Hope Sabbath School Lesson 1 From reading to Understanding

[Music] [Applause] [Applause] welcome to hope sabbath school an in-depth interactive study of the word of god i'm glad you joined us today in fact i'm excited as we begin a brand new series of studies on the book of daniel this is going to be life changing and i hope you'll be able to join us for the entire series we're always happy to hear from our hope sabbath school members around the world now we're in 220 countries around the world so we're glad you're part of our hope sabbath school family we welcome you welcome to the team by the way glad you're all here and here's a note from lucy she says i'm from kenya but i'm working living and working in the ivory coast i love this comment she says i'm recently married and hope sabbath school has been a great teaching for me as a young wife and mother thank you so much to the entire team it's important to note the bible gives us guidance on every aspect of life is that right well she talks about some things related to family but she says my prayer is for god to give me grace to be a virtuous woman even in this day and age where sin has dominated the world what do you say that's powerful isn't it hope sabbath school teaching's a great blessing to many all around the world god continue to use you well lucy thanks for writing to us from kenya actually from ivory coast cote d'ivoire but a kenyan living there and we're glad that god is the center of your home that's beautiful emmanuel writes to us from zambia great place lots of hope sabbath school members in zambia emanuel says i'm really grateful to hope sabba school for the good work you're doing it helps me in my study but i'm also a teacher you're helping me to teach my class well now our prayer is the hope sabbath school would be multiplied ten thousand times over so that's wonderful emmanuel the good lord always bless you as you continue blessing others well thanks for writing to us and greet all of our hope sabbath school members there in zambia here's a note from a donor in georgia in the united states of america we don't read names but beautiful letter i'm so excited to be writing this letter this is a real letter not an email i've been watching hope sabbath school for a few years after each episode i tell myself you need to become a donation disciple well we call those sustaining partners we're part of the mission together a few weeks ago the lord blessed me with some extra money and this is my gift for hope sabba school may god continue to bless this ministry and please tell jason hello from me and i'm looking forward to seeing him lead out again well that will happen later in the series right but thanks so much to that donor and a gift of twelve hundred and twenty dollars so praise god that's gonna really help the ministry as we're sharing with the hope sabbath school members in now 220 countries around the world like ethiopia thank you thanyang for writing to us from ethiopia i thank almighty god for what you're doing your message is reaching my heart amen he says don't give up the lord will strengthen you i download hope sabbath school on youtube and watch it thank you very much from ethiopia well thanks so much for writing to us thang yang it really is amazing to know so many countries are being impacted even the united states of america here's one from maryland in the united states and esther writes and says we writing with her husband thank god for hope sabbath school we watch you every week and we learn so much your class members are connected to god we say praise god my husband and i enjoy your practical applications your personal testimonies and the scripture songs well esther stay with us and your husband we have a scripture song coming up right now singing scripture helps us remember more of the bible and that is just so true you can go to our website hopetv.org hope ss you can download the theme song for this series on the book of daniel it's taken from daniel chapter 2 verses 20 through 23 it's called blessed be the name of god and i'm actually quite excited today because i've asked one of our hope sabba school team who's about the same age as daniel at the time that daniel 2 happened if he'd come and lead the song for us so addison came up here and uh yeah it's amazing to realize addison daniel was just a young man yeah in his early 20s and addison's going to sing the song through once so he can learn it and then invite us to all sing together [Music] blessed be the name of god forever and ever for wisdom and might are his blessed be the name of god forever and ever for wisdom and might are his and he changes the times and the seasons he removes kings and raises up kings he has listened to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding he reveals deep and secret things he knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him he reveals deep in secret things he knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him i thank you and praise you o god of my fathers you have given me wisdom and might i thank you and praise you o god of my father wisdom and mind [Music] [Applause] forever [Music] blessed be the name of god forever and he changes the times and the seasons he removes kings of raises up kings he gets resistant to the wise and knowledge to those who are have understanding [Music] he [Music] knows with him [Music] thank you and praise [Music] blessed be the name of god [Music] amen amen let's pray together that the holy spirit of god would guide us in this sacred book the book of daniel inspired by the holy spirit our father in heaven you sealed up this book you said till the time of the end but now is the time that we need to understand more fully than ever before the revelation given to the prophet daniel and so we pray in the name of jesus that you would guide our hope sabbath school family around the world as we engage in this in-depth interactive study and i pray as daniel prayed that you god of wisdom and might would give us wisdom as we study and give us strength not only physically but mentally and spiritually to be all that you've called us to be in these last days of earth's history we thank you and we praise you for hearing our prayer in the name of jesus amen amen amen we're going to start in our first study with from reading to understanding it's kind of a background to studying any bible prophecy or any book of the bible moving from just reading the words to actually understanding and i'd like to begin with a basic presupposition which jesus gave us in luke chapter 24 and that is that jesus christ is the center of scripture which means he's the center of the book of daniel so let's begin jason would you read for us in luke 24 verses 25 to 27 jesus is just kind of about to give a bible study actually to two disciples on the emmaus road and let's hear what he says i'll be reading from the new king james version luke chapter 24 verses 25-27 then he said to them o foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken ought not the christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory and beginning at moses and all the prophets he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself so we could conclude stephanie from that at least that jesus christ is revealed in daniel well moses at least right and the prophets and daniel he's saying he's one of the prophets so we're going to go there and look but jesus will actually go beyond that someone said he mentions the psalms which he does when he says this again at the end of luke 24. but look in john 5 daisy verse 39 john chapter 5 verse 39 not just saying it's i'm revealed in moses and i'm revealed in the prophets but he makes an even broader statement what is what does jesus say in john 5 and verse 39 i'll be reading from the new living translation you search the scriptures because you think they gave you eternal life but the scriptures point to me period how much of the scriptures point to jesus oh so now we would say that some of the scriptures are more explicit right more direct we're going to look at some prophecies very direct about where messiah will be born things that will happen to him some are less direct but he's the center of it all right so with that in mind travis would you take us to daniel 7. sure verses 13 and 14. it's one example and then i'd like you all to just do a little computer search uh we're just doing an introduction here where else from your study of the book of daniel do you see jesus clearly revealed but let's look at daniel 7 13 and 14. and i'll be reading from the new king james version i was watching in the night visions and behold one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven he came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed son of man where else do you hear that term anywhere in the bible son of man jesus in the gospels right it's referring to messiah also in the book of revelation so very clearly here in daniel 7 speaking about son of god who will what 600 years later come into humanity in the person of jesus of nazareth we call him jesus christ because his beginning is from eternity past right in the beginning was that word and the word was with god and the word was god and the word became flesh and dwelt among us where else in daniel though anybody tricia lee gary yeah what do you think um and we don't need to read the text just give me a few ideas okay um the i guess the 490 day prophecy okay yeah you're in daniel chapter 9 where actually talks about what's going to happen with the baptism of jesus or his anointing and in the midst of the week three and a half years into his ministry messiah will be cut off yeah so that's a powerful reference tricia lee there's a reference with the famous story of the fiery furnace where the king looks in and he says i see one like the son of god the sort of man in the midst it's interesting someone asked the translation some translation says one like the son of the gods uh one others say one like the son of god the the bottom line is nebuchadnezzar looked and said there's a divine being in there with them another place in the book of daniel where you see a reference to jesus addison well throughout daniel 8 i see christ depicted as a high priest sanctuary all right anybody else yeah uh travis um in daniel chapter 12. michael oh michael stands up one who is like god right stands up to deliver his people amen nobody mentioned daniel 2 where's jesus in daniel 2 jason at the end of daniel 2 when the statue is destroyed there's a kingdom god sets up a kingdom and jesus is the one who's given the kingdom and on this rock yeah so jesus is the rock he's the foundation but he's also the rock cut out without human hands so you say well we just took a kind of a fast flight through the whole book but jesus this is a foundational principle we want to see jesus in the book of daniel because he's there amen we want to see the son of god revealed there so i have a question before we move on into the details why is that foundation important why is it important that we always say where is jesus here is that what do you think why is that important yes addison just as jesus is the center of daniel and the whole bible yes he wants to be the center of our own life ah so it's not just information that's right but it's what it's translated into a personal a personal relationship with god right it's very personal jesus says come to me that's right i will give you not just here's some information right travis i think it's important too because then we begin to develop an understanding of his character yeah and uh if it's just about ordinances and different things like that and rules and laws and all that and even fulfillments of prophecy right but it's revealing his character beautiful so with that foundation we're going to go into the structure of the book of daniel now here's where all kinds of bible scholars come in and they have things that they call chiasms and that's kind of like a triangle you know i'm not an expert in old testament theology but but they have they have chiasms and at the center is like what's really important right so if you take a look at the big picture the book of daniel begins with a prophecy of well it first starts with daniel himself right but then the prophecy is about what four kings four kingdoms right that's in chapter two right so if i had six hands this would help me but anyway let's start with the four kingdoms right daniel three is about fiery france a ju a um trial right yeah and god's people are faithful right yes amen daniel chapter four that's uh it's about a judgment of someone who have a king of who's filled with pride now praise god stay with us in the series because he's going to give his heart to god amen and we're going to see nebuchadnezzar in the kingdom of heaven that's amazing because it did a lot of bad things in the past right yeah i mean he was not it didn't have a great reputation right then daniel chapter five here's the judgment by the way four kingdoms faithful people delivered judgment on nebuchadnezzar chapter five is judgment on babylon okay so judgment and that's where of course daniel 7 will come in too judgment god's people are also going to be vindicated and then what's in daniel chapter 7 8 and 9. delivering repeated well well excuse me daniel six first is deliverance just like the three in the furnace right and then uh seven eight nine and on through the end of the book is prophecy the four kingdoms again right so there's like this triangle now i want to give you one bible text you say derek that's like really complicated but i want to suggest you the holy spirit not only guided daniel in what he wrote but the holy spirit also guided him how he wrote that's right think about that how he wrote look i i added a verse here and charity if you'd read it for us it's in second peter i added a verse to our study i was praying this morning and and i'm just impressed we need to hear this verse again ii peter if you're following your bible chapter 1 verses 19-21 because it reinforces something that's so important for all of us especially as hope sabbath school members around the world and that is that this is not human words about god amen amen this is the word of god to the human family amen so charity second peter chapter one beginning with verse 19 and down through verse 21. how does that read in your bible all right and i'll be reading from the new king james version second peter chapter one verses 19 to 21 and so we have the prophetic word confirmed which you may well you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts knowing this verse that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man but holy men of god spoke as they were moved by the holy spirit that's a powerful text isn't it by the way did you see that jesus is the center even there yes where what did you hear the morning star rising in your hearts right it's all about him but we see that the holy spirit is guiding daniel not only giving him message but even guiding him in how to share that message and the judgment is at the very heart now typically when we think of judgment do we have positive or negative thoughts michael what do you think judgment usually negative negative thoughts so why would the judgment be a positive thought for the saints of the most high god as they called in the book of daniel why would that be a good thing at least the judgment because it's when god vindicates his people and especially in the context of in times when they were in captivity they would look forward to something changing liberation freedom a new day so the judgment is in favor of the saints right it's a vindication so it actually becomes good news for us now i have another question we're just looking at broad picture then we're going to get into the text if you've studied daniel 2 it appears that in daniel 7 in daniel 8 in daniel 9 it's kind of repeated like four kingdoms four kingdoms it's why by the way you'll find the reference in revelation too to these kingdoms why do you think daisy they're like repeated why don't they just have the one of the metal man which shows by the way what does it show when when it shows the sequence of kingdoms what does that show really important what does it show about god that he knows he said from the beginning from the beginning by the way these prophecies in the book of daniel and revelation have caused skeptics to become believers that's right yeah and by the way i'm going to just pause for a second i'm going to speak to our hope sabbath school family we have a chapter by chapter bible study on daniel and revelation if you go to hope bible study dot org because we're not going to learn at all in this series but hope biblestudy.org i'm praying hundreds of people would keep studying in depth because this is crucial message for these last days right so why is it repeated over and over again it's important it's important clarification clarification should we get it right make sure we get it right are new things added uh yes more details more details okay so you've got the broad picture stephanie i was thinking repetition deepens impression but also what he does is he repeats and expands okay spoken as a teacher right repetition deepens impression but it's not just repetition it's repetition and expansion so greater details for example when you talked about the 70 weeks and about messiah coming so a lot more than in daniel chapter 2 right jason it also provides more authority as well because when you say something just once okay well it's easy to dismiss but when you say it five or ten times it has an authoritative kind of mark or seal on it so here we've laid a foundation already we're sensing this is important and jesus is at the center of it and we're going to discover many amazing lessons as we study together but now i want to talk about the type of prophecy that we find in the book of daniel okay so the difference between what we call apocalyptic the apocalypse is the end of things right the apocalyptic prophecy and regular or classical prophecy let's look at a few um classical prophecies and then we'll look at some of the apocalyptic prophecies including one from daniel and then you tell me what's the big difference that you see okay so let's start in jonah chapter three these are little books wave at me when you find it okay rod would you read jonah chapter three and read verses three and four fours verses three and four of jonah chapter three i'll be reading from the king james version so jonah rose and went unto nineveh according to the word of the lord now nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey and jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried and said yet 40 days and nineveh shall be overthrown is there anything like hard to understand about that how many days have you got 40 days and what's going to happen at the end of the prophecy description destruction now one of the things we'll learn is that some prophecies are conditional yes what did nineveh do the king led the way republicans said they were they were bad people too right because all of us are sinners but they they were known for their ferocity and they repented in sackcloth and ashes and god accepted their repentance but that was a very clear prophecy you've got 40 days to decide because after that judgment is coming let's look at another one micah it's right after the book of jonah chapter 5 let me know if you have it trisha lee micah chapter 5 and verse 2. it reads but you bethlehem ephrathah though you are little among the thousands of judah yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in israel whose goings forth are from of old from everlasting that would be fulfilled hundreds of years later when what happened jesus was born but he says he's jesus of nazareth but where was he born in bethlehem just as the prophecy predicted that's right and it took of course the decree for all the empire to be taxed to bring him back to joseph's home city of bethlehem okay fairly clear right it is talking about something in the future it shows us that god knows the m from the beginning as rod pointed out by the way that is in the scripture i know the end from the beginning that's in isaiah's book but it's fairly clear what it's saying let's look at one more a little farther along in the minor prophet zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9. laura do you have zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9 this is another prophecy what we might call a classical prophecy what does this say all right i'll be reading from the new american standard bible rejoice oh rejoice greatly o daughter of zion shout in triumph o daughter of jerusalem behold your king is coming to you he is just and endowed with salvation humble and mountain odd and donkey even on a cult the full of a donkey now when they hear about the king they're going hallelujah because they think messiah is going to be a great deliverer right overthrow all of the bondage but we get a little clue that it's a different kind of conqueror because he's humble and he's riding on a donkey actually not even a full-sized donkey a little donkey right fulfilled when palmerston on what we call palm sunday or the tr the triumphal entry of jesus during at the end of the ministry of jesus prediction by the holy spirit who knows god knows the end from the beginning fulfillment are you with me so far yeah now let's go to what we call apocalyptic prophecy elise could you read for us in daniel and let's go to daniel chapter 7 and read the first six verses now we're not going to unpack all of this and draw diagrams and we're just using an illustration here to see wow that this apocalyptic prophecy is different from the classical prophecies we've been reading same holy spirit same god who knows the end from the beginning but let's let's take a look at daniel 7 verses 1 to 6. i'm reading from english standard version in the first year of belshazzar king of babylon daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter daniel declared i saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven were sitting were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up out of the sea different from one another the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings then as i looked its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man and the mind of a man was given to it and behold another beast a second one like a bear it was raised up on one side it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth and it was told arise devour much flesh after this i looked and behold another like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back and the beast had four heads and dominion was given to it so what's the first thing you notice in verse one how how is this revelation given to to daniel in the dream now could classical prophecy be given in a vision and a dream too yes absolutely so that part is not necessarily different right but now we start seeing animals right yep coming up what's the first clue that this isn't just like a regular prophecy are these real animals symbols they're symbols how do you know they're symbols and not a real lion just walking by the sea or a real bear it reads like a lion oh it's like a lion because they're trying to describe it right rod what do you see there it also had wings it's got waves lions don't have wings right uh it's it's kind of you almost see daniel what he's kind of struggling to describe these beasts there and the fourth ones the worst of all it's like it's like a like a nondescript beast right with iron teeth and iron claws will go on in the chapter so addison you mentioned this these are symbols that's right that are being used travis they're also rising out of a sea it's obvious that land animals can't live in a sea so you know and we'll come to in a minute what the sea represents but there's just a lot of symbolism here but god is revealing just as he did in what was daniel 2 what was the vision there statue metal statue but it wasn't all one medal was it was my composite that's right all right so we're seeing symbolism let's hyperspace over to the book of revelation keep you can keep your place in daniel but let's go to revelation chapter 13 because daniel and revelation and traditionally maybe you could read revelation 13 for us again we're not going to unpack it all first nine verses but um they're they're kind of paired together aren't they dan in fact the series that i recommended from pope biblestudy.org is chapter by chapter on daniel and revelation because they're related great great study trisha lee first nine verses we'd like to answer all of the questions but i'd just like you to see the difference between the kind of prophecies we read which were very straightforward and these have a lot of symbolism i'm reading from the new king james version then i stood on the sand of the sea and i saw a beast rising up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and on his horns ten crowns and on his heads a blasphemous name now the beast which i saw was like a leopard his feet were like the feet of a bear and his mouth like the mouth of a lion the dragon gave him his power his throne and great authority and i saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded and his deadly wound was healed and all the world marveled and followed the beast so they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast and they worshiped the beast saying who is like the beast who was able to make war with him and he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and he was given authority to continue for 42 months then he opened his mouth and blasphemy against god to blaspheme his name his tabernacle and those who dwell in heaven it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and authority was given him over every tribe tongue and nation all sorry go ahead all who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world if anyone has an ear let him hear do you see some similarities between daniel's prophecy we read and revelation yeah what do you see no they're not identical right stephanie you talked about expanding what do you see there right i see the the same beasts except they're in the reverse order and they're all kind of composite aren't they it's all kind of put together it's like all of the kingdoms yeah what else do you see that's that's different here well this i i see another similarity okay similarity with so something's coming up out of the c okay so you've got that that the symbolism of the sea again you've got animals again right right what else travis it seems like they all make up one beast now instead of being um separate beast in daniel 7 now they all make up one beast like they all the beast has taken the attributes of all of this and they're all worshiping the dragon and people like wow that sounds like something from some kind of movie you know but the dragon is also a symbol right and which will bring us to the principle which is how do we know what the beast represents what the c represents what the dragon represents but do you see uh there's also another element in this prophecy and that is the issue of time you say 42 months that's that's what three and a half years uh that's not very long for this power to dominate um unless of course it's longer than three and a half years if there's another key that we need to understand this this power that will dominate for for a vast amount of time okay so we've got some idea here the classic prophecies classical prophecies pretty simple this is going to happen or it won't happen if you repent but now we get into symbols and and how do we find the key that's the next question to unlock these apocalyptic or end time prophecies how do we find the key help me somewhat what do you think well the good thing is that we can use the bible to help understand and interpret the bible and specifically when daniel he has questions that he asked as well and literally an angel comes and explains some of these things to him so in the book of daniel specifically we actually have some of his questions answered for us and in other prophecies we're able to kind of search the scriptures and we're actually told how to unlock some of these things so we'll look in the scripture to find keys now what if we get to the place we don't understand it all well hold on a second we'll get there in just a minute there are various approaches to understanding apocalyptic prophecy in our study we outlined them the preterist approach the futurist approach the idealist approach and the historicist approach it's interesting that the reformers all followed the historicist approach they saw history unfolding and they actually saw the apostate church clearly identified in those prophecies by the way the apostate church was us right we were the christian church and the church had gone away and the reformers are trying to call our church the christian church back to faithfulness to god but they saw clearly that historical unfolding we call that the historicist approach but there were some people it's interesting we don't have time to expand on it who wanted to divert that interpretation so they came up with other ideas the preterist idea was what anybody know already happened yeah it was all something in the past it's nothing to do with now okay that takes the heat off if prophecy is showing a power out of harmony especially if it's a religious power out of harmony with the word and the will of god oh another thing you could do to take the heat off the prophecy pointing at the problem that's happening is to put it all in the church right it's all somewhere right at the end it's nothing to do with now we call that the futurist so all in the past all in the future and what about this idealist that's a new one gary yeah everything is everything that is symbolic is just symbolic there's no uh it doesn't mean anything literally okay so it's maybe by the way people do that with uh even the gospels they say well jesus wasn't really tempted in the wilderness he didn't talk to satan it's just like a parable of of a struggle between good and evil you read the text and it's literal there's a literal conflict there's a literal battle just as you read in revelation 12 a literal war or conflict in heaven so [Music] i think we're safe to say let's uh let's at least see what these great reformers through the ages how they saw the unfolding of scripture and see if see if it is accurate does it show by the way to suggest that these kingdoms are not really kingdoms it's just how symbolic or no no it's a clear revelation of what's going to happen right unfolding of scripture uh one part to another so let's go to some keys you ready let's look at a few keys together and i think trisha lee said some of them maybe the angel will tell us what it means right it will be right in the text daniel chapter 7 and daisy could you read for us daniel 7 23 and 24 we're laying a foundation for an exciting series on the book of daniel we know at the very foundation is jesus jesus right jesus christ messiah son of god soon coming king he's at the foundation all right we know that we're going to see some symbols so let's see if we can unpack some of them i'll be reading from the new living translation then he said to me this fourth beast is the fourth world power that will rule the world that will rule the earth it will be different from all the others it will devour the whole world trampling and crushing everything in its path its ten horns are ten kings who will rule that empire then another king will arise different from the other ten who will subdue three of them well there's an overarching principle and that is that these symbols something they mean something that's right it's not just kind of you know that's a strange story these symbols mean something and we might have guessed that the beast is a a power or a kingdom we might have guessed that but the text actually tells us we might have guessed that the horns were also a symbol of power in some way but the text tells us that there are ten kings right so we'll find what we can in the scripture now remember i said that daniel and revelation they're kind of sister books right there's another key in revelation chapter 17. and verse 15. we've been talking about uh the sea revelation rod do you have that chapter 17 of revelation and verse 15. and i'll be reading from the king james version and he sayeth unto me the waters which thou saw us where the where the horse sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues it's right there because we've seen these animals coming up out of the sea that would mean they're coming up out of populated areas populated areas now later by the way we're not doing a series on revelation right now but in revelation we'll see a beast that comes up out of the earth so what would that mean there weren't any people well that doesn't make sense how could a superpower come up out of a place where there's no people well if you study history you'll discover a superpower that comes up in a place where there were no people so but we know we got another key right letting the scripture interpret itself beasts or kingdoms waters or peoples nations let's uh look at one other key i've got two texts to look at here numbers chapter 14. this one's important especially when we look at uh 490 days or yeah we look at 1260 days or 2 300 days that's you know if i'm just looking literally that's like somewhere between three years to six and a half or something but let's look and see um in the writings of the prophets numbers 14 addison would you read verse 34 for us reading from the king james version after the number of the days in which he searched the land even 40 days each day for a year shall you bear your iniquities even 40 years and ye shall know my breach of promise so there's a kind of a formula i guess right one day equals a year now that's just one text so let's look at another one in ezekiel chapter four michael maybe if you can find ezekiel for us chapter four verses five and six again these are prophets and i'm not reading this from some random writing in in china or somewhere this is in the bible and there's a principle here to interpret and ezekiel 4 verses 5 and 6. yes the new king james version says for i have laid on you the years of their iniquity according to the number of days 390 days so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of israel and when you have completed them lie again on your right side and then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of judah 40 days i have laid on you a day for each year you wish they weren't rebellious for so long that's a long time to lie on one side right one day for a year is a principle now if you apply that to some of these time prophecies 1260 days or in revelation it's called what 42 months what is that how does that affect or 1200 or excuse me 2 300 days how would that affect you if you were seeing revelations that involve that kind of time well let's look in daniel chapter 8 at least maybe you could read for us in daniel 8 and verse 27. um by the way did you know daniel is one of the prophets that there's nothing recorded where he turned away from god always i love this book he always purposed in his heart that he would honor god amen he was he was a young man of integrity and that's a challenge to us young women young men to be people of integrity um he'd probably be the first to say it wasn't perfect and only god is perfect but a great man of god but when he had this revelation this was one of the time prophecies how did he react elise in chapter 8 verse 27 and i daniel was overcome and lay sick for some days then i rose and went about the king's business but i was appalled by the vision and did not understand it that's strong language why was he appalled was it because he saw bad things not too far yes partly right i mean there's this power fighting against the saints of the most high god gary oh yeah just to go along with that that thought if if he understood let's say these time keys then that means that the saints of god would be under the power of this kingdom for such a long amount of time and that probably made him feel appalled yeah you know just to get my mind around that length of time right uh could make me feel sick now tricia you said earlier that sometimes angels come to help and right after daniel 8 you've got daniel 9 and who shows up to help him do you remember gabriel angel gabriel says by the way you've been praying and i'm here to help right doesn't change the prophecy but at least gives him what what does it do for him it doesn't change the prophecy it gives him some understanding so that he's like okay that's what god wanted to reveal to me so i want to ask a broad question now we're going to go through this book i've studied this book several times and i'm studying it again now i don't understand everything in this book i'm just this is a disclaimer right i don't understand everything in this book so how do what do we do when we're coming to study something with a recognition that we may not fully understand it what are some things we could do some maybe some promises in the bible or something that comes to your mind just a principle charity like i don't understand all of this the bible says you can pray and ask for wisdom from god yes that's that's found uh in the book of james right chapter one verse five if any one lacks wisdom do what what that's prayer right i asked god and do you know what it says next some of you apparently have been reading your bibles who gives to all how liberal what does that mean generously right and without approach what does that mean without making you feel bad condemnation like right you don't ask him for wisdom again why is he happy to give us wisdom why was gabriel happy to come and give understanding to daniel he wants us to understand that's why it was given that we can understand it right his word he desires to be a lamb to our feet and a lie to our path so it's not that he doesn't want us to understand amen thank you charity one place we can start is to pray and ask for wisdom okay anybody else what can i do if i don't fully understand everything elise in daniel 1 um after daniel and his friends had chosen to be healthy it said that they were ten times brighter and so that may be part of why god continued to teach and give him insight was because he was following the light that he already had ah so you would say if i don't understand everything remove any obstacle and follow the truth that you know you know does that make sense yes people like well when i finally know it all maybe i'll give my heart to jesus no no follow the light you know is that good principle yeah thank you and that actually has very practical implications for even how i care for my body right another insight travis well i think that when you study uh the bible i think god doesn't give you everything right away you just keep coming back for more and i think the best thing we can do is just be patient and keep studying and i know as i've been studying over the years every day new light bulbs keep going off and god just keeps revealing more and more and more isn't there some way jesus says there's many things i would share with you but you cannot bear them now i mean what would happen if he shared everything with us i can faint you might faint you might feel faint or sick right and that wasn't even everything right so be patient keep studying there's a text i'd like someone to read because it's one i really appreciate stephanie maybe you could read from jeremiah 33 you know my wife likes to write scripture songs right and she does that to help her husband memorize the bible as well as our little ones when they were growing up but uh this is one of the songs that he has in jeremiah 33 and verse 3. incredible promise and if you're if you're part of this journey in the book of daniel saying i don't get it all well we can ask for wisdom we can pray but we could claim this promise in jeremiah 33 and verse 3. and i'll be reading from the king james version call unto me and i will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not so that's kind of the prayer thing right and by the way i had another text in 2nd timothy 2 which says study or be diligent to show yourself approved which is back to keep on studying right a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed rightly dividing so keep on studying keep on praying realize that god is not hiding truth from us he's wanting actually to reveal truth to us well we need to move on to our last section which is the relevance of the book of daniel for our lives today why is it important anyone for us to study daniel and we might add revelation because these are the two apocalyptic books right these apocalyptic prophecies pointing to the end time why is it important to study them today what do you think yes tricia well it wasn't just a history lesson for history lesson's sake it was the history of the world from the lens and perspective of what's happening to god's people and i think that was important for daniel then but certainly for us now we don't have a national borders that define where god's people live we're all over the world and so being able to look at these prophecies and see where we fit in um is very important for us to understand how things will unfold in these particular days when god's people are scattered all over all around the world so paul said in second timothy 3 i think it begins in verse 16 all scripture that would include the the prophecies the apocalyptic prophecies all scripture is given by inspiration of god we read holy men and women of god right the inspiration of god and is profitable for a variety of things right profitable for doctrine what does that mean well that means understanding the truth is god wants to reveal doctrine for correction reproof which means you can challenge it you're out of line so rather than say well let's interpret this some other way and say it all happened here no no if if we're being reproved well what's the next thing for training correction right which means how to change and for construction construction and righteousness it's like so when i believe that you say well this is relevant for us today would you say some of them are just stories why are the stories are they just stories or do the stories even have gary do they have relevance too for us as in the end time i i strongly believe that they do i mean daniel's name um god is my judge and we're living in the laodicean portion of earth's history of people under judgment using more prophecy here in revelation with the church of laodicea right so the end time yeah and the end time which is now we are going to have to face the same type of uh decisions daniel and his friends face do i worship god or do i worship something else so in romans chapter 15 and verse 4 it says these things were written for our admonition right you may want to write romans 15 4 down but i've got to go to daniel chapter 12 because there's one last thought in the few minutes left elise could you read daniel 12 for us beginning with verse one because this is where michael stands up and it talks about a book and i want to conclude our introductory study on this series to ask how do i get my name in the book because that is a really important question so how does your bible read daniel 12 1-4 at that time shall arise michael the great prince who has charge of your people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation till that time but at that time your people shall be delivered everyone whose name shall be found written in the book and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever but you daniel shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase so this book is an earthly book or is it a heavenly book heavenly book it's not it's not it's not a book in babylon right it's not a book in jerusalem it's a heavenly book moses talks about that when he says god you know if you if if you can't save my people blot my name out of your book it's not their book is your book in fact in revelation 13 it talks about a judgment of all of those whose names are not written and it describes this book as the lambs book of life ah so see how daniel revelation connect so here's the most important question of our hour of study because this is all about the history of the earth and the deliverance of god's people and judgment right which is good news for the saints right because it's in favor of the saints how do i make sure my name is in the book the lamb's book of life how does my name get written there yes travis follow the land wherever he goes follow the lamb now that's kind of imagery but be more specific for me please help me someone saving rod how do i get my name written in the book i think i think we need to serve the lord in the same way that jesus was on this earth you know ministering and taking care of sick people widows i think okay and i think that that is an outcome of that living connection but but stephanie how do i get my name in the book commit your life to jesus accept what he's done for you jesus save me yes write my name in your book do i still have work to do do i still have growth to happen in my life yes absolutely but write my name in your book save me everyone romans 10 13 who calls on the name of the lord will be saved now i don't want to get into a big discussion but could could i at some point after my name's been written in the book say god i don't want you to save me anymore take my name out of the book could i do that yes i have a freedom of choice right but but if i choose and say god write my name jesus save me and it's going to be affecting the way i live from now on isn't it i'm going to be praying for wisdom i'm going to be praying for might back to the song wisdom and might to live a life that will honor god amen but my name's been written in the book and i don't know when to happen for you and i want to talk to our hope sabbath school family i don't know when that happened you say pastor derek i don't think i've ever asked jesus to save me i grew up in a christian family but i want to challenge you as i challenge each of us lord write my name in the book and if you said that as many of us have just every day say thank you god get excited you wrote my name in your book the lamb's book of life and i want to live to honor you and this book of daniel will not only tell us what's going to happen but how to live as we prepare for the glorious return of the king of kings and lord of lords let's pray father in heaven thank you so much as we begin this journey studying the book of daniel and i pray in the name of jesus that you would accept us say jesus save us let us be part of the redeemed of all ages and guide us as we live and as we grow and as we learn how to walk in these last days of earth history in the name of jesus amen amen amen amen well thanks for joining us for hope sabbath school this is an amazing journey the book of daniel we're going to discover that god will show us how to live that we can be lights to the world go out and point people to jesus [Applause] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Hope Sabbath School - Official

Views: 43,508

Keywords: hopesabbathschool, Hope Sabbath School, Derek Morris, Seventh-Day Adventist

Id: KR5qOpNBGZQ

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 29 2019