Living as Christians in an Alien Culture

Daniel 1:1-7

6^th September 2019

Daniel 1:1-2
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 delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.

Last week, I suggested that the British church in our generation lives in cultural exile, in a society whose values are so different from our own that we feel uncomfortable. This week, I'll talk abut how we should live as Christians in such a non-Christian country.

Firstly, we must accept that this really is the situation. We must no longer pretend, even to ourselves, that we and our beliefs have the respect they used to have. We can no longer expect the nation where we live to think what the Bible says is an appropriate or useful reason to believe something or do something. We need to learn humility. We cannot expect contemporary British people to respect us as their religious and moral teachers. They see us as followers of one false, pointless and potentially harmful religion among many others.

Secondly, we should remember that God is the Lord of history. What happens, happens because God ordained that it would happen. When the first two verses of the book of Daniel describe Nebuchadnezzar's first invasion of Judah, they say "the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand". Nebuchadnezzar was a powerful king and a great general, but it wasn't his money or his army that defeated Judah. God gave him the victory over God's people. Whatever happens to us is God's doing.

Thirdly, we should remember why God ordained our exile. Judah went into exile because they were lukewarm towards God, and willing to compromise their morality and to worship that which is not divine. The British church surely is guilty of the same. Until the majority of the English church believes the Bible and seeks to obey it, we will surely remain in a non-Christian society. How can we persuade our neighbours to adopt God's values, turn from their sin and embrace the Gospel, if we don't believe the Bible ourselves?

Fourthly, we should remember that these things are temporary. Through Jeremiah, God promised that exile would last only 70 years. God has plans to prosper us, to give us hope and a future. Jesus Christ promised He will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). I don't know how long our cultural exile will last, until God comes to Britain again in revival power, and hundreds of thousands are saved from their sin, and the moral climate of our nation changes for the better, but I'm convinced He will, one day.

Fifthly, we should pay attention to another important and revealing aspect of Jeremiah's letter to the exiles. It begins:

Jeremiah 29:4-7
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

We are in cultural exile, and God has put us here. It is His judgement on His people. Now we live in a strange land, we should settle down and accept the new reality. We should seek the peace and prosperity of the people we live amongst. We should pray for our neighbours because if they prosper, we will prosper.

But we must never adopt their values or desert our God.

Daniel 1:3-7
Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelite from the royal family and the nobility - young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.
Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

Nebuchadnezzar demanded the best of the best, La Crème de La Crème, for his service. And Ashpenaz chose Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, among others. Daniel and his friends were good people. They hadn't abandoned their God or compromised their beliefs. But they, too, were in exile. They were probably around 15 years old.

They would be trained for three years – the length of a modern university degree – and then work for the Babylonian government. We cannot ignore or divorce ourselves from the political reality around us, but must engage with it.

They had to learn the language and literature of the Babylonians. That literature contained a lot of things that were false, and a lot that was demonic. But they learnt it. And we must study contemporary British culture, although we find parts of it distasteful. We must seek to understand the way our countrymen think and speak and write. We must not cut ourselves off from the culture around us. We cannot help a culture if we won't engage with it, or if all we ever do is criticise it.

The Babylonians changed their names.

• "Daniel" means "God is my judge". His name was changed to Belteshazzar, which means "Protect his life" but which includes a reference to the Babylonian god Bel, also called Marduk.
• Hananiah" means "Jehovah is gracious". His name was changed to "Shadrach" which probably means "commanded by Aku" or "Fearful of Aku" (Aku was the Babylonian moon god).
• Mishael" means "Who is what God is" (that is, there is no God like Yahweh). His name was changed to "Meshach" which probably means "Who is what Aku is?", the same as his old name, but with the false God Aku replacing the true God.
• "Azariah" means "Yahweh has helped". His name was changed to "Abednego", which means "servant of Nebo" (Nebo was the Babylonian god of wisdom).

In each case, a name which honoured the one true God was replaced by a name which invoked a false god.

Daniel and his friends accepted the name changes, probably with some considerable distaste. But when the King gave them some of the food from his own table, they made a stand. And we'll look at that next time.

There are some issues on which we can submit to the governing authorities, and there are some issues where we really can't. May God grant us wisdom to know which are which, courage to stand up for godly values whenever we must, and humility to live in a culture that's not of our choosing, and generally not honouring to God, until He comes in revival power and delivers us again.