Faith in a tough culture

Daniel 1:1-21

Russia invades America in 2025. The brightest kids from rich and influential families are taken as prisoners back to Russia to be educated and indoctrinated. Parents are powerless to do anything about it. It sounds impossible, but it is the beginning of the book of Daniel. Daniel and other teenagers from royal and wealthy families are torn from their families and taken to Babylon. They have to learn how to keep their faith in a godless culture. Our children face many of the same problems. Being a Christian in most schools is not cool. Our kids are thrust into a culture of swearing, music that glorifies sex, and selfish behavior. Daniel can teach all of us a lot about how to survive and thrive in such a culture.

It was an honor to be trained as an officer in the king’s palace, but it was also indoctrination into Babylonian ways. They were to speak Babylonian and would have Babylonian names. “They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king's service.” (v.5)  No where does it say that they staged any protest or refused to learn the culture. The text intimates that they learned well (v.19) for they became the top of the class. To be useful to the Lord, they needed to understand the culture. They needed to be among the Babylonians and become Babylonian if they were to minister to people in this foreign land. They had been given an honor and they would use it for the Lord.

Daniel and his friends did find places, however, where the culture went against their faith in God. The first had to do with the Babylonian food and the food laws of the Bible. “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.” (v.8) Later, Daniel and his friends would refuse to worship idols or treat kings as gods. They gladly learned the culture of Babylon, but refused to go against God’s clear will. They knew that God had a reason for His laws and that the Bible’s laws were designed to protect them. They never screamed about it and never demanded that Babylonians live like Jews. They just quietly set a course to follow the Lord.

Daniel sought to courteously teach others that God’s ways were the best. He proposed a test to show that God’s food laws brought health and vitality. “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.  Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food,” (v.12) His test was gracious. He did not expect the Babylonians to understand the Jewish ways or become Jews. He was courteous to those in authority and was willing to accept the consequences if the test showed God’s ways were not better. He could do so because he was confident that the Lord knew what He was doing. The test was a way to show God’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of the world.

Daniel and his friends walked a fine line. Our kids do so as well. They need to learn all that they can from school. They need to excel at their classes so that they can serve others and have the influence that comes from knowing science, math and literature. They need to be part of the culture, but hold on to their faith. Many kids today wander through school with no morals or direction. Christian children have been given a moral compass that will help them to succeed in life. They will be the people that employers desire. Their honesty, trustworthiness, and hard work will make them valuable. As Christians who live in the culture, but do not give in to it, our children can excel in the world.

Such children will impact their world for the Lord. The last verse shows us a lot about Daniel’s lifespan and influence. “And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus” (v.21) Daniel would have a 70 year span of service for four kings in several nations. Each of those kings would learn about the true God from Daniel in a powerful way. We and our children have to be part of the world if we are going to impact it. We have to work among people if they are going to listen to our Jesus. Our struggle is to live in the world and keep our faith intact. If we can do that, we will have a tremendous advantage because we have the character and values of our Lord and can show our beloved Lord to those around us.

• Where do you face pressure to conform to the world? What ways could you use to show that the Lord’s ways are better to those around you?