Daniel 1:8-21, Who is your Portion? (1)

 So, let’s review.  Daniel and his friends have been deported to Babylon.  The prophet Jeremiah has commanded them to settle down, to take up life in Babylon, and to quit fighting God about this; this is all God’s doing (Jer. 29:4-8).  Meanwhile, they are enrolled in a liberal arts education, given names to help them become incorporated into the life and culture of Babylon. 

Their calling is the same as ours: to live in the world, where God has placed them, while not living “of” or “like” the world.  Growing up in Israel you might think that taking a stand for the Lord might get them some praise, even in the setting where the culture for most people revolved around the sins of Jeroboam, the worship of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel.  Maybe.  But in Babylon, life in the times of the gentiles was going to take some adjustment.  No, not adjustment.  It was going to take some resolve (1:8).

·       The resolve.  The Hebrew term is used in a variety of contexts.  The root idea is to put something or someone in a particular place.  It was used of appointing someone to a position (captain in an army), or of laying something down (putting it in a position where you don’t expect it to move), or making something happen or stop happening.  There are some interesting cross references:

o   Joshua 7:19: When Joshua spoke to Achan, My son, I beg you, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me. Daniel had this desire to give God glory.

o   Psalm 78:5: For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children.  Apparently this happened for Daniel.  Somehow, in the evil of life in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Daniel had come to know God’s word.

o   Isaiah 57:1: The righteous perishes, and no man takes it to heart.  In other words, no one wonders why this is happening.  Daniel was not spiritually insensitive like this but related what he saw in Babylon to God’s word.

o   Malachi 2:2: ‘If you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to My name,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings.  Yes, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart.’  God’s blessing on Daniel and his friends makes it clear they took to heart the need to glorify His name!

Because of these things, we conclude that these young men made more than a decision.  They made a decision with finality; they resolved in their hearts that they would not walk in disobedience to their God, while they were being steeped in the culture and thought-life and religion of Babylon.