I cannot tell you why Jerusalem fell and captivity came to a faithful man like Daniel except that there was evil in the land. I cannot tell you why good men of God like my friend, and some of you, get cancer except that there is evil in this world. But this I know: in Babylon Daniel’s faith led others to trust in God. And I have seen how others are affected by the suffering of a Spirit-controlled saint of God.

We don’t want to go to Babylon and we don’t pray for anyone to go to Babylon but Babylons happen in this life. The question is, Where is the power for you to go through Babylon? The answer is in the one who came from heaven to His Babylon—the manger, the cross, the tomb were Babylon. Jesus Christ identified with us in the hardest places of life—in fact, in places we will never go. He took upon Himself shame and the condemnation of the cross that He might identify with us, that we may know that He is with us in Babylon.

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Babylon is not where we want to be. But sometimes in life it is where we end up.

The last time I saw Billy at Leavenworth was on one of the final pastoral rounds I made there. I will never forget it. I was drawn to whistling coming from one of the cellblocks You have heard about a caged bird singing, but this was too bizarre to be real. Whistling in Leavenworth is like giggling in Dante’s Inferno and is not something you hear everyday. But there he was. It was Billy, the young Navy lad I had interviewed when he first came. He was happier than I was. In fact he almost glowed with joy. Billy had a broom and was sweeping the hall just outside his cell and he was whistling as he swept. I was inspired by his cheerfulness myself.

He was so into his sweeping and whistling that I startled him when I approached and asked, “Billy, how’s it going?” “Well, Chaplain, I am doing just fine!” He was smiling ear to ear. “Billy, it looks like you have learned how to live in this place.” “Chaplain, what I have found is that Jesus can live this for me. And Jesus is here in this cell. And I am going to learn more about Him and learn to follow Him like never before. This is not a cell; this is my school of faith. Come look at the picture of my wife and daughter, Chaplain . . . ”

You see, the truth of the Book of Daniel is that the love of a sovereign God knows no boundaries. He is the God named Jesus who comes to our Babylon and turns a place of exile into a sanctuary. Jesus comes to our Babylon in a manger, on a cross, through an empty tomb, through the Holy Spirit. And He lives in our hearts wherever we are.

Where is your Babylon? And how are you doing there? Complaining? Giving in? Or trusting? And where is your power coming from? Do I again hear whistling in the cell? Or is it the quiet voice of a gentle Savior saying, “I am here.”

I was so taken by this book as your pastor and your lives testifying to me, that I wrote a song:

And He was there in the fire

He was there in the Lion’s den

He was there working all things together

For good to those who love Him

And are called by Him

And that gives me hope

For my life

For he is there in my sorrow

He is there in my physical pain

He is there in the sunshine of life

And He’s there in the seasons of rain

He is there

_______________

Michael Milton is Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga, TN.

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