Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Dropped into a situation that must have felt dark. Daniel and his friends shone brightly, an outstanding contrast. They didn't do so by hiding or even protesting instead they applied themselves fully to the role God had entrusted to them.
We can be better equipped to engage our own culture with truth by observing their faithfulness. a faithfulness that shone all the brighter in the context of captivity. and paganism. And the king of Babylon had besieged Judah and taken them captive.
So it might have been to them and to casual observers and particularly to the Babylonians, it might have seemed like their God, Bel had outdone Jehovah. Jehovah. Kind of let his people down. That's how they would see it. And if you weren't walking with God, it would look like evil one.
And so these four young men, among many others, were marched off to Babylon. and they were placed in a royal academy to enter into service for the king. And so they encountered incredible change. Their whole outlook on life was different now. Their education was different.
Their home was different. Their jobs were different. Even their names were changed. Their identity, their sense of purpose was changed for them. Put yourself in their shoes.
What if a regime that counters America came over? And took over the country, and you were one of those that was carried off to live in a foreign land, say. Iran, or something like that, and you were placed in an academy. You were removed from your family. How would you respond?
Put yourself in their shoes. This is the kind of change that they encountered. But here's the point, and this is what we discovered last time: that these four young men, there were many others, and we don't know the report of them, but it is reported of these four young men that they stayed focused. They stayed focused on the reference, the creator, the redeemer, the holy one of Israel. And because they stayed focused in the midst of all of this change that they encountered, they became shining lights in a pagan world.
Shining lights in a pagan world. You and I have that opportunity today as our culture seems to be drifting farther and farther away. from anything that resembles the principles and the truths of the Word of God. And there are many more who are proud to call themselves pagan. They don't identify with any religion at all, any faith system at all, let alone acknowledge the one who made them and died for them.
These young men were shining lights, and having encountered significant change that could have been judged by many as a change for the worse. Daniel and his companions did not capitulate or quit. Instead, they applied themselves faithfully to the role that God had entrusted to them. God's grace. Is at work through the faithfulness of those who keep their minds.
Stayed on him. And thus we see the shining lights that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishiel, and Azariah became. Let's pause for a moment to ask the Lord's help for us to hear and heed His Word. Father, we are grateful that you have revealed yourself to us. We thank you for this historic narrative, Father, of these young men who remained faithful.
And because of their faithfulness, Father, your grace was at work in you, raised them up to become shining lights in a dark place. Father, we recognize that you are infinite. You are transcendent. You are not bound by space and time. And therefore, these words that were written so many centuries ago.
are for us today as well, Father.
So challenge our hearts, Lord. And as we come to you to engage your word, Father, I pray that you would find us coming with hearts of humility and minds of expectancy. Teach us and mold us as you would through your word and by your spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
So what we see then of these young men is that they engaged then in careful study. They applied themselves to the role which God had entrusted to them. They were not necessarily here by choice, but they knew that there was purpose in it. And so they applied themselves to it. And wherever you find yourself, in whatever role you have in your life, do you understand that there is purpose in that?
God has purpose for you in that. These young men engaged in about a three-year course of careful study in the Royal Academy to serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
So after three years, it says that they were well equipped in knowledge and skill. As for these verse 17, as for these young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom. The knowledge and skill means they were deeply versed in the Chaldean literature. And there was probably quite a bit of it, that these guys were prepared, they were equipped to serve the king. They had applied themselves faithfully to it.
Like Ecclesiastes 9, 10 says, whatever you do, do it with all your might. Whatever you do, do it with all your might. But remember, these guys did that, but they did it with a maintained focus. They kept their reference point. And they did it with all their might.
It says they were skilled in learning and wisdom, the information that they had. They're thinking through that information. They were to be a help to the king who was to lead that ancient empire. And that is the role that was entrusted to these guys.
Now, they could have been bitter about it, say, this is the king that took us exile. Why should we serve him? But you see, when they maintained focus on God, they knew that there was purpose in this. And then Daniel, it says at the end of verse 17, Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams, which means he was set apart as a prophet. As opposed to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Daniel was a prophet, which is why we have this record before us today.
Scripture was written by those in prophetic position.
So we see then that they did engage in careful study. Otherwise, we wouldn't be reading about this, would we? We'd be reading about something entirely different. Even though they engaged in careful study, God added His grace to them. It says in verse 17 at the beginning: These four young men, next three words, what are they?
God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom. The Bible makes very clear in so many places: God gives grace to the humble, but He resists the proud. Had these guys been resistant, saying, We don't deserve to be treated this way, they would have missed out on this opportunity. But God gave them this skill and knowledge. And there is an article here in the Hebrew, there is an There is an article here before, which means the God, which means the writer Daniel is referring to the true and living God who communicates with a view towards communion.
And what these young men could do as a result of their studies and as a result of the added grace of God, what these young men could do was beyond their natural ability. And beyond their formal education, but not absent. Let me say that again. What these young men could do was beyond their natural ability and formal education, but it was not absent their natural ability and formal education. You see, they were stewards of what God had entrusted to them, and they did it well.
They did it well. God added His power and wisdom to their faithful. They understood themselves to be instruments in the Creator's hands. And so they applied themselves faithfully. As a result of that, the point of this text is that these young men were outstandingly different.
And about this time, they might have been somewhere in their late teens or about 20 years old. And these young men were outstandingly different. And they were outstandingly different in matters of character and honesty because they manifested diligence and humility. Spurgeon says a holy life is the highest wisdom. And this, as opposed to what was very common, the cunning craftiness and manipulation that came along with the role of being magicians and sorcerers.
Oftentimes people in those positions would simply tell the king whatever he wanted to hear so as to keep their head attached to the rest of their body. Daniel would not do that and these young men were outstandingly different in character and honesty. But they were also different in the sense that with the wisdom and skill that they had and the added grace of God that came along with it, they understood the real Meaning of their studies. They understood the real meaning of their studies. They applied themselves carefully and faithfully to the studies, but they also understood the real meaning of it, meaning in wisdom and understanding they had, and they were able to discern between what was true and what was false.
And therefore, they were able to give the king the best advice, the best consultations in order for him to lead the empire. What these young men had, even with all their careful and faithful study, what they had was the added benefit of divine insight. There was divine insight. As Proverbs chapter 2, verse 6 says, the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
This is what these young men had.
So, education is an excellent thing. And we should apply ourselves as much as we can to education as we maintain the reference point that we have in the Creator, Redeemer, and that which He has revealed. Keep your finger there in Daniel and turn back to Psalm 119, just to look at a few verses here. Psalm 119. And look with me beginning at verse Well, let's begin at verse 97.
Psalm 119, 97. Listen to what the psalmist writes, oh, how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day. What does that do? If this is his meditation all the day, it means throughout the course of the day, scripture is going through his mind. What does that mean about his mind?
His mind is molded by the truth of God's word. It is formed. His attitudes are formed and molded. His perspectives are formed and molded by the word of God. Verse 98, look what it says.
You, through your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies. This is something Daniel and his companions knew. Verse 99, I have more understanding than my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. That's amazing, isn't it? Verse 100, I understand more than the ancients because I keep your precepts.
More understanding, more wisdom than teachers, than the aged, than those who would counter me. Why? It's all connected to his delight, his meditation upon what the Creator has. revealed. It all comes down to that.
And so education, A wonderful, a powerful thing, so long as it is aligned and anchored in that which God has revealed. Education, the advances of science and technology have done wonderful things. And it's amazing to watch them. I was fascinated this last week. The ESA, the European Space.
Agency, administration, I'm not sure what A stands for, but Do you realize what they accomplished? A machine. the size of a washing machine, landed on a comet. two and a half miles wide. This comet is traveling at 84,000 miles an hour, and it is 311 million miles from Earth.
And through our accumulated knowledge and experience and education, man was able to land this tiny little washing machine size machine on this comet that far away. This whole process started 10 years ago in 2000. That's amazing. I just, I'm amazed at that kind of stuff. And we can learn so much through education, but listen to this, we can learn so much more when it aligns with divine revelation, the sciences.
Astrophysics, mathematics. They can teach us how things work. But there's one thing that they cannot teach us, and that is why things only revelation.
So if you couple together why things are with how things work, do you see how what the psalmist says, I have more understanding than my teacher because your words are my delight. If we don't understand, if we don't know why things are, we don't acknowledge the revelation of God, then all we are left with is uncaused mechanistic causation, whatever that means. It means everything has an utterly impersonal beginning. There's no intelligence behind it. It's all up to chance.
And that leaves us without meaning or purpose. And because of that, brilliant minds today, some brilliant minds today, are espousing the ideas that aliens seeded life. You see, there's no foundation for that at all. And some would say, well, that's faith. That is not faith.
That is pure raw... credulity is all that is. That is not faith. Faith has an object. Let's look back at the dawn of modern science and some of the brilliant minds at the dawn of modern science.
Johannes Kepler said this, since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it befits us to be thoughtful not of the glory of our minds, but rather above all else, the glory of God. His contemporary Galileo said this, the glory and greatness of Almighty God are marvelously discerned in all his works and divinely read in the open book of heaven. For let no one believe that reading the lofty concepts written in that book leads to nothing further than mere seeing of the splendor of the sun and the stars and their rising and setting, which is as far as the eye of brutes and the vulgar can penetrate. When you do, it is saying, when you don't acknowledge God, the only thing that you can observe is how things work. But when you do acknowledge God, you can look behind it and see the handiwork and the majesty of an infinite intelligence and a benevolent sovereign.
So my translation for the end of his paragraph there is, when you contemplate what is observed by science, you're looking into the handiwork of an infinite and benevolent intelligence. Sir Isaac Newton, we account the Scripture of God to be the most sublime philosophy. You see, there is understanding. The social sciences today, they can, to a degree, aid us in terms of statistics. and behavioral patterns.
But can they tell us what it means to be human? Can they tell us what it means to be human? Is there anything that more accurately describes the human condition? Than the scriptures that God has revealed. Why are there, or should there be, parameters?
on human behavior. Is a child but a choice? As are our sexual practices. Yes, if we are merely machines by chance. What can scientific studies tell us about the depravity of the human heart and the effect of sin on the mind?
Does it know anything of the transforming power of God and His Word? Does it recognize the biblical injunctions with regard to our habits of thought? Is there anything that can compare to offering remedy and hope for the human condition like God's revelation? There is environmental sciences. You know, they can help us understand the dangers to the environment and ecological systems.
But do they tout our mission as being good stewards of the planet, or that our mission is to save the planet in view of the inevitable extinction of the human. You see, God's revelation tells us something very different. The political sciences, they lead us. They can lead us to believe that the best philosophies or governance are the answer to we have examples of in the last century of Marx, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, and Osama bin Laden even. The bloodiest century in Earth history has been the last 100.
And all of those wars have been with the intent of bringing in an ultimate utopia. How's that working? You see, we need, we desperately need God's revelation. Even the medical sciences, can they look beyond the notion that we are but biological machines and we need only a procedure or a pill for remedy? Can they Factor in that we are communal beings with body and soul and mind and emotion.
They can, and many are. We see in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5, Paul was a communicator, and he says, I communicate my speech is not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. What a challenging statement that we have from the Apostle. You see, education is a beautiful and beneficial thing to the degree that it reflects the wisdom and truth of God's character and purpose. But education can be distracting and even destructive to the degree that it departs from God's revelation.
I think Daniel understood that. Daniel and his companions understood that. And that is why Daniel, Hananiah, Mishiel, and Azariah put to shame the wisdom of the Babylonian world by the wisdom. And so they became shining lights. Let's consider their position and their perspective.
Listen, they applied themselves faithfully to their studies, even though they were exiles and they encountered all this change that many would interpret as a change for the worse. But they applied themselves in that context. Had it not been for their diligent and careful study, they would not have been in this position of influence. Catch that? Yes, they were exiles, and their perspective could have been, we don't deserve this, we're God's people.
We shouldn't be treated like this. We should be home, enjoying our families, living a normal life. But what was their perspective? They knew what it says at the very beginning of Daniel. God gave the king of Judah into the hand of Nudund.
Therefore, they were not just victims of the exile. They were there on what they were doing. And so they pursued their education faithfully and carefully, maintaining their focus on the reference point of their Creator. And therefore, because of that pursuit and their careful study, they were now in this position to influence.
So that leads us then, what was their priority and how did that influence their persuasion? You see now that these young men were in a position to influence the most powerful monarch of the world at that time. That being the case, however, their priority was to serve and please God. There was one opinion that counted when it's all said and done. There's one opinion that counts, and they recognized that.
And they said, we will be faithful and diligent in our studies, but when it comes down to a choice of who we're going to please, it will be God. It will be God.
So their priority was to serve and please God, to be faithful to Him first. And because of that, what they did then, watch this, listen to this, what they did because of their faithfulness. Because of their priority of pleasing God, they then infused the character and purpose of God into the study and work of those who didn't even acknowledge God.
So here they were in high position in a pagan nation, serving a non-God. And they infused the character and purpose of God into the study and work of those who did not acknowledge God. In his book, Renaissance, Os Guinness calls us to something very similar. He says, What we need. Is a constructive, overarching vision of Christian engagement in today's advanced modern world.
One that is shaped by faith in God and a Christian perspective rather than by current wisdom, and one that can inspire Christians to move out with courage to confront the best and the worst that we may encounter. Os Guinness in his book, Renaissance. Once again, I encourage you to read that book, particularly if you are in Patrick Schouse's class, The Dawning. Very, very apropos, very helpful. You know, we see examples of this now if you were to look 600 centuries, six centuries later, if you were to look in the record of the New Testament in Acts chapter 4 and verse 13.
The religious leaders of the time, the main detractors of Jesus. This is now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John. What was Peter's occupation? He was a fisherman. He was not formally educated.
But whatever Peter did, the The scriptural record becomes clear, whatever Peter did, he did it with all his might and with all his heart. These men followed Jesus. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they marveled and they realized that they had been with each. There's your reference point. There's your priority and there's your ability to be persuasive.
By persuasive, I mean influential in your world if you maintain that reference. Even as that world constantly changes and seems to be moving farther and farther away from the reference point, the darker it gets. But the darker it gets, those of us who maintain the reference point, the more our light. Stephen. Preached a powerful message.
It was a very compelling message. And as he spoke, it became clear that those who were listening to him were not able to resist the power and the wisdom with which he spoke. But we know what happened to them, don't we? Look at what he says here in Acts 6: and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which, when we maintain that priority of pleasing God, of keeping our gaze fixed on the reference point, of staying focused on him, that, Christians, is what gives us the power of persuasion. As it did Daniel, Hanani, Mishiel, and Azariah.
And what is the message then? Even as they were faithful in their Chaldean studies, in their service of the king, what was the message that their life presented? It was this: There is a holy and just sovereign. There is just one holy and just sovereign. And when it is all said and done, done, it is his good purpose that will stand.
His opinion alone counts. And he is a loving and benevolent creator-redeemer who invites us to know him and be reconciled. Let that be the message of our lives. Let that be the message of our careful, diligent studies and work in our context, in our worlds, as we stay focused and maintain that reference point and the priority of pleasing. John Wolver in his Exposition of the book of Daniel says the narrative is beautifully complete.
He says, it is an eloquent testimony to the power and grace of God in a dark hour when faithfulness shines all the brighter in a context of captivity and apostasy. Christians, this is becoming more and more true of our context today. Our culture is abandoning faith and careening towards slavery to their own passion. It's becoming darker.
So, as Jesus said, let your light so shine, as we see in the example of Daniel, Hananiah, Michiel, and Ezra. Stand with me, please. Father, we are blessed to have your revelation, that you have made yourself known to us. You have revealed to us your character and your purpose, and therefore that becomes our anchor. It becomes our fountainhead, Father, of our identity and our attitudes and our behaviors.
So Father, teach us this morning from the example of these young men. As they stayed focused in the dark context, they became shining lights. Lead us to the same, Father, as we maintain our focus upon you and our priority of pleasing you alone. Work in our hearts and our minds this morning, Father. Indeed, that we, as your people, will hear the call of the kingdom to which you have called us by glory and virtue.
In Jesus' name we pray. Thanks for joining us for this message titled Shining Lights from Daniel 1:17-21. It was first preached november sixteenth, twenty fourteen, at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Find the next message in the series next Monday here at www.delightingrace.com Uh
