Strange Lands
Strange Culture
Opening Reflections.
Where have you seen God at work in your life this week?
Share any brief examples and encouragements.
Was there anything from Sunday’s message (from Amy Orr-Ewing) which resonated with you or that you felt resistance to? Anything else you particularly noticed?
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure-house of his god.
Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility – young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.
Daniel 1:1-4
Read Daniel 1.
Stranded as we are as exiles in a ‘strange culture’, Amy Orr-Ewing took the story of Daniel to talk about strategies which we can use to counter the enemy empire’s ‘playbook’. She spoke about enemy tactics to undermine us in three areas: Ideology, Identity and Expectations.
1. Tactic One. Attempting to persuade us that a godless and materialistic ideology is more sophisticated, more successful, and in every way superior to what we have known.
- What techniques for persuasion do you see the Babylonians employing on Daniel and his friends in this chapter?
- In what ways does the ‘strange culture’ which surrounds us act so as to squeeze us ‘into the shape dictated by the present age’? (Romans 12:2 Tom Wright: The New Testament for Everyone)
- What did Daniel and friends do to resist the culture of Babylon?
- What do you think was significant in their resolve to eat only vegetables and drink only water?
- Where can we resist the algorithms and materialism around us so as to flourish in our ‘exile’?
2. Tactic Two. Challenging our names and identity in Christ. Daniel and his friends were renamed by the chief palace official and given new identities to tie them to the gods of Babylon. Yet, throughout the Bible, we meet many people who received a new identity after an encounter with God. The Lord renamed them and the name became a destiny.
- In what ways does our culture work to strip us of our identity as followers of Christ?
- How have you found yourself re-named or stripped of identity? What re-naming do you need to be resisting? (outsider, doubter, awkward, reject, failure, disruptive, troublemaker, pushy, shrill, nobody, ineffectual, over-ambitious, stupid, etc.)
- By what name does Jesus call you? How can we really know ‘who we are and whose we are’?
3. Tactic 3. Overwhelming us with unfulfillable expectations (Daniel 2:17-18). When Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, he set an impossible challenge to ‘the wise men of Babylon’. They were used to interpreting dreams, but he demanded that they tell him what the dream was before they interpreted it. Daniel needed supernatural intervention, so he gathers with friends to pray.
- What unfulfillable expectations do you face? Where do you feel the pressure? What is making you anxious?
- Is your life meeting your expectations? Are you contented? What needs to change?
- Daniel challenges the impossible expectations by gathering with friends to pray. How could that approach make a difference for us?
Closing Reflections.
What will you take away from this study and discussion?
What has stood out that you can take into your week ahead?
Pray together (in pairs or small groups) for each other, in response to your answers.
