in Babylon must fight to keep their allegiance to the Lord, the primary thing, and not be assimilated. Julie and I just finished watching season one of Pluribus. Is anybody else in here watching Pleuribus? Well, I'll spoil it for you. I won't spoil it, but I'll tell you what it's about. My wife's begging me not to spoil it. You should watch it. It's a TV show, it's a Vince Gilligan show. It's the same creator who brought us Breaking Bad. But it's a TV show about this virus that comes from outer space and it infects the human race. And what it does is it connects all of humanity into one hive mind. So that now what used to be many individuals, now they just share one mind. And it's kind of like AI, where all human knowledge and memory and experience is consolidated into this one thing, and every individual is just a representative of that one hive mind. What immediately results looks like paradise at first, because of this, there's no more conflict, there's no more war, there's no more politics, there's no more political parties, there's no more waste. It's incredibly efficient and peaceful and and and happy. It's it's amazing. The problem is that there are nine individuals on the planet who are immune to the virus. There's only nine who have retained their individuality and have not become joined to the hive mind. And what happens to them? They are treated like celebrities. The hive mind seeks to win their trust. It gives them whatever they desire. It meets every request that they have. And its tireless goal is to convince the survivors to join them, to join the good life of assimilation into the hive mind. And what makes the hive mind so persuasive is that it really does solve problems. Conflicts disappear. Life becomes efficient. Everything is coordinated. But the cost is humanity itself. Individual lives, individual voices, individual responsibility, all of it is absorbed into something else. And the nine who remain face this temptation. Wouldn't it be easier to just stop resisting? And wouldn't it be better and more peaceful if I just joined? And that's the danger of assimilation. It happens slowly but surely. Nothing, it's not a violent assault, but it's a slow chipping away of our will to resist. Nothing feels wrong until you realize that you are no longer who you were created to be. So what does this mean for us? This is how Peter puts it in 1 Peter 2, 11 and 12. He says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Peter there tells us that all Christians are exiles, that we are so we're we're like Daniel, we're like the Israelites living in Babylon, we're sojourners and exiles living in a foreign land, living away from our true home in a world that does not ultimately share our loyalties. And as exiles, for us, the greatest danger is not persecution, it's not open hostility, even though that can be a danger, but the greatest danger is subtle re-education. The passions of the flesh are not just obvious sins, debauchery, and things that we would think of, but they are also disordered loves. The love of comfort, the love of approval, the love of ease, the desire to belong, all of those are the passions of the flesh. And the more that we follow them and indulge in them without thinking, without thought, the more our imagination is slowly reshaped, and we forget who we are and where we came from and what God brought us out of and where we're going. And that's how assimilation works. It's slowly but surely, and by the time that we notice that our worldview has changed, it's too late. It's almost too late to do anything about it. We're transformed without even knowing it. So Scripture calls us here and now to live with sobriety, watchfulness. Peter says, abstinence, abstain, abstain from these things. Not to withdraw from the world, but to be faithfully distinct as we live within the world. Do not go gently into assimilation. Don't drift, don't forget, and how do we do that? Well, point three, how do I live here? The only way that we can do that for long. Faithfulness can only be sustained by small communities. Faithfulness can only be sustained by small communities. One of the main questions that the book of Daniel grapples with is the same one that the psalmist asks. This is a psalm written on the way to Babylon, Psalm 137.4, says, How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? And that's the question of Daniel. How can we remain faithful to God living in a world controlled by evil? This is a very Christian question. As we study Daniel, we're going to learn many keys to his success. There's not a lot of straightforward heroes in Scripture other than Jesus. Every hero figure in Scripture that we could point to also has significant problems, so we typically need to be careful how we interpret their life and follow their example. But there's a few that are very good examples for us, and Daniel is one of them. Certainly not a sinless man, but a very good example. So we're going to learn many keys to his success, and we can see a few of them right out the gate. And I want to quickly just identify some, and I'm going to focus on one in particular. Number one, Daniel accepts reality. He accepts the fact that he is going to live in exile for his whole life. He's not a Moses nor even a Nehemiah figure who will lead Israel back to the land. Daniel has a different calling. Daniel is going to spend his life in a pagan land serving many different pagan kings from many different administrations. The administration is going to change from Babylon to Persia toward the end of his story, and he will also serve the godless king of Persia. So he accepts reality. Number two, Daniel does not withdraw. He studies their language and their literature and their religion, and he's able to deeply understand their ideas without being changed by them. He can study and wrap his mind around their ideas, but he is still rooted in the Word of God and the promises of God. So he can study them without being changed by them, or at least without being changed for the worse by them. His depth of knowledge actually becomes a key to his influence because Daniel teaches us not only how to be faithful to God in exile, but also how to be influential for God in exile. So his knowledge becomes a key to that. And then number three, Daniel works with excellence. He becomes not just a counselor for the king, but he becomes the greatest counselor that the king has, able to speak into these situations better than any of the of the seers of Babylon. So he doesn't serve half-heartedly. He doesn't quiet quit in rebellion because he's been brought into exile. He accepts the fact that this is where he's going to live. He doesn't withdraw from it, and he serves wholeheartedly. He serves with distinguished excellence a pagan king. But the one that I really want to focus on is found in verse 8. Verse 8 says, 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. That verb resolve is a good one for this Sunday. I read that and I said, Thank you, Lord. It's New Year's resolution, Sunday. Well, how fitting. But the Hebrew expression behind it is actually he set his heart. That's the Hebrew expression, he set his heart, and we translate it resolve, that he would not defile himself. And what this means was that it was not an impulsive or a hasty decision, but it was a measured, serious, internal commitment made upon deep thought and meditation, a commitment that he would not compromise his faith and his identity and his commitment to the Lord while living in a foreign land. How did he do this? All of us have made many resolutions. And most of them have been abandoned. Most of the books on my bookshelf have been started. But not many of them have been finished. A few of them, right? And that's true for many of us. How is it that Daniel has success with his resolution? And I just want to point out a few things as we come to a conclusion. First of all, he had some friends. If Daniel was attempting to do this alone, if it was just Daniel, I think he certainly would have failed. But he did it together with, we'll use their Babylonian names because those are the names they're most famously known by, but he did it together with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. There was some kind of mutual support and accountability. Do not underestimate the power of a few friends, even if it's just one or two. Secondly, it took some leadership. Though these friends banded together and stood together and were bold together, it appears that Daniel was something of a leader, which simply means that he went first, that he took initiative. A group of friends, even a group of Christian friends alone, won't amount to much unless at least one person in that group takes initiative and leadership, unless at least one person in that group goes first. And even if it's with, I'm going to be the first one to be vulnerable, or I'm going to be the first one to initiate a practice that I think we should do together, or to make the suggestion, or whatever it might be, it does take leadership. And finally, there was public accountability as well. This was not just a private commitment that only these friends knew about. Daniel involved the public. He involved the chief eunuch and told him out loud what his resolution was. So it's not just the four friends, but it's the Babylonian officials now who are aware of his commitment, which provides an even greater level of accountability. So how are we to sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? Well, let's start here. We must resolve to be faithful to God with the help and accountability of a small community of friends. Faithfulness must be sustained, can only be sustained by a small community. And I want to I I I want to note that the leadership, the community, and the accountability, all of those things are important. But it starts with Daniel's heart. It starts that he set his heart to do this. Because of his love for the Lord, he set his heart to be faithful, and that faithfulness was protected and sustained by those other things that he was able to put in place or that God helped him put in place. It reminds me of a number of years ago when I, the one time in my life that I lost weight, I did the insanity workout with a few friends. It was something of a New Year's resolution. I resolved I wanted to lose weight. I said I want to lose 100 pounds. And I set my, I wasn't really 100, and I set my heart on that idea. So me and a group of two other people, it was just two, it was three of us, we committed to meet together five days a week at 6 a.m. to work out for about 45 minutes. I never, never, never could have done that alone. I can't do that alone. You cannot do that alone. You cannot wake up at 6 a.m. and work out for 45 minutes alone. You just can't. I simply wouldn't have done it. I could only do it if other people were expecting me to be there and would shame me if I wasn't there, lovingly shame me. And it was also something public because everyone knew that I was doing it. I told people about it, so if I quit, it would be to my shame. And that helped me as well. The friendship and accountability strengthened and protected what I set my heart to do. So for you, you who are a stranger and in exile, living in a foreign land, how can we live here successfully? How can we live here with holiness and with power, but also with influence? We want to have both holiness and influence, like Daniel did. How do we do that? That's what we're going to be looking at as we study this book together. But for now, you need a small group of friends who will do it with you, who will put accountability software on your devices with you, who will who will cut down on drinking or on sugar or whatever it is with you, who will commit to raising child children in the knowledge of the Lord with you, who will pray and read the Bible with you, who will do hard things with you. You can't do it alone. And somebody needs to take initiative to set that up. You can't just be friends. It's not just going to happen just because you have friends. Somebody has to be a leader. Let that someone be you. Even if it's just once. You can take turns taking initiative, but uh there needs to be some leadership. And you should be public about it. We don't just believe in the Lord with our hearts, but it is also essential that we confess Him with our mouths, that we plant a flag and we tell the world what they can expect from us and where our allegiances lie. But none of this will matter unless you first set your heart to follow Jesus in a pagan land. You must set your heart on Jesus. That's where it begins. And how do we do that? We do that by looking more and more closely at the one who has set his heart on you. Jesus prayed for us in John 17, and he prayed this as he was preparing to go to the cross. He said, They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. For their sake I consecrate myself. What Jesus is saying there is that for our sake he appointed himself to be a holy sacrifice that would cover our failures, and would give us his spirit to empower us. And the more we lean on the arms of the one who has set his heart on us, the more our hearts will be bound to him. And we say, Jesus, I will resolve to follow you. I'm ready. I'm excited. I just need tools that will sustain that resolution. And we've looked at a few of them this morning. Let's press into these graces that God has given us to this end. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for our time together this morning that we, as we continue worship, as we continue to lift up our praises to you and commit our hearts to you, as we come to the Lord's table even this morning, we pray that you would help us to make, to make or confirm or continue resolutions, our resolution to follow you. The decision that we made for some of us a year ago, for some of us ten years ago, for some of us at some time in our childhood that we don't remember, and yet we decided, Lord, that we wanted to follow you. We saw you clearly, we submitted ourselves to you. Help us to remember that, to recommit ourselves to that. Every time we come to the table, we are recommitting our lives to Christ in the same way that we used to do in youth group, where with heads bowed and eyes closed and hands raised, Lord, we can do that every Sunday. We should do that every Sunday. Help us to resolve to follow you in a world that is under the control of the evil one, and give us the tools that we need to do that not just with holiness, but also with influence. As we look to the founder and perfecter of our salvation, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen. Stand with us.