Daniel did not choose his circumstances. Jehoiakim, King of Judah, allowed Judah to become a Babylonian vassal for three years. Then Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Babylon moved swiftly to quash the rebellion and besieged Jerusalem. When Jerusalem fell, King Nebuchadnezzar took some of the holy vessels from the temple of God and placed them in the temple of his own god in Babylon. He also commanded his chief eunuch to gather up sons of Israel’s nobility and ruling families to bring back to Babylon. These young men likely served as hostages to stave off any further rebellion. One of these young men was Daniel (Daniel 1:1-6; 2 Kings 24:1-6).
Daniel and his friends were put through an aggressive Babylonian re-education program. They were renamed for Babylonian gods and taught Babylonian language and literature. Babylonian religious texts were likely a significant portion of this literature. The goal was assimilation. The king intended for Daniel and the other young men in exile to serve him. It is also possible, though not certain, that the Babylonians made Daniel and his friends into eunuchs (Isaiah 39:7).
Yet Daniel chose to remain faithful to the Lord. His control over his circumstances was limited, but where he could Daniel chose faithfulness to the Lord. God rewarded him. Daniel and his friends impressed the king, and Nebuchadnezzar held them in high regard (Daniel 1:8-21).
Then one night King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that greatly disturbed him. He called his wise men to him and demanded that they not only interpret the dream but tell him what he had dreamed. Perhaps he didn’t remember his dream; perhaps he wanted to test that what his advisors told him was accurate. Either way, the king’s wise men sputtered that it was an impossible task. If the king would only tell them the dream they could surely help him, but telling a man what he had dreamed was something only the gods could do. Furious, Nebuchadnezzar ordered that all his wise men be put to death.
Since they served among the wise men, Daniel and his friends were also included in the king’s execution order. When Daniel heard of it, he went to the king and asked for time. Daniel and his friends prayed. God answered.
The dream that had so disturbed the king was a vision of a great statue composed of four types of material. A stone cut by no human hand smashed the statue, then grew into a mountain that filled the entire earth. Daniel told the king that the four materials of the statue represented four kingdoms that would follow one after another, finally being replaced by a kingdom the God of heaven would establish that would never be destroyed. Though there is some debate on exactly which four kingdoms the statue represents, today we generally understand that the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream represented four world empires. The stone that crushed and replaced them was the kingdom of God ushered in by Jesus Christ.
While we could spend weeks unpacking the dream and it’s significance, I want to focus on something my husband pointed out in a sermon a few weeks ago. Daniel knew God was in Babylon.
Daniel had every reason to believe God had abandoned him. He was ripped from his home, given the name of a Babylonian deity, very possibly castrated, and expected to forget his Israelite heritage and become Babylonian. When Nebuchadnezzar took articles from the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and placed them in the temple of his god, most people would have believed that Nebuchadnezzar had defeated Israel’s God, too.
Yet Daniel knew that the God of Israel was also the God of heaven (Daniel 2:19, 37). God was in Babylon. Even though his circumstances where not what Daniel would have chosen, Daniel continued to call on the Lord and continued to be faithful. God honored him.
The choices we face in our Babylons are never easy, but like Daniel we can choose to be faithful.Click To TweetAnd that last bit is what I want us to understand. God is in our Babylons. Our places of exile. The places we find ourselves that are not of our choosing. The places where we feel alone and abandoned, where it seems like God is a million miles away. The places where we wonder if its possible that this time good won’t win. God is present in your Babylon.
The choices we face in our Babylons are not always easy. Yet like Daniel, we can choose to be faithful. We can choose to hold on to hope, to continue to hold on to the God of heaven and believe that he will see us through. Take it step by step with small, daily acts of faithfulness. Take one right step and then another. When you’ve taken enough steps, stop to look at where your journey has carried you. You may be in Babylon, but you are not alone.
Photo by Ryan Cheng on Unsplash
6 comments
I loved this, I learned so much. Thank you!
What a great reminder! No matter what we face, God is with us.
This is beautiful. God is in our exile moments. I am so grateful he never abandons us!
something that got me about Babylon years ago was that they had been there so long it seemed normal – like their true home. Even after reliese – many didn’t go home. I pray we are never that comfortable in our captivity
“We can choose to hold on to hope, to continue to hold on to the God of heaven and believe that he will see us through.” – Yes, because God is unwavering! He is everywhere. It is us who needs to be more focused on connecting with Him.
Staying faithful while we’re in our own “Babylon” is a scary thing but the results are always beyond more than we can comprehend.
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