Grace Group Questions
ExpandWeek 1
Daniel Week 1: The Way of the Exile
When in your life have you felt like the outsider? What is you default when you feel that way withdrawal (isolation, antagonism, retreat to the past) or Assimilation (compromise)?
Dan shared that Babylon was a city built in rebellion (read Gen. 10:8-10 and 11:3-4), and an empire of wealth, power, pagan gods, sexual immorality, and violence. Spiritually it is any nation or place that is infected with the same, wealth, power, false worship and idolatry, sexual immorality, and violence. It’s usually marked by political power and commercial systems that result in the abuse of one group over the other, and rejects the Kingdom of God and it’s way. As you think about Babylon, and our culture as a form of Babylon, how do you react?
Read Jeremiah 29:4-7. How do you think Jeremiah and God’s people felt about these instructions to them as they entered exile? How do you react as you think about yourself living the way of an exile?
Read Jer. 29:10-14. Some of these promises have been fulfilled both physically and spiritually, but also not fully. Yet, there is a promise that repentant hearts and renewed pursuit of God in the midst of the exile means finding Him and experiencing Hope. How would this promise affect you if you were being carried off to Babylon with Daniel? How does this promise affect you in the here and now?
Pastor Dan shared that Jesus, and the N.T. Writers (See 1 Peter 1:1, 5:13) saw themselves living in Babylon and in exile. The Way of the Exile is the posture of the people of God…we are to be Creative Minorities. But this isn’t easy. Most of us react in withdrawal (isolation, antagonism, retreat to the past) or Assimilation (compromise). Which of these two are you more likely to default to when you feel like an Exile as a follower of Jesus? How are you hoping God transforms your heart and mind through this study of Daniel and his faithfulness in exile?
