This is the first in our series on Daniel. You can listen to all of our sermons on our archive page.
Empire is everything that holds us back from a full life. Empire is the darkness that prevents us from knowing others, knowing ourselves, knowing God. Empire is sin—all that is wrong in this world. It's also called darkness, brokenness, death.
The shadow of this empire is the effects of sin: broken relationships, fear, anxiety, physical death, spiritual death. It's how we can try really hard, get ahead in this world, and feel like it's not enough. The only thing the empire can really deliver is a shadow, even as it promises the world.
And as much as we don't like the effects of empire, living in this shadow, we willingly give ourselves away to it. Every little thing we do that we shouldn't, words we say that we shouldn't have said, every good thing we've avoided doing or saying—these are all ways we willingly contribute to this empire. By ourselves, try as we might, we can only contribute more darkness to this already darkened world.
But in the shadow of empire, there is hope. There is hope here because God is here. With us. Giving us what we need, not only for ourselves but for others. In fact, what God does is deliver us from the empire and invite us to join in pushing back its shadow.
This is the story of Daniel.
Living as Exiles in Babylon
Daniel's nation was taken over, and now he has to live in a new place. He is living in the exile of Israel—God's judgement against all of Israel for their long-term lack of faithfulness to Him. Israel's problem has always been that instead of being distinct from the nations around her, she simply acts like everyone else.
Babylon is in the same place as Babel. Babylon and the tower of Babel are big symbols of humanity trying to be powerful on our own, decidedly against God. So if you're in Jerusalem and this nation takes you over, it could very easily look like all is lost.
As this nation of power takes over weaker nations, we see—like people in Daniel's time—that we all experience disaster and difficulties in the shadow of empire. Bigger than a nation, this empire is the world of darkness: sin. Every single one of us has the shadow of this empire looming over us.
Through Jesus, we get to come out from the shadow of empire and into His kingdom of light, life, and love. What we'll learn from Daniel is that weakness is the way.
Jesus is the one who protects us, prepares the way for us, and gives us gifts to play an important role in His mission—all whilst under the shadow of empire. And weakness is the way.
Disaster! When Everything Falls Apart
The story of Daniel starts with disaster.
Jerusalem, God's city, taken over. The visible symbol of God destroyed. Daniel tells us that God is in control over and above all things, even when it seems like the shadow of empire has eclipsed it all.
God's temple, the place where God met humankind, destroyed. Articles from the temple used to worship God are carried off by this other king. Daniel probably never saw his homeland again. Carried away, forced to live in a new place, new language, new job.
Daniel is even given a new name—Belteshazzar. Daniel's name means "judge of God." Belteshazzar means "protect the king." Daniel's real name is orientated towards God; the name thrust upon him by the empire is orientated around power in this world.
Imagine: you're a religious refugee, and the name you have to go by is related to protecting the very force that oppresses you?
Daniel and his friends' new names are an attempt to drown out their faith, to drown out their identity as God's people. Just one of many things to indoctrinate them into being people of empire first.
Even though Daniel and company excel in their jobs and are very humble, they never really are part of the system. They are consistently referred to as exiles. They're never part of the inner circle, not "one of us." They are face to face with empire and now living in its shadow.
Why This Story Matters to Us
Why is a story about a religious refugee in here for us? Not many here have moved to another country, far less were forced! If any of us moved, it wasn't because of vulnerability; it was probably because of privilege.
Regardless of wherever we are, wherever we move to, if we follow Jesus, we are more like refugees than anything else. We are meant for one kingdom, living in another. Our names come from one kingdom, but are constantly being questioned by the shadow of empire.
Whether you never moved, moved out of your own free will, or were forced, God's people always live in hope. No matter where you are with God, hardships aren't spared for any of us. Daniel and his friends suffered the hardships of displacement through no apparent fault of their own. Bad things come to everyone, right?
For the Christian, there is a different way we can navigate the disasters of this life.
"To be in the hand of Nebuchadnezzar is not to be out of the control of God." —Goldingay
Those who are part of God's kingdom get to live in hope even in the hardships. That is one of the reasons Daniel is in Scripture for us. We are called to identify with a religious refugee as much as we are called to live in hope, despite the workings of empire we are confronted with every day.
So the challenge for the Christian—being a citizen of God's kingdom but now living in the shadow of empire—is this: Where are we called to be distinct? Where are we called to join in? Sometimes it's clear; sometimes it's not so clear. Navigating this world as a citizen of another means asking this question of God.
One could imagine how easy it would be for Daniel to completely rebel against everything here, right? To say it's all bad. One could also imagine how easy it would be for Daniel to be just like the Babylonians, to give in completely.
The Christian life is a faithful line between both extremes. It's an easier, simpler, and less faithful life to say either that all of the world is bad or all of the world is good. Daniel teaches us how to wisely live in the shadow of empire as His missionaries: bearers of light in a dark world.
Understanding what it means to be a Christian helps us navigate this tension faithfully.
Vulnerable and Bold
If we are trying to be faithful to God in how we navigate this world, we do so as people who are vulnerable and bold.
Daniel Resolved
Being the top new recruits, Daniel and his friends would have had access to the best food and wine. And there was something about this food that was disconnected from their faith. Even though it was seen as a perk, there was something about the culture of the workplace that, to go along with it, would have gone against their beliefs as God's people.
That word "defile" means to pollute. If they went along with this, like everyone else, it would have polluted them, made them less pure. We don't know exactly what the defiling thing is, but here is Daniel sorting out being a missionary from a place of vulnerability and deciding to be bold.
Daniel and company chose to be distinct. They chose to be different. To not go along with the flow, even when the flow seems pretty tempting!
This is the opposite of how Israel has been living up until this time. Israel's problem was that it wasn't distinct. And here is Daniel living the way God has told him. His integrity in his faithfulness to God will be part of what it means to be a bearer of light in the shadow of empire.
Because embracing the shadow means polluting yourself. On the outside it might look good, which is why we give ourselves to it, but what empire promises is very different from what it delivers. It can only deliver darkness.
The Power of Resolve
So here's Daniel, being bold by being distinct, and it all starts with these words in verse 8: "But Daniel resolved..."
Everyone going this way, but Daniel resolved. He pledged. He made an internal promise—a promise not to go the way of pollution but to go the way of the Lord.
He's bold! Even from a place of vulnerability. They often live side by side. In fact, most of our lives are boldness in our own vulnerability. God has set it up like this!
When you work from a place of weakness, a place of vulnerability, it requires you to rely on God in different ways. It means you dig in a bit more. You resolve.
In the shadow of empire, where Daniel is tempted to lose his identity as being part of God's people, he knows who he is. There is no promise of getting through this, but that's not even the point.
The point is a life of faithfulness to God means: weakness is the way. Mission in Daniel is being a witness from a posture of weakness and vulnerability.
And when we do this, we make more room for God to come through. The boldness that emerges from a place of vulnerability is one that is set on fire by the Spirit of God, not from our own strength.
"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." —Joseph Campbell
Your places of weakness will be how you serve others most powerfully.
Gifted for Mission
God is with us at all times, but He's also done more than that: He has given us all sorts of gifts to carry out this vulnerable and bold mission.
Verse 17 says: "To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds."
Studying the Culture
Abilities for God's mission: they learned a lot, and they learned a lot about Babylon. The nation that becomes a stand-in for the empire of sin—they are learning about that place. Babylonian literature: history, mythology, hero stories, poetry. Daniel is on the sage track: practising medicine, religion, astronomy, astrology, divination. This is how God is going to use him. It's his job.
Some of these things we would describe as natural, some we would describe as supernatural. But all of these gifts are given from Him.
It might be easier to think of studying the culture of empire when you move to a new place, but this is obviously important for everyone. In the New Testament, really devout Jews would never read anything that Gentiles wrote, and that meant the average Jewish person couldn't understand the average non-Jewish person. Let's not have that be the same as us!
The cinema, books, podcasts, sport, politics—the sea of arts and culture we swim in. We should not just enjoy the entertainment of our time but use it as good missionaries do: study it.
Your Job Is Ministry
Your job isn't just a way for you to make money. It's not just a way for you to experience fulfilment. Though it's hopefully both of those things, your job is a major way that God is going to work out His mission.
It's where you concretely "seek the peace and prosperity of the city" (Jeremiah 29:7). If this is true for oppressed religious refugees, it certainly is true for you.
In 1 Peter we read something similar, written to scattered and vulnerable Christians who had to leave where they were living because of religious persecution: "Live such good lives amongst the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us" (1 Peter 2:12).
The gifts God gives us, whatever they might be, will always be used for His purposes—His mission. The distinction for Daniel and company wasn't just their spiritual habits; it was also in their careers. And of course, for Daniel, his spiritual habits are what fed how he navigated his career.
Exploring how to have a meaningful life begins with understanding our work as part of God's mission.
Joining In and Standing Apart
In some things, you'll join in: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah had to learn; they had to grow; they were doing their best. Same for you. You join in with your vocation.
In some things you won't join in: Just like Daniel and his crew. Unethical aspects of your job? Where people go for a night out? Off-colour conversations?
In my many jobs in the past, I was a server at a restaurant where everyone would get high and drunk at the weekends. Every single weekend. It wasn't "part of the job," but it was interesting to see who got the best shifts. I never joined in. In some ways I wasn't part of the group, but in other ways, people knew they could count on me to show up.
In all the things we do, whether it's something we're paid for or not, we are all called to excel. If you work full-time, part of you fulfilling God's mission is excelling in your job (and because your work is fuelled by your spiritual habits, you will seek this out for the right reasons).
Daniel and his friends were not just showing up; they were excelling. To keep their posts through regime changes, as outsiders, they had to work extra hard—and not in the jobs they wanted!
The gifts God gives us, whatever they might be, will always be used for His mission. Your distinction as a Christian isn't just your spiritual habits but also in how you navigate your work life.
I wonder what kinds of gifts we have lying dormant in our church. I really do dream of a church where everyone has a clear idea of where they're gifted and have opportunities for living it out.
We have a vulnerable and bold mission, and God has given us the gifts we need to uniquely join Him in how He has called us to.
The Result: Ten Times Better
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are brought into this new place through disaster. They are living in vulnerable and bold ways, taking advantage of the gifts God has given them, working hard. What is the result?
Verse 20 says the king found them to be ten times better than his other workers.
Ten times! What was different about them? Their faithfulness to God. They were resolved to live in God's kingdom, even in the shadow of empire. They could have moaned and put up fights and dragged their feet, but from what we have here, they were all in.
This story teaches us: Submitting to the Lord in all things means God will keep you safe, prepare the way for you, as you play an important role in His mission.
God isn't looking for capable people first. He isn't looking for the strong first, the knowledgeable, those who have it all together. Those things are good, don't get me wrong. But what God looks for first is those who surrender. Those who resolve to follow Him above everything else. And if that's the starting point, that means anyone can get in on this.
The strong, the weak. The clever, the dumb. The capable, the hopeless.
And that's good news for us, because we are far more weak, dumb, and hopeless than we know!
As a church in Manchester, we're learning together what it means to be vulnerable and bold in our mission, using our gifts faithfully in the shadow of empire.
Christ and the Empire of Sin
The story of Daniel teaches us about the story of Jesus.
Jesus: Vulnerable and Bold
For Jesus, He was vulnerable: He came as a baby! As human. He gave Himself up for ridicule and awkwardness and loneliness...and death!
He was bold: Teaching about Himself as God, teaching about the kingdom of God that pushes back the shadow of empire. Performing miracles—signs about who He is.
And His life wasn't made ten times better. No, He was humiliated, tortured, killed.
For Jesus, weakness is the way. And in His weakness, He has overcome all darkness. The shadow of empire has nothing on the resurrected King over all the earth! And in His resurrection it was more than ten times. The result is beyond number.
In this victory over empire, over death, what does He do with all that He won? He invites us to enjoy it with Him. Living in God's kingdom is an invitation from King Jesus to enjoy all that He's won through His resurrection. That's what obedience is. And that's how we can have hope in the shadow of the empire of sin.
Following Jesus: Weakness Is the Way
In our obedience, we follow Jesus. Weakness is the way. Vulnerable and bold.
For living in God's kingdom, in the shadow of empire, it requires resolve to do this. We don't drift here; we have to be intentional.
For mission in God's kingdom, we get to push back the shadow of empire. And we do that through the gifts He's given us—like your job, but so much more than that as well.
And one day, the shadow will be no more. Because the empire of sin will be no more. Only light, only life, only love. That is where we're going.
Living as Exiles Today
In this story, don't forget that yes, we can see Daniel as a good example for us, but also: we are Babylon. We have contributed to the empire of sin that casts its shadow on this world.
And in that disaster, Jesus comes. He came in His vulnerable and bold mission to reverse the disaster of sin and death.
Weakness is His way, and He showed that in His death on the cross. Through Jesus, we come out from the shadow of empire into God's kingdom of light, life, and love.
As we do, we live in vulnerable and bold ways, gifted by God Himself for an important role in His mission.
How can we "resolve" like Daniel? We work and we ask the Holy Spirit. How can we be bold even when we're vulnerable? We work and ask the Holy Spirit. How can we make the most of our gifts at work? We work and ask the Holy Spirit.
God is here because God was there—at the cross, defeating the empire of sin and death once and for all.
As a church in Manchester, we're discovering together what it means to live as faithful exiles, distinct yet engaged, vulnerable yet bold, using our gifts to push back the shadow of empire and bring light to our city. Understanding what it means to join God's mission helps us live faithfully in Babylon whilst belonging to God's kingdom.
The empire promises the world but delivers only shadows. But in those shadows, there is hope—because God is here, with us, giving us everything we need to be His missionaries in a dark world.
Weakness is the way. And in our weakness, God's strength is perfected.