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October 21, 2022

Encouragement for the journey from God’s Word. Today's Scripture: Daniel 1:1-2:23 / Proverbs 28:14 Music credit: "Awaken the Dawn" by Stanton Lanier, https://www.stantonlanier.com/ CCLI #1760549

00:17: Well, good Friday morning to you. Here we are looking forward to the weekend again and thanking the
00:22: Lord for the opportunities that are in front of us in this coming Lord's Day. I hope that you're planning to gather together with God's people and enjoy the study of His Word and worship of our
00:36: Lord, singing praises to Him, praying to Him, reading His Word, being taught and preached to from His Word.
00:46: All these are benefits, they're blessings to us that God has given to us, these ordinary just means of grace that God provides that week by week we might grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ.
00:58: Well, looking forward to the weekend. Well, today we're reading in our Bible reading plan in the book of Daniel, first couple of chapters in Daniel.
01:07: Interestingly, it ties in with yesterday's devotional, if you heard that one. We were talking yesterday about in Psalm 119 verse 54, where the psalmist wrote and said that the statutes of God's Word are
01:23: His songs, the statutes are His songs in the house of His pilgrimage. We contrasted that verse with Psalm 137, where the psalmist is in the
01:38: Babylonian captivity and writing in that captivity, and he says, we're by the rivers of Babylon and they want us to sing the songs of Zion, and how in the world can we sing the songs of Zion in this foreign land when we're captives and exiles in this foreign land?
01:53: We talked about that. If you didn't hear it, go back to listen to yesterday's devotional, and I think it'll give some understanding in that contrast between those two things.
02:05: But today in Daniel chapter 1, we're reading about one of those exiles, we're reading about one of those individuals who was taken captive from Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, and would actually spend the rest of his life in Babylon.
02:23: We're talking about Daniel and his three Hebrew friends. It's interesting, we remember
02:29: Daniel by his Hebrew name, Daniel, but when we think of his three Hebrew, the other three
02:35: Hebrew children, we think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and those are the
02:40: Babylonian names that were given to them. Isn't that interesting how we don't think of them with their
02:48: Hebrew names? What were those names? Let's see, where are they? In verse 6, he chose from the sons of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
03:02: I guess Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are just easy to fall off the tongue and easy to remember.
03:09: These are four young men, they were probably early teens, 14 years of age maybe, when they were taken captive.
03:19: They came from nobility, they came from the upper crust of society in Jerusalem.
03:27: Their parents were probably wealthy or had political office of some kind, and they were considered to be promising young men that the king
03:37: Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon could take advantage of and exploit and use in his kingdom.
03:43: He brings these young men, their exiles, brings them as captives to the city of Babylon and puts them into captivity under the care of others who will compel them to live a certain way, to receive training from Babylonian educators.
04:04: Even their diets are regulated by those over them. Here's a young man who's placed in a position of Psalm 137, by the rivers of Babylon, how can
04:18: I sing the songs of Zion? I don't know that we have any, I don't remember that in the book of Daniel we have any record of him actually singing, but there are plenty of examples that Daniel did not lose his faith.
04:35: Here he is in this land of exile where he's been taken captive, and he demonstrates for us a starting point for how to live in a hostile world.
04:51: As we pointed out yesterday, we have to think of ourselves as pilgrims and sojourners and not as exiles.
04:59: What I mean by that distinction is a pilgrim and a sojourner is there by choice.
05:07: We are in this world by virtue of having been born in this world.
05:14: We weren't taken captive by the enemy and brought to enemy territory.
05:20: We're born into this, but this isn't our ultimate home. Our citizenship is in heaven.
05:26: Until we arrive where our citizenship is, we're strangers and pilgrims.
05:33: An exile, on the other hand, is one who has been taken captive by an enemy and is forced to live where he doesn't want to and has no other alternative, has no choice in the matter.
05:47: Daniel is in the latter situation, but he provides for us an example of how to live, even as pilgrims, when the foreign land that we're living in is hostile toward us.
06:01: How do we live? The starting point of it all is in our hearts, purposing in our hearts that no matter what,
06:11: I'm going to live for Christ. We see this in verse 7 and 8.
06:18: It says, To them, that is to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the chief of the eunuch gave them names, and to Daniel he gave the name
06:29: Belt to Shazar, to Hananiah he gave the name Shadrach, to Mishael the name
06:34: Meshach, and to Azariah the name Abednego. There was a purpose for that, and the purpose was to affect their identity, giving them
06:46: Babylonian names instead of Hebrew names, with the intention that they would forget their
06:52: Hebrew heritage. That brings us to verse 8. Obviously, where they're living is hostile toward the
07:01: Jewish faith, the faith of God, of Yahweh, trusting in him.
07:11: What they want to do is get these young men to forget all of that, and to take these
07:16: Babylonian names, adopt the Babylonian religion, and so forth. Then we come to verse 8, how to handle it.
07:23: Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine he drank.
07:33: Therefore, he requested of the chief of eunuchs that he might not defile himself. There was this starting point in his heart that he was not going to defile himself in this
07:45: Babylonian captivity, in this hostile land. Come what may, forced to do things that he doesn't want to do, forced to learn stuff that he doesn't want to learn, forced to take a name that he doesn't want to have, he's nevertheless purposing in his heart,
08:01: I'm going to do right. I'm going to do the right thing. There is the starting point,
08:07: I think. There's the key to living successfully in a hostile environment.
08:13: That is the purpose in our hearts, we're going to do right, no matter what it costs, no matter what it takes, we're going to do right.
08:22: It may be involving some real hardship somewhere down the road. On the other hand, like Daniel, we may find that God uses that resolution to do right, to bring great blessing to us and others.
08:39: But regardless of the outcome, Daniel didn't know when he purposed in his heart, he purposed in his heart.
08:47: Let's have that same kind of resolve, let's have the same kind of purpose that in this world, no matter how much it hates us, or how much it doesn't like our viewpoints, or our opinions, and all the rest of that kind of thing, we're just going to resolve to do right.
09:02: Heavenly Father, I pray that you would give us that resolution of heart in this world in which we live, that's sometimes very hostile to our faith.
09:13: Help us, Father, to be faithful. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Have a good rest of your
09:20: Friday. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and gather together with God's people on the Lord's Day.