A few years ago, when I was footloose and fancy-free, a buddy and I decided to go on a camping trip for a few days. We loaded up with supplies and fishing gear and drove to an out-of-the way spot on the ocean. It was the ideal situation: beautiful weather, a nice, private place to camp, and lots of islands with beautiful beaches to explore. We set up camp, and the next day we headed out to do some fishing. One of the fish we landed was a strange-looking but tasty fish called a flounder.
Flounders are unique because they look like normal fish when they are young, but as they mature their right eye actually migrates over to the left side. The left side of the flat, thin fish becomes the top and is a mottled sandy brown color. This allows the fish to lie flat on the bottom and hide from predators while waiting for food.
That fish reminds me of the approach many Christians have toward the culture around us that is becoming increasingly anti-Christian. They try to blend in with their surroundings. It’s a basic desire all of us have. We all want to fit in and be accepted. It’s not comfortable to be different. The problem is that it is usually wrong. We are living in a world that is poised against God and His Word. Satan is the god of this world (1), and most of the time Christians will find themselves at best going against the current, and at worst facing intense opposition and persecution. It’s hard to be the only one in your company that refuses to go along with wrongdoing. It’s difficult to be a bold testimony for the Lord in your neighborhood.
However, in the Bible the book of Daniel gives us an encouraging example of a man’s resolute stand for the Lord in a very similar situation. It offers us helpful insight into how to avoid compromising to the culture yet adapting where necessary. It gives us some great examples of how God honors those who are loyal to Him by standing firm in two areas.
Stand firm in difficult circumstances
The book of Daniel opens by describing the incredible difficulty Daniel faced as a young man. His entire life was crumbling around him as the Babylonian empire crushed the nation of Israel. Born in the royal family, his rank and privilege evaporated as the walls of Jerusalem fell. His heart was torn as he watched family members killed in battle or publicly executed. His home was destroyed and his financial stability lost. He was led away in chains.
Somewhere along the line, perhaps in the arduous journey to Babylon as a prisoner – the spoils of war – Daniel must have meditated on what brought him to this point. It wasn’t his fault that his forbearers had rejected God, bringing judgment upon his nation. Yet Daniel didn’t lash out in anger against God. Instead, he developed a deep commitment to obeying and following His laws, knowing that was the only hope for the restoration of Israel.
This became extremely difficult as Daniel was soon surrounded by a culture that was completely in opposition to his convictions. He was to be lavished with luxury and given the best of education, food, and clothing in order that he might become ingratiated to the Babylonians so that he would help his people integrate into their empire. It must have been a strong temptation for him to enjoy himself and give up his convictions. Many times the situations that test our commitment to God the most are not the external difficulties but the ones that test our commitment with internal temptations.
Stand firm amid temptation to compromise
In order to deal with the temptations he faced, Daniel had to develop a strategy. He had to decide what was worth fighting for and what could be adapted to avoid confrontation. Here is how he did that.
Daniel recognized that some things, while appearing innocent, like partaking of forbidden foods, would open the door to more temptation and debauchery. He would have nothing to do with it. In an audacious move, with a humble manner, he requested an exception to the king’s orders. But he didn’t just stubbornly refuse. He offered an alternative, “Please let us try this special diet for 10 days and then see how healthy we are.”(2) By using a tactful, creative approach, and trusting God to give him favor, Daniel was able to do the right thing and open doors of opportunity at the same time.
Eventually, Daniel became one of the heads of state. As a result of his testimony, the worship of God became an officially authorized religion. He was well loved and respected for his impeccable character, even while he maintained values that were completely opposed to the surrounding culture.
As Christians we will soon be facing intense pressure to conform to popular opinions that attack biblical morality. Already we are bombarded by a culture that pursues pleasure and debauchery. While this culture preaches “toleration” and “individuality”, anyone that doesn’t look or smell like the culture is at best looked down upon and at worst persecuted.
So what’s a Christian to do? The right thing. We must be men and women of principle. It is easy for us to let our spiritual discernment become dull as we are exposed to temptation over and over again. Therefore, we must be continually renewing your mind with God’s word and imbibing God’s principles into our mindset and worldview. We must commit to those principles and stand by them, because the barrage of temptations we face is unrelenting. It starts with little compromises, and gradually by degrees drifts into apostasy. Will you purpose in your heart that you will not defile yourself? At first you may find yourself to be the laughingstock of others – even worldly Christians who think it you are some kind of radical for trying to be faithful to God, but remember the story of Daniel, and remember Daniel’s God. God honors those who are loyal and stand firm for Him.
Daniel’s life covers a great deal of the situations that we will face in our lives. Whether we are facing temptations or trials, the solution is found in maintaining an unshakeable commitment to Biblical principles. It won’t be easy to take a stand, but it will be worth it. God honors those who are loyal to Him in difficult circumstances and temptations.
Dare to be a Daniel!
Dare to stand alone.
Dare to have a purpose firm.
Dare to make it known.
During the diaspora, obviously Daniel and his eunuch friends were in a very difficult situation among the pagans. But their situation has no parallels in modern America. According to Gallup, 52 percent of Americans are Protestant, and 23 percent are Catholic. If you feel like you are being persecuted, it might be good for your mental health to just talk to the people around you. There’s a 3 out of 4 chance that they might be able to bring you encouragement instead of hostility. The people around you don’t need to be witnessed to. They don’t need you to think of them as enslaved to darkness.
I spent 35 years in the church. I have been a worship leader, a missionary, and a church planter. I am a member of a Presbyterian church (more reformed than thou). I have Psalm 135:19 tattooed on my arm. I have been enlightened. I have tasted the heavenly gift. I have shared in the Holy Spirit and tasted the goodness of the word of God. No matter what I am now that I’ve finally grown up, I’m still a Calvinist, and I will fervently oppose any of your attempts to label me and judge whether I’m elect or not. So don’t write me off and treat me as if I have no wisdom to offer you.
If there is one thing that I know, it’s that one of the basic concepts of Biblical exegesis is that you have to recognize the Bible was not addressed to you. Especially the epistles. They were specifically addressed to specific churches who were experiencing specific problems. Christianity was an illegal religion, and was only tolerated when it was seen as a Jewish cult. Regardless of your views on infallibility or inspiration or eschatology, what one thinks of the religion or the doctrine of inspiration or infallibility, most sane Christians recognize that the books had specific intended audiences, whether Jews or Greeks or Romans or Turks… and none of them were addressed to 21st-century Americans. As for Daniel, it was a diasporic work that is half history and half prophecy. If you want to make analogies about “biblical morality” based on Daniel, you first need to recognize that Daniel and his friends who passed through the fire were all eunuchs. Eunuchs had no place in the religion of ancient Israel but were outcast and excluded from all religious practices as unclean. They are therefore outsiders to theonomy. I therefore think that using Daniel to support the imposition of Biblical morality on a 21st-century Christian nation that is already oppressive to outsiders is a real misuse of the text.
Aaron, if I understand you correctly you are basically stating that the Bible is irrelevant to life today. You would say that Paul was incorrect when he said “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness . . . ” (2 Timothy 3:16). Remember, Paul was talking about the Old Testament (written to ancient Hebrews) as the New Testament canon had not yet been formed. Is that an accurate representation of your views?
I’m not talking about that at all. Everything is so black-and-white with you. I’m talking about EXEGESIS! Do you know that word? Think of “CONTEXT” if it makes it easier for you.
The first chore of anyone who hopes to understand scripture, before being concerned about its application to you personally, is to consider its original literal (or figurative when appropriate) meaning, in the words that are used, the historical context, and what it meant to the original, historical audience. For example, John in Revelation wrote about locusts with scorpions tails. The literal meaning of this is he had a dream about locusts with scorpions tails, while many who FAIL at EXEGESIS like to pretend he had a vision of helicopters. No he didn’t.
Before you try to interpret the text you have to exegete it.
The original audience of the book of Daniel was post-exilic Israel, scattered all over the world.
The original audience of the book of Ephesians was the church at Ephesus.
The original audience of the book of Timothy was Timothy, the pastor of the church at Ephesus. Consider that Paul told Timothy to drink wine to help with his stomach. According to YOUR use of Scripture, this ought to be interpreted as an admonition for every American to have wine with every meal, even alcoholic cirrhosis suffers, or else they are disobeying the command of the Lord. That’s ludicrous.
Do you command women to keep their heads covered in the church (1 Cor 11:6)? If you don’t, it’s because you have either exegeted the text considering the original audience, or you have heard the teaching of someone who has. Do you require women to stay home from church when they’re on their period (Lev 15:19)? If not, it’s because you have either considered the original audience or someone smarter than you has. Do you execute children who talk back to their parents (Lev. 20:9)? To say yes to any of the above questions is to commit an exegetical fallacy.
The followers of Jesus in the first century literally believed he was going to come back in their own lifetimes and overthrow the Romans and rule as king. As they sat to pen their writings and thought of their target audience when the literate among their churches would read the letters out loud to the believers on Sunday morning, they were most definitely not thinking of you, 2000 years later. They didn’t know there was such thing as America.
Aaron,
You are correct that in most cases, the author’s intent (and the resulting understanding of the intended audience) governs our interpretation of the text. So it would seem that you and I both subscribe to the historical-grammatical method of exegesis. In other words, we seek to understand what a text meant to the original audience and from that extract principles or “timeless truths” that we can then apply to our own situation.
That’s exactly what I’ve attempted to do here. By analyzing Daniel’s reaction to his current situation and what he intends to communicate to his readers I’ve distilled a couple of principles that I believe will encourage Christians who may have to face a similar situation to the one Daniel and his friends faced.
It seems to me that the real point over which we disagree is whether Christians today ever find themselves facing difficult circumstances or temptations to compromise. Those were the specific areas of application I made.