I read the true story about a wife who liked to make sure she had meals ready to cook. She made “freezer meals” ahead of time and carefully noted what they were in large clear letters. There was "Meatloaf", "Pot Roast", "Steak and Vegetables”, "Chicken and Dumplings" or "Beef Pot Pie." But whenever she asked her husband what he wanted for dinner he didn’t asked for those things So, she said she decided to stock the freezer with things he really liked. Now, if you look in her freezer, you'll see a whole new set of labels. You'll find dinners with neat, legible tags that say:
"Whatever"
"Anything"
"I Don't Know"
"I Don't Care"
"Something Good"
or just "Food."
Now, whenever she asks him what he wants for dinner, she gives him what he asks for.
There’s an old saying that goes: You are what you eat. In our text this morning we have a story of 4 young men knew what they wanted to eat – and they didn’t want Pot Pie, or Meatloaf or Chicken & Dumplings. These boys insisted on having their vegetables.
But before we get to that… let’s talk about who these guys were. Their names were: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah and they were Judeans. They’d been carried off into captivity by Babylon. Their parents were probably dead, and they’re unlikely to ever see their homes again. Now they find themselves captives in foreign land with little chance of escape.
But these boys are different. According to our text they were apparently men of noble birth. They were good looking, intelligent and had fairly good judgment (kind of like me), and because of all that, they had been chosen to be trained to serve in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar.
But now… there appears to be a problem. They don’t want to eat what’s set on the table in front of them. There’s something wrong with the food they’re being given.
But why don’t they want to eat this food? What’s wrong? Well they don’t want to eat it because they were paying attention in Sunday School. They were listening when the preacher got up in the pulpit. They had paid attention and they believed what they’d heard.
ILLUS: There’s an old story about a rabbi discussing God's Word with his young student:
Rabbi: Do you know the phrase, 'Thus have I heard?'
Student said: Oh, yes, that is found throughout the scriptures.
Rabbi: Well my son… what have you heard?
(Sermonillustrations.com)
Well these 4 boys - Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah had heard – and they’d heard enough to know that they ought not to be eating what the Babylonians were serving.
But that still leaves the question: what was wrong with that food? My 1st thought was that the food was unclean. Leviticus 11 gives us a really long list of foods that Israelites weren’t supposed to eat - there were certain kinds of fish, mammals and even insects they couldn’t eat, but the most famous item on that list was pig meat.
But then, as I reread the text something didn’t seem right. These boys didn’t want ANY of the meat at all… all they were wanted was salad. You’d have thought that there should have been some meats that would have been acceptable. You’d have thought there’d at least have been something on the “clean list” they could have eaten. But they rejected EVERYTHING on the table. So I began looking for a better answer to question – and I found that answer in a commentary I came across. John Gill (and 19th century theologian) said: “… though it might be food in itself lawful to be eaten, yet part of it being first offered to their idol "Bel," as was usual, and the whole blessed in his name, it would have been against (Daniel’s) conscience, and a defiling of that, to eat of things offered to, or blessed in the name of, an idol.”
In other words, all the foods Daniel and his friends had been asked to eat had been dedicated to a pagan god and had been sacrificed to honor him. That was enough to make Daniel say “I’m not eating that.”
Now that made sense. The worship of pagan gods was so much a part of Babylonian society that they even renamed these Jewish boys to honor those gods. Daniel – was renamed BELTESHAZZAR or “Bel’s treasurer”. Bel was the chief idol of the Babylonians. Hananiah was called SHADRACH – the “rach” ending stood for their Sun God. Mishael was called MESHACH, - the name of one of another of their gods. And Azariah he called ABEDNEGO - "a servant, or worshiper of Nego" (another god of the Babylonians).
So, Daniel and his friends had a problem. They were strangers in a strange land. They weren’t in Judah any longer and the Temple wasn’t just up the street. This was a pagan land filled with pagan practices and there was no way they’d be able to get away from it.
ILLUS: It’s like the difference between being in church on Sunday and going to work in factory the next day where no one cares about God or morality. At church even the most godless folks will mind their manners, but out in the world… there’s a lot of people could really care less. There’s foul language, dirty jokes… at one factory I heard about there were several nudie magazines in the break-room. Now, if you can visualize that --- you have a pretty good idea of the kind of situation these 4 young men found themselves in.
What I want us to focus on this morning is HOW they dealt with living in that kind of world. I mean –we all know how we’re supposed to behave in church. But what about when we leave the church building? What about when we have to breath the same air as the folks who are crude and rude and fairly despicable? At church – when folks behave badly – the Elders take them aside and EXPLAIN things to them, but out in the world… we don’t always have that option. How should you and I handle that kind of thing?
Well let’s break this story down a little at a time.
First – Daniel made up his mind that he wasn’t going to go along to get along.
“Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.” Daniel 1:8
We live in an increasingly crude world. Just to take one issue – cursing for example. One study found that cursing in books and movies have exploded over the past 50 years.
ILLUS: I’ve lived through much of that time I saw it coming. At one point I bought a box I could attach to my cable box on my TV that would filter out the curse words (it used the “closed captioning” feature to read curse words before they were uttered in the show. Then it would blank out the sound of the phrase with that curse word in it and substitute a closed caption phrase with the curse replaced with a more acceptable phrase). I didn’t want my kids being exposed to that kind of gutter language on the TV. But as time went on these kinds of words have flooded into our society.
Recently, we have politicians and media types cursing at each other on a nightly basis, and what is tragic is that I’ve heard many godly folks trying to make excuses for their favorite politician or news commentator or analyst. I mean – after all – that politician or news person is saying what I AGREE WITH. What if they use that kind of language? It’s the message that counts!
Don’t go there. Don’t do that. Refuse to defile yourself. Refuse to accept bad language or behavior. Don’t let yourself get sucked in to this mindset.
ILLUS: Someone once made an observation about rocks they found in rivers. They noted that you could take a rock out of the stream that had been there for years. It was submerged all that time in the waters of that brook. It had no choice. But if you were to take that rock out of the river and crack it open… guess what you’d find? You’d find that the INSIDE of that rock was bone dry.
That rock had been IN that water for years but the water had never gotten INSIDE the rock. In the same way, you can’t help having to live in the world… but you can resolve not to the world live inside you!!
So – 1st make up your mind not to defile yourself.
2ND – realize that others are watching YOU to see what to do.
“DANIEL resolved that HE would not defile with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore HE asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.” Daniel 1:8
Whoa… wait a minute – I thought there were 4 young men from Judea. Where’s Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah? All we read is that DANIEL made up his mind… there’s no mention of the other three. You know what happened? What happened was that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were good Jewish boys - but at this point in their lives they’re not prepared to make a stand for righteousness. If they had been left on their own - they just go along to get along.
ILLUS: When I was a teenager I remember noticing something. I noticed that when there was a person/group of people off by themselves folks would just naturally gravitate towards them. So I decided to conduct a little experiment. At a Thursday night carry-in at church one night I deliberately walked away from everyone else and stood over by the water fountain - and sure enough – 3 or 4 of the other kids in youth group came over to me.
That’s what Daniel did here. He stood alone, by himself. He decided that no matter what he would not defile himself with the pagan food offered to idols, and his 3 friends just said – “Hey, he’s right!” and they went over and stood with him.
ILLUS: I’ve been in a couple of churches where the leaders allowed bad stuff to happen. At board meetings they just looked the other way when things were said or done that should have been done. And I still marvel at the fact that NOBODY stood up and said “NO!!!!!!” And because not ONE person stood up and said “No!”… no one else said “No!” either.
But Daniel did – and the rest is history.
3rd – Saying no is important… but it matters HOW you say no.
“Daniel resolved that he would not defile with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he ASKED the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.” Daniel 1:8
Notice what Daniel did… he ASKED. He didn’t demand, he didn’t insist, he didn’t get angry and indignant. He politely asked. He approached his boss with an obviously sincere desire to work things out.
Too often Christians get angry about unrighteous stuff. They get “righteously indignant”. I like that phrase “righteously indignant”. I can wrap my mind around that. It makes me feel good about myself. It makes me feel important and “Godly”. And it makes me feel that I should speak up and confront unrighteousness in an “in-your-face” approach that will bring the offender to their knees.
Have you ever felt “righteously indignant? I have… just this last week.
ILLUS: I was in another community at a fast food restaurant working on this very sermon. It was late in the afternoon and the dining room was essentially empty, so some of the workers were on break, sitting at one of the tables at about 15 feet from me. All of a sudden I heard one of them cursing… and one of their coworkers rebuked them. And I thought “Alright. At least someone knows what’s right and wrong.”
But a few moments later I heard another young man begin to use foul language… and then another worker. They were cursing opening and repetitively. Now I may have been the only customer in hearing distance… but I was aghast at this behavior. I begin to work through in my mind how I should address this. I visualized going up to the counter and publicly telling the manager - in front of all the staff - how inappropriate and offensive this behavior had been and that I would never come back to their restaurant again.
Now – in my 21 years in Logansport I have only been to that restaurant in that other city once, so this was essentially an empty threat. But I was righteously indignant. I was going to wait until I was ready to leave before doing all this (I figured I wouldn’t be welcome there after confronting them), but as I continued to work on my sermon, one of the managers pulled a young man aside. She told him she’d smelled alcohol on his breath. She warned him that if she smelled alcohol on his breath again she’d call the police and have him arrested right then and there. But THEN she gently told him to go home and get his head on straight and come back to work the next day.
It suddenly occurred to me: these staff people at this restaurant were doing the best they could. They were working with young men and women who were not very godly. These kids weren’t Christians… they were just kids who didn’t know any better. So, before I left – I talked to the manager privately and explained that I wasn’t from their community, if I was and I’d heard the kind of talk I’d heard that afternoon – I wouldn’t come back. I told her that I wasn’t trying “bust her chops” on this, but she needed to be aware of the situation and address it appropriately.
My point is this: In order to be RIGHTEOUS… you and I have got to do things RIGHT. There IS a time to be righteously indignant about things being wrong, but our first option should NOT be making a scene. It should NOT be belittling and embarrassing people who behave badly.
Our first option should be to try to work things out. To try seeing things from the other person’s point of view. To try to be that person’s friend and help them find a solution.
That’s what Daniel did with the Chief Eunuch. He politely asked for the Eunuch’s help in a moral problem he was facing. And because Daniel was gentle and polite, the Eunuch ended up cooperating with Daniel and even becoming his ally… rather than his enemy.
One last thought - there’s a verse here I’d never seen before:
“As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom,
and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Daniel 1:17
Did you catch that? Because they stood up for God and His righteousness - and they did it the RIGHT WAY - God gave these 4 Jewish boys learning and skill. It came easy to them. They were like those kids we always hated in High School – the kids that never had to study for a test, but aced them anyway. That was these four guys. God made it so that they aced all the tests. And God made them SUCCESSFUL in things they did so that they were obviously better at things than all the other folks in the room. And God made these 4 young men STAND OUT above everyone else trying for their job.
Because they stood up for God, God stood up for them.
But I want you to notice something else from that verse. Did you notice that while God gave all these boys learning and skill in all literature and wisdom… DANIEL had understanding in all visions and dreams? The other 3 boys didn’t get that … ONLY DANIEL. And do you know why? It was because Daniel was the only one who had RESOLVED to do the right thing. The other three followed his Daniel… but Daniel followed God.
There’s a great Old Testament passage that I will probably repeat to my grave: 2 Chronicles 16:9 says “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (NKJV)
God is looking for somebody who’ll just stand up for Him and for His Righteousness. He wants to reward those folks. He wants them to know He knows they’ve gone above and beyond what most people do. Too often people refuse to stand up for God because they’re afraid of the consequences. They think it is better to keep their mouths shut and sit over in the corner (I sat down). But God doesn’t want followers who sit in the corner. He wants disciples who stand up (I stood up) and are willing to do what is necessary to stand properly for God.
Why do many Christians just sit down and shut up? Because they’re afraid of what will happen if they commit themselves. They’re afraid that others will shut them down and cut them off. They’re afraid they’ll lose friends and success and jobs and promotions.
And you know what… they’re right! Jesus even said this is what would happen.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:10-12
If you stand up for righteousness and for God… you will be persecuted. You will be insulted and reviled. There will be people who WILL hurt you if they can because they don’t want to hear your message. But then Jesus says: “Blessed are you” when this happens. “Rejoice, and be glad”. Really? Yes, really. Because, though the world may succeed in hurting or damaging you because of what you stand for, God is watching. In fact, I can almost see God standing up from His throne and pointing at you and saying “THAT’S MY CHILD! That’s the one who really loves me. And I intend to find a way to make them strong and reward them for their willingness to face persecution and hardship for me.”
Wouldn’t that be cool to get God’s attention like that? Wouldn’t you want God to point you out personally and have Him in your corner? Of course you would. But in order to get that kind of attention from God you’ve got to decide that you will stand up for Him and for His righteousness.
And the first place to do that is by becoming His child.
INVITATION
