Re-Charge Bible Study: Daniel - the Hero Jesus learned from

The Full Monty :

Daniel 1:1-6:28 To read if you have time to take-in the whole story.

The Continental Option :

Daniel 1:1-17 Read this if you only have time for a few, key verses.

One Shot Espresso :

Daniel 1:17 ‘God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for understanding every aspect of literature and wisdom. And God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meanings of visions and dreams.’

The Time 100 is a rolling archive maintained by Time Magazine of the world’s 100 most influential people. From Mother Teresa to Jay-Z, from Nelson Mandela to Steve Jobs, the list tracks the people who have most shaped the lives of others: individuals many of us would name as heroes. We all have such figures in our lives. Present or past; dead or alive, we can all name people we admire and want to be like. When it comes to an alltime 100, Jesus is always somewhere on the list. As US journalist Joel Stein says: ‘If three billion people follow your teachings 2,000 years after you’re dead, that’s pretty influential.’

But who is on Jesus’ list? Who are the figures Jesus himself admired and wanted to be like? The question may seem unanswerable, but the texts of the New Testament do offer us clues, and there is little doubt that Daniel would make the list. Daniel towers over the New Testament like a neon sign on a burger bar. His story is the Old Testament text most quoted in the New Testament, and concepts crucial to the understanding of the ministry of Jesus - not least his use of language, the phrases ‘Son of Man’ and ‘Kingdom of God’ come directly from him. If you were able to ask Jesus who his heroes were, there is little doubt that Daniel would be one of his answers.

Had the Time 100 list been published in Israel in AD 30, Daniel would have been on it, not only because Jesus so admired him, but because the questions he raised - and the hope he brought to life - were being talked about in Israel. The Promised Land was once more under occupation. The Romans were crueler than the Babylonians had been. Where was the God of miracles, the God of Exodus, the God of Moses and Elijah? The answer, as in Babylon, was that God was with his people in their sufferings and active still in history to bring about his purposes. Just as God proved faithful to Daniel in his exile, so he would prove faithful now, and his plans would be fulfilled. For all the encroaching darkness of the age, God would reveal a path to his bright future. This hope, expressed in the language of Messiah and kingdom, is the stage onto which Jesus steps.

Like the Android operating system, made possible by the Linux platform, Jesus offers an account of the kingdom built on Daniel’s dream. It is the vision of Daniel that makes the vision of Jesus possible. So what can we learn, centuries after Jesus, from the leader he most admired? What is it about the book of Daniel that so lays the groundwork for the Gospels?

1. Faith is possible in exile The story of Daniel is the story of Israel’s captivity in Babylon. We don’t know for certain that there ever was an individual historic figure called Daniel, but we don’t need to. It’s the story of Daniel - like that of Hamlet, or Oliver Twist - that grips us. In the narrative of Daniel we see personified the response of the Hebrew people to exile. We see what happens when the props of religion are taken away: the temple and palace; the city and its walls; the rhythms of worship and sacrifice. We learn that it is possible to thrive in exile - that no matter where we are or how our circumstances change, God is with us.

2.Hope is possible in hardship Daniel dreams of the Kingdom of God because he has lost the kingdom of Israel. He was secure in Jerusalem, even privileged, but all that is gone. History has erased what he thought was God’s land. But God, he discovers, has other plans. The God of Israel is bigger than he thought. His plans are global. He is working towards a future beyond the scope of all that Daniel has lost. It is this hope that Jesus taps into; this vision of a future promise vastly larger than Israel’s small dreams.

3. Prayer and public life belong together Daniel models the deepest possible inner life. In his first months in Babylon he learns the power of fasting. Decades later his rhythm of thrice daily prayer is talked about throughout the city. But this is not his whole story. He also participates extensively in public life. He is both spiritually alive and culturally engaged. Daniel’s story is a model of what it can mean to be fully present to God and fully present to his world. He shows us that prayer need not be escapism and that activism need not be spiritually dry.

All three of these lessons offer clues as to how we, too, can find God in our circumstance. Exile can be a personal journey - a bereavement or redundancy; the loss of a supportive environment; financial hardship; homelessness. It can be a corporate experience - overwhelming cultural change; the decline of faith; the collapse of the Church’s place in history. Either way, our response should be the same.

We can know that faith is possible in times of change

No matter how fast our culture is changing, there is a model of faith that does work and is viable in the landscape we are moving into. Nowhere history takes you is a place God has not been. No circumstance you face is past his reach. You may look back with fond nostalgia on the Jerusalem you used to live in, but God is waiting to meet with you in Babylon.

We can trust that God is bigger than our troubles

Whatever hardships you endure, the purposes of God remain. The promise of God’s future, the kingdom that is both now and not yet, is always active. Sometimes hidden, but always active. History truly is his story. God is bigger than your trials, and he is bigger than your faith. Your beliefs about him only scratch his surface. Exile may well be your best opportunity to discover a bigger God.

We can seek to be both deep in prayer and culturally engaged

Those who thrive in the desert are those who know where the wells are found. Depth is not a fruit of circumstance: it is a choice we make. We choose to weave into our lives the disciplines and rhythms that will shape us. Deep people impact those around them. They make more of a dent on their circumstances than their circumstances make on them. Whatever the nature of your exile, you can find out what it means to build a rhythm of prayer in Babylon.

It is not difficult to see these lessons at work in the life of Jesus; to see that he was deeply influenced by Daniel. How easy is it to see them, now, at work in you?

TAKE AWAY Two easily-digestible tweet-sized bites

THOUGHT: Exile is a metaphor for all that troubles us: for all that hems us in; restricts our flourishing. Daniel is a glimpse of faith’s response: a life that thrives despite its cruel constraints.

PRAYER: No matter how deep the valley I walk, the well God has for me is deeper. No matter how big the issues I face, the purposes of God are bigger.