A Resolve for Holiness
How the World Attempts to Indoctrinate Us, and How to Stand Firm Against It
When you read Daniel 1, we notice in verses 3 through 7 how Daniel and his friends came to be in the Babylonian court. Remember, Babylon had conquered Jerusalem, and King Nebuchadnezzar's first decree was that the best and the brightest young men from God's people would be brought into the country first. When they arrived, the Babylonian plan was simple - they would indoctrinate these young, brilliant Israelites into a false worldview and assimilate them into a new culture and nation.
I want you to notice Nebuchadnezzar's four-fold strategy for taking over the minds and desires of the people of God.
First, he isolates the minds of these young Israelites to capture their minds. They are removed from Jerusalem and their families. They are isolated from the means of grace, from weekly worship, from the sacrificial system, from the reading and the hearing of the word, and the prophetic testimony of the preachers of God in Israel. By doing this, he hopes they will be open to the thinking of the Babylonians.
Next, notice that they are indoctrinated. They are taught the language and literature of Babylon. Now, that may seem harmless enough. Oh, they're just taking some courses in Babylonian literature. They are just learning the Babylonian language. However, the goal is to indoctrinate them into the thinking and worldview of Babylonians, to make them Babylonians in their minds.
Notice also that he takes a third approach to causing them to compromise. He puts before them rich food and great privileges in the court. Daniel and his friends are presented with high living, comfort, position, status, reputation, and importance. He hopes to wean their desires from God and His people and draw their desires to Babylon and all the privileges that it can involve.
Notice that he attempts to bring confusion to the very hearts and minds of these young people. He gives them new names. Again, you'll read many commentators saying, "Oh, this is perfectly harmless. They're just giving them new names because it would have been hard for the Babylonians to pronounce Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah." Rubbish. They are being given new names so that they will be called by Babylonian names day after day.
And so the four-fold plan for indoctrination, for brainwashing, is set in place by some brilliant mastermind in Nebuchadnezzar's court.
I don't need to convince you that we are, perhaps, more at risk of indoctrination in our worldview today. These are the same strategies that are often used against us, and they are all designed to change our worldview—to take our minds off of God, His people, and His worship and allure us to the ways of a sin-filled culture.
So, how do we stand firm against these attempts?
In verses 8 through 16, we learn Daniel's strategy for resistance. This strategy is a model for the servants of God under the pressure of temptation. Daniel does at least three things here.
First, we are told that Daniel resolves to be holy. He decides that the court of Babylon will not contaminate him.
Secondly, however, and this is such an interesting combination, Daniel does not do this in an obnoxious way. Daniel does it with genuine humility and modesty. He goes to his court official and says, 'I humbly request that you permit me and my friends not to eat this food.' And the Lord honored Daniel's humility. This is an important point because when an antagonistic culture pushes against Christians, we tend to want to come out swinging, and sometimes it is the soft answer that the Lord wants for us as we speak to a hostile culture. Ultimately, our desire is not to wipe them off the face of the earth; it's to convert them to Christ. And the soft answer of humility is often the most striking arrow in the weapons of God's arsenal.
Thirdly, notice that in response, Daniel believes. He resolves to be holy. He is humble in his response, but he is a man who believes. He trusts and expects that God will be faithful to his desire to be faithful. When his captor says, 'I can't do this. I'd lose my head if you look worse than the other men,' Daniel comes back with a plan, and he says, 'Look, just give me ten days; I know that we are going to look better.' Understand that Daniel is not being presumptuous here. Daniel is sure that, in some way, God will honor his desire to be faithful to the Lord in a sin-filled land. Daniel may not have had any idea how God would do that, but he was confident; his faith was confident. He was assured of God's power and God's promises.
Do we have that kind of resolve? Do we have that kind of assurance when we face the world? We ought to have the highest view of God's sovereignty, and yet, sometimes, we have the least expectations that the Lord will really do anything dramatic. We think, "Oh well, we'll do our best, but I know there's not much hope that it will change anything."
But we're supposed to have an incredible view of God's sovereignty and grace. We ought to have the highest expectations, not out of presumption but out of confidence in the Lord's power and providence. He will bless the faithful. So, be aware that the world wants to indoctrinate us, but we must stand firm and resolve to be faithful.