University of Babylon

There are a lot of reasons to be excited about this book.

I think the main reason I'm excited to do it here with us is that I hope you will see over the next couple of months that this book is extremely relevant, particularly for this time and place.

Now, God's Word is always relevant across the ages, but I think for a lot of reasons this book is particularly relevant for people like us living in a place like Washington, D.C.

If you ask what the book's about, you can answer it a couple of ways.

In the most general sense, the book is about this.

Don't be fooled by the title.

Even though we call it the book of Daniel, it's actually a story of God and God's faithfulness.

And it's a book that makes clear again and again and again that God is able to be in control of history and thus to work His purposes to completion.

And so in some ways it's a book that points forward, ahead of itself, to the coming of Jesus Christ and the ultimate fulfilling of God's redemptive purposes in the world.

As we zoom in, however, we see that, as I said a moment ago, this book is a story and trying to answer this question.

And here's really the question of the book.

Is it possible to be faithful to God and to thrive in a culture that is hostile to your beliefs?

Is it possible to follow God faithfully and to thrive in a culture that is largely hostile to your beliefs?

That's the question of this book.

And it's the question that we're going to follow like a thread over the next few weeks.

For those of us who are Christians, I think this is a question that we have to answer every single day of our lives in a place like Washington, D.C.

For those of us who are not Christians who are here, I would imagine that this is part of the reason you hesitate as you think about Christianity.

Because it would seem that the answer is unequivocally no.

And yet, as we look at this book, as we'll begin to see in chapter 1, we begin to see that, in fact, the answer to this question is, yes, it is possible to be faithful and to thrive in a culture that's hostile to your beliefs.

And we're going to begin to see how.

So what I'd like to do tonight is to begin to walk us through the events just of chapter 1.

We're not going to get past chapter 1.

And so we're going to begin to walk through the beginning of this story, and then I'm going to draw out a couple of implications to help us understand the connection between this 6th century story, 6th century B.C. story, and our lives today.

Let's pray.

Our Father, we thank you for many things, but chiefly this moment we thank you for your word.

We thank you that it's not merely ink on paper, nor is it merely the wisdom of human beings being echoed, but rather, Lord, we have an opportunity through your word to hear your voice.

We pray that your written word would reveal to us your living word, that we would see him face to face.

We pray this in his name, by your grace, Lord.

Amen.

So Daniel chapter 1, it begins with a bang.

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

The unthinkable happens right at the start.

King Nebuchadnezzar is the king of a massive nation state centered at Babylon.

And he has moved against Judah, God's people.

And Judah falls.

And their king, the king of God's people, the Jews, Jehoiakim, is delivered into Nebuchadnezzar's hand.

So at this point, any reasonable person would expect that the next step would be widespread slaughter.

The Babylonians are going to sweep in and wipe out the Israelites.

But in fact, Nebuchadnezzar has a brilliant plan in mind.

So he goes to his officials.

And he says, I want you to go into and among the people of Israel.

And I want you to bring back with you the best and the brightest.

In Babylon, looking good was very important.

So I want you to find attractive people.

I want you to find nobility, people of royal blood or noble blood.

I want you to find people who are wise, who are highly intelligent.

People who are well educated.

People who are successful.

People who are popular.

People who are influential and have wide circles of influence.

People who other people respect.

The best and the brightest.

And I want you to bring them to Babylon.

And I'm going to enroll them in Babylon University.

And they're going to spend three years in an intensive study program in all things Babylonian.

They're going to read all of our literature.

They're going to learn all of our music.

They're going to learn our science.

They're going to learn our religion.

They're going to learn our history, our mythology.

Everything for three years.

And at the end of that time, they're all going to stand before me.

Now, what's the idea behind this?

It's quite brilliant.

It's a lot of money and a lot of bloodshed to wipe out a nation.

Much, much easier and much more beneficial to you and your culture if you can assimilate them.

How do you do that?

Get the best and the brightest.

Thoroughly acculturate them.

And then put them up front as role models for everyone else to see.

If all goes well, in a generation or two, there will be no more Israel.

There will only be Babylon.

So this is the plan.

It's quite brilliant.

And it is enacted.

And at this point, we meet Daniel and his friends.

They are among those who are chosen and brought into Babylon.

And you have to imagine, from Daniel's point of view, walking into Babylon for the first time, looking around.

This, at the time, is the biggest city in the known world.

It's bigger than anything he's ever seen before.

It's the most technologically and scientifically advanced city in the world.

Beyond that, it was absolutely full of idols.

Roughly a thousand temples at this point in history.

And everywhere you looked, everywhere, the walls, the ceilings, the doorposts, the beams, everything was covered in idols and references to Babylonian gods.

And yet, even under that, under the widespread polytheism, there was a core ethic that summarizes the Babylonian way of life, the Babylonian mentality.

And we read that in Genesis chapter 11.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

As people set out to build this great city of Babylon, they say,

Let us build a great city and let us make a name for ourselves.

That's the core of the Babylonian ethic.

It's a city built to point to the glory of human beings.

And Nebuchadnezzar not only enrolls Daniel and his friends in the University of Babylon,

he takes a further step.

He actually renames them.

Now, we think about that, and renaming doesn't seem like a big deal to us.

Not so in the ancient Near East.

In the ancient Near East, your name was very closely tied to your identity.

And if you know anything about their names, Daniel and his friends all have names that point to and make reference to their God,

the God of the Bible, Yahweh, Elohim.

Nebuchadnezzar renames them and gives them Babylonian names that all make reference to the Babylonian gods.

And thus, the process of acculturation begins.

And what we see is, he's actually exerting a tremendous pressure on Daniel and his friends to conform.

So this is the first point I want to draw out as we're considering this story and what it has to say to us.

And that is to take a moment to consider the pressure of conformity.

The immense pressure of conformity that exists.

It's a sociological reality that when you live in any kind of culture or people group,

in every people group, in every society,

there's a powerful pressure to conform to the norms of the group, whatever those norms may be.

One of the best examples of this comes from the study conducted by Solomon Ash in 1951,

the Ash Line Study.

So in 1951, Solomon Ash sets out to measure the pressure of conformity.

And he selects some subjects and he brings them in and he shows them a picture of some lines.

So can we bring that up?

So he shows them an image much like this.

And he has people sit across the front row in a classroom.

He puts this up on the screen.

And he says, okay, see the line on the left?

Now I want you, each of you, to look at the three lines on the right,

pick which one of these lines is the same length as the line on the left,

and then I want you to tell me your answer.

What's the answer?

You sure about that?

I told somebody else I hope they get it right,

because that's going to really ruin the illustration if they don't.

It's definitely most obviously C.

You're all correct.

So he brings in a bunch of participants.

He sits them down in the first few rounds.

He lets everybody answer for themselves.

Everybody looks.

Everybody says, see, 99% of participants get it right.

I don't know what's going on with that 1%,

but 99% of the people get it right, okay?

Then he changes it up.

Then he brings in a whole new slate of participants.

But this time, there's only one real participant who doesn't know what's going on.

Everybody else in the room is a confederate.

They're in on it, and they're working with the researchers.

And so what happens?

This time, they begin down here.

Here's the solitary participant who doesn't know what's going on.

They start at this end, and what happens?

A, A, A, A, A, A, A, all the way down.

What happens?

75% of the time, the participant changes their answer.

They knowingly give the wrong answer.

75, three out of four people.

Ash is mystified.

How does this happen?

So he and the researchers, they go,

and they interview all these kind of hapless participants who weren't in on the joke.

Why did you change your answer?

You knew it was C.

Why did you say A?

The answers fell into two primary groups.

The first group of people said,

well, I guess I just assumed that everybody else knew something I didn't.

So even though it looked like C, I just assumed they knew something I didn't.

The other group, a little more prevalent, maybe a little more honest, said,

I just really, really, really wanted to fit in.

I didn't want to look stupid.

So you have three out of four people knowingly giving the wrong answer.

Why?

And here's the point.

Because they would rather give the wrong answer and fit in

than give the right answer and risk social rejection.

That is the power of social conformity.

So when you live in a culture surrounded by people who disagree with

or even oppose your beliefs, your values,

your assumptions about the nature of reality, your priorities,

the pressure to conform can be a very, very hard thing to resist.

And so this is what Daniel and his friends are facing at Babylon U.

And it exists just as powerfully today.

And in fact, if you want to look around for examples of where this kind of thing exists,

you need not look any further than academia.

I mean, for those of you who are in academia,

you teach or you work or you're administrators,

you know that the pressure is immense.

Nicholas Kristof, who is by no means a Christian,

he's written many articles that are disparaging against Christians,

nevertheless, earlier this year,

wrote two pieces in the New York Times, at least two, maybe more,

where he essentially calls out progressive liberals,

what he considers to be his kind of group.

He wrote a couple of articles basically calling them out

and criticizing them for promoting all kinds of diversity on campuses except ideological.

And he warns that universities are becoming echo chambers

and hostile environments for anyone who disagrees, especially for Christians.

And here's what he says.

He says,

So Christians in academia face enormous pressure to conform.

You may be familiar with John Lennox,

who's a brilliant mathematician and philosopher of science.

He's at Oxford, top of his field.

He relates a story about when he was a young student

and he found himself seated next to a Nobel laureate.

And he engages this man in a conversation about God.

And he's later invited to come back to this man's quarters

with some other distinguished professors

to have coffee and continue the conversation.

And when everybody's settled and Lennox is looking around

and realizing he's the only student in the room,

the laureate fixes him with his eyes and asks him this,

Do you intend to make a serious career of science?

Lennox says,

Yes, I do.

The man responds,

If you want to make a serious career in science,

you must give up these childish ideas of God.

They will only disadvantage you intellectually among your peers.

See, this is the prevailing assumption

that in order to be a person of faith,

you must be intellectually disadvantaged.

Right?

There's a growing bias in our society

that being an intelligent, sophisticated, culturally savvy person

means being post-religious.

Right?

You can be spiritual,

but to be religious,

a member of any kind of organized religion

rooted in any kind of tradition,

that that is for the weak,

it is for the backward,

it is for the ignorant,

but it is not for sophisticated intellectuals.

It is not for truly open-minded progressives.

It is only for the dregs of society.

There's no basis, of course, in reality for this bias.

I mean, many of the most brilliant minds today

and throughout history are or have been people of faith,

many of them Christians,

but the bias exists nonetheless.

The point is this,

when you live as a person of faith

in such a culture,

with such biases,

it can seem as though your entire life

is lived as a never-ending ash line experiment.

It can feel like your entire life

is lived sitting in that chair.

And you know, the power of social media,

there's many great things about it,

but it enhances this effect

because you know instantaneously

what tens of thousands of people around you

think about everything.

And so it's not just eight people saying,

eh, eh, eh,

it's ten times, ten times,

ten thousand people saying,

eh, eh, eh, eh, eh.

And it gets to you,

and what do you say?

The pressure is tremendous.

You buckle under it.

So in a culture like ours,

we have to ask,

to what extent are our convictions,

our morals,

our assumptions,

our ethics,

to what extent are those driven

by deeply held principles,

and to what extent are they driven

by peer pressure?

Right, do we hold beliefs,

values, assumptions

based on careful,

prayerful discernment,

or have we simply adopted

the ideas of people around us

so that we will fit in,

or because we assume

they must know something we don't?

So this is the first point to see.

It's the pressure of conformity.

Daniel and his friends

are facing massive pressure

to conform to Babylonian culture,

so the question is,

what do they do?

How can they possibly sustain it?

And the answer comes through this.

We see that they begin to adopt

the practice of a faithful presence.

They adopt a posture

toward their circumstances

of faithful presence.

This is a theme

that we will continue to look at,

but we begin to see it right away

in chapter one.

So among the Jews

who find themselves

in this situation,

they're in exile,

they've been taken into Babylon,

they don't know when it's going to be over.

Among the Jews,

there were several groups of people

and grouped by how they responded

to their situation.

The first group of people said,

well, we don't know how long

we're going to be here,

but surely any day God's going to rescue us.

But the pressure to assimilate,

the pressure to conform is so great

that the only way we can resist it

is by completely separating ourselves.

So it was a fortification mentality.

We can't have any contact

with the Babylonians.

We can't have any intermingling

with the Babylonians.

We have to keep ourselves

entirely separate.

We have to build walls.

We have to do everything we can

to keep our culture pure

and wait for God to rescue us.

That was the first group.

The second group,

the second group of people

were sort of in the opposite mentality.

They said,

well, we don't know how long

we're going to be here,

but if we want to have any chance

at having friends,

any chance at having a career,

any chance at thriving on any level,

any chance at surviving this,

we have to make accommodations.

We have to compromise.

We have to make this work.

And over time,

they made more, more, more accommodations

again and again and again

to the point where they became

utterly indistinct

and they lost their cultural identity

and became Babylonian.

Nebuchadnezzar's plan worked.

And of course, we see

there are many churches

that fall into these two groups.

We have the churches

that fortify themselves

against culture,

that say secular culture is evil.

We need to create our own society

within a society

and make as little intermingling possible

as we possibly can,

especially for the good of our children.

They insulate themselves.

Then you have the other churches

who respond to their situation

and the current cultural moment

by doing all that they can

to become relevant,

to become like the culture

that they live in

and they make accommodations

in their beliefs

and in their values

and in their priorities

and in their ways of life.

And ultimately, what happens?

They become more and more

and more and more and more

indistinguishable

until ironically,

in their striving to be relevant,

they become utterly irrelevant.

Well, Daniel was a part of

neither group.

Daniel was part of a third group.

The group that Daniel was a part of

had most likely read

the prophet Jeremiah.

See, Jeremiah wrote

about this particular time of exile.

And the prophet Jeremiah

was the one God used

to teach God's people

how they should relate to

and think about

their predicament in Babylon.

It's possible,

Daniel being royalty,

that he even had a scroll

of Jeremiah's writings

in his bag in Babylon.

And it's very likely

that he would have been familiar

with Jeremiah chapter 29,

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

which says an amazing thing.

Jeremiah chapter 29,

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

which calls the Israelites

to build houses,

to plant gardens,

to get jobs,

to allow their kids to marry,

to make a life for themselves.

You're going to be here

for a while, he says.

Settle in, intermingle,

get to know your neighbors.

And yet at the same time,

the purpose is revealed for this

in verse 7 of chapter 29.

He says,

I've sent you here

and I've put you here

so that you can seek

the welfare of this city

where I've sent you.

And then he says

something amazing.

For in its welfare,

you will find your welfare.

The city that destroyed you,

the city that wiped

your people out,

the city that has brought

you into exile,

I've put you here

to seek their welfare

and in their welfare,

you will find your welfare.

So immerse yourself

in the culture,

immerse yourself,

but do it in a way

where you remain faithful

to me

because your reason

for being there

is so that I can bless

and reach them.

It's an amazing balance

to strike.

It's the balance

of faithful presence.

So on the one hand,

you see Daniel

and his friends

become fully present,

fully immersed

in the Babylonian culture.

They read

and they study

everything they can

get their hands on.

Now you have to understand,

the curriculum

at Babylon U

was not quite like

the curricula

of most of our

universities today.

Here's some of the subjects

they would have studied.

Astrology.

Not astronomy.

Astrology.

The study of animal entrails.

That's a whole study,

I guess.

Rites of purification,

sacrificial incantations,

exorcism,

forms of divination,

enchantments,

magic.

Sounds a lot like

Harry Potter at Hogwarts.

And we think that,

and you know,

well, it can't be that bad,

but you have to understand

for devout Jews,

this would have been

utterly scandalous.

It would have been

much more challenging

for them

than most of the content

Christians are

confronted with

in today's universities.

This would have been

scandalous.

And yet,

they plunge

into this

three-year degree

and they graduate

summa cum laude.

You can see that

because Nebuchadnezzar

actually says

in verse 20

that Daniel and his friends

are ten times better

than anyone else

in his court.

top of their class.

And the very last verse

tells us that

he's so good

that Daniel is secured

as a top advisor

in Nebuchadnezzar's court

for the remainder

of his time on the throne.

That's amazing.

So his career is what?

Giving advice

to the king

who wiped out his people.

Advising the enemy.

You can't get more

immersed than that.

So they immerse themselves

in the culture

and yet here's the thing.

They don't totally assimilate.

There's a line

that they will not cross.

A line that they

will not cross.

As part of the

acculturation program,

Nebuchadnezzar decrees

that all students

will eat

from the king's table.

Now you've got to understand,

food from the king's table,

that is the best food

in the land.

This is

Michelin quality dining.

But it says in verse 8,

Daniel resolved

that he would not

defile himself

with the king's food

or the wine

that he drank.

Now you've got to understand,

huge risk.

Huge risk.

He's taking a massive risk here

so we have to ask,

why?

Why would he take

such a stand?

I mean,

Daniel has allowed himself

to be renamed

with a pagan name.

He's allowed himself

to be forced

into a PhD program

in occult sciences.

Moreover,

there's no direct

prohibition

against eating meat

or drinking wine

in scripture

unless you're a Nazarite.

So why did he draw

the line here?

What is it about the food?

And some people say,

well,

Daniel 1,

this is a diet

and weight loss plan

and this is what

we should take from this.

That's not what it's about.

Some people say,

see,

this is why

we should all be vegetarian.

That's not what it's about.

He draws the line

at the meal

because the meal

is more than a meal.

It's more than a meal.

It's not the food itself.

It's the significance

of this meal.

It's a religious act.

It's an act of worship.

Eating the king's food

was a kind of sacrament.

It meant worshiping

the king

and his provision.

Food from the king's table.

Christians,

we have a king's table.

But it's a very different king.

The idea was,

over time,

those who ate

from the king's table

would be presented

to the public

and their healthy appearance

would be admired by all

and it would be seen

as evidence

of the good king

and the blessing

of the gods

of that king,

his father

and the pantheon

and evidence

of his goodness

and his provision.

And Daniel knew

that he could not do that.

He's willing

to learn the language.

He's willing

to learn the literature.

He's willing

to learn and master

the sciences.

But he draws

the line at worship.

He will not worship

or glorify

the king

or the pagan idols

of Babylon.

And one thing

I want to note here,

he doesn't make

a huge fuss.

What's interesting is,

this isn't a major

hunger strike.

You know,

he doesn't protest.

He doesn't make it

an issue,

a public issue.

He doesn't issue

an outcry.

He doesn't start

a petition.

In fact,

Nebuchadnezzar

never even knows

that he does this.

It's private.

He goes to the officials

and very discreetly

and quietly

arranges to be fed

only vegetables.

What does this tell us?

What does this tell us?

His primary concern

wasn't making

a public stand.

It was personal.

In other words,

he's concerned

about the effect

of eating this meal

on his own heart.

That's his primary concern.

And here's the thing

that we need to see here.

The habits

and the patterns

of our lives.

In particular,

the habits

and the patterns

and the rituals

and the liturgies

that are imbued

with significance,

that have a kind

of religious weight

to them.

Over time,

the more we do

those things,

they actually shape

our hearts.

They shape

what we imagine.

They shape

what we think about.

They shape

what we fantasize about.

They shape

how we hope

and where we hope.

And ultimately,

they shape

what we love.

And Daniel

instinctively knows this.

What's he worried about?

The first time

he eats the food,

not a big deal.

The second time,

not a big deal.

But over time,

as he continues

to engage

in this sacrament,

what will happen

to his heart?

More and more

and more

as he's eating

the food

and enjoying

the goodness of it

and reflecting

on his gratitude

to King Nebuchadnezzar,

what's going to happen?

He's going to grow

to love

and ultimately

to worship

a pagan king.

He realizes

that's how hearts

are wooed away.

Not a grand

act of rebellion,

small acts

of compromise

over time

that pave the way

for larger compromises

down the road.

Faithfulness

is the same way.

Small acts

of faithfulness

paved the way

for larger acts

of faithfulness

down the road.

So the only way

Daniel can hope

to have a successful

career utterly

immersed in Babylonian

idolatry

and remain faithful

is to cultivate

daily habits

that lead his heart

to worship God

rather than

the Babylonian idols.

And this is what

it means to practice

a faithful presence.

So on the one hand

this tells us

very clearly

God's people,

Christians,

are called to

immerse ourselves

in culture.

Read the literature.

Know the science.

Master all the fields

of study.

Seek excellence.

Do your utmost

to rise to the top

of your chosen profession.

Daniel is more

Babylonian

than the Babylonians.

He's better

at being a Babylonian

than they are

in many ways

except for religious.

Right?

I hope that Christians

rise to the top

of their field.

I love the idea

that people might say

you know I don't agree

with anything

that they believe.

I think that they're

I can't believe

that they believe

those things.

But they make

amazing employees.

They're the most

honest, reliable,

thorough,

effective employees

and I can think

of nothing better

than to fill my

I don't agree

with what they believe.

but I want

a company full of them.

Can you imagine

if people said that?

Immerse ourselves.

But on the other hand

like Babylon

our culture

is frankly

full of idols

and it's ultimately

devoted not to the glory

of any pantheons

of gods and goddesses

but rather the glory

of humanity.

DC is devoted

to the glory

of human achievement.

That is our idol here.

And there are times

when we have to draw lines.

There are places

where we have to draw

moral and ethical lines.

But even below that

unless we cultivate

habits and patterns

and rituals

and liturgies

of faithfulness

in the small things

we can never hope

to remain faithful

over the long haul.

Right?

This is why we gather

weekly and do

what we're doing.

This is a

counter-formational liturgy.

It's a liturgy

that turns our hearts

away from achievement

away from being convinced

of our own amazingness

away from the hopes

that we place here

or there

and it wrenches

our hearts back

and reorients them

toward the God

who gave his son for us.

But yet it's not enough

to do this once a week.

That's why we encourage

people to meet

in small groups

to pray

and to read scripture together.

Why?

Because we need

those habits

and rituals

and it's really not enough

to do it on Sunday

and then on Wednesday.

You need to do it

even more than that.

So we encourage families

and groups of friends

and roommates

to do this regularly

in their homes together

because we need

these habits

and rituals.

But it's not even enough

to do that.

We actually encourage people

to do it individually

to pray

and to read scripture.

Why?

Because this is the only way

that we can hope

to be fully immersed

in such a culture

and yet remain

faithful.

This is what you might

think of

and what has been called

a rule of life.

It's a way of structuring

your life

building your life

around rituals

habits

patterns

and liturgies

that ultimately

cultivate a heart

that is shaped

by the gospel

rather than the pantheon.

This is why we encourage

these kinds of practices

in our church

and over the course

of the next few months

including our parish retreat

we'll be talking more

and more about

what it means

to live by

a rule of life

what that actually

looks like.

But for now

we want to come back

to our original question

as we close.

Is it possible

to follow God faithfully

and to thrive

in a culture

that is largely hostile

to your beliefs?

In other words

how do we deal

with the immense pressure

of conformity?

And the answer

begins this way

by committing ourselves

to the practice

of faithful presence.

Living lives

fully immersed

in culture

but shaped

by a rule of life.

Habits of faithfulness.

But of course

if we ended here

we would be missing

the larger point

of the chapter

and the book.

I could say

dare to be a Daniel.

Amen.

But as I said

at the beginning

that's not the point

of the book.

What we see here

is that Daniel's

faithful presence

is only made possible

because of God's

faithful presence.

And you see it

like a drumbeat

again and again

and again.

Verse 2

God gave Jehoiakim

into Nebuchadnezzar's hand.

Verse 9

God gave Daniel

favor with the officials

in Babylon.

Verse 17

God gave Daniel

and his friends

learning and skill

beyond anyone else

in Babylon.

God is in control

he's the hero

of the story.

God gave.

God gave.

God gave.

And ultimately

what does this

point us toward?

God gave us

his son.

The one who had

an ultimate

and perfect

faithful presence.

The one who

fully entered in

became in every way

thoroughly

like all of us

and yet remained

perfectly faithful

to his father

even though it led

him straight to the cross

to die for us

to reconcile us

to himself.

So the point

we leave with

is this

it is only possible

for us to have

a faithful presence

in this world

because God

in Jesus Christ

and the power

of the Holy Spirit

has a faithful presence

with us.

Let's pray.

Our Father

as we said before

we thank you

for your word.

We thank you

that even as we

consider these things

you are present

you are here.

not only with us

but in us.

We ask now

that your Holy Spirit

would surgically

apply your word

to our hearts

in exactly the ways

we need.

We pray this

for our good

but chiefly

for your glory

in your son's name.

Amen.