Transcription
Why don't you take your Bibles and go to the book of Daniel? And as we look at the book, I really have three things in mind tonight.
The first one is to talk about the man and the writings and give a little background material, which I normally tell students to put on the front flap of their of their Bible under Daniel to give them a little background. The second part is really basically from chapters 1 through six, there's a story of becoming a light in a dark place. And then 7-2 unfolds a series of prophecies. Uh from 8 through 12, they go back into the Hebrew language. So they're very much about God's future for Israel. This is a bilingual book. From 1 to 24 is in Aramaic. That I mean in Hebrew, I'm sorry. Then it goes to Aramaic from 24, middle of 24 all the way to chapter 7. Chapter 8 through 12 goes back to Hebrew. So you have Hebrew in the beginning, then Aramaic, and then Hebrew. And that should tell you something. The Aramaic section is the lingua franca of the people that are living at that time, the gentile world. So that section is going to be like a gospel tract.
So the book is roughly divided into two parts. The first six chapters will be biographical materials and the story that plays out with Daniel and his friends being carted off to pagan university and then 7 through 12 will unfold a series of visions. It doesn't mean there are no stories in 7-12 and it doesn't mean there are no visions in 1-6 because the end of chapter 2 clearly does have a vision in it. But generally you can put those two boxes on it.
Now just a few moments um uh to just spent on the man before we look at the first section which is the biographical section. Daniel means God is my judge and he was born in Erit Israel in the land of Israel. And he was born during probably during the reforms of King Josiah. And you remember Josiah worked hard as a young person. He had a great sense of righteousness having been brought up well and then discovered the word and put more practicality into the morality and began to do some incredible things in the kingdom. But we know archaeologically that during the period of Josiah though they took down those high places in the public square that the the small household gods the teraphim show up on the archaeological level of Josiah in uh in incredible amounts meaning people stopped doing the public paganism but privately they were still doing it.
Now he's born into a time when he likes the king. Josiah, remember, was a guy who got caught up in a conflict he didn't belong in. And he ends up being bumped off by the Egyptian pharaoh Neco. In all of the period of the divided kingdom, he's the only one that goes out there and picks a fight with an Egyptian that he can't win. Neco was on his way to fight the battle of Carchemish. And Neco wasn't going to win. But on the way, at least uh he had uh strength enough to take on the Judean king.
Daniel comes chapter 1 verse 3 from an aristocratic family. He um this aristocratic family is no doubt part of the entourage of Josiah. Do you remember that after Josiah's death there was a man by the name of Jehoiakim or Jehoiakim who was um his name means Yahweh has held uh he's also called Shalom in in the Bible but uh he was proclaimed king. And it's interesting because he is deposed after a while and in his place there is another one that is put on the uh on the throne. And it's interesting because Eliakim is put in his place and he names himself Jehoiakim. Now what's interesting about that is that means the one Yahweh has set up but actually it's the one Pharaoh has set up. So it's a little bit of a joke in the background of who actually put him on the throne. uh Jehoiakim would reigned for 11 years and uh during that time he had a very very difficult time in his reign.
Now there were Jewish exiles that were taken to Babylon in three different periods. Remember the first group goes out with Daniel in about 606. The second group in 597, the third group 586 when the temple is destroyed. So there's three waves of people that made their way out to Babylon. And Daniel's in the first wave. Daniel is one of the first exiles to be taken captive. And you can see that the the time of Daniel meant that they actually had a reasonably good experience. If you were from an upper crust and you were from a wealthy and well-to-do family and you were part of the administration or from administrative families, you may find yourself in Babylon learning at pagan university. So the when the curtain rises in chapter one, there are men who are carted off to a pagan university and they're given the opportunity to learn paganism from their Jewish background. Kids from Judea, kosher kids, never knew they'd be learning some of the stuff that they would see fly by the desk in the couple of years that they were going to be in pagan U.
God honored Daniel. He had an incredible understanding. He was a person who was gifted with dreams and visions and interpretation of dreams and his name was rather effectively and quickly changed to Belteshazzar in Daniel 1:7 meaning may Bel protect his life. But what's interesting is that in the story of Daniel a number of times the God of the Bible will protect the life of Daniel. The God of the Bible will protect the other men who were in fact pagans and his name will be May Bel protect us. But um nevertheless, you're supposed to smile a little bit when you read about some of the background. Daniel was used to foretell the end of the Babylonian kingdom. He was used to tell about the rise of the Medes and the Persians, which had not yet happened when he was carted off into Babylon. That wouldn't happen for some time. And he served as one of three presidents after the Medo-Persians came in.
So, I'm going to do a little bit of background with you as to who's ruling because Daniel is a bit of a frustrating book in some ways because it's not chronological. It's thematic. Now, some of you are going to be fine with thematic. I like chronological. I like the beginning of the story, the meat of the story, the end of the story. But lots of people like to gather the theme and go like that with the timeline. And Daniel, as it's put together in our Bible, is like that. Daniel was serving God over 80 years of his life. He was fearlessly worshiping God and that's it's toward the end of his life that he's still being promoted to a key spot as an upper president over a great vast realm. His name appears in apart from the book of Daniel, it appears in the book of Ezekiel chapter 14 and it also by the way that references that he's a righteous man. It also appears in Matthew and Mark with reference to end time prophecy. So you see Daniel showing up later on in the Bible.
One of the uniquenesses of Daniel as a book of the Hebrew scriptures is that uh because of the visions and the visions of the archangel Michael and and the angel Gabriel and and and what appears to me to be a pre-incarnate vision of Christ himself. It looks to me like Daniel has like a a Zechariah-like look behind the curtain of the spiritual world. Very very few have that. It's the only book of the Hebrew scriptures that uses the term Messiah. And by the way, the only book in the New Testament that uses uh that called Christ Messiah specifically was the book of John, the Gospel of John in John chapter 1 and John chapter 4.
So there's another thing about this book that I just I just mentioned to you before we dive into the book and that is that he refers to something called the desolation of the sanctuary um the temple on four different occasions he refers to it and each time it's a specific event. So for instance when Nebuchadnezzar desecrated the temple that was one of them when Antiochus Epiphanes during the period of the 2nd century BC came through that was another one and he'll cite that one when Titus comes through and destroys the temple that appears to be what's in chapter 9 26 and then even in 9:27 the coming of one the antichrist who will come and desecrate the temple as well.
So, it appears to me that if you were going to summarize Daniel in the book, you would see a guy who was characterized by three things: purpose, prayer, and prophecy. And they're all P's because I'm a preacher. At any rate, um, one of the things about his prayer, I I have to tell you, you're missing something in the book if you miss his prayer. Daniel's prayer like in chapter 9:3-19 ranks up there in my mind with Ezra's prayer in Ezra 9 or Nehemiah's prayer in Nehemiah 1. It's one of the great prayers of the Bible. I I would I would also toss in there first Kings 8 and Solomon at the dedication of the temple. So you have you have these incredible prayers that show a lot about where a guy is in his walk and what is spiritually going on inside of him.
Okay. Now, the important thing is the book because it's not chronological can get you very frustrated. There are essentially four great rulers that are in the book that are mentioned, but they're not in any kind of order. So, they pop in and pop out. So, I just want to make a note that Nebuchadnezzar, who is the uh who is the beginner in the book in terms of the king of Babylon, um is the one who takes him into captivity. And during chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4, Nebuchadnezzar is your background player. They're not in order, the stories, but nevertheless, they're grouped all under stuff that happened early on when I was still young under the king of of Nebuchadnezzar. Okay.
After Nebuchadnezzar, there is a time when Belshazzar is not the ruler. In the book, he's the king. What he actually is is a co-regent prince of Nabonidus, his father. Nabonidus takes the throne after Nebuchadnezzar and what happens is he goes off on a spiritual pilgrimage and leaves his son in charge as a co-regent and as a result there are some important things going on in the background like uh the the chapter 7, chapter 8, chapter 5 is the end, the handwriting of the wall which is Belshazzar having a great feast and finding out why he should have been more conservative like his dad who went off in pilgrimage at any rate u so you have Belshazzar.
The third guy that comes in is after Cyrus the Medo-Persian invasion. So, so there's been an invasion right down here in 539. And after after Cyrus comes in, there's a fellow by the name of Darius who shows up and looks like he's king. He's not the king. Cyrus is the king. But Cyrus isn't there much because he's off on campaigns. And as a result, Darius is the governor of Babylon and he represents with the signet ring of the king. So Daniel just in the book calls him king after that. And so during that time you'll have the 70 weeks uh in in uh chapter 9, chapters uh 11 and 12 and Daniel in the lion's den is all during this period of time and then at the very end late in his life Daniel is now 70s, 80s uh and Cyrus actually shows up and the last place you should be reading in the book to see what the end of Daniel's life is like is chapter 10. There's 12 chapters and chapter 10 is actually the last one. But the important thing for us is that you understand that these rulers show up in the book and you really don't get a sense of who's who. So I just wanted you to kind of have a taste of that.
Now, all that to say this, Daniel spends time through a whole series of different rulers and even two major different powers, Babylon and then Medo-Persia. And Daniel highlights being a reliable witness all the way through. It's one thing to write a post and it go viral and you make a great impression for Jesus. It's another thing to to actually carry on a testimony for 70 or 80 years. And especially when you grew up in the wrong place and especially when your education was entirely pagan. So you need to get a sense. I guess what I'm saying is godliness is never accidental ever. There's a there's a whole work that goes on in God's heart with Daniel. And I'm so blessed to be able to open up to Daniel chapter 1.
Now, before I go on, let me just say a word or two about the criticism of Daniel. Daniel chapter 9 gives a very careful messianic prophecy. Now, that careful messianic prophecy that was widely thought by critical scholars to have come after the time of Jesus until the Dead Sea Scrolls found a hot copy from 150 years before Jesus. All of the sudden, we have all this attack on the authorship of Daniel. Anything that's clear about what God is going to do and can be shown to be predictive prophecy will get pounded on by an unbelieving world. They will find a thousand reasons not to read the simplest words and read them as they are.
So there are common objections. For instance, you'll hear some uh scholars will say, "Well, Daniel's not in the prophets, it's in the writings, so you shouldn't consider it prophecy." which is kind of dumb because you know Samuel's a historical book but it's in the prophet section. That doesn't mean he can't tell history. I often read that the apocryphal lists failed to include Daniel as an Old Testament character and somehow that meant he wasn't around. Um the failure of somebody to be included on a list doesn't mean they weren't born. Let's all hope that that's the case. Okay. Um and and let me say this. There's some things that are written in the book that are sometimes difficult to understand. For instance, there's a place in Daniel 3 where he mentions three Greek words before the Greeks were a really big thing. And so people go, see there it is, Greek words. But I would call to your attention that in Daniel 3:5, all three Greek words were musical instruments. And Babylon imported both musicians and musicians from all over the known world. So, three words does not a case make, I guess, is the way I would say it. The other thing is that I from time to time get people who say, "Well, Daniel is so full of like angry and and the spiritual world that it's it's it's out of character for a Jewish writing." And I would say, "See Genesis." Okay, the beginning of the story is that God is in heaven and makes the earth and then he walks on it. What's your problem? So, I would suggest it's not out of character, that it fits it well.
All right. If you take your Bible, there's some stories I'm going to tell quicker than others because I want to focus on some part of it that has to do with the prophetic narrative. But in chapter one, if I was cutting this down, I would call this four nice guys go to pagan U. Okay? And essentially it's four young men find themselves far from home stranded on a campus in filled with pagan parties and godless professors and they want to make a difference and they want to affect the nation and they pull it off. How did that happen? And that's really what he's designing his his idea to tell you in chapter one.
Look closely at chapter one. And in the very beginning, the very first part of the narrative, I picked up three words at the beginning of verse two. The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand. I noticed that the very first thing that these young men did was they ascribed their circumstances to God's hand. That if you're going to make a difference in the world, you got to stop seeing yourself as a victim and start seeing yourself as being used by God where you are, whether it's where you intended to be or not. So, here are the axioms. Axiom number one, life is not in my control. Axiom number two, life is never out of God's control. Amen. So, so as a result, instead of looking at the defeat and the dragging off from Jerusalem to Babylon as some kind of stinging defeat, Daniel and the boys that were with him looked at it as God at work. And when they fit into that, they were able to then use that as a platform.
In verses 3 through 7 in chapter 1, I see what they did. Ashpenaz is the man who's in charge of making sure that they eat right. He comes in and gives them food that is not edible for a Jew. It's good, but it's not for Jews. They have a problem now. And as a result, they they have to try and learn how to negotiate and navigate well in a pagan world. And what I see them doing is they're good-looking. In verse four, they're intelligent. And in verse five, they get their appointed ration. And in verse six, the they're all named and the commander of the official comes together and he tells them what they're going to do. Now, verse 6 is a verse that you should mark off in your text because among the the sons of Judah were Daniel, God is my judge. Hananiah, the Lord has been gracious. Mishael, the one who comes from the Lord, and Azariah or Azariah, the Lord is my helper. And notice what they do right away. They change their names. So Daniel becomes Belteshazzar, the secret of their god Bel. And Hananiah becomes Shadrach, the uh the inspiration of the sun god. Uh Mishael becomes Meshach, he who belongs to the goddess Shishak. And Azariah becomes Abednego, the servant of Nebo, the morning star. And I would just make a note in your mind, if not in your Bible, that the world cannot and does not want even the symbolism of real belief. It's offensive to them. So, expect the birth of Jesus to be overtaken by a guy in a red suit and trees. Expect the cross of Jesus Christ to be subjected to chocolate bunnies because they're not going to let that stand. I would also tell you that you are not significantly weakened by the loss of symbol. Uh Christians get all worried about the loss of symbol. But here's the truth. Everything I'm reading about these young boys were that they were given pagan names of pagan gods, but they lived like they walked for the Hebrew God. They were able to pull it off without the symbols. So getting lost in the symbols is a mistake.
And in chapter one, here's what I saw. Look at verse eight very quickly. If you keep the true goal of your life at the center of your decision-making and stand for God with a positive voice despite the fact that others will try to get you not to, you will make an effect on them. I think what's interesting is that that that if our goal is to honor God and we keep all of our decision-making of our behaviors sifted through that goal, what we'll find is that we have an impact on the culture much more than the culture has an impact on us. Let me say it this way. It's not the strength of the culture that's the problem. It's the weakness of the believer. Now, don't get self-centered and believe you can create success on your own. That's why in Daniel 1:9, it says that God granted Daniel favor. See, again, this is God at work. God on the move. This isn't how intelligent we are and how we put together a new program and reached our neighborhood. This is God at work.
The other thing I would say is as you get late in the narrative of chapter 1, verses 17, 18, 19, you know what I see? As for these four youths, verse 17 says, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom. Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. Here, here's what I think. When I look at the scriptures, I see that they chose time with positive people and positive things and learned during the process. They didn't show up at pagan university because they had no choice to be there and decide, you know what we're going to do? Boycott and dig in. We're going to let those people know that this paganism, it's not working out for us. You're we're going to bring placards and get t-shirts. We're going to make sure they they quietly learned what they could in the circumstance they were in. And what I think was interesting is that they were able to think big thoughts and relish small pleasures and and live life among people and have an impact.
Go toward the end of chapter uh one. You see in verse 20 and 21 that it simply says, "As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about the king consulted them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm." Is it because they worked so hard studying? Yes. But not only that, it was also because from the very beginning in verse two, it said God brought them there. They understood that they were there as university students and then eventually as civil servants, but they were actually servants of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, cleverly disguised as civil servants of Babylon.
Now, when you get to chapter two, I want you to see that there's a problem that develops very quickly. Chapter 2, by the way, you can cut in half. The first half of the chapter from say verses one to oh about 18 are all about a problem. The problem is insomnia. The problem is the king is interrupted by God. This isn't happenstance or circumstance. God wanted to communicate to a man and chose the middle of the night to do it. But I want you to walk into the room and I want you to appreciate that Daniel's life was imperiled because the king was in a bad mood because he didn't get enough sleep because he had a dream and he couldn't figure it out and he didn't trust anybody. The first half of chapter 2 is that the second half is actually the dream itself and what God wanted to say.
Take a look at the very beginning in verse one and you'll see that that there was a moment of trouble that allowed God to build a platform for one of his chief ways of uncovering truth. Sometimes trouble is God's megaphone so that he's able to say something we never would hear in peace and prosperity. And so it says in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar that Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and the spirit was troubled and sleep sleep left him. He couldn't sleep. And when you're the ruler of the world and you can't sleep and you're grumpy, it's probably not good for anybody.
Now, the interesting thing is that when an unbeliever gets stuck in a situation that he cannot find a way through, he will try all of the normal ways he grabs at the straws of the world to come up with an answer. So, in verse two, he's going to call together these the magicians. Horot is the word for horoscope readers. He's going to call conjurers. Ashaf is actually the word for necromancer or exorcist. He's going to call the sorcerers and and meashim is actually the word for mutterers, people who say they have direct access to the spirit world. He got Chaldeans. These are just wise degreed people with wisdom. And so he put them all together and he said, "All right, boys. Here's what I need you to do. Tell me what my dream was. Tell me the tell me the meaning." And they said, 'Well, you tell us what the dream was and then we'll tell you what the meaning is. But the problem is he knew that was not confirmable. So after he used what an unbeliever has in an unbelieving world to come up with an answer, he didn't actually believe that his answers were real answers. He believed that his own guys on his own payroll were blowing smoke at him. And so he set it up. And in verse three, he said, "I had a dream. My spirit is anxious. You're going to tell me what that dream is. And between three and nine, he says, "You have agreed in verse 9, together to speak lying and corrupt words before me." So, let's just say there's not a real atmosphere of trust between him and his list of advisors.
As you know the story very well, they go out to to slay those who are part of this team of wise men. But the problem is the experts had no way to solve the problem. When they get to Daniel, Daniel is for the first time understanding what the problem is. In 2:10 the Chaldeans were the wisest. They said, "There's not a man on earth who could declare this matter to the king." And they were dead right. You got to give them credit because the answer wasn't going to come from earth. It was going to have to come from somewhere else. And what's interesting is in verse 11, they say, "No one else who could declare it to the king except gods." and they might be wrong on the number, but at least they got the direction right. So, they looked around and that didn't help. They looked inside and that didn't help. And then they looked up and realized they didn't have a connection. These guys who said, "We can see into the cosmos. We can see into the dead. We can see into the spirit world until you give them something where it's verifiable and then they suddenly can't see anything anywhere and nobody can expect them to."
I think in 2:12 through 16 problems create a platform for a clear clear presentation of God's ability to fix life. And so it's interesting verse 16 says Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him some time. And and the next thing that happens is that he informs his friends in 2:17 and they hold a prayer meeting because problems often draw believers together. Problems often get us to our knees. That's where we're tallest. That's where we're strongest. And down in verse two, uh verse uh 19, it says, "The mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision." What's interesting to me is that immediately Daniel went into a time of worship. Now, I think that part of that was because he was expecting to die. I think that when your life is saved over something, you say, "Oh, thank God." But at the same time, let's just be open to the idea that Daniel recognized that everything that was happening in his life from chapter 1 verse two onward, God brought us here. God defeated us. God put us in pagan U. God has a word for us. There's a constant underlying theme. Becoming a light in a dark place requires that I understand God is at work and my life is his instrument or tool to work through. When I see myself as an instrument of God, then I'm able to actually get uh further along.
Now, chapter 2 gives a simple vision. And the simple vision that is laid out, if you looked at the vision uh in chapter 2, you would see that the king had a dream. And the dream was of a four-part statue, a statue with a head of gold and uh chest and arms of silver and belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron. And down at the feet there was iron mixed with clay. And then out of the side of the vision comes a rock that smashes all of the uh the the the statue and breaks it down and that becomes a mountain and takes over the earth. I mean that's the skinny on the whole thing. What does it mean? Well, what's interesting is in 36 to 38 of chapter 2, it says that the head of gold was Nebuchadnezzar. And in 39 it says that after that there would be a second kingdom that was a divided kingdom, Medo-Persia. And then after that there would be yet another kingdom that was going to be very swift but not worth it quite as much. And that would be the third kingdom in 39. And then in verse 40 there would be an iron kingdom, a fourth kingdom, and it would be incredibly powerful. And then in the feet there would be an iron and clay mixed kingdom somewhat like the fourth kingdom. Mark your kingdoms then as Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian followed by Medo-Persian followed by Greek followed by Roman followed by something like Roman but not Roman sort of Roman-ish we call it and then when you get to chapter three he moves from that vision and it's simple God's just simply laying out this is what the big frame is in chapter three there is a a problem that comes up that helps you to understand exactly what it is God wants to do in these.
Then verse one, Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold. Why? Because people only hear pieces of what you tell them. There was a great message about a head of gold on a vision and the whole idea was that the kingdoms of this world will be smashed by the one who comes as Messiah and his kingdom will reign. But that's not what Nebuchadnezzar got out of chapter 2. What he got out of chapter two was, I ought to build a big statue of me. And so he did. And as a result, all of chapter three is that he sets up a statue and a band and he and all of the Chaldeans are jealous of the Judean boys and they set them up. They set them up so that if there is a a command and the conditions to bow down before this image and anybody's caught not bowing down before the image, they're going to be cast into a fiery furnace.
Now, what's interesting is the boys are there. Daniel's apparently not there. He's off on a trip somewhere. And these men faced the same challenge we all face in chapter 3. And that is, do you put God above yourself so that God can tell his story through your life? What was the point of chapter 3? Very simple. Jesus wanted a meeting. He just chose a conference room inside of a fiery furnace to do it. And so in order to have the meeting with them in the fiery furnace, they had to get thrown into the fiery furnace. They didn't do anything extraordinary. They did what God had always said to do. Don't bow down to a pagan image. Don't do it. All of the sudden, they were good, law-abiding citizens. Watch this. And what happened is the law moved to put them outside the law. Watch this because we're living in it now. Here's the law. We're law-abiding citizens teaching our children to keep keep and do what is right under civil law. Then they move the law and we're on the outside. The redefinition of everything around us is moving the laws and making us look like we're changing. We're not changing. That's exactly what happened in this chapter.
I want to take you quickly to chapter 4 because in chapter 4 there is something that happens to uh it's once again it's a dream sequence kind of place and it starts off with the testimony of Nebuchadnezzar who says that he has this great story to tell to uh 4:1 to all peoples all nations 4:4 I Nebuchadnezzar was at ease in my house verse 5 I saw a dream it was fearful I gave orders uh verse uh 6 to bring into my presence all the wise men. Verse 7, they couldn't tell me the interpretation. Daniel came in before me.
Now, if you look at the story, this is Daniel's opportunity to speak truth to power. It's a tough opportunity because the power is about to get chopped down and become a lunatic. The tree was Nebuchadnezzar in his dream. And when Daniel presented it, Daniel made it very, very clear to him. There are two worlds, a physical one and a spiritual one. God is trying to communicate something to you. And by the way, I know you were having a comfortable life, but God wanted to interrupt your programming to give you a special bulletin. You're about to get lycanthropy and act like an animal. You're going to have a period of time where you're going to be out chewing grass and you're going to have dreadlocks and long fingernails. Today he could be popular and maybe have a band, but back then it was not a thing. So, here's the thing. Daniel steps in and you get to chapter 4:11-18 and and he's comes and and Nebuchadnezzar says, um, none of the wise men are able to tell me the interpretation, but you're able. Do you see it? Daniel has a long-term reputation and testimony, and on that is placed the ability to do this.
Now, what I was interested in is verse 19. Daniel was appalled to tell Nebuchadnezzar the truth. You know why? Because even though Nebuchadnezzar had put him into bondage and brought him into Babylon, he had learned over time to pray for the man, to care for the man. And out of sincere caring, he found it very, very difficult to say things about him that weren't good. I think it's interesting that Daniel in verses 20, 21, 22, he praises Nebuchadnezzar. He says nice things about the guy. I think that Daniel spoke with a broken heart. And when he said, "Chop down the tree in verse 23 and yet leave the stump in its root in the ground," he has to tell him that that's going to be you. You're going to be the lunatic. You're going to be drenched with the dew of heaven eating grass in the field. In verse 25, Nebuchadnezzar and all of that is going to happen because you need to understand in verse 25, the most high rules in the kingdom of men. He gives it to whomsoever he will. You're going to have to be humbled. Now, I don't know if you've ever tried to speak truth to power, but telling them to get humble is not a thing. It's not actually an easy thing to do. And so, Daniel is tested. That first block then gives us sort of the background with Nebuchadnezzar.
I want to move on now. And when you get to Daniel chapter 5, this is out of sequence, but it's an important time. By this time, Belshazzar is on the throne. And in fact, it's Belshazzar at the end of his time on the throne as is demonstrated in chapter 5. And if you look very closely, Belshazzar has a feast. They're having a great time in verse chapter 5:4. They're drinking wine, praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. And they're acting in a way that is incredibly naive. By the way, Nabonidus at the time he was having this was out surrounding the city with a large army trying to fight off Cyrus. You would think if your army was fighting a battle, you wouldn't be inside throwing a wild party. You would think, but that's not what Belshazzar was doing.
What I want you to notice about chapter 5, if you make any note in chapter 5 at all, is this. This is very late in Daniel's life. He's an old man. He's coming to the end of his time. And he comes out and very carefully presents propriety, honesty, and integrity. When God interrupts and writes on the wall, meaning mene mene tekel upharsin, numbered, numbered, weighed and divided. Belshazzar, I don't know how to tell you this, but you're done. And this is going to be the end of an era in chapter 5, but it's also going to be a very important opportunity for Daniel as an aged man to come out and stand and stand for the truth yet again.
Chapter 6, you know the story as the as Daniel in the lion's den. I need not say much about it except for to say that your ability to be positive has more to do with your life choices than your circumstances. And Daniel gets up and decides that he's going to show show the discipline of his life over the disorder around him. He does what he should have done and he doesn't do what he shouldn't do. So he has the habit, the delightful path of discipline to pray daily. Again, the law gets moved and suddenly praying daily is a problem. And once again, the same age-old trick of the enemy is to get him in trouble. Daniel chooses to do exactly what he normally does. And what I think is interesting about Daniel is that when he deals with and when God uh uses the lion's den and vindicates him, he doesn't come out and give a list to the king for who was against him and get them all bumped off. You know, when people set me up, I'm not inclined to feel really good about them. But Daniel doesn't take the time to use that against the other men. And again, that's the end of the biographical section in Daniel 1-6.
Very quickly, we can look at some of the prophetic section. And it's not nearly as difficult as some would have you believe. In chapter 7, there is the first year of Belshazzar. So, it's up here. and Belshazzar uh the first year of Belshazzar and there's a a vision and it's Daniel's vision. He says Daniel had a dream and he wrote the substance of the dream down and he said essentially that there were some elements in the vision. He said there were four beasts and each one of them he gives a description. One like a lion, one with wings with wings of an eagle uh with one wing tore off lifted to the ground. Uh, one stood on feet like a human being, a second beast like a bear, a third beast, and he like a leopard, and a fourth beast is terrifying and frightening, and he doesn't really know what it is. So, he has this lion, this bear, this leopard, and then this whatever it is that's scary. Okay, I don't know what it is, but if you see one, run is is really the idea. So, and and then he goes through and in verses 17 through 25, he goes on and he starts to explain to you what that is. He goes back and sees four kingdoms. One of them will be a lion with wings. One of them will be a bear, one a leopard. What's interesting is that the bear is uneven. He's standing up like this, uneven. So you have again the Babylonian symbol of the lion with the wings. And then you have this uneven bear which is Medo-Persia, the Medes and the Persians. And then you'll have the leopard that will be uh Greece. And finally the terrible beast which is Rome and all that comes Roman-like after him. I keep saying that, but I got to tell you, if you were an ancient person and you had the ability to beam in and out of different time periods and you beamed into ancient Greece and looked at the buildings and then beamed into ancient Rome and looked at the buildings and then beamed into Washington DC and looked at the buildings, you'd see the same thing. When did the Roman world really end? Well, it really didn't. We call ourselves a republic and have a Senate. Many of the accoutrements of Rome are still a part of our life. And it's not only our life. All over the West, that's true. Buildings all over Europe also look like those same Greek revivalist realism.
So, here's the thing. There's a kingdom of a lion with wings, and that's Babylon. There's a kingdom of a tilted bear with three ribs hanging out of his mouth, and and that of course is is going to be Medo-Persia. There's a king with that's a leopard with four heads and four wings. You remember that the Greeks came in and they had four generals. When Alexander died, it broke up into four uh parts and then there was a terrible monster that we can't describe. But that's actually not the point of this entire thing. He saw at that point in 7:9, he saw thrones set in place and one that looked like the ancient of days took his seat. And if you read 7:9 to 7:14, you read that there's a judge of all things. He's clothed. He's pure. He's white. His hair is white. The throne is a blaze with a smelter's fire. The throne is not stationary. It moves around. A flow of fire comes out. Thousands upon thousands attend him. And all of this is going on. And to understand, you have to look at what he says. He says, "As I saw it, something overwhelmed me." Daniel doesn't end up seeing four kings and four kingdoms and one that is this great incredible God. He doesn't feel good about it. In fact, at the end of it in 7:28, it says, "This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled." And you go, "Why?" Because what he said was, "God will settle all things. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. But it's going to take a while. There's going to be a lot of wrong on the way to getting right." And so he was troubled by it. And chapter 7 leaves you hanging. By the way, you run your leg of the race knowing that you're just running a leg of the race, but it's his race. The race is his, the story is his, and the glory is his.
And so you get to chapter 8. And in chapter 8, it's another vision. This is the third year of Belshazzar. And Daniel has another vision subsequent to the first one in verse one. And he tells you the description of the vision in verses 2 through uh 14 along with the interpretation in 15 to 24. So you got the vision 2-4. 15 to 24 you got the interpretation. And and just for time's sake let me just say that in 8:3 and 4 he saw a ram with two horns. One horn was higher than the other. And when he looked at it, he saw a time when the that that ram with two horns that obviously has to do with a split kingdom is taken over by a buck goat that followed the ram with two horns. So you have Medo-Persia followed by Greece. And he zeros in on this. And out of it, there's something else that develops. He shows a pattern that begins to develop in human history, an anti-Jewish pattern, an anti-Semitic pattern. And it starts with one who came in 8:9 and he went forth as a small horn and grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the beautiful land, which of course was the land he's from. And he talks about this one who's Antiochus IV, this one who will come as a Greek ruler. The reason I know that is if you take apart the actual phraseology, he will tell you each of the kingdoms and out of the kingdoms they'll be divided in four and after the Greek kingdoms divided in four there'll be one who rises up and becomes boastful and goes into the temple and shuts it down and the abomination of desolation. He makes it clear who he's talking about. And then he says in 8:26, the vision of evenings and mornings which has been told is true. Keep the vision secret. It pertains to many days in the future. And Daniel finishes, I was exhausted. I was sick. I was astounded at the vision. See, Daniel keeps looking at it and says, "I know that God is at work, but I was kind of hoping this thing would we we would come back to the land and that would be the great messianic kingdom." But no, there's a lot of things that have to happen first.
Chapter nine is in two pieces. The first half of chapter nine relates specifically to the character of Daniel and how he uh openly showed some character traits of discipline, of personalization, of prayer. And what happened was essentially this Daniel, I love this, in chapter 9:2 was reading Jeremiah. He was reading the word of God, having been sent over from Jeremiah, a contemporary prophet from Jerusalem who sent letters with the exiles. And he was reading that there was supposed to be 70 years that they would be in exile. The problem was it was coming up on 68 years and nobody was packing. So Daniel fell on his face and he began crying out to God. God opened up and showed him through the end of chapter nine much more than he ever asked for. At the end of chapter nine, he says, "I'll tell you what. I'm going to tell you more than what you asked for. I'm going to help you to understand that 77s have been determined for your people." If you have a Bible with you, take a look at 9:26. This is probably one of the most important visions in all of the actually 9:24 in all of the Hebrew scriptures. 77s have been decreed for your people. Remember Jews told stories of time in seven blocks and in 49 blocks with a Jubilee year on the 50th. Some of you know in the Apocrypha the book of Jubilees. It was somebody during the intertestamental period that went back and rewrote from Adam onward the story of the Bible in seven-year blocks. It is a thing for Jews to discuss.
In sevens. And so it says that 77s have been decreed and at the end of that there'll be an end of sin in verse 24. Everlasting righteousness will be there. And then he starts the clock and sets it up. He says in 9:26 that after 62 weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. He says there's going to be seven weeks after the original call to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild plus 62 weeks. Then Messiah is going to come. And if you do the math, you'll find out something. If you do the math here and you take 360-day years and you take the 69 years, 400, 69 * 7, 483 years and times 360 days, you'll come up with 173,880 days. If you start the clock when Nehemiah 1 says that the walls and moes were broken down and had to be rebuilt, that's March 14th of 445 BC. If you go 173,880 days later, that'll put you between the year 30 and 33 on the Mount of Olives as Jesus is coming down. He says Messiah is going to come. He's going to be cut off. He's going to have nothing. And then after that, the prince that will come will come and break down the sanctuary. So, a very clear indication of Messiah's coming before the Roman destruction of the temple during the time that the records of that temple still exist. And the timing of that was worked out right to the point that when Luke 19 Jesus showed up, he said, "Look, I told you 173,880 days ago I was coming. Why aren't you ready?" And it was sad to him.
In chapter 10, I would tell you this. There is a very important word in chapter 10. Go through Daniel having a vision. This is admittedly the final vision. I'm I'm going to come back and talk about these, but in the chronology of the book, it's at the end of the book. 10 should be the last chapter. And I want you to see that in chapter 10, it says he's in the third year of Cyrus of Persia. And it's revealed to him whose name is Beltazar that there was a great conflict. He understood the message. And then it says, "I didn't eat any tasty food. I didn't put any ointment on my body. No deodorant. I didn't wash. I was so upset by this." And then I saw in verse five a magnificent person. "I lifted up my eyes and there was a man dressed in linen whose waist was girded with a belt of pure gold of Ufas. He has the look of Leviticus 16, the look of Revelation 1, somebody who would come who is dressed in a priestly garb." And he looks at this one and their face shines and their eyes blaze and their arms and feet appear to be like like brass and and the voice sounds like rushing water and he sees this incredible thing. And then in verse seven, Daniel noted that the response of the servant of God, here's what he said. "I Daniel alone saw the vision while the men who were with me did not see the vision. Nevertheless, a great dread fell on them and they ran away to hide themselves." So in the middle of this, he says, "I turned a power. I became weak in the knees. I was oh." And then he said to me in verse 11, "Daniel, you're a man of high esteem. Understand the words I'm about to tell you. For I have now been sent to you." And when he had spoken this word, I stood there trembling.
Now, here's the critical part of chapter 10 that you don't want to miss. It's at between 12 and 13. He said, "You know, don't be afraid, Daniel, but from the first days you set your heart on understanding this and humbling yourself before God, your words were heard. I came in response to the words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days. Then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I had been left there with the kings of Persia." Here's the thing that chapter 10 will tell you more than anything else. The book closed with this idea. There's a battle going on and you can't see it, but it's very much real. It is. We are not wrestling against flesh and blood. We're wrestling against principalities. And even the angels are fighting right now in a battle. And I know for some of you, you're going to go, "But wait, I thought when God speaks, it's over." Yes, but this is what he has decreed. This battle that is going on in the heavenlies, reflected in a fallen world, reflected in the evils of our world that have not yet been judged, is God's plan. And I got to tell you, that is unsettling. It made Daniel weak in the knees. You know why? Because we like to think of our side as being the one that just speaks and everybody runs. Now, whether or not that visitor is Messiah himself, a pre-incarnate vision of Christ or not can be debated. But I can tell you this, it bothers me that he he wasn't able to just do what he wanted to do. At the same time, the text stands supreme. And what it says is that the battle is ongoing.
Okay, let's just finish up the book by saying that the last issues in the book are the conflict that was coming in chapters 11 and 12. And in 11 and 12, it's kind of a very quick look. And I did something to save myself time so that I would be able to do in three minutes what otherwise would take a half an hour. I gave you all the parts of the vision already broke down. Um in chapter 9 24-27 the big frame is there's going to be an announcement to go back to Jerusalem. You're going to be 173,880 days until Messiah. Messiah is going to be cut off. The city's going to be destroyed. And that's the big frame. But in chapter 11, he goes on with a more close analysis of it and he says, "I want you to know something. The immediate future that is upon you is the Median kingdom that is about to come in and to change your life." Now, what's important for us is that he this is the time of Das the me and he says, "I arose to be an encouragement and a protection for him and now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings are going to arise in Persia." So he says, "Das, I want you to know that you're a governor and I want you to know that Cyrus is a king, but there's going to be other kings after him. So you're the the the the Mes are not going to be finished here. There's going to be others." And he says beyond that, it says then there's one that will become strong through his riches. A fourth will gain far more riches than all of them as soon as he becomes strong through his riches. So he sort of gives you a little look forward and says, "Your kingdom is going to get strong, strong, strong until one day a buck goat is going to clean the clock of your kingdom. It's not going to happen anytime soon. You got a couple of kings left. So relax." But he says in 11:2, "The realm of Greece will come up against you and that king will rise. He'll have great authority. He'll do as he pleases. But as soon as he's risen, read Alexander the Great. He his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out in four points of the compass. Those are the diodhe or the four generals of the Greeks. And in verses 5 through 20, chapter 11 gives you a painful telling of what's going to happen during the battles of the Greeks. This is a period in which these generals will play against each other to try and get power. All of this is prophecy for Daniel, history for you. And it's striking how clear that history is. You could look at each line of this. I find chapter 11 of Daniel to be one of the hardest chapters in the Bible to preach. But it is painfully clear. I could take you uh line by line through this. And here's what I want you to understand. Then he says after these wars, this pattern of hatred that's rising against the Jewish people will show up in one of these rulers, a Seucid ruler by the name of Antiochus IV. And you'll see that pattern, but he doesn't finish there. I want you to go to 11:36 for a minute because then he says that same energizing spirit exists well after the time of Antiochus. It says, "The king will do as he pleases. He'll exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the god of gods and he will prosper until the indignation is finished for which is decreed will be done. He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers nor the desire of women. He will show no regard for no other god. He will magnify himself as god, but instead he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know. He will honor with gold and silver and costly stones and treasures. He's going to build up a military machine and he's going to be an arrogant guy who who promotes himself as the ultimate in all things. And he says, when you see that destroyer rising, you're going to see a very clear hand of the enemy energizing him. If you take the time to read all of this, you'll see that this one sure does give the sense of this man of sin that will be talked about in uh the the Thessalonian letters."
The final chapter is chapter 12 and he says finally we will be free. Finally things will be done. Look at 12:1. At that time, Michael, who characteristically is the one who stands for Israel, the great prince, stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise, and there will be a time of distress such as has never occurred since the nation until that time. And at that time, your people, everyone who is found written in the book will be rescued. This is the Romans 11 scenario that at the time when anti-Jewish sentiment shows itself an antichrist and their back is to the sea and they cannot escape and they are surrounded on all sides and the nations have taken up war against him. Revelation says it's at that time one comes through the clouds with king of kings and lord of lords written on his thigh in Revelation 19. Here it's a summary and it simply says at that time after this time at the end of chapter 11 where things are so bad and so anti-God's people that all who are found in the book of life will be will be rescued. And then it says many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake these to everlasting life but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. One of the things you should see is that coming back with Jesus are those believers who have already died and been raised in the rapture prior to that are coming back. All the only summary statement here is people who used to be dead but are alive again are walking around. That's what he says. And then in verse three, those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse. Look at the end of verse four. Many will go back and forth and knowledge will increase. As for you, Daniel, conceal these words. Seal up the book, that is place a seal on it, uh, on this book until the end of time. Many will go back and forth and knowledge will increase. Here's what he says. Characteristic of the end times will be two things. Transportation and information. Those will be the things that will characterize the end time. Watch for them. Understand that that you are to to um preserve this book for that time. When he says conceal the book, it's actually the word preserve. He's not saying hide it. He's saying make sure it doesn't get lost because people are going to need to know this when they start seeing the information and transportation age. It's going to come down to people needing to know that the end is knocking at the door. His honest question was, "How long will it be till the end of these wonders?" Verse six puts me in mind to the disciples as Jesus is leaving. Is it now time for you to come back and deal with Israel? And he says it's not for you to worry about the times and seasons, go wait, get the spirit. Do what I tell you. One of the interesting the last thing Jesus did before he left was correct them on their theology of the end times. But I would say this. I heard the man, verse seven, dressed in linen who was above the waters of the river as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for time, times, and half a time. And as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed. There is coming a day when all of the things that have been a tumult of all the centuries will be finished in that one stone Messiah that hits the kingdoms of this world and shatters them. When he comes the back of all their strength will be broken. And chapter 12 simply summarizes for the Jewish people their role in that. What is their role? They'll go from all of them whose names are written in the book of life will be rescued. Paul would write later and say all Israel will be saved.
[Music] I don't have an offering to bring to you. [Music]