Daniel In Genesis 3:14,15 God pronounces judgement on Satan. One day his head will be bruised fatally. In order to prevent this Satan must prevent the Messiah, the seed of the woman, coming into the world. This is Satans’ objective throughout the Old Testament. He tries, by any means, to destroy the people of Israel, to turn them away from God, to do anything that will make them disappear and become insignificant. Satan tries diversion At one stage Jerusalem is captured by Nebuchadnezzar and the people taken away into captivity. Can they be assimilated into the Babylonian culture? If they can then Satan will have won an important victory. Some teenagers, the brightest and the best, are chosen for ‘special attention’. They are to be ‘educated’ for three years, Dan. 1:5, and by then they will be true Babylonians and they will also be made leaders of their own people. The first thing that happens is that their Hebrew names are taken from them and they are given heathen names associated with pagan gods. Then the first test. But at the first test they are found to be faithful. Daniel ‘resolved’, 1:8, that he would not be defiled by the forbidden [to Gods people] food and drink. The first test is often the most difficult. If we can stand up to that one we will most likely be able to continue to stand. The first sin is also the most difficult. After that the old nature takes over and has its way. If we fall once the second fall will be much easier. Daniel was not found wanting. And, God honored him! 1:21, Daniel continued until the first year of King Darius. That was 76 years later and by then Daniel had outlived many kings and even saw the change of Empire! 5:30, Belshazzar [the Babylonian or Chaldean] was defeated and Darius the Mede took over and with him came the Medo-Persian Empire. Diversion didn’t work so now Satan tries Compromise. Ch. 3. There is no prohibition on the three friends worshiping their own God. They just have to worship another as well! In todays terms they are being asked to comparmentalise their lives. Have one God in the morning and another in the evening. One God today and another tomorrow. Give God something and then live the rest of your life for yourself. In other words, our religion should not affect how we live the rest of our lives or what we do. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew differently. They were also prepared to take a stand and suffer the consequences. Taking a stand always has consequences, and not always pleasant ones. Vs. 17,18. They recognise two things. 1. God is able to save them. 2. He may choose not to. Even if He doesn’t save them they will not back down. The New Testament verse for us is Eph. 6:13. The fiery furnaces of this world have kept burning down through the ages. They have taken many different forms but are always there. So is the same God, Heb. 13:5. It is interesting to note that the only things consumed by the fire were the ropes that bound them! In the fires of suffering God will preserve us but allow that which is not necessary, that which is hindering [or that which is sinful] to be dealt with. In the fire they were free! Free to suffer? Free to serve? Compromise and diversion have not worked. Next Satan tries prohibition. Ch. 6. The king decides to reorganise the admin section and as usual this leads to jealousy. They don’t want Daniel to get the promotion even though that is the kings wish. Daniel was found to be without error or fault, Vs. 3-5. In fact he was blameless. These are the sort of people always set upon by Satan [remember Job, also blameless, and the Lord Jesus!]. Why was Daniel blameless? Because of that ‘excellent spirit’ in him! Today we have that same ‘excellent spirit’ available to us. We call it the Holy Spirit. The question is, do we allow him to have his way? Do we listen to him? Do we obey? So they try to trap Daniel by focusing on his spiritual life. But as far as Daniel is concerned he is not prepared to change. By the time Daniel was thrown to the physical lions the spiritual lions had been fought and defeated and there was nothing left for the spiritual ones. How do we deal with the spiritual lions that we meet regularly, 1Pet. 5:8? Today God remains the same. Satan and the world remain the same. The methods Satan uses to get at believers remain the same. We should not be surprised! We should learn from Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.