The greatest selling book of all time is the Bible. The Guinness people estimate the number to be somewhere between five and seven billion. (The Koran’s figures, by comparison, are in the neighborhood of 800 million). There’s a reason for the Bible’s unique status—there is simply no story like the one found in Scripture! There’s nothing on Tik Tok, Netflix, or Disney that can begin to compare with the sweeping trajectory of God’s unfolding story. It deals with heaven and earth and everything in between. It touches on time and eternity. It tells of how the Creator of the universe comes to earth in the person of Jesus on behalf of His lost creation because He wants to have eternal life with them. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it!
The book of Daniel is part of this amazing story. It tells us about God’s covenant people being sent into captivity after they have finally exhausted Yahweh’s patience through their idolatry and rebellion. It inspires us with people living godly lives in an ungodly culture. It contains majestic, apocalyptic visions which spell out the coming of God’s kingdom in Jesus. But the under current running through the entire book is the sovereignty of God. We’re reminded how God doesn’t need to have a huge army or a person on the throne to have His purposes accomplished. He is sovereign because He is God!
This is important because the book begins with an unsettling scene in 1:1-7. The time is 605 BC and Nebuchadnezzar has made the first of what will be three visits to Jerusalem. Having just defeated the Assyrians at Carchemish and chased the Egyptians back to down the coast, his Babylonian kingdom now effectively rules the world and he wants them to receive their due. Judah is now their vassal. It is their duty to pay them tribute money and align their national conduct with Babylonian policy. So, he “visits” the city and helps himself to some items of great value from the temple. He also chooses some of the best and brightest young men of nobility to be trained to serve in his kingdom (this includes Daniel and his three friends). That’s the story from Nebuchadnezzar’s perspective. From the vantage point of Daniel and his friends though, it’s quite different.
1. They are in a strange land. We know from Daniel 6 that Daniel lived the entire time of the Babylonian captivity and into the Medo-Persian kingdom. Therefore, it’s likely that he was a young teen at the time he and his friends were taken to Babylon. This makes sense as the younger they were, the easier it would be to train them and the longer their service would be. All this means that at a tender age they are torn from their families, friends, and their way of life and taken five hundred miles away to be inculcated in the Babylonian ways (v. 4).
2. The people practice a strange faith. Not only are they away from friends and family, but there is also no one in Babylon who shares their faith. Their chief god is Marduk, but he reigns over a pantheon of gods and goddesses. There’s something deeply ironic about Judah going into captivity because of idolatry and ending up in place like Babylon where there are limitless idols. C. S. Lewis observed that there are two kinds of people. Those who pray that God’s will be done and the persistently rebellious to whom God finally says, “Okay, have it your way.” In sending them to Babylon, God gives Judah what the nation as a whole wanted (though not Daniel and his friends).
3. Things will get worse before they get better. Nebuchadnezzar will visit Jerusalem two more times. On his second visit, he will take more treasures from the temple as well as 10,000 people (2 Kings 24:14). On his third and final visit in 586 BC, tired of Judah’s attempts to ally with Egypt, he will raze the temple, destroy the city, and kill many of the inhabitants and take the remainder into captivity (2 Chronicle 36:15ff). These two invasions would have brought harm to some and possibly all the family and friends of the young men. We can only imagine the sense of loss and desolation they experienced during their twenty years in Babylon.
This raises a question worth thinking about: What would we do if God called us to be a Daniel? What would we do if God called us away from our family and friends to be part of a situation where no one knew Him? That’s hard for us to get our head around because, generally speaking, (and qualify this any way you feel the need to), most of us have it fairly easy.
Yes, we have our share of problems and challenges—I’m not denying that. But when you think about it, most of what we have are prosperity problems. Your job is difficult or there are people hard to work with? That’s a prosperity problem—because you have a job! That’s a totally different situation than what faces people who despite their best efforts can’t find employment. You have a tough class at school or an exasperating professor? That’s a prosperity problem—because you have the opportunity to go to school! That’s radically different situation than what faces people who don’t have that option.
Most people reading this don’t live in a war zone like Ukraine. They don’t live in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. They don’t live in a place where being a Christian means being persecuted. They’re not like the four men I read about who were fleeing Nigeria. They stowed away on the rudder of a large tanker. It took them nearly two weeks to get to Brazil where they arrived barely alive from lack of food and water. But they thought the trip worth it because they had no hope where they were.
Comparatively to these situations, we do have it easy. It’s okay to acknowledge that. It’s not our fault and there’s nothing to feel guilty about or apologize for. It’s the lot God has given to us. But we do have the responsibility to recognize a few things. We should acknowledge that God has blessed us. After all, it’s not a crime to be born on third base, but it is seriously wrong to think we got there by hitting a triple. We should also understand that we’ve been blessed that we might be a blessing. We haven’t been blessed so we can spend our time and energy trying to make our life easier—we should be seeking help others with their burdens.
Finally, when the season arrives that we’re not as blessed, may we demonstrate some faith and maturity. Instead of going into a panic and asking everyone to pray that everything be restored to its status quo, what if we followed Paul’s example in Philippians 1? Paul is imprisoned, unsure whether he will get out. He tells the Philippians it is his expectation and hope that he will have “sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (1:20). Now that’s a prayer request you don’t hear very often that needs to be at the top of every disciple’s list. We can change the kingdom with that kind of attitude!
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A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 