I love to read about the time in Israel’s history known as the restoration period.
The books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah tell us how Almighty God used ordinary men and women to accomplish His purposes on the earth.
We might prefer to think of them not as ordinary at all but as heroes of the Faith, but actually they were both. None of them were perfect and none of them achieved hero status automatically. They all had life choices to make, they all had to have their faith tested and their characters built in the circumstances of life, through trials and triumphs, difficulties and challenges.
Others were tried and failed, these were the ones who overcame.
In a world where most people are just trying to fit in, to keep their heads down, not rock the boat, not fight city hall or offend anybody real spiritual heroes are willing to stand out and stand up for what’s right.
As believers we are not made to fit in, which really means blend in and disappear from sight. We are only here for a brief time and every one of us has a purpose.
We won’t all achieve God’s purpose in our lives, we can miss it, any many do, but His purpose will be achieved. He will always find a way.
That’s what Mordecai said to Esther and that’s what caused her to stand up, she fulfilled her destiny and Gods purpose.
That should be our aim. My destiny and Gods purpose fulfilled.
King David prayed before all the people of Israel in 1st Chronicles 29…this is part of what he said starting at verse 13
“O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! 14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us! 15 We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.
The next day they rejoiced as they sacrificed 1000 bulls, 1000 rams and a thousand male lambs and they crowned David’s son Solomon as their new king.
David left a wonderful legacy and the fact we are talking about him 2700 years later is a testimony to that. Not many will emulate all the mighty deeds that David did.
But are we at least meant to stand out in our own circle while we are here?
That means being outstanding.
And I don’t mean being loud or overpowering or chasing after celebrity status.
It might simply mean standing up for what’s right, when everybody else is compromising.
It might just mean speaking the truth in a time when society frowns upon truth and governments pass laws against it.
It might mean we lose our job, or finish up in prison, or in a fiery furnace or a den of lions…because we stood for what’s right.
I am not suggesting we fight every battle.
There are some battles that have been lost already.
Just because we don’t fight them does not mean we agree with the enemy, we are not sleeping with the enemy but we must let him lie in the bed he has made for himself.
The judgement is coming but we are not the judge.
God will set things right.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
And that’s not what we want for anybody.
It’s not what God wants either.
It’s not his will that any should perish…but the truth is evident…the heavens declare the glory of God.
And the word of God…the Holy Bible is God’s gift to mankind.
Nobody can look into it with an open heart and mind and not find truth.
Many look into it with a critical spirit and a desire to take out the parts that offend them and the truth is hidden from them.
The bible is full of undisputed proofs that it cannot be the work of men but quite obviously must have had a supernatural author but there are many who don’t want to know that…or at least to admit it
Because if they do they will have to change the way they live.
And they don’t want to change…they enjoy their sin.
And sin is enjoyable…but the enjoyment doesn’t last
So the people of God have chosen
…rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Hebrews 11:25
a commendation to stand in faith alongside Moses, another of these outstanding heroes who have gone before.
26 He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward. 27 It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.
Moses left the land of Egypt where he had been born and raised…the world was our spiritual Egypt and we left it by faith when we too looked upon the one who is invisible and trusted in Him.
But we are not at home…
“The Bible says that as long as we are here on Earth, we are strangers in a foreign land.
“We must look up, but we can’t go up until He calls us. Heaven doesn’t make this life less important; it makes it more important.”
There are enemies to be conquered before we return home. There are multitudes to be rescued. Many are in the valley of decision.
This world is not our home; we are citizens of heaven.”
Jesus said, We are not of this world,
but we are in it and we are in it on purpose, with a purpose.
There was another great Hero of the faith, who was carried away to Babylon in the time of Nebuchadnezzar and continued to live there even after Cyrus allowed Zerubbabel to lead the first return and was still alive when the Persian King Darius threw him in the lions den.
Daniel was probably 90 years old when the King was flattered into demanding that everyone should worship him. Daniel stood strong refusing to bow the knee to any God except Yahweh.
He knew he couldn’t win every battle but this was one place he knew he must draw the line.
He was a mighty man who knew his times were entirely in Gods hands and he was right. God shut the mouths of the lions.
Daniel knew a lot about the things that were to come too.
Chapters 7 to 12 were written decades, and hundreds of years before the events they describe happened….and yet they are a record of history so accurate, so well timed and detailed that many unbelievers are certain that Daniel could not have been written when it was. Even some believers struggle, suggesting parts of it must have been added later.
They are wrong. They just can’t admit it because they will be admitting that only God could have known these things.
Some of them have still not happened.
But they will… and soon.
As often happens with the things of God there is simply 2 choices.
1. It was all written later and the Bible is a cheat and we can throw it in the bin or at best simply think of it as literature.
Or
2, Daniel wrote the book as God gave him the prophetic messages before it all happened in which case God knows the future in advance.
In fact He knows the end from the very beginning.
I go with the latter and there is further proof all over the Bible. and that’s why we need to look for it…to strengthen our faith. We believe the Bible and we try to teach it.
Not just a gospel message…that important for the lost…but its only the beginning… the saints need meat.
They need to build their faith in the same way they need to build and maintain physical strength.
They need to hear the deep things of God to strengthen their faith. That’s why people come to church…and thats why they stop coming when the word is watered down. Or when the word is not taught at all.
Genesis 38. is a great example. Most people will pass it by. What could possibly be in it of value? It seems like a break in the story, and even a break from Gods plan, but was it?
Judah left home and married a Canaanite woman. Over time they had 3 sons Er, Onan and Shelah. Er married a young lady called Tamar. But Er was a wicked man and God killed him.
Isn’t that terrible, that a sovereign, holy God should deal justly with wicked men.
But Judah tells Onan to marry Tamar and raise up a child for his dead brother.
Well Onan turned out to be disobedient and God killed him too. You can read the sordid details for yourself.
So Judah told Tamar to wait until Shelah grew and would be old enough to marry her.
She dutifully went back to her Dad’s house and waited patiently but Judah broke his promise and never gave Shelah to her.
It’s hard to blame him having already lost 2 sons but a promise is a promise so she took matters into her own hands and waited at the road-side pretending to be a prostitute at a time she knew Judah would be coming by.
He was unable to resist the temptation and being impecunious at the time He promised to send payment for her services later. He left his staff and seal as a pledge but the man he sent back with the payment couldn’t find her.
Truth is she didn’t want to be found.
So when the neighbours were ready to condemn her to death because she was pregnant out of wedlock she produced the staff and the seal asking who is actually guilty here? Judah confessed. Tamar was saved.
Twins were born and the one called Perez is in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1.
If you count 7 generations from Judah you come to a righteous man called Boaz, who you may know married a Moabite woman called Ruth. She was saved too because a Jew was not permitted to marry a Moabite woman but Boaz saw that she was a part of God’s plan.
Actually she became the grandmother of King David.
People accuse me of talking the Bible literally.
But I don’t take it literally.
I know the Bible is full of metaphors and allegories and pictures and types.
You can’t take them literally.
But you better take them seriously because it’s usually pretty clear what the pictures mean.
The book of Daniel is a mixture. The first 6 chapters are factual historical stories of a group of young men living as exiles in a strange land but refusing to be assimilated into the culture.
The challenges were great but their faith was greater. They served the same
miracle working God we serve and he shows he is with them all the way.
They are called Daniel, Hannaniah, Mishael and Azariah.
They were high born and educated in the ways of Israel but the Babylonian plan was to re-educate them to serve the king of Babylon.
Jewish parents name their children with a purpose and every name has a meaning so the re-education started with a change of name.
Daniel became Belteshazzer. The others became Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
They didn’t seem to resist the change of name, they knew it was God who sent them there.
They will have received some important words from…Jeremiah 29:1
Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.
This is what Jeremiah’s letter said:
4 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: 5 “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. 6 Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! 7 And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”
You won’t build anything if you are always pulling down, objecting and rebelling.
Jeremiah says it was God who sent them.
If God had sent them then they should do their best to follow His plan for them. They knew they couldn’t win every battle.
So the deportation and the name changes, and the education and all of those things they went along with.
They were going to live pretty well, they were supposed to eat the same food as the King. Drink the same wine. Their indoctrination was not going to be arduous. Three and a half years free education in all the wisdom of Babylon.
They could learn to fit in pretty quickly.
By the time they graduated they would have been wonderful devoted models of Babylonian society.
An asset to the empire and a guarantee of its future security.
And in some ways that’s what Jeremiah had told them to be…work for the peace and prosperity of the city, pray to the Lord for it, its welfare will ensure your welfare.
You are to live in that world now…but we will never belong to it.
And we must never forget who we really are, never lose our identity.
and thats the difficulty we all face…how to live as exiles in this world, to work hard and do well in it whilst staying right with God.
Many Christian young people today have trouble dealing with the temptations of the world when they go away to university.
They move away from home for the first time, and mum and dad are no longer there to help them stay on the straight and narrow…and its probably the biggest test of their lives so far. Sadly many don’t pass it.
Moving away to college is tough enough, but being forced to move 900 miles away from home, to the city of Babylon, which was one of the most ‘worldly’ cities that has ever existed was something completely different.
One of the most difficult things for Daniel and his friends was to remain faithful to their religious beliefs and values, in a city and country that was full of immorality.
But it’s not just young people, if you claim to be a Christian are you still a Christian in the work place?
Do your colleagues know you’re a Christian?
Do you live differently or do you blend in perfectly with them, and do all the same things they do, talk the way they talk?
The rich meat and the good wine was more than just food and drink, it was part of the Babylonian culture and the worship of their gods.
They knew they could not fight every battle, and actually they didn’t want to.
They didn’t see Babylon as the enemy even though they were captives.
Babylon was going to be their mission field. And they were not going to win anyone over if they fought them on every little thing.
But they needed to stay pure.
They had some red lines, lines which they would not cross.
Daniel Chapter 1: 8 But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods.
Not acceptable, why?
Because it wasn’t kosher and it had been dedicated to false gods…
What’s acceptable in Great Britain today. They serve halal meat in many of our English schools these days. Even some Christian Schools.
They sell it in Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s .
Not only is it killed inhumanely. It’s dedicated to Allah at the point of slaughter.
Daniel was determined not to defile himself …but he didn’t make a fuss. That would not have got him anywhere.
He was being trained in diplomacy and he made a good start.
1:9 Now God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel.
10 But he responded, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has ordered that you eat this food and wine. If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded.”
11 Daniel spoke with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief of staff to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
12 “Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said. 13 “At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king’s food. Then make your decision in light of what you see.” 14 The attendant agreed to Daniel’s suggestion and tested them for ten days.
15 At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king.
16 So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the food and wine provided for the others.
17 God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for understanding every aspect of literature and wisdom. And God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meanings of visions and dreams.
God gave them natural wisdom but also he gave Daniel the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirt. The Gift of the Word of Wisdom and the Word of Knowledge and the Discerning of Spirits.
God made Daniel a real live prophet.
18 When the training period ordered by the king was completed, the chief of staff brought all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and no one impressed him as much as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they entered the royal service. 20 Whenever the king consulted them in any matter requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, he found them ten times more capable than any of the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.
21 Daniel remained in the royal service until the first year of the reign of King Cyrus.
Do you think that Daniel might have mentioned to Cyrus those verses Isaiah wrote about him, calling him by name nearly 200 years earlier?
Or perhaps showed him what Jeremiah had written about the return after 70 years.
I can imagine Cyrus being quite thrilled that God knew him before he was born.
I can imagine him asking.
And when will these 70 years be up Daniel?… three weeks on Saturday your majesty. You’ve turned up just in time.
Now the Bible doesn’t say those conversations took place, maybe they did, maybe they didn’t.
But we know that Daniel was still there and would be there even after Cyrus had gone.
He was there at the end because he nailed his flag to the mast right at the beginning.
All these people were ordinary men and women but they became heroes of the faith by the choices they made.
If you nail your flag to the mast, if you stand up for Jesus you can be sure he will show up for you.
Let’s give the Bible the final word.
Hebrews 11:33-34 NLT
“By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.”