Living as Exiles

March 5, 2023

Preacher: Jonathan Bilton

Series: Visiting Preachers

Passage: Daniel 2

Service Type: Sunday Evening

Apologies for the sub-optimal audio - the preacher was quite mobile and was not always standing in front of the microphones

Introduction

Why looking at this theme?
- Exile is a biblical theme
- It is applicable in 2023
  - The culture around us is not dissimilar to the culture of Babylon
Babylon was not just interested in conquest but culture assimilation and dominance
- Religious statement
  - Given new names - the names of Babylonian gods
  - Nebuchadnezzar takes all the contents of the Temple
- Multi-cultural
- Technologically advanced
Babylon was intent on wiping out any culture that came in its path
- Today: faith squeezed to the margins if not forbidden
- The danger is to get scared and discouraged - to lose heart
Daniel is written to encourage Jews in exile
- The aim this evening is to encourage us

He was an absolute dictator
- He saw himself as a god-like figure
Yet in these verses: he is in bed and cannot sleep
- He was the most powerful man in the earth but could not sleep
Such powerful people in our would are often troubled and inadequate
- People often 'project' success
- They are often not what they seem

They were the elite of the Babylonians
- They were stalling for time and could not do what the king had asked
The intelligencia of our day may seem like they have all the answers
- If you do not know God, you know nothing
If you do know God, you have access to the wisdom of God
- If you have seen Christ, you have see the Father
- Christ is sufficient

The God of heaven answers
- Daniel gives an amazing prayer of praise
The Old Testament - was about the place of God
- Is God still God, in Babylon?
  - God is not just the God of Jerusalem
- God is the God of the whole world
- Example of Revival Edition
Our temptation is to limit God
God still speaks

An extraordinary prophecy
- Clear in detail
- Clearly fulfilled in history
  - Babylonians, followed by the Persians & Medes, followed by the Greek empire, followed by the Roman Empire, followed by the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ
The first encouragement is that man-made kingdoms rise and fall
- "History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes"
- Our culture/age will rise and fall
The second encouragement is that Christ's kingdom
- Christ's kingdom is the stone that comes to shatter the kingdoms of the world
- From 'humble' origins the Kingdom grew - explanation
- The Kingdom continues to grow and spread around the world

This is a great encouragement - to see God's people thriving and being blessed
- See also the Book of Esther
- We should pray that God will continue to bless His people 'in exile'
How God blesses
- Daniel faces the temptation to take the glory for himself
  - But gives the glory to God (v27)
  - He is not scared to name the name of God
  - Even into old age