[MUSIC PLAYING] The Bible from 30,000 feet,
soaring through the scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Daniel the prophet is
to the Old Testament what the Book of Revelation
is to the New Testament. So I have good news,
and I have bad news. The good news is there
is only 12 chapters in the book of Daniel. That's the good news. The bad news is it's
the book of Daniel. And 12 chapters in Daniel
is like 80 chapters in any other kind of didactic
literature, poetic literature. So it's a fly-by. In the book of Daniel
tonight at 30,000 feet, I'm going to attempt to do that. We're going to zoom in on
landmarks in this book. It's pretty easy, I
think, to understand now that we are a few thousand
years removed from its writing, and so much has been fulfilled. So in retrospect,
we can look back, and it's easy to see how those
puzzle pieces fit together that Daniel predicted. I have had the
opportunity to go to Iraq, where Babylon is located,
on two different occasions. And the first time I went
to Iraq, I went to Babylon. This is in the '90s
right after the Gulf War. And I was able to
see the city remains where Daniel the prophet lived
and worked for his adult life. And I was able to
see the Ishtar Gate and go down sort of part
of the main thoroughfare. And they showed me where they
believe the lions' dens were. And the courtyard and
room where Belshazzar, the King in chapter 5, was
sitting when the handwriting wrote on the wall. And that was a very moving
experience to be in Babylon. I then went years later not to
Babylon, but the city of Erbil up in Kurdistan part of Iraq. And I went there, and I worked
with some IDPs, Internally Displaced Peoples, as well as
refugees from other countries. And I share that I unpack that
because those two experiences of mine being in Babylon
and dealing with refugees are a perfect setup for this
book because this book takes place in Babylon. And Daniel was a refugee. He writes as a refugee as
one of God's holy people, Jewish people who had
been taken captive and placed in this
foreign land of Babylon. It is the setting of the book. Now ancient, Babylon even
the ruins are amazing, but ancient Babylon in its glory
was absolutely magnificent. The walls of the city were
85 feet thick, 300 feet tall. Every 65 feet above
the level of the wall were watchtowers, which
made it more impressive. And even around that
city-- and by the way, the circumference of
the city of Babylon, according to ancient
historians, was 60 miles-- 60 miles of wall-- around the greater
metropolis of Babylon. And to top it off,
just outside the walls was a moat, so it
was heavily protected through the center of
the city of Babylon with the Euphrates River, right
down through the middle, right under the wall
through the city, kind of working its way
through, taking a turn, and going out again
under the city wall. If you were to go through
the ancient Ishtar Gate on a normal day in
Babylon, you would be on a street that
would be 65 feet wide of paved, pure limestone flanked
by two red-tiled sidewalks like a gorgeous modern city. I mentioned the river Euphrates
ran through the center of town. And the retaining walls
on the banks of the river were out of a fired
shiny blue brick and placed within the
brick, yellow mosaic of lions, a symbol of
Babylon, and dragons. So this is a few
thousand years ago, and you're dealing with a very
sophisticated and opulent, magnificent and very
well-protected city. The founder of Babylon was a
guy by the name of Nabopolassar. He was the dad of
Nebuchadnezzar. We're familiar with
Nebuchadnezzar. He is mentioned in this book. Nabopolassar, Neb's
dad, named him Nebuchadnezzar because,
in their language, that name means oh, Nabu-- which is one of the chief
gods of Babylon-- oh, Nabu, protect my son. What's interesting
about the god Nabu-- and they worshipped several
deities in Babylon-- is Nabu was the god of
wisdom and prophecy. I think that's
noteworthy because in this book, Nebuchadnezzar-- oh, Nabu, protect my son,
the prophecy god protecting his son, he didn't have
anybody in his palace who could tell him what
dreams or prophecies meant, except one guy, and that was
a guy by the name of Daniel because Daniel showed that
not Nabu but Yahweh is the God of wisdom and prophecy. So it is sort of like
a showdown of the gods when you get through this book. Thing about Nebuchadnezzar
is that he had a hot temper and a short fuse-- not a good combination. He was the guy who took King
Zedekiah of Judah, killed his young sons in
front of his eyes, so he would have that
as the last living memory of his eyesight. After killing them in
plain sight of his dad, then he put Zedekiah's
eyes out, blinded him, so he would always remember
that to his dying day. That's his temper. Add to that chapter 3
of the book of Daniel where anybody who doesn't
bow down and worship an image essentially of him gets
thrown into a fiery furnace. This guy has issues with anger. Let me take you back to
one of those three dates. Remember last week and the week
before, I mentioned those dates to you of Judas'
capture and assault. I gave you 605 BC,
597 BC, and 586 BC. You remember those dates? Sorry to do this
again, but it's by now, you're becoming like
historic Bible experts. That first date, 605 BC, let me
tell you why that's monumental and why that's the first date-- the reason that
became the first date for the captivity
of which Daniel was taken captive in that
first assault. Here's why. There was a showdown at the
OK Corral, not literally the OK Corral, but sort of the
equivalent in ancient times. But the OK Corral
back then was the city of Carchemish, which was on
the modern-day Turkish-Syrian border. Carchemish was a town where
three armies converged, the Egyptian Army, along
with the Assyrian army, that formed one huge army
against the Babylonians. That's where they had a battles
for who would win the battle and be controller of the Earth. And in that battle of
Carchemish, in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar won. Because he won, he conquered
Assyria and Babylon and essentially everything
else because those were the two superpowers. So the rest of the
world was easy pickings. And so he marched. And in his march to let
everybody know he is in charge, one of those stops
was Jerusalem. And he announced
he'd won the battle. His troops were there. Nobody dare argue with him. He did damage to the city,
though did not destroy it, and took the first
round of captives. And one of those was
the young Daniel. So the book of Daniel
is very easy to outline. You can cut it in half. There are 12 chapters. You can take the first
six and the second six, and there's your outline. The first six are organized
as historic literature. The next six are
prophetic literature. So in the first six
chapters, it's all personal. And in the second six,
it's all prophecy. So we have in chapters 1 through
6, the prophet Daniel, and in 7 through 12, the
prophecies of Daniel. That's easy to outline. That's how the book is laid out. Now Daniel is described as
the author of this book, but wouldn't you know it,
you'll get liberal scholars who say Daniel didn't
write this book, and they have an old
theory that has been debunked time and time again. But they keep trudging
it up because they don't have enough
intelligent acumen, creativity to come
up with a new theory. And the theory is
Daniel didn't write it, but somebody in the second
century BC during the Maccabean era wrote it. He was writing history,
disguised it as prophecy. The only problem with that
is we have made discoveries, not we as in I
personally, but the world has discovered a very
interesting archaeological dig over in Israel called
the Dead Sea Scrolls. They've been around now
for several decades. And when they were
discovered in Cumeran by the Dead Sea in Israel-- remind me when we're there. I'll point that
cave out to you-- cave number four
is where they found a copy of the book
of Daniel that predated the Maccabean era. So I think that the scholarship
that has been intact before and since all of that
stuff has been dredged up and the Bible
accused of a forgery has pretty well been debunked. But all of that aside, whether
we made the discovery or not, here's really the
way to debunk it-- the words of Jesus. He said, and when you see the
abomination of desolation, as spoken by Daniel the prophet,
standing in the holy place. You are in Jerusalem. Flee to the mountains. Jesus called Daniel a
prophet and referred to one of his prophecies that
he writes about in chapter 9. OK, Daniel chapter 1 verse 1-- we're going to hit it hard. You ready? 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 gave Jehoiakim,
king of Judah, into his hand with some of the articles
of the house of God, which he carried into
the land of Shinar to the house of his god. And he brought the articles into
the treasure house of his god. Who's in charge here? Well, it mentions
King Nebuchadnezzar who asserted his
power, his authority, his military prowess. He's mentioned here as
taking over the city. But it seems clear from
the next few statements that God is assuming
responsibility for it all. The Lord gave Judah
into his hand. Nebuchadnezzar
can Ezra could not have won the battle of
Carchemish in 605 BC, nor have taken the
city of Jerusalem were it not for the Lord. So God proudly
takes responsibility for the misery of His own
people taken captive in Babylon. You should note that. That's an important
thing to see. God delivered him over. Nebuchadnezzar was strong. Nebuchadnezzar thought
he was the king. In reality, Nebuchadnezzar was
a pawn on God's chessboard. God is moving Nebuchadnezzar
to this place. Like it says in Proverbs
21, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. And like the rivers of water,
he turns it wherever he wishes. Why is that? Why would God do that? Why on earth would God
allow this to happen? Two reasons-- it's
a divine sentence. Second reason it's
a divine setup. First it's a divine sentence. God is doing what he
said He would do is judging the land for their sin. The Jews time and
time again, decade after decade, century after
century, disobey God's law. God said, you keep doing
that, I'm going to take you into captivity in Babylon. Prophet after prophet said that. We read their processes,
considered them. It's a divine sentence. But second, it is a
divine setup to get Daniel into a key position, so
he can write this book and influence no less
than five historic kings. I love the book of Daniel. How often in trouble
we go it's the devil. This is the work of the devil. Satan's against me. So you just figured that out? He's been against
you your whole life. Or we say, how
could a God of love allow that to happen to me? What you need to do is
frame what you go through with the wisdom of Joseph, who
went through harder trials, I believe, than even
you and said, God, you meant this for evil. But God meant this for good. No matter what evil is
around you and pushing in on you, though there are
people and powers that mean that for evil, God
always means it for your good. God causes all things to
work together for good to those who love
God and are called according to his purpose. Down in verse 6, it tells us
who some of these captives are. Now from those of the
sons of Judah where Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah. To them, the chief of
the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel-- that's
his Jewish name-- the Babylonian
name Belteshazzar-- which means Bel
protect the King. Bel is not the name of a god. That's the name, Lord. It could refer to
any of the gods. It's a generic term. So Daniel's new name was
basically god protect the king, or god Save the king. So every time you
would say Belshazzar, you are you're saying
basically god Save the king. That was Daniel's name. To Hananiah, Shadrach; to
Mishael, Meshach; to Azariah, Abedinago. Please mark that
Nebuchadnezzar thought it was important to steal
from every captive his most private possession,
his own name. He redesignated the captives. He renamed them. He took away their identity. Why? Because to a Jew, that was
his spiritual identity. Daniel means God is my judge. That name is stripped from him. He is given a new
spiritual identity. This is Nebuchadnezzar's
attempt to conform captives into the image of Babylon. Like it says about us
in Romans chapter 12. Be not conformed to this
world, but transformed. The world is always trying
to make you like they are. They work hard at that
every day in every song you hear, in every
billboard you read, in every message and
value system that is passed in a court
of law, the world is trying to conform
you to their image. What you find out
about Daniel quickly is that this boy was
not a thermometer. He was a thermostat. He did not go up and down with
the temperature around him like most other people do. If people are cold, he's cold. If people are hot, he's hot. He wasn't that kind of a person. He was a thermostat. Man, he'd walk into a room
and set the temperature. He was bold and
here's why, verse 8. But Daniel purposed in his
heart that he would not defile himself with a portion
of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine
which he drank. Therefore, he requested of
the chief of the eunuchs that he might not
defile himself. A three-year training course for
these captives to pamper them, to indulge them to
get them thinking man life is a lot
better here in Babylon than it ever was in Jerusalem
and then to put the dots together saying,
well, our God did not protect us from the Babylonians,
and life was bad in Jerusalem. My goodness, it pays to
live in the worldly system. This is great. Who would want to go
back to Jerusalem? He could have easily
said, when in Babylon, do as the Babylonians. Even if I do return to Judah,
what happens in Babylon stays in Babylon. He could have had
all sorts of excuses. Why not indulge? Who's watching? Who cares? But Daniel wasn't
looking for an excuse because Daniel was
living with a purpose. And when you live
with a purpose, you're not looking
for an excuse. He purposed in his heart. He made an internal commitment. You might say Daniel
conquered inner space. We have celebrated 50 years
after going to the moon. It's great. I saw that little special
they did on Apollo 11. It was moving how we got from
this speck of dust in the Milky Way galaxy to that
speck of dust, amazing. We can conquer outer
space pretty well. Our big problem is we don't do
so well with our inner space. When it comes to your own
life, what's around you, the way to conquer
your outer space is to first conquer
your inner space, to conquer what's inside,
to purpose something in your heart, to live
with conviction so that you don't fall in compromise. Chapter 2 is a good illustration
of how God can use insomnia. In the second year of
Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams
his spirit was so troubled-- the word means
agitated or disturbed-- that his sleep left him. The old boy has a
case of insomnia. Then the king gave
the command to call the magicians and
the astrologers and the sorcerers
and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dream. So they came and
stood before the king. And the king said to
them, I've had a dream, and my spirit is anxious
to know the dream. There's a great
old saying, uneasy lies the head that
wears the crown. It's great to be king-- that's what Tom
Petty is saying-- but with it comes a price tag. All the worries
about the kingdom, all the fear of the future,
if I conquered this kingdom, I'm in charge. But who else out there
could be stronger than me, waiting to conquer me? So he's troubled. He's agitated He's tossing. He's turning. You and I dream. Do you know that you
dream every night? And I don't know. I remember my dreams
frequently these days. Maybe it's because it says your
young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. But the truth is we
all dream, and you start dreaming about 90
minutes after you fall asleep. That's when you go into REM. And every 90 minutes
through the evening, you go into another dream. I mean thereabouts. That's the average span. Each one gets a little longer
as you go through the night. That's why typically,
you remember those right before you wake up. The large cells in your
brain stem fire spontaneously and send the stimuli to
the cortex of your brain. That's what causes you to have
the memory of the dream you dream. Now all of that
happens for everyone. But in this case,
God's behind it. God is causing the
cortical stimulation to occur with just the right
images at just the right time and just the right intensity. So Nebuchadnezzar calls his men
to him, and he makes a demand. I said that he had a hot
temper and a short fuse. Here's his demand. I don't just want to know
the interpretation of what I was dreaming. I want to know the contents
of what I was dreaming. You tell me what I dreamed,
and you tell me what it means. Now they were waiting, saying,
king, tell us where you dreamt, and we'll tell
you what it means. Well, anybody can do that
I can make anything up, and that's what they
were waiting for. They had no real power. Anybody can give fortune
cookie predictions. It's going to rain tomorrow
somewhere in the world or whatever-- some generic
kind of a prescription. But for him, it
wasn't good enough. He demanded what the
contents were as well as the interpretation. Well, they couldn't do it. So he said, great,
here's the deal. I'm going around y'all
up, kill you, chop you up, and destroy all your homes
and your families, sorry. So Daniel hears of it,
tells the keeper of the guy, rounded up all the help,
tell the king to stop this. I'm going to pray. And we'll tell the king the
dream and the interpretation. He gets his buddies together
that night, goes, boys, we need a prayer meeting. Our head's on the line. This whole event is a
real pain in the neck. Our heads could
come off tomorrow. So let's pray and see if
God gives us interpretation. He did. Daniel goes in to
the king and says, king, there's a God in Heaven
who knows what you dreamed. And in verse 32 of chapter
2, he reveals the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had
that night of a huge statue, an image that represented four
world governing empires who would also not only rule
the world at their time, but have control over
the Jewish people. Verse 32, he mentions
a head a fine gold. That represents Nebuchadnezzar. He had absolute power. He was the absolute monarch. He shared his power with no one. He was the head
of gold, followed by the chest and
arms of silver, which is the Medo-Persian Empire. This is all explained
by Daniel to the king. Don't have time to go
through the whole thing. It's one empire with two
arms, Medo-Persia, the Medes and the Persians that
coalesced to form one followed by the belly
and thighs of bronze, which is the Greek empire
and the Greek soldiers who aren't even really around
yet of any substance would be called the
bronze-coated Greeks or the brass Greeks. Then legs of iron-- this is the Roman Empire. This is the longest
part of the statue. Rome had the longest rule of
any of those worlds governing empires, 1,000 years. But like legs that
divide from the trunk, the empire was
divided east and west. Then finally, feet partly
of iron and partly of clay-- Daniel will explain in the
interpretation of the dream-- he's just telling
Nebuchadnezzar what he saw-- he will explain down in
verse 44 of chapter 2 that those 10 toes
are 10 future kings. Now that verse of
those 10 coming kings goes along with
chapter 7 of Daniel where Daniel sees a
beast with 10 horns, also shows up in the
Book of Revelation chapter 17, where we are
told the 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings. So Daniel and Revelation
interface and agree on that point. Now because of these passages
in Daniel and Revelation, for 2,000 years,
scholars have been looking for what they call a
revived Roman Empire of sorts. Keep that in mind as we go on. Verse 34, you watched-- he continues-- you
watched, Neb, while a stone was cut without
hands, which struck the image on the
feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Nebuchadnezzar was able
to dream the future. He is looking into the future
all the way through the times of the Gentiles. Ever heard that term the
phrase, times of the Gentiles? It's a phrase used by Jesus. It is a phrase used by scholars
to speak about world dominion by non-Jewish leaders
Gentile leaders. He gets a peek into the times
of the Gentiles, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece,
Rome, all the way to the second coming of Christ,
which this stone represents. Then verse 35, the iron,
clay, bronze, silver, gold were crushed
together, became like chaff from the summer threshing floor. And the wind carried them
away so that no trace of them was found, and the stone
that struck the image became a great mountain
and filled the whole Earth. By the time we get to chapter
7, Daniel has his own vision. It's the same exact vision,
but no, not the same vision. The same exact meaning
with a different vision. He doesn't see a statue and
four successive kingdoms. He sees wild, crazy,
ravenous beasts. But they are then
identified afterwards as the kingdom's of Babylon,
Medo-Persia, Greece, and then a final empire,
which we find out is Rome. This is essentially-- chapter
2 and chapter 7 of Daniel-- a picture of man's rule on the
Earth and successive empires that will come in contrast
to the day of the Lord. I hope you are familiar
with that phrase, the day of the Lord. The day of the
Lord is represented by the stone that strikes
the image, decimates it, grows into a mountain
that fills the Earth. Here's what is to
me interesting. What did Nebuchadnezzar
see in his vision? An image, a statue, an idol-- Babylon was the land of idols. To me, it's significant
that God was speaking to Nebuchadnezzar in a
language Nebuchadnezzar could understand. He was used to statues. Man, he was used to idols. He was used to images. He sees that as,
ooh, which God is this, as he sees this
polymetallic image in his vision, in his dream. I just need to make this
note because we're not going to be able to go
through chapter 7 in-depth. Again, this is the
Bible from 30,000 feet. But what Nebuchadnezzar sees,
a statue, and what Daniel sees, four beasts, same truth,
different visions, is vindicated by history. Indeed, after Babylon did
come, the Medo-Persian Empire-- they overcame the
Babylonians and reigned. After that, the Grecian
empire ruled the world under Alexander the Great. After that, the world
was conquered by Rome. And we are awaiting a
coalition, of some group of 10 nations in the end times. What is interesting to me is
that Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel saw the same truth from
two different viewpoints. Nebuchadnezzar saw it
from a human viewpoint. Daniel saw it from
God's viewpoint. Nebuchadnezzar was impressed
with his statue, gold, silver, bronze, iron and strong. God saw them from a divine
standpoint-- or Daniel did-- and that is just a bunch of
ravenous beasts destroying each other, killing each other. No beauty at all in it. Also, gold is first. Silver is second. Bronze and then iron, the
metals decreased in value as the vision continues. As time goes on, the metals grow
stronger but less valuable-- again, the opposite
of what the truth is. We think as time progresses,
we get more gold and aged. We kind of start out as
primitive man, iron and clay. And then another
generation comes. We get stronger, then
another generation. Finally, we're now in the
golden age of technology. We have it backwards. Now you're dreaming
if you think that. The truth is we're degrading. And the real truth
is Daniel chapter 7. People are destroying
each other. Well, that's chapter 2. 16 years pass after chapter
2 when we get to chapter 3. Nebuchadnezzar had
a very moving time. He acknowledged God. But 16 years go by. He is more powerful. He is more prideful. Chapter 3, verse
1, Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of what? Gold. Not gold, silver, bronze,
and iron, but just gold. Whose height was 60
cubits-- that's 90 Peter. Its width was six cubits. That's nine feet. He set it up in
the plane of Dura in the province of Babylon. Verse 5, he said at
the time that you hear the sound of the
horn, flute, harp, lyre, and sultry in symphony
with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and
worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar
has set up. And whoever does not
fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into
the midst of a burning fiery furnace. That was the deal for all
the Babylonians in that town. The Babylonian
Philharmonic Orchestra was going to play their tune. And as soon as the music
and the symbols go, everybody hits the
ground and worships. It's either bow or burn. That's the command. Boy, when I read
Chapter 3, I think, Nebuchadnezzar was a prideful
man because, essentially, what he's saying is nuts to
the silver and bronze and iron. I'm going to make a
statue of all gold as if to say I'm
going to have any turn a long-lasting kingdom. Nobody's taking over. I think chapter 3 is
a 16-year-old response to the vision he
gets in chapter 2. It is his response of
defiance, so to speak. Well, Shadrach,
Meschach, and Abednego-- you know the story from Sunday
school-- they didn't bow, so they were thrown into
the furnace to burn. They didn't burn because
he sees a fourth man. He says there's one
like the Son of God. It looks like-- some
translations say, a son of the gods-- in the midst of
the fiery furnace with them protecting them. I actually believe it
was the Son of God. I believe it was a
theophany, a Christophany. It was Christ in a
preincarnate form, some kind of a form appearing
there to protect them. And so they get
delivered from that. Verse 30, they get
promoted because of that. Chapter 4 is another
interesting dream vision that Nebuchadnezzar gets. There's an old saying. Let me kind of
preview chapter 4. It says you can put
a pig in a parlor, and it will not change the pig. But it will certainly
change the parlor. That makes sense, doesn't it? You can dress up a pig,
put a bow tie on the pig, put him in a parlor of perfume. You're not going
to change the pig. It's still a pig. It can act like a pig, but
you will change that parlor if you turn them loose in that. Now in chapter 4,
the pig changes. You could put
Nebuchadnezzar anywhere, and he doesn't change until now. Something radically changes
him, and he writes about it. In fact, chapter 4, is mostly
written by King Nebuchadnezzar. Now Daniel, it's
the only chapter in the Bible written
by a Gentile king. It's his personal testimony. He writes it, and it is posted
everywhere in the kingdom. Now this is toward the end of
King Nebuchadnezzar's reign. This is several years, as
I said, after chapter 3, probably 25 years
after chapter 3. So think of it, Daniel
2, then Daniel 3 is 16 years after 2, now
25 years after chapter 3. Daniel is probably in his 50s,
and Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He has a dream of a
tree that grows up. It fills the Earth. You can see it from afar in
all the kingdoms of the world. Think of Jack and the Beanstalk. It's so tall, it goes from
Earth all the way to heaven. And then there's
this angelic watcher, who after the tree grows
up, calls down and says, chop down that tree. And the tree gets
chopped down to a stump. And Nebuchadnezzar is troubled. And Daniel comes in. And Nebuchadnezzar
goes, I had a dream. What does it mean? He goes, well, I got
good news and bad news. The good news, I can tell
you what the dream means. The bad news is
you're the tree who's going to get chopped down. In fact, we might as
well call you stumpy. No, he didn't say that, but
he said you are that tree you. It's about you, king. Go down to verse 29 of chapter
4, at the end of the 12 months, he was walking about the
royal palaces of Babylon, and the king spoke, saying,
is not this the great Babylon that I have built for a royal
dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty? As humanly speaking, he
had every reason to boast. As I mentioned, it was
a magnificent city. Nebuchadnezzar's palace was
called the marvel of mankind. He had hanging gardens to
look like a mountain peak because his wife hated Babylon. It was flat desert. And so he built a mountain
in the city that was watered. It was one of the
wonders of the world, and that was where he lived. There's a proverb in
Proverbs 6 that says there's six things God hates. Remember that scripture? Seven are an abomination. So God gives you a list
of everything He hates. You do well to
memorize that list because you don't
want to ever do any of those things on that list. I mean, if God hates it,
you don't want to do it. One of the things God
hates is a proud look. This man was filled with pride. And so the tree
gets chopped down, verse 31, while the word was
still in the king's mouth. I'm awesome. Look at this Babylon. A voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar,
to you it is spoken. The kingdom has
departed from you. He was going, I did
this, and I did that. And God is saying
I'm speaking to you, and I'm taking this from you. Verse 32, they shall
drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be
with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat
grass like oxen seven times shall pass over you until
that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives
it to whomever he chooses. Essentially, King
Nebuchadnezzar sinks to the level of an animal,
and he lives outdoors, not like I'm camping out
with REI gear outdoors, like a lunatic, like an animal. He had what experts call
insania zoanthropica. That means he was nuts because
he thought he was an animal. And I have been in
mental institutions where there are people that
I have met that believe that they are animals. Some think that
they're a werewolf. Some think that they're
this or that animal. Nebuchadnezzar
thought he was ox man. He acted like an ox. So he's living out in
the fields eating grass. Well, he gets humbled. He acknowledges that God
is God, turns around. It's monumental. He posts that
testimony everywhere that there's only one true God. That's the God of Daniel. Now chapter 5, as
we're moving along, is famous for
supernatural graffiti. You know what I'm
talking about-- the handwriting on the wall. The year is 539 BC. That's a historic
year because that's the year Babylon fell to the
chest and arms of silver. It fell to the
Medo-Persian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar is
dead at this time. This is now his
grandson, Belshazzar. The grandson of Nebuchadnezzar,
the son of Nabonidus. This is Belshazzar. He is a party animal. He's having a cocktail party. He's bringing in the
vessels, the cups from the temple
where they Stole them from God's house in Jerusalem. A lot of alcohol is
going on at the party. And have you noticed that people
say really stupid things when they drink, and they do
stupid things when they drink? I remember witnessing
to a guy who was drunk. I was so proud. I led him to the Lord. I think it was the first
person I ever led to the Lord. He was drunk as a skunk,
and he was, I love you, man. And he was praying with me,
and I thought, that's awesome. I was just so stupid, so naive. I found him the next day. He didn't even know who I
was, had no recollection of the night before. I do have to say that I
did stand in this hall, so this is a very
precious scripture to me. I stood in the banquet
hall of Belshazzar was pointed out
by archaeologists the wall they believe
where the handwriting was-- just an awesome
moment to be there. Daniel is in his
80s at this time. Chapter 5, verse 24,
Daniel gets brought in because he sees
a hand, a man's hand writes something on a wall. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]. And so Daniel says the fingers
of the hand were sent from him, and this writing was written. And this is the inscription
that was written, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]. This is the interpretation
of each word. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH],, God
has numbered your kingdom and finished it. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH],, you've
been weighed in the balances and found wanting. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH],, your
kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes
and the Persians. In other words, your number
is up, you lightweight. That's essentially
what he's saying. The word [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
means numbered way divided. You're a lightweight. God weighed you. You're lighter than fluff. Your number is up. You're about to
lose it all tonight. At that very moment that Daniel
was making this interpretation of the inscription on
the wall, the Persians were already inside
the gates of the city, unknown to Belshazzar. They went through underwater. As they diverted the flow of
the Euphrates River upstream, they got in. It was up to a man's waist. They waited in. Hundreds, thousands of
soldiers opened the gates. So the army was there
ready to take the city. So by the time we
get to chapter 6, Babylon is under new management. Chapter 6 opens
with new management. It is Persian rule,
not Babylonian rule. Darius the Mead is the viceroy
of king Cyrus who is in charge. They're joint ruling. Daniel is 87, so he's
pushing 90 years old. You might think, boy, when
you get that old, you're ready for retirement
home, not Daniel. Daniel is still
fruitful in old age. I love this. This is such an encouragement. Psalm 1, his leaf
also shall not wither. I may wither, but
I'm praying my leaf and the fruit doesn't wither. So Daniel's pushing 90, and he's
still going to be used of God in this chapter. Daniel has been
promoted in chapter 6. And all of the people,
all the younger guys who didn't get the
promotion are jealous about it. And they want to
see Daniel dead. They want to see him gone. I mean, come on, he's
almost 90 years old. Who is this guy? This guy's been
around way too long. Get the millennials in charge. Get rid of this old guy. So they try to find a
crime to pin on him. They can't. He's flawless. It says in this chapter he's a
man of just an upright spirit. You can't pin anything on him. So they knew the
only thing we can do to get him is
to find something in the spiritual realm,
something in his devotion to God. So verse 5 of chapter
6, the men said we shall not find any
charge against Daniel unless we find it against him
concerning the law of his God. So they had the king pass
a law that you can't pray to any other God but the king. You've got to pray to the
king as God for a month, for 30 days. That's the law. You think Daniel is
going to obey that law? Not at all. He went right home after
the edict was signed, knowing that it was
signed, opened his windows. Everybody could see
him toward Jerusalem, bowed down and
worshipped Yahweh. He gets arrested. He gets arrested. And Daniel is thrown
to a den of lions. You know the story. Everybody does know the story. So Daniel got a sleepover
with the lion king. It seems that Daniel-- I can't prove it--
but probably had a pretty good sleep
because the lions lay down, didn't bother him. So Daniel probably slept. In contrast to that,
King Darius had insomnia. He was so worried
for Daniel he was trying to figure out a
way to bail them out. He couldn't do it. And all sleep went from him. So this reminds me of Peter
In the book of Acts who was arrested and was
announced the next day we're going to take
you out in Jerusalem and kill you, cut your head off. And it says that Peter was
sleeping between two soldiers. I love that. How do you sleep with soldiers
attached to your wrists, knowing that tomorrow, you're
going to be decapitated? How could he do that? You can give me a good answer. Oh, he does trust God. No, he knew he wasn't
going to die tomorrow. Oh, no, they said
he was going to die. I know, but he knew it's
not going to happen. You know how he knew that? Because Jesus said to Peter,
before Jesus ascended, Peter, when you are
old, they're going to take you where you don't want
to go, stretch out your arms, and kill you. Peter was still a young man. So when they said you're
going to die tomorrow, he said, I'm going to sleep. I'm not dying tomorrow. I've been dying for years. I'm still a young guy,
wait till I'm old. He had a promise, and he
rested on that promise. Well, Chapter 7 through 12 is
that second part of the book. It is an appendix of processes
that spanned debt Daniel's entire career. Chapter 7, as I mentioned,
is Daniel's own night vision of the succession of kingdoms. He sees a winged lion, which
is an emblem of Babylon. He sees a bear
raised on one side. An emblem of the
Medo-Persian Empire, was off balance because
when empire was stronger than the other, though they
came together in a coalition. The third was a
fast-moving leopard, and the fourth was a
dreadful and terrible beast. Look at chapter 7 verse 17,
sort of as a key to unlock it, those great beasts,
which are four, are four kings which
arise out of the Earth. By the time we get
to chapter 8, we have a conflict between
kingdom number two, which is the
Medo-Persian Empire, and kingdom number three,
which is the Greek Empire. So it's the chest and arms
of silver in chapter 2, the bear in chapter
7, against the belly and thighs of brass in chapter
two, the leopard in chapter 7-- different motifs, same truth. There is a language change in
this chapter back to Hebrew. Chapter 1 is written in Hebrew. Chapters 2 through 6
are written in Aramaic. And beginning in chapter
7 to the rest of the book, it's written in Hebrew again. I'm not going to tell you why. I just like to assign
that as homework. How's that? Go have fun with it. But there's a good reason why,
and I'll let you find that out. So chapter 8 becomes
the historical precursor to somebody who is
coming in the future who will be the ultimate persecutor
against the Jewish people called the Antichrist. Do you follow? One becomes the
historical precursor. It's historical to us. It was still prophetic then. It was in the future-- all of it was. But this portion is
fulfilled, but it's a precursor of
something greater. So it is a vision
of a ram and a goat. The ram is the
Medo-Persian Empire. The goat is Greece. And the kingdom-- the
second kingdom of Greece-- gets divided into four parts. Let me just give you a snippet. Verse 5, as I was considering--
he's seeing this ram and goat-- as I was considering, suddenly,
a male goat came from the east. He's considering this
ram with its two horns. As I was considering,
suddenly, a male goat came from the west-- the area of Greece-- across the surface
of the whole Earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had no notable
horn between his eyes. A horn in the
scripture, by the way, is always a symbol of authority. So this goat is moving so fast. It doesn't touch the ground. This is turbo goat. The national emblem of
ancient Greece was at one time a goat, so it all fits-- a goat with a horn. Verse 8, therefore, the
male goat grew very great, but when he became strong,
the large horn was broken. And in its place,
four notable ones came up toward the
four winds of heaven. Now again we don't have
to guess what this is. We're off to kind of put
some of our own meaning and go down to verse 21. The male goat is
the kingdom of what? Greece. Greece. It says so. The male goat is a
kingdom of grace. The large horn that is between
its eyes is the first king. First king was
Alexander the Great. As for the broken
horn and the four that stood up in its
place, four kingdom shall arise out of that
nation but not with its power. There's a couple
things that occurred when Greece met Medo-Persia. Number one, what is remarkable
is the speed of victory. A relatively small army-- Alexander the Great
had 35,000 men-- conquered the entire horde
of the Medo-Persian Empire. Some of you seen movies,
and you read the books. You know that-- amazing victory,
very, very quick victory, very speedy. Alexander the Great was very
young and very ambitious, and he had a desire
to rule the world. By the way, he did that and
died at age 33 in Babylon. So the speed of the victory
of Greece was amazing. Second amazing thing was
the speed of its breakup. Once Alexander the Great
ruled the world, he died. shortly thereafter, and it
immediately broke into four. Why four? Because when he died,
they said, well, who is going to
take the kingdom? He said give it to the strong. They interpreted that to
mean his four generals by the name of Salukis, Ptolemy,
Lysimachus, and Cassander. Those are the names. They became four empires. Cassander took
Macedonia and Greece. Lysimachus took Asia Minor
the kingdom of Thrace, Seleucus took the Asian
provinces, especially Syria, to the north of Israel, and
Ptolemy took Egypt and Israel. And there was always battles
between north and the south, king of the north and
king of the south. Verse 9, out of one of them-- not going to go through
all the battles. I've done studies on
this book in depth, so I'm just going
to touch on this. Out of one of them, out
of one of the kingdoms came a little horn, which
grew exceedingly great toward the south,
toward the east, and toward the glorious land. What do you think
that refers to? Israel-- the nation of Israel. Now this can only be-- and it's dealing with
that king of the north-- the eighth Seleucid king. Remember I mentioned
the name Salikus-- one of the generals
of Alexander? So the Salikus, his empire
was the Seleucid Empire. The eighth king and the
succession of Seleucid kings was Antiochus the fourth
or Antiochus Epiphanes. How many of you have
ever heard that name? Good, you're Bible students. You've been around. You know that. Antiochus the fourth reigned
from 175 BC to 164 BC during the intertestamental
times between the Old and the New Testament. He reigned. He's persecuted the Jews. He tried to assimilate them
into the Greek culture. They refused because,
after all, they're Jewish. They're loyal to their God. So he goes to Jerusalem. He kills 80,000 of them, and
he takes another 40 to 80,000 captive as slaves. He plunders the temple. He takes unclean flesh,
a pig, sacrifices it on the altar of sacrifice
in the temple courts. The Jews see that. That's an abomination to them. Their courts are left
desolate because of that so that becomes what they call
the abomination of desolation historically. It's fulfilled. He did that. And yet Jesus said
after that happened and when you see the
abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel the
prophet, which he does predict, again, happening
in chapter 9 of this book. That was done by
Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus Epiphanes--
he gave himself a name, and he put it on coins
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]---- a Greek word, two Greek
words that mean God manifest. You think he had a pride issue? I am God in flesh. I am God manifest. So he called himself that. The Jews did not call
him [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH],, which means God. They didn't call him
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH],, They called him
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] means the beast or the animal,
Antiochus the animal. So got him into trouble,
a lot of more killed. The Syrian rule gets ended-- and see, I'm looking at the
clock because I'm realizing, I did it again. I swore this time, I can do
Daniel in one fell swoop. So next time, we're
going to be going through some of the deeper
prophecies of Daniel 9 and the rest of the book. So we'll close it
at chapter end. I apologize. It's hard for me
not to drill down. It really is. [APPLAUSE] But let's close on
an up note, shall we? 25th day of the Jewish month
of [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] is when a group of freedom fighters
in Israel between the Old and the New Testament called
the Maccabeans overturned the Syrian army and drove
them out of Jerusalem. They found one cruse of oil-- enough oil that would keep
the lamps in the temple relit as they would open it a
back up for service and worship of God for only one day. They put the oil. They lit the lamps. It lasted through the first day,
the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day,
the sixth day, seventh day, the eighth day-- lasted eight days miraculously. That's the legend--
it's not in scripture. It's the story--
that miraculously, the cruse of oil that
lights the menorah in the tabernacle of the
temple lasted for eight days. And so that became known
as the festival of lights. You know it as Hanukkah. When you hear the name Hanukkah,
remember Antiochus Epiphanes and the Syrians were overturned
by the Jewish freedom fighters, the Maccabeans on the 25th day
of the Jewish month of Kislev, and that's what Hanukkah
is not like a Jewish form of Christmas. It's not like a
competing holiday. It's their celebration of
the festival of lights, which by the way, Jesus celebrated
in the New Testament, Hanukkah festival of lights. That also I'm assigning you
for homework to find that. We'll pray, and
then we'll dismiss. Father, thank you for
the book of Daniel. Thank you for this
amazing man who did define normal, who stood
up, purposed in his heart, stood before the king, got
in his grill, got in his face graciously as a man
of God with class. He was not crass about it
but just this amazing man who was able to stand up against
the onslaught of paganism in his time and live
a witness for God, unsullied by the world,
uncompromised, and an example to us that has endured
the test of time. Thank you for this young
man who became an old man and lived his life faithfully
in those courts of all those different kings. Keep us, Lord, men and women
of purpose for your glory, in Jesus' name, Amen. We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. For more resources,
visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from the Bible from 30,000 feet.
