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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
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Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
Let’s start with a reading from Second Kings. In Second Kings chapter 24, the Bible says, “At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, as his servants were besieging it. Then Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officers went out to the king of Babylon; and the king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, took him prisoner. And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, and he cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had said. Also he carried into captivity all Jerusalem: all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land” [Second Kings 24 verses 10 through 14].
This is what happened to the Jews in the Old Testament. The sad thing is that they brought this war on themselves. They turned away from God. They served idols. Their lives were full of sin. God warned them that he would punish them. The prophet Jeremiah preached to these people for 40 years. He told them their nation would fall if they didn't repent. He even told them which nation would attack – the Babylonians. He warned the Jews, that many of them would die, and others would be taken as captives back to the land of Babylon and remain there for 70 years. But they didn't listen. And they suffered because of it.
Daniel was one of those captives. He was a young man in Jerusalem when the Babylonians attacked. His world changed overnight when they took him to this strange land. The book of Daniel tells us how he made it all those years in Babylon. Here’s how the story begins. In Daniel chapter 1 the Bible says, “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 gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god. Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king” [Daniel 1 verses 1 through 5].
Everything in Babylon was different from what he was used to back in Jerusalem. The land was different. The weather was different. The buildings were different. The money was different. The people were different. They wore strange clothes, spoke a different language, ate different food, and had their own customs. The government was different too. Daniel had to get used to that because he was there to be trained to work for the government. The people in Babylon head a different history. They had a different economy and education. They had different forms of entertainment and medical care. And there's something else that was a huge difference between what Daniel grew up with back in Jerusalem and what he was having to see in Babylon. The religion was very different. Back home in Jerusalem, Daniel was used to seeing the temple with the priests and the offerings and services at the temple. The law of Moses was the law of Israel. It's true that many of the Jews had turned away from God and we were worshiping idols. But the temple was still a landmark. It was still a symbol of the true God. And we know from what we see in the book of Daniel that he had been taught the law of Moses. He believed in the one true God. But now in Babylon, he's a young man, and all of the sudden he's thrown into a religious environment that's completely different. The people in Babylon didn't worship the true God. They didn't know about the Old Testament Scriptures and the law of Moses. Their beliefs were not the same. Their worship was not the same. Their values and their morals were not the same. The Babylonians were big into idolatry and fortunetelling and astrology and all kinds of superstition. It must've been a shock for Daniel to see all this. We don't know how much he had seen of the idolatry that the Jews back home were guilty of, but it must have been hard for him to get used to seeing and hearing all this. It may have made him sick to his stomach. But there was nothing he could do about it. There was no way he could get back home. There's no way he could stop these people from talking and living like they did. There was no way he could change all of them. He was there to stay for a long time. It's hard to say exactly how long he was there. It may have been 50 or 60 years. We know that thousands of Jews in Babylon went back home to Jerusalem after the 70 years of captivity were over. That's what we see in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. But Daniel was never mentioned in the number of the Jews who went home. He may have died in Babylon.
So here is a young man who had his whole life before him. He came from a noble family. He had royal blood. He was intelligent, educated, and talented. He might've been destined for high positions in Judah, if this hadn't happened. But now the life that would've been has been taken from him. There is no turning back. All he can do is go forward. All he can do is make the best out of a bad situation.
Does this remind you of another young man in the Bible? I'm thinking about Joseph. He was 17 years old when his brothers betrayed him and sold him as a slave. He woke up one day thinking it was going to be like any other, and by the end of the day he had lost his freedom, and he was on his way to the strange land of Egypt to be sold to someone he had never met. He was just like Daniel. His world changed overnight. He had to learn to speak a different language. He had to adjust to different customs, a different government, different buildings, different clothes, different food – different everything. And one thing you'll find about Daniel and Joseph is that they kept a good attitude. A lot of people would've been angry and very bitter. Now, obviously, if we'd been in their shoes, we wouldn't be happy about a change like that. We wouldn't shout for joy. But at some point, we'd have to make a decision either to live in misery or make the best of the situation. We'd have to decide either to keep looking backward or to move forward. That's one of the lessons we're going to see as we go through the book of Daniel. There are changes that happen in your life that you can't help. You don't choose them. There's nothing you can do to reverse them and go back to the way things were. And there's no way you can forget the past. But you have to make the same decision that Joseph and Daniel faced. And maybe these lessons will help you and me have a good attitude when those life changes happen.
Here's something else to think about. What do you ask young people about their future? You ask them what they're going to do for a living, right? You say, "What are you going to school to be?” or “What are you going to do when you graduate?” Most young people have some kind of plans about what they want to do. Well, here's Daniel in Babylon and he doesn't have a choice. The Babylonians brought him to Babylon for a reason. They didn't bring all the Jews back to Babylon. They brought back the ones they could use, the ones that would benefit them, the ones they could put to work. They figured out that Daniel was an intelligent and talented young man. So they decided to give him a job in the government. And we're talking about high-level, important government positions. But he had to be trained first. He had to learn the language, the laws, the history and the culture. So Daniel was not like a high school student today. We usually say to a young person in high school, “Do you plan to go to school somewhere after you graduate?" We ask that young person, “What field are you going to be studying?” That young person looks at the options and makes a choice. They’re usually looking forward to it. They're excited about it. But not Daniel. He was told what kind of education he would have in Babylon. He was told what kind of work he would do. And that's the kind of work he would do evidently for the rest of his life.
So here is this young Jewish man in a strange country far away from home. Can you imagine what that was like? Some of you have been away from home for a long time. Some of you may have been out of the country. You may have lived in another country for a while, long enough to get really homesick. If you have, then you can relate to Daniel's situation. But even if you haven't been outside of this country, you can still learn from his story. Your life can turn upside down and change dramatically, even if you live in the same place.
So the first thing the Babylonians do with Daniel is to give him an education—a Chaldean education. Look at verse four again. The Bible says Daniel and these other Hebrews were “young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.” The Babylonians didn’t put just anybody in these positions. They had standards. The young men had to be smart. They had to be nice-looking. They had to be quick to catch on to what they were taught. They had to have ability. Why? Because they were going to serve in the king’s palace. They had to be trustworthy. They had to be knowledgeable and well-spoken. The king had a lot of responsibilities and he needed able young men like these. You might say, “Why didn’t they put Babylonians instead of captured foreigners in these offices?” Well, the fact that they were captured was an advantage. These Hebrew young men could adjust better than older men. We handle change better when we’re young. We have more resilience. And, these young men don’t have wives. They’re not married. They won’t marry because the Babylonians made them eunuchs. That’s an awful thing to think about. Here are these Hebrew young men whose lives have been ripped away from their home. They’ve been forced to live in a strange land. Whatever plans they may have had are gone because the Babylonians have their own plans for them. And if they had plans to marry and have children those hopes are gone now. That won’t happen, and there’s nothing they can do about it. They can’t go back to who they were. They will never enjoy marriage and the family like other young men or like their parents did. Can you imagine the disappointment? Can you imagine the hurt? Can you imagine the anger the young men may have had or at least may have been tempted to have? It would've been easy to become bitter. So this is just another thing we have to admire about Daniel's attitude. There's no indication that he ever became bitter and hateful. He didn't wallow in self-pity and waste the talent God gave him. He did the best with what he had and made something of himself. And more importantly than any of this, he didn't turn his back on God. He didn't blame God. He kept his faith in God, and that was his anchor in the sea of change he was facing.
Verse four tells us that Daniel and the other Hebrew young men had to learn "the language and literature of the Chaldeans.” They were smart young men. They would need to speak the language of this new land which was the Aramaic dialect. In their work at the palace, they would be administrators with people under them. They would need to converse with high-ranking officials and princes from other countries. They would have to read all kinds of documents. This is interesting because the Jewish nation changed in Babylon in that way. It was not just Daniel and the other Hebrew young men that learned the Aramaic language. All the other Jews by the thousands in Babylon learned how to speak Aramaic. They had to because they live side-by-side with people who spoke this language. They did business with the Babylonian people. So the Jews in Babylon picked up the Aramaic language and took it back home with them when they returned in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. And if you read Nehemiah chapter 8 carefully when they read the Scriptures, it looks like they use translators to translate the old Hebrew, which the Scriptures were written in, into the Aramaic that the people were now speaking. But Daniel and his friends had to be especially fluent in this new language. And what we find in the book of Daniel is that they learned it and learned to speak it very well.
Verse 4 also says Daniel and his friends were taught the literature of the Chaldeans. They were required to read the books of this culture. They probably read a lot about the history of the Chaldean empire, the politics, the philosophy, the economy, the science, the medicine, the agriculture and many other aspects of Babylonian life. So you could say that the Babylonians are doing all they can to make Daniel into a Babylonian—a good Babylonian. They are trying to re-educate Daniel. They are indoctrinating him. So again, try to imagine the situation. Here is Daniel, a Hebrew. We know that he's been taught the Old Testament Scriptures to some extent because he knows the law of Moses. We don't know what other books he read back in Jerusalem, but now he's reading a different set of books. He's being made to read these books. And what we find at the end of this chapter is that after he goes through this training, he has to answer questions about what he's learned. In other words, they test him before they give him a job. And the test, as we'll see, is before the king himself. So there's a lot of pressure on Daniel. He has to study and study hard. He's being trained for a very important position, so the Babylonians are going to give him the best education, and they expect him to give his best. Now, Daniel surely read some things in these books he didn't agree with. But he was expected to know them. For that matter, he saw and heard things every day he didn't agree with, but there was nothing he could do about it. So we have to admire the patience of the young man. And we have to admire his faith and strength and the wisdom that he showed in this perplexing situation.
But it's not just their minds that the king is interested in. He wants them to be healthy and fit. So, the king himself gave orders that these young men be fed with good food – actually, the best food you could get. You see, the Bible says Daniel and his friends were expected to eat the food that the king ate. Now they were very few people that enjoyed that kind of luxury in Babylon. That tells you again how important their training is and it tells you how important their jobs will be. The king wants them to be at their best. He wants them to look their best. He wants them to do their best. And that means that he wanted them to be as healthy as possible. The Bible says in verse 5, “And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king.” A lot of people would've said, “That’s great! We get to eat what the king is eating!” You know it had to be the best food available. You know the king had the best cooks and the best food money could buy. And he values the work these young men are going to do so highly that he wants them fed well. He's grooming them for their new career.
But although a lot of people would've been excited about feasting on this food every day, that's actually where the problem came in for Daniel and his friends. The law of Moses taught that there were some foods Jews couldn't eat. For instance, they couldn't eat pork and other foods. You read about that in Deuteronomy chapter 14 and some other passages. The law of Moses also taught them to stay away from wine, that is alcoholic wine. Proverbs 23 verse 31 says, “Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly.” So what happens if the king sends them food they’re not supposed to eat? What if he sends them wine? Well, that’s what happened. And that’s one of the first tests of Daniel’s faith we read about. And, think about the situation. They're young. They're away from their homeland. There are other Jews in Babylon, but they're not in the palace. How would they know if Daniel and the other young men were eating foods and drinking wine which the law of God forbad? There are a lot of people who do things around strangers that they won't do around people they know, especially family and neighbors and friends who disapprove. The prodigal son in Luke chapter 15 wanted to get as far away from his father and family as he could to live a wild life, so he went into a far country. Sometimes that happens today, even with Christians, who move because of a job or the military, and they end up in a place where they don't know anybody. They don't have that feeling of accountability to the community and to their network of people like they had back home. And there are some strong temptations when that happens. Now the good thing about Daniel and his friends is that they had each other. And they shared the same convictions. As the book of Daniel unfolds, you see that they would not give up their faith in God. They held on to that faith.
As it turned out, the food the king ordered for them was not allowed under the law of Moses. So now we have a dilemma. Daniel is living in another country. He's under a different law and a different government now. The king is at the top of that government. And what he says, goes. For all practical purposes, he is the law. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse four, “Where the word of a king is, there is power; and who may say to him, ‘What are you doing?’” So the law of the land ordered Daniel to eat this food and drink this wine. But the law of God told Daniel not to eat that food or drink that wine. Then there's something else that was involved. According to the Babylonian officer that was over Daniel, if Daniel refused the king’s food, the king could have him [the officer, and maybe Daniel] executed. Kings back in those days killed people for less than that. So the pressure is really on Daniel and his friends.
Here’s what the Bible says he did. “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, "I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king” [Daniel 1 verses 8 through ten]. Notice how Daniel handled this situation. He decided that he wasn’t going to eat this food or drink the wine. But, he didn’t say to this Babylonian officer, “You tell the king he can eat it but I’m not going to touch it, and don’t send it to me again.” He knew it wasn’t wise to upset the king, but, on the other hand, he would not disobey the Lord. So instead of telling the officer, he asked him. You’ll see Daniel doing this again in the next chapter. That’s not compromise. It wasn’t cowardice on his part. Daniel was using his head.
And this is a very important lesson for us as we move forward in the changes we face today. We must remember that there are some things we can change and others we cannot change. There are some things that we’re not used to seeing. There are some customs and ways we may not like. The world has changed. It’s not like it was when you were growing up. The thing to be wise about is this: some changes are good, some changes are bad, and some changes don’t matter as far as Christianity is concerned. We must know the difference between a matter of custom and a matter of faith. We must remind each other of what the battle is and what it’s not. Don’t let politicians tell you what matters most. And, don’t overreact to abuses of power in the government. There have always been bad people in governments everywhere. Be careful not to let bias and prejudice cloud your judgment. You may not like some things you see, but always ask, “Is that a sin, or is it something I don’t like, something I’m not used to?” I’ve seen this in different cultures around the world. I remember being in a foreign country on a mission trip. The people were very hospitable. They were good Christian people. But they were people. They were not perfect. After being there for some time I got to see the human side a little better. One church in this country was made up of people from different nationalities. Some from from India. Others were from China. The Chinese members celebrated Chinese New Year. When a Chinese brother made the church announcements, he usually said something about Chinese New Year. One Indian brother told me he didn’t like that. He said the Indian Christians don’t celebrate that holiday. They felt left out. So here I was, l an American that didn’t have a preference either way. But there I was in the middle of a clash of cultures. Now if you live in America, you just say, “What’s the big deal?” You say it’s not a big thing. But let’s be honest. There are routines you’re used to seeing. There are customs you’re familiar with. There are ways of doing things that have become patterns and traditions. But that doesn’t mean that’s the only way to to it. That doesn’t put those customs on the level of Scripture. National holidays are an example. That’s true in the United States. There have always been debates about some holidays like Easter and Halloween and Christmas. There always will be. And I do call them national holidays, not necessarily religious observances. This is where we must use discernment as we apply the Scriptures.
Let's use an example from the Bible. It's about eating certain kinds of food. That's the question Daniel faced. The king wanted him to eat food that the law of God said not to eat. He stood his ground. But, did Daniel refuse to eat any Babylonian food? Of course not. He didn't think it was wrong to eat anything the Babylonians ate, just the foods God specifically told them not to eat. Now let's take that same law of Moses up to New Testament times. When Jesus came, the Jews were living under the law of Moses. They were certain foods they wouldn't eat, most notably, to us at least, pork and other foods as well. Those foods were called “unclean” in the law of Moses. That’s why Peter said in Acts 10 verse 14, “I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” But Jesus came to do away with the love of Moses and institute the New Testament. When He died on the cross, the Bible says he nailed the old law of Moses to the cross [Colossians 2 verse 14]. So Christians were not under that law. But that transition took time. And try to put yourself in the shoes of people in the early church. After Acts 10, Jews and Gentiles both became members of the church. That meant there were Jewish members and Gentile members in some of the same congregations. Now the law of Moses technically ended at the cross, but it took years for Christians to adjust. So imagine the situation in a lot of churches back then. The Jews in a congregation had never eaten pork, let’s say. But the Gentile members had no problem eating those foods. Now imagine what it was like for them to eat together. If a Gentile family in the church invited a Jewish family into their home, they would be hospitable and serve a meal. Now of course it took time for Jews to get used to going into the home of Gentiles, but let’s just say that they’re past that point and they have no problem with being in each other’s company. Now these Jews have believed as long as they can remember that it was wrong to eat these “unclean” foods [and, remember, we’re not talking about food that was dirty or unsanitary; we’re talking about food God had forbidden and it’s “unclean” in that sense]. It’s hard to do something you’ve been told all your life is wrong. But what if the Gentile family didn’t realize they felt this way? What if they weren’t thinking about it, or, just didn’t think it was big issue? If Gentile Christians tried to serve these Jewish Christians food that was ceremonially unclean all those years, there was a problem. Here’s another illustration. Think about Christians in those days eating together in what we call a potluck dinner or a dinner on the ground. Jewish members and Gentile members would bring different foods. And we’re not talking about food as a matter of preference. We’re talking about one group of Christians who think it’s wrong to eat certain foods and another group who have no problem with it.
Now Paul wrote about this issue in Romans chapter 14. He said this is a matter of personal liberty as a Christian. You can eat or not eat these foods under the law of Christ. If your conscience is against it, then don’t eat it. That’s what he told them. But if your conscience allows you to eat those foods, then it’s okay if you eat them. But here’s what he warned. Don’t condemn each other. If you’re a Jew, don’t condemn Gentile members of the church for eating these foods. If you’re a Gentile Christian, don’t condemn the Jews, and, don’t try to persuade them to go against their conscience and eat these foods. He said, “Do not destroy the work of God for food” [Romans 14 verse 20]. That is, don’t destroy the congregation over things like this. Now, today, we may not disagree about food, but we differ on a lot of other things. There are all kinds of disagreements in any congregation. There are different opinions on all kinds of issues. Some of those issues are small and others are huge. Some of them matter and others don’t. Some can wait and some can’t wait. Some are important, some are not important, and some are more important than others. Some things are matters of faith and others are matters of judgment. And we need to be honest and humble as we look at these issues. We need to study the Bible and logically interpret it and apply it. And as the world grows smaller, and brings people from different backgrounds and cultures together more, we Christians will have to be keenly aware of what the Bible teaches on these topics. It may not name the specific thing you’re wondering about, but it will give you the principles you need to deal with it. This has always been needed, but now it’s more crucial than ever.
This does not mean that we are to go along with and agree with anything and everything. We cannot do that. The Bible says in Romans 12 verse 2, “Do not be conformed to this world.” James 4 verse 4 says, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” SO there are things we must not do. There are things that are wrong in any culture, for any people, anywhere at any time. We must not compromise what the Bible teaches. If the Bible says something is right, then it’s right. If it says something is wrong, then it’s wrong. And the Bible does not change.
Now this is where Christians often say, “But how can I know the difference?” By the Bible. By the Word of God. By study and prayer. By rightly dividing the word of truth like Second Timothy 2 verse 15 says. By remembering that God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness [Second Peter 1 verse 3]. By remembering that the Bible has the revelation from God we need for the questions we have [Second Timothy 3 verse 16 and 17].
So let’s not tell ourselves this is too hard. Let’s not get discouraged. God saw all this coming. And, He knows how it will all turn out. And, He knows how you and I will learn in the process of all this change! His plan is for Christians to grow, and in that sense change for the better, in times of change. Let’s read the New Testament more. Let’s think about what the early Christians faced. Talk about change! Talk about diversity! Talk about culture clashes! You and I are not dealing with anything new. The situation may be new to you and me, but it’s not new. Christians long ago faced the same problems and dealt with the same issues. They just had different names for them and argued about them without the internet.
And that’s why we’re looking at the book of Daniel. It’s amazing that the very first challenge to his faith is what we’re dealing with today. Daniel didn’t try to change everything in Babylon. There was little he could change. But he made sure Babylon didn’t change him. We’re in the same predicament. We can change some things by the grace of God, but there’s a lot we can’t. But we can make sure the world doesn’t change us.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.