Faithful in the Night: Humble Sovereignty & Distinctive Living

[00:00:00] I’m Toby. And we’re starting a new series. I just wanna let you guys know, though, that this morning I changed the sermon up a fair bit, so I hope it flows. We’ll see. We’re starting a new series, Faithful in the Night, the Book of Daniel, and we’re gonna spend the next nine weeks here. And we wanted to do Daniel because it fits so well into the theme for the year, as Hope was saying earlier.

[00:00:21] The theme, thinking about how we belong to the day when Jesus will return. We belong to that day and that then shapes how we live and who we are now. And although Daniel’s set a long time before Jesus came, like 600 years before Jesus came, the stories of the life Daniel leads and the faith that Daniel has is also shaped by the knowledge of belonging to a day, belonging to a day to come, an everlasting kingdom that will be established.

[00:00:48] And we’ll see as we go through that’s what gets him through exile. That’s what helps him to live faithfully, and that’s what God continues to reveal throughout the book as well. So I’m gonna pray.

[00:01:00] Father we come before you, Lord. We come before you as revealed in your word as present among us. And we pray that you would teach us, and we pray that you would show us more of yourself and how we live in this kingdom, uh, how we live in this time as your people, as we await for your return.

[00:01:21] And Lord, just, just help us now, we pray to put distractions to the side and just, uh, be attentive to what you might be wanting us to learn and grow in as your people, as your disciples. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet is a story that imagines the, the potential life behind Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and it, it takes a story that’s commonly known for its prince and tragedy and grief and death, and attempts to, to pull back the curtain, as it were, to, to give the audience a glimpse of what might be behind the curtain as you see the grief of a father and the strong-willed mother and the love of a couple and the mystery and wonder of their lives.

[00:02:06] It gives a glimpse of what’s behind the curtain, not just in the, the production of a play and the pulling of strings and all that kind of stuff but in everything that might have led to what we see play out on the stage. Everything that might have led to what we see play out in front of the curtain in the years beforehand.

[00:02:24] It’s fictional. Could be real. Who knows? The Book of Daniel is structured very interestingly. I’m gonna talk about the structure first of all. In a general sense, the Book of Daniel is structured into, into two sections. It’s 12 chapters, and it, it pretty much directly splits in half. The first six chapters are narrative.

[00:02:42] The second six chapters are, um, apocalyptic. The narrative kinda goes through the story of Daniel and his friends living in Babylon. The apocalyptic literature, it shows kind of visions by God which unveil something about what was previously hidden, and then it gets, uh, more nerdy. If you watch the Bible Project videos, it’s really good at explaining it, as you see how the, uh, original language structures the book and how particular chapters kind of couple together.

[00:03:11] And without getting into it, those things help us to see that chapter one serves as an introduction to the whole book, and then chapter seven, which is in the second half, is a bridge between the two sections. It’s really cool. So we’re gonna spend six weeks in the narrative, the first section, chapters one to six, and then Dave’s gonna do three weeks on the final six chapters as well.

[00:03:34] You could describe the Book of Daniel as a story of a guy and his friends who learned how to survive in a foreign land, or tales of miraculous outcomes in terrible times. Or we could say it a little bit more godly, and we could describe it as a guy and his three friends who mustered up the courage and faith despite being away from their religious land.

[00:03:57] Now, all of those things are true, but they pin the focus on what we see in front of the curtain, of Daniel in the lion’s den, of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. They’re the stories we know, but the whole Book of Daniel also weaves into it a glimpse behind the curtain, a ham nip view of the situation.

[00:04:17] A glimpse not just of mankind’s faith in the night when all looks bleak, but of God’s faithfulness when all looks bleak. The Book of Daniel weaves between what is seen and unseen, what is in front of the curtain and what is behind the curtain, and in doing so, it brings hope to the people who find themselves in a land where God’s not prevalent.

[00:04:38] And the book, as it weaves between what’s seen and unseen, answers a question that the original readers might have had, and we might have as well. How do we have hope- When it looks like God’s lost and how therefore should I live this hope out in a world where He, where it seems like He’s not prevalent?

[00:04:57] And just to combine those questions and then let this, uh, introduction to the Book of Daniel be an introduction to the series, what about this question? What does it mean to be faithful in the night?

[00:05:08] That’s kind of where the book begins. So we’re gonna go through three sections of the narrative in chapter one, verse one to seven, the two kingdoms, verse two, nine, and seventeen, the power behind them, and verse eight to twenty-one, the life between them. Pick them up as we go. The two kingdoms, verse one to seven.

[00:05:27] The book begins in, uh, verse one to two, by showing what has happened already, setting the scene for the rest of the book. It’s the, um, it’s the narrator of a play, verse one to two, and it shows that the first wave of exile had taken place, that some of God’s people in Judah have been taken out of Judah, and they’ve been brought to Babylon.

[00:05:47] And I just wanna explain two things about Babylon, historically and universally. So historically, Babylon first comes into biblical literature in Genesis eleven, the Tower of Babel, the famous story of the uprising of the kingdom of man working together by their own power and their own means, and then God coming and scattering them.

[00:06:10] So this would be ringing in the ears of the original biblical and should be for us too, because this, historically, Babylon is a kingdom of man, not a kingdom of God

[00:06:19] But also historically at this time, Babylon, at the time of Daniel one, is the dominant power in the ancient Near East. It was a mighty empire that was taking up more and more of the nations, and it wasn’t even at its height of power. It was constantly growing with no view of stopping. And it had its own gods, Marduk or Bel as the main Babylonian god, Nabu, the god of wisdom, Aku, the moon god, and many more.

[00:06:48] So Judah being ransacked, in verse one to two, Judah being ransacked and people being taken to Babylon is not just a small city being beaten by a big city. It is a defeated kingdom of Israel by an unstoppable empire And the fact that verse two says that they took some articles from the temple of Yahweh and brought them to the Babylonian gods is kind of summing it all up.

[00:07:11] It’s making it very obvious that it’s not just a few people taken captive. This is the defeat of a kingdom by a mighty empire, and the seeming defeat of Yahweh by the Babylonian gods

[00:07:24] Psalm 137 gives a little insight into what God’s people might have been feeling at this time. Psalm 137, uh, is written in captivity in Babylon, and it says, ” By the rivers of Babylon, we sat and we wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs.

[00:07:47] Our tormentors demanded for songs of joy. They said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’ How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” That last line, how can we sing the songs of Yahweh while in a foreign land? That sums up what they’re feeling

[00:08:04] There’s a, a, a historical Babylon, but there’s also a, a universal real-reality to Babylon. Universally, Augustine in his book, uh, The City of God, describes two cities, ancient Jerusalem and ancient Babylon, and these two cities, though once real and tangible, are both… he argues, are archetypes for the city of God and the earthly city or the city of man.

[00:08:29] And one is characterized by the love of God, and the other is characterized not by the love of God, but by the love of self And it’s not just Augustinian thinking. This is also then seen in in, in, biblical literature. And when we get to Revelation, Revelation essentially calls Rome Babylon, and then, uh, shows that Babylon is a symbol of all that is wrong with the world.

[00:08:53] And then it picks up on the picture of, of the New Jerusalem as the city of God coming back to restore the world to loving him, not loving themselves or loving the world. So in a sense, we, we look at the true story in Daniel. We look at the true story of people taken from Jerusalem and made captive in Babylon, but we can relate because we don’t find ourselves in a world that is yet fully loving God

[00:09:16] In fact, the opposite Daniel lived in a culture that was trying to form him to someone who belonged to Babylon. And Christians live in cultures that are constantly trying to form us into particular kinds of people as well. Whether that’s through stories or media or cultural narratives or assumptions, even the way cities are built and houses are built, all of it focuses on the love of self, not the love of God

[00:09:40] So live in a Babylon of sorts, an exile of sorts, where we too long to be restored to the heavenly Jerusalem because that’s where we belong. We’re children of the day

[00:09:50] So there’s a historical and a universal reality to Babylon. Now, all of that being said, uh, I don’t want that to take away the beauty of the actual narrative of Daniel. We can’t mistake that the narrative of Daniel is truth, that Daniel does find himself in a physical Babylon. Hi- historically real Babylon.

[00:10:10] It’s not a metaphor as we read it. But we can relate to living in a world where at times it looks like God is lost, and at times this Babylon of sorts is trying to shape us into people that fit into the kingdom of man

[00:10:22] Verse three to seven. King Nebuchadnezzar, I’ve got relatively good at typing Nebuchadnezzar now. Um, King Nebuchadnezzar got the chief of his court officials to go and find some young men who seemed promising and strong and handsome and begin a training regime to change them, to teach them the language of Babylon so that they would stop speaking their own, to, to, to learn the literature of Babylon so they will forget their own, to learn how to live and conduct themselves as Babylonians, not as Judeans, and to serve the king of Babylon, not the king of Judah.

[00:10:55] And they fed these people from the king’s own table. And then in verse six to seven, they changed their names to be more Babylonian. And this is a really significant point because their name changes shows that they’re not just training them up. They’re not just taking some, some people from Judah and training them up.

[00:11:14] They are trying to change them up. They’re trying to change these people from who they were to a new kind of person who belongs to the Babylonian life. Their Hebrew names all had the Hebrew God in them somehow. Daniel, God is my judge. Hananiah, Yahweh is gracious. Mishael, who is like God. And Azariah, Yahweh has helped.

[00:11:41] And their Babylonian names, then they get changed to these names where Belteshazzar, may Bel or Marduk

[00:11:47] protect his life. Shadrach, the command of Aku. Meshach, who is like Aku. They’re the– That’s the moon god. And Abed-Nego, the servant of Nebo. Babylon isn’t just trying to tr-train these people up. Babylon is trying to change these people change their identity

[00:12:07] Let’s go on to the second point the power behind them. Verse 2, 9, and 17 Because that’s what we see happening in front of the curtain, everything that I just talked about. But it, it… So it, it looks like Nebuchadnezzar won the battle. It looks like he takes these people. It looks like he’s assimilating the young men, changing their identities and he has an empire that outlasts all.

[00:12:31] But weaved within the narrative is a glimpse behind the curtain There’s a term used three times in this chapter. The, the NIV doesn’t quite pick it up, but you’ll notice it as, as we look. It’s the term God gave. Verse two, verse nine, verse 17. God gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

[00:12:53] In verse nine, God gave the official favor and compassion to Daniel. And in verse 17, God gave knowledge and understanding to Daniel and his friends as the story goes on. Weaved within the story of Daniel is a glimpse behind the curtain.

[00:13:08] And what happens with, stories like Hamlet is when we get a glimpse behind the curtain, we start to see everything in front of the curtain in a new light not that, not that they’re suddenly good. Like in, in the Shakespeare play, there’s still death, there’s still betrayal And I, I won’t ruin the book or the movie for you because, oh, it’s so good.

[00:13:29] I haven’t read the book, but the movie is incredible. But what, what happens behind the curtain changes how everything in front of the curtain is portrayed

[00:13:39] In Daniel They’re still being assimilated. They’re still being changed

[00:13:44] But as we see behind the curtain, it starts to communicate a different story. What looks like Nebuchadnezzar winning is actually the sovereignty of Yahweh. God gave. And when Daniel resolved to stand firm and live in obedience, Yahweh is present. And when they grow and learn and improve as the story goes on, it’s Yahweh working ’cause God gave.

[00:14:04] Yahweh is sovereign and present and working in all things, and that truth changes the story It doesn’t make all the things good, and it doesn’t make them less real. Because there’s still death and betrayal in Shakespeare’s case, or there’s still so much at stake in Daniel’s case. And more relevant to us, there’s still sickness and job loss and bad news.

[00:14:25] There’s still loss of dreams and passion and identity. There’s struggle and pain and confusion and addiction It doesn’t make them less real

[00:14:33] But we know that they won’t win

[00:14:35] So we need to learn somehow to trust the sovereignty of God, because He is the power behind it all. And we can trust Him because we know that there’s even more to the story. God is sovereign and present and working. And we, we have the benefit of seeing even further behind the curtain. The– of, of Jesus coming to live and die, the death that He experienced so that we could be His, the pain and suffering He put Himself through so that we can be free from death itself.

[00:15:02] And then the power that rose Christ from the death is in us. The Spirit of God who raises Jesus Christ from the dead lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit living within you. That’s Romans eight. We see the story behind the curtain, and it changes our lives in front of the curtain.

[00:15:25] We don’t belong to a kingdom that seeks to love itself. We don’t belong to a historical or universal Babylon, even if we find ourselves in the midst of one. We belong to God, and we belong to His kingdom. And our lives right now will make a little bit more sense. Uh, not, not to say that they will become necessarily easier, although they might, but they will make a little bit more sense as we learn to trust that God is the power behind the kingdoms, and that He has defeated the ruler of the kingdom of the air, as Ephesians two says, and He has made us alive together with Christ

[00:16:00] The third part is, is the life between the two kingdoms. Verse eight to 16 it’s very interesting what Daniel does. He just has, he just had all these like radical life changes, right? New languages and new literature and new home and new people and, and moving out of everything that he’s known into this whole new place.

[00:16:20] And then verse eight, one day he was put before the royal banquet of food and wine, and he decided, “This is gonna be the thing I’m gonna avoid. I’m gonna avoid eating this food.” Out of every, all of the changes in his life, he goes, “I’m not gonna touch the food or the wine. I’m just gonna eat veggies

[00:16:37] Man, crazy. I bet the food would be the first thing I’d want to do. Ah. What, why does he do this? Of all the things to avoid and, and choose to do, why this? There’s, um, there’s a bit of wordplay going on where, uh, Babylon sets the boys new names, changes their identity, and then Daniel in the next verse sets himself not to defile himself.

[00:16:58] That’s in verse eight. And our NIV translation say he, he resolved not to defile himself. And he does that by not eating the food. Now, there’s a lot of debate as to what that means like how eating the food, food would defile him. Is it going against Levitical law, or is it, uh, that the food’s been sacrificed to the gods?

[00:17:17] They’re not, uh, necessarily convincing because he rejects the wine, which has no law, and he eats the vegetables, which also could have been sacrificed to the gods. Or, or offered to the gods. So, so what makes more sense is that Daniel was so swamped by the Babylonian assimilation that to preserve some distinctiveness, he chooses the one thing that he has some sort of control over: the food John Walton, a commentator, says, “It’s not so much the food that defiles as much as it is the total program of assimilation.

[00:17:51] They seize on one of the few areas where they can still exercise choice as an opportunity to preserve their distinct identity.” But I, I still just go, “Why? Like, why bother?” You’re assimilated in every other area of your life. Why bother? Why bother choosing to eat vegetables? He’s in Babylon.

[00:18:10] There’s nothing he can do about it. He’s been assimilated in every other way. Why go through the pain of smelling that food and not eating it? We all know the pain of that

[00:18:19] Why does he go to the effort of not giving into Babylon? And why should we go to the effort of not giving into the world? For us, it– like sometimes really in our life, it is a heck of a lot easier to just give into the way that the world is leading me, to be like those around me, to have what others have, to speak their language, to fit their expectations.

[00:18:39] Why does Daniel bother? And I think it’s because Daniel chooses to live based on two things: who he really is and what kingdom he really belongs to

[00:18:49] who he really is. Despite what he’s being told, despite the new names and new identities, he knows who he really is. It’s re- it’s interesting, you might have even noticed it as we went through Daniel 1, but through the rest of the book, every reference to Daniel uses his Hebrew name, Daniel Even if Belteshazzar is used, it’s alongside the name Daniel He never loses sight of the fact that Yahweh is his judge.

[00:19:13] He never loses sight of who he really is

[00:19:15] And then also he doesn’t lose sight of what kingdom he belongs to. So despite his surroundings, despite his Babylonian names, and despite his absence from Jerusalem, he remembers that he still belongs to God. And we see this more again as the story goes on, how he encourages others to pray to Yahweh, how he prays facing Jerusalem, how he always refers to Yahweh in his counsel and in, in his wisdom.

[00:19:40] He still belongs to the kingdom of God, and so he resolved not to defile himself in any way he can. And in chapter one it looked like food because he knows who he really is, and he knows who, who he really belongs to. And that’s what it looks like to live between the two kingdoms To choose or to resolve ourselves not to defile ourselves in whatever, whatever way we can.

[00:20:05] In whatever way we can. Choose to live out who we are and who we really belong to

[00:20:10] So when we find ourselves swayed by the world, by its charms and its promises, and formed by its assumptions, remember who we really are. That because of what Jesus has done in the Kingdom of God that we belong to, that we’re not named by the world, we can call, call ourselves children of God That we don’t serve as a subject to the prince of the power of the air, but, but we’re a servant of the living God.

[00:20:33] That we’re not what people think we are, but we’re a new creation in Christ. That we’re not what we have, because no matter what, we’re an heir of the kingdom. Because no matter what we achieve, because we’re not what we achieve, because we’re precisely what Jesus achieved for us through His death and resurrection

[00:20:51] We remember who we are, and we also remember who we belong to. God has welcomed us into his heavenly kingdom. And even though we find ourselves, like Daniel, between two kingdoms, we belong to Jesus and the kingdom that he’s established, and that will help us to choose how to live. Choose how to live between the two kingdoms.

[00:21:12] And I love how the chapter ends. Verse twenty-one Daniel remained in Babylon until the first year of King Cyrus. King Cyrus was the one who then restores God’s people back to Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar looked invincible. Babylon was like– was an ever-growing empire, and Daniel was just a young guy who was supposed to become a Bab-a Babylonian in captivity, defined by Babylon itself.

[00:21:36] And yet, Nebuchadnezzar dies, Babylon fails, and Daniel lasts to see Jerusalem. And no matter what’s thrown at us or assumed of us as people here and now, because of the kingdom we belong to and the power behind the kingdom, we will last to see the heavenly Jerusalem when Jesus returns. That’s where we belong.

[00:21:56] We’re children of the day So like “Hamlet,” giving a glimpse behind what happens on stage in Shakespeare’s play, it changes how we see what happens in front of the curtain. The, uh, the movie ends with, uh, an incredible scene where it just all begins to make sense

[00:22:15] Daniel weaves in to the narrative glimpses behind the curtain, and as we notice them, it all begins to make sense. We see Yahweh at work in what would ordinarily seem brutal, and it doesn’t make it necessarily easier, but it does help us to see the full picture and learn how we can live being faithful in the night.

[00:22:37] So what does it mean to be faithful in the night? Well, it means knowing that there are still two kingdoms, and that we’re being pulled by one, but that we belong to the other. And it means trusting the power behind the kingdoms, that God is sovereign and kind, and His faithful– and, and, and seeing and knowing His faithfulness and trusting His faithfulness to us in Jesus.

[00:22:59] And it also means choosing to live faithful between the two, knowing who we are and who we belong to because of what Christ has done