Faithful in a Foreign Land – October 4
I felt like an alien in high school. I almost never felt like I belonged.
Now, sure, part of it was because I was an awkward, French Horn playing nerd who spent my free time researching World War II airplanes at the library. But I think a bigger part of my alienation had to do with my faith.
• I believed in Jesus at a time when many people my age were starting to question and doubt.
• I prioritized church and youth group while my school friends were going to parties.
• And I just wasn’t open to swearing, drinking, drugs, sleeping around… the stuff that so many others seemed to be into.
I felt like an alien… I still feel like an alien sometimes.
Not for the same reasons. I’ll admit that my faith back then was a lot of just sin management. And I’ve matured beyond that in my walk with Christ (well, I still haven’t ever said the F word, but now it’s like a competition with myself to see how long I can go. I don’t think it makes me godly!).
No. The reason I still feel like an alien in my faith is because I’m trying to live out the teachings of Jesus - love, mercy, generosity, grace for your enemies - but our world is on fire with hatred, tribalism, greed, rage, and self-absorption.
I feel like an alien for valuing the things that I do. And I bet that many of you do as well.
The truth is, none of us who follow Christ truly belong in this world. As the Apostle Paul says, we are “Citizens of Heaven.” We don’t fit in here. We are strangers in a land that is not our home.
So the question is this: What are you supposed to do when your faith makes you an alien in your own backyard?
SERIES SETUP
Welcome to “Faithful in a Foreign Land,” a new series where we are exploring the first few chapters of the book of Daniel.
It’s a story about a young Jewish noble named Daniel and his three friends Hannah, Mishael, and Azariah (better known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), as they try to stay true to their faith while in exile in a foreign land.
What we’re going to see is that these brave young men have a lot to teach us about faithfulness in our own lives when the world around us looks nothing like our home.
DANIEL TIMELINE
Before we dig into our passage for today, I think it’s helpful to understand where the book of Daniel fits in the overall storyline of the people of God.
-Joseph/Genesis - God rewards faithfulness in exile (Pyramid, person)
-Daniel/Babylonian Exile (6th c. BC) - folk hero (ziggurat, 4 people)
-Book of Daniel/Maccabean Revolt (2nd c. BC) - model of faith (Jerusalem temple, flames)
-Early Church (4th c. AD) - guide & inspiration (tomb carvings/catacombs) (Roman temple, people in flames)
1 Peter 5:13
Your sister church here in Babylon sends you greetings.
-Today - Daniel can still guide & inspire (skyscraper, iPhone)
The book of Daniel can still do for us what it did for our spiritual ancestors long ago: give us a challenge and an inspiration to take our faith seriously when the world looks nothing like our home.
So let’s get into it. Please turn with me to Daniel 1
HOSTAGES
The book of Daniel begins with the moment of Israel’s defeat in 586 BC.
Daniel 1:1-7
During the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign in Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave him victory over King Jehoiakim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects from the Temple of God. So Nebuchadnezzar took them back to the land of Babylonia and placed them in the treasure-house of his god. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives. “Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men,” he said. “Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and are suited to serve in the royal palace. Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.” The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names: Daniel was called Belteshazzar.
Hananiah was called Shadrach.
Mishael was called Meshach.
Azariah was called Abednego.
Ok. What is going on here? Why are these young Israelite nobles being brought into the Babylonian king’s palace?
Well, this is actually a very common phenomenon in the ancient world. When one kingdom defeated another kingdom, they would often bring back royal exiles, called hostages, to live in something of a gilded cage.
These guys weren’t prisoners chained to the wall of a dungeon. They were eating at the king’s table.
Why? Well, for two reasons.
First, keeping these young men close at hand was a really great way of ensuring that the defeated kingdom wouldn’t rise up again. “You try to rebel and we’ll kill your boys.” Simple as that.
But the second reason is a little more subtle. It’s about imposing cultural dominance on the future leaders of your enemies.
Imagine: young men from defeated nations grow up immersed in Babylonian culture. They get rich as servants of the king. They adopt Babylonian religion. Marry Babylonian wives.
And then, when they or their children do go back home, they’re not going home as enemies. They’re going home as servants of the king.
This is why the men are given new names, which honor the Babylonian gods, not the God of Israel. (I put details about that in the app notes in case you’re curious what the names mean) It’s cultural domination.
This is also why the young men are fed rich foods from the king’s table. Get them hooked on the good life and they’ll come begging for more.
So what’s going to happen? Are Daniel and his three friends going to give in to this cultural domination? Well, let’s keep reading and find out.
ONLY VEGETABLES
Daniel 1:8-10
But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods. Now God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel. But he responded, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has ordered that you eat this food and wine. If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded.”
Now, a little bit of context here is helpful. The reason Daniel doesn’t want to eat the meat of the king is not just because it’s Babylonian meat and he’s picky.
No. More likely than not, this meat would have first been sacrificed to the Babylonian gods. The wine would have been offered to the gods as a libation. As strange as it sounds to us today, eating this meat would have been a form of worship of those gods, which would have been abhorrent to a faithful, young Israelite.
Plus, Babylonians ate pork, so it’s entirely possible this meat wasn’t even kosher to begin with. The law of Moses made it very clear to Daniel where the line was, and eating this meat would have been crossing it.
So he asks for permission to not eat it.
Which seems like a reasonable request, but it freaks the chief of staff out, because he’s responsible for the wellbeing of these young men and he assumes that without meat these guys are going to waste away.
As an aside, I find this really funny, because my wife and I have been vegetarians for 10 years, and everyone assumes the same thing. It’s another reason I feel like an alien sometimes.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “Where do you get your protein?!?” “I don’t know… beans, nuts, eggs, seeds, tofu, cheese, yogurt?” Turns out you can survive without meat.
Anyway, my point is that the chief of staff doesn’t think so and he doesn’t want to die for failing to do his job.
Bottom line, it might seem like not eating meat is a trivial thing to us today, but this was no laughing matter for Daniel and his friends. It was a chance to show their devotion to God - obedience to his law – even in a land far from home.
PASSING THE TEST
So let’s see how it goes.
Daniel 1:11-17
Daniel spoke with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief of staff to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. “Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said. “At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king’s food. Then make your decision in light of what you see.” The attendant agreed to Daniel’s suggestion and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king. So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the food and wine provided for the others. God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for understanding every aspect of literature and wisdom. And God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meanings of visions and dreams.
Yet another echo of the Joseph story from Genesis. Joseph in Egypt also interpreted dreams in the palace.
So, Daniel and his friends pass the test. They stand strong in their faith. They don’t compromise.
And here’s what I love. God rewards their faithfulness. At the end of it all, they’re not just “as healthy as the rest.” No. They are healthier, stronger, wiser than the rest of the hostages. Look at verse 20.
Daniel 1:20
Whenever the king consulted them in any matter requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, he found them ten times more capable than any of the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.
Now, as we’ll see in the weeks ahead, these young men are not done having their devotion to God tested. In fact, things are get way more intense in the next few chapters.
• We’ll see Daniel risking his own neck to interpret the king’s dreams.
• We’ll see the other three young men facing the death penalty in a fiery furnace for refusing to worship a statue of the king.
• And we’ll see Daniel remaining steadfast in prayer even though the penalty he faces is being eaten alive by hungry lions.
Through it all, we’re going to see one theme emerge again and again and again. It’s kind of the big idea of the entire book of Daniel:
God honors our devotion & sacrifice when we’re in a land far from home.
That’s true even when the “land far from home” is our own backyard. Remember the role this book has played in the story of the people of God:
2nd century BC Israelites facing the corruption of Antiochus Epiphanes? Stay strong in your faith like Daniel. Don’t waver. Don’t compromise. God will honor your sacrifice.
4th century AD Christians facing the persecution of the Roman Empire? Stand tall like these four brave young men facing death for their faith. Don’t give in to the temptations around you. God will honor your sacrifice.
21st century Christ-followers living in a world driven by greed, hatred, self-indulgence, and tribalism? Stay firm in your convictions like Daniel. Let his faithfulness to God be a model for your own. God will honor your sacrifice.
Grace Church, we are citizens of heaven. We don’t belong here. We’re aliens. We might as well be living in Babylon, ourselves. And yet we are here to be salt and light. We are here to represent the love of Christ to a hurting world and to heal the brokenness around us.
The only way that is going to happen is if you and I stand firm in our Christlikeness. If we make the sacrifices that are necessary to stay faithful as aliens - as exiles - in this broken world. That’s the only way we’ll experience the truth that:
God honors our devotion & sacrifice when we’re in a land far from home.
STANDING STRONG
I want you to experience that truth. So let’s take a moment and think about where you are in all of this.
I’ll start with this: What aspects of your faith in Jesus make you seem like an alien to those around you?
What causes you to stand out? To seem weird or different from others? Maybe it’s your commitment to forgiving those who offend you in an era of outrage. Maybe it’s your persistence in prayer or serving others in a deeply selfish time.
It could be some moral stance you take - something everybody around you indulges in but you still refuse because of obedience to God.
Or maybe it’s just the fact that you believe in Christ at all in a time where religion is mocked and demeaned. What part of your faith makes you stand out as an alien?
The second question is this: What is the “meat from the king’s table” that tempts you to compromise?
I’m not talking about literal meat. No. What I mean is the figurative temptations calling you to lower your standards of faith as an alien far from home.
It could be an addictive substance or habit luring you to give up self-control.
Maybe it’s a moral gray area of some kind. Something you’ve been strong on in the past but now you’re thinking, “Eh, how much harm could it do?”
Or maybe it’s the algorithm. TikTok. Facebook. The endless stream of content constantly inviting you into hate or outrage or demonization of others, or endless materialism.
You want to talk about cultural domination? Just look what’s happening to us through our phones. We’re hostages!
What “meat from the king’s table” is tempting you to compromise?
Whatever it is, my final question is this: What would it mean for you, like Daniel, to stand strong?
Take a moment to listen to the Holy Spirit. Let God’s voice direct you. What stand is he inviting you to take right now for your faith? Where is the Spirit calling you to draw the line?
Remember that you are a citizen of heaven. Even here you are an alien in exile. Your choices matter, because
God honors our devotion & sacrifice when we’re in a land far from home.
The only way you’ll discover that for yourself, though, is if you, like Daniel, choose to take a stand.