INTRODUCTION
Opening Statement: Creating and choosing heroes are one of the most significant things that cultures do. We see this everyday in one way or another. Watch ESPN Sports Center, and you can see an entire evening of basketball games reduced to a couple of minutes by Kenny Mayne and Dan Fitzpatrick, who highlight the key plays by the "hero" of each game.
Transition: The same principles that lie behind the selectivity that transforms a basketball game into a few shots on the evening news, also apply to the hero/heroine stories of the Bible. The Bible is quite literally an anthology of hero stories. The writer chooses the most crucial events in the hero’s life and builds his story on those key moments.
Definition: Hero/heroine stories are built around the life and exploits of the hero/heroine. Many times their lives illustrate important values in the midst of conflicts within the community that has produced him/her. Through all of the conflict, however, the hero/heroine is able to act for good and to demonstrate that life has a significant pattern and end when God is the center. I want to talk to you about one of these many stories today.
Title: The Story of Daniel - A Hero in a Pagan Culture
OUTLINE
I. Setting the Stage
A. Background Information: As one studies the history of ancient Israel, two significant dates must be mastered in order to understand what was happening in two-thirds of the entire Old Testament. You know that Israel was divided into two kingdoms after the reign of Solomon. The northern kingdom was known as Israel. The southern kingdom was known as Judah, named after the one dominant-tribe of Israel that occupied this part of the land. The first date has to do with the northern kingdom. The second date has to do with the southern kingdom. Most of the major/minor prophets prophesied to either one of these nations prior to, during, and after they were conquered.
1. The first date is 722 BC. This was the year that the Assyrians conquered the nation of Israel (Samaria). They deported many Jewish captives to Assyria and imported Assyrians into Israel. The rationale was to remove key leaders to eleminate possible revolt and then to assimilate the Israelites into the Assyrian way of life. That’s why Jews hated Samaritans. They were the first century equivalent to the melano issue today: half-breeds, part-Jewish, part-Assyrian.
2. The second date is 586 B. C. This was the year that the Babylonians conquered the nation of Judah (Jerusalem). They had a similar philosophy to the Assyrians. Deport and assimilate.
B. Question: Where does Daniel fit into all of this? Daniel lived in the southern kingdom of Judah. The attack of Dan.1:1 in 605 BC was the first of three major deportations of Jews to Babylon. Daniel, the promising teenager, was in this group who were carried away under the reign of Jehoiakim. The second one occurred in 597 BC. The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar took Judah’s King Jehoiachin and senior officials to Babylon (2 Kings 24:10-17; Ezekiel 1:2-3). Ezekiel, the prophet, was also in this group. Intent on taking Egypt, King Nebuchadnezzar returns ten years later to find Jerusalem in rebellion. This led to the third deportation in 586 BC. King Zedekiah’s sad story is given in 2 Kings 24:18-25:12. The temple and the city of Jerusalem were thoroughly destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s armies.
C. Transition: For 70 years, their nation was lost in oblivion (Jer. 25:11). Imagine losing everything that identifies us as Americans. No more national holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, or July 4. No more proms to go to. No churches to attend. That’s what is was like for Daniel. No more temple worship. Judah had lost their national identity. But Daniel records for us what happened after he arrived in Babylon. He was able to maintain his identity in the face of divine discipline, national loss, and a pagan university.
II. Looking at the Hero’s Book
A. Explanation: The Book of Daniel falls into two parts. The first six chapters are historic, giving us pictures of the times and conditions in which he lived. The last six chapters are prophetic, giving us visions and interpretations. The first half of the book consists of six historic events. All six of these ordeals involve a testing of the chief character and a supernatural rescue by God.
1. The testing of four Hebrew youths (Dan.1) - Divine vs. Human nurture. They even assign new names to Daniel’s friends in an attempt to stamp out their Jewish identity. Daniel and friends emerge as the best scholars.
2. Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan.2)- Divine vs. Human wisdom. Test of Daniel’s ability to interpret dreams. Daniel prayed and God revealed.
3. The ordeal of the fiery furnace (Dan.3) - Divine vs. Human worship. The test had to do with compulsory emperor worship, not uncommon in a pagan culture. Daniel’s three friends were loyal to God and God rescued them.
4. Nebuchadnezzar’s fall and restoration (Dan.4) - Divine vs.
Human rule. The king had a 7 year period of insanity. Then praised God when he was well.
5. Belshazzar’s feast (Dan.5) - Divine vs. Human judgment. He
desecrated the vessels of the Jewish temple by using them in a drinking party. It cost him his life (5:21).
6. And, the climax, Daniel in the lions’ den (Dan.6) - Divine vs. Human deliverance. The test was once again, compulsory emperor worship. Picture it. Here Daniel is in a pagan culture, opposed by some high political figures and surrounded by the daily threat of losing his Jewish, religious identity in a foreign land. As if this was not enough, a trap is laid for him by some jealous politicians. Read Daniel 6:7-11.
B. Application: Let me pause here to say that God still does rescues. All of our stories are rescue stories!
C. Transition: As in all stories, small details mask larger spiritual issues. Let’s move to what I see as the largest spiritual issue in the entire book.
III. Imitating the Heroism
A. Observation: There are many things that are worth emulating in the hero story of Daniel. Not defiling ourselves with this secular culture could be one theme to apply. Interpreting dreams in a spiritual new age is another theme. The Sovereignty of God and the Pride of Man is a powerful theme. How to defeat lions in your life could be explored. Knowing what to expect in the end times is all-inclusive in the Daniel story. But perhaps the greatest thing we could note about the Daniel hero story is found tucked away in the last verse of the first chapter of Daniel.
B. Question: What was Daniel’s secret? Was he an expert lion-trainer. Was he a mind-reader? Was Daniel an expert dietician? Was he a fire-tamer? What was it?
C. Text/Recitation: Daniel 1:21 And Daniel continued [even] unto the first year of king Cyrus. You’re thinking "Where’s the secret?" How could that verse even come close to Daniel in the Lion’s Den, or Daniel interpreting the writing on Belshazzar’s palace wall, or Daniel explaining the Great Image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
D. Explanation: If you’re not careful, you’ll pass right over the significance of this little narrative parenthesis that the writer includes here about Daniel. In Daniel 1:1, 605 BC is the date established for the initiation of three major Babylonian deportments of Israeli leaders and captives. Cyrus, the Persian King, overthrew Babylon in October 539 BC, the first year of his reign. I’m not into math, but some simple substraction tells me that for 66 years, there were many days with no lion’s den, no great images, no great dreams. Just Daniel obeying God faithfully in a pagan culture, being true to the lifestyle values that God had called him to through 3 different kingdoms (Babylon, Media, Persia). You might say that Daniel’s greatest heroic accomplishment was "a long obedience in the same direction." Loyalty to God is the norm that Daniel’s life repeatedly expresses. Daniel’s life takes us right to the heart of what it means to be a member of a religious minority living in a pagan culture.
E. Application / Key Word: Daniel teaches us some important LESSONS/PRINCIPLES about how to best accomplish "a long obedience in the same direction." These are important as we face a new millennium and increasing paganistic philosophies of life.
1. Principle of Separation: Maintain your identity with God in Christ. The way that we can maintain our identity in God in what is becoming a pagan culture is to faithfully live lives that are obedient to the values that God has asked us to live by. People are telling us that we need to be more tolerant in religion - that there is no way that we can justifiably say that one religion is true and that others are false. To do so is described as bigotry. The emerging trend is to be inclusive and accepting of everyone’s beliefs, lifestyles, and practices. There are no absolutes and when you’re challenged by those who say there are some absolutes, they quote Matthew 7:1. Pluralism will become the norm in the next century. Can you imagine Daniel getting his values from TV (Dawson’s Creek, Ellen)? Or from modern journalism? Or from the public American university? Or from Barne’s and Noble? Or from Shirley McClain and her New Age hanky panky? Or Oprah? Or from the internet? Or from CNN? Or from science? Or some cult? We can’t look in these places for values and identity. We must look to Daniel’s God! Follow your God, not your colleagues. We are going to be forced to make some tough choices in our relativistic culture. Bosses expect us to cheat on the numbers. Co-workers try to engage us in depraved conversations. Neighbors invite us to questionable activities. Friends recruit us to worthless causes. While we are called to reach out to our world and engage our culture graciously, we must never lose our identity in that process. Daniel could have blended right in with his pagan culture and suffer no repercussions. He was in a pagan land! "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." When you journey through your "pagan land" don’t lose your identity. Remember who you are. Incidentally, unlike other biblical heroes, nothing negative was ever written about Daniel. Even before powerful pagan kings, he brought them face to face with a holy God whom they were profaning.
2. Principle of Inspiration: Choose how you’re going to live today. You can’t choose when and where you were born and where you end up sometimes. But you can choose how you live your life wherever you may end up. Daniel lived in Babylon against his will as a prisoner of war. He had every right to not help his captors. In fact, the military teaches you how to behave as a prisoner of war. If captured, resist the enemy, don’t cooperate, and look for a chance to escape. There’s a lot of things that you can’t change, like a new millennium. And like Daniel, you may never get back to your "homeland." But you can decide today that you will put your gifts at God’s disposal and fully trust God to take care of your future. Though our faith may be challenged, we can thrive in a pagan culture by serving rather than withdrawing.
3. Principle of Adoration: When the last chapter in history is written, God’s people are the winners. The entire second half of Daniel (ch.7-12) contains detail prophecies of the future. This hope daily renewed Daniel’s spirit and enabled him to thrive in a pagan culture. Look at Daniel 2:20-22,44. The kingdoms of this world will come and go, but God will establish His people forever. One of the reasons Daniel wrote this book was to encourage the exiled Jews by revealing God’s program for Israel. God is sovereign with His people, even in captivity! He was right there walking beside them in their time of discipline, giving them hope of a coming Messiah/King.
CONCLUSION
Illustration: For several years, controversy had centered on a strange monk from Wittenberg. Political and religious leaders felt that his teachings, which included salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ alone, might spark a rebellion. Accused of heresy, he stood trial on April 17, 1521. He never recanted. Instead, he uttered those famous words: "Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God."
