LIVING FOR GOD IN AN UNGODLY WORLD
DANIEL 1:1-8
INTRODUCTION: In 605 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, conquered the Southern Kingdom, Judah and with the conquest took into captivity a group of bright young future leaders of Judah. Among these captives were four young men, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah and Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar had great plans for these young men. His intent was to literally brainwash or reeducate these young men thereby transforming them into agents of the Babylonian Empire. He would then be able to send them back to their homeland of Judah to govern Judah as loyal subjects of Babylon. What Nebuchadnezzar sought to do is not unlike what is taking place by Satan through the secular humanists of our day. They seek to captivate the Christian community, especially our children and youth in order to brainwash and corrupt them in order to subjugate them to the prince of this world’s reign and power. In order to accomplish the brainwashing of the Hebrew youth, Nebuchadnezzar aimed at four areas of retraining. He sought to change their language, their literature, their lifestyle, and their loyalty.
I. He Sought to Change what they said - their Language - Daniel 1:4
A. In ancient Babylon, three languages were used. There was the Aramaic of ordinary business and diplomacy sometimes referred to "the Syrian language".
B. Then there was the Assyrian, a Shemitic tongue. This was the language of historic and legal documents. It was eminently a monumental language. Lastly, there was Accadian, the sacred tongue in which the bulk of the magical formulae and ritual directions of Babylon and Nineveh were written. It was most likely that this language that they were taught.
C. Nebuchadnezzar knew that long before he can make them to behave like Babylonians, he must make them think like Babylonians. The first step in making them think like Babylonians was to make them learn the Chaldean language, Chaldean customs, and Chaldean ways of thinking He had to change their heart language.
D. Today we see a shifting in language - a redefining of terms, a political correctness that indoctrinates the mind to the secular humanist’s way of thinking. i.e. -
? sodomy and homosexuality = alternative lifestyle (those opposing are called homophobes)
? abortion and infanticide = pro-choice
? drunkenness = chemical dependency, substance abuse
? The mention of "God" = removed from every reference in our education and political arenas.
? The terms used for God gender neutralized.
II. He sought to change what they read - their Literature - Daniel 1:4
A. Nebuchadnezzar sought to fill their minds with Babylonian philosophy, Babylonian science, Babylonian astrology, and Babylonian religion. He would seek to reeducate them and replace the things of Zion and God with the value system of Babylon.
B. In our society, we see the exact same reeducating taking place through situational ethics, values clarification, evolutionary hypotheses, and the rewriting of history textbooks.
C. Educator John Dunphy expressed this anti-God attitude when he wrote: "The Bible is not merely another book, an outmoded and archaic book.... It has been and remains an incredibly dangerous book."
D. Again we read of the viewpoint in the "Humanist Manifesto II" where we read, We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational needing no theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stems from human need and interest." One of the Scholastic books recommended to our children in school states that there is "no such thing as good or bad only that which works and that which doesn’t."
E. Our culture teaches "individuals should be permitted to express their sexual proclivities and pursue their life-styles as they desire."
F. "... we can discover no divine purpose or providence for the human species. While there is much that we do not know, humans are responsible for what we are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves." "Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement."
G. Humanism teaches the universe as self-existing and not created, man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process. It asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values.
H. A number of years ago, Gloria Steinem said, "By the year 2000 we will -- I hope -- raise our children to believe in human potential, not God."
III. He sought to change what they did - their Lifestyle - Daniel 1:5
A. Nebuchadnezzar appointed them to be given a portion of the royal delicacies of Babylon that he indulged in along with the wine, which he drank - wine that had been offered as an oblation to idols.
B. He sought to pamper them with the royal dainties of a pagan culture to entice and develop their appetite for these things and thus change their entire lifestyle.
C. Pleasure is the greatest incentive to vice. - Greek proverb
D. Happiness and the creative realization of human needs and desires, individually and in shared enjoyment, are continuous themes of today’s society.
E. Today the church has been invade by a "sanctified" materialism - the "name it, claim it prosperity gospel", Peale’s Dynamic Imaging,
F. II Timothy 3:1-4 "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. [2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, [3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, [4] Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;"
IV. He sought to change what they stood for - their Loyalty - Daniel 1:7
A. The four young men had names which reflected their Hebraic heritage and ties to God.
1. Daniel = God is Judge
2. Hananiah = God is Gracious
3. Azariah = God is my Help
4. Mishael = Who is like God?
B. He changed their names related to the false gods of Babylon.
1. Belteshazzar - Bel will protect
2. Shadrach - inspired of Aku (the moon- deity)
3. Abednego - servant of Nebo (Venus)
4. Meshach - who is like Aku.
V. Laying Foundations and Taking a Stand - Daniel 1:8
A. The foundations must be laid in the home.
1. Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
2. Ephesians 6:4 "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
3. Charles A. Wells - The school will teach children how to read, but the environment of the home must teach them what to read. The school can teach them how to think, but the home must teach them what to believe.
4. Deuteronomy 11:18-20 "Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. [19] And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. [20] And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:"
B. Where the Bible speaks stand and stand firm
1. He was not concerned about the teaching because he knew what he already believed.
2. He was not concerned about what they called him because he knew who he was and to whom he truly belonged.
3. Daniel knew when to draw the line. When Nebuchadnezzar called on the young men to violate God’s Word they said "No way!’
4. Psalms 119:11 "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."
5. Psalms 119:9 "BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word."
