The Sovereign God of Heaven - Daniel by Scott Brown.

Daniel wrote during the difficult year of the Babylonian captivity. He was a prophet during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus. The consistent theme of his book is that God is in control, despite appearances. Daniel declares the sovereignty of God over the shifting political, social and moral scenes of life on earth. He protects, prospers, promotes and preserves His people.

Okay, Daniel. So open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 1. Daniel begins with a massive interruption in the lives of a bunch of young people, and four of them are highlighted. And there's a consistent theme throughout the book of Daniel, and Daniel can't get away from it. In every chapter he cannot escape this one thing, and you might suppose that this would happen to him as he was pulled out of the comforts of Jerusalem and brought into a hateful and difficult environment.

But the theme that he constantly works is that God is in control in spite of appearances. His faith was tried by fire, and he declares the sovereignty of God in this prophecy. He is sovereign over the shifting political scene. He's sovereign over the military movements. He's sovereign over absolutely everything.

And in the midst of this, he does four things. He protects, He prospers, he promotes, and he preserves his people. Those four things. Those things run constantly through the book of Daniel, and they are just as true then as they are today. There are lots of places you can go in Scripture to comfort yourself with the knowledge of God's absolute control, but Daniel is a very, very good place to go.

There are so many scenes, there are so many prayers, there are so many declarations of kings and of Daniel himself of God's sovereignty. And it really shows the fate of God's people and His care for them. I like the way that Proverbs 2 verses 6 through 8 speaks of it. For the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He guards the path of justice and preserves the way of his saints." That is the heart of the matter of the book of Daniel. It's very much the same thing that the Apostle Paul spoke of when he was writing to the Ephesians where he said that in Ephesians chapter 1 that he works all things according to the counsel of his will And these young people being pulled out of Jerusalem, taken into Babylon, marched into the city, if you can imagine this massive city before them with these great statues and the walls and the gates of Babylon were absolutely magnificent. They were wonders of the world, and there they were.

They were brought into Babylon as young people. They were brought into the king's palace, and they were castrated, and they were made the slaves of the king. And so this is what we find. It's really a fulfillment of Jeremiah 25 verses 10 through 12. Moreover I will take them from the voice of mirth and from the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. Then it will come to pass when 70 years are completed that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity says the Lord and I will make it a perpetual desolation." Isn't that wild? This is the story of Daniel. Let's talk about the genre. This is prophecy and narrative mixed together.

The whole book begins with narrative. Chapters 1 through 6 are stories. Some of the greatest stories you'll ever read in any literature, they're just absolutely riveting and they teach you about what it's like to live in a pagan nation in God's protection of you. So the first section contains these most famous and inspiring stories of the Bible. The lion's den, the fiery furnace, the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, his becoming like a beast.

These are all in the narrative section, and then you get into the prophetic section which spans from chapter 7 all the way to the end of the book. This is much more difficult to understand, And we should be very careful not to say, well, since I understand the first part so well, I'll ignore the second part. It's easy to do that. Because the second part, the prophetic part, happens to be one of the most difficult sections in all of Scripture, and I've been poring over commentators to try to get a sense of the reach and the various interpretations of this prophetic section, and it's extremely complex. I'll talk a little bit more about that later.

This is why Daniel has been called the book of Revelation of the Old Testament because it speaks of the whole sweep of history. So let's look at the timeframe, the third item in your outline. Daniel is documenting the years of the Babylonian captivity, And so he was a prophet during those years from his youth. He was a young man and he became a spokesman for God at the very beginning. You know, how many times have we seen God raise up a prophet in his 20s?

Well this is another occasion right here, maybe not even in his 20s. We often underestimate what young people can do, and it's a tragedy, and we don't give them meaningful things to do, and as a result they don't do anything meaningful. But here Daniel starts out in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Now think about this for a second. He's a little bit like Isaiah, and probably about the same age.

Isaiah was about 20 years old when he began to prophesy in Judah, and so Daniel, you know, decades later is in kind of the same boat. Daniel is a prophet during Nebuchadnezzar's reign, perhaps one of the most wicked kings that ever lived. He would kill you at the drop of a hat. And he lived through the reign of Belshazzar, which is a shorter reign, Nebuchadnezzar's wicked son. And then he lived through the reign of Darius, and then he lived through the reign of Cyrus.

So he lived through four kings. So it's a remarkable story of a man who has a long history in Babylon. Then let's talk about Daniel the man. He ministered during all the years of the Babylonian captivity and he continued on after the Medes attacked and overtook Babylon. And his message is, you can anticipate his message after living under the reigns of so many kings.

He continues to speak the truth that it doesn't matter who the king of the land is. God is pulling the strings. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. The kings of the earth are like the puppets of God. He moves them around.

Remember when Isaiah said, Assyria is my rod. Assyria is gonna do whatever I want it to do, and this is the issue here. He lived from 620 to 619 BC. We learn in chapter 2 that he was studying Jeremiah. He had been reading the prophet Jeremiah.

He was very special to God. You know, I don't know if you've if you've ever sensed that someone was very special to God, but in chapter 9 verse 23, we read that after he was praying, the Lord says to him, I have come to tell you, and he's going to tell him a prophecy, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore consider the matter and understand the vision. And then in chapter 10 verse 11, an angel stood before him and said, Oh Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you. So Daniel was special to God.

Ezekiel speaks of him three times. We'll be dealing with Ezekiel tomorrow. Let's talk about the fifth item in your outline. Daniel is very unusual because it is composed in two different languages, Hebrew and Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Daniel chapter 2 verse 4 through Daniel 7 verse 28 are written in Aramaic, and Aramaic was the international language of the time, and so it would be natural that Daniel would learn Aramaic.

We don't know where he learned it. He may have learned it in Judah, but he most likely learned it in Babylon. We don't really know. This book is very special also in terms of its verification because eight copies of Daniel were preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Eight copies, just like the copy you're reading here.

God preserved the book of Daniel for us. Let's talk about the political and moral and cultural conflicts that are going on. I just want to characterize them by the way that all moral and political and cultural conflicts are divided, and they really define the conflicts that we're in in our day. In Daniel you'll find two gods, they're competing. In Daniel you'll find two kingdoms, they're competing.

And you find two cultures, and they're competing. And all of God's people live in an environment like that. Nobody ever lived in a time where there weren't competing gods and kingdoms and cultures, and we happen to live in a time like that. Let's try to start working our way through the book here, and I'd like to run you through this book and its outline, the narrative is easy to understand and to apply the first six chapters, and because the prophetic section is so difficult to understand, because there's been enormous controversy over the details of its fulfillment in history. Because the language is prophetic, figurative language, it causes us difficulty to know exactly what the time frames are that are being spoken of, and this is particularly true in the 70th week of Daniel.

Write that down, the 70th week of Daniel. That is without question the most controversial aspect of this prophecy. Now here's my view. We need to keep an open mind. Very bright, honorable, godly men have disagreed on the interpretation of the 70 weeks of Daniel.

When you're dealing with prophecy, here's my advice, avoid extreme dogmatism. Avoid being snarky and overconfident about it. You know, sometimes we can find ourselves speaking with an air of superiority over those that have a different view. I would just caution you about that. When handling a section of scripture like this, one I think should humble himself, should recognize there's a historical pattern of interpretation, and all men don't interpret it exactly the same way.

And even Daniel said he didn't understand what it was all about. How about that? That's pretty comforting. That's in chapter 12 verse 8. He says, I don't know what this means, so maybe you think you do.

You know, we do have more information now. We can look back, and so we can connect dots far more easier. Prophecy is better understood looking back than it is looking forward. So whenever you get in the realm of the future of prophecy, just recognize you're kind of walking on thin ice because it's much, much more reliable and easier to understand prophecy by looking back. You know, there are various assumptions in the interpretation that are hinge points to the interpretation.

In other words, if you say, this is that, then it'll take you in that direction. If you say this is that, that'll take you in that direction. And most prophetic sections are like that. You have to decide, you know, sort of what your assumptions are. And the imagery can be difficult to pin down from their, you know, figurative implications to connect them with historical realities.

Now, one of the complicating matters in interpreting Daniel arose in 1830 when a new interpretation was given and it became very, very popular and J. N. Darby and Edward Irving invented a new school of interpretation of Daniel, particularly Daniel 9 and the 70 weeks of Daniel, and this methodology, this structure, this grid is known as dispensationalism, and it really was a controversial and new doctrine that emerged in the 1830s. And the controversy surrounds how you interpret Daniel 9, comparing it to Matthew 24 and 25, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians and Revelation, because you have similar language, but it's often difficult to understand the time frames. If you always have to understand the time frames, you might be frustrated, But with all these places that I've just cited where this language is similar, they have one thing in common.

They all declare the glory and the majesty of Jesus Christ, and that's what you should be getting out of your prophetic studies. I think we should work hard to understand them, but we should be humble in the process. D.L. Moody, a famous evangelist, popularized Darby's View, Moody Bible Institute, spread the doctrine as well as other dispensational institutions. The Scofield Bible also helped to spread it and legitimize it.

E.J. Young, one of the great biblical commentators, in referring to Daniel chapter 9 verses 24 through 27 which are the controversial sections. He quotes a German theologian by the name of Hinkstenberg who is a very superior Bible interpreter and he called Daniel 9 24 through 27 as concealed definiteness. How about that? In other words, it confused him too.

It was concealed, but it was definite. God is definite. Every word of God is true. Every word of this prophecy is true, but parts of it may be concealed to your own mind. And so that was his term.

Here's what we can note for certain. Two things we can know without any doubt regarding the interpretation of this prophecy. First, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the stone cut without hams and he will prevail. Secondly, that he will destroy the idols of this world and he'll come again. Those two things you can count on and You may not be able to agree with everyone in the world about exactly when all this happens, but that these things will happen is very, very plain.

Okay, so let's jump into the text here. As I said before, the first six chapters are moral and spiritual instruction. Here's how I'd like to summarize the first six chapters. They teach you how to deal with upheaval, pressures, intimidations, and temptations that go along with living in a godless culture among people who worship other gods. And each chapter in these first six chapters brings us a brand new challenge, and it's a challenge to the faith of these four Hebrews that were there in Babylon.

So the first section is really about being faithful under pressure, and then the seventh to the 12th chapter focuses on prophecies of the future. So let's begin with chapter 1. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to the book of Daniel and it delivers the time markers that explain exactly when this prophecy was happening. It was from 605 to 539 BC, and it explains much about these Hebrew children. And in the first two verses, there is the time frame.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. So Daniel begins with a vision of the besieging of Jerusalem, and then it was finally destroyed. And in verse 2, we learned that the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. So now the elements of worship from the temple of God are brought into a pagan house of worship, And this will be referred to later on in Belshazzar, because Belshazzar boastfully, proudly, insanely is having a party, a drunken party with these elements from the house of God. It doesn't go well with them.

Now in verses 3 through 7, we find a really important, really fascinating part of the book, and particularly helping us understand what was happening to these Hebrew children. I shouldn't call them children. All my life I've called them Hebrew children, but they really weren't children. But the Bible Storybooks likes to call them children. They weren't children at all.

They were young men. And so in verse 3, the king instructs Ashmanaz, the master of the eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles. Young men in whom there was no blemish but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had the ability to serve in the king's palace and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans." Now let's stop here for a minute. I want you to really notice how these Hebrew young men showed up. They showed up ready to rumble, okay?

They had been educated. They'd been brought up in the training and the admonition of the Lord. They understood the worship of God, they were sharp thinkers, they were gifted in wisdom, they had the ability to serve in the King's palace. What does that mean? It means they were ready to be men, you know.

They weren't babies, they weren't children at all, they were ready for responsibility at a young age. And this is how the people of God always ought to be. They always ought to be involving themselves in important things that stretch them to do important things in this world, and these four young men were exactly like that. That's one thing I'm grateful for for the young people in our church is that they have an eye for this. Most of them are not wasting their lives playing around.

They're doing something important, and it's critical that we have young people like that. So verse 5, we learn that the king appoints for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies, the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of the time they might serve before the king. So they already knew they already knew how to be involved in responsibility in government. Now there's an indoctrination, actually a brainwashing process that's taking place here, and then their names are here. Now among those sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

These are their Hebrew names. And in verse 7, read, and to them the chief of the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel the name of Belt Shazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego. And so you notice how they were isolated and educated and indoctrinated. God is protecting and prospering and promoting and preserving them, but I'm telling you, they had a cultural re-engineering program going on from the top down and there was a change of culture, a change of names, a change of education, change of food, everything.

The devil wanted his claws in these men and this is how he did it. This is how one is captured for the kingdom of darkness. He's educated. You know, these education systems that we have going on that teach people how to be pagans, you know, really should be abandoned. But these young men had no choice.

Fortunately, they were fully educated in the law of God, and they'd already proved themselves to be men. And they found themselves in a place like, in some ways like we face, where you can't hardly quote the Bible in a public place anymore. That's what they faced. Now I want to talk about their names for a second. Daniel's name given to him by his parents was meant, God is my judge or God is discerning.

And you know what they named him? They renamed him Belshazzar, whom Bell favors. How defiling can you get? Hananiah, his name meant God has been gracious. And they renamed him Shadrach which means illuminated by the Sun God.

Mishael, his name met. Who is what God is? In other words, who is as great as God? And he was renamed to Meshach, who is like Venus. Azariah, his name meant God has helped or the Lord is my helper and guess what they renamed him Abednego the servant of nego the word comes from Nabu which was the Akkadian god of wisdom and education.

So there was this attempt to completely change their minds to learn the way of the Gentiles, to teach them how to live like the Gentiles. They would have nothing of it. They didn't fit in. They were very competent. They were tested and tried in their Hebrew education.

The state wanted what these men had. This is why Nebuchadnezzar wanted them, by the way, because they were competent, they were studied, they weren't stupid young people. And the king wanted them. Now his re-education program didn't work. Look at verse 8.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself Daniel was not going to learn the way of the Gentiles. And then verse 9 says, Now God brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king who has appointed your food to drink, for why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king." So he was worried about his own skin. So Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, please test your servants for 10 days.

So this was the program, and they gave them vegetables to eat and their appearance was examined and their appearance was excellent. God honored their faithfulness. Look at verses 17 to 21. These are so important. Recognize what God does to those who refuse to learn the way of the Gentiles, who refuse to waste their lives on the pagan ways.

As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill and all literature and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days when the king had said that they should be brought into the chief of the eunuchs, brought him in before Nebuchadnezzar, then the king interviewed them and among them all, none, was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they served before the king and in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them He found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm." And so Daniel continued on. So this is the first chapter forms an introduction and it tells you about the primary characters of the book, these four Hebrew young men. Then in chapter two, Nebuchadnezzar has a troubling dream.

Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. So he needed someone to interpret the dream, and you know the story. He asked for the magicians and the astrologers, and they're saying, we're not doing that, we're not telling you, you tell us the dream and we'll give you the interpretation. They didn't want their heads to get chopped off, and so they resisted the telling Nebuchadnezzar of his dream, But God ends up revealing the dream to Daniel. Verse 19, Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision.

So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. And Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his, for he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. Verse 22, he reveals deep and secret things.

He knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him. And then Daniel says, I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers, you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you. For you have made known to us the King's demand." Notice he uses us. You know, these young men were working together. They were praying together.

You know, there's nothing more exciting than when people are under pressure and they are bound together and they pray. Here's a picture of young men gathering together to pray, to pray about something important, and God grants their prayer. Then Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar about his dream. It's a dream about a great image and whose splendor was remarkable. It has legs of iron and feet partly of iron and partly of clay, and then a stone cut without hands comes and strikes the image and it breaks into pieces and it shattered and so the dream was over and then Daniel interpreted the dream and Daniel interpreted the dream that this was Nebuchadnezzar and he was going to fall.

Verse 46, then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face prostrate before Daniel and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him. And then Daniel was promoted as you read about in verses 46 through 49. So that's the dream. Now in chapter 3 is the testing by fire, the fiery furnace. So Nebuchadnezzar, even though he hears about this dream where the stone cut without hands is gonna knock the statue down, the proud statue, it doesn't slow him down at all.

And so Nebuchadnezzar makes an image of gold, 60 cubits high, and it's width, six cubits, and he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. What was he thinking? Now he went and set up a big image of himself, a big giant statue. Did he not connect his plan to make a statue with what he had just heard from the prophecy? No, he didn't.

And then in verse 4 we read, then a herald cried aloud, to you it is commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that the time you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the harp, the lyre, the psaltery, the symphony, and all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And if you don't fall down and worship, you're going to be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. So that's the punishment for not worshiping the big statue that Nebuchadnezzar just set up. And so the Chaldeans, they observed that three young men, they're not worshipping the statue. So somebody told on them, reported that they were not falling down and worshipping, and Nebuchadnezzar flies into a rage.

Verse 13 says it was fury, and he commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come, and so they came before the king. And he gives them an opportunity, and they play the music, and they don't bow down. So guess what happened? He threatened them. He said, I'll throw you in the fiery furnace.

You know these are strong young men and here's what they said, Oh Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, the fiery furnace, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And he will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up." And that enraged Nebuchadnezzar even worse than before. His expression changed toward all of them and he commanded that they get thrown into the fire.

And then he finds out that they're not consumed in the fire. So he comes down and he looks and he sees four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they're not heard. And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. This is what Nebuchadnezzar is thinking. And so he goes near the mouth of the furnace and he says, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, come on out of there.

And they came. And they were unsinged, they weren't warm, they survived the whole thing. And so the condition of these men is verified and they're promoted. And then Nebuchadnezzar says in verse 28, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted him. And they have frustrated the king's word and yielded their bodies that they should not serve nor worship any God except their own God.

Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made an ash heap because there is no other God who can deliver like this." Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. So They're now promoted. And then in chapter 4, there's this vision of the tree. This is the place of the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar has a dream where a tree is cut down, it was of great height, and it just gets chopped down, and there was a watcher, the watcher.

Notice that when you read it. There are two places where the Watcher is mentioned, and he cried out and said, chop down the tree and cut off its branches and strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit, and then the Watcher says, and let him graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth." Well, Nebuchadnezzar doesn't get it. He's unfazed, and Daniel interprets the dream, And then in verse 27, Daniel calls King Nebuchadnezzar to repentance. He says, Therefore, O King, let my advice be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by being righteous and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, perhaps there may be a lengthening into your prosperity." So Daniel says, you know, turn to God, turn from your sins, lest you get chopped down.

And Nebuchadnezzar just kept on rolling, and guess what happened? He was walking around one day and he lifted up his eyes to heaven And he said, is this not great Babylon which I have built? And he turned into a beast, and for seven years he grazed like a wild animal. You know, in our day you'd call it schizophrenia. But God struck him and he became a beast.

He ate grass and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like birds claws." Wow. The greatest king in the ancient Near East is now like a cow. It's unbelievable. So then at the end of the time Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes up to heaven and he blesses God, he turns to God, he's restored. God restores him back to his kingdom and in verse 34 through 37 are some of the most wonderful words of repentance and giving glory to God.

Don't think for a second that your wicked king or your wicked ruler can't be changed. I think if we were back in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, we would think that Nebuchadnezzar would make our current president look like a Sunday school teacher. Nebuchadnezzar was a bad man, and look at his change. His whole life changed, and he became a worshiper of God. Chapter 5, as the handwriting on the wall, you'll see the luxury of Babylon in chapter 5.

You'll see Belshazzar having a great feast, and in verse 2 and verse 5 we learn that the gold and the silver vessels which Belshazzar's father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem were being used in the party. So they're drinking you know with the vessels of the temple and this is the end of Babylon. There's handwriting on the wall, these fingers show up, and they write these words on the wall, and Daniel is brought in to bring the interpretation. Belshazzar brings him in and says, please interpret these words, and I'll make you rich, And Daniel says, you don't need to make me rich. I don't want your money, but I'll interpret the words.

And so the fingers that wrote on the wall wrote these words, may-nay, may-nay, te-kle you parson, which means you have been found in the balance wanting and your kingdom is deprived from you. And literally this interpretation, mene, God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Peres, your kingdom has been divided and given up to the Medes and the Persians. Now, U-Parsen is just the plural of Paris, which is your kingdom is divided and taken.

So it's a repetition, it's just to sort of emphasize it. So then Belshazzar gives the command, they clothed Daniel with purple with a gold chain around his neck and makes a proclamation that he'll be the third in the kingdom and that very night, and you'll read about this in verse 30, Belshazzar was murdered and Darius the Mede received the kingdom when he was about 62 years old. So that's the end of Babylon. Belshazzar is deposed. We have a new king now, so now Daniel has lived through Nebuchadnezzar, then Belshazzar, now he's gonna live through the reign of King Darius.

We picked that up in chapter 6, and Darius would also like to be worshipped, and so he issues a decree that anyone praying to anyone but himself will be killed, will be actually thrown into the lion's den. So Darius sets Daniel over many in his kingdom and Daniel distinguished himself above the other governors and the king was thinking about setting him above the whole realm. Here Daniel, you take care of all my administrative affairs. He didn't do it, but he thought about it. It says in verse 3 of chapter 6, So the decree is issued, whoever petitions any God or man for 30 days will be cast into the lion's den and guess who is not gonna pray to the king?

Daniel. Daniel in his upper room, the doors are open, and he's kneeling, and he's praying three times a day, and he's giving thanks before God, as was his custom since his early days. He never stopped praying. He would open his windows toward Jerusalem and he would pray. It was a pattern of his life.

He never stopped that pattern. So people find him praying And they're called on the carpet. So they're delivered to the lion's den. And the king was so disturbed about it, he just couldn't be happy. He liked Daniel.

And So he went back to his quarters. He couldn't sleep, and he was fasting because the sleep has deprived him. He got up really early in the morning and went out to the lion's den, and there he sees Daniel, and Daniel says, Oh King, live forever. He says to Darius, my God sent his angel to shut the lion's mouth. So the king was glad.

He didn't execute him, he was glad, and he took him out of the lion's den. And then Darius testifies to the greatness of God, and then he says, you know, I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must fear before the God of Daniel for he is the living God and steadfast forever his kingdom is the one which will not be destroyed and his dominion shall endure to the end he delivers and rescues and he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions." And then we read, so this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. So we get to chapter 7, we get into Daniel's dream of the four beasts. You'll notice this is an all chronological. And what we see in chapter 7 are four successive Gentile kingdoms.

There's a lion which symbolizes Babylon, there's a bear which is Mediapursia, there's a leopard which is Greece, and there's the fourth beast that's Rome. Greece is headed by Alexander the Great who conquered the world, and then the fourth beast, Rome, who came and conquered after Alexander the Great. And so this all is a dream. These are dreams of Daniel. You get to chapter 8, then you have Daniel's dream in Shushan, in the citadel by the river you lie.

And Here in this dream, Daniel sees a ram pushing westward. It's the Medo-Persian Empire. He sees a male goat coming from the west. This is Greece, Alexander the Great. And in chapter 9, you get the 70 weeks of Daniel.

Daniel 9 actually begins with a prayer. It's a beautiful prayer. Unfortunately, Daniel 9 is known for its controversy, not its prayer. There are just a few verses that form the controversy, and he confesses his sin, and then in his prophecy, he's really declaring the coming of Christ and his substitutionary atonement and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. Gabriel is giving this dream to him.

So the 70 weeks of Daniel are here in verses 24 to 27. This is the most controversial part. The word week, you know, 70 weeks of Daniel, Week means seven, which means divided into seven. It doesn't really mean week, it means rather divided into seven or seventy sevens, and seventy sevens are 490. And most people think it's 490 years from beginning to end.

I guess my view is you know these are figurative numbers, maybe they're exact. I don't think we can be dogmatic about how long seven years, because the Bible doesn't tell us how long the seven years is. You've got to come in and say, that's a week, or that's a year, or that's seven years. You have to bring this in from the outside. And so I think the prophecy's veiled for that reason.

But during the time frame, six things are going to be accomplished. The first three are negative to finish the transgression, number one. Number two, to make an end of sins. Number three, to make reconciliation for iniquity. And Then there are three positive elements to bring everlasting righteousness.

Number five, to seal up the vision of the prophecy and to anoint the most holy. I just want to suggest this is the rule and the reign of Jesus Christ. And it's a broad period where sin is dealt with. I believe that it starts with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's, you know, difficult language in here.

There are three different approaches to this. There's the historic approach, which says that at the end of the 69th week Jesus is born, and then he's cut off after that. And the 70th week takes place beginning in 70 AD. 70 weeks from the command to rebuild Jerusalem to the time of Christ. And then there's a dispensational approach where the last week is a 2, 000 year gap.

Either that last week is long or it's short. I think it's short. I think it ends in 70 AD, but, you know, read it and see what you think. Read some commentators. The dispensationalists say that the 70th week is the Great Tribulation at the end of the age, And at the end of the Tribulation, Christ returns and there's a thousand year reign of Christ.

This is premillennialism, where Christ returns before the millennium. And then there's the Reformed amillennialist approach, which says that the 70 weeks cover the entire period from the command to rebuild Jerusalem to the second coming of Christ including the present age. So read it and do the best you can. Nobody is gonna say, this is really easy to understand. Nobody's gonna do that for you, because it isn't.

In fact, I was listening to a friend of mine, his church just preached through the book, and here's what he said. He said, you know, when we get to the end of a book, we're always so sorry to leave it. But he said, after trying to deal with Daniel 9, I'm kind of glad we're leaving Daniel right now. And of course the whole book is so rich and beautiful. Well, chapters 10 through 12 focus on the same thing.

It introduces a vision. There are more details. Chapter 12 is an overview of the prophecies of the whole book. In chapter 10 is this picture of this backdrop, this battle behind the battle. It's incredible.

Chapter 10 is remarkable. Daniel is exhausted, and what's happening? There's a spiritual battle going on. That's why he's so exhausted, and there's this battle going on in the heavens that's affecting him. So that's what chapter 10 is about.

Chapter 11 and 12 continue on with this, but you know the theme throughout is the sovereignty of God over all things. You know, in chapter 12, you see angelic beings again. You know, angels, there are angels. They are watching over the people of God. It says that Michael, the archangel, shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that time.

And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book of life. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting intent. This picture is, I believe, the end of the age and there's tribulation. I think the Bible makes it pretty clear there's a lot of tribulation at the end of the age and God rescues His people out of that tribulation and He rescues those who are found written in the Book of Life. There's so many beautiful things in chapter 12, but let me just close with this last one, verse 13.

What do you do with this prophecy? How do you apply it to your life? I'm really grateful for this verse 13. "...But you go your way till the end, for you shall rest and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days." What is he saying? You know, maybe you don't understand everything in this prophecy like Daniel in chapter 12 said, I don't understand this, But what do you do?

Go your way. Do the work that God has given you to do. Do it with all of your heart. And know this, that you'll rest. God will bring you into His promised land of rest.

And you'll have your inheritance at the end of the days. So live a simple life, work with your own hands, cry out to God, do the work that God has put in your hands. What's your calling in life? Well, It's to be a steward of the things God has given you. Don't look out there for your life.

Look in and ask, what has God given me to do, and how might I do with all of my heart to glorify him, to shine like the stars, shine like brightness as it says in verse 3. It says, those who turn many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever. This is our primary duty, is to turn many to righteousness, to be preachers of righteousness, and to help our brethren and our cistern to love the holy things. That's our role in life. So go your way till the end, for you shall rest.

And then finally, Christ in Daniel. Christ is the great stone cut without hands that comes and destroys all the idols, all the kingdoms of the earth. Jesus Christ reigns. Nothing can stay His hand. He does what He wishes in the kingdoms of the earth.

God is sovereign. That's the message of Daniel. Okay, there you have it. Daniel.