Daniel 1:1-7: Conflicting Worldviews- "Stockholm Syndrome"

Daniel chapter 1, verses 1 to 7, here now, the inspired

Word of God. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, along 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 he brought the vessels into the treasury of his

God. The king ordered Asphenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom there was no defect, who were good -looking, showed intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king's court.

And he ordered him to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service.

Now among the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them, and to Daniel he assigned the name

Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego.

Let's pray. Father, once again, as we look into your word, we ask that you would open our hearts, that you would instruct us, that Father, that we would learn from these portions of Scripture which you tell us have been written for our instruction.

And we pray that we would become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray.

Amen. In 1973, a man attempting to rob one of the largest banks in Sweden took four employees hostage.

He held them for six days in the bank. In fact, during that time, he was able to negotiate and actually had one of his cohorts released from prison and joined him in the bank.

Interesting. But the interesting aspect of the event was that the hostages, upon release, were sympathetic to the robbers.

They refused to testify against them. And some of them actually helped raise money for their defense.

Psychologists attempting to explain this phenomenon said that due to the stress of the situation and the length of the negotiations, that a transference of feelings took place.

They named it the Stockholm Syndrome. A similar situation occurred about a year later when

Patty Hearst, granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped by the

Symbionese Liberation Army. The SLA, as it was called, was an urban guerrilla group known for criminal behavior.

The manhunt for Hearst was massive due to the wealth and political influence of her grandfather.

After a week or so of her captivity, she was given SLA literature to read.

And to make a long story short, two months later she was on an audio tape saying she had joined the

SLA. She was no longer Patty Hearst, but she was Tanya.

And she was later caught on videotape committing a bank robbery, holding a weapon, along with the other members of the

SLA. Call it what you want, Stockholm Syndrome, transference, brainwashing.

The fact is that mankind is susceptible to outside influence. It's a biblical principle.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 33 says, Do not be deceived.

Bad company corrupts good morals. Under duress, people have actually confessed to crimes that they didn't commit.

Dictators who lead totalitarian regimes are well aware of this principle.

That's why Adolf Hitler started his Hitler Youth Program. Take youth away from the influence of their families and churches.

Subject them to propaganda and you can capture the minds of a generation. This is what we see in the opening verses of the book of Daniel.

We've already seen that Babylon had besieged the city of Jerusalem and it had fallen.

Some of the vessels of the temple were taken and brought back to Babylon and deposited into the treasury of the foreign gods.

God was so displeased with Judah that he actually allowed the capture and the profaning of his temple.

Remember, the temple was the symbol of the presence of God with his people. So clearly, the removal of the vessels was tantamount to God leaving

Judah. This is reminiscent, I couldn't help but think about this, when

Israel was disobedient to God years earlier and he allowed the Ark of the Covenant to be seized by the

Philistines. And if you remember, it was brought into the temple of the pagan god Dagon.

The glory of the Lord departed from Israel, but he still made his presence known to the

Philistines. For the next morning, the statue of the god Dagon was turned over and lying prostrate before the

Ark of the Covenant. So the Philistines set him back upright and they waited again.

And the next morning, not only was the statue prostrate before the Ark, but his head and hands were cut off.

And the Philistines just didn't quite understand the situation. They thought that because they had won a military victory and captured the

Ark, that their god was superior to the Lord God Jehovah. They misunderstood that the only reason they achieved military victory was that God had given

Israel into their hands. It was a lesson in obedience to Israel. Then to teach the

Philistines a lesson, he struck them with tumors until they returned the Ark.

And they were happy when they got rid of the Ark. God was not defeated.

His rebellious people were. And that's what we see here in Daniel. Remember, one of the main themes of the book of Daniel is the sovereignty of God.

But it's also, I mentioned last week and the week before, the idea of covenant.

I want to take a few minutes to expand a little bit on what we spoke about the terms of the covenant, because it comes into play here.

Remember that the covenant that God enacts with his people has five parts to it.

The acronym we use was Theos. It's not surprising, then, to find that most ancient

Middle Eastern treaties or covenants have a similar structure to the structure of the covenant that God has with his people.

So let me explain, since it's germane to what follows. When a nation would defeat another nation in war, they didn't always destroy them.

If it was beneficial to the conquering kingdom, they would offer a treaty or a covenant.

And the form of this covenant or treaty would be substantially this.

The conquering king would set the terms of the covenant because he was the victor. And therefore, he had sovereign over those nations.

There is a T in transcendence. The sovereign king would appoint the vice regent to reign locally over the conquered nation.

Sometimes it would actually be the conquered king. They would allow him to live. If the conquering king was benevolent, that would happen frequently.

There's the H, a hierarchy. The sovereign would set the terms of the covenant.

In other words, what was expected of the conquered king and his subjects. In other words, what they could do, what was allowable, and what they couldn't do.

There's the E, the ethics of the covenant. Then the consequences of obeying the terms of the covenant in terms of blessings or favors for obedience.

And consequences for violating the terms of the covenant in terms of curses or penalties. That's the

O, the oaths. And then finally, what's the future expected for the conquered nation?

What was the duration of the covenant? There's the S, succession.

Now sometimes, in fact frequently, to ratify the terms of the covenant, the kings would have animals cut in half.

And they'd lay them on the side. And they would walk through, the two of them would walk through the animal halves.

The symbolism being, if we violate the terms of this covenant, may this happen to us.

Does that sound familiar? Remember Genesis 15? God enters into the covenant with Abraham.

But who walks through the animal halves? Only God. Because he is the sovereign.

He saves us. Abraham didn't want to walk through those animal halves. Any one of us, you think we could keep the terms of our covenant with God?

So we have a covenant keeping God. Now in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar was the sovereign.

His word was law. And so the temple is plundered and the vessels taken to Babylon.

But Nebuchadnezzar doesn't stop there. If you do any study in Nebuchadnezzar at all, he was shrewd.

Besides being ruthless. He not only wanted the spoils of war, but he wants the youth of Judah.

Remember in verse 3, the king ordered Ashvanab, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family, and of the nobles, youths, in whom there was no defect, who were good looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, who had the ability for serving the king's court.

And he ordered them to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. Nebuchadnezzar, again, he was a despicable person at this point, but he was thinking long term.

If I can sum it up, he wanted the yuppies of the day. The best and the brightest.

And he gave this order to the chief of his officials. Now that tells you how important this was to the king.

The order is given to his chief of staff. It wasn't left to some underling, the very highest office.

And just as Nebuchadnezzar chose the best of the temple articles, he also chose the best of the youth.

Look at the description that he gives. Nobles and royalty, youths in whom was no defect.

Incidentally, that was also one of the requirements for the priesthood in Israel. Good looking, but those are mostly exterior qualities.

The king wanted more than merely good looking people. They had to be intelligent in all branches of wisdom.

He wanted them classically trained. They had to be endowed with understanding and discernment of knowledge.

What was he looking for? He was looking for the cream of the crop. The best of the best in every area that counts.

Let me ask you something. What if you're going to apply for a job and you look down and that was the job criteria?

I think I'd get up and walk out, sneak out. And what was his purpose in this?

Verse four tells us, we don't have to guess, the whole object of what

Nebuchadnezzar was doing was they would be able to serve in the king's court.

Not every noble or wise man was suited to serve the king. This plan was well thought out.

This plan was ingenious. For if he can convert these young men to Babylonian worldview,

Nebuchadnezzar's government is strengthened and Judah's is weakened. Now, how is he going to accomplish this?

Well, even though these men were young, the fact that they were the best and the brightest may work against him.

The worldview of the Babylonians was quite different than that of the realm of Judah.

So how do you take the best and the brightest and change their worldview? Because make no mistake about it, this is a battle of worldviews that he's engaging in.

Well, the scripture here gives us the methodology. First, remove them from their familiar environment.

Isolation. The king did not send teachers to Judah to train the men.

Too many distractions and influences. So he transports them to Babylon. Removed from family, removed from worshiping

Jehovah, removed from the teachers of the law, removed from the familiar everyday routines of life of Judah.

Removed from what made the Jews different from every other nation surrounding them.

Removed from what we could call positive role models. God has made us social beings.

Started right in the garden, we find that out. It's not good for man to be alone. It's one of the reasons that we have churches.

God ordained churches to be instituted because we need each other. No such thing as lone ranger

Christians. We need one another. God has, in his wisdom, has caused us to live in family units.

The king of Babylon understood this principle. So he takes these young men out of their familiar surroundings, away from all their godly support system, carries them away to a foreign land, and he hopes this disruption will prepare them for the next step.

Look at verse 4. Youth in whom no defect, good looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with knowledge and understanding, discerning in knowledge.

And for what purpose? He ordered them to teach them the literature and language of the

Chaldeans. First place, this may seem normal. I mean, if you're going to live in Babylon, you should know the language and literature of that nation.

When in Rome, I mean, we even do this when we prepare our sermons.

If I'm preaching from Daniel, I'm studying also the culture of Babylon, of the ancient Babylon. But that's not what's going on here.

For these men to be of service in the king's court, they had to adopt the worldview of Babylon.

And the king, it tells us right in the scripture, the king had a three year plan to accomplish this.

And it was very subtle. You know, sometimes it doesn't even take that long. He set aside three years.

When Patty Hearst was first abducted, she was locked in a closet and blindfolded. Isolated from everything except her captors.

After a couple of weeks, she was allowed a small light and was given SLA literature to read.

When she began to ask the right questions, she was brought out of the closet and was able to eat meals with her captors.

Eventually, she was included in their political discussions. It only took two months for this young lady to be fully radicalized.

Nebuchadnezzar knew that if he was going to be successful, it would take some time. And so he sets up this three year plan.

First was isolation. Second, indoctrination.

Third, verse five. The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food and wine from which he drank.

We will see later on that Daniel refused his food and drink. Now, the commentators are all over the place as to why he did some talk about the fact that, you know, it was dietary reasons or health reasons or religious reasons.

I'm just going with the simple explanation for our purposes. Daniel was keeping his distance from the king's gifts.

I mean, there may have been health reasons, may have been dietary restrictions.

But I believe the bottom line was Daniel was keeping distance from the whole

Babylonian culture. Realize the first step to sin usually comes in the guise of compromise.

Especially for the believer. Just try it once.

It won't hurt you. Nothing wrong. What's wrong with this? Just try it.

James says in chapter one, verse 14. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

I believe that Daniel saw the deception and avoided it at all costs.

And even if the food was good and not tainted in any way, Daniel stayed clear of anything that would get between him and his

God. Sinclair Ferguson shed some light on this. He says the good life that Daniel was offered was intended by the king to wean him away from the hard life to which

God had called him. It would encourage him to focus on himself and on a life of enjoyment.

It would lead him to think of himself no longer as a servile Israelite, but as a distinguished courtier.

There's an echo here of the wilderness temptations of our Lord. The last step in pushing these men to the

Babylonian culture was to confuse them. We start in verse six.

Now, among them, these Israelites were carried away. Among them from the sons of Judah were

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them.

And to Daniel, he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah, Shadrach, to Mishael, Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego.

What's going on here? Muddy the waters a little by taking away their names, their identity.

Give them new names. Just a reminder, names are important in the scripture.

These four men come to Babylon with Hebrew names. Daniel means

God is judge or God has judged. You see the L at the end of the names, that's a clue.

When you see the IAH, that's for Yahweh. Hananiah means

Yahweh is gracious. Mishael, who is what

God is. Azariah, Yahweh has helped.

Notice that each of the names contains references to the God of Israel. That won't do for Nebuchadnezzar.

Because every time you mention their name, call them by name, there's a reminder of who their God is.

So what do they do? They take away those names and give them Babylonian names. Daniel, Belteshazzar, Hananiah, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego.

Each of those names contains a form of a

Babylonian God. Do you see the shrewdness of Nebuchadnezzar?

Take away names that mean something, their identity in the God of Israel. Now give them new names.

Apparently harmless? No. Names that remind them now they serve

Babylonian gods. Or at least that's what the thought is. The lines are drawn, the battle is set.

The Lord God of Israel versus the gods of Babylon. If the four men forget who they are, then the king has succeeded in making

Babylonians out of them. And this would be a major victory for Nebuchadnezzar. Are they servants of the

Lord God Jehovah or of the Babylonian gods Bel and Akku and Nabu? But there's another reason for renaming them.

Naming is a role of someone in authority. That's why parents name their children.

Adam had dominion, authority over the creation. And so God brings all the animals and he names the animals.

And we could go on with so many examples in scripture of the one in authority having the authority to name.

This is one more way Nebuchadnezzar exercises his control over the captivity. They know that he's exercising sovereignty.

And as we read further in Daniel, we will see that he clearly, Nebuchadnezzar was an egomaniac, a narcissist.

And we could probably get a few other psychological diagnoses in there as well. So let's just recap for a moment.

What's the situation? Babylon has risen to be the most powerful nation on earth.

They have conquered the known world around them through their military might. They have laid siege to Judah, conquered it as well.

This time by adding subterfuge and convincing King Jehoiakim to join an alliance.

The alliance is short lived and paved the way for the defeat of Judah. And included in the spoils of war,

Nebuchadnezzar plunders the temple and removes many of the vessels.

He also has the chief of staff bring the best and the brightest into the king's court for three year program to psychologically change them.

And he employs principles that are still used today amongst the military and other regimes to brainwash people.

But Nebuchadnezzar underestimated the Lord God Jehovah. He also underestimated his faithful servants.

These events are very instructive for us as we go through this book of Daniel. One last point.

In the first sermon in this series on Daniel, I mentioned several reasons why we chose this book for study.

One of those reasons was that Daniel is a case study of how

Christians should respond when faced with opposing worldviews. There can be no doubt in that in America today, the

Christian is facing opposing worldview as never before in her history. The Christian church is facing increasing opposition from on many fronts, including the school systems, the government and social institutions.

The hostility between the opposing views is is increasing in intensity and in frequency.

Our previous governor. I love to say previous. Say it again.

Our previous governor who defied our

God, speaking about conservative leaning New Yorker says, just get out.

We don't want you here. The unmitigated goal in 1970.

The great Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer believed even back then we were living in a post

Christian era. He wrote a book titled The Church at the End of the 20th

Century. Not as famous as some of his other books, but it's an important book.

He said this. Now, remember, this is 1970. That he wrote this.

Does the church have a future in our generation? I believe the church is in real danger.

We are facing present measures and a present of future manipulation, which will be so overwhelming in the days to come that they will make the battles of the last 40 years look like child's play.

It's almost prophetic, isn't it? That may actually be an understatement.

If we look at the situation around the world, it looks bleak for the church. It may be bleak, but it's not hopeless.

Remember what Jesus said to Peter. I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

And then he's given us the keys to the kingdom. How do we stand firm in a society like this who seem to want no part of Jesus Christ?

What is the Christian going to do? The story of Daniel is the story of four young men who dared to stand against the tyranny of the state and the temptation to sin.

Even willing to die for the cause of Christ. These young men were in their early 20s, their whole lives in front of them, and they were willing to risk everything.

So the lives of these men are certainly instructive for us as we face an increasingly hostile environment in our nation.

And the lesson begins right here as we see what these men are being subject to. As we work our way through the book of Daniel, we will look at the specific circumstances and how they faced and dealt with each of them.

But for now, we can see the general attitude displayed in verse 8.

Daniel said, but Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or wine, which he drank.

So he sought permission from the command of the officials that he might not defile himself.

We can sum Daniel's behavior in one word.

Holiness. Holiness. You know,

I don't think there's another word in theology that makes more people uncomfortable than when you start talking about holy or holiness.

Outside of the church walls, the most common use of the words in the phrase holier than thou, which certainly has a negative context to it.

But the misuse of the words comes primarily from a lack of understanding of what scripture means by calling someone or something holy.

See, most people equate holiness with, well, that's if you're morally upright, you're doing the right things.

And yes, there's an element if you're holy. There's an element of moral righteousness attached to it.

But that's not the primary meaning of the word in scripture. First and foremost, to be holy means to be set apart, set apart from what is common.

To be different or unique in comparison to the world in general is to be holy. Daniel and his friends demonstrated holiness in their lives in Babylon while living in a pagan culture.

They were able to live holy lives. And that's a concept that we can emulate and learn from more than developing battle plans and whatnot.

The Christians first responsibility is to be holy. When we speak about holiness, my mind always goes to that great

Anglican bishop of the 19th century, J .C. Ryle, my favorite Anglican.

He wrote a classic work on holiness with a very clever name, Holiness. I like that.

After he describes holiness, he describes holiness as separation to God, devotion to God, service to God, being of one mind with God and wanting

God's will. After he does that, he gives eight reasons why Christians should pursue holiness.

Now, remember what holiness is. It's being set apart, set apart for service to our great

God. So he gives eight reasons, and I have just taken his eight reasons.

So if you don't like what's coming, blame J .C. Ryle. Don't blame me. First reason, because Scripture commands it.

We read from 1 Peter 1 this morning, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.

But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.

Second reason, because this is the one grand end and purpose for which Christ came into the world.

And he uses Ephesians 5, which is usually related to marriage, but we know that that's a reflection of Christ and his church.

And husbands are told to love their wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, that means holiness, having cleansed her by washing of the water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.

Third, because it is sound evidence that we have saving faith. James 2 .26,

for just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Fourth, it is proof that we love Jesus Christ in sincerity. John 14 .15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Number five, it is evidence that we are children of God. Romans 8 .14,

for all who are being led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. Number six, it is the most likely way to do good to one another.

If we love God, we must love our brother. So the best way to demonstrate that we love one another is by demonstrating holiness.

Number seven, our present comfort depends much upon it. James 1 .17, and every good thing then and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the

Father lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. And number eight, without holiness we will never see heaven.

Hebrews 2 .12 .14, pursue peace with all men and the sanctification, which is holiness, without which no one will see the

Lord. Holiness. You know, books and movies about psychological conditioning are very popular today.

One of the greatest ones was The Manchurian Candidate, a book, two movies from it. We see stories about young people being radicalized by Islamic factors.

We've seen many movies and television shows concerning psychological conditioning by religious cults.

But we've seen real life tragedies like Jonestown. But those radical examples, true, but a minority.

And usually not a danger for the Church of Jesus Christ. The danger for the

Church is more subtle. It's more like Nebuchadnezzar's methodology.

It is more of a seduction by secular humanism and materialism.

Stop reading the scriptures. Removal from regular church attendance.

Immersion in literature and movies that may not be explicitly or overtly evil.

May not have nudity and a lot of cursing in it. But the underlying world view is anti -Christian.

Then it is one compromise after another. And soon the lines between godly and ungodly are blurred.

And unless something changes, the person is no longer useful in the kingdom of God. And so what's the remedy?

Very simply, pursue holiness. Just like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Or wait a minute. So we don't forget Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord God. If you're here today and you've never come to faith, if you're not with them, you're against them.

If the words of the scripture have touched your heart, bow your head, confess your sin, repent, come to Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Father, once again we bow before you.

And we thank you and praise you for the blessings you've given to us and your son. Thank you that in our sin, while we had sinned,

Christ died for us. I would pray, Father, for anyone here today who doesn't know you, that today would be the day of salvation.

Take away their stony heart, give them a heart of flesh that they might repent and believe. We pray this in Jesus' name.