A GODLY CHRISTIAN WITNESS

 

Dr. W. A. Criswell

 

Daniel 1:1-2

 

10-13-96

 

 

And when we read the Book of Daniel, we are not just being entertained by the addition of a volume to the Bible.  But, we are looking at the character of Almighty God.

So, the message today out of that glorious prophetic book is entitled: “A Godly Christian Witness to an Unbelieving and Secular World.”

So, we begin.  The Book of Daniel starts off with:

In the third year of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into the his hand

—along with some of the vessels of the Temple and some other captives.

            so, these things may seem relatively unimportant—just an introduction of why Daniel was in Babylon.  But, you look more closely at the wording.  It is deeply significant.

            Remember it: “And the Lord gave Jehoiakin king of Judah into his hands.”  Why does this record thus begin, and why this phraseology?  Because God had prophesied this very thing many, many years before.

            Now, my first avowal and observation: Does God’s Word ever fall to the ground?  It reminds us of Isaiah 22:3, when the Lord told Isaiah to go naked and barefoot for three years, through the streets of the city of Jerusalem.  God was saying that Assyria would arise and that the whole world would be confronted by that great empire.  Now, that was about a couple hundred years before it came to pass. 

Or, take again: God keeping His Word—God had said, in 2 Kings 20:17-18—and the same prophecy is recorded in Isaiah 39:5-7.  God said Judah is to be carried as a captive to Babylon.  And the seed of the royal court would be eunuchs in the court of the Chaldeans.

Now, those things were said years and years and years before they came to pass.  That’s just another reminder that God’s Word never fails.

Now, about Daniel: his name means “God is judge.”  And the Chaldeans suffered for the sins of their fathers.

Do you remember what Romans 5 avows: “By one man sin entered into this world, and death by sin.”  Death became a part of all of our lives.

The law of federal headship works uninterruptedly: from Adam to his offspring, down to us.  This is a part of the personality and work of Almighty God.

Now, we look for a moment at the personal anguish that attended the captivity of these children of the Lord.  The grief of these youths in their separation from home was indescribable.  They never forgot where they came from.

This can be poignantly seen in Daniel’s way of praying.  In Daniel 9 and 10, Daniel is an old man: over 90 years of age.  But, he prayed with his window open to Jerusalem.  He was as filled with the love of God and the love of his people and his homeland in his 90’s as he was when he was barely 20 and taken captive to the land of Babylon.

Now, let’s just look at him for a minute: his tears and his prayers and those of his companions.  It reminds us of the tears and prayers of Joseph, as he was carried into Egypt. 

And his brothers never forgot it.  For example, in Genesis 41:21-22, after years and years, these brothers call to mind the tears of Joseph, when they put him in the pit, but then raised him up to send him into slavery in the land of the Nile. 

That reminds me of how the life of Daniel so much parallels that of Joseph.  Both were captives.  Both rose, in a foreign kingdom, to the same rank of prime minister by the same qualities of personal character, sterling integrity, unselfish devotion to their work and an unfailing faith in God.

Both possessed extraordinary prophetic powers that raised them to general notice.  And confidence—you couldn’t help but be aware of the presence of God among these captives.  Both were able to confound other claims to knowledge of the future, though there were many in both Egypt and Babylon.

I think that is everlastingly true.  A true preacher of the gospel will have a vision of the future that political and military men never possess.  I think the preacher can see the end of what now characterizes the people.  And I have a little more to say about that later.

Both of them—Daniel and Joseph, under God, were partners and protectors of God’s people in their suffering.  God has a purpose for all the sorrows and hurts and pain of your life.  There’s a reason for it.  The great Presider over life has a reason for the suffering in your life.  We just need to remember that and trust God for their ultimate meaning.

So, Daniel is one of the wonderful characters that the world has ever seen or known—one of the few men about which Cod writes only good, like he wrote only good about Joseph, or Jonathan.  That is nothing written about Daniel except praising the Lord.  Even the angel Gabriel addressed him as “greatly beloved.”  He was truly a commanding figure in personal character and illimitable faith.

Now, I want to point out something to you that concerns me and all of these kids that go to school, like that young son of Gloria Cowan, who was just here, shaking my hand.  I want you to look at the attempt to assimilate these young fellows into the heathen culture and worship. 

I don’t have time to read these passages.  But, in Daniel 1:3-7, we have a record of the attempt to take these young captives out of the house of God and to make them idolatrous and conforming to a heathen, secular world.  They were taught in the wisdom of the Chaldeans: the Chaldean language and the Chaldean lore.

I want to show you how successful they were in that.  You remember that, in those comparatively few years—there were 70 of them—that the Judeans were captive in Chaldea—in Babylon—in those few years, they forgot the Hebrew language, which they were born with.

And the reason that would be pertinent to us who read the Bible is that language that they forgot would one day be spoken again.  Now, you think about that: for 2,500 years, that language was forgotten. 

Can you believe it?  They forgot their Hebrew language.  And for 2,500 years, it was forgotten.  And in your lifetime, on May 14, 1948, it became the language of the new nation of Israel. 

It was forgotten for 2,500 years.  Now, you go over there and that is the language that they speak.

I pointed out one time, in speaking about it, that it is one of those providences that God wrought, because those immigrants into Israel from all over the world spoke every kind of a language known to the human species.  And in order for them to speak, and for the government to converse with them and for the people to converse together, they had to have some kind of a common language. 

And Hebrew became that language.  Oh, it’s unbelievable!

Anyway, these captives lost their language.  They never spoke their language in their lifetime or that of their children.

Don’t you remember, in Nehemiah 8, when Ezra stands up there and opens the Word of God, he has to translate it into a language that the people could understand?  And that language became the language of the Hebrew people.  When Jesus spoke, he spoke that language. 

Oh, how things can come to pass.  In illustrating how one can be introduced to a heathen culture and, at the same time, serve the Lord, I am speaking of the training of these young Christian men and woman in the world today, going to institutions of, say, law or medicine or pedagogy.  And these institutions that they attend are as secular as they can be.  But, it is possible that a devout Christian can attend one of these secular universities, like Texas or Oklahoma—God help us!  And they can be as Christian there as they are at home.

You have a good illustration of that in the Bible with Moses.  He was learned in all the science and knowledge of the Egyptians.  But, he loved God.

You have another example of that in Paul.  Almost certainly, Paul was a graduate of the University of Tarsus.  He was learned in all the Greek culture and knowledge.

You have an illustration of that is in his preaching at Athens.  He spoke to those Greeks in their language.

I’m just avowing that you do not have to give up your faith, no matter what that professor is saying and no matter what the institution believes or what the culture of the world is in which your life is cast.  You can love God and serve the Lord just as these young fellows did, even though they lived in a foreign and secular captivity.

Well, God looked upon them as the culture to which they were introduced in Chaldea changed their names.  The four lads had significant names, full of hope and assurance, which their pious parents had given them.

Back there at home in Judah, they named their son Daniel, which means “God is judge.”  Another family named their son Hananiah, which means “God is gracious.”  Another family: Mishael—“who is equal to God.”  And another boy was named Azariah: “God is my helper.”

But, brother, they surely didn’t keep those names for long when they got over there among those Chaldeans.   Their names were changed.  That was also part of the attempt to wipe out the memory of Jerusalem and Jehovah God.

In each case, the name change removed all memory of Jehovah and it exalted the heathen idols and gods of Chaldea.  Daniel they renamed Belteshazzar, which means “Bel protects his life.”  Hananiah was changed to Shadrach, which means that he was the servant of the idol—the god—Sin, the Babylonian moon god.  Mishael was changed to Meshach: “who is what Shach is”—the god Shach.  And Azariah was named Abednego: “a servant of the heathen god Nego.”

But, God had written their names in His book before Nebuchadnezzar recorded them in his book.  God had chosen them for His service.  Remember the word: “He that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” 

They lived in the purview of Almighty God and God had a purpose for these young men, even though they did not realize it or know it.  He placed them at his table.  He nourished them with his food.  He satisfied them with his glittering court.  But, he could not ever change their hearts or destroy their faith.

And you can read the response of those youths in Daniel 1, when they were introduced to that heathen culture—and the king commanded that they be responsive to it.

Now, they lived a royal life of luxury.  They were given every encouragement to forget their past—to forget their Lord.  They were to turn away from their Judean devotion.  They were to turn to the gilded worship of Babylonia.  It was a gracious act on their part to allow these lads to live far above the living standards of the other captives.

Daniel 1:5 avows that they would enjoy meals fit for a king and the life of the court.  But, they do not forget their God.  The memory of Jerusalem and Judah did not subside.

Remember the one hundred thirty-seventh Psalm:

If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let me right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

            Where did that come from in the lives of those boys—those lads, those young fellows?  They were born in the court of good King Josiah, one of the noblest kings Judah ever had.

            And in childhood, they remember the finding of the Bible in the house of the Lord—in the Temple: the book of the Law.  And they passed their youth in the days of the great reformation under King Josiah.  And their hearts were warmed and they were what we call “converted” in the tremendous revival under Josiah, in the reading of the Word of the Lord.

Not only that, but these young captives—Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—heard Jeremiah preach when they were young.  And when Daniel was taken as a captive to Babylonia, he carried the Book of Jeremiah with him. 

And it was precisely here, in reading the Law of God and in listening to Jeremiah the prophet and, over there in Babylon, Ezekiel, God’s prophet, that he drew the line.

 

Kings meat offered to idols, they refused.

Slay us.  Put us in the fiery furnace.

Feed us to the lions.  We will not compromise,

Bowing before an idol and eating the meat offered to it.

 

            Now, let me turn aside and say something about us.  The Lord God created a new dispensation in Christ—altogether new.  We live in a new era: a Christian era of consummation. 

We do not live under the Law.  Daniel did and it commanded the Jew not to eat all those strange foods.  And Daniel was faithful.

But, today, Jesus said, in Luke 11:41: “All things are clean unto you.”  And in Acts 10 is one of the most vivid of all the dispensational acts of the Lord that you’ll ever hear.  Simon Peter is on the housetop praying.  And there is lowered from heaven a sheet, with every kind of unclean creeping thing that you can imagine.   And the Lord says to Peter: “Rise and kill and eat.”

And Simon Peter refuses to do it: “Lord, I have never eaten such unclean things.”

And the Lord said: “What the Lord has cleansed, let you not call unclean.”

We live in a new dispensation—a new era, which calls to my mind that avowal with which we began: God is sovereign.  God rules.  And all these providences of life, which, to us, just seem casual, are all—all of them—a part of the programming of God. 

And that is a good illustration, back there in the Old Covenant—the Old Testament.  Last night, just for the interest of it, I was looking at Leviticus.  My land!  I had even forgotten how detailed are all those commandments.  Oh, dear—about everything that you eat; everything that you drink.  That was the Law.  And that was the command of God for Daniel, as he lived and as he grew up in that era—that dispensation.

But, God changed it.  God is all-powerful—omnipotent, omniscient.  And today, we live in a different era and a different dispensation.  And it was all in the purview of the Lord God.

So, we look at Daniel in his purpose of heart.  He purposed to obey and honor God.  And look at it, as he is there in the court of the king, and under the command of the king, and giving himself to the Word and revelation of the Lord, and facing death, because—remember, all those wise men, who couldn’t interpret the king’s dream—he was going to slay them all. 

All of that faced Daniel.  He was taken out of his home, away from his people, a slave—a captive—in a foreign land.  But—look at it—he was not bitter.  He did not charge God foolishly.  Neither did Job.  He did not lose faith in the Lord, even though his fellow captives did.

In Ezekiel 18:1-2, you have the complaint of the captives in Babylon that the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the teeth of the children are set on edge:

“We’re here because of the sins of our fathers.”  And they were bitter and vindictive, full of complaint and castigation.

            You won’t see a sentence of that—you won’t see a verb of that in the life of Daniel and those children with him.  God does not hold children responsible for the sins of the fathers.  God does not do it.  If we are punished, we are punished for our own sins.

            So, Ezekiel 18: “The soul that sins, it shall die.”  And you are not going to face a judgment, and you are not going to face a punishment, for the sins of your fathers.  If you are judged, and if you are punished and assigned a bitter reward, it will be because of you, not because of your fathers.

So, Daniel refused to be swayed by the world program.  He was unmoved.  His heart was steadfastly fastened and centered in the Lord.  Remember what the Book of Proverbs says in chapter 23: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  And in Proverbs 4: “Out of the heart are the issues of life.”

His life was one of simplicity of living.  He laid aside the menu of the king and chose to eat vegetables.  And we see him in his life of restraint and temperance.  He refused to lead a life of indulgence.

So, we look at him.  And could I speak of the blessings of a life of restraint?  Compare the poor boy in college: to him it was said, “An empty stomach makes for an active brain, while indulgence and wine and rich foods and luxuries cloud the mind.”

Or, look again: when Caesar declared to Cicero, “You are a plebeian,” Cicero answered, “True, I am a plebeian.  The nobility of the family begins with me.  But, the nobility of your family ends with you.” 

Your life of restraint and temperance will be everlastingly blessed.  So God honors his faithful captives.

Now, forgive me as I just try to condense in a few minutes a good deal that I have here about Daniel.  God honors His faithful captives.  When the king said thus-and-so by command, the next sentence says that God, in the midst of judgment, is good to Daniel.  And God remembered him in his captivity there in Egypt—in Babylon, as God remembered Joseph when he was in prison and God remembered Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail.  All the power of the Roman Empire couldn’t keep them in that jail.  So God remembers these captives.

Then, they appeared before the king.  After those three years, they are presented to the king.  And all the impulses of life show in their faces.  The Bible speaks of it as: “Let our countenances be seen”—“Let our faces be seen.”  “Give us our choice of vegetables.  Give us water.  Let it be done for three years.  And then, let our countenances be seen in the presence of the king.”

I have a little comment on that: The face of a drunkard or a gambler or a libertine or a woman of the world is very apparent what it is.  I’ve looked at it all my life, as you have.  When people smoke and drink and devour liquor and live a life of compromise and sin, it will show in their faces.

It was that way from the beginning.  In Genesis 4:6, it says that Cain was “wroth” in his countenance.  His sin was seen in his face.

You look in Isaiah.  It says about Judah: “the sins of Judah, even their faces, witness against them, declaring their sin as that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

When you a sinner in the world, you will not be able to hide it from the way you look in your face.  

But, the face of a devout child of God is filled with joy and gladness.  So, after three years, they are presented to the king, and their faces shone.  That’s a wonderful thing that God does for you when you live in the Lord.

So, I have to close.  Daniel’s last governmental—I’m going to read it—Daniel’s last governmental deed.  I turn to 2 Chronicles, which closes the biblical story of Judah: “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia”—this is the thirty-sixth chapter of 2 Chronicles:

… In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord god of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.  Who is there among you of all his people?  The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.

            And that—and I don’t have time to elaborate on it—that is a vital part of the work of Daniel.  He lay before God what the prophet Isaiah said, in chapter 44, which I don’t have time to read.  And he lay before God what Jeremiah had said about the length of the time. 

And he continued his ministry until that day in the presence of Cyrus.  In the last verse of chapter one, it says: “And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.” 

That has two meanings: one, it fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah: “You’ll be a captive seventy years.  Then, you’ll be free.”  And that sentence is put there, closing that first chapter, to show us that Daniel was there throughout that captivity and was present in the court of Cyrus, when Cyrus liberated the captives.  And of course, it represents the work of Daniel in showing Cyrus what God had said hundreds of years before, in saying that he would let Israel go.

I tell you: I don’t know of anything more interesting in the world, or more pertinent than to study this about Daniel, then to see God’s hand in our own lives and in our nation and in our world.

           

 

 

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