Daniel • Week 1

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Good morning. If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join us

in Daniel chapter 1. We are starting a new series, our fall series, as we're going to walk through

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

Daniel. If you do not have a Bible, that's okay. We have some available at the back after the

service. Come back there. Would love to be able to give you one. Please stop by there. Would love

to be able to gift you that, gift you a copy of God's Word so that you have that. Also, if you're

a first-time guest, we count it as a privilege and an honor that you are here worshiping with us

today. And so as well, my wife and I will be back at that black table at the end of the service. If

you wouldn't mind stopping by, we would love to meet you, and just thank you for personally being here

and worshiping with us today. So with that said, I'm going to read Daniel chapter 1 verse 8 to you

Daniel 1:8

this morning. It says,

but Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine

that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.

Would you pray with me? God, we come to you this morning, Lord, we thank you for a beautiful,

wonderful time of worship. God, we thank you for the truth of those songs that while sometimes,

Lord, our reality does not feel like the things that you have for us are good,

our reality may want to deceive us from what is going on, our perception of reality, Lord. We

can know and we can trust in the truth of your Word and the truth of who you are, God,

to know that you have the plans for us, to use us for your name and for your kingdom.

God, I pray that as we study your Word this morning, I pray that it would penetrate to the very

heart of who we are. God, that we would experience conviction over our sin. God, that we would be

drawn to the sweet spot of repentance. Lord, if there's anyone here that does not know Jesus Christ

as their Lord and Savior, today would be the day of their salvation. So, God, may these not be the

words that I want to speak or that I want to share, God, but may it be the truth of your Word.

Lord, and may I be faithful in communicating. We ask all these things in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Well, we are getting started in this new series. If you're new with this, it's already coming

maybe this summer or maybe this is your first week. When we do a study through the book of the Bible,

we will do that. We will study the entire book. We're going to work chapter by chapter,

verse by verse, through Daniel. A couple of things. I want to kind of take this week and give us an

introduction into the book of Daniel. A couple of things that I want you guys to know as we go

through this book. Number one is that there's five books in the Bible that are considered major

prophets. All right, we got Isaiah, Jeremiah with lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. But Daniel is a

little unique and a little different than the other major prophets that we see in Scripture. Now,

there's major prophets and minor prophets. It doesn't mean that major prophets have the major

announcements and the minor prophets have minors. It just deals with the amount of information in

which they are sharing. So these will fall into our longer books, the major prophets will be. Now,

some things about Daniel that I think are very interesting and of note, some things that I learned

this week as we were studying and preparing for this message, and that the book of Daniel contains the

most fulfilled prophecies of any book of the Bible. All right, so all of the prophetic books, the prophecies

in them have happened, or we are confident they will happen. But of all the prophecies that have

currently been fulfilled, Daniel has the most of those. And when we look at the New Testament prophecy of

that that's quoted, Daniel is quoted more than any other Old Testament book. And so this is what we

see from Daniel. So this is a very important book. But I was talking to one of our church members this week,

and he said, you know, I'm preparing to kind of walk through this with this small group. He's reading

through this, and he said, you know, I was very comfortable and very confident in Daniel's chapter

one through six. And then he said, and then I got to chapter seven, and I was like, wow. All right. And so

that would probably fall with most of us in here, right? And the reason being is Daniel is divided into

two sections. And so chapters one through six, which will take about half of the time for us to get

through, are going to deal with the man Daniel. They're going to deal, actually start off with

teenage boy Daniel, and we're going to see Daniel grow in a narrative about Daniel's obedience to God.

So it's a very common of what we've seen as we've studied through different Old Testament books of

the Bible. We'll see a narrative, a historical narrative of inspired God's word about this

boy who grew into a man, Daniel, and his faithful obedience to God. And then what we'll find in

chapters seven through 12, we'll deal with the message of Daniel, because Daniel is a prophet.

And we'll deal with the message of Daniel, an apocalyptic vision that God gives Daniel.

And I hope that you will commit with me to not do any deep dives on YouTube, right, to kind of figure

out what some of this stuff is talking about. But we'll journey through this together. I read a pastor

who was preaching this, and here's what he said, and this pastor, the message that I read, he preached

in 19, October 21st, 1979. If you were alive on October 21st, 1979, raise your hand.

My people. All right, so here we go. Here's what he said.

The book of Daniel tells me how to live for God in this evil age. And it tells me what it will be like

when I live with God in that golden age. The beauty of the hope of the book of Daniel.

The beauty of the hope of Scripture. Of what it is like, whether it's 1979, 1939, or today.

What it is like to live for God in this age. All but the beauty of what it'll be to live with God

in the time to come. So the first two verses are very important in Daniel. And so I want us to read

this to kind of understand the setting. Sometimes in these Old Testament books, they're different than

our New Testament letters, where we jump into a New Testament letter, and it's reading the letter.

But in this, we're reading a historical aspect of this as well. So we kind of jump into the story. So

let's look at these. Daniel chapter 1, verses 1 and 2.

Daniel 1:1

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem

and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand

With some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house

of his God, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God. So very important, a theme that we're going to

see throughout Daniel. A theme that we're going to see in the historical aspect of the life of Daniel,

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

chapters 1 through 6, and what we'll see through the vision and the prophecy of Daniel in 7 through 12,

is the sovereign purpose of God. The sovereign purpose of God. Now this is a theme throughout all

of Scripture. Absolutely. It's a theme in Genesis. When we studied it, it's a theme as we look toward

any part of Scripture of what we did. It's God's sovereign purpose that God is implementing in here.

And so what God does is he gives us kind of two pictures of what is happening here in this opening

of Daniel. Verse 1 gives us a very important historical context of what we see. In the third year

of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem

and besieged it. This is a historical statement of fact. So nearly 600 years before the coming of

Christ is what we see happening here in verse 1. Now what has been happening to lead up to this,

it would take a year's worth of Sundays to walk all the way through this. But God has been warning

his people through what God does, through the prophets, before that if they do not repent,

if they do not turn, if they not come back to him, if they do not obey, then God will judge them.

And that God's judgment is going to come in the form of captivity.

And so this will happen historically through three major attacks that we see here. The first in 605 BC,

597, and then the third in 587. And this is historical record. This is important for us. If you're here,

if you're curious about our faith, if you're here and you're skeptical about our faith, can I tell you

that our Word, the Word of God, is not written with mythologies and stories that are made up by the hand of the author

that created them. But what we see is the very true, living, powerful Word of God

and that what we find in this is the accuracy of historical record.

And so as we come through, we know that this happens and that this takes place and you can go

study the Jewish historians, you can study modern-day historians and see that these events happened.

We get the historical context. God's people have rebelled, God's people have rebelled,

God's people have rebelled. They face the judgment. This happens through a historical event

of the captivity that we find. Jehoiakim is weak. He's ungodly.

Nebuchadnezzar is the pagan king of Babylon.

So in the leadership of what we see in the very early introduction

is not great.

But then verse 2 gives us

the theological context

of Daniel.

It gives us

what we as Christians

can hold to

and can claim.

I love the

song

that our worship team

led us through.

He has good plans for me.

Whether deserts or garden.

Whether feast or famine.

And this is the truth of what we're reminded of here in verse 2.

And the Lord

gave

and the Lord

gave

Jehoiakim

king

of Judah

into

his hand.

this is important.

This is important.

As we look at the sovereign plan,

and I hope you all may join us

each and every week

as we journey through this.

God said,

look how powerful

I am

for my good

and sovereign

purposes.

God's been saying

God's been saying

through his prophets,

listen to me,

listen to me,

listen to me,

listen to me.

But they would not listen.

They would not.

In fact,

2 Chronicles

36-16

describes

the response

of God's people

to his prophets.

Let's look at this.

but they kept

mocking

the messengers

of God,

despising

his words

and scoffing

at his prophets

until

the wrath

of the Lord

rose

against

his people

until

there was no

remedy.

Don't mock

God.

Listen to

his word.

Do what

he's called

you to do.

It's his people.

This is who

we're to be.

And what we see

here is

God says

what he'll do.

Like this

should not come

as surprise.

This should not come

as I didn't see

this coming.

Like when we look

at God's word

and the expectations

and the hope

that we find

from him

and his grace

and his mercy

of what he desires

and longs

to do for you

and to do for I.

And this is what

he's called us to.

But here's what

God says he'll do.

Jeremiah 25-9

Therefore,

thus says the Lord

of hosts,

because you have

not obeyed my words,

behold,

I will send

for all the tribes

of the north

declares the Lord

and for Nebuchadnezzar

the king of Babylon

my servant

and I will bring them

against this land

and its inhabitants

and against all these

surrounding nations.

I will devote them

to destruction

and make them a horror,

a hissing

and an everlasting

desolation.

God says,

God says,

look,

I've been telling you,

I've been telling you,

I've been telling you

and here's

what I'm going

to do.

Mark Hood

and I

were talking this morning.

Mark

is teaching

a Christian ethics class.

If you weren't here

for nine o'clock,

you missed out

in discipleship time.

I'm in Tim Stewart's

scribbling

in the sand study.

There's several studies

that we've got going on.

You want to get connected

in one of these.

Mark's teaching

the Christian ethics

and I was talking through

just this morning

when I took my

Christian ethics class

in seminary

and all we kind of

navigated through

within here

and I remember

in a theology class

that I took,

we would have this

conversation of,

you know,

what can't God do?

And sometimes

we would get into

these silly

like narratives

with people,

right?

Like,

can God create

a boulder

so big

that even God

can't move it,

right?

And you become

this dog

chasing your tail

in this scenario

trying to rationalize

through these things.

But there is

one thing

that Scripture

shares with us

that God cannot do.

That God cannot act

contrary

to his own character

and nature.

Right?

And here's how

that plays out

for us.

And these are good things.

This isn't showing

the weakness of God.

This is showing

the holy power

of God.

That God cannot sin

because God is holy.

So take that off.

Like,

what you and I

are really good

and capable at

of sinning,

God cannot sin

because God is holy.

Specifically within that,

what we'll see this morning,

is God cannot lie

because God is truth.

So if God says something,

then what God is communicating

is truth.

And then within there,

God cannot overlook sin.

God cannot overlook sin.

And there must be penalty.

There must be payment for that.

And praise God for us.

What we know

is that's the whole point

of the cross.

That God couldn't overlook

your sin and my sin.

So what he did

is he sent his son

to die on the cross

for our sin.

Because he is holy

and he is just.

And so what we see

within this,

what this means

is that what God

has done in this,

if you're like,

this seems harsh,

this seems a little bit

strong-armed right here

that the Lord God

gave over his people

to a savage,

ruthless nation.

But what it means

is that what God

has done is right.

God cannot bypass

their sin.

God says what he's

going to do

and then God does it.

So historically speaking,

verse one happens

and then theologically speaking,

verse two happens

which means when we look

at the sovereign purpose

of God

is that this did not happen

through military cunning

or schemes of man

or earthly power

of the sword.

By the very hand

of God,

the Babylonians

besiege

God's people.

there's a big purpose.

There's a great narrative

that's playing out

both in these evil times

and the times to come.

And it's the power

of the hand of God

and the sovereign plans

of his purpose.

there's another aspect

of what God

cannot do

that I want to reference

in God not acting,

that God can't act

contrary to his character

and his nature

is we've said sometimes

and I've said this

and this has really challenged

the things that we say

and what we mean

when we say them

but I know

that I've said before

that God thinks

differently

than we do.

God thinks differently

than we do

but here's

it's a half truth

it's a partial truth

it's maybe not

communicating effectively

what we need it

to communicate

but here's the truth

about God's ability

to think

is that God

doesn't just

simply think

differently

than we do

but God

can't think

the way

that we do.

and that's not

because God

is limited

it's because

you and I

are limited.

See the Bible

tells us

that God

is omniscient

that God

knows everything.

There isn't

a detail

past

present

or future

that isn't

known

by God

which means

it's not just

that God

doesn't think

the way

that we do

but God

can't think

the way

that we do.

You see

you and I

what we do

is we operate

in a millifraction

of knowledge

and that's

a gross

estimation

of the knowledge

that you

and I

have.

We have a millifraction

of the knowledge

of the past

we have a millifraction

of the knowledge

of the present

but the reality

is we know

none of the future

but that's not

how God works

and that's not

how God

operates

and that's not

who God

is.

God's not

operating

in the what-ifs

that God's

knowledge

is full

God knows

all past

God knows

all future

God knows

all present

and so all

that God

knows

and operates

is based

off of the

fullness

of that

and the

Lord gave

Jehoiakim

king of Judah

into his

hand

and then

when we add

into that

the fact

that God

is also

omnipotent

that he

is the

ultimate

power

that what

we see

in the

context

of this

verse

the Lord

gave

Jehoiakim

king of

Judah

into his

hand

through the

holy

all-knowing

all-powerful

hand

of God

this is

what happens

and then

here's a

little bit

of the

comedic

irony

of what

we see

happen

and take

place

in this

that when

Nebuchadnezzar

back to this

passage

in chapter

two

in verse

two

that when

Nebuchadnezzar

besieged

Jerusalem

it says

that he

took

vessels

from the

house of

God

and placed

them

in the

treasury

of his

God

now

why

would

a pagan

king

go into

the house

of God

take

a

sacred

item

or sacred

items

out

and then

place

those items

into his

place

of worship

is he trying

to add

to the

collection

is he trying

to add

to the

gods

that he

serves

like

what is

happening

here

of what

he's

trying

to do

in his

lostness

and his

arrogance

here's

exactly

what he's

doing

it was

the

practice

of a

lot

of

ancient

kings

and

rulers

but

specifically

with

the

Babylonians

that

when

they

conquered

and

overtook

a

nation

especially

people

of

another

pagan

religion

or

true

religion

that

they

would

take

items

that

were

sacred

that

they

held

special

meaning

for

them

and

they

would

place

them

in

their

temple

of

their

god

as

a

symbol

a

symbol

to

show

how

much

more

powerful

their

made

up

false

god

was

than

the

other

god

and

so

can

you

imagine

the

irony

of

what

we

see

and

the

lord

gave

him

over

the

power

of

god

and

nebuchadnezzar

is

blinded

to

it

but

what

we're

going

to

continue

to

see

throughout

this

is

the

blindness

of

those

far

from

god

to

the

truth

of

who

god

is

and

what

it

will

mean

when

the

men

and

women

of

god

stand

firm

in

who

their

god

is

can

you

imagine

being

the

people

of

god

what

you

see

playing

out

before

you

your

reality

god

said

he

would

do

this

and

we

didn't

listen

and

he

did

and

he

did

but

it

continues

verses

three

through

seven

it's

got

some

names

pray

for

me

we

will

read

these

in

the

original

language

with

a

thick

southern

accent

all

right

then

the

king

commanded

Ashpenaz

his

chief

eunuch

to

bring

some

of

the

people

of

Israel

both

of

the

royal

family

and

of

the

nobility

youths

without

blemish

of

good

appearance

and

skillful

in

all

wisdom

endowed

with

knowledge

understanding

learning

and

competent

to

stand

in

the

king's

palace

and

to

teach

them

the

literature

and

language

of

the

Chaldeans

the

king

assigned

them

a

daily

portion

of

the

food

that

the

king

ate

in

the

wine

that

he

drank

they

were

to

be

educated

for

three

years

and

at

the

end

of

that

time

they

were

to

stand

before

the

king

among

these

were

Daniel

Hananiah

Mishael

and

Azariah

of the

tribe

of

Judah

and

the

chief

of

the

eunuchs

gave

them

names

Daniel

he

called

Belteshazzar

Hananiah

he

called

Shadrach

Mishael

he

called

Meshach

Azariah

he

called

Abednego

so the

Babylonians

it's another

practice

not only

would they

take

artifacts

but they

would take

people

they would

take people

and they

take

specific

people

scripture

tells us

that they

took some

members of

the royal

family

and nobility

so the

people that

they are

taking

from the

very

get-go

or the

who's

who

of

Judah

they

take

people

though

the

who's

who

with

certain

characteristics

they

take

teenagers

who

are

fit

who

are

intelligent

who

are

skilled

they

take

individuals

who

they

see

could

at

one

day

and

one

point

in

time

stand

in

the

king's

court

you see

here's

what

Nebuchadnezzar

does

he

takes

the

future

leaders

of

tomorrow

from

Jerusalem

and he

brings

them

remember

there's

going to

be

three

attacks

and

at

the

very

beginning

he

takes

the

cream

of

the

crop

the

best

of

the

best

and

his

goal

his

goal

is to

compromise

or to

change

them

not

to

kill

them

and

and

here

and here

is

what

we

know

is that

Nebuchadnezzar

what he

is working

in

is if

I can

separate

these

people

from

one

another

from

their

God

from

their

purpose

from

their

identity

then

I

will

have

destroyed

who

they

were

but

built

into

them

who

we

are

so

feel

very

similar

to how

the

enemy

attacks

us

as

well

Satan

desires

to

attack

you

to

destroy

you

to

change

you

so

that

you

no

longer

resemble

who

you

are

but

you

resemble

not

even

him

but

our

perception

of the

world

and it's

what we

see

in the

strategy

of

Nebuchadnezzar

so

Satan

and

Nebuchadnezzar's

goal

is to

change

who they

were

to

change

who we

are

and he

does

so

in

four

ways

four

ways

that

we

see

that

took

place

and

that

happened

all

the way

back

to

the

time

of

Daniel

and

that

happened

and

take

place

all

the way

in the

time

of

today

the

first

is

through

isolation

through

isolation

it

would

probably

would

have

been

easier

to

set

up

a

place

there

to

expand

the

kingdom

and

to

build

future

rulers

there

but

that's

not

what

he

does

what

he

takes

them

he

removes

them

from

his

people

and

he

brings

them

back

to

him

he

wants

to

isolate

them

from

one

another

okay

the

same

practice

of

what

we

see

today

the

less

and

less

we

gather

the

less

and

less

we

come

together

the

less

and

less

we

sit

across

the

table

the

less

and

less

we

break

bread

with

one

another

the

less

and

less

we

begin

to

miss

out

on

what

acts

shows

us

in

the

discipleship

of

the

community

of

the

people

of

God

the

more

and

more

that

we

allow

the

world

to

isolate

from

us

the

deeper

in

the

enemy

begins

to

sink

his

hand

into

us

Nebuchadnezzar

took

him

out

and

drew

him

in

the

next

thing

that

we

see

here

is

indoctrination

indoctrination

very

subtle

he

wanted

them

to

learn

their

language

and

their

literature

their

language

and

their

literature

right

so

he's

going

to

teach

them

the

Babylonian

way

he's

going

to

teach

them

the

pagan

way

and

wired

into

this

would

have

included

their

religion

for

most

part

of

the

existence

of

the

world

this

is

the

education

process

that

we've

seen

play

out

amongst

the

world's

religions

we want

to

teach

you

you

want

to

speak

we're

going

to

do

so

through

our

religion

and this

is what

happens

and takes

place

he wants

to

indoctrinate

them

he wants

the things

that are being

said

and the

thinking

of what

is

around

them

to become

more and

more

comfortable

with who

they are

instead of

being

the

missionaries

in the

culture

he wants

them

to be

indoctrinated

into

the

culture

the

third

thing

that he

does

is

assimilation

assimilation

verse

five

look back

at that

with me

it

sounds

kind

of like

he's

being a

good

host

and the

king

assigned

them

a daily

portion

of the

food

that

the

king

ate

and the

wine

that

he

drank

okay

all right

well

does this

what's he

doing

is he

is he

being the

good

host

is he

saying

what's

good

enough

for me

is good

enough

for my

guests

and this

is what

I want

you to

do

I want

you to

eat

and drink

like a

Babylonian

you see

God

had given

his people

dietary

laws

and God

said this is the

way that you

will eat

this is the

way that you

will drink

this is what

is good

and right

and holy

and acceptable

to me

and that

would not

have been

the way

of the

Babylonians

so let's

change

where you're

at

let's

change

the way

that you

think

let's

change

the

moral

compass

that is

in you

so that

what they

would begin

to see

is

conversion

from these

boys

to change

at the

core

who

they

are

one of the

things I think

is pretty neat

about our

youth group

and I

saw this

happen but I

never kind of put

the two and two

together

until like this

summer when it

was kind of

fully explained

to me

so it gets

complicated

in there

when you've

got like 60

kids

and two of

them have

the same

name

right

you're like

Emma

which one

you know

like it just

begins to

happen

so what

happens is

in a fun

way that

the kids

love is

that like

the first

one kind

of keeps

their name

and then

the second

one gets

a nickname

right

and then

you kind

of move

forward

and it's

been funny

for me

it's like

okay

I know

what they

call this

person

but you're

gonna have

to help

me remember

their name

because I

gotta talk

to their

mom and

dad about

something

and I

can't

walk up

and say

whatever

the nickname

is

right

but they

change

and there's

almost like

a badge

of pride

within that

of this

is who

I am

I'm here

and now

this is

what I've

become

but in

here in

this name

it's not

just changing

the way

that people

will see

them

but they're

trying to

change

at their

very identity

of who

they are

of how

they see

themselves

and in

that culture

more so

than our

culture

especially

names

meant

something

names

meant

everything

and so

the very

last thing

that we

read

in verse

7

the chief

eunuch

gave them

names

he took

Daniel

Daniel

whose

name

means

Elohim

is

judge

imagine

that

imagine

every time

you hear

your name

what you're

reminded

of

is my

judge

is God

and they

change

his name

to

Belteshazzar

a Babylonian

name

they take

Hananiah

whose name

means

Yahweh

is gracious

Yahweh

I'm sorry

Hananiah

Hananiah

and you're

in that

Yahweh

is gracious

he becomes

Shadrach

they take

Mishael

the name

who means

who is

like

God

and they

changed

his name

to

Meshach

they take

Azariah

God

helps

Elohim

helps

and they

change

his name

to Abednego

now

the names

that they're

given

we don't

know

our language

our translators

have a hard

time explaining

fully

what these

Babylonian

names mean

there's different

theories of

exactly what

they mean

but here's

what we

do know

all of

their pagan

names

give honor

to the

pagan gods

of the

Babylonians

they say

we want to

take

at your

core

who you

are

is wired

to live

for your

God

and we

want to

change you

to the

very

fiber

of your

being

of who

you are

so that

when you

hear your

name

you do

not

think

my

God

is my

judge

but when

you hear

your name

you think

of the

praise

of the

pagan

worship

of this

world

the plan

of the

Babylonians

is the

plan

of Satan

today

if I

can get

my

hand

on you

all

I

need

you

to

do

is

compromise

is

compromise

all I

need you

to do

is

waiver

and I'll

begin

to

discredit

so the