Word of Salvation – Vol.49 No.33 – September 2004

 

How Shall We Sing the Lord's Songs in A Foreign Land?

 

Sermon by Rev J De Hoog on Daniel 1:1-2

(Introduction to the Book of Daniel)

 Scripture Readings: Psalm 34; Daniel 1

Suggested Hymns: BoW 34a; 406; 145a:1-3; 145a:5-7; 425:1,4

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ...

What kind of God are you serving? Are you serving a God who actually makes a difference in your life, a God whom you expect to make a difference in your life?

Another way of asking this question is this: Are you praying? I don't mean, do you say grace at meals and do you pray a little prayer after a Bible reading at the table and do you generally follow along when prayers are said in church or even at Prayer Meetings? No, are you praying - that is, are you talking to God and asking Him to change things in your life and in the world because you believe that He really can and will change things in your life and in the world?

Another way of asking this question is: Are you a deist or a theist? A deist believes in God, to be sure. But a deist believes that God simply wound the world up, gave it a kick-start, and that's it, and He is not involved in this world now. The deist's God is a clockmaker, who made the clock, wound it up and set it ticking, and that's it. He just leaves it alone now. Many who call themselves Christians today are actually deists. They don't expect much of God. Things just go on as always, and God doesn't see or do much. Are you a deist?

On the other hand, a theist believes in a God who not only made the world but is working in the world at each moment; a God who knows all the fine details of life in this world, a God who continues to work and change things when you pray.

I'm not talking about your theology now, what you have learnt in books or at church. I'm talking about your life from day to day, what you do, and what you expect. Are you a deist or a theist? Do you believe in a God who actually makes a difference? Are you praying?

The Book of Daniel demands of us that we be theists, that we are praying, that we believe God controls everyday life and makes a difference in the world and changes things when we pray.

Now admittedly, this is not very obvious from the way the Book of Daniel begins. 'In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles of the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia, and put in the treasure-house of his god.'

Not only were the temple articles taken to Babylonia, so were the cream of Jewish society, including the king and the royal family, and also Daniel and his friends.

Right off, notice something important about where Daniel is taken. In the NIV it says 'Babylonia,' but the phrase is actually 'the land of Shinar.'

This phrase, 'the land of Shinar', is used only four times in the whole Old Testament, and it has a significant meaning. In Zechariah 5:11 there is a woman whose name is 'wickedness' sitting in a basket, and it is said that the basket is being taken to the 'land of Shinar' so that a 'house', that is, a temple, can be built for her. The 'land of Shinar' is the place where wickedness is worshipped, where sin is turned into a god. Doesn't sound too promising, does it?

The other major reference to the 'land of Shinar' is in Genesis 11:2, and it is there that the tower of Babel, or the tower of Babylon, is built. Babel is the centre for realising the persistent humanistic dream of one world, one common set of values, one language. In Babel, the people reject God, reject his command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Instead, they stay together and build a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that they might build a name for themselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth. They want to build their own centre, separate from God, in rejection of their Creator. In Genesis 11, God condemns this misplaced search for power, for self-glory, for a centre, and confuses the languages and scatters the people.

Now in Daniel 1, the old strategy of Babel is being revived. There is a new unity - one language, one social policy, one education system, one world empire. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has revived the old ways of Babel. He is the humanistic dreamer of his age - he will rule the world!

It is into such a context that the exiles from Jerusalem are thrust. Daniel and his friends find themselves in a renewed Babel.

What will God do in this situation? How will Daniel and his friends survive? It's obvious, isn't it, that a deist will never survive? Nominalism won't work, will it? Daniel is in a situation of all or nothing. Either cling with all faith to a God who can make a difference, to a God who is sovereign, to a God to whom it makes sense to pray, or otherwise just throw it all aside. There is no room for deism in Babylon. There is no room for a God who is absent, uninvolved, at a distance. Such a God is of no value. It's all or nothing now.

Is Daniel's situation so different from ours? Australia is a bit like Babylon, isn't it? Not that Australia is a world power that dominates everyone else. No, I mean that Australia is surely a place where it makes no sense to be a deist anymore. What's the use of having some fuzzy ideas about a God who might have made everything, but who now stays away and just lets us get on with it? That kind of religion is of no value at all. No, a deist idea of God is useless in Australia today. You may as well not have religion at all if that's all you've got!

The Book of Daniel calls us to be fair dinkum about the truth of God. It is an all or nothing call.

In the book of Daniel we are in Babylon six centuries before Christ. We are in exile with God's people. God's people have been defeated and dragged out of their promised land, leaving behind a heap of ruins. The Book of Daniel is set in the time of the greatest defeat and anguish for God's people. And yet, God does amazing things.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are saved from the fiery furnace by 'the fourth man.' A hand appears, and the writing is on the wall for Babylon. Daniel survives a spell in the lion's den. What is the point of these stories? Why has God given us these stories to read?

The first two verses of chapter 1 of Daniel set the agenda for the whole book: 'In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia, and put in the treasure house of his god.'

There are two ways of looking at life, two ways of reading history. There is the human viewpoint, which simply looks at the 'when' and 'what' and 'who' of history. But there is also the theological viewpoint, which asks questions from God's point of view.

The human viewpoint looks at these events, and simply records that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and defeated it. The theological viewpoint says that God has been active - 'The Lord delivered Jehoiakim into his hand.'

If you trace the names 'Jerusalem' and 'Babylon' right through the Bible, there is a fascinating contrast between the two. Babylon and Jerusalem represent the two cities to which men and women belong. In Biblical terms, you are either in Babylon or in Jerusalem. The Bible uses many other word pictures to describe the same two loyalties: the two gates, two ways, two masters. One or the other - everyone chooses. You must choose one or the other. Everyone is either in Babylon or in Jerusalem. Babylon stands for all God's enemies who will ultimately be defeated. And Jerusalem stands for the new heaven and new earth that God will finally establish, where all His people will live forever with Him.

Daniel is in Babylon, but not by choice.

In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, the final victory of God over His enemies is pictured using these two cities. Babylon is finally defeated. In Revelation 18 an angel shouts, 'Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit... Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins... She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.' Babylon stands for all God's enemies who will ultimately be defeated.

And in the same book, Jerusalem stands for the new heavens and new earth that God will finally establish, where all His people will live forever with Him. Revelation 21 says: 'Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, -~Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God'.' (vss 1-3).

Jerusalem stands for the people of God in permanent covenant relationship with God. Babylon stands for all of God's enemies. And one day, Jerusalem will be victorious and Babylon will be completely destroyed.

But now, what happens when Babylon defeats Jerusalem? How do God's people cope when it seems that God Himself has been defeated? You see, here is the great question for the book of Daniel. Babylon has come and besieged Jerusalem and defeated her. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon has taken the temple vessels from the temple of God and set them up in the temple of his own god, Marduk. The Lord God of Israel has been defeated. His people are in captivity, His symbols are on display in a pagan temple. What can the Lord do? Can he fight against the super-gods of the superpowers? Or has His time come to an end? Will the people of God survive, or is it time to give up old time religion and old ways and embrace the brave new world?

There are two ways of looking at life, of looking at history. Here is the human viewpoint. Babylon has taken Jerusalem. God's people have been defeated. God seems to have been defeated. How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land? How can we live as God's people when we're in exile?

Hebrews teaches us that we are to live like exiles, refugees in this world. 1 Peter 1 describes us as strangers in the world, exiles in a foreign land. How can we sing the Lord's songs, and live as the Lord's people here as exiles in a foreign land?

The first two verses of Daniel begin to answer these questions. Remember the two ways of looking at life. The human viewpoint and God's viewpoint. These two verses are not satisfied with the human viewpoint. See God's viewpoint: 'And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God' (vs 2). The Lord is not defeated! He is responsible for the fate of Jehoiakim and the vessels from the temple. He is in charge, he is in control. The Lord has a purpose in this defeat!

So we can define the agenda of Daniel. Australian writer Andrew Reid has written a commentary on the book of Daniel called Kingdoms in Conflict. An excellent title (and a very good commentary)! The kingdom of man set up against the kingdom of God. At the beginning of Daniel, from a human point of view, the kingdom of man seems to have won. But the book of Daniel contains the good news about the victory of the kingdom of God. Nations and empires will rise and fall, but God's kingdom will last forever. History is never accidental. God is at work in every event. His purposes never fail. As we read the book of Daniel, we read thrilling stories about heroic deeds. But in the background is the ever-present truth that God is in charge.

There is another very important and closely connected principle to glean from these two verses. That principle is this: God is always faithful to his Word - always - no matter what!

Jehoiakim was the king of Judah who was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar. But Jehoiakim's great-great grandfather, King Hezekiah, had already been warned about what would happen to Jerusalem. Isaiah had warned Hezekiah with these words: 'Hear the Word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon' (Isaiah 39:6-7). As the Lord of history, God had already foretold through Isaiah what would take place.

Actually, the word of the Lord about the destruction of Jerusalem goes back another 1000 years, back to the days of Moses. Listen to his words in Deuteronomy 28:45-52, 'All these curses will come upon you... Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly... therefore... you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you... The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young... They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down.'

The words uttered 1000 years before and 100 years before have come exactly true. Why? Because the Lord is the Lord of history. Not just because He knew in advance that Jerusalem would fall, and predicted it, but because He acted to make sure it would happen. The Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. God is always faithful to His Word - always! He is faithful in the blessings He sends, and He is equally faithful in punishment and judgment. God does whatever He promises to do, without any exception.

Here then is the background of the book of Daniel. How could Daniel calmly continue to pray to God, knowing that if he were caught he would be thrown into the den of lions? How could Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stand up to Nebuchadnezzar and refuse to bow to an idol, knowing that if they didn't worship the idol they would be thrown into the fiery furnace? How can God's people sing the Lord's songs in a foreign land? How can we as strangers and exiles in the world, with our citizenship in heaven, sing the Lord's songs and live as the Lord's people in a hostile world? How can we remain faithful even when our world has collapsed around us and it seems that God has been defeated and can do nothing? How can we continue to trust in God in the face of personal tragedy or national crisis?

We can live this way by remembering these two principles. First: History is never accidental. God is at work in every event. He is not the God of deism. His purposes never fail. He is never taken by surprise, because He controls the surprises. And second: God is always faithful to His Word - always - no matter what.

Why did God send the people of Israel into exile in Babylon? One answer is that he had to punish their sins. That answer is true.

But there is another answer. That answer is that unless they had gone into exile, there would never have been a faithful remnant to carry on as God's people, there would never have been a faithful people amongst whom the Lord Jesus Christ would be born.

The nation of Judah was finished as a nation. The weight of her sins had dragged her down past the point of no return; there was no hope for her. God destroyed the nation so that individual faithful people, a remnant of people who continued to call upon the Lord, might survive. In this way, God prepared the world for the coming of the Saviour, his Son, Jesus Christ.

The sacking of Jerusalem was an act of judgment. But it was also an act of grace. History is never accidental. God is always at work. And God is always faithful to His word - always! He had promised that a descendant of David would come to be the Saviour of His people, and in sending the people into exile He was working towards the fulfilment of that promise. Here is the focus. It is the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One day the New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven, and all of God's enemies, the great Babylon of Revelation 18, will finally be defeated. You know this will happen. God has promised it, and He has given you a preview in the Book of Revelation. History is never accidental. God is always faithful to his word - always! Will you live your life now on the basis of this truth?

Can you trust a God who saves from fiery furnaces, who writes on walls, who shuts the mouths of lions, who raises up Babylon to punish His people and to change them, and then crushes Babylon so that they can be set free, who sends His own Son and crushes Him and allows Him to die and then raises Him from the dead to save His people?

Are you a theist, or a deist? Are you praying? Will you trust Daniel's God?

In the darkest times, God is at work. God sent great distress upon His people Israel at the time of Daniel to punish them for their sins. But He also sent that distress so that Jesus Christ could come and be the giver of true life to His people.

As we read the Book of Daniel together, find the God of Daniel. He is in charge of history and He is ever faithful to His Word. Find the God of Daniel in Jesus Christ. He is calling his people to trust Him. He is trustworthy. He is Daniel's God. Is He calling you?

Amen.