Chapter 18 “How To Be An Excellent Exile”
Daniel 1, 3, 6
Intro – Tiananmen Square picture on screen…
Most of us recognize this iconic picture taken on June 5, 1989 in Tiananmen Square in Beijing China, the day after pro-democracy protests resulted in a violent crackdown by military forces.
You may remember the man in the picture, called the “tank man”, because his identity is unknown…brought the column of tanks to a halt in a show of non-violent protest. And when the tanks tried to maneuver around him he shifted his position and stopped them again.
Eventually the man was pulled away by two people and disappeared into the crowd. Nothing is known about what happened to him though many theories abound.
But what comes to mind for you when you see this picture? For many, it has become the symbol of non-violent resistance against unjust regimes everywhere.
Today, in the book of Daniel, we are going to see a group of godly men take a non-violent stand against an ungodly regime…more specifically, they are going to take a stand for God when commanded to do otherwise…
-and we are going to be invited to join them today to also take a stand for God when pressured to do otherwise in our anti-Christian culture…
Please turn to the book of Daniel, ch. 1…Prayer…
First of all, let’s find out where we are in the journey of God’s OT people through The Story.
From slavery in Egypt, to wandering in the wilderness. to crossing over into the Promised Land, to building a permanent temple in Jerusalem, to great prosperity, to idol worship and turning away from exclusive devotion to God, to God’s judgment, to a divided kingdom, to exile in Assyria and now exile in Babylon…
-it’s a dark and sad time in the history of God’s people…
-but God loves His people and is kind and merciful and is committed to the promise He made to bless them and prosper them and return them to their own land and to bring them back into a living, heart relationship with Himself…and to bring the Messiah into the world through the tribe of Judah…
But here in the period of Daniel, the time of God’s judgment is not yet complete, so we find them living as exiles in Babylon, captive to the powerful and pagan regime of King Nebuchadnezzar…
And what does a nation do when they’ve captured thousands of people? They put them to work; they take advantage of free, forced labor; and they try to assimilate them into their society.
And that is exactly what happened with Daniel and three of his friends. Look at 1:3-5 where we are introduced to Daniel, and to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego…read…
Exiles Today
Now before going any further, I need to point out that each of us today who love and follow God… are exiles in this world, in the culture in which we live…
-we are not living in our homeland…which is the new Jerusalem, heaven…
-we are temporarily here on planet earth called to live a life that honors God in a foreign land, an ungodly and often hostile place, a regime that does not support our faith or beliefs, but one in which we must live and work and function in a way that distinguishes us as the people of God…
1 Peter 2:11-12 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Now instead of resenting this place, hating this foreign land, bemoaning the fact that we’re exiles and strangers here, or hiding from it and hoping we get out of here soon, God actually calls us to make a difference for good while we’re here…to bless this place and pray for it…
Jer. 29:7 “…seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
We see that in the actions of Daniel and his friends; they are cooperative and helpful…until they are commanded to disobey their God…
So as we proceed with this message, we must keep this in mind to better understand what God wants to say to us today through Daniel…
Let’s read more in chapter one and see how Daniel and his friends respond to the demands of their pagan captors… -read ch. 1:8-16…
This is the first example of how Daniel and his friends show us how to be cooperative and helpful as exiles, but also courageous and godly as exiles in a foreign land…Daniel shows us how to be an excellent exile…one that remains true to God when pressured to do otherwise…and he does so by three refusals.
I Refusing the Royal Food 1:8-16
-Daniel takes a stand against the rich, royal food assigned to them by the King…Daniel is standing against a column of tanks…and stopping them…
Now I’m not going to get into a discussion on diets, about whether or not God wants us to be vegetarians…
-point is, Daniel took a stand against the values and customs of the culture in which he was an exile… and God blessed Him for it…God set them apart from all the other young men…He gave them a favor with the King that put them in a key position for greatly influencing their captors…
Do you see where this is going? From a lower story perspective, Daniel and his friends are being forced into the King’s service…but from an upper story perspective, God is arranging things so that Daniel and his friends can make God known on a far-reaching scale…
It’s a gentle start, but it only gets more difficult for Daniel. Let’s look at the next incident of refusal…
II Refusing to Worship the Image of Gold 3:13-29…
King Nebuchadnezzar, because he is consumed with power, has a huge ego and is completely narcissistic…builds a 90 ft tall golden statue, likely of himself…and orders everyone to bow down and worship it when they hear music playing.
And if they don’t they will be thrown into a blazing furnace…
Talk about a guy that’s full of himself!
So everyone complies, of course…except for Daniel and his three friends…let’s pick up the story in ch.3:12-29…
Imagine the courage it took for Daniel’s friends to refuse to bow down to the golden image and then to address the King in such a bold and direct way, to defy him by declaring their allegiance to the one, true God…again, Daniel’s friends are standing against a column of tanks…and stopping them…
But from an upper story perspective, that act of courage and godly defiance and the miraculous deliverance from the furnace, is what God used to make Himself known among the Babylonians…
…God wants the whole world to know about Him and be invited into a relationship with Him…that’s one of the ways He uses our obedience and courage…it points people to Him…brings glory to Him…
III Refusing to Stop Praying to the One True God 6:10-24
Then there’s a third refusal by Daniel in chapter 6…
It’s now later in Babylonian captivity and Nebuchadnezzar is dead and gone and a new King, Darius is on the throne. Daniel has risen in prominence as the top administrator over the whole kingdom…
-and some of his jealous colleagues want to bring him down (office politics?) and so they trick King Darius into making a decree that for thirty days, everyone has to pray only to him and if they pray to any other person or god, they must be thrown into the lion’s den…
Darius, again full of self-importance, agrees.
Let’s pick up the story in 6:10 and see the third refusal by Daniel: …read 6:10-24…
Once again, Daniel is standing against a column of tanks, refusing to obey this ungodly decree and not hiding his very public and prayerful devotion to God…
And once again, God uses his courageous obedience and the miracle of the lions not devouring him…Darius issues a decree that all the people in his kingdom must fear and reverence the God of Daniel…
Because Daniel and his friends took a courageous stand, because they refused to cooperate with the demands of an ungodly regime, because God performed a miracle, the Babylonians, who did not know God were commanded to turn to Him.
God still does great and mighty things to attract people to Him through courageous people today. When we refuse to be assimilated by the culture of our foreign land, and live according to God’s values publicly, out in the open, people will be impacted and be changed…even other Christians will be inspired and empowered by our courage and God will raise up an army of others to trust Him more boldly…
The Three Resolves of A Godly Exile
So if we could get into the heart and mind of Daniel to see what makes him the person he is, I believe we would see that the key to being a godly exile, to standing strong against the demands of an ungodly regime, is found in three resolves:
1. resolve to reject cultural values 1:8
-to not become addicted to the diet of our culture…
-to be driven by a heavenly values and principles…
-that’s the foundation formed over time…laid by God’s word and a history of obedience…
2. resolve to believe God is worth living and dying for 3:18
-that loyalty and devotion to God is more important than our comfort and success…
-God is worth loving, and living for and if needed, dying for…
-God can deliver/protect us…”but even if He does not…” v.18 we’re not going to betray, forsake Him…
3. resolve to point people to God 6:20-22
-that the point of being a godly exile is to make Jesus known…the mission is the most important thing…
-King Darius’ question is the same question many are asking today, “has your God…been able to rescue you…?”
-can your God rescue me? help me? get me out of this mess my life is in?
Daniel faithfully points to God by saying, “He can and He did…He sent His angel and shut the mouths of the lions…”
And then the new convert becomes the evangelist…Darius issues this decree in 6:26-27…read…
Pretty good gospel message, coming from a former all-powerful dictator…
Are you willing to make those resolves your resolves as an exile in a foreign land?
Conclusion
So as we wrap up this message, let me remind us that according to the Bible, we as God’s people are called to be subject to our governing authorities (Rm.13), to submit to them, to be contributing and responsible citizens of our land whether we like those in charge or not. We’re called to pray for our leaders (1 Tim. 2), to bless them and not curse them…
We are called to be godly exiles in a foreign land…
But, we are also called to obey a higher law, the law of God…and when the laws and demands of our land clash with the laws and demands of God, we must always choose God over men (Acts 5:29 “We must obey God rather than men”)…and leave the consequences to God…
God wants us simply to be bold and courageous like Daniel, to take a stand for God when ungodly people or an ungodly culture demands otherwise…
And then watch and see how God will use what we do to make Himself known to other people…
So I close with a promise given to us in the book of Daniel for those of us who will rise up to this challenge:
Dan 12:3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
Prayer…Worship…