Daily Dose of Hope
February 10, 2025
Day 2 of Week 46
Scripture: Daniel 1-3; Psalm 88; John 17
Happy Monday and welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Daily Bible reading plan. Today, we start a new book of the Bible, Daniel, so that’s a yeah for many of you who are thrilled that we are done with Ezekiel.
Let’s get started. Daniel is a book about God’s power and sovereignty, which is a big churchy word which means God is in control of all the things. It’s also a book about how to live faithfully in a world, in a culture, that seems to be opposed to God; how to maintain and grow in your faith even when everything and everyone around you resists the one true God. In fact, the book of Daniel shows us that God’s people can actually thrive in that kind of environment. We aren’t supposed to fit so neatly into our culture. I think there are going to be parts of this book that we can really relate to.
Daniel has two main parts – the first 6 chapters are about Daniel and his three friends and their experiences living in the Babylonian king’s court; chapters 7-12 are almost a different book and includes apocalyptic visions of the downfall of foreign empires.
Let’s start with chapter one. The Jewish elite have been exiled to Babylon. We have certainly walked through this process with them in this reading plan. But we haven’t talked a lot about the Babylonians themselves. What do we need to know about the Babylonians? They were very prosperous and wealthy. At the time, Babylon was the largest city in the world. When they conquered a group of people, they would take the best and the brightest and indoctrinate them into Babylonian culture. They did this intentionally. They wanted the smartest, strongest, best-looking, most athletic men to be part of their nobility. They did this to add quality into their population but also as a form of “brain drain” for the groups they conquered.
Daniel and his three friends were four of those strong, bright, good-looking Jewish boys who were moved into the king’s palace to “become” Babylonian. They were in the first of three waves of Jewish exiles forced into Babylon (with each one getting progressively worse and violent.) They are brought in and taught everything about Babylonian culture. They learn the language, they learn the customs, they become familiar with the literature and the way of life. Their names were changed! We might not think much about this but in this culture, that would have been really significant. Your name was important; it was part of your identify. You see, they are truly stripping their identify. Daniel (Hebrew – God is my judge becomes Belteshazzar – Bel protect his life; the other three had similar name changes…from names that acknowledge the one true God, Yahweh, to Babylonian names that honored their false gods).
It's interesting that they were included as part of the king’s table…this is really an honor, the king wants to share his abundant, rich food with these young men. But they refuse the food. Keep in mind, Daniel and his buddies came from royal or noble Jewish lines. They were used to good food and wine. It really wasn’t so much about the food. Yes, there were some issues – they didn’t know how it was prepared or if it had been sacrificed to idols. True. But there really is more to it than that. Think about it. Everything about their Jewish identity is being stripped away. They are being truly immersed in all things Babylon. And Babylon was a prosperous, modern place. But it was also gluttonous and filled with all kinds of idolatry. It was pagan through and through.
How much of this could Daniel and his friends safely consume without losing who they were? First and foremost, they belonged to God. That was who they were and they were determined to stay faithful. They are essentially trying to figure out how to be in the world but not of it. How could they fit into the setting to which they found themselves? How can they succeed in the task they’d been given? And how can they do this without compromising who they were as followers of the one true God?
The one thing they had some control over was what they ate, what they physically consumed. They didn’t have control over much, but they had control over that. So, it wasn’t so much about the meat and wine – Daniel and his friends were not vegans. But this was the king’s food and Daniel was drawing a line. Enough is enough. He had consumed a lot of Babylon and but this was where it stopped. Thus, he comes up with a plan.
Daniel’s plan was for the four of them to eat veggies instead of all the rich food. And the official is skeptical. He has a job to do. He has to keep up appearances. If these four Jewish boys all of a sudden start getting weak and losing weight, then he was going to be the one that got in trouble. But here we see God intervening and ensuring that Daniel and his buddies actually got stronger and healthier and better nourished than the other young men who ate the king’s food. I’m not sure if they got hungry or if they felt any different, but if they did, I’m thinking it was a reminder of who they were. God was keeping them physically nourished but also spiritually nourished. And in the remainder of the chapter, we read that the four young men became highly successful and respected. They were wise and Daniel could understand visions and dreams. The king was very pleased with them and they enter his service.
Even though Daniel drew a line, he did so with respect. He wasn’t patronizing or rude. He didn’t look at the Babylonian officials and say “You are evil pagans. I am better than this. You are going against Torah. I know best.” No, that would have alienated people really quick. He was not rude. I worry that sometimes in our quest to be moral, we begin to point out a bit too much when others aren’t. In our desire to be good Christians, we somehow point our those who aren’t. No one has ever been shamed or argued into the Kingdom as far as I know. They are typically loved into the Kingdom. As followers of Jesus, we are called to love each other, to show respect. If nothing else, be kind.
In chapter two, things change a bit. Our passage begins with the king having dreams that are really distressing to him. He is losing sleep over this. And as we know, when we lose sleep, things just seem worse than they really are. He needs someone to tell him what the dream means to put his mind at ease.
He gathers all his magicians and astrologers and they are like, sure, tell us the dream and we will tell you what it means. But what they don’t understand is that what the king wants is both the dream and the interpretation. He wants them to come up with the dream themselves and then interpret it. Now, put yourself in their shoes. Now, they probably think they’re being tested. The king wants to see if they really know what they are doing. There is the possibility that the king doesn’t actually remember the dream. I mean, how many of us forget what we dream as soon as we wake up? Maybe we know that it was disturbing, but we can’t recall the details. So they could possibly make up a dream, but what if the king does remember parts of it? That would mean certain death. It seems that it might be certain death of them either way.
Bottom line is these guys just can’t do it and this really infuriates the king. He issues a decree to put all the wise men of Babylon to death. Well, Daniel and his three friends were considered part of this group of wise men. The commander comes to gather them up, basically saying, “Come on, everyone, time to go get executed.” Daniel, with respect, inquires, “Why is the king doing this?” and the commander relays the story. Daniel goes to the king and asks how he might help, could he possibly try to interpret the dream? This is totally an act of faith. He really doesn’t know what’s going to happen.
Daniel gets his friends together and they pray. Daniel knows that the only one who can save them is God. So they plead. But again, he doesn’t know if or how God is going to answer. But they plead for mercy. There is a certain humility here. What happens?
They are desperate for God’s intervention and God reveals to Daniel a dream. He doesn’t really know at this point if this is the king’s dream. But he praises God anyway and trusts. This is again an act of total trust and faith. Daniel asks to be taken to the king. He is clear to not take the credit; he is humble in a way that we should all pay attention to. He then begins to interpret the dream. You’ve read through it so I’m not going into detail about the dream itself.
What can we take from this? That is always the question. God can reveal things to his people through the Holy Spirit. God clearly revealed the dream to Daniel. The magicians and astrologers could not do it. God could do it. In the New Testament, we see this through gifts of prophecy, words of knowledge and discernment. God continues to reveal things to his people. God can speak to us. We don’t serve a God who is distant and disinterested, in some far off palace. No, he is right here. Jesus said clearly “My sheep hear My voice…” As a follower of Christ, hearing the voice of God is a normal and expected reality. But we have to be open to it and we have to listen. Sometimes, when we pray, all we do is talk, talk, talk, but we have to also be still and listen.
Daniel chapter three is the story of the burning furnace. It’s one many of us know well. We aren’t sure what’s gotten into Nebuchadnezzar. His arrogance is beyond compare. He has made this huge graven image and all people are required to bow down to it. Daniel’s friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refuse to do so. They only bow down to one true God.
We know what happens. These men are thrown into the furnace. But they don’t burn. And there is an additional man in the furnace with them. Most agree this is Jesus himself, literally sitting with them in the fire. Of course, the emperor is baffled by what happens. The men come out of the furnace, totally unharmed.
This is obviously very powerful. But we need to sit here a bit. There will be fiery furnaces in our lives. They look like different things, don’t they? Sometimes, we emerge unscathed. Sometimes, we have severe burn marks. Other times, the fire consumes us. But regardless, we know Jesus is with us in the fire. Do you believe this?
In our New Testament passage, John 17, Jesus is continuing this powerful dialogue with his disciples. There is a lot of substance here. But I’ve already said a lot today. Thus, I want to simply read part of this, verses 20-23, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
This is such a humbling passage for me. Jesus is speaking of us. Are we unified? Because it’s only when the body of Christ is unified that the world will know that God sent Jesus Christ. The stakes are high.
Blessings,
Pastor Vicki
