It was like he blinked his eyes and suddenly he was living in another land. Everything was different; nothing was the same; it was “anything goes” and everyone was going along with it. The surrounding world was changing so rapidly—and in tandem was the mounting pressure to change with it. Further, instead of committing to God who is One, the masses were conforming to gods who were many.
Such was the case with a young man named Daniel and his three friends, who we find near the end of the Old Testament. Judah was besieged by Babylon and among the many captives, only the best and brightest were reserved to serve in the king’s courts, for the king’s purposes, to advance the king’s plans. Soon enough the entire population—including the Hebrew people of God—succumbed to the pressures of parroting the prevailing culture and the entailments were devastating: A nation that originally set out to be set apart forfeited who they were as children of God in order to fit in.
Subsequently, the question of the day was this:
In an unfamiliar place that is unfriendly to your God, how do you remain unfettered in your faith?
Don’t look now, but Daniel’s dilemma then is our dilemma today and the scriptural account is eerily similar to our modern-day drama in that there are still gods that actively claw for our allegiance and compete for our commitment. Babylon is long since buried, but the idols that have collapsed entire kingdoms and countries have made it to America. They’re alive and well. While these gods aren’t cast in silver, bronze, or gold they’re woven into the fabric of our culture. These gods aren’t as visible, but they’re just as viable since the tactic remains the same: They tout life only to end up taking it.
That said, how do we battle fiercely rather than bow willingly?
Through this month, join us as we engage the prophetic text of the Old Testament to sojourn with Daniel and the people of Judah. In it, we’ll discover that Babylon isn’t that far away…and neither is the power of God for those whose lives declare God their one-and-only, not their one-of-many.
Sunday’s coming,
