Total Commitment
To make deliberate and wise decisions
to live in God's will day by day,
we must make a heart decision to
honor God in all we do.
Here's Gene:
Perhaps Daniel in the Old Testament illustrates this principle more than any other Old Testament character.
We see this in relationship to a decision that he had to make.
And it was a heart decision.
It was a difficult decision.
And one of his goals was to honor God in everything that he did.
Now here's the setting.
Here we have Nebuchadnezzar's selective process.
"The king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief
of his court officials, to bring some of
the Israelites from the royal family
and from the nobility--young men
without any physical defect, [or] good-looking..."
In other words, this was the command that Nebuchadnezzar gave to Ashpenaz when they
went into Jerusalem.
And when they had those conversations probably with Jehoiakim.
And I personally believe that Jehoiakim, to save his own neck, actually helped Ashpenaz
pick out these young men.
Daniel was included. His three friends.
And we don't know how many young men.
But they were all from the king's palace.
They were all very bright young men.
Daniel and his friends were probably fifteen years old.
So we're talking about young men.
And notice it describes they were
"...suitable for instruction in all wisdom,
knowledgeable, perceptive..."
I really wonder if they had taken an intelligence test what their IQ scores would be.
They were brilliant!
And not only were they good looking and physically fit, but intellectually they were brilliant.
Psychologically they were balanced.
They were the best young men of the kingdom.
And from the royal palace. So we read
that because of these qualifications
they were to be taught.
And we read on here:
"...and to teach them the Chaldean
language and literature."
Now think about that.
First of all they had to learn the language.
And that is going to be a tough situation.
But they're going to be taught.
And in the university, as it were, in the Babylonian area.
This was probably the best education you could ever have.
But it was all pagan. All pagan.
And so we read here that these men were chosen.
They were taken against their will obviously.
But we read about their life in Babylon. Verse 5:
"The king assigned them daily provisions
from the royal food and from the
wine that he drank. ..."
In other words, he's got great plans
for these brilliant young men.
He's going to train them.
In all of the academia of the Babylonians.
All the religious teachings regarding the pagan Gods.
"...They were to be trained for three years,
and at the end of that time they were
to serve in the king's court."
In other words, they were to have a three-year education.
It would be like having a three-year compact education that would lead to a PhD.
But they were only fifteen years old.
But they were brilliant.
And so they went into this training program.
They were given new pagan names.
And notice we read:
"Among them, from the descendants
of Judah, were Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah.
The chief official gave them other names:
he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel,
Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael,
and Abednego to Azariah."
Now, if you compare their Jewish names, you will find that their Jewish names honor God.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But Nebuchadnezzar, through his officials, gave them all pagan names.
And every one of these names referred to pagan gods.
In other words, they wanted to eliminate any aspects of their religion.
And the faith of the Jews who believed in one God.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So they had new names.
But here is where Daniel and his three friends face a tremendous challenge.
I've called this Daniels' hard decision. Daniel 1:8:
"Daniel determined that he would
not defile himself with the king's food
or with the wine he drank. So he asked
permission from the chief official
not to defile himself."
Now the problem here was not the king's food per se.
Though there may have been foods that the Jews felt were unclean.
But that wasn't the primary problem.
It wasn't the wine.
The problem was that this food and this wine had been offered to pagan gods.
And in the context of immorality: paganism, immorality.
And so Daniel purposed in his heart that he didn't want to be associated with any aspect
of idolatry or immorality.
But he had a problem.
How was he going to deal with this issue?
I like to think in terms of the fact that Daniel was selective in terms of his battles.
For example, we have no written recognition that he was troubled by the fact he changed his name.
He could handle that.
But when it came to eating that food that was offered to idols, that was the line he
just couldn't go over.
But here is where you see his wisdom as a fifteen year old.
Rather than trenching in and being obstinate, he asked permission.
He was very sensitive.
This is wisdom.
In other words, how can I win this battle and not lose the war?
And so we see this happening in this young man's life.
You know as I thought about this.
Long before the apostle Paul wrote that we as believers are to present our bodies as
a living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable to God,
which is our reasonable service.
And not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.
So that we can determine what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Long before Paul ever wrote that, Daniel was practicing it in the Old Testament.
He had presented his body to God.
He had presented his mind to the Lord.
He wanted to walk with the Lord.
He wanted to walk in the will of God.
And he purposed in his heart.
You see, that's in essence, what it means to renew our minds, our hearts.
In order to walk in the will of God.
Here's a question that I think we all need to face in terms of Reflection and Response.
If Daniel and his three friends
could live in the will of God in a pagan environment,
why should it be easier for us to live this way
in the twenty-first century?
Now think of the difference.
When he was taken into captivity, he had no choice in the curriculum.
It was prescribed. It was paganism.
And it was all demonic basically.
He had to learn the language.
That was tough.
In three years to get all this education.
First he had to learn a language.
By the way that was probably something they could do because of their brilliance. Their capability.
They couldn't choose their professors.
They had no choice.
Idolatry, immorality was everywhere.
And yet in the midst of that, Daniel purposed in his heart he wasn't going to violate the will of God.
And so I think about that in terms of the environment in which we live today.
Now it's getting worse.
If you compare what's going on in the college campus today with the liberal professors.
No absolutes.
Do what you want to do, but just don't hurt anybody or hurt yourself.
That's basically the philosophy that's taken over at the university level.
And some of the universities, it's almost embarrassing to talk about it.
But they have a sex week.
Where the professors turn it over to the student body.
And the students actually bring in all the pornographers, bring in all of the X-rated material.
They have classroom demonstrations.
And it happens.
On some of the most prominent campuses today.
And that's tough for a young person who knows Christ.
And yet it's a great opportunity.
To be a witness within the pagan culture.
And to practice the principles that Daniel practiced.
I think the thing we have to be careful of is what George Barna calls the frog in the kettle.
And that is you take a frog and you put him in a pot of boiling hot water.
He's going to jump out.
The difference is so stark.
But if you just put him in the kettle in cool water.
And just turn up the heat.
Eventually he gets used to it.
Until it takes his life.
And I think the principle, or the application of that, is if we're not careful as Christians,
we're like frogs in a kettle.
Things are changing around us.
And we're being absorbed into that culture
in ways that we don't even realize it.
And so Daniel gives us a beautiful illustration
of a young man fifteen years old.
That purposed in his heart he would not walk out of the will of God.
And so here we have the Principle to Live By:
To make deliberate and wise decisions
to live in God's will day by day,
we must make a heart decision to
honor God in all we do.