Through the Bible (Daniel 1)

there's something rewarding about tackling the book of ezekiel and then diving into daniel i don't know uh you know ezekiel is kind of a mystic he was uh seeing wheels within wheels and cherubims flying around and thrones and uh kabad leaving coming and going it was it's a little dizzying but the book of daniel oh i love it because it's so practical in so many ways but it's so prophetic in others it's a story about an amazing guy but it's also an apologetic work in the sense that daniel's one of the the reasons why i think we can defend that the bible is authentic that it is in fact god's word some people say you can't prove that the bible's true or false but that's that's not true uh daniel is one of those books uh that we see the fingerprints of god on this book that we hold in our hands and we'll look at that as we get into this book um so it defends the bible just by reading the bible and seeing what the bible does with history and with the future and prophecy it's just really profound we're going to see daniel not only in the lion's den but we're going to talk about daniel and the critics then maybe the critics then is more brutal than the lions did um there's a lot of people who have over the years said you know what we're going to fight against this book of daniel daniel is sort of a bull's-eye for the critics for the skeptics for the cynics and there's a reason why people that are anti-bible or anti-god atheist they usually use daniel as sort of the place to start bashing away at the bible and i love this and i'm gonna i'm gonna you know show you some of the things that we can do to show that daniel is an inspired book from god but we're also going to show you sort of an end around you can go for the real scholarly cerebral defense of daniel and we'll do we'll do we'll just touch on some of that stuff but i'm going to save you hours and hours of time there's an end to round reason why we know this book of daniel is in fact inspired and daniel was a prophet during the time that he claimed to be a prophet and we're going to see the book of daniel so the book of daniel is so cool because it strengthens the believer but it stupefies the cynic that's why the cynics the critics don't like the book of daniel is because they cannot answer certain things that really reveal god's amazing provision in the book of daniel there's no denying of it they try and they should try to shoot at the book of daniel all the time and they have for centuries but tonight we're going to see even some of those things but we did the introduction to daniel on sunday that is the person but uh we'll start a little bit tonight with the introduction and get into chapter one the introduction to the book of daniel and um and so we kind of start with that that question is the bible provable and the answer is yes we'll we'll see that the book of daniel has its origin from outside our time domain the archaeological discoveries that uh that validate the book of daniel we'll talk about a few of those kinds of things so dan daniel strengthens a believer but stupefies the critic how is it that the book of daniel does that well as it turns out one of the things about daniel that's so cool is uh he receives visions and prophecies from the lord um even with other people receiving visions and dreams like nebuchadnezzar dreaming about the future of the world and this dreaming and vision would be profound and that it would really foretell the beginning uh to the end of the world and really daniel's going to talk about kingdoms that will come and go and he'll talk about them with great specificity he'll he'll define who's coming after the babylonians he'll show us the medes and the persians who in daniel's time hadn't even come yet and then the greeks led by alexander the great and alexander the great's going to be even not by name mentioned but mentioned as a world conqueror from the greeks and we're going to see you know mark anthony and cleopatra you know richard burton elizabeth taylor for you older folks and it's not a rapper that we're talking about here for you younger people um we're actually talking about or i guess mark castle is not rapper but um i don't know what he is uh but anyway all that to say uh we're talking about ancient people here and the bible predicts all of these uh these dudes um and people uh and and daniel 11 is going to be full of amazing prophecies some people read 9 11 and think wow that's kind of boring um because it's about stuff that's a little dizzying but when you realize the profundity of the prophecy itself it's really cool and we'll we'll show some of that stuff out but because daniel is is like the bible god says god knows the beginning from the end god knows the future um and you have to be careful by the way there's a movement in the church somewhat uh by some people that are saying that god doesn't know the future it's all unwritten and there's kind of a new theology out there to watch out for that uh promoted by guys like greg boyd and others be careful about that i think that's really ridiculous uh ideas that god doesn't know the future um but it doesn't surprise me that churches and christians are sort of saying well god doesn't know the future why would they come to that conclusion because pastors and churches are neglecting bible prophecy altogether they won't even read the second half of the book of daniel at least or get into the book of ezekiel or jeremiah or some of these other words of prophecy and so it's no wonder the church is saying well god doesn't really know the future it's it's it's really out of uh being ill-informed and not really studying that wow god knows the beginning from the end and he explains it the whole thing uh in great detail daniel might just be one of the more detailed descriptions of future events and it's for that reason the fact that daniel the prophet in this little book of 12 chapters he's going to outline the whole course of the world and um and uh this is why the critics are stupefied so what do they do what what's the number one tool for a cynic or a skeptic of the bible what's the number one tool that says we gotta discredit the book of daniel by the way i mentioned last sunday that in my college classes at um literature at class at southern oregon university the professor of that that class tried to discredit the book of daniel and and it's always amazing to me these people that come and go but daniel still remains the book is still as solid as a rock i feel like some of these cynics and skeptics that come and go they're pushing against a boulder with a toothpick like good luck with that daniel remains they're all dead and gone the cynics and critics and there's always new ones that come up but one of the biggest things they attempt to change is the date of the writing of the book and the authorship of the book they say that daniel was a forgery it was somebody who claimed to be daniel but wrote it many many years later because they know that nobody would have known all the detail that daniel knew so it must have been written you know late now to make that argument you have to put it at least somewhere around 50 a.d the author if you're if you're going to be one of those guys say the book of daniel's a forgery and written much later uh um there's a a old ancient guy who was the first guy who really made this argument a dude by the name of porphyry you can look him up but porphyry was one of the chief arguers of daniels of forgery and he said it had to have been written in 50 a.d 50 years you know into the new testament period if you would um and the reason they they say it has to be that is because there's such detail on things like for example in uh in daniel chapter 11 the the uh battle between the ptolemies and the solutions remember antiochus epiphanes and um you know the jews celebrate hanukkah which was the festival of lights that was sort of the result of the maccabean revolt and uh the maccabees and and all that is totally predicted in the book of daniel so profie and others say you see this had to have been written later and so some dude claiming to be daniel now before i get into the defense of why that's ridiculous and and by the way i love this because you don't even have to be really a scholar to defend this uh let me explain um we have ancient texts of the bible um you should know the mesoretic text uh often in scholarly works uh referred to as the mt mesoretic text um it it was not used in in the uh you know book of daniel uh you know that was derived from the council of yamnia by the way the masoretic texan came like a thousand years after the source of uh that we had the earliest source of daniel that we have and that comes from the greek translation of the hebrew bible the septuagint septuagint meaning 70. the greek translation of the old testament the septuagint was was put together over a 15-year period by 72 different scholars uh and these scholars were greek scholars some have argued it might have been the best uh group of scholars of the greek language ever assembled in the history of the world the ones that put together the greek septuagint 285 to 270 bc that's when the um they're in alexandria that's when the septuagint was put together so the reason that's so cool is the septuagint um was the the work that was primarily quoted in the new testament when jesus quotes from the new from the old testament the old testament scriptures he doesn't quote from the mesoretic text uh that came way later he quotes from the greek septuagint that's what jesus was reading in those days um that's what paul quotes from paul quotes directly from the greek septuagint written 285 to 270 bc and and it wasn't some people try to make it like it was the mesoretic text it wasn't now the reason that's important if you just do the math very quickly remember pophary and the critics say that it had to have been ad50 but it's it's not even up for debate of when the septuagint first appeared and that was i mean that's just everybody knows 270 bc is when the septuagint came onto the scene so guess what books in the greek septuagint the book of daniel it's such a ridiculous argument like maybe you could pull the wool over some high school kid's eyes and say yeah the book of daniel's was a forgery and uh and it was written 50 a.d but uh it really you don't have to even be halfway scholarly to know that the septuagint was written in 270 bc which is really cool for us because so much of daniel's prophecies happened after 270. uh for example the ptolemy solutions alexander uh the great uh i'm not alexander the great but the um the the um you know that antiochus epiphanes who came into jerusalem all those things were predicted by daniel in great detail and that's why the scholars freak out we can't stand it that daniel says that so it has to be a forgery but they can't make that argument by the way not only is that a good argument because it gets you at least a 270. we also have a good argument that gets you back to 332 bc and that is when alexander the great uh came for the conquest of jerusalem now josephus if you know josephus was that first century historian wrote about this story of alexander the great besieging jerusalem and how a certain priest named jedua who showed him references showed alexander the great references to himself to alexander the great in the book of daniel and because of that the city of jerusalem was spared by alexander the great because of his seeing himself in the hebrew bible the old testament book of daniel there's so many other reasons why we can argue that the daniel was written by daniel back you know uh you know in 5 30ish uh bc how do we know daniel wrote this well um you know one one really cool thing that happened uh in the past century was a german archaeologist named robert coldway he did some amazing digs he lived from 1855 to 1925 this archaeological dig he did excavations of nebuchadnezzar's palace which was the very place where belt belts built to ship belshazzer had the party and the handwriting on the wall um archaeological digs found that very palace where that happened also he found the hanging gardens um the ancient wonder of the ancient worlds uh as the hanging gardens of babylon before you know cold away found the hanging gardens the hanging gardens of babylon was just a legend uh it's not even in the bible but it was a legend about how beautiful babylon was and they talked about these ancient hanging gardens and people said ah it's just a legend it's not true well cold away was this archaeological dig uh archaeologist that found the literal hanging gardens of babylon in the digs and he found the banquet hall exactly where this party where uh belshazzar got the vessels from jerusalem and partied down that exact place was found and it was measured by the way uh cold away found it was 173 feet by 56 feet um in size this big hall and um and and here's the cool part daniel's description of that story we'll get to that you know in a few weeks it gave some specificity that was really important that bible critics and skeptics said there's no way in babylon there was a hall like this and daniel's book is just exaggerating daniels doesn't even know blah blah blah but as it uh falls out uh cold away found the hall and it perfectly confirmed everything the book of daniel said about it and that's kind of cool the critics were shut down once again archaeological digs are always shutting down the critics i love that um the skeptics the more you dig the more you find out that the bible knew what it's talking about and the conclusion uh even the secularists had to say the conclusion is that daniel had to be an eyewitness of that account to have the detail of that story with such exact precision as they dug it up in archaeological digs do you remember when jesus came down uh you know on the little cult of the donkey and the people were crying hosanna and the religious leaders were saying somebody silenced these people jesus silenced these people and jesus said if i silence these people do you remember what he said even the rocks will cry out and guess what the rocks are crying out archaeologically i love it you know all the archaeological digs are only confirming the bible to be valid and there's still things that people say well we know that there could never have been this place or that place or that king never existed or whatever and and that's the fun part as a bible student just year after year we have more and more confirmation of the biblical accuracy and what have you but let's do the end around proof that daniel was who he claimed to be jesus was quoting from the old testament from the septuagint we already said that but what i love about this is jesus quotes daniel three times um two of which uh he he uh one is matthew 24 verse 15 where he talked about you know the the abomination of the abomination of desolation that happened that he says the prophet daniel talked about jesus said the prophet daniel uh mark um you know also uh the gospel mark in mark 13 14 jesus did the same thing it says this jesus said but when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by daniel the prophet which is so cool that jesus said daniel the prophet and i'll tell you why because some people try to say oh it's just a daniel that jesus was quoting but it was not daniel the prophet but jesus used those exact words daniel the prophet said this so here's where i love the argument to go and this is always a good way to if you're if you're you know talking to some person who's got their arguments about daniel being a forgery i love getting the argument back not as much about the book of daniel but who do you think jesus christ is did jesus know what he was talking about or didn't he because that's the real issue um so so like in my college class it was really an awkward moment when i said i said you know you believe daniel was a forgery and it wasn't really daniel the prophet he said that's right then i said so do you believe you know more about who daniel was than jesus christ because jesus said it was daniel three times so you're saying you know more about the book of daniel than jesus the messiah and and it's an awkward moment for the professor yes i know more than jesus like once they say that a lot of students are like uh wait a minute uh this may be a little you know like some dude from ashland southern oregon university knows more than jesus okay that's getting down to the real issue if you ask me uh who do you say that i am that's that's what jesus gets to so so all this to say you'll you'll still hear the critics try to knock down the book of daniel because how profoundly exacting it is with this prophecy but we've got ample defense um the skeptics are still kind of going out of their minds trying to figure out how to take down the book of daniel and they haven't been able to for centuries i love that other observations about the book we're about to look at daniel daniel the prophet was quoted three times in the book of ezekiel and we talked about that if you wanted to remember ezekiel 14 14 ezekiel chapter 20 and also ezekiel 28 verse 3. um these are places where ezekiel quoted down he'll saying well so what whatever but what's interesting remember daniel and ezekiel were contemporaries it's like the prophet daniel was being quoted by other prophets before daniel was even dead he was a legend in his own time he was being quoted and and by the way ezekiel in ezekiel 14 14 classified daniel right up there with noah and job um you have to understand the hebrew bible the hebrew the jews noah and job were some of the heavy hitters but ezekiel compares daniel to those ancient heroes of the hebrews only daniel's still alive when ezekiel says that nothing evil is spoken of daniel in the book of daniel that's amazing and no record of sin like we mentioned on sunday also daniel's book is unique in some ways because it's it's written both in two languages part of it is in hebrew part of it's in aramaic and we'll we'll split that up in a second um but but what's even more interesting is there's actually uh several other foreign words that aren't part of hebrew or aramaic there are third party 15 persian words that are used which um to me only validates part of the book of daniel because if you remember the medes and the persians took over uh while daniel was in captivity and he he knew the persians he'd talked to the persians so he employs 15 persian words and three greek words now some people say see daniel used three greek words this is why it's a forgery the greek language wasn't in use at the time when daniel you know used these greek words here's the funniest part about that the greek language at that time was not the lingua franca at the time but it was totally around during the time of daniel and don't let anybody bamboozle you with because daniel used three greek words in the uh the text of the ancient book of daniel don't let that bother you some some people try to make a big deal out of that it's not a big deal at all are you guys with me on this this is just some of the defense of the book of daniel and i i like to give you a little bit of those tools because uh the book is so powerful that the the critics want to try to take it down and they've done a really poor job of that and they will they'll continue to fail on that one um the organization of the book is is pretty simple the first six chapters are the historical narrative um the the last six chapters seven through twelve are the visions that daniel receives chapter four interestingly enough was written by a gentile king like maybe one of the most powerful kings that ever lived on the earth wrote one of the chapters in the bible that's kind of an interesting thing and daniel sticks it in his book and we'll look at that chapter written by a gentile king that's kind of fun chapters 8 through 12 generally speaking focuses on israel and the jews and it's written in hebrew uh chapters two through seven generally speaking i should say this i'll tell you why i'm saying generally speaking is written in aramaic um the link that would be the lingua franca of the time the the the aramaic and by the way aramaic was the language jesus spoke so it had to do with the jews and their captivity for 70 years and when they came back to jerusalem the aramaic language stuck and and traveled with them and it became sort of the language of the time but if you want to break it down more precisely if you're taking notes you can jot these down the hebrew scriptures it stops it starts in chapter 1 hebrew and it goes all the way from chapter 1 to chapter 2 verse 4 the first half of the verse it stops speaking hebrew in the middle of verse 4 of chapter 2. so hebrew 1 and chapter 2 all the way to verse 4 a i'll call it that's hebrew and then from 2 4 b chapter 2 verse 4 the second part of that verse all the way to chapter 7 uh verse 28 that's the aramaic section which is kind of cool but chapters uh you know 8 and 12 through 12 is also back to hebrew so it is kind of interesting how daniel kind of weaves in and out of hebrew and aramaic the hebrew was the language by the way of the covenant with god's people the aramaic was the language of the gentile world so it's kind of interesting how daniel uses those two the hebrew language by the way was generally lost for a long long time um but one of the prophecies about the end times that ezekiel gave us if you recall is there'd be a restoration of the use of the hebrew language the hebrew language never disappeared it just was not in use for a long time on the globe nobody was speaking hebrew it was sort of an academic language like like you know the in the same way the catholics used the latin uh didn't you guys raised in a catholic church where you heard latin sermons you're like what are they saying it doesn't mean anything to me i don't know latin well that's the way the hebrews were about their hebrew it was just a academic language until uh the last you know 100 years or so a couple hundred years i should say a guy by the name of ben yehuda uh declared we will now bring hebrew back uh little did he know he was fulfilling ezekiel's prophecy that in the last days the hebrew language would be restored if you go to israel today everybody's speaking hebrew which is again a fulfillment of bible prophecy this stuff is exciting i can't believe churches are missing out on all the fun like this is the fun part of the bible if you ask me all this stuff that we see happening around the world it's just really cool to see how the lord knows the beginning from the end so um so there it is that's kind of the introduction of this book um just a few things on dates and stuff that you might want to be interested in you remember that daniel was taken in the first wave of the nebuchadnezzar's besieging he besieged the city in what was at 605 and some argued that he actually took them in 607 there was a besieging in 605 the the taking of daniel shadrach meshach and abednego remember it was the first wave it was the most um how should i say this the least violent phase of of the taking of the people uh phase one was was uh there was there was a sort of the taking of the city and the jews surrendering early now they did this by the way why did the jews surrender so quickly so early here in the first wave it has to do with jeremiah the prophet and i'll show you that here in a second uh the second wave they didn't surrender quite as much the third wave um that's when jerusalem was completely crushed in 586 uh bc so um all that to say that you know this is kind of that first conquest of the babylonians in jerusalem and we read that uh right here in verse one let's start it says in the third year of the reign of jehoiakim king of judah came nebuchadnezzar king of babylon into jerusalem or unto jerusalem and besieged it so that's what he did in 605 he besieged jerusalem now let's let's just remember the condition of jerusalem at this time this this moment this is when jeremiah was still in jerusalem prophesying about the coming doom of the babylonians and jeremiah would prophesy right through the first wave the second wave and even the third wave jeremiah was there the whole time um but this first wave jeremiah do you remember where jeremiah tried to warn this king jehoiachin jehoiakim he tried to warn him and it's kind of an interesting story if you recall in fact why don't you flip back if you would if you want to jeremiah chapter two um um it's interesting because if you remember in jeremiah chapter 2 there was this kind of um oh i should say not jeremiah 2. how about jeremiah 36 i don't know why i said two have you ever been turning in your bible of course if you've ever been in front of people and you're turning people in your bible and all of a sudden panic wait a minute that's not it no jeremiah 36 is where it says uh there in verse uh 1 jeremiah 36 1 and it came to pass in the fourth year of jehoiakim the son of josiah king of judah remember josiah was a good king who was killed in battle the word of the lord came to jeremiah for the lord take the role of a book and write there in all the words i've spoken unto thee against israel and against judah against all the nations from the day i spake unto thee even to the days of josiah to this day well jeremiah does that with the help of a scribe named beruk so jeremiah and beirut take a scroll and start writing and they're writing the book of jeremiah well they take the scroll and they bring in verse 11 of the same chapter when mekiah the son of gemariah the son of shaphen heard the out of the book all the words of the lord then he went down to the king's house so so now they take the scroll down to the king's house and say man the king's got to hear this what did jeremiah write well the king now josiah was replaced with jehoiakim so the king gets the scroll of jeremiah and we see him [Music] they read it look at verse 21. so the king sent jehuty who jihudi to fetch the roll and he uh and he took it out of eli elishama the scribes chamber and jehudi read it in the ears of the king and uh the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king so how did the king respond and before we read this how do you respond uh to the reading of the word or the hearing of the word it's always a good thing to check your heart when you hear the word of god um man to to check your heart because check out jehoiakim's heart verse 22 now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month there was a fire on the hearth burning before him sounds cozy and verse 23 and it came to pass that when jehudi read uh three or four leaves he cut it up with the pen knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth yet they were not afraid nor rent their garments neither the king nor any of his servants that heard all these words what happened joachim here's you know a few sections of the scroll of jeremiah and jehoiakim says yeah whatever and takes out a little knife and chops it up into pieces and throws it into the fire that's what people are doing to the word of god today people are chopping up the word saying i don't like that part ripping pages out and throwing in the fire um there's all kinds of topics where people you know whether they're secularists or even christians had to say um i don't like what it says about the lgbtq uh issues throw those in the fire i don't like what it says about women being pastors in the church that's not popular today throw in the fire um i don't like what it has to say about you know and on and on the list goes like i can go on and on with things that we we're throwing out today because we just don't like it that's what your joy kim did where did that get jehoiakim babylon jehoiakim gets uh gets taken he didn't read the book he didn't care what the the scriptures said and he chopped it up and burned it up and so he ends up messed up and we we see this king now and the result of that in daniel chapter one let's go back to daniel 1 this is the same guy that's mentioned at the start of the book of daniel the same guy that chopped up the bible of jeremiah if you would he ends up here now in captivity under the nebuchadnezzar's babylonian rule and that's what happened in 605 well verse 2 it says and the lord gave jehoiakim king of judah into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of god which he carried into the land of shinar to the house of his god and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god so um you know here it is when a person like jehoiakim disregards the bible what does it cause the world to do well we see two things um we see you know the the blasphemy of god um and you know right here we see the uh the result of joha kim's sin uh leads to blasphemy it says um he carried these vessels excuse me into the house of of of his god in china um what what is shinar by the way shinar is another name for babylon or maybe better said babylonia it's sort of like shinar is the greater area or babylonia is the greater area depending on who you're reading and what texts you're reading or period of time but babylonia or the greater part of uh you know the of mesopotamia that part that's near and around babylon they call that shinar uh eight times in the bible it's called shinar uh so just know that it's the greater babylon's the city babylonia is sort of shinar shriner is another name for the greater area it's like washington county uh versus uh tualatin or whatever it's dwelt in washington i think so um but all that to say and it's the greater gru area and so that's what's being said here so what it what happens the vessels of god the holy vessels that were used to worship in the temple in jerusalem are now being defiled in the temple of the babylonian god that's what happens when we sin when we disregard the bible we see his name blasphemed you know sin always leads to that and also sin always leads to um bondage now joha kim's in bondage sin always leads to bondage you always get nailed by sin and joachim thought he was getting away with it but he ends up getting in bondage and the name of god is being uh blasphemed there by the way um it reminds me of what paul warned about in romans chapter 2 verse 22. it says um thou that uh sayest a man should not commit adultery does thou commit adultery that that of horus idols does thou commit sacrilege thou that maketh your boast in the law though breaking the law dishonors god for the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles when the church or when christians or believers of the old testament are sinning what happens is the name of god is then blasphemed amidst the the unbelievers and it's so sad to see when the church of jesus christ has its sin uh when we are engaged in sin and then the name of god is blasphemed um so what's the solution brett easy we shouldn't be sinning well that sounds legalistic brett somewhere along the way we forgot that the bible teaches that we shouldn't sin it's almost like somewhere along the way there's people yeah that's why i sin a little bit whatever don't sin that's what the bible teaches i know that that sounds almost like impossible because we're all sinners no one's righteous we've all fallen short but somewhere along the way we've sort of lost the drive for holiness and it's what we talked about sunday blessed are they which do hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled and so i it wouldn't be great if you know if athe creek and the church the greater church of jesus christ was called to that not not a not a got to out of legalism but a get to out of just being obedient to god's holy and wonderful word a drive for holiness you know just to do the right thing and to make the right decisions and not just embrace sinful stuff well that's what jehoiakim does he's just a sinner who keeps sinning and now he ends up in bondage and in the name of god is blasphemed in the in the house of uh you know the gods of shinar there well verse 3 and the king spake unto ashfinez the master of his eunuchs that he should bring certain of the children of israel and of the king seed and of the princes verse 4 children in whom was no blemish but well favored and skillful in all pardon me cunning skillful and all wisdom and cunning and all knowledge and understanding science don't you love it uh daniel was apparently a guy who understood science that's why they chose him one of the things but he was cunning in knowledge understanding science and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the chaldeans so this is what we talked about on sunday the way of the babylonians was to sort of assimilate the youngest brightest best of the of the captives and daniel shadrach meshach and abednego were part of that crew i don't think it should go unnoticed though that this is a fulfillment of something isaiah the prophet said in isaiah you can jot this down isaiah 39 verse 6. do you remember when isaiah tried to warn the people and said behold the days will come that is in thine house and that which thy fathers have laid up store until this day shall be carried off to babylon nothing shall be left saith the lord and listen the son of thy sons shall issue from thee which shall be you shall beget they shall take away and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of babylon isaiah the prophet long foretold daniel chapter 1 um you know verse 3 and 4. isaiah the prophet predicted this and now it's happened the reason i like to remind us of that is when god says it it's going to happen and um anybody who says it's not going to happen or it's just to be taken figuratively i think we're just poorer for not taking the bible literally these guys i'm sure of that day oh we won't be taking captivity of babylon whatever and here they are exactly like isaiah the prophet foretold so here we see the young these young men taken and verse 5 it says and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank so nourishing them three years that at the end thereof they might stand before the king so they're going to feed him the king's food now among these were of the children of judah daniel hananiah michiel and azariah okay so we got these young guys um now what do we know about these guys nothing yet except for we know their names and what do we know about their names well their meanings if you want to jot them down it's kind of fun to jot down the names of these boys daniel's name means god is judge god is judged hananiah a little bit debatable on what his name means but most scholars say that hananiah's name probably means the lord is gracious um so daniel's god is judged hananiah is the lord is gracious mishael means none is like god none is like god and and then the last guy azariah in his name means the lord is my help the lord is my help so god is judged daniel ananias the lord is gracious michelle's none is like god azaria is the lord is my help now what happens with these jewish boys with good jewish names that have good amazing jewish meaning and by the way in bible times more than even today bible time names mean so much when people named their children something i don't know you know it's the cart or the horse you know which one came first did the kid become like what he what he said or how they named him or did they name him uh you know which one came first you know like for example nabel remember the guy nabel who names their kid nabel because nabal means fool the mother of nabel okay i'm gonna name you here fool come here little fool like um that's what they named nabel but as it turns out nabal was a fool if you know the story he was one of the most foolish men in all the bible did he get that name later maybe people just said his name shall be nabel from here on out because guess what he's a fool maybe that's what happened but bible names do hold heaviness and weightiness to the person so these these are good jewish boys with good godly names god is judged the lord is gracious no one's like god the lord is my help but the babylonians want to get that right out of those boys they want to get the the the lord out of them and make them into babylonians so it says here in verse seven these these four guys unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names for he gave unto daniel the name belty shazer and the hananiah of shadrach and to michel meshach and to azariah of evednego or abednego now here's the thing um isn't it funny i i've often wondered this from the time i was a kid why did we still call daniel daniel but we call shadrach meshach and abednego like we kept daniel's name but they they kept their babylonian names why i'm not sure really why we did that um in some ways we almost want to go back and name those because back to their original names you know do you even know hananiah michelle and azariah that's their original names part of me wants to call him that but then nobody know who you're talking about you know more about rak shaq and benny than than than uh hananiah michelle and azariah from veggietales so so so so what are these names well don't confuse belty shazzer with deltshazzer belchazer is the one who uh you know pooped his pants needed pants or pampers i'm getting ahead of the story but that's a different guy uh we're gonna get to that story it's it's quite a deal belty shazzar his name is that's the one given to daniel and his name means bell is prince bell is the god one of the gods of the babylonians so they're they're trying to get the jewishness out of daniel and get him into babylonian thinking just like they're trying to do to your children today do you understand that i hope you know oh it's so painful to see what's happening in colleges universities high schools middle schools grade schools how the agenda is feverish right now to drive the lord out of your kids to drive good godliness and biblical thinking out of your kids that's what's happening today with your schools and um and and i'm kind of amazed at how many people are just kind of sitting by going yeah that's too bad um you know i've got to say it uh for years you know i've you know as a a person who graduated with an elementary ed degree i was i was wanting to be a school teacher and a principal some day of the school that that would be my daytime job if i were a pastor i thought that'd be a complimentary i'll be a school teacher and a pastor or whatever you know ten-making skill so when i got to that i got that degree and stuff um it was kind of interesting because um you know i have a heart for education and and even when my kids were little debbie and i prayed about each year each class lord you want us to have our kids in public school um but man i'm telling you you know we did it most of the time we homeschooled on some some moments even half days we homeschooled half day took him out early because there were certain classes that were wacko and we were we were watching every teacher every class all the curriculum because we didn't want him to try to pull a fast one and teach something wacko to our kids so thankfully i had a wife who spent great time more time than your average homeschool mom my wife spent at the school knowing exactly what they were teaching our kids it takes work if your kids are in public school mom dad you've got some serious work out of you don't just mindlessly send your kids to school that's that's a word i can't say that strong enough now some some people say well you should have just homeschooled well part of it was i wanted my kids to be able to be in this world but not of this world salt and light and i wanted them to be able to attend public schools and i and i still feel that but man it's so hostile today i'm not even sure what i would do now um i'm pretty sure i probably wouldn't send to public school honestly if you're just asking me what you need to do is pray and say lord whatever home school public school private school no matter which one of those you do you still have a ton of work to do mom dad you really do watch out this world is ferociously and sadly victoriously wooing our children and our kids and our young adults um left and right um some people say how can you get into such a wacko mindset that our world is in today the answer education which i call brainwashing indoctrination that's what it has become so don't be naive mom and dad these days we're living it's just exactly what they wanted to do with daniel shadrach meshach and abednego they wanted to get the the jewishness out and the worldliness in and they were going to cram it down their throats that's that's what exactly what's happening here in danish chapter one but daniel says uh well we'll get to that in a second what he says about this but i love how daniel's name stuck he was not going to be bell as prince he's going to be god as judge i love that hopefully our kids will stand firm on that too but that's what they were trying to do is make good babylonian kids out of these jewish kids um and it starts with just little compromises by the way you know i mean can you imagine these these young boys with their parents not in the picture and these big tough babylonians saying you shall be called belty shazza like like who who stands up against that satan wants to compromise you and our kids by the way but but all of us that's satan's devices um it's it's one of the oldest tricks in the book just little compromise here and there and eventually we're just way off course i i i think one of my probably my best examples of that is in the book of um exodus remember remember the compromises of pharaoh pharaoh told moses um yeah yeah yeah you can you can get your people out of here like moses is saying let my people go but did you know there were several deals that pharaoh tried to make with moses in fact i'll just quickly you can jot these down in exodus chapter 8 um verse 25 finally you know after the the flies remember the plague of flies finally pharaoh calls in you know moses and says in in 8 25 of exodus pharaoh calls for moses and aaron and says go ye sacrificed to your god in the land of egypt and moses said it is not meat to do so the first compromise pharaoh tried to say okay yeah yeah you can go and sacrifice and worship your god but only stick around here man stay in egypt same thing egypt's a type of the world that's exactly what pharaoh's satan is trying to say to you and your kids right now don't don't don't go away from egypt stick around in the world just be kind of worldly you can worship your god go to church on sunday but man just be good you know uh egyptians or good portlandia people you know satan wants to compromise that was the first one that he tried to make it and moses said not going to happen the second compromise is in chapter 8 verse 28 of exodus where the second compromise goes something like this let me just read it to you he says okay okay um uh pharaoh says i will let you go that you can sacrifice throne only don't go very far away moses said we're not going to stay in the land to worship the lord and so the next compromise is okay you can leave you can leave egypt but don't go very far away from egypt do we have a deal and moses says no that's not a deal that's what satan will next do if he can't keep you in egypt he wants to keep you near egypt just near the worldliness and godlessness just a little more of a compromise but moses says this is gong i'm not gonna do that. i love that and then the the third compromise is in chapter 10 verse 11. this is a crazy one check this out and i think satan's still trying to do this today i'm in chapter 10 um [Music] verse 10 it says and he says let the lord be so with you as i will let you go and your little ones look to it for evil is before you not so go now that you are that are men and serve the lord um all that you desire and they were driven out from pharaoh's presence now this is king james way of saying something very confusing when he says your little one's not so what is he saying he's saying you that are adults can go and leave egypt forever only you got to leave your kids behind like who's going to do that as it turns out a lot of us you see that's what satan wants to do he wants to have you know us leave our kids behind oh you know at least i got my walk and i'm doing okay we'll just let our kids figure out that you know and they and we and parents we wrongly leave our kids to sort of fend for themselves against pharaoh and against the world egypt and and the world views out there and a lot of times parents assume oh my kids won't think that way my kids won't be sucked into you know the the crazy uh you know world view that so many have today but sadly we wonder as we send our kids off to college we're actually leaving them in the world to their own devices and they come back hey why is junior now totally in opposite in everything that i believe and think we shouldn't be shocked pharaoh tried to do that with moses leave your kids behind and moses said no not going to do that either the final compromise by the way was in um chapter 10 verse 24 of exodus where pharaoh says okay moses go and serve the lord only leave your flocks and your herds behind and then your little ones can also go with you the final compromise was okay you guys can all leave but leave your flocks and herds um like this is his last compromise why would he want to have them leave the flocks hurt so they'll die in the wilderness um but you say brett well they weren't um they weren't eating their flocks and herds they were having mana well nobody knew that at the time uh the man i was gonna fall from heaven but there's even a greater thing i think that might be here what did they use their flocks and herds for one of the biggest things was for worship they would worship god in the tabernacle sacrificing lambs bulls rams goats as offerings to the lord and it's almost like you can superimpose on this story you know pharaoh says you can go but we don't want you worshiping god in the way you want to worship god keep your flocks and hers mind go and worship your lord but leave your flocks and herds and that's the next thing satan will have you do he doesn't want you to be one don't worry about worship don't worry about giving and giving of your flocks and herds leave that with us the reason i go into this exodus passages is it's so much like daniel how the the babylonians wanted to sort of you know compromise and and get these good jewish boys to be more babylonian it's the same thing satan has done from the very beginning get us to compromise just a little bit and then we end up way off course um that was the objective and so how does that work out he's gonna give him new names he's feeding him with the sumptuous meat and wine and they're whining and dining daniel shadrach meshach and abednego but verse eight as we read on sunday but daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself man there's so much here um you know we looked at on sunday daniel was a man of purpose one of seven daniel characteristics that we identified on sunday that would just make me loved i love daniel for so many reasons but that's one of them i was a man of purpose a young man of purpose don't you love that and man if we could instill that in our kids early to be you know young people of purpose so that when they're you know you know being lured or tempted they know to just say never not just say no say never have it purposed already in their heart we looked at that on sunday but notice here does daniel get fired up and yell and scream at the prince of the eunuchs does he get a sign in protest i think it's interesting that he does something here that's kind of cool he's he does this in sort of a classy thinking sort of cerebral kind of way uh let's watch how he does this just the way he approaches he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself um we don't see him getting all fired up or crazy but we see him being reasonable and i feel like we need more of daniel's sort of approach there's a lot of crazy talk today people are all wild eyed and crazy about this and that i love it when people remain calm but still have an amazing argument and are making a good point uh daniel's the guy who knows how to do that check it out verse verse 9 it says now god had brought daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs so there's a couple things about this um uh the the lgbtq community and the the churches that love to celebrate the gay and lesbian agenda they will point out this verse says daniel was gay uh you'll hear that i'm not joking um but that's not an honest read of this text in the original text it's the idea of the love the word love there is the brotherly love not a erotic love not a sensual love it's a love like a like um god brings favor uh with daniel with both nebuchadnezzar but also with the guy that's in charge of all these eunuchs and and by the way this is an interesting thing the question is was daniel a eunuch you say well brett who cares what's a eunuch look it up i don't know if there's kids in the room i don't know if i should tell you what a eunuch is let's just say uh you you know um the transgender community is kind of like yeah this is daniel because you know he was made a eunuch by the prince of the eunuchs but that sort of removes the homosexual agenda that they had i'm just saying it's a it's a crazy argument once you get in all this stuff was daniel eunuch i don't know for sure we know that he was put under the prince of the eunuchs and oftentimes the babylonians would make eunuchs out of their captive people um to sort of be a sign and also a statement of who's in control um and uh and so all that to say don't make more of this verse some people try to make crazy stuff out of this verse daniel just gets favored by god god makes it so this guy in charge of all the eunuchs in charge of daniel and shattered reaching he really they they love each other like like brothers if you would um god does that well verse 10 it says in the prince of the eunuch said unto daniel i fear my lord the king who hath appointed your meat and your drink for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort then shall you make me endanger my head to the king question was nebuchadnezzar a dangerous king man if you know the bible he was really dangerous like he was the kind of king now um by the way he had all power that nebuchadnezzar you know was was this government where you know basically whatever the king says goes we're going to go into the governments of the babylonians meats of the persians the greeks we're going to go into that coming up i think in the next chapter but all that to say you know he could stay off with your head the end it was that kind of a king and if you recall even um in jeremiah 29 22 we read where nebuchadnezzar barbecued people like literally put them on a grill and sizzled them flipped them over sizzled them and eventually they died like he loved seeing people in pain he throws people in fiery furnaces he he chops people up into pieces this is what nebuchadnezzar is good at he likes to kill people and see them in pain so the prince of the eunuchs is like uh daniel man you refusing to eat the king's meat puts me the one you're i'm your good friend and you're putting me in danger um so so what what is the solution and again does daniel just say tough bananas babylonian you know i'm going to do what i want to do is that what he does no i love his kindness here and the way he tries to work it out carefully it says in verse 11 then daniel said to melzar whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over daniel hananiah mishael and azariah prove thy servants i beseech thee ten days and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink then let our countenances be looked upon before thee and the countenance of the children that eat the portion of the meat king's meat and as thou seest deal with thy servants so he considered consented to them in this matter and proved them 10 days or tested them 10 days and at the end of the 10 days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat thus melzar took away the portion of the king's meat and the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse so before nebuchadnezzar can figure out what's going on here they give him a 10-day trial kind of within themselves saying okay we'll give you ten days but if you're looking weaker we're going straight back to the rib eyes um this is what i think is one of the greatest miracles of the bible right here guys were eating vegetables for 10 days and they looked healthy after that that's a miracle like parting the red sea eating vegetables and looking fat and stuff beautiful miracle about now some of you're like sea bread vegetarian veganism is biblical well as it turns out um uh it's what is this pulse that's talked about it's probably vegetables that daniel eats in water veggies and water um some make an argument that the word pulse in the hebrew means more of a grain like grains and seeds and stuff like that um interesting debate you can look all you uh nutritionist people can look it up but in 10 days there was a big difference and and um so uh here's the thing i've seen people make an argument that you know christians should be vegetarians because the book of daniel why do we not believe that i'll tell you why because jesus was not a vegetarian jesus ate fish and also paul the apostle i love what he says you know when he told timothy and by the way one of the last days marks of the end times this cracks me up because this seems very apocalyptic to me they'll forbid people eating meat i mean have you seen it we did a prophecy update on you know aoc saying that you know cow flatulence are the cause of this the global warming um so they're trying to put these backpacks on cows that collect the methane gas from the flatulence of the cows i showed you pictures of their backpacks that they're wearing and as the cows flatulate and they collect the methane and they're going to use it as a renewable resource energy um but but we got to stop eating meat because it's destroying the like it's like this whole thing is a little crazy but listen to what the bible says paul tells timothy says in the last days they'll be seducing spirits speaking doctrines of devils speaking lies and hypocrisy having their conscience heared listen forbidding to mary and commanding to abstain from meats which god hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth for every creature of god is good and nothing to be refused if it re received with thanksgiving it is sanctified by the word of god and prayer here we're given the license to have a meat and and be eating it with thanksgiving and i do um now now if you want to be a vegetarian or a vegan and just because you want to do that for health reasons or whatever good for you that's great but don't make it a biblical issue that that's a that's a real impossible thing to do is make a bible case out of not eating meat i've seen it all throughout my years of being a christian there's people groups that come and go and try to make the argument and one of their arguments is see daniel ate vegetables and he was healthier after 10 days i had a buddy that grew up with me in the church when i was a kid and his whole family were vegetarians except for him it was really kind of a funny thing and they were a great family but i just got to say it the whole family were these poor little withered people they just looked like little like they all look like they just needed a steak really bad except for their son who was not the he was this ripped huge guy and and he ended up being like this really uh you know great athlete and all this oh meanwhile all the other kids were just these little shriveled up little it was like i felt so bad for them i'm like come on just have a steak you know now i gotta admit uh some of my friends i know that are big muscular people are veg vegetarians now and they they tell me well look at a horse a horse is a vegetarian and it still has lots of muscle and it's very athletic if you would uh they make there's people making that argument now you can make the medical arguments you can make health arguments if you want to uh that's great but do not make it into a spiritual argument that i think you're on really shaky ground i know you're on shaky ground if you're just using daniel 1 why are you spending so much time don't mess with me on food um by the bible i know the bible and food i can i can that's probably my best apologetic right there but anyway so so you know they go ten days and and the the the one melzar who's the help helper of the prince of the eunuchs he says man you guys are better in ten days so then they go for a longer period and eventually what happens well verse 17 as for these four children god gave them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom and daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams now at the end of the days that the king had said that he should bring them in then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before nebuchadnezzar and the king communed with them and [Music] and among them all he found was none like daniel hananiah michael and azariah therefore stood there before the king and in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them he found them ten times better than all the magicians the astrologers and all that were in his realm and daniel continued even to the first year of king cyrus wow i love this how the lord just gave daniel favor because he was a man of purpose and he didn't just get sucked into babylon but he was careful um you know he's careful to do what we've been talking about these last few few sundays to be not conformed to this world to be but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind now you might say brett well where did daniel get the harebrained idea to be into vegetables well see that's just it i got to make this point before we wrap it up daniel was being a good jewish boy he was being a good kosher jewish boy you can make a biblical case for what daniel was doing because he was a jew and they were wanting to feed daniel the meat of the king of babylon that included a bunch of unkosher meats meats that did not fit the jewish law well brett shouldn't we have to keep the jewish law too man if you didn't get that memo we have a lot of work to do uh the law of the old testament was not for you and me uh to to have to keep it but the law of the old testament the jews was to drive us like paul says as a school master to jesus christ and if you're interested go through the book of galatians a short little book we went through galatians and we talked very much about how we're no longer under the law the law kills nobody ever was saved by keeping the law but the jews especially these jews of the old testament time they were supposed to be keeping the law of god and the law of moses so daniel was in fact being biblically sound in what he was doing but you still can't make that argument that we should be doing what daniel did with vegetables but daniel was being an obedient jewish boy just like his mama taught him i think i'm pretty sure daniel and the boys got their biblical training from their parents their parents raised them um rightly oh how we need parents that will do that i'm reminded of um you know um the book of deuteronomy um let me just read it to you and we'll finish with this tonight in in deuteronomy chapter six uh verses three through seven let me just read this to you listen this is what the lord says to the people of israel in deuteronomy 6 3 it says here therefore israel and observe to do it that it may be well with thee and you may increase mightily as the lord thy god of thy fathers has promised thee in the land that flows with milk and honey hear o israel the lord our god is one lord and thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might and these words which i command thee this day shall be in thy heart and listen thou shalt teach them diligently unto your children when they shall talk of them talk of all these things love the lord your god with all your heart mind's own strength talk about this when you sit in your house when you walk us by the way when you lie down when you rise up and you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand and there shall be fronts between your eyes and thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on my gates the jews took this literally they you know they have the phylacteries and they write these you know these uh descriptions on their you know masseuses on the doors and they they literally do all this stuff but the idea is not as much about a paper in a box on your forehead it's more about having it in your heart and your mind and the way god's prescription for the jews to make sure their kids were getting it was to remind them of these truths repetition is the mother of all learning i have a hunch daniel's mother and father was were constantly saying here's what the scriptures say daniel don't forget be a man of purpose serve the lord only the lord don't serve any other gods you know love the lord thy god with all their height their heart your heart mind soul and strength like these are the kinds of things daniel's parents no doubt would rehearse and when when you rise up in the morning when you go to bed at night when you're walking when you're sitting like whenever you go be rehearsing with the kids the truth of the scripture and i think that's how daniel hananiah michelle nazariah i think that's how they were able to get into babylon and not be duped not to be sucked in mom and dad we got to work overtime today we're living in babylon today they want your kids they want our families they want your marriages they want to suck you into this worldview that's so so not working and it's so obvious that it's not working and so we need to be a game on when when you guys rise up in the morning are you are you getting together and praying with your kids and reminding them you don't have to do a 30-minute devotional but just rehearse something short and important to your kids every day you know maybe it's a little verse you know that you can remind your kids kids the bible said think of something really short pray without ceasing there's a short scripture for you first thessalonians chapter 5 says pray without ceasing johnny today try to pray without ceasing what does that mean when you're walking around school pray for the kids on the playground pray for your teacher pray pray for yourself to walk with the lord and not be easily you know drawn to sinful things but remember johnny pray without ceasing and then when they come home hey blessed is the man who endures temptation when he's tried he'll receive the crown of life which promised those love how are you doing with temptation johnny uh were you tempted by stuff today well remember here's what the bible says and and just rehearsing stuff constantly and you can't you got to be a little creative mom and dad because you can drive your kids nuts uh if you just kind of the same thing over and over and over again um but but you be creative and how you're you know reminding and if you're not in the word mom and dad you can't expect your kids to understand the word or care about the word it's you it's got to come from a real relationship that you have with the lord that where you're on fire and then that overflow of what you have let that just flow to your kids man we need to to get back to just really reminding our kids of truth so that when they see this crazy world's philosophies and stuff your kids will just spot it a mile away and say yeah that's not true they won't be duped they won't be sucked in that's what daniel hannah and i and michiel nazariah really stand for for me is these young boys that somewhere along the way they got trained probably in this deuteronomy chapter 6 fashion where their parents just rehearsed in their minds and they already had it they were locked in may that be true of our families amen amen lord as we pack it up tonight we take this first chapter of daniel we're reminded these are most amazing characters from the bible days but lord how we we recognize that these young men were put in a situation very much like the situation our own kids find themselves in um schools neighborhoods a world view um even our government and so many things that just kind of fly in the face of things that are true um and we we wonder what are we supposed to do and and how are we supposed to act but lord may we learn from the book of daniel um i pray that like daniel we wouldn't just be a just unnecessarily weird or offensive but we love how daniel lord just kind of was careful and methodical and logical and it kind of worked through very difficult things or we already see that in chapter one here give us that kind of wisdom lord that we know how to to stand for what is right and true but also doing in a way that's honoring to you in your name give us wisdom lord and i pray that this would bring good fruit in our lives we thank you for the study that we get to do through the book of daniel bless these people who've taken this time tonight to study this chapter in jesus name amen you

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Length: 71min 3sec (4263 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 11 2021