Being God-centered in a Hostile Culture: Daniel 1:1-21
I have never seen America more hostile to a God-centered life than today! It has been said the Church, or you could say the Christian Community is the visiting team. Life in the United States of America for the God-centered person today is hostile!
Daniel has much to say about how to go about living a God-centered life in a culture that’s hostile to that life. He was taken captive to Babylon when Jerusalem was overtaken by King Nebuchadnezzar. The year was 605 BC.
Daniel lived with great success, staying Godcentered in a culture that was totally hostile to the way he chose to live. The parallels in his life are similar to 21st Century America!
When Nebuchadnezzar overran Jerusalem, he took some of the utensils from the temple of God and took them to Babylon and put them in the temple of his god.
When he took the holy utensils from God’s temple and put them in the temple of his false god, he was elevating his god, Bel who was sometimes referred to as Marduk to a place above the God culturally, but never in reality.
It was an attempt to transfer authentic worship of God to the state religion, making Godcenteredness more challenging for the God-followers, like Daniel.
In 2021 a prayer was offered to open congress and at the end of the prayer the one offering the prayer closed with “amen and a-woman!”
Whether acceptable to all in this country or not, God is always male in the Bible!
Many such statements and attitudes are floating around our country that are an attempt to transfer loyalty from The God to statism!
The move in Babylon in 605 BC, and many of the moves in present day America try to elevate a compromised faith that’s not the real deal, but the call of God for us as, it was for Daniel is to resist the culture that’s hostile to God and be authentically God-centered!
King Nebuchadnezzar ordered the Chief of his court officials, a guy named Ashpenaz to bring some of the brightest Israeli young men to be trained to serve the Babylonian government.
These men were basically slaves to Babylon! They were to be taught the language and literature of the Babylonians. They were to be indoctrinated to lock in a hostile way of life to their way of life that served their God.
This was Nebuchadnezzar’s re-education camp! Train these young men to be centered on the non-god-centered way of life of Babylon and train their God-centeredness out of their lives!
Today in America we actually have people in our congress who have suggested re-education training by the government for people who don’t toe the line for the left’s governmental agenda.
A primary target would be those who see God as God, not the government. Daniel spent his life under such a system and did so without compromising his God-centered life. We need to learn from him as we seek to live Godcentered lives in present day America.
Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were the four recipients of Nebuchadnezzar’s retraining program. The retraining was intense.
This re-training involved the exclusion of their Jewish diet, which was part of their faith as they ate a cosher diet that complied with Jewish dietary law.
Daniel made a resolution not to defile himself with the royal Babylonian diet, but to go with water and vegetables and comply with his Jewish diet that fit his God-centered life.
He was able to negotiate a 10-day plan to test how he and his friends looked while on their cosher diet. They fared better than those on the royal diet plan and God honored Daniel’s commitment to his God-centered diet plan.
A few days ago, Bill Gates expressed the idea Americans should exclude beef from their diet and replace it with a vegetarian substitute made to taste like beef.
Why is he proposing that idea? One of the new religions in this country is the Global Warming Faith! One tenet of this new religion is the idea methane gas from Bovines is breaking down the ozone layer and causing the planet to warm excessively.
We should care for the environment, but not based on theories that aren’t accurate. The notion the earth will be destroyed by global warming in 12 years isn’t tenable! 45 years ago, popular science was telling us we were going to be destroyed by Global cooling. Nothing ever came from it. Nothing will ever come of Global warming.
When a problem is presented to us that’s based on computer modeling that’s projectionist, and when the only solution is for the government to take away our freedom to live as we believe God has directed us, we’re dealing with statism, not science.
All this is a religion designed to take us away from our God-centered way of life.
A culture that’s hostile to God-centered life will go to extremes to impose the cultural norms it deems appropriate. Daniel and his pals even had their names changed to impose Babylonian culture and religion and deny them their Godcentered identity.
The name Daniel means, “God is my judge.” Ashpenaz, the court official had Daniel’s name changed to Belteshazzar. Belteshazzar means, Bel, the Babylonian false-god who would protect his life.
The point was to shift Daniel from the idea of his God-centered life that God was his judge to the false-god centered life that this false deity would protect him.
Daniel’s pal, Hananiah’s name in his Godcentered Hebrew faith meant, “The Lord shows grace.” His new name was Shadrach which meant “under the command of Aku, the moon god.”
The point of the name change is to get him away from a God-centered life and into a state-centered life.
Daniel’s third Hebrew friend was Mishael. His Jewish name meant, “Who is like God?” They changed his name to the Babylonian name, Meshach, which means, who’s like Aku? Aku was the false god!
His Hebrew name lifted up God, while his Babylonian name lifted up a false god. The point was to focus him away from his God-centered life!
The fourth Hebrew young man was Azariah. His name in Hebrew meant, “The Lord helps.” His Babylonian name was changed to Abednego, which means, “who is like Nebo, the false god of learning.”
Again, the focus is to take Azariah away from his God-centered life toward a Babylonian state centered life!
Every one of the names given to Daniel and his Hebrew buddies laid out the lie a false god was equal to or better than the God. The nature of anything designed to take us away from a God-centered life is it’s based on a lie.
One lie, that American culture is pumping out is a baby who’s unborn is not a life but is a fetus. In the Bible when a woman is pregnant, she’s typically described as being “with child.” That’s because the fetus is a child.
Our country is closing in on 70 million abortions, make that infant deaths since 1973. That’s 20 million more people than lost their lives in World War II.
In the city of New York more black children are aborted than are born! This evil devalues life! Wrong! A God-centered life will always bring more value to a life.
Many in our nation will go to extremes to advance the notion killing a baby in the womb is about a woman’s choice. What about the baby’s choice to live? What about the baby’s life, liberty and the child’s pursuit of happiness?
A God-centered life will always advance the centrality of life for all humans on Planet Earth, especially those who are the most vulnerable, the unborn!
Daniel served in government without compromising his God-centered life for just short of 70 Years! He did that in an environment that opposed his way of life, that of God-centeredness the entire time! How did he pull that off?
Daniel 1:17 gives us the key, “To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.” (NIV)
Daniel and his pals went in for an interview with King Nebuchadnezzar. He found they were 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters, that’s the government experts and government big shots in the entire kingdom.
God demonstrated His rule and ability to have victory when His guys committed to a Godcentered life even in the midst of amazing opposition!
We live in a time of intense opposition to a Godcentered life! Commit to live a God-centered life no matter what. God will do for you as He did for Daniel. He will empower that life and sustain it! Claim Romans 8:37, “No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (NIV)
Commit to that Godcentered life and Christ will empower you to conquer like HE did Daniel!