The Monday Memo from John Stanko

911: Change of Plans in Babylon

Last week we started our new series titled "Success in Babylon," in which we will look at Daniel and his friends and what it took for them to thrive and prosper in Babylon, a spiritually hostile environment. This week, let's look at the next few verses in Daniel 1:

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility—young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and winefrom the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service. Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego (Daniel 1:3-7).

I mentioned last week that I was part of a team of people that would teach this material in a prison setting, but the implications and lessons learned from this story are applicable to any of us, especially if we find ourselves in a culture (business, government, or school) that is neutral or hostile toward God and His values. Let's look at what we can learn from these few verses to help us be successful in our own Babylon.

WHAT DO THESE VERSES TELL US?

In these verses, we learn these young men were:

1. Drafted into service in Babylon; they did not volunteer. 
2. The best of their generation, voted most likely to succeed in their high school class. They were handsome, intelligent, and good students—otherwise the king's official would not have chosen them.
3. Forced to attend a Babylonian university and learn a whole new language, currency, culture, and career.
4. Given new names. Every measure was taken to strip them of their previous identity so they could blend into Babylon and serve the king—the same king who had ravaged their land, perhaps killed their families, and forced them to come to Babylon.
5. Placed under the care of the chief of the eunuchs according to one translation. Why would they be placed there unless they had been made eunuchs themselves? Their manhood was altered, through no fault or choice of their own, and at a young age they found themselves far away from home, serving a pagan king.

DANIEL'S RESPONSE

After all that happened to him, Daniel made a startling decision as described in Daniel 1:8: "But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way." After all that he had been through, Daniel's main concern was still first and foremost serving the Lord and being true to His people's way of life. If I was a teenager or young adult and had been the through what Daniel had, the last thing I would have been concerned with was maintaining a kosher lifestyle. I would have been angry, mourning what I had lost.

Yet, Daniel was not mourning or miserable; he was focused on being true to who he was and determined not to defile himself. That commitment is admirable, but certainly reveals the reason Daniel distinguished himself from all the others. Even though hundreds of miles from home, even though his whole life and future had been drastically altered, Daniel was a man of principle and refused to surrender to the force of culture or the bitterness of resentment. Daniel's behavior was not affected by or related to his environment; he was true to his values and his God. He was determined not to waiver from his trust in God.

What about you? Is your resolve equal to that of Daniel? First, make peace with your past if today you are not doing what you had envisioned yourself doing earlier in life, or doing it where you had never intended to be. Like Daniel, you may be in your own Babylon, far from the place you intended to be. For me, that is church work, for I was headed to Harvard and a career in business—but God had other plans. Resolve that you are in the right place, if not your chosen place.

Second, commit yourself to excellence, both in character and work, no matter where you are and what you are doing. Even if you are surrounded by those who do not share your values, be true to what you know that the Lord has taught you, and strive to produce good work from a willing heart. Finally, deal with any bitterness toward those who have mistreated you or abandoned you in your day of trouble.

We will see in this series how well Daniel served those who had mistreated and oppressed him, and God wants you to do the same. You cannot serve those whom you hate or resent. And, make sure you are clear with God and don't hold anything against Him because you had to make a change of plans concerning your life and where it would be expressed.  If you will take this advice, you will be well on your way to laying the foundation for a successful stay in Babylon, whether for a season or for life. Have a blessed week!

910: Success in Babylon

I took a week off last week so I could catch up on my blog posts concerning my library projects in Kenya. Now I am ready to begin a new series that will become my next book, and the series will be titled Success in Babylon. Many years ago, I was part of a team that conducted seminars called The Lion's Den in prisons in the state of Florida. We focused on Daniel and portrayed him as the ideal inmate, for he was a prisoner in Babylon, but he prospered there. The inmates loved it, but then we taught it outside of prison and got the same response. Many people found themselves in a spiritually-hostile environment and did not see that God wanted them not just to survive there but rather thrive there.

While in Atlanta recently, a woman prayed for me and then said, "I think God is going to show you something new, and He will tell you what it is." Two days later, I was having a casual conversation with some friends when I mentioned The Lion's Den and they immediately said, "You need to write that!" I am not sure if this is the "something new" I was told to be looking for, but in faith, I am going to assume that it is and write about it until God shows me something else that's new. Let's get started.

BABYLON

in Daniel 1:1-2, we read, 

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.

The Bible has a way of telling us a lot in only a few words. If we are not careful, we don't linger long enough to absorb the details and implications of what we are being told. In those two verses, we learn that 

• Jerusalem was under siege. That means the Babylonians surrounded the city and tried to starve the inhabitants out and into submission, which obviously happened.
• The Babylonians raided and pillaged the Temple, the epitome of Jewish life, worship, and culture. This must have been a traumatic experience involving the death and relocation to Babylon of thousands of people, including Daniel and his family.
• The Babylonians were a religious people with many gods and the king, Nebuchadnezzar, had his own god, for which he had built a temple and a house.

There is much more history that goes with this story, for Nebuchadnezzar had invaded Judah once before, but the Judeans had broken the terms of peace and surrender, so he came back again, only this time he destroyed what he had originally agreed to preserve. And notice who was behind all these events: "And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand." The Lord was doing something that was bigger than one nation or people group. He was positioning the world to receive their King Jesus six centuries later, and this was part of His plan.

IMPLICATIONS

In future weeks, we will study what Daniel went through to succeed in Babylon because it holds important implications for our day. We are also being asked to serve in Babylon, and we are often not sure how to respond or what to do. We are often not comfortable in a foreign or secular setting, so we long for a more spiritually-friendly environment in which we can serve the Lord and others. Yet God has His own plans, just like He did with Daniel in Babylon, and if we can grasp that He is doing the same with us, we can then settle down and into our situation and serve the Lord.

We would tell the inmates in their situation that they may have been fenced in, but there was no lid on their environment. They had no barriers between them and God, and they could pray, worship, and serve vertically while they were limited and imprisoned horizontally. What's more, God had sent them there to learn that lesson, while He also worked on their character and demeanor. The same may be true for you.

Are you in a situation that is neutral or maybe even hostile where God and your faith are concerned? Are you waiting for your circumstances to improve before you express your spiritual gifts and serve those around you? Are you blaming where you are for your lack of spiritual fruit or holiness? If so, you need to learn how to succeed in Babylon, for your Babylon is not going away. What's more, it may be the very mission field God has chosen for you, and your reluctance to accept that reality will hinder your growth and progress.

This week, I urge you to make peace with where you are and set a goal not just to survive where you, but to thrive and prosper there. Over the next few months, let's study and learn together what Daniel and his friends did that allowed God to honor them by highlighting their stories, and then go about establishing our own credentials before God as people who know how to do well in a setting where God seems to be absent, but is oh so very present--at least for you and me. Have a blessed week!