Daniel: faithful in a foreign land

Imagine you've been taken overseas against your will. You're enrolled in an elite school in a new language. They give you a new name. Lunch is provided by the government. Every morning there's a ceremony honouring the nation's gods. Which of those would you go along with? Learning the language? Answering to the new name? Eating the food? Bowing in the ceremony?

That's close to what happened to Daniel and his friends, probably when they were teenagers. They lived as a small minority in a powerful empire that didn't share their faith, and they had to work out, again and again, where to fit in and where to draw the line. Their story is surprisingly useful for anyone trying to follow Jesus in a culture that doesn't.

What you'll learn

• What Babylon expected of Daniel and his friends, and where they said yes and no
• How they said no: respectfully, prayerfully and without hatred
• How Daniel's story points forward to Jesus

Exiles in Babylon

Around 605 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated Judah and took some of its brightest young people back to Babylon (Daniel 1:1–4). Jerusalem was later destroyed in 586 BC. This was the exile: God's people forced to live away from their land.

How should they live? Hide? Fight? Through the prophet Jeremiah, God gave a surprising answer:

"Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper." (Jeremiah 29:7)

Not hide, not fight, but seek the good of Babylon while staying God's people.

Three stories, three pressures

Daniel 1: the king's food. Babylon's plan was to make these young men thoroughly Babylonian: three years of training in Babylonian language and literature, new names honouring Babylon's gods, and food from the king's own table. They accepted the training and the new names. They served in the king's court. But Daniel drew the line at the food.

"But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine. So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself." (Daniel 1:8)

The text doesn't say exactly why. Suggestions include food offered to idols, food that broke God's law, or the way eating from the king's table showed complete dependence on the king. But notice how Daniel said no. He asked permission. He proposed a ten-day test. And God gave him favour with the official (Daniel 1:9). It was a polite proposal, not a protest.

Daniel 3: the gold statue. Everyone had to bow to the king's huge statue when the music played. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused. They spoke respectfully to the king, didn't insult him, and had clearly made up their minds before the music started. Thrown into the furnace, they weren't alone: the king saw a fourth figure walking in the fire with them (3:25). Christians differ on who this was, an angel or an appearance of the Son of God before he became human. Either way, God was in the fire with them, not watching from a distance.

Daniel 6: the lions' den. By now Daniel was old, probably in his eighties, and one of the empire's top officials. His jealous rivals looked for something to accuse him of and found nothing: no corruption, no laziness (6:4). So they had a law passed making his prayer life illegal.

"Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before." (Daniel 6:10)

Daniel didn't start a protest, and he didn't hide. He simply kept the habit he already had, just as he had done before. Habits formed in ordinary times matter when pressure comes.

Yes, no and how

Daniel's question wasn't "How different can I be?" or "How much can I blend in?" It was more like: "Where would joining in mean betraying God or hurting others?" His lines were about worship, prayer and faithfulness to God's law. Everywhere else, he joined in gladly and worked hard.

Think about your own "Babylon". Some things a Christian can join in gladly: studying other worldviews fairly in class, doing excellent work for a teacher who mocks Christianity, celebrating a friend's cultural festival. Some things are clearer lines: sharing a meme that mocks Jesus to fit in, lying to cover for a friend, staying in a group chat that keeps tearing down one classmate. And some are genuine "it depends" questions, like Sunday sport, where Christians disagree. Daniel had wise friends to decide with, and so can you.

How you say no matters as much as where. Daniel was polite, offered a solution, worked hard and kept praying. Centuries later, Peter wrote to Christians as foreigners and exiles in their own countries, urging them to live such good lives that even people who accused them would see their good deeds (1 Peter 2:11–12).

Key words

• Exile: being forced to live away from your homeland; for Israel, the time in Babylon.
• Babylon: the powerful empire that conquered Judah, ruled by King Nebuchadnezzar.
• Defile: to make unclean or impure in God's eyes.
• Integrity: being the same person in private and in public, so there's nothing to accuse you of.

How this points to Jesus

Daniel's story points to Jesus in at least three ways:

1. The Son of Man. In Daniel 7:13–14, Daniel sees "One like the Son of Man" given a kingdom that will never end. This became Jesus' favourite title for himself, and Stephen saw the Son of Man standing at God's right hand. The God of the exile was preparing a greater King than Nebuchadnezzar.
2. The sealed stone. A stone was placed over the lions' den and sealed, and at dawn the king hurried there and found Daniel alive. Centuries later, a stone was sealed over Jesus' tomb (Matthew 27:66), and at dawn the women found it empty (Matthew 28:1–6).
3. Rescued from, or through? God rescued Daniel and his friends from death, but he didn't rescue Stephen. Hebrews 11:33–38 includes both kinds of faithful people. Jesus wasn't rescued from death but through it, by rising again. That's why Christians who aren't rescued still have hope.

Think about it

Take it further

Daniel prayed three times a day for years before it became dangerous. What is one habit you'd want to have in place before pressure comes? Think of one place where you can gladly fit in and work for the good of others, and one place where you might need to stand out, and how you could do it respectfully. (If you're not a Christian, think about a value you'd want to hold onto under pressure.)

A prayer you can pray if you want to:

Father, thank you that you were with Daniel in Babylon and with his friends in the fire. Help me to seek the good of the places I live, to work hard and to be kind. Give me wisdom to know where to draw the line, and courage to keep praying when it's hard. Amen.

Your worksheet helps you compare the three stories and sort some "Babylon today" situations for yourself.