By Mark Grace, CCCNZ Ambassador
I te toru o nga tau o te kingitanga o Iehoiakimi kingi o Hura ka tae mai a Nepukaneha kingi o Papurona ki Hiruharama, whakapaea ana e ia.
O LE tausaga e tolu o le nofoaiga a Ioakima le tupu o Iuta na sau ai Nepukanesa le tupu o Papelonia i Ierusalema ma na vagaia.
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
Daniel 1:1
King Nebuchadnezzar has swept down through Judah into Jerusalem and laid siege to the city. Nebuchadnezzar enlists the most promising young men of his new empire into his service, whatever their nationality.
The young Jewish exiles will be given new work. As people serving at the centre of political power, they are now pressed into work as scribes, advisors, sages, diplomats, provincial governors and attendants.
They’ll have a new work environment. No longer in the mountains of Jerusalem devoted to the worship of God, instead working from the palace in the heart of Babylon.
New Leadership: They are working for Nebuchadnezzar, the powerful Babylonian king and war lord, who subjugated hundreds of thousands of people and massacred ten of thousands more.
New working conditions: As exiles pressed into administrative service, they are dependants of the state. They receive all their food rations and clothing from the palace.
New learning: They learn new languages and a breadth of new literature. They’ll learn everything from this new culture. From its magic to its music.
New identity: To name someone was to shape both their destiny and their identity. Young captives Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah each had the indignity of being renamed after pagan Chaldean gods.
Verse 1 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, is responsible. But verse 2 goes deeper:
'And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand'.
Yes, Nebuchadnezzar and his army are liable. However, it is God who is sovereign over the siege of Jerusalem. It is God who is bringing about his plan.
At very moment Daniel and his friends become refugees, God is at work, working out his redemptive purposes for them.
The book of Daniel tells us God is working through the successive kingdoms of human history. Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire... God is at work to bring about his true Kingdom. This Kingdom and King will defeat the evil of these worldly kingdoms and reign and rule with the saints.
Like Daniel, we are in a global marketplace at a particularly precarious time. While Daniel didn’t face the implications of AI, he did face BI, Babylonian Intelligence.
Where is God amid the uncertainty?
Right where verse 2 and the rest of the Book of Daniel affirm. God is working out his purposes to bring about his everlasting kingdom through his Son and the proclamation of his gospel.
