Good afternoon Church family,
It was a blessing to be able to teach through the first chapter of Daniel yesterday. My hope and prayer is that our young youth would all by the grace of God draw biblical lines that they refuse to cross in our culture and instead live by the truth of Jesus instead of compromising according to the world’s ways.
Of course, this is my prayer for myself too and for our whole Church.
(1) Eric Lidell was one such man who can inspire us to live like Daniel by “resolving not to defile ourselves with the King’s food…” (Daniel 1:8)
Literally 100 years ago in the Paris Olympics, Christian athlete Eric Lidell refused to compete in the 100 meter run even though it was his best event and he was favored to win. Why refuse such an opportunity? Because it competed on Sunday and he had a Sabbatarian view against doing any kind of work on Sunday. So instead, he entered in the quarter mile race and won the gold for it. It was shocking to the world back then. But as it has been said, Eric Lidell is most famous not for the race that he won, but for the race that he didn’t run at all.
I think that Eric represents what all of us need to possess: a deeply rooted conviction grounded in the Word of God that refuses to participate in curtain cultural routines, schedules, or activities, even though they may not seem extremely immoral, yet because you are living your life by what the Word of God simply says, you resolve not to do them. Therefore you stand out like a light shining at midnight because of what you don’t do.
I’m not suggesting that God is against running on Sunday because I’m not convinced that the Sabbath needs to be applied in that way, however, Eric Lidell grounded his decision in the Word of God and in his heart he wanted to honor Christ on resurrection day by refusing to run. That may seem little to some, but not to him because it was an issue of looking different as Christians and obeying God’s Word.
And wasn’t this similar to Daniel’s deed? Eric refused to run on Sunday because he cared less about how the watching world would see him and more about how his watching God saw him! And Daniel refused to eat the Kings food because he cared more about what “God the Judge” thought of him than what the king of Babylon thought of him. He cared more about what God the King’s rules were instead of a pagan king’s rules were.
Both Eric and Daniel refused to do something that was rooted in Scripture, Eric concerning a day of the week, and Daniel concerning food on a menu.
I’m sure that the world in Eric’s day would have responded by saying, ‘it’s only a day!’ & what I imagine could have happened around Daniel was people saying, “but it’s only food!”
And I can hear many of us telling ourselves, “it’s only 1 movie, it’s only one Sunday, it’s only one kiss, it’s only one look, it’s only one cookie!” And you know how that goes, compromise leads to a slippery slope. We compromise on sweet things that God says are wrong and it’s prone to lead to more.
And for Daniel, his decision to follow God’s standards would set him up for repeating that habit formed at a young age in his older years. Daniel 6 where Daniel refuses to honor the kings rules that prohibit praying comes on the heels of Daniel 1 when Daniel refused the king’s food.
And the message for us is that we dare not procrastinate our resolve to do what’s right and on the positive side, when we do resolve to stand out and look different for the sake of God’s Word, we build momentum to do it again.
Or to apply this to the youth, what you do in your youth years may be who you become in your adult years.
Therefore, we as Christians need to be committed to following God in “the little ways” or what feels little because a little compromise leads to big compromise. A little bit too much of rubbing too closely with the off-limits things of this world will eventually form a callous that doesn’t feel the effects of compromise any longer.
(2) Finally, I want to finish our focus on Daniel’s life with this word “favor” that God gave him in Daniel 1:9. After Daniel refuses to defile himself with the king’s food, God gives him ‘favor.’
This is an important word. It can be translated “grace” or “steadfast love” and in Hebrew the word is “hesed.” It is one of the most important words that describes God in all of the Bible. It’s a word that means “covenant loyalty.” God is loyal to those who are loyal to Him. Within the loving relationship that we have with God, He blesses us when we obey and disciplines us when we disobey. That is not to be confused with blessing us BECAUSE we obey. That’s not true. We don’t earn it. But God does respond favorably to our obedience to His ways and His rules and He responds negatively towards our disobedience/compromise. And in the case of Daniel, God does show favor “hesed grace” when he obeys God His judge rather than the king.
God rewarded Daniel with His favor, benefits and perks when he refused to eat the king’s food and honor God’s covenant (the rules) instead.
In Hebrews 11:6 we are told that intrinsic to our faith is the belief that “God rewards those who seek Him.”
This is what Daniels faith in God represented. Daniel believed that his reward for not compromising on God’s rules was greater than the punishment that King Nebuchadnezzar could have given him for not following his orders.
May you and our kids and our Church experience the favor of God in living counter-culturally, even when it hurts, because we know that the favor of God will rest upon us for doing what is right and sticking to it.
If my audience was still a group of kids, I would say this: “in the public school, God’s favor and His reward and His smile upon your life is so much greater than the approval of your friends or adherence to cultural identities. God’s acceptance is better than your friends. God’s reward is greater than anything this world can ever give! So live according to His standards, hold onto your identity in Christ and remember that He is judge (Remember that Daniel means “God is judge”)”
Daniel 1:8 -“But Daniel” has to be my favorite part of Daniel chapter 1. Daniel holds onto his identity in the Judge of all the earth instead of changing his name to “Belteshazzar.” Our world would like us to identity with anything but God is Judge so that we can do whatever is right in our own eyes.
But it reminds me of Jesus, who is Judge, and whose identity we must retain because we are “in Christ” and what a blessing because it means that when we mess up and budge to cultural pressures, we remember that Jesus did not! He did no wrong; He refused to live according to worldly standards, and it cost Him His life FOR US. Now we are in Him. God sees His Son covering us. And that is how God’s favor/covenant faithfulness ultimately rests upon us now because we receive the benefits of Jesus as if we have lived in this world perfectly pure.
So let’s sport our true identity well Church, which is that we are “in Christ” who was judged in our place. We can all identify with that Gospel truth, “Jesus is our Judge.” May we all be Daniel’s in that respect and God help us!
With love in Christ
Aaron
