Sermon details
- Scripture
- Daniel 1
- Series
- Daniel
- Speaker
- Keith Goad
- Date
- 14 January 2024
- Length
- 48 minutes
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Trust God to keep his promises
Good morning, elect exiles. Yes, we did finish first Peter, but we're really staying with a very similar theme. If you're new with us, we walk through books of the Bible. We went through first Peter in the fall and finished in December. We're picking up Daniel as this new year begins. Daniel written 600 years before first Peter. We're considering this Old Testament book because it does, in many ways, picture, give us stories, give us case studies to think about much of what we learned in 1 Peter. How to live as elect exiles in a foreign land. How to live lives wholly unto God when the world seems to be encroaching upon us. Daniel is, uh, we'll look through some of the historical bars, but thankfully chapter one really is a, an introduction to the book and, and, and who the characters are and, and what are the tensions and where the difficulties and it gives us a setting. Maybe we want to see is how great God is the one only true God, the eternal God, the holy God who calls the people to himself and no matter where they are, he's with them. His promises are true. How do we trust him? How do we submit to governing authorities while we trust him? How can we be used when faithful? This is what we're gonna see this morning in our first sermon in chapter one. As we wrestle with what does it mean to be God's people, God's church. Daniel's going to give us a picture to consider as we think about that. If you're taking notes, the one sentence declaration, trust God to keep his promises as he protects and promotes his people. Trust God to keep his promises as he protects and promotes his people. Three points. The text is all about God's power, as we're going to see over and over and over again. But the power is seen in what God does. The controlling declaration is God gives, the Lord gives. See there in chapter 1, verse 2, the Lord gave. Chapter 1, verse 9, God gave. And chapter 1, verse 17, God gave. That giving is where we see His power. So if you're underlining your Bible, that's an important phrase to underline to see how God is in control of this entire section. Sermon outline is God's power to promise. That's verses 1 and 2. God's power to promise. Then God's power to protect. That's 3 to 16. God's power to protect. And then God's power to promote. 17 to 21. I'd like to try to introduce a book as we begin. And we'll see all the characters. We'll see the story unfold. We'll get a good introduction. But I do want to wrestle before we jump into that outline and walking through the text with one significant issue in Daniel. And that is, when was it written? What is the date? It's already set up, as you heard. the events are supposed to be taking place somewhere between 605 and 536 B.C. We see this with J.L. Combs reign and Cyrus's reign. We have pretty clear certainty as to when the book is writing about, but when was it written? You see, many will say this book could not have been written at the time of these events. because the predictions it's making are just way too clear about Alexander the Great or Antiochus Epiphanes. It would be impossible for somebody in the 6th century to have such clear predictions about things that happen later. Therefore, this had to be written in the 2nd century. So if you're looking at the 2nd century argument, you're thinking, the information, the knowledge, it wouldn't have been accessible to someone in the 6th century. Okay, what about the rationale for the 6th century? Well, the first would be it's written to convince us it's written in the 6th century. The writer is either seeking to deceive us or really if we just read it for face value, the whole point of the book is There is one holy great God and he is eternal and he knows all things that is also the future. But if we were to get into maybe the evidence beyond what the book is actually telling us, well, there's things about the culture and civilization that some of the second century just would not have access to about the sixth century. What's interesting about Daniel is chapter one is in Hebrew and seven and 12 are in Hebrew, but two to six are in Aramaic. And the entire, almost all of the language and style of the Aramaic is something that would be more tied to 6th century, not 2nd century. So the style of writing, much of the information about just the culture and things, the details would be 6th century. Really, I think you're pressed with a real dilemma. Is it that God did a miracle and called someone in the 2nd century to know all these things about the 6th century? Or did God cause a miracle in the sixth century and allow somebody to predict the future that was moving forward? Or if you don't believe in God and you don't believe in science, maybe an ancient Near Eastern Marty McFly created the flux capacitor with his friend Doc. The whole point of Daniel is how great God is. If we're not going to assume, if we're not going to come into this study, if we're not going to come and submit to this book with the most basic point, there's a reason to read it. It's all about the one true God who knows all things and is in control of all things. So church, we're coming to submit. And while it might be easy for you to think, all right, I believe God can predict the future. I believe God could have told Daniel and had these visions to set up what would happen centuries later. But realize that the person who says it has to be the second century, it's because of the presuppositions they're taking into the text. As we begin this book, let's just recognize we all have pre-understandings. that we're bringing this book that we also hope are going to be corrected, change. We come to submit to God's word, to have a better understanding of beholding him and his goodness and his power and his glory. We're coming to him to know how we can trust him more. We're coming to him to know more about ourselves and what he has for us. So we're all coming to trust him who's able to even tell the future. As we look at the text, chapter 1, God's power to promise. God's power to promise. Again, Daniel is written with a specific time frame
in the third year of the reign of Joachim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord God gave Jacob, 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, house of his God, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God.
" We already see a significant setup. We see some kings. We see Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, known for his wickedness, a great power that rose up to this time. Nebuchadnezzar, one of the great kings of all history in the world. Jericho, a king of Judah, and then Well let's just go ahead and drop down. We have a third king introduced in this text, King Cyrus. The book is about rule and dominion, the whole book of Daniel. If we drop down to chapter 1, verse 21, until the time of King Cyrus, he's a very important king for Israel's history. 2 Corinthians 36 ends with that king declaring Israel's freedom from exile in Babylon. It's strange that this foreign king is the one God used to free his people. And even the way that's written is it sounds so much like what God had promised to David in 2 Samuel 7. That's why the promise is in view here. The promise is in view because God told Abraham, I'm going to bless you. You're going to have a lot of people. You're going to have a nation. I'm going to put you in my land. We saw in Exodus, God uses Moses to take God's people out of slavery to Egypt, takes them through the wilderness, puts them in his land. And then 2 Samuel 7, God says, you will have a king reigning forever from the tribe of Judah, from the line of David. What? That's Jericho. It's supposed to be. See, all these promises. God promising his people that there'll be a nation in his land with his king. All that seems to be threatened right now. All that seems to be in danger right now. But notice who's in charge. God did this. God gave the king over to Nebuchadnezzar. God even gave the vessels over to the Babylonians. In times past, when the Ark of the Covenant was lost in defeat, the people grieved, they mourned. Did our God lose? This is written so that we know God is in absolute control here. It might appear that He and His promises are in danger, but He's keeping His promises. He's in control of all of these things. And, well, the significant thing we understand He'd already told Israel, once you're in that land, if you worship other gods, if you're not faithful, I'm going to take you out of that land. He'd already told them, if you are not faithful to the commands I give you in that land, this is Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26, you will be taken out of that land. This is God disciplining his child. Because God took Israel out of Egypt Making a clear demonstration, those are not true gods. And what did Israel do while God was giving them his instruction for how to worship him? They created a golden calf. They could not lose this love affair with idols. And that's why God exiles them out of the land to finally cure them and try to circumcise their hearts away from these false idols. It appears like God is losing or the covenant is in danger, but no, God is in absolute control with his promises. So the time of Jacob, who's an evil king, who's leading the people to worship false gods, who is a wicked, evil man, abusing the people. Verse two is significant as we think about foreign affairs, as we think about the promises of God, God is controlling what happens here. He gives the king of Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon. Again, it's because he did evil. God is in absolute control. And if you're an Israelite, if you're a citizen of Judah, if you're a Jew in this time, You're looking at the circumstances and you're saying, has God forsaken us? Because you lost your home that you believe God gave to you. Your king has been defeated. Is the God of the Babylonians greater than the God of Israel? That would have to be a question they're asking, and God's making it very clear, no, I am doing this. It's even significant, as Joshua read earlier in Jeremiah 24, God's already told them, I'm gonna do something here. the good fruit is going to go to the bad place. He's going to send these young men, these four youths that we're going to follow throughout the story. He's going to send the good fruit to the bad place. You see, the Babylonian exile was different than the Assyrian exile. The Assyrian exile, which was in 732, That was when they took all the citizens out. They actually put them in fish hooks and dragged the citizens into a foreign land. The Babylonian exile is taking the young rulers that might seek to overthrow the government. The king wants them in his court. God is in control. It's important, just as we looked at Psalm 71 last week, there's always something pressing. There's always something pressing in that could cause us to have fear, a change, a difficulty, a problem. When we know who God is, it was a refuge. And we know how he is in absolute control. Here, God isn't just saying, I'm your co-pilot to help you. No, he's steering. This isn't a detour that you had to make because it was trouble. No, he's been directing this the whole time. He's been paving this highway the entire time to do something amazing. God takes the good fruit and puts it in the bad place. He gives these four yous. Go ahead and read verse three.
Then the king commanded Aspenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people to Israel, both of the royal family and of his nobility, yous 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.
He's taking these few and he's putting them in his palace. And, and we'll, we'll, we'll get to that as we, we end. And we're going to see how Daniel gets and the four years get there, but I'm going to pause and just think what's really happening here. We Judah is the tribe of Israel that God promised the King to, it's a Southern kingdom. The one that has the latter exile. Jesus comes from the line of David and Judah Babylon. These four yous are being taken to Babylon. We have to do a bit of a short theology of Babylon. Babylon is tied to Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel, which is the height of our rebellion against God, seeking to build ourselves up all the way to God. So Genesis 11 starts with Babel being, which is tied to Babylon, a picture of just absolute rebellion against God. You can look at Psalm 137, which is talking about how Babylon is doomed for destruction because they're wicked, but we can also just go all the way to Revelation 18. A celebration of the fall of Babylon, the dwelling place of demons. From beginning to end, Babylon is the picture of evil. It's the city associated with rebellion, with demonic rebellion against God. Cities have reputations. Where was Jesus from? Nazareth. Nothing good comes from there. We can actually think, the early church was interested in the shift that took place. The first century would consider Jerusalem the holy place and Rome the evil place. But then around 300s, in the 300s, they start about Rome as God's city. And there was a shift that I don't think was necessarily helpful. Cities have reputations, Las Vegas, Sin City. Washington, D.C., Richmond, north of Richmond. Let me assure you, God is at work in both those places. Those two cities that we might think have a difficult, bad reputation, where all kinds of destruction is taking place and plotting against God. God's at work. So they have to remember church. The gates of hell will not prevail against God. There's only one institution that God has promised will remain until Christ's return, and it's His church. The promised people who are not bound to a land or a nation called to spread the gospel to every single land and every single nation. Why we send missionaries, why we seek to be faithful here in the United States, The nations are raging against the king. They rejected Jesus, they'll reject us. It should cause some confusion and a need to consider what is our relationship to our own government. What we see God doing is sending his light into the dark place in Daniel. That's what we're called to do. God has called us to himself, to be his light, in a dark place, this world. It really helps us capture a significant section of 1 Peter. God calls elect exiles to submit to governing authorities and honor the emperor. Well, most of the interactions here are about how to honor an emperor and submit to governing authorities while also being God's elect who are holy unto him. That's gonna be the constant rub between Daniel Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego, and the foreign kings. Most of all, Daniel helps us see who the real king is, the one who truly has all the power. Verses 1 and 2, what we see is the promises seem to be threatened, but what Daniel wants to open with is that God is the one who is sending his people into a foreign land. God has even sending the vessels into the foreign land. God is not, God has not been defeated, he is in control. His promises are still intact, he is the one who's doing this. Now let's turn to the second point, God's power to protect. The God who's made promises, this is not a defeat, he is in charge, he is the one who's controlling this, but now God's power to protect. So we've seen the king ask for these use that blemish appearance, a good appearance and skillful and wisdom. Notice verse five,
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the king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank. And 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, Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names. Daniel, he called Balthasar. Hananiah, he called Shadrach. Mishael, he called Meshach. And Azariah, he called Abednego.
So we see how we get to these four yews. We see God has given Judah over into the hands of Babylon. We see the king has asked for the young yews. Apparently, these were young strapping men who were uh, advanced in, in wisdom, understanding. And so these four are highlighted specifically. We see the action pick up in verse five. The King wants to share his food with the youths, the youths. My wife said not to say that. I say youths funny. And she said, don't say it like that, but it's, it's a pattern. Sorry. The four use. He shares their food with them. And at some level, is that him seeking to make sure they understand they're dependent upon him? But it's also, there's a wonderful way in which he's bringing them in and treating them with such prosperous food. He's educating them. He's teaching them for three years. They're going to go through the training to make sure they can stand before him in his court. The goal is that they're in his kingdom, right in his court, standing with the king, before the king. He then has them renamed. So they're given food, they're given an education, they're given names. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, those are all names that are tied to God. Yahweh and Elohim are all part of those names. And their new names are all tied to some Babylonian God. As we think about what's happening here, To rename someone is exercising an authority. Some believe this is not just renaming them for identity, but actually belittling them as a way of mocking them. Whatever it is, their God's name is being taken away from them and their identity, and they're forcing upon them the name of a God. It's significant as we think about what takes place next. Now, I want you to trust your English translations, but I do want to point out something that happens to really show how this next shift is so important. Verse seven should read something more like, and the chief of the eunuchs set names on Daniel. And verse eight should read something more like, but Daniel set his heart that he would not defile himself. That's how Hebrew likes to tell stories, is that kind of play on words. This is a major shift here in 8, because 5 to 7 is all about the things the king is going to give, and then 8 is telling us what Daniel is going to decide. This is the line. I'm not going to do it. This is quite curious. Why the line here? Why the resolve not to eat the good food that the king eats? Why not protest the names? They're about your identity, related to God. Why not protest the education that's going to shape and form the way you think? Why the food? Well, it tells us. Of all the things the king is doing, Daniel resolved that he would not do one of them. He would not defile himself by eating the king's food. There's all kinds of wonders about why it is this food would defile him. Most likely it's because it's unclean. That's why it would defile him. And the reason this seems to be the line is that if you're defiled by what you eat, then that would affect your relationship with God. Changing their names doesn't change God's promises to who you are. But by changing their names, it doesn't change their identity in relation to God. It just changes how they were called. that by giving them that education doesn't change what they know of God and how they fear him, it just changes how they're going to learn new things in order to stand before the court. Here, Daniel seems rather aligned with regard to purity because it would affect his relationship with how he relates to God. Let's just be clear, it'd be easy to try to justify, well, let's just eat the food. It's really easy to try to compromise And think, well, I'll figure out a way of just kind of fitting the system. It's also easy to decide I'm just going to fight against everything. Notice that Daniel says this is the line, and I believe the primary focus here is he's seeking to protect his purity because his purity is related to how he relates to God. I ask, if you're regularly concerned about government pressure, Right? The Babylonians are authoritarians. What Daniel's concerned about is not the overarching authoritarian moves. He's worried about his own purity, his holiness, his ability to relate to God. Are we more concerned about our own hearts and the ways in which our culture has this regular stream to defilement? Are we cutting off the defilement for the sake of our relationship with God? If we go just one step further, as elected exiles, I hear a lot of talk of Orwell's 1984 and that authoritarian argument of the regime, and trust me, Babylon would fit that, but I think we really should be more afraid of Huxley's Brave New World. The enticing you away from God rather than forcing you to deny God, the enticing towards apathy and idolatry. This line is important in that he has declared, I will not accept the food because it will defile me. Are we resolved to that kind of purity in relation to God? Verse 9 shows us how he goes to the chief priest and he says, I don't want to eat this because it will defile me. And notice where God is again in the story.
And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs.
What's happening here is Daniel has declared, I can't do this because I want to be faithful to God and I can't accept this defilement. And the story is already telling us God is in control in the midst of this. Let's be very clear. Daniel is asking for something that is going to put the chief eunuch in danger and himself in danger. Let's see how the eunuch responds. Verse 10,
and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my Lord, the king,
that is Nebuchadnezzar,
who assigned your food and your drink for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.
You don't disobey a totalitarian ruler. You don't disobey King Nebuchadnezzar. If he said you're going to eat my food, you eat his food. Daniel's saying I can't, and because God gave Daniel favor with the eunuch, he's listening to him, which is amazing. The eunuch is putting himself in danger by actually entertaining this request. I think we see here God's care in giving favor. He's protecting Daniel with his favor. Daniel is being faithful and it is a promise and a pattern that God is with those and will help those who are seeking to be faithful. Now, notice what God has power over in verse nine. It's how the chief eunuch feels about Daniel. That's kind of startling. Not only can he just move kings wherever he wants, he can affect your heart and how you feel and how you think. God can work inside of you. God can cause you to feel and think about someone differently. I think we should praise God because he changes our hearts so we think about him differently. But look at the power here. He actually causes this eunuch to entertain this question so that he shows him favor. It's a pretty amazing thing about how God works there. Just an application of that observation. Do we trust God with our thoughts and loves and feelings? Do we invite him into that area that's most personal to us and trust him? With whom we would have this kind of favor? With the way we feel and think? Notice what happens. God is faithful. So the request is made, we want to avoid this food. Verse 11,
then Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Meshiah, and Azariah, task your servants for 10 days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food to be observed by you and deal with your servants according to what you see.
So a test has been presented. If you're afraid because the king will kill you if you do not obey his orders, the king will kill us too. But let's make a deal, all right? They have favor, so let's make it where for 10 days, we'll eat just vegetables and water, not the food of the king and the wine, and then we'll see what is our appearance, because that's what they're afraid of. The king will see, these guys don't look healthy. Are you feeding them my food? Verse 14, so because of God's favor,
he listened to them in the matter and tested them for 10 days. At the end of 10 days, it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in the flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. So the king took away their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.
Now, I mentioned earlier that kind of play on words between seven and eight is a Hebrew kind of storytelling principle, but notice God gave Daniel favor in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, then Verse 13,
then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the food to be observed by you and deal with your servants according to what you see.
That sight word is kind of driving this whole thing. Daniel's faith in the one God is now being evidenced. God has performed a miracle. They're healthier, they're fine, they're doing well. And their obedience to God and their faithfulness to be defiled, God has blessed them in their appearance so that they can continue to find favor and continue to be undefiled and continue to eat vegetables. Now, verse 16, I gotta be honest, and gave them vegetables, that seems like a very anticlimactic ending to me. I prefer Luke 15, they killed the fatted calf. But the miracle is, God made them healthier with just vegetables. They became fatter with vegetables. They're just as healthy. God is blessing them in all ways so that they're protected because God has sent them as his light into this dark place. We think about how that step of obedience, there's so many ways in which Daniel could have protested all of these things. But even notice the protest he makes, it's not something loud. He goes to Chief Enoch and he makes a reasonable request. He says, I want to just have vegetables, and here's how we'll make this work. The whole point is he's seeking just to be obedient to God and seek to be faithful to what God has before him. Let's just ask him simple questions. Do you know God enough with clarity and conviction to know where you should draw the lines of what would defile you and what would not? The God who has called us to himself has given us his clear commandments. Are we seeking to know him with such clarity that Daniel has, that we have confidence and good conviction and clear conviction about where these lines are that we should say, no, I'm going to resolve to be faithful to God. We have to know him personally. We have to know his word. Are our convictions based upon the clear teaching of his word? And let's just be very clear, Daniel's strength is his God. He has this resolve only because of his God, who has made a promise to him and has now protected him. The third point, God's power to promote. This is verses 17 to 21.
As for these four youths, God gave.
Third gave. God gave Judah into the hands of the Babylonians. After Daniel arrives in the kingdom, in the palace, God gave him favor. Now our third gave. God's power to promote. They're in a foreign land. They have favor because of God's power. Now he's giving them all the training they need to be, to flourish, to do his will. God's power to promote them.
God gave them learning and skill and all literature and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding and all visions and dreams.
This is Paul's there. God gave them an education. Now let's just take a moment for all the children. If you are blessed with the opportunity to learn, that is a true gift to be grateful for. Maybe if you are back, ready to go to school, or you're getting ready to go to school, maybe you are in school. God gives learning and understanding. God has given us a mind to think his thoughts after him. God has given us incredible abilities. What a gift God has given to these young men in order to be prepared to do the work ahead of them. It's good. Verse 17, not only is it that the youths have wisdom and understanding, notice Daniel has a skill of understanding dreams and visions. Let's pause there. God has used visions and dreams throughout the Bible with Moses, to Joseph, to Abraham, to going on and on and I believe this is still something that could happen today. I'm convinced by testimonies I've heard from about Muslims who had a dream of Jesus and then a missionary comes and tells them the gospel and they believe. But notice there's a specific line there. Now I hear people sometimes tell me I have dreams and I believe this is how God speaks to me. And I, I can't say that is impossible, but I also want to make sure. This is the word of God. We submit every thought to and every dream to if, if you think God is speaking to you through dreams, it, it, it, it, it needs to understand that it has to submit to everything God's saying here. I would be very careful of wanting to regularly have some dream that's giving you some insight or intuition that, that, that goes beyond what scripture says. This is God's word. Good for all people at all times. It would be extremely dangerous and destructive to assign God's authority to something God has not said. That is the warning. Here, God is going to use Daniel in a really unique way. Because of the emphasis the Babylonians put on dreams and visions and the way that their prophets or sages or magi function in interpreting dreams and visions, that's exactly how Daniel's going to function within Babylon. So God gives the wisdom understanding, Daniel specifically with visions and dreams, verse 18,
And at the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.
So they had three years of training
and the king spoke with them. And among all of them, none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Notice that description is very important. Verse 19, none was found like them. Of all the youths, Babylonian youths, Egyptian youths, everywhere that they've conquered, none of them were like these four youths from Judah. And just in case we missed that point, while standing before the king, verse 20,
and in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdoms.
That's really something. At the end of their education, they stand before the king, none like them, verse 19, they're 10 times better than everybody else, even the most trained older magi and wise men. What are we to make of this? Well, as a parent, I wish it was something like eat your vegetables and do your homework. I wish that were it, but it's not, but you should still eat your vegetables and do your homework. God gave Judah to Babylon. God gave these youths favor with the Babylonians. Now he's given these youths the learning and skill they need to be his light in the command center of Babylon. And they're found to be 10 times better than everybody else. They're who the king is listening to more than everyone else. God has given, God has given, He's generous. He has given and He has a plan. He has taken these young men and what looks like a defeat of Judah is God placing them in the inner courts ready and able to advise the king of Babylon. This is the most incredible inside job. Think about what was happening. God is putting his good fruit, his light in the inner courts and has blessed these young men to be the young men that the King of Babylon is going to listen to because they're 10 times better in all things than all the others. Now, point of Daniel, it's not how great these ewes are. There are no ewes like these ewes. because there is no God like their God. What makes them so fruitful, what makes them so successful is not their pride, it's that God has blessed them and there is no God like their God. It's introducing a theme here, this no one like him and there's so much better You see, in chapter 2, verse 47, a foreign king is going to say,
your God is God of gods and Lord of kings.
In chapter 3, verse 29, a foreign king is going to say of Yahweh,
there is no God who is able to rescue this way like this God.
In chapter four, verse 34 and 35, a foreign king is going to praise God most high, Yahweh. In chapter five, verse 23, a foreign king is warned by Daniel that Yahweh gives you life and you are defiling him. And then in chapter six, verses 26 and 27, a foreign king praises Yahweh who alone can save. You see what God's doing? He's put these young men who no one are like so that these kings, these rulers, even these people would know the one true God and how he saves. Let's keep it simple. There's one God and I'm not him and neither are you. There's one God who is worthy of all worship. There's one God who gives life and rules over all and he is forever. There's one God who is just and true and right and mighty and powerful, and His reign will be forever. And He has invited you to know Him and be part of that kingdom. He who has saved us, calls us, He protects us. And even in this promotion, think about that. When we're promoted, are we as quick to give God all the glory as these young men are? It's not about the four great youths. It's not about the four foreign kings. It's about the one God. You can trust who you can know. And again, let's remember verse two, he's taking them out of his promised land where they were more comfortable and he's putting them in the darkest place to make him known. If you think about how God moves in this way, what appears to be the greatest defeat when Jesus dies on the cross is the greatest victory. Right? The whole point here is that what appears historically happening, Joachim and Judah, they're being defeated. Well, it looks like they've lost. Well, no, God is doing something. On the cross, it looks like Jesus lost. His life is ended. But no, God is at work. He's defeating sin. He's defeating death. He's providing forgiveness. We have to learn how to read God's word and interpret things through what God says. We have to learn how to see how God is powerful in the midst of the most difficult situation, and he keeps his promises. One final application here. Notice the three major phrases, the Lord gave, God gave, the Lord gave. Christian, in order to know this God and make him known, Our lives have to be marked with gratitude. A simple commitment. The Lord who gives, and not just giving us favor, not just giving us wisdom, he's given us himself. The Holy Spirit who dwells in us, his son who died for us and rose again. The God who gives us everything by faith. We can be grateful. And that grateful leads to that kind of faithfulness of Daniel, and that faithfulness leads us to be able to shine light in the darkness. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for how even in Daniel here, your people confused being taken out of what was comfortable, What they understood was even from you, you're in control. Help us, Lord, to know how to trust you and your promises when we do not understand. Help us, Lord, to trust you as we're seeking to be obedient in faithfulness. Help us, Lord, to trust you, knowing that you give us all we need to complete and finish whatever mission or task you put before us. Almighty God, We praise you as the one holy God. We thank you for giving us life, for giving us your son, for giving us salvation, for giving us your word, for giving us your spirit, for giving us one another, for giving us such a clear mission to be light into this dark world, and giving us the promise that the church will not fail as the church is faithful to proclaim the gospel that is the power of God to save. Lord, help us to see that mission. Help us to trust you in that mission. Help us, Lord, to make you known as we know you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Transcript from SermonAudio. The recording is the authoritative version.
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