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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/stephen-grant/daniel-standing-for-god/
Daniel and chapter 1. Now let's just read the chapter. Daniel chapter 1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it.
And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God. And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God.
And the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning and knowledge and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and to whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names.
For he gave unto Daniel the name Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach, and to Mishael of Meshach, and to Azariah of Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.
Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs, and the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink, for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort?
Then shall you make me endanger my head to the king. Then said Daniel to Belteshazzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, prove thy servants I beseech thee ten days, and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink.
Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat, and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.
And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter. That by the way is what happens when you come to Iowa. You go home, maybe not fairer, but certainly fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.
Thus Meltzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine which they should drink, and gave them pulse. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king communed with them, and among all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Therefore stood they before the king, and in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.
And Daniel continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus. Now I'm sure God will bless his word. When you read the book of Daniel, you're reading the story of a man who stayed faithful to God through 80 years in a pagan society.
Now if someone was able to say that about me when they have my funeral in a future day, I think I would be quite content. Someone who stayed faithful to God for 80 years in a pagan society. How did Daniel do such a thing?
Well we want to read about him as a teenager. He probably was between the age of 14 and 17 when we read of him in chapter 1 of Daniel. Now I can see some of you here are right there. You are between the age of 14 and 17.
This message is for you. But it's not just for you because what ought to apply to us between the age of 14 and 17 ought to then characterize us when we are, dare I say, 47, 57, 67, doesn't matter. So if you're young here today, then listen well.
And if you're older, don't shut off your ears. We want to learn from Daniel. You see, Daniel in his life had such a revelation of the future that it impacted his present life for God. First John chapter 3 verses 2 and 3 tells us that that ought to be the same for us.
Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Second Peter chapter 3 verse 11 and 12. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?
You see the pattern. A knowledge of the future ought to impact our life presently for God. Well, what's the background to this? If you follow the history of Israel, you will know this, that God brought a family into Egypt, the family ultimately of Abraham.
And over that period of time in Egypt, a family grew into a nation. And a nation was born at Passover as they were delivered and brought out into the wilderness through the Red Sea. They came into the Promised Land ultimately and their nationhood was established.
And they lived as a theocracy for some time. And you read through the book of Judges. But then they wanted a king like the nations round about them and God granted their desire. So Saul was king and then David was the man after God's own heart.
He was made king and then Solomon was made king. And because of Solomon's sin, the nation that followed Solomon was divided. Rehoboam and Jeroboam. And you had the nation of Israel, the ten tribes, the northern kingdom.
And you had the nation of Judah, the two tribes, the southern kingdom. The history of both of these nations was slightly different. Israel's kings from that point on were all evil and increasingly evil until God moved in judgment and took them out of the land into captivity.
And they have never been recovered from that captivity even to this day. The southern kingdom was different. They had a good king, bad king, good king, bad king, good king, bad king, bad king, bad king.
So they were longer before God moved to take them into captivity in judgment. And there was a man called Nebuchadnezzar who was in charge of Babylon. His history is interesting. And God used him to bring captivity for the nation of Judah.
They went into Babylon and for most of them they stayed there. But ultimately God brought a remnant back into the land of Canaan. And then you read the history of that in Ezra and Nehemiah and you hear then the voice of the prophets coming to the people of God thereafter in the Old Testament.
Daniel was one of the people taken captivity from Judah into Babylon. You read about it in Daniel chapter 1 as we have. Now there was three stages of that captivity. It didn't all happen at once. Daniel lived through all three stages.
He went in the first captivity of 605 BC. There was a second movement where more people were taken eight years later. And then 19 years after that was the final captivity when the land was stripped bare of the people of God.
He lived through all of that. And when God brought a remnant from Babylon back to Judah, back to the nation, the land, Daniel didn't go. He stayed. Now that's a kind of broad background. But I'm interested in Daniel chapter 1.
And I'm interested particularly for you younger people and how you can possibly take a stand for God at school in your community, amongst your friends. What can you possibly do when you're 14 years old, 15 years old, 17 years old?
Well let's learn what Daniel did at that age. When we go, let's just go down the chapter for, let's break in at verse number 3. And at verse number 3, this captivity has taken place and Nebuchadnezzar says that he wants certain of the best people from Judah as hostages.
Now this is what he was doing. If he could take the families of the key people of Judah, he would ensure that they all behave themselves. So he would take hostages. It was a very smart move. So he wanted to not just take the families of the elite of Judah, he wanted them integrated into his civil service, his State Department or whatever you call it.
And so he would send them back into his empire to rule. But they would have been converted into his custom, into his language and they would be servants of his empire. He was a very smart guy. So this is what he wants to do.
He wants to take the children of God and he wants to change them. He wants to mold and shape them so that they are serving him rather than serving God. Could I tell you that's exactly what Satan wants to do to you.
He wants to change you and shape you so that you serve him rather than serve God. So he took hostages. Now look at verse number 4 if you would. Look at the people that he was going to choose and look at the value system of an ungodly world.
What is it that an ungodly world values in a young person? Well look at the description. Number one, children in whom was no blemish. Now that just meant this, they wanted perfect physical specimens. Now as I'm looking at you, particularly you young men, I don't know if any of you would have qualified.
I have no idea. I don't know how long you take to look in the mirror in the morning. Maybe longer than maybe your parents did. I have no idea. But they wanted children in whom was no blemish. Flawless physical specimens.
Now just hold that thought. Secondly, they wanted people who were well favored. Now that just means good-looking. Now again I don't know how many of us would qualify but there you go, good-looking. Now mind you that's exactly what Israel looked for when they wanted a king.
So they chose Saul, who was a mighty warrior. A big, tall, strong, brute of a man. A man who was good-looking and stood out amongst his peers because of his physical attributes. But not just that, notice the third thing.
Skillful in all wisdom. That means a superior intellect. Highly intelligent. The literal Hebrew rendering is to be knowers of knowledge. So they wanted the smart people. They wanted the good-looking people.
They wanted the people with no physical attributes that were anything less than perfect. They did not want people with any physical deformity or handicap or anything like that. They were not valued. But then more than that, cunning in knowledge.
What does that mean? It means not just that they were smart but rather that they would be highly educated. Highly educated. Also understanding science. Now that would have ruled me out for a start. I was absolutely hopeless at science.
Hopeless. I couldn't stand it. But they needed people who could approach problems and come up with solutions, who could assess information and data. People who were smart that way with science. And lastly, children who could stand before the king in his palace.
Now that just meant this, they had poise and what we call social graces. I'll tell you what a social grace is. It means when you're eating your food, you're using your knife and fork. It means when you're eating your food, as I used to hammer into my children, I don't want to see the food as it goes down your throat.
Keep your mouth shut and don't speak when your mouth is full and don't interrupt adults when they're talking. Children should be seen and not heard so we get all that stuff. Social graces. They need to be able to conduct themselves before the king.
Okay, now let's just think. What are they asking for? Three things. Three areas of absolute importance to an ungodly world. Number one, the physical. Number two, the mental. Number three, the social. Physical, mental, social.
Nothing about character. Nothing about spirituality. Nothing about virtue. Righteousness. Morality. Nothing. As long as you look good, as long as you are smart and as long as you can handle yourself in social environments, you rise to the top.
That's the country from which I come. People don't care about righteousness. They don't care about morality. They don't care about truth. They care about how you look. They care about what degree or education you've got.
They care about how you can cope in social and conduct yourself socially and that is what is placed at the top of the list as of being important. I have to tell you that's not the way God values an individual.
That's not the things that God looks at when he looks at us. Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks in the heart. The value system of our Bible is different. Character is everything. Morality is everything.
Virtue is everything. The sort of person you are, the way you conduct yourself, if you don't steal, if you don't tell lies, if you are full of integrity, these are the things that God looks upon as being important and in our world where physical imperfection diminishes an individual to the point that we would destroy and kill children who are not deemed to be perfect enough to be brought into the world.
That's our society, but that is not the value system of heaven. So this is the way that they are being brought into contact with an ungodly world. Listen, teenagers and young people and older ones, do not allow the world to shape your thinking like that.
Do not place value upon the external at the expense of the internal. Do not break and spoil relationships because someone does not have the social graces that you might have or someone doesn't have the education or the money or the family connections that you might have.
Rather, count as important virtue, count as important righteousness, count as important the quality of an individual's heart. For remember this, that when the Holy Spirit is producing things in you and me, it's called the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5.
These are all characteristics of the heart. It doesn't speak about the physical, doesn't speak about the intellect, doesn't speak about relationships and social graces. It speaks about integrity and righteousness.
Well, what happened is this, the world began to work in these young men and this is what the world did and this is what the world does today. They're going to try and squeeze them into their mold. What does the Apostle Paul say?
Be not conformed. To this present age, don't allow the world in which we live to squeeze us into its mold but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is what they tried to do. They wanted to teach them the old languages of Babylon, all about astronomy and astrology.
They had lots of natural history at that time. They had a lot of mythological teaching in history, legends of creation and floods. They had a plurality of gods. They had the finest architecture in the world.
They were experts in magic and sorcery and enchantments and omens and incantations and prayers and hymns and myths and legends and in science. They were the most sophisticated culture of the world. It's a bit like Scotland today.
I'm sorry to say. We've made more stuff than you historically. I'm sorry to tell you that we have. Okay, but you see the most sophisticated culture of the world wanted them assimilated to a point where they lost their identity.
How did they do that? Now I'm not going to hit anyone with a big stick here, I assure you. How did they do that? Number one, think about it. They created obligation and gratitude. It's the first thing.
Obligation and gratitude. That's verse 5. The king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank. He nourished them for three years. He fed them with the best. He gave them the absolute top food and drink that was to be offered in Babylon.
He created an appetite for the things that he alone could provide. He created a dependent culture within that group so that they had to and were obliged to the king to provide what he had created an appetite for.
This is the way of the world. You create dependency and then you restrict supply so that you then create obligation. Listen, that's the basis of the drug trade but it's also the basis of our morality in our world.
You give people a taste for something and then you give them more of it and more of it and then you restrict that so that you create dependency and obligation. It's the way of the corporate world today.
Pay you so much that you will buy so much that you will borrow so much so that then you have to work so much and so hard you cannot afford to take a step back. They have created dependency and obligation.
It is the corporate world today. That's the consumerism of our Western material system. The king appointed them lavish food, fed them up, seduced them by their appetite so that they would serve him and him alone.
You can see it in the workplace. Then secondly, they wanted to change their identity. You get that in verse number six and seven. So they wanted for them to forget their past, their heritage and to change their identity by changing their names.
Now it's interesting the meaning of their names. When you look at a commentary or a book it will help you. Daniel, well what was he going to be given the name of? Belteshazzar, that means Baal provides.
That's their God. Baal provides. What does the word Daniel mean? God is judge. So they want to change his name from God is judge to Baal provides. Subtle change of identity. Some of these other names.
Hananiah means the Lord is gracious. Shadrach, however, is a derivative from the God Aku, one of their gods. Mishael means who's like the Lord. Meshach is a derivative again of Aku, their God, and it says who is like Aku.
Azariah means the Lord is my helper. Abednego means servant of Nego, who was the son of Baal. So when you're singing the song Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, you really should not use these names. Use the other names because these were the heathen names given to change their identity.
I know it spoils the song, but nevertheless, there we have it. You see what they were doing. Their names must have been given to them by godly parents. Their names meant God is judge. The Lord is gracious.
Who's like the Lord? The Lord is my helper. Fantastic names, but they wanted to change their identity. Okay, now you've got decision time. You're 14 years old and you're just about to make the biggest decision of your life.
You have no parents around you. You have only a few friends and they also are facing similar decisions. I remember when I was 14, barely. I was baptized when I was 14. I came into fellowship in my local assembly, in which I'm still in fellowship, when I was 14.
And the reason I waited until I was 14 before I get baptized was that in their wisdom, and I believe it was wise, the brethren said to me that they would baptize me when I was prepared to invite my school friends to come and see it.
That's not a bad test. After all, who are you going to be testifying to if you don't invite anyone to come and see it? So that meant I had a decision to make at 14. I had to be very public in my declaration and association with Christ, and that was not an easy thing to do.
There was only two Christians in our whole school of 600 people, me and another person. No Christian teachers. So 14 is not a bad age to take a stand. If you're 14 today, I wonder would you take a stand if you're not baptized?
I wonder would you get baptized and invite your school friends to come and see it, and use the opportunity to make your faith in Christ very public? Well, verse number eight, Daniel has a decision to make.
He purposed in his heart. That would mean that he laid it on his heart. He has three issues to face. I need to be very quick here. Number one, he is going to be taught the wisdom of this world in his education.
Number two, he's going to bear the name that this world would give him as to his identity. And number three, he's going to have to eat the food that this world will give him as to his appetite. What's he going to do?
Well, with regard to the education, he had no problem. He had no problem. You see, his education would not all be evil. Far from it. He would be taught about architecture. He would be taught about history.
He would be taught about language. He would be taught about science. Nothing wrong with any of that. He would have to sort out the good from the bad, but it was not something that he was prepared to take a stand on.
It wasn't a hill he was going to climb on and stand on that hill of education. So he went through the education system of Babylon. Secondly, he accepted the name he was given. They could change his name, but they could not by changing his name, change his identity.
They could call him what he wanted, but he was still who he was. He accepted the name change, but he would not accept the diet. Why not? Because that was the only thing that he had scripture for. The rest of it, there was no scriptural instruction, but there was for this.
He had chapter and verse. And listen, if you are going to take a stand, particularly in a school context or in a workplace context or in a community context, you be careful what stand you take. And be like Daniel and make sure you're standing on something for which you have biblical authority.
That's what Daniel did. He determined that he would not defile himself. He would not pollute himself. He would not ingest the diet of the world. Why not? Because in the word of God, there was a strict prohibition about diet changes for him.
There was a strict regulation as a Jew for what he could eat and what he could not eat. He could turn to the the writings of Moses and read it for himself. So he will not compromise on what the scriptures teach.
The rest of it, he needs to make a decision for himself based on the circumstances and context. That's a decision he has to face, but he doesn't have chapter and verse to stand on and to make a stand before the God.
Now he's honest in his stand and as a 14 year old, he makes a bold stand, but he is a respectful child of God as he does so. He knows that if he takes this food, he will be defiled. His relationship with the Lord will be affected.
And so he comes respectfully in verse number nine. He does not make any demands. He does not stamp his feet. He makes a request. He's not going to fight. He's going to ask. Now I don't have time to apply all of this, but you take the application into your own situation.
So he comes to the appropriate person and he makes a legitimate request and he gets his request answered. And do you know why? It wasn't his integrity. It was the act of God in the situation. God is controlling everything.
God is a plan. God is a purpose. And it says this in verse nine, God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. God was helping him. God was going before him as he takes his stand upon the word of God.
And in dependence upon God, he enters into this situation with no compromise upon the word of God. Now, listen to this. If God wants to lift you up in society and in career and all that kind of thing, then that's fine.
There's nothing wrong with that. But you need to live an uncompromising life and let God work in the hearts of the people all around you who have control of your advancement in career and education. And do not compromise on the word of God and commit it to God.
And God will draw you into the place where he would have you serve him in the work environment. Don't use the tactics of the world to get on and claim God's presence and blessing as you do. Don't steal and then thank God for what you've got.
Don't tell lies and then thank God for how he worked out the situation because he didn't. Daniel had God on his side because he was faithful to God's word. And so I finish with this. Follow the chapter down in your reading.
Daniel consents to a test. And so he's not going to be eating steak and pork. He's going to be on cereal. Can you imagine? He's going to go on a diet that really, if you, there's no chance that this diet is going to work.
It wasn't the diet that worked, it was God who was working. And these four men ultimately are blessed by God and honored by God in the test. The trial of their faith. This was nothing to do with the diet upon their bodies.
This was young men of faith taking their stand and dependence upon God. And as they take their stand and dependence upon God, they have scripture upon which to stand. And what did God do? God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and understanding.
God raised them up to the place in that community and in that culture where he wanted his people to be at the time that he wanted them to be there. We are sometimes so impatient, sometimes so greedy, sometimes so dictated to in our thinking by the priorities and standards of the world in which we live.
Which says you've got to have this and you've got to do that to get it and you've got to be this to keep it. And we forget this, that if we want the blessing of God in our lives, it's not measured by what we've got and it's not measured by what we've done, it's measured by who we are.
Who we are. And God will place us and bless us according to his purpose and bring us to the place where he would have us serve him in our community, in our business, in our education. Let us be like Daniel who purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the diet of the world.
I trust that God will bless his word to us. Thank you.