How the World Looks upon the Outward Appearance

In today's episode, we look at how Babylon (or this present world system) evaluates people.  We see how Babylon recruits early, along with the type of person they recruit to their ranks.  

God, however, has a different way of looking at people:  He looks upon the heart.  

There's a word of encouragement here!  Even though we aren't "seen" by the world, we can still be seen and valued by God!  Sometimes ... God even creates His people in such a way so that they get recruited, because they have a special God-given assignment to influence the world.  

Transcript

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Welcome to the Bible Mind Podcast, where we seek to have the mind of Christ and to see things from God's perspective.

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Hi everyone, Theophilus here. It's nice to be back with you all. Yeah, I believe this is my fourth episode after my return back to the podcast world. We've been in Daniel chapter one. Last week's episode was about evangelism in Babylon. Is it really possible? And I hope you tune into that podcast episode because I think it's an interesting discussion about how we are able to reach out to people even in a very restrictive culture. Daniel and his three friends definitely had just high-level influence, not only in the culture, but with King Nebuchadnezzar. Today we're gonna continue on in Daniel chapter one, and we're gonna be talking about a couple of things. One, I would like to focus on how the world judges us by outward appearance, and of course, God looks upon the heart. Even in Babylon, we can see their evaluation system by how they chose Daniel and his three friends. Okay, we're gonna look more closely at that, and also just the ways that Babylon tries to teach us, impose upon us its culture, its ways of thinking. And when I say Babylon, actually I'm talking about this present world system, because basically we are living in Babylon. Our focus is in verse 4 right now, but I'm gonna start reading from verse 3. And this is the King James Version. And the king spake unto Ashbanaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed, and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, skilful in all wisdom, and cunning and knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. Now this is a very interesting verse because you can say that Babylon has its own recruiting system, and they took the best of what they had. So when they invaded Judah and Jerusalem and they destroyed the temple, they did bring that down, they tore down the walls and stuff like that. Um, they took the precious things out of the temple and put them in the house of their God, which is an absolute insult to the one and only true God. And now they are taking the best of the people. So they picked up Daniel and his three friends when they brought captives back, and let's just kind of break down what we see in English because the first stage of Bible study is observation. We want to see what's in the text before us. And just remember, too, that translations are different. When these translators came and looked and studied the original languages, they made these choices on how to translate the words. They did the best that they could. And we can look at the original language and see what it says. Okay, so verse 4, children in whom was no blemish. Okay, I'm just observing and I'm breaking down the verse. Because most people don't go this granular when they look at a verse, but even when I used to study the Bible in my past and I would write down my favorite verses, I would underline and highlight different things. I told you guys about that in a previous episode. Um, that's why I like to write things down because when you write things down, you retain it more in your brain. But I would take this verse because I mean there's a lot happening here, right? It's densely packed, and then you break it down, right? You take it in sections. So I just want to kind of share with you my process because there are those of you out there listening that maybe you haven't really um had that much experience in Bible study. Maybe you're new to the Lord or you've been a Christian for a while, and you just haven't come to that place where you have tried to study the Bible. Maybe you've read the Bible for a long time. People are in different places and there's no condemnation for that. We grow in stages, but we do want to get to those places though where we are studying the Bible because there's so much meat in the word, and it takes looking at it carefully, it takes understanding how to interpret it, and you know, just going through those uh stages of Bible study. I just want to kind of think aloud with you so that you can see part of my process. So we have the word children there. When I look at that verse, look at that word, I'm kind of reflecting upon it. Children. If I looked at the Hebrew word underneath, it might say like a young man. Because we know that Daniel wasn't elementary school age, he was probably like a teenager. I like how they use children because it kind of makes me think about our society. And then my mind starts connecting things. Because we have to think about Babylon. There is not only the nation of Babylon, but there is the harlot Babylon that is spoken about in the book of Revelation. There is a culture of Babylon, there's a mindset of Babylon that wants to rebel against God. It all stemmed from back in Genesis 11 where they built the Tower of Babel. All these people united together so that they could build their own kingdom, a name for themselves, and basically rule the world apart from God. Now, how young does this recruiting process start? In the past, I would have said it heavily started in college because usually young people were at home. Their parents would be a big part of their lives. Back then, parents were still involved with their children, and they definitely had a hand in raising their children. But then what happens after children graduate from high school? They go on to college. Oftentimes they go to a college that is away from home, and they're subjected to a lot of peer pressure. They might get into a drinking culture and a bunch of other things because they want to fit in. They want to be a part of everything. They want to be included, they want to be accepted. It's really easy to succumb to that peer pressure. Daniel and his three friends had the same temptation, in a sense, because they were away from home. They didn't have anybody around them to hold them back from falling into that society, so to speak. And of course, they needed to survive, they wanted to be accepted. They could have just joined everybody else, but they didn't. And so the enemy these days, he is going younger and younger and younger in the culture, trying to get a foothold and then a stronghold in different children's lives. You know, it could be through many different things that people are not aware of that, hey, they're gonna have an influence. Those games, those objects, those cards, whatever, they're gonna have an influence on that young person's mind and heart. When it says children, I think that there's something to that because in Babylon, they want to conform you to their culture from a very young age. Historically, literally, we're talking about Daniel and his three friends and the captives from Judah and Jerusalem, but we're also looking at this figuratively, spiritually. And I want to explain this concept to you, and I'll probably do an episode where we're just talking about parables. Jesus said that he always spoke in parables. I find that statement really interesting because if he always spoke in parables and he's the word of God, does that mean that there are parables within the word of God, like in the Old Testament? And a parable is you're comparing one thing to another. That's how we're looking at this verse in chapter four. And it was real, and these people actually lived. Daniel actually was taken captive to Babylon, that God is also speaking forth spiritual lessons here from this word. So children are now being recruited into the Babylonian culture. What kind of children does the culture want? Okay, those in whom was no blemish. And I want you just kind of reflect on that for a moment. The world wants as good as it can get, it wants perfection, it wants the beautiful, it wants the strong, it wants the mighty, the smart. Because when you look at the outward appearance, and the world is always pushing us to look at the outward appearance, then that makes it seem like, oh, the world is the right way to go. Because look at who we have on our side, look at who represents us, look at how beautiful that celebrity is, and of course they're gonna speak on our behalf, or how rich that person is, or you know, that person's so smart, and it's always forcing us to look at the outward appearance, and I just want to share some verses about that, and I also want to share how like my mind connects the dots, okay? I'm gonna slow it down and show you how I went from one dot to another. Now, when I think of the outward appearance, it always reminds me of that verse in 1 Samuel 16. God had told Samuel that one of Jesse's sons was gonna be king. So in this family, they have all of these sons, and when Samuel the prophet comes to their house, you know, they line up all the sons, you know, from the tallest and the oldest all the way down to what presumably was the youngest. But they forgot about David. When you go into this passage, it's really interesting because as holy and godly as Samuel was, he still fell for the way the world looks at people, the world judges people, by the outward appearance. When he saw the sons, the firstborn came before him, and it was Eliab, and he's tall and broad-shouldered and all that stuff, and you know, Samuel looks at him and says, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. This is our key verse in verse 7. But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And that is just so vital to our well-being, our peace, to understand this concept, okay? And also it happened later on in David's life. You know, David was going to be the legitimate king of Israel. But before David came on the scene, even there was another man that came forth. It was during the time that the people of Israel were clamoring for a king, they wanted to be like all the other nations. So this other man came forth, and he was, you know, head and shoulders taller than everybody, he was very good looking, and they were like, Oh my gosh, this is our king. He looks every bit like a king. And this was Samuel. Okay, and this was Saul. If you don't know the story of Saul, God said, No, this man, he can't cut it because he wasn't the person that I chose, and really his character has not been formed. And with all the pressure and the jealousy that he had for anybody who tried to usurp him, especially David, he could see the favor of God on David's life. He was crushed by that, and it caused him to disobey God. Daniel and his three friends just happened to be good looking. They happened to have good stature, and they looked good in the king's palace. You know, that's what these people were thinking when they chose the best of the Israelites that they had captured who were living in Judah and Jerusalem. Ironically, they did pick those young men that would be above the rest because they had God's spirit endowing them, uh, enabling them to do these mighty things, to have this incredible faith, to have wisdom above the other uh government officials, the other people who were the advisors to the king. I mean, they excelled beyond, but it wasn't because of the outward appearance, it was because God had endowed them with this wisdom and the spiritual gifts and the being able to interpret dreams that uh Daniel received. And actually it was a setup because God had already known what Babylon was like and what Babylon would choose. And if we go into 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26 and 27, it says that, for you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And then he goes on with more descriptions, and he says, The reason why is that no flesh should glory in his presence. You know, I look at myself and I'm just like, you know, God made me to be a certain height, certain weight, certain appearance, certain personality, and I don't really stand out that much. And trust me, I I wouldn't be the first person that you would pick to do something noble. So I fully identify with this passage, and most believers are pretty, you know, I wouldn't say average because a lot of us we're not average, we're exceptional in that we are going against the grain of the world and loving God and trusting in what we can't yet see. But what I'm saying is, according to the perspective of the world, we can seem rather common, average, and even uh less than. And that's something that we have to accept. I've already accepted that from before. I don't have to go out and impress anybody. But the thing with Daniel and his three friends is God had set them up, God made them to be the way that they are because he knew that this was gonna happen, and he knew that Babylon would choose them to be high-level officials in their kingdom, even though the rule is that most Christians are not going to be the mighty, the noble, the beautiful, the strong. There are a certain number of them that are, because God puts them in certain places so they can have an influence on the people of the world. So just know my takeaway for this that I really want you to grab a hold of is even though Daniel was chosen in the midst of this situation and his three friends, because of his um outward appearance, a lot of it was outward, or else they wouldn't have seen him in his merit, they wouldn't have seen the others. So he had a lot of the characteristics of the type of person that they would want in Babylon. I remember a long time ago, I knew this girl. I believe in prophecy. I had prayed, you know, God, will you just give me a word for her? And I prayed for a while, you know, because I was sincere about like I just want to give her a true word. Basically, I gave her Daniel chapter one, and I just said, you know, you're gonna go into a situation where the people of the world, they're gonna choose you because you're the type of person that they want. You have the different characteristics, you have the profile of somebody that would cause them to look good, right? The person who could stand in the king's palace. I had a friend that I gave a word to that she was gonna be like a Daniel, and I believe in prophetic words. I really prayed for her for a while, and um I waited until God had given me a word, and so I shared that with her. It ended up coming to pass because she ended up working with the UN, not my favorite company, because it is globalist in nature, and I'd like to call it the Antichrist Kingdom in training. And even though I had issues with her moving in that direction, I mean, because I received the prophetic word, I was like, oh, that's great, you know, they're going to hire you and you're gonna be like a Daniel. In different ways, she was a person who could stand in the King's Palace. When she went to school, she studied both Spanish and French, so I think she came to a point where she was fluent in both. Attractive girl, too, very smart, and definitely knew how to write because she also wanted to be a writer, so she had all these characteristics that they wanted, and she can move in that territory. Also, I wanted to bring up one other example, uh, a recent one. Justin Bieber. He rose to fame because he was the kid, I think he had like a YouTube video where he was busking, very talented and very cute, and so all the girls liked him and everything, and the world already saw his initial popularity, took him under their wing, made him into more of what they wanted him to be, and then he rose to fame. Recently, when they had the World Cup final, he was able to perform during that time, and he led the stadium in singing hallelujah. So, in that way, he was like a Daniel with a lot of troubles, of course, and he's still working through them because you know they try to control you in different ways with handlers, but he is still asserting a measure of his Christianity. He was chosen by the world, but then still wanted to share about Jesus in different ways. As far as my friend, you know, as I think back and wonder what's gone on with her, I don't really know. When I first gave her that word, she was a Christian who wanted to do God's will, that type of thing. I don't know where she's at now, but that's part of the danger. You can go into those places of the world and then adopt its ways. And you never become an influencer of the world, but you become influenced by the world. So those are two stories that I can give as examples. I don't know that I would be that person who could stand in the King's Palace. They probably wouldn't want me. I'd be like a John the Baptist, right? People who stand in the King's Palace, they don't wear that kind of stuff. They don't look like you. My takeaway, I didn't expect to say all of these things, but maybe God wanted me to say all this. And you notice that I didn't go throughout the whole verse. There's so much more in this verse that I'm gonna get to, but probably in the next message. But I want to just share with you that this is really important to grab a hold of and embrace. Not many mighty, not many noble, not many beautiful, not many famous, not many rich, not many outwardly successful have been chosen by God to be part of his kingdom, right? To know him. Why? Because that nobody would take away his glory and that we would not glory in ourselves. Okay, Babylon will look at the outward appearance and choose people accordingly. According to their credentials, which school that they went to, their family that they have come from, all of these outward appearance markers, they're gonna choose those type of people. You may not be one of them. And that is a compliment. That is something that you can be like, wow, I'm so glad that Babylon hasn't chosen me because I don't want to be a part of Babylon. I am not of that spirit, I am not of that way of thinking, that worldview. I want to be chosen by God rather than by Babylon. But for those that are chosen by Babylon, and they do belong to God, God has a special assignment for them. And they probably need a lot of prayer because in Babylon there are just a lot of treacherous things. There are a lot of tempting things. You become rich and famous, you get seduced by a lot of people who are trying to take advantage of you, use you, all this stuff. So that special assignment has a lot of hard, challenging things that come with it. But as far as the application point, and it wasn't anything that actually I thought of before, but now I'm bringing it home here. I feel like the application point is if you are flying under the radar because people haven't noticed you, they may not be noticing you at work. You may feel overlooked, forgotten, undervalued, not appreciated, not seen. Well, I think there's a great parallel here from the different verses that I've shared, right? Because we had also talked about David. When Samuel was told that one of Jesse's sons would be king, he shared that with the father. And they brought out all of his sons, firstborn all the way to the end, but they had forgotten about David. They overlooked him, they didn't think that he would be somebody who would be king. Even though he was a handsome young man, of course, but there's a spiritual principle there. There's something to grab a hold of. So if you are not being seen, it does not mean that God does not know who you are. God knows where you live. God knows what he would like to do with your life because he does have a purpose and a plan for you. You may fly under the radar for the rest of your life. Or, you know, this might be your hidden time, just like David had a hidden time, but then he rose to prominence. Joseph had a hidden time, and he was scorned by his brothers, he was betrayed by his brothers, and then eventually he rose to prominence. Okay, so God hides his people as well. And again, this is not, it doesn't really reflect everything that's happening in Daniel chapter 1, but for some reason I just felt like I need to share this. Maybe somebody out there is listening, and they're kind of wondering, I love you, God, so much. You know, I I totally want to serve you. Like, why am I in this place? And nobody sees my giftings, nobody understands what I can do, and that might be true right now. And maybe God hid you on purpose for the time being because he has some things that he needs to do in your life. We're born again, and we don't know what we're gonna become. We're born again of God's seed, and I just love how he says, you know, we were formed in this secret place in our mother's womb. And right now, in a sense, God is forming you in a secret place. He's forming you in a hidden place. You do not know who you are in Christ. That has yet to be revealed. But we cannot take those hidden times personally. We need to understand how God does things. Just like I was talking about in a previous episode, we need to understand his ways. Part of what he does is he hides people. Part of what he does is he chooses the most unlikely person to do some of the greatest things. He's done that before so many times in the Bible. The more we can stay still and be under God's hand and allow him to do what he's doing and not um take things personally, the better I think things will be because then he will have that time, he will have that space to shape us into what he wants. And I just want to share again my testimony, this aspect of it. I, for one, am under the radar. I know that in my life because I recognize that people don't really see me because I'm, you know, a certain height, certain appearance, I don't really get noticed all that much, and that's okay. Because I know that God designed that for a reason, and I'm happy for it. Because I can just accept the way that God has made me, I can accept this hidden place and be perfectly content because I don't need that outward affirmation, I don't need people to think well of me, and that's what's gonna make me feel okay. I can just remain wherever God has put me, and whoever sees me sees me. And if most of the world doesn't, then it's okay. I have to say this right now because so much of this world is wanting to get noticed. And what I'm saying is we already have value in God, we already are the richest people in the world because we have God. Even Paul said, You have everything. You know, one day you're gonna judge angels, and you can take from this what you will, but my encouragement to you is be content to be hidden. You know, maybe that's the application for this message right now. You can be thinking about other things, you can be thinking about what children mean. You could be thinking about your children, you could be thinking about the influences in their lives, how the enemy, how Babylon is recruiting people from a very young age, but they recruit only certain types of people who have a certain outward appearance. And if you don't initially have that outward appearance, you have the raw material of it, then once you come into their orbit, they're going to make you into their image. I read different things about old Hollywood, like back in the 1950s and 60s, where they basically controlled the lives of these actors and actresses, they make you into their image. And all of these different pinnacles of society, you're in corporate America, you're now the CEO. Well, then you have to look a certain way, you have to wear the Rolox watch, you have to buy this type of car, you have to appear this way, you have to have this type of money and go on these vacations. It's all the same because they have to make you into their image. Whatever you're looking at most of the time, that's what you're going to reflect, that's what you're going to become. And what I'm saying is, it's not wrong to look nice, it's not wrong to try to improve yourself, but we do not need to chase that carrot stick. We do not need to take the bait of Babylon when it comes to the outward appearance of things and how we're gonna get noticed, how we're gonna get promoted, etc. You know, Daniel and his three friends were promoted because they were there at the right time, they had the right design of appearance, how God created them, but that was all for a reason. So they could rise up through the ranks and greatly influence that society as well as Nebuchadnezzar. So I am speaking very calmly right now, I don't know why, but this is just kind of like a fireside chat, and I'm just sharing with you my heart about this particular subject. I think it's because I've been reading a lot about old-time Hollywood, um finances. When you read about finances, then you learn about different people's lifestyles and different points of wealth, all these things, and I just see how Solomon said it correctly. He said, you know, vanity, it's all vanity. Godliness with contentment is great gain. And I think that's the last word that I'm gonna leave with you, and I'm just gonna pray for us because again, I didn't expect to say all this. I think that God had gifted me in a sense to also be a prophetic teacher, not just a teacher, but a prophetic teacher. So I'm gonna take that passage, and when I start talking, I'm just trusting that God is giving me the right words to say to people. We need to get off the hamster wheel, and let's make it specific of what Babylon wants us to do, of what Egypt wants us to do. Just work, work, work. Spend, spend, spend. Build, build, build. We need to get off the hamster wheel so that we can see life from a different perspective and we're willing to embrace it. If we can stop being so influenced by the things of the world so that we can see rightly, then we do not have to be captivated by that, nor do we have to be imprisoned by that, captured by that. We could be free. And the person who has godliness with contentment, that person is free. And I just want to pray right now, God, I just thank you so much that Daniel and his three friends rose to prominence in Babylon because you had prepared them for that role. You created them in such a way that they would be accepted by Babylon. And we know that there are Christians out there that are accepted in Babylon. They have rose to prominence in all different kinds of fields. And in a sense, they quote unquote look the part, but yet they are influential. They are changing things from the inside out, they are speaking your name, even when it's unpopular. So we thank you for those people, and we just ask that you would strengthen them and that you would help them to fulfill your purposes in that sector of Babylon. God, that their boss, whether he be like a Nebuchadnezzar, would have their eyes open to see you for who you are. And I pray that those that don't have that situation, maybe they seem the most unlikely, the overlooked, the unseen. I just pray, Father, that you would bless them with your word. You would deeply affirm your son, daughter, that they are a child of God and that you see them. You know who they are, you know their path, you know their worth. It might be hidden from the world, but it's because it's so precious. We don't just take our like most precious jewels and possessions and just display them for all the world to see. I mean, sometimes some people do, but a lot of wise people they don't because they don't want them to be stolen. They don't want them to be corrupted. And thank you, God, that we can be content in that hidden place. So I just give you all the glory here because when you said not many are noble, not many mighty, not many all of these things, it's because you're the one who's going to get the glory. Not anybody else. And so we just give you the glory. Thank you, God, so much. In Jesus' name. Amen.