Word of Salvation – October 2015

 

Thriving On Vegetables

Text: Daniel 1 – By Rev. Pieter Tuit

 

Thriving on vegetables. It seems to be an unusual title for a sermon. It is a title that may sound appealing to those of us who loves vegetables. However, some of us, who prefer meat and starches may find this title distasteful. But in this chapter we do hear the story of four young men, who, though going against the cultural accepted diet of their time, thrived on vegetables under God’s blessings.

With this title TRIVING ON VEGETABLES, I am starting a series on this interesting and perhaps even strange book of the Bible. For the next couple months we will see how God revealed himself to Daniel, his friends, his people within the context of their times. We will see how they responded in faithfulness to God yet without abandoning their position in the midst of their culture and society. We will see how they interacted with the world around them and also how the world around them interacted with them.

It is my hope and prayer that a study of this book will help us meet the challenges of how to live godly in our day and age. I trust that this book will gives us direction to the question of how do we live as believers in the God of the Bible in an unbelieving world. How do we live positively and godly in a world where more and more of our cultural, educational and recreational institutions and organizations are becoming hostile and intolerant of a Biblical world and life view?

As I have pointed out in my series how than shall we live the Bible gives us a variety of models of how to live godly in an ungodly society. We will look at this again in this series on Daniel. Because of this the church has given different answers over the centuries to the question of godly living in an ungodly age.

Some churches have advocated a word flight mentality where the church and its members tried to stay as isolated as possible from the world. Some even develop, what I call a siege mentality and become very combative about things going on in the world and consequently very negative. Reformed churches, especially those in the Kuyperian and Calvinistic tradition, have advocated a world engagement and changing the world mentality, where the Christian, through Christian organizations, tries to bring the claims of Christ to bear on all of life. This still is happening today through our Christian school movement and organizations like the Australian Christian Lobby and Christian political parties.

There is also the Anabaptist approach that does not so much try to engage the world and change the world. Instead it tries to model what life is like, individually and communually, when it is lived in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ The Christian way of life is there for the world to see but the Christian does not actively try to change the world.

It has and continues to happen when there is very little or no difference between the life of the world and the life lived by the church and its members. This can happen both in a conservative or in a progressive or liberal way. When this happens we hear very little or no distinction between the voice of the world and its institutions and that of the church and the Christian.

Some Christians, even some in the Reformed tradition, continue to dream of a Christian theocratic society where the laws of Scripture become the law of the land and where the government is distinctively Christian. The former article 36 of the Belgic confessions before it was changed through the influence of Abraham Kuyper in 1906 had a distinct theocratic flavour about the role of the government in promoting true faith and religion. We hope to touch on all these aspects in this series on Daniel.

From the beginning therefore I will not encourage you to become like Daniel. Just like I will not encourage you to become like Elijah who took a much more hostile approach to the government of his day. Scripture is not written to make us like Daniel, or Elijah, or John the Baptist, or like Abraham. Scripture is written to help us believe in Christ and to become Christlike, godly in the midst of the situation in life we find ourselves in. This book Daniel, can help us because also this book was inspired by the Holy Spirit and is profitable for teaching and instruction in righteousness. Also this book helps us to become equipped for every good work and do this to the glory of God and the coming of his kingdom.

Before we delve deeper into the message there is another things I would like to get out of the way. A good number of evangelical Christians have taken the title of my message as the message from Daniel One. They also have come up with a whole diet industry based on the fact that Daniel and his three friends thrived on vegetables. How many of you have heard of the Daniel diet?

If you google Daniel diet on your computer you get many references to the Daniel diet plan. Sometimes it is also referred to as the God diet plan. One advocate for the Daniel diet has this to say. “ In 20 years of clinically treating sick and overweight people, this diet is the single most effective tool I have ever witnessed or used. It is, in my opinion, the solution to the quest that so many of us are on, and that is to find and keep perfect health, weight and fitness.

It is this author’s belief that Daniel in chapter one, takes on the challenge to show the value of a natural diet and goes on to prove its success. He believes that the so called Daniel diet helps us to get back to the fundamentals of health and healing. He sees the Daniel diet traversing the centuries between the Bible and modern life and that it teaches us biblical principles of natural health and healing.

Even a well-known pastor like Rick Warren of the Saddle back mega church, the seventh largest church in the USA and who wrote the book The purpose driven life has also written a book The Daniel Plan: 40 days to a healthier life promising that by using this diet you will become a better, and more attractive, and less bulky Christian.

Maybe some of you have come this evening expecting me to preach that we should do away with Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, the Atkins Diet or Michelle Bridges and instead follow the Daniel Diet. If you expect that I can tell you from the outset that you will be disappointed. I am not going to promote the Daniel Diet as a divinely inspired diet regime. Using the Daniel diet plan may not be a bad thing to do for your health but it is not the right response to the message of Daniel One. Following the Daniel diet is not a response of obedience to the message of Daniel one. It also shows, I believe, a very problematic use of Holy Scripture. Scripture was not written to teach us how to diet.

The message of Daniel one is not that we should thrive on vegetables. Daniel and his friends did not thrive because of eating vegetables. Rather they thrived, they did well because they were obedient to God. In that way they were obedient like John de Baptist who ate locusts and honey or Elijah who was fed meat and bread by the ravens. It is interesting that we do not have books with the title Elijah diet or John the Baptist diet. I guess thriving on being obedient to God is perhaps a better title for this message. I hope that this will be at the heart of what you will take home tonight. Daniel and his friends thrived because of God and because they were obedient to God.

Daniel one starts with giving some historical background. We read how Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. King Jehoiakim was taken prisoner and the temple was robbed. Chapter one makes a special point of pointing out that articles of the temple of the God of heaven and earth and the God of his people were placed in the temple of the god of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also took many of the leading families into exile in Babylon. Later in 586 Nebuchadnezzar would come again and destroy the temple and the city of Jerusalem and carried most of the people of into captivity.

Nebuchadnezzar had his own imperial purposes with his conquests. However the Scriptures show us that God used him to punish his people for their idolatry, their unfaithfulness and their disobedience. God’s people had been warned by prophets such as Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah. These prophets had pointed out that they could only thrive as a people if they would be faithful and obedient to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The prophets also warned them what the consequences of their disobedience would be.

Nebuchadnezzar was a wily operator. By taking the leaders away he at the same time weakened the whole culture and structure of Judah significantly. He continued this strategy with the people he brought to Babylon. He gave an order that the cream of Judah, the cream of the royal and other lading families, bright and handsome young man would come to the palace to be educated in the culture, language and literature of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar could have taken another approach. He could have made life very difficult for God’s people. He could have oppressed them, persecuted them, and held them backwards. Instead he took a friendlier approach. However, and this should not be overlooked. His aim was to make them Babylonians. His aim was to make them loyal to him, and the Babylonian way of life. This also meant that he wanted them to become loyal to the gods of Babylon.

Congregation, throughout history those who oppose God have tried various strategies to make God’s people forget their identity and their loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of us with grey hair can still remember how communist countries tried to get rid of the church through outright persecution. Many Christians lost their lives in the prisons and gulags of the Soviet republic. There are still many of our Christian brothers and sisters languishing in the concentration camps of North Korea. However, the result was often that the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church.

However, if we take the church in Poland as an example she was probably doing better in the time when the communist party was in control than now when there is religious freedom.

The enemy has usually been more successful by not directly opposing the church but by making the non-Christian way of life look appealing, inviting, worthy of following. It is especially through the institutions of education, entertainment and recreation, that the enemy has been successful. The promises of these institutions are often so strong that many of God’s people completely succumb to them and lose not only their distinctiveness, but also their faith.

This is why Christian education, through Christian schools continues to be an important counter strategy. Christians therefore should be on their guard to maintain the independence of their Christian schools and thinking so that they do not become like the culture and the philosophies around them. Yes, here in Australia we can on the one hand be grateful for public support for Christian and independent schools. At the same time we must be careful that it does not come with too many strings attached and that it does not lead to the curriculum of Christian schools losing its Christian distinctiveness.

We might think what business did Daniel and his friends have to become part of the court of Nebuchadnezzar. Shouldn’t they have objected and even be willing to die so that they could maintain their distinctiveness and purity.

Well Daniel and his friends did not have much choice in the matter. At the same time they were obedient to the word of the Lord. The prophet Jeremiah had very clearly told the exiles that they were to be a blessing to the nation that had brought them into captivity. We find this in Jeremiah 29.

Jeremiah had written to God’s people in exile “This is what the LORD [says to the exiles in 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 … 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 … Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you.’ ”

Other prophets, false prophets had preached to God’s people that they had to stay out of the city and pray against the city. They prophecied that God would judge Babylon and that he wanted his people to have nothing to do with it. Jeremiah’s advice as the true prophet of God was just the opposite. Daniel and his friends were obedient to this word of the Lord and the book of Daniel shows this very clearly. Jeremiah’s advice became the blueprint of their lives.

This is why they became part of Nebuchadnezzar’s experiment. They did not isolate themselves from life as it was in those days. At the same time they did not lose their distinctiveness as people of God either. Every time they went to the toilet they were reminded of their circumcision, the sign of the covenant. This covenant told them that their first and primary loyalty was to the God of heaven and earth.

Daniel and his friends did no choose the way of assimilation so that there was no difference between them and the Babylonians. But neither did they choose the way of isolation. Instead, while maintaining their distinctiveness they were engaged in the culture and the politics of their day and age. And in doing so they became part of God’s bigger plans.

They became part of the Baylonian way of life. They became deeply involved, even at the highest political levels. At the same time they did not become Babylonians. They did not bow before the gods of Babel. Instead they remained faithful and obedient to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They became deeply involved, as Jeremiah had instructed the exiles, in the life of the empire, economically and culturally but they did so as God’s covenant people.

Their choice to eat vegetables therefore was not a diet decision. It was a decision of obedience. They did not go on hunger strike. They made it clear to Asphenaz that they wanted to serve Nebuchadnezzar. At the same time they also made it clear that this could not be done at the expense of their obedience to God. They did not assimilate. Neither did they isolate themselves.

Jesus calls his followers to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Jesus wants his followers to be in the world and where possible to be fully engaged in the totality of life in the world. But Jesus wants his followers to do this as those whose primary allegiance is o him and to his will.

Jesus also points to the fact that this way of life, neither assimilation, nor isolation but obedience to him in the midst of life is the way to thrive. We hear him say this in the Beatitudes where he calls his followers blessed in in this way they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We hear him say this even when his followers may, as they do this, face opposition and even persecution. He tells them then to rejoice and be glad. Clearly if you want to thrive in life following Jesus in the midst of this world is the way to go. Yes, there is no other way.

True, dieticians will rightly tell us that we will thrive physically when we eat vegetables. We may even thrive physically when we use the so called Daniel diet. However, deciding to thrive on vegetables is not the way to be obedient to this word of the Lord from Daniel One. The message of Daniel one and of Jesus is that obedience to God in the midst of life is the way to thrive. This reminds us again of that song, Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy or to thrive in Jesus but to trust and obey.

Thriving on being obedient to God in the midst of all of life is God’s will for us This way of life brings it challenges. This way of life brings it choices. Daniel and his friends did not say no to every aspect of Babylonian life. However they did say no to the royal food from the king’s table.

There is the challenge for us and for our lives congregation, what are the things that our culture offers us, or tempts us with that we need to say no to so as not to lose our distinctiveness. There is also the challenge the other way. Are we engaged enough in life in this world so that the world around us can experience the blessings of the gospel. I encourage you to think about these things in the week to come. Amen!