PT-2 "The Consequences of an Uncompromising Life, Part 2" Daniel 1:10–21

People know something to be definitely wrong but for the sake of making peace, they cover up the truth.  People will do an act directly violating their claimed conviction if they are asked by someone they admire, someone they fear, or someone from whom they seek a favor.  People won’t say what ought to be said because they feel they might lose face.  And so go the compromises.

            Adam compromised God’s law, followed his wife’s sin, and lost paradise.  Abraham comprised the truth, lied about Sarah, and nearly lost his wife.  Sarah compromised God’s Word, sent Abraham to Hagar who bore Ishmael, and lost peace in the Middle East.  Esau compromised for a meal with Jacob and lost his birthright.  Saul compromised the divine Word, kept the animals, and lost the royal seed.  Aaron compromised his convictions about idolatry and he and the people lost the privilege of the Promised Land.

            Samson compromised righteous devotion as a Nazarite with Delilah and lost his strength, his eyes, and his life.  Israel compromised the commands of the Lord, lived in sin, and when fighting the Philistines, lost the ark of God.  David compromised the moral and divine standard of God, adulterated Bathsheba, murdered Uriah, and lost his child.  Solomon compromised convictions, married foreign wives, and lost the United kingdom.

            Ahab compromised, married Jezebel, and lost his throne.

            Israel compromised the law of God with sin and idolatry, and lost their homeland.  Peter compromised his conviction about Christ, denied Him, and lost his joy.  Later on, he compromised the truth of the one church for acceptance with the Judaizers, and he lost his liberty.  Ananias and Sapphira compromised their word about giving, lied to the Holy Spirit, and lost their lives.  Judas compromised his supposed love for Christ for 30 pieces of silver, and lost his eternal soul.

            Compromise.  Sad word.  But, there are some people who don’t compromise.  There are some people who have no price.  You can’t buy them.  Moses before Pharaoh; David, several times in his life; Paul before Festus, Felix, and Agrippa; and Daniel before Nebuchadnezzar. 

            Daniel 1:8, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s food, nor with the wine which he drank:  therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”  And frankly, beloved, there’s no better illustration of an undefiled, uncompromising man in the Bible than Daniel. 

            Now, we’re studying Daniel.  For over 70 years he lived in this foreign land of Babylon, amidst the pagan Chaldeans, and for those 70 years he never compromised his convictions.  He couldn’t be bought.  There was no price.  From the time that we pick up the story here, he’s 14 years of age, until he is in his 80s, he does not compromise.  He will not compromise.

            And we have seen that when the Babylonians and the Chaldeans brought these young men in in the first deportation in 606 B.C., the first phase of the Babylonian captivity, when they brought these young men in, they were all of the noble house of the ruling class of Israel, Judah.  They were, some of them, from the very royal seed itself.  They picked off, some historians estimate, between 50 and 75 of the prime young men, princely young men, and they brought them in to brainwash them and to turn them into Chaldeans who, with a Jewish background, could help them rule in the process of leading Jewish affairs. 

            They were going to take over the world, they were going to turn Judah into a chattel state, and they wanted some young men who knew the Jewish situation, who could be Babylonian rulers for them amidst the Jewish people, and over them even while they were in captivity.

            So, they wanted these young men brainwashed.  And first they decided to change their names to cut them off from their heritage.  And then they, of course, removed them from their country so that they wouldn’t have any roots or connections there.  They then wanted them to be educated, and learned in all the Chaldean information.  They wanted them to be attacked from every angle with Chaldean identification.  And the final thing was to brainwash them by feeding them the food of the king so that their lifestyle would become adapted to that of the palace of the pagans in Babylon. 

            And that, of course, is where Daniel drew the line.  Why?  The Old Testament didn’t say anything about taking a foreign name, and the Old Testament didn’t say anything about learning information from foreign teachers, but the Old Testament said, “Don’t eat food offered to idols, and don’t eat food that isn’t properly prepared according to God’s dietary laws for His people.”  And the bottom line for Daniel was the Word of God. 

            And when eating the king’s food violated the Word of God - because all of the food that was offered in the palace was, at one point, offered before the gods - Daniel couldn’t do it and that’s where he drew the line.  He drew the line at the Word of God. 

            This is true conviction.  This is the character that is so admirable in Daniel.  At a young age, he and his 3 friends, out of all of the 50 or 75 young men, and we don’t know how many, but we only know 4 who took a stand.  And later on, when all of them appeared before the king, down in verse 18 and following, there were only 4 that the king noticed as different.  The rest of them in this three-year education had bought the bag, had eaten the king’s meat, had adapted the lifestyle, had become Chaldean, and in so doing they had lost that unique place that God would have given had they been obedient to His law.  And so, Daniel is a tremendous illustration of conviction, especially in a young man.

            You know, our country once had that.  I was reading this week, and I found something very interesting.  There is in West Point a prayer known as “The Cadet Prayer.”  It is repeated every Sunday in chapel services by the cadets at West Point.  I don’t know if you ever heard it, but this is what it says.

            “Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be contented with half truth when whole truth can be one.  Endow us with courage that is borne of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice, and knows no fear when right and truth are in jeopardy.  Amen.”