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Intimacy with God  /  Chapter 1: Bearing the Cross  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 6
Daniel is held up as an endurance model, living in Babylon like Lot in Sodom and Abraham in Chaldea, with Abraham called “the friend of God.” What picture of God’s friendship and faithfulness is being presented through those exile stories, and how does that challenge modern expectations that intimacy with God produces comfort or safety?
Another way to ask: What do the exile stories (Daniel, Lot, Abraham) show about God’s friendship and faithfulness when life is hard and unsafe? How does that challenge the idea that being close to God should always bring comfort or protection?

Direct Answer God’s friendship here is not pictured as removing exile or danger, but as sustaining faithfulness within hostile settings and delivering according to His will. Intimacy with God is linked to endurance under threat, not to guaranteed comfort.

Support from Transcript:

  • Daniel “lived in Babylon, similarly to… Lot… in Sodom… [and] Abraham… in Chaldea.”
  • “This Abraham was called the friend of God,” placing friendship alongside living as a stranger in a corrupt place.
  • “The Babylonian king threw Daniel into a pit of wild beasts, but… our faithful Lord, brought him out unharmed.”
  • “The one who is intimate with God will have the same kind of patience and endurance.”
  • Trials are assumed: “When under trial, he will bless God like Job… pray like Jonah… Though cast into the fire, he will not be destroyed.”
Discussion Follow-ups Do you expect God’s closeness to mean fewer threats, or faithfulness in the threats? How does “friend of God” reshape what you think friendship should feel like?

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