Sermon Notes

August 31, 2025

In The Shadow Of Giants: Before the Lions

Daniel 1:1-16

There is an old saying that says if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. If that is true then I had God laughing this week. My plan was to finish up our sermon series today and start a new series next week. However, God showed me that I needed to wait until next week to finish up this series and He clearly showed me what I should preach this morning instead. So this morning I say with all sincerity, that if you are wondering why you are here, then this sermon might be specifically for you. I had plans, but God knows best. I’ll follow Him and we will do so by looking at the very first chapter of the Book of Daniel. If you have your Bibles please turn to Daniel, Chapter 1.  

Last week we saw in Hebrews what true Biblical faith looked like as it was lived out in the lives of men and women throughout Scripture. Daniel is one of the many people briefly mentioned there and he is referred to as one who, by faith, was able to shut the mouth of lions. Before he was on the grand stage in which he is most well known for, Daniel's faith was tested on a smaller stage. Even though he didn’t have a large crowd watching on, he still showed that he would follow God no matter the cost. Therefore, this morning I want to look at the life of Daniel before the lions and what we can learn about demonstrating our faith on the smaller stages in our lives. We will start by looking at a giant who ushered in a crisis into the life of Daniel.

Giants Deliver Crises. - Daniel 1:1-3

During the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign in Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave him victory over King Jehoiakim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects from the Temple of God. So Nebuchadnezzar took them back to the land of Babylonia and placed them in the treasure-house of his god. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives.

The writer starts by giving us a timeframe in which the following events happened in order to give us a better understanding of the context in which this crisis came upon Judah and its people. We are told it happened during the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign and this places these events about 605 B.C. The King of Judah is extremely important because of what had happened and what was happening in Judah at the time. About 4 years before the beginning of the Book of Daniel, Judah was ruled by King Josiah who was first introduced to us in 2 Kings 22:2 with the words, “He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight and followed the example of his ancestor David. He did not turn away from doing what was right.” Under his reign, the people of Israel were called to repentance and they began to follow the Lord again while the things that displeased God were removed from their midst. When he passed away his son, Jehoahaz, was installed as King but he only reigned 3 months before the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II deposed him and gave Judah to his brother Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was a godless king and had brought the entire nation of Judah back to a place that was unpleasant to God in a very short period of time. God sent His prophets to warn the King of the judgment that was to come unless he and the nation turned back to God. However, Jehoiakim was wicked and ignored the warnings. He actually did worse than just ignoring God. A prophet named Uriah brought a message from the Lord to the King and he was killed for His obedient efforts (Jeremiah 26:20-23). He also took a scroll of prophecy written by Jeremiah and as it was being read to him, he cut piece after piece off of the scroll and threw the pieces into the fire. God had made a promise to His chosen people of what would happen when they followed Him in obedience. He had also made a promise to them of what would happen if they were disobedient (Deuteronomy 28) and that was exactly what was happening in the very first verse in Daniel 1. God is faithful and true to His Word, He was, He is, and He always will be. God was beginning to judge Judah and it started with these events. One of the important things we need to notice as God brings judgement upon Judah is the word “Lord” used in verse 2. Many times in the Old Testament when we see the word “Lord” it will be in all capital letters and it will be a translation of the tetragrammaton, or the covenant name of God, “YHWH”. This “Lord” is a translation from the Hebrew word — Adonai. I think the distinction here is very important especially in light of the rest of this verse. When we see “Adonai” used in Scripture it was to point out that God is the ultimate ruler, perfectly sovereign, and has supreme authority. As this crisis came upon Judah and its people, there was no doubt it was not by the might or wisdom of the armies and rulers of Babylon. It was by the mighty hand of God that was bringing judgment upon these people. God was always in control then and He is always in control now. He is still the great Adonai, the supreme ruler whom we have to trust. He is still in control even when a crisis comes our way.

We are told that God doesn’t just let King Nebuchadnezzar take the things of God from Jerusalem, but he also starts to take the people of God from Jerusalem as well. This is when a crisis starts to come upon some young men. They are men from the kingly line of Judah and with that distinction alone we can tell quite a bit about these men's lifestyle. They would have been accustomed to a very comfortable lifestyle in everything they had or did. To have an invading nation come and take you into captivity and turn your life upside down in a moment is going to be traumatic. This crisis is telling because as far as we are told, these young men were not a part of the problem of disobedience (as we will see shortly), but they were nevertheless impacted by the sins of others. Many times when we think about our giants, we might think about giants like Goliath, just a loud mouth, and a fear monger who stands over on another hill shouting at us. Many times our giants can be like those in the lives of Judah. They can come at us like an ocean wave that totally and unexpectedly overtakes us. It’s in these times that we must hold tight to Adonai, the one who is ruler of all. The one who can calm the storm or walk with us through it. No matter what kind of crisis we find ourselves in, He is always the Lord God Almighty.  

Giants Distort Identity. - Daniel 1:4-7

“Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men,” he said. “Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and are suited to serve in the royal palace. Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.” The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names: Daniel was called Belteshazzar. Hananiah was called Shadrach. Mishael was called Meshach. Azariah was called Abednego.

Babylon had a history of bringing the best and brightest from the groups that they conquered to the capital and placing them in leadership roles. They did this in order to strengthen their own kingdom by having the best and the brightest leaders. This would also help assimilate parts of their culture into their new rulers in order to help the conquered people feel more comfortable after being conquered. It would also keep down the rebellions by giving key roles to people who might have been the ones who would lead the rebellion. When they conquered Judah, they did the same thing. The Babylonian commanders were tasked with finding the best and the brightest and 4 of those young men were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The goal of the Babylonians was to twist the identities of those people they conquered so they would be more like Babylon and less like the country they came from. That began with training these men in language and literature. They were to be given a “Babylonian” education so they would begin to think and work like a Babylonian. There is not anything inherently wrong with learning about how others think and process the world. However, there is a problem with this when your faith is merely something you have been told and not something you have learned and understand yourself. Like we said last week, faith in Jesus is a faith based in reality and is based upon evidence and we must know that evidence. When we learn and understand why we believe what we believe then when we learn about others view points it will help us to share the Gospel into their situations, not be swayed by others. This is what Paul wrote to the church in Ephesians 4:14-15 when he said, “Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.” Not being influenced with lies is why we must have a good understanding of our faith. It seems like these young men had just that. Not only did the Babylonians try to indoctrinate them, but they tried to make them forget their identity by literally changing their names. The name Daniel means “God is my judge,” but it was changed to Belteshazzar or “Bel protects his life.” Hananiah means “the Lord shows grace,” but his new name, Shadrach, means “command of Aku” (the moon-god). Mishael means “Who is like God?” and the new name, “Meshach,” means “Who is as Aku is?” Azariah means “The Lord is my help,” but “Abednego” means “Servant of Nebo (god of wisdom).” The Babylonians were trying to do everything in the midst of this crisis in the life of these young men to make them forget who they really were in God, but even the name change doesn’t seem like the problem here. The true problem that their giant brought is addressed in verse 5 when they were being commanded to disobey God. We aren’t told what the exact problem with the food was, but there are many scholars who said these items were probably food that was dedicated and offered to false gods. God had already forbidden this for the entire nation of Israel (Exodus 34:15). The problem wasn’t with the teaching and even the name change. Those are things that people who don’t follow God do, but the problem came when the giant wanted these young men to sin against their God. These young men had come to a crossroads and had a very important decision to make.

Giants Demand Decisions. - Daniel 1:8-16

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. Now God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel. 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.” Daniel spoke with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief of staff to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. “Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said. “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.” The attendant agreed to Daniel’s suggestion and tested them for ten days. 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. So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the food and wine provided for the others.

These men had a choice to make and the truth is no one would have batted an eye if they would have partaken in the forbidden food. It was the easiest thing to do and the thing that many others before them had chosen. There weren’t parents there to get on to them or even a priest who would have brought it to their attention. They could have eaten it and not worried about it. However, these young men had a true faith in God that impacted their entire lives and they knew even in the midst of having their whole world turned upside down, they were to obey God no matter what. Like the writer said, they had a determination to not sin against the Lord no matter how small the issue. Now I’m not in any shape (literally) to give you dieting advice, but that’s not the point of this passage. It’s not a diet suggestion. The point is that obedience is what these young men were focused on. They didn’t worry about the outcome because no matter what would happen they knew that God would be honored and their faith in Him would be seen as justified somehow and someway. That is exactly what happened after 10 days. We are told that the attendant who was in charge of their day to day activities saw their faith on display and how God was faithful and blessed their obedience contrary to what he thought would happen. He allowed them to continue in obedience. When it comes to decisions in our lives it doesn’t matter how many people are watching, all that matters is are we totally obedient. God is always ultimately the only One that matters and the only One we need to seek to please. God used this simple act of obedience in the midst of crisis as an opportunity to use these 4 young men on a grander stage that would bring God more glory and turn more people to him. For Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego it would be a refusal to bow down and worship a statue and be thrown into a fiery furnace in front of the King and all his people. For Daniel it was in front of King Darius and the entire nation as he stood firm in his faith before God and was not devoured by the hungry lions. When it comes to facing our giants, we need to understand the small things are just as important as the big things when it concerns obedience. Our circumstances don’t allow us to cut corners in our walk with God. It should draw us closer to Him, holding tight to who we are in Christ, and being obedient even in the things that no one else will see.

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