Lessons From the Life of Daniel

Even though the Book of Daniel was written 2600 years ago, it still resonates with us today as believers trying to live out our Christian faith in a secular world. Daniel was born to a place of privilege, being raised and educated within the inner circle of the royal family of Judah. Unfortunately for him, Judah was in decline and under the judgment of God, who brought the Babylonian army down to conquer Judah.

The Babylonian culture was very advanced. The city of Babylon itself was one of the wonders of the ancient world. The Babylonians had engineered incredible projects that had never been seen before in the ancient world. After King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah, he ordered that all the best young students be rounded up and taken to Babylon, where they would be reeducated and reshaped so they would become Babylonian in their thinking and in their beliefs. Can you imagine the initial confusion they must have felt? But then, you can also imagine the attraction of this new culture, with all its promises of wealth and prestige and fame would have been difficult to resist. 

Most of us here this morning have not moved to a new culture. Instead, the culture around us has changed and this change has not been little or slight. It has been huge: A seismic shift in underlying beliefs and values. So as we pick up our study in Daniel, we can in some ways relate to what Daniel must have been feeling. He is forced to live and worship God in a pagan or secular culture that seems attractive in what it promises, while at the same time being hostile to the beliefs of the Bible. Through today’s study we’re going to wrestle with an important question: How was Daniel able to maintain his faith while keeping his public witness?