For Daniel and his friends everything that was familiar and comforting changed overnight when they were taken from their home in Jerusalem into exile in Babylon.
For all of us the last couple of years has seen nearly everything familiar and comforting also change. The only difference being we haven’t gone anywhere. It seems just as for Daniel and his friends we are more conscious than ever before that as God’s people we are strangers living in a strange land. This was already becoming clear even before the covid pandemic and the dramatic curtailing of our freedoms. Our society has changed all around us quicker than we could have ever imagined. Suddenly as a minority group within an increasingly secularised society we are finding out what it feels like to be outsiders. And as a result, we are also increasingly facing situations where like Daniel we have to choose whether to go along with the values and behaviours of this strange new world or when and how we draw a line and take our stand for God and His Truth.
Main Points:
- God Is Present In His Sovereign Role
- God Is Present In His Silent Role
- God Is Present In His Subversive Role
- God Is Present In His Sustaining Role
Application Questions:
- Psalm 137 was written about God’s peoples experience of exile. What does it tell you about the way they were feeling in exile? In what ways does it seem that as God’s people we are like exiles living in a strange land in the UK and Ireland today?
- Consider the nature of the Babylonian re-education programme in verses 3-7. In what ways does our society today seek to squeeze us into its mould?
- We see Daniel drawing his line in verse 8. Where have you, or where do you expect, you may need to draw a line as you seek to faithfully follow Jesus Christ?
- How does Daniel 1 encourage you as you seek to do that?