1. CHOICES TO MAKE (Daniel 1:1-21)

1.     CHOICES TO MAKE (Daniel 1:1-21)

What can we count on to be relevant to us?

1.     We also have an enemy who wants to return us to places God called us to leave.

 “Babylonia’ is literally the land of Shinar (שִׁנְעָר šinʿār, Heb). Why is this fact significant?

Genesis 11:1-4, 8-9, 12:1; 11:31.

2.     God has also been sovereign in our captivities.

3.     We are also from the seed of the kingship (Daniel 1:3).

4.     We are surrounded by a Babylon of our own.

“I Am and there is none besides me” (Isaiah 47:8, 10).

a.     Nothing is more dangerous than friendly captivity.

b.     Captivity never means friendly.

5.     We, too, will lose our identity and integrity without resolve.

• What was it about the food?

• The word “zeroa” means “that which grows from sown seed.”

• The term would include not only vegetables but fruit, grains and bread that is made from grain.”

• In her commentary on Daniel, scholar Joyce Baldwin says that by Eastern standards to share a meal was to commit oneself to friendship. Sharing a meal was of covenant significance.

6.     God desires to give us knowledge and understanding of various kinds (verse 17).