{"id":18376,"date":"2016-10-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-001-introduction-to-daniel\/"},"modified":"2016-10-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T05:00:00","slug":"daniel-001-introduction-to-daniel","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-001-introduction-to-daniel\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 001: Introduction to Daniel"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[50],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18376","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-deuteronomy","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 001: Introduction to Daniel","sermon_date":"20161030","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":4030,"sermon_slides":4031,"sermon_mp3":4033,"sermon_id":"1030161143586","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":50,"chapter_and_verse":"28:49-50","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH\n\nIntroduction to the Book of Daniel, Part 1\n\nOctober 30, 2016,\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to open every book but Daniel today so you might want to open up to Deuteronomy 28, and you\u2019ll see there\u2019s a method to the madness in a moment, Deuteronomy 28:49-50.\u00a0 And then\u00a0 you might want to keep a finger over in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 14 and verse 14.\u00a0 The title of our Message this morning is, and I worked all week on this, are you ready?\u00a0 Introduction to the Book of Daniel. That\u2019s the best I could come up with.\n\nI preached a 4th<\/sup> of July message that ended on October 24th<\/sup> so we did a lengthy series on voting and the believer\u2019s responsibility to vote and things of that nature.\u00a0 And now that we\u2019re finished with that topical study we\u2019ve moving into verse by verse teaching and taking a look, beginning today, at the Book of Daniel.\n\nI think one of the mistakes we make as Bible readers is we just charge into a book and start going verse by verse and we really don\u2019t understand why the book is here; we don\u2019t really understand what the background of the book is and so typically\u2026 and I\u2019ve followed this pattern ever since I began teaching at this church, every book I\u2019ve ever introduced or taught I\u2019ve always done an introduction to it.\u00a0 So what I\u2019d like to lead you through are what I call the building blocks; these are the foundational stones, if you will, that are necessary to understand the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 As you grow in appreciation for these foundation stones you see the Bible starts to come into focus and you start to understand what this book of the Bible is doing here.\n\nSo here are the foundation stones I want to walk through with you very briefly this morning.\u00a0 The first is the Diversity of Topics, this is kind of a whet your appetite type of slide.\u00a0 Why should we, in the year 2016, why in the world would we be studying a book written 2600 years ago, back in the 6th<\/sup> century B. C.\u00a0 I mean\u2026 what is actually here for us?\u00a0 Well, if you give yourself to the Book of Daniel there are several things you start to learn; here\u2019s a few.\u00a0 Number 1, prophecy.\u00a0 You say well what is prophecy?\u00a0 Prophecy is history in advance; the Bible reveals historical information before it happens and Daniel, of course, is known for this.\n\nThe second is a fancy word called eschatology; eschatos<\/em> means end, ology<\/em> means what? The study of; eschatology is the study of the end.\u00a0 You say well isn\u2019t that prophecy?\u00a0 Not necessarily because you see, many of the prophecies of the Bible have already been fulfilled.\u00a0 Think how many prophecies were fulfilled in the life of Christ.\u00a0 But there is a branch of prophecy that is yet to come and we call that eschatology, the systematic study of what the Bible reveals concerning the future.\u00a0 And obviously the Book of Daniel has a great contribution to make to the subject of eschatology.\n\nAnd something else you\u2019ll walk away with if you give your mind to the study of Daniel, you\u2019ll walk away with confidence that the Bible is the Word of God.\u00a0 I\u2019m the type of person that can\u2019t just believe something just because someone tells me to believe it; I have to have facts, I have to have evidence.\u00a0 And what I have discovered is the Book of Daniel gives me that evidence because only God knows the end from the beginning; only God could have revealed the future so clearly to Daniel.\u00a0 And this is what distinguishes the Bible from virtually any other religious holy book on the horizon today; no other book reveals the end from the beginning the way the Bible does.\u00a0 You kind of get the impression that the God who knows the end from the beginning authored this book.\n\nSomething else you walk away with is a knowledge of the intertestamental period. You say what in the world is that?\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s a time period between the Testaments.\u00a0 You know, when you close the book of Malachi Persia is in control, the Jewish people are speaking Hebrew, Aramaic is the known language of the day.\u00a0 You open the pages of the New Testament and Rome is in power and the language of the day would be Greek.\u00a0 And you say well, wait a minute, what happened between Malachi and Matthew?\u00a0 What happened between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.\u00a0 The answer is a lot; 400 years, that\u2019s a long time, that\u2019s almost double the length of the United States of America.\u00a0 And without a knowledge of the intertestamental period you don\u2019t understand the transition between the two testaments.\u00a0 The interesting thing is Daniel fills out that time period for us but he does it 400 years before it happened.\u00a0 So the better you understand the prophecies of the Book of Daniel the better you can bridge that gap between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.\n\nSomething else you walk away with is an understanding of angelology which is the doctrine of the angels.\u00a0 The Bible tells us that there are myriads of angels, ten thousand times ten thousand.\u00a0 And it\u2019s astonishing to discover how active the angels are in our daily lives, without us even being aware of it.\u00a0 The angels are used constantly by God to dispatch and accomplish His purposes on the earth.\u00a0 Angels are huge in the Book of Daniel, in fact, we are going to run into two of them by name, one is named Michael and one is named Gabriel and they do different things.\n\nWe also, from the Book of Daniel, walk away with an understanding of spiritual warfare because Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12, \u201cFor our struggle is not against\u201d what? \u201cflesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.\u00a0 Whether you understand it or not or accept it or not the moment you place your personal faith in Christ for salvation is the moment you inherited three enemies that you didn\u2019t have before and these enemies actually will tag team on\u00a0 you and gang up on you.\u00a0 They are the world, the flesh and the devil.\u00a0 And nothing reveals that better than the Book of Daniel, specifically chapter 10 because there\u2019s a scene there when an angel, who I think is Gabriel, is dispatched from heaven to answer Daniel\u2019s prayer request and yet that prayer request (you see this in Daniel 10:13, Daniel 10:20-21, that prayer request) was not answered for three weeks or twenty-one days.\n\nDaniel 10:13, \u201cBut the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.\u201d \u00a0Daniel 10:20, \u201cThen he said, Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come.\u00a0 [21] \u00a0\u201cHowever, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. Yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces except Michael your prince.\u201d]\n\nHave you ever wondered why your prayer requests were not answered immediately?\u00a0 The explanation is given in Daniel 10; the angel, Gabriel, dispatched from heaven to answer Daniel\u2019s prayer request was held up through a battle with a fallen angel called the prince of power over Persia.\u00a0 And these two angels literally duked it out for twenty-one days, and finally God sent another angel to help the first angel and they ganged up on the angel from Persia and the initial angel got through and answered Daniel\u2019s prayer request and now the angel says you know what?\u00a0 Now that I\u2019ve answered your prayer request I\u2019m going to go fight my way out.\u00a0 \u201cWe wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,\u201d [Ephesians 6:12] that\u2019s why we\u2019re told to put on the full armor of God.\u00a0 Nothing reveals the spiritual conflict that we are in perhaps better than the Book of Daniel.\n\nWhat else do you walk away with from the Book of Daniel?\u00a0 How to live for God in a pagan society, because the storyline of the Book of Daniel unfolds, not while the nation of Israel is resting comfortably in the land of Israel, they have been removed from their land by the hand of God 350 miles to the east in a place called Babylon, which is modern day Iraq.\u00a0 They\u2019re away from the temple, they are away from the religious system, they are away from everything they knew and they\u2019re living on pagan turf.\u00a0 And how in the world do you live for God in that kind of a society?\u00a0 The Book of Daniel, through its various stories, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nigo in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lion\u2019s den and other stories are role models for how Israel is to live in a pagan society.\n\nAnd beloved, let me just say something; America has become a Romans 1 culture.\u00a0 The United States of America was founded on a Christian base; this in fact is a citation from the United States Supreme Court in 1892, a unanimous decision declaring that America is a Christian nation\u2026 the Supreme Court, not someone\u2019s opinion but the jurists.\u00a0 After going through multiple historical precedents that same Supreme Court in 1963 said if portions of the New Testament were read in the public schools it could be psychological harmful to the child.\u00a0 \u00a0Something happened in between 1892 and 1963; the Judeo-Christian moorings of America were removed and we are living in the aftermath of that.\u00a0 We are not living any longer in a Christian nation; we are living in a pagan nation that I call a Romans 1 culture, where our biblical beliefs and assumptions are no longer the majority opinion.\u00a0 So that raises an interesting question; if you still believe in all of those truths of the Bible how are you supposed to live?\u00a0 The answer largely is given in the Book of Daniel as we watch Daniel and his three friends under that same circumstance.\u00a0 We follow their example which we\u2019ll be talking about.\n\nSomething else you learn about in the Book of Daniel is God\u2019s sovereignty over empires.\u00a0 God is in control of what empire comes into existence, how long it lasts and the next empire.\u00a0 And I think we need a little dose today of the sovereignty of God, particularly as we are on the precipice of national election; everybody is biting their nails\u2014what\u2019s going to happen?\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s my prediction;\u00a0 you ready?\u00a0 The person that wins is the person that is supposed to win; that\u2019s my prediction, because God is the one that sovereignly allows political leaders to come into existence.\u00a0 Daniel 2:21 says of God, He removes kings and He establishes kings.\u00a0 [Daniel 2:21, \u201c[It is He who changes the times and the epochs;] He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding.\u201d]\n\nWhoever we get somehow is there because God put them there, I don\u2019t know why, maybe as an instrument of grace, maybe as an instrument of discipline.\u00a0 You know, the funny thing about God is He never consults me either when He makes His decisions, He just moves His little tiny finger and does it.\u00a0 But Andy, what about the liberal media bias?\u00a0 Andy, what about voter fraud?\u00a0 I\u2019m sure God up there is real worried about voter fraud; I\u2019m sure He\u2019s real worried about the liberal media\u2026 being a little bit facetious there.\u00a0 God is in control completely.\u00a0 And everybody today is talking about this is the most important election in American history and everybody is nervous and everybody is mad at each other on social media and fighting back and forth, and the fact of the matter is we need to step back and get a heavy dose of the sovereignty of God and kind of get over ourselves a little bit; we\u2019re not that important.\u00a0 The Book of Daniel is a reminder of this.\u00a0 And so as you give yourself to the Book of Daniel you start to discover all these truths.\n\nThe second building block is the date.\u00a0 When was this book actually written? What you will discover is there\u2019s a big fight on that amongst the theologians.\u00a0 There are those that argue for a second century date; what I mean by \u201csecond century\u201d is second century B.C. 200 years before the time of Christ this book was written.\u00a0 There are others, like myself, that say no, the book was not written in the second century, it was written in the sixth century B.C. 600 years before the time of Christ.\n\nWell, what difference does it make if it\u2019s written 200 years before the time of Christ or 600 years before the time of Christ, who really cares.\u00a0 It\u2019s a big deal!\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because there\u2019s a motivation behind people that will not assign an early date to the book.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the motivation: Daniel says a bunch of things about the intertestamental time period that came to pass with great precision; how could Daniel have known all of that 400 hundred years before it happened?\u00a0 And those that have an anti-supernatural bias look at that and they say this just can\u2019t be.\u00a0 So what they do is they drag the Book of Daniel 400 years into the future and they make it look like Daniel is giving a history lesson rather than a prophecy.\u00a0 And they come up with arguments that they use to support their view and I kind of listen to their arguments and I say to myself, is that your A-game, is that all you can bring.\n\nI mean, I watch the history channel, A&E, Mysteries of the Bible, all these people, PhD\u2019s from Harvard, they\u2019re going to come out and disprove the Book of Daniel, I listen to it and I say is that the best you\u2019ve got?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One of the arguments that they use is Daniel is placed in what is called the Ketuvim, the \u201cim\u201d ending means plurality, the Jews did not organize what we call the Old Testament the way we Protestants do; they organized it by what\u2019s called Tanakh, TNK, \u201cT stands for Torah, the first five books of the Bible; \u201cN\u201d stands for Nevi'im which basically means prophets, Ketuvim stands for writings, and you\u2019ll discover that Jesus Christ, in Luke 24:44 talked about those three divisions of Hebrew Bible.\u00a0 He says the whole Hebrew Bible points to Me in the Law of Moses, that\u2019s the \u201cT\u201d for Torah; the Prophets, that\u2019s the N for Nevi\u2019im and the Psalms which is the most prominent book in the Ketuvim or the Writings.\u00a0 [Luke 24:44, \u201cNow He said to them, \u2018These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.\u2019\u201d]\n\nAnd what people say is well, Daniel is not placed in the prophetic section, it\u2019s placed in the Writings section so therefore Daniel is not like Isaiah and Jeremiah and all those guys that wrote very early; he must have written later.\u00a0 That\u2019s their argument, which to me is basically no argument at all; the reason Daniel is not placed in the Nevi\u2019im but is placed in the Ketuvim is because Daniel really doesn\u2019t read like the book of Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel.\u00a0 It\u2019s got interwoven into it prophecies and narrative stories.\u00a0\u00a0 You don\u2019t have anything like this that predominates Isaiah or Jeremiah.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the Jews put it in the Ketuvim; they didn\u2019t put it in the Ketuvim because they were trying to make a statement about the late date of the Book of Daniel.\n\nBut the arguments for an early date are so much better.\u00a0 I had you turn to Ezekiel 14:14; Ezekiel is writing in the sixth century.\u00a0 Did you know that Ezekiel mentions Daniel.\u00a0 It says in Ezekiel 14:14, \u201ceven though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves,\u2019 declares the Lord GOD.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting that Ezekiel knew about Daniel.\u00a0 Well, how could he have known about Daniel if Daniel wrote 400 years later than Ezekiel?\n\nIn Ezekiel 14:20 you\u2019ll see another reference that Ezekiel makes to Daniel; in Ezekiel 28:3 you\u2019ll see the same thing.\u00a0 [Ezekiel 14:20, \u201c\u2018even though Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, as I live,\u2019 declares the Lord GOD, \u2018they could not deliver either their son or their daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Ezekiel 28:3, \u201c\u2018even though Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, as I live\u2019, declares the Lord GOD, \u2018they could not deliver either their son or their daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.\u2019\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s obvious that Daniel was a man who lived in the sixth century because Ezekiel, who also lived in the sixth century, knew of Daniel by way of reputation.\u00a0 Daniel\u2019s reputation preceded him which is a great compliment to his character, which we can throw in a few applications here and there.\u00a0 Does your reputation precede\u00a0 you?\u00a0 Does my reputation precede me?\u00a0 When people think of my name or your name what are they thinking of?\u00a0 Godliness and holiness or oh no, here comes trouble?\n\nDaniel had a great reputation and Ezekiel makes reference to that; something he couldn\u2019t have done if Daniel hadn\u2019t even lived yet, which raises another interesting point: who wrote the Book of Daniel?\u00a0 This has to do with what we would call authorship.\u00a0 Well, it depends on what date of the Book of Daniel you hold to.\u00a0 The late date (here\u2019s a fancy word, I paid a lot of tuition money to learn these fancy words, I thought I\u2019d use them on somebody) the late date of Daniel is called\u2026 here we go, The Maccabean Pseudepigrapha Theory.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 Well, you recognize the word pseudo, which means false, graph which means writer, a false writer.\u00a0 Maccabean simply means the empire that was in place when Daniel allegedly wrote this, the time of the Maccabees, which we\u2019ll be talking about in this study because the Maccabees are predicted by Daniel 400 years in advance.\u00a0 But there are those that don\u2019t believe God can know the end from the beginning so obviously someone forged the writing.\u00a0 That\u2019s pseudepigrapha means, forgery; it was not written by Daniel but someone using the penname Daniel after the real Daniel died.\n\nSo if you hold to a late date of Daniel you are simultaneously denying authorship, Danielic authorship of the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 I, obviously because I hold to an early date of Daniel don\u2019t believe that.\u00a0 I think Daniel wrote the book of Daniel. Isn\u2019t it sad that we\u2019re living in a time period where you have to actually come out and defend the idea that Daniel wrote Daniel. \u00a0Daniel 12:4 says this; God speaks to Daniel, \u201cBut as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book\u201d you get the impression that Daniel was writing down the words in a book.\u00a0 I also agree with Jesus; isn\u2019t that a good practice, to agree with Jesus.\u00a0 Matthew 24:15, Jesus says this: \u201cTherefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION\u201d (a very important prophecy by the way) \u201cwhich was spoken of through Daniel the prophet,\u201d he\u2019s quoting there Daniel 9:27, \u201cstanding in the holy place (let the reader understand).\u201d\n\nJesus quotes Daniel 9:27 and doesn\u2019t say this was written by the Maccabean Pseudepigrapha.\u00a0 He says this was written by Daniel.\u00a0 All things considered, Daniel was not written in the second century, it was written in the sixth century.\u00a0 All things considered this book is not a forgery; this book was actually written by the prophet, Daniel, during the time period in which he lived.\n\nWhich takes us now to another building block, another fancy word\u2026 ready?\u00a0 Literary genre.\u00a0 What is a genre?\u00a0 Genre basically refers to a species or a kind; it\u2019s a French word actually and it asks the question, what kind of literature are we dealing with here, because you know, when I read the Book of Daniel it sure doesn\u2019t read like the book of Romans.\u00a0 There\u2019s obviously different styles of literature; Romans is a letter, Daniel seems to be something different.\u00a0 Here\u2019s, I think, the proper literary genre; most of the Book of Daniel is narrative.\u00a0 What is narrative?\u00a0 Narrative is rehearsing the story that took place, much like reading the book of Genesis.\u00a0 Most of chapters 1-7, now there may be some exceptions there in 2 and 7 which I\u2019ll tell you about, but most of chapters 1-7 are what we would call narrative, simply telling the story of who Daniel was, who his three friends were and how they wound up in Babylonian captivity.\n\nOnce you move into chapters 8-12 the style of writing changes for now Daniel is giving prophecies, predictions, oracles if you will, of the future.\u00a0 Some of those prophecies, as we look back at them in the year 2016 have transpired, others are yet to come.\u00a0 The part of it that\u2019s transpired we call prophecy, the part of it yet to come we call eschatology.\n\nNow why in the world do I have you open up to the book of Deuteronomy in a study of the Book of Daniel?\u00a0 The answer to that is that\u2019s what my professor, J. Dwight Pentecost, made me do.\u00a0 When I first arrived at Dallas Seminary I was so excited to take this class that he was offering as an elective, called Daniel\/Revelation.\u00a0 He walking the room, I had followed his writings for years, almost an idol of mine, and he said \u201copen up to the book of Deuteronomy.\u201d\u00a0 I thought maybe he was getting a little\u2026 you know\u2026 senile, D\u2014Deuteronomy, D\u2014Daniel, both start with the letter D.\u00a0 But what he did for me was such a life changing thing.\u00a0 It was so beautiful because he linked the Book of Daniel to the covenants of God.\u00a0\u00a0 You cannot understand the Book of Daniel, you really can\u2019t understand any book of the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, without a foundation in the covenants that God made with the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\n\nIn Genesis 15 we run into a Hebrew word, Berith, I believe you pronounce that Ber-writh which refers to a covenant. \u00a0God contractually binds Himself to do certain things for the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; specifically God promises these people three things: number 1, land, which is basically a tract of real estate from modern day Egypt to modern day Iraq.\u00a0 Number 2, descendants that were innumerable.\u00a0 And number 3, personal blessing.\u00a0 And God, as you see from this PowerPoint slide comes along later in biblical history and never changes that covenant; He just adds clarity to it.\u00a0 The land is amplified in the Land Covenant, Deuteronomy 29 and 30.\u00a0 The Davidic Covenant amplifies the seed promises.\u00a0 The New Covenant amplifies the personal blessings.\n\nThe two things to understand about the Abrahamic Covenant, both begin with the letter \u201cU\u201d is the Abraham Covenant is unconditional, number 1, and number 2, unfulfilled.\u00a0 If you can understand unconditional and unfulfilled the Bible will start to make sense.\u00a0 The hand of God as it moves in history will start to make sense because when God makes a promise He\u2026 remember the movement Promise Keepers, I hate to rain on their parade, there\u2019s only one Promise Keeper and that\u2019s God.\u00a0 When God makes a promise He moves heaven and earth to fulfill the promise.\u00a0 Abraham didn\u2019t just have a promise from God, he had a contract, a covenant.\u00a0 God obligated Himself to do three things, land, seed and blessing.\u00a0 The rest of the Bible is God just vindicating what He said He was going to do.\u00a0 When the Abrahamic Covenant was entered into Abraham, and you can read all about this in Genesis 15, followed a ritual whereby animals were severed and arranged in two parallel rows.\u00a0 This is a common way covenants were entered into in that time.\u00a0 The parties to the covenant passed through the animal pieces and the parties were saying if we don\u2019t fulfill our obligation under the terms of the covenant then symbolically we are to be torn in two the way these animals have been torn in two.\n\nThat\u2019s why when you entered a covenant of this solemn nature you were as good as dead because your life was no longer your own, you lived to fulfill the covenant.\u00a0 What\u2019s so interesting about Genesis 15, is God put Abraham to sleep and God alone, as represented by the oven and the torch, passed through the animal pieces.\u00a0 And God is saying if these promises of land, seed and blessing do not materialize then let Me (God Himself is saying) be torn asunder as these animals have been torn asunder.\u00a0 That is the solemn nature of the Abrahamic Covenant and that\u2019s why, beloved, you can never get rid of Israel from the equation.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how wicked Israel becomes, it doesn\u2019t matter how Christ-less they become, God has made an obligation contractually to fulfill His purposes through these people, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\n\nThis is why the prophet Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 31:35-37 says this: as long as there is sun, moon and stars Israel will always be a nation before Me, God speaking that through the prophet Jeremiah.\u00a0 [Jeremiah 31:35-37, \u201cThus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day \u00a0And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name:\u00a0 [36] \u201cIf this fixed order departs From before Me,\u201d declares the LORD, \u201cThen the offspring of Israel also will cease From being a nation before Me forever.\u201d\u00a0 [37] Thus says the LORD, \u201cIf the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,\u2019 declares the LORD.]\n\nThat prophecy was given while the nation of Israel was at the height of disobedience.\u00a0 In fact, they were about to go into the Babylonian deportation because of discipline and they were just doing little sins, you know, small ones, like throwing your kids into a fire to satisfy a god named Molech.\u00a0 You can\u2019t get more Christ-rejecting and God-hating than the way these people became and yet God, through Jeremiah says as long as there\u2019s sun, as long as there\u2019s moon, as long as there\u2019s stars Israel will be forever before Me as a nation; even when they\u2019re in discipline they\u2019re My people.\n\nSo if you want to get rid of Israel you don\u2019t aim your rockets and tanks and bombs at Israel, you aim your missiles at the sun, the moon and the stars because as long as that fixed order remains Israel will always have the protective care and hand of God upon them.\u00a0 And that covenantal structure, you can try to find it anywhere in history, has never been completely fulfilled.\u00a0 In fact, that dark area is what Israel got under Joshua.\u00a0 That lighter area is everything yet to come.\n\nBut let me tell you something: \u201cWhom the Lord the Lord\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cchastens.\u201d\u00a0 And this is why He brought them to Mount Sinai after 400 years of captivity in Egypt and He entered into another covenant with the nation of Israel a full six centuries after the Abrahamic Covenant had been entered into; this was called the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Exodus 19:5-6, \u201cNow then, if<\/u> you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then<\/u> you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; [6] and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.\u2019 These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 This is different, is it not, from the Abrahamic Covenant; this is the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 You see the \u201cif \u2013 then\u201d language.\n\nWhat is an unconditional covenant anyway.\u00a0 An unconditional covenant, like in the Abrahamic Covenant, is a promise that God will make good on regardless of whether the other parties or party fulfills conditions.\u00a0 Not so the Mosaic Covenant; it is conditional.\u00a0 For this covenant to come into blessing the nation of Israel must obey God.\u00a0 What does this whole thing look like?\u00a0 Can I throw a fancy word at you?\u00a0 An unconditional covenant with a conditional blessing; that\u2019s what it is.\u00a0 An unconditional covenant; you look at the whole thing, it\u2019s an unconditional covenant but with a conditional blessing. Israel will always be the owner of land, seed and blessing but for a generation to enter into the blessings that they own, to enjoy the blessings that they own it requires the fulfillment of a condition, the satisfaction of the Mosaic Covenant.\n\nThere\u2019s a world of difference between ownership and possession.\u00a0 I could own a beach house in the Hamptons, let\u2019s pretend I do, I don\u2019t, but I am so busy working I don\u2019t have time to possess or enter or enjoy it, I\u2019m just an owner but not an enjoyer.\u00a0 Because the nation of Israel is in disobedience she owns these blessings but she never enters those blessings to their maximum state, enjoys those blessings, until she complies with the covenant at Mount Sinai.\u00a0 The Mosaic Covenant is given, it\u2019s articulated in Exodus chapters19-24.\n\nAnd can I throw some more fancy words at you?\u00a0 This is a covenant that is known as a Suzerain Vassal Treaty.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let those words frighten you.\u00a0 Suzerain, \u201cS\u201d think of superior, Vassal, think of inferior, a common covenantal structure where a superior (the Suzerain), who in this case would be who? God, enters into a covenant with an inferior, a vassal, who in this case would be who? The nation of Israel.\u00a0 And the Suzerain says to the Vassal, if you obey the covenant text then I will bless; if you disobey the covenant text I will curse.\n\nSo the nation of Israel is under a system whereby they remain God\u2019s chosen people forever.\u00a0\u00a0 But \u201cwhom the Lord loves, the Lord chastens.\u201d\u00a0 [Hebrews 12:6]\u00a0 The Mosaic Covenant itself explains the chastening that comes, or the blessing that comes.\u00a0 If Israel is in compliance with the covenant text, which in this case would be the Ten Commandments\u2026 it\u2019s very similar to your relationship with the Lord.\u00a0 We teach at this church one saved always saved.\u00a0 We believe very strongly in the doctrine of eternal security.\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019re teaching a Sunday School lesson on that, we\u2019re moving really fast, we\u2019re up to part 37, I encourage you to come early and attend that.\u00a0 So I am God\u2019s and I\u2019ll always be God\u2019s but guess what?\u00a0 What happens when I step out of line?\u00a0 \u201cWhom the Lord loves the Lord\u201d what? \u201cchastens.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s the same sort of relationship that Israel had with God as a nation.\u00a0 His chastening can be very severe but it cannot cut Israel loose, cut her cord and disown her.\u00a0 In fact, the Bible tells us the fact that we are disciplined by God is proof that He loves us.\u00a0 It\u2019s proof that He owns us.\u00a0 So in the Mosaic Covenant you have this suzerain vassal treaty; the book of Deuteronomy fits the exact same characteristics of suzerain vassal treaties, going back to the time of Moses, that we know from archeology.\u00a0 There\u2019s always a preamble, a historical prologue tracing the relationship between the two parties.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s the covenantal obligations; what does the vassal have to do?\u00a0 And then there is storage and reading instructions and God told the nation of Israel to store the covenant text where?\u00a0 In the ark.\u00a0 And He gave them instructions related to how periodically read the Law, exactly what you have in ancient Suzerain Vassal Treaties.\u00a0 Then there was always witnesses called.\u00a0 But who could be God\u2019s witness?\u00a0 God says I\u2019ll call heaven and earth as My witnesses.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 32:1.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 32:1, \u201cGive ear, O heavens, and let me speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.\u201d]\n\nAnd then comes the spine of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 28, which is why I had you open to Deuteronomy 28, which is a blessings and curses section.\u00a0 The blessings are given in Deuteronomy 28:1-14, Israel if you obey the covenant text here\u2019s what you can expect to happen: you will lend but not borrow.\u00a0 You will go out and fight your enemies against overwhelming odds and you will win.\u00a0 You will be the head and not the tail.\u00a0 You will be in a place of prosperity and not poverty.\u00a0 Now do you notice this chapter, the blessings only go on for 14 verses.\n\n[Deuteronomy 28:1-14, \u201cNow it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. [2]All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God: [3] \u201cBlessed shall<\/em> you be<\/em> in the city, and blessed shall<\/em> you be<\/em> in the country.\u00a0 [4]\u201cBlessed shall be<\/em> the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.\u00a0 [5] \u201cBlessed shall be<\/em> your basket and your kneading bowl.\u00a0 [6] \u201cBlessed shall<\/em> you be<\/em> when you come in, and blessed shall<\/em> you be<\/em> when you go out.\u00a0 [7] The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. [8] \u201cThe LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. [10] So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you. [11] The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. \u00a0[12] The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. \u00a0[13]The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them<\/em> carefully, [14] and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.\u201d]\n\nYou get to verse 15, all the way through the end of the chapter and it\u2019s curse after curse after curse that the nation would physically and materially experience as they went into disobedience.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Deuteronomy 28:15, \u201cBut it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: [16] \u201cCursed shall<\/em> you be<\/em> in the city, and cursed shall<\/em> you be<\/em> in the country.\u00a0 [17] \u201cCursed shall be<\/em> your basket and your kneading bowl. [18] \u201cCursed shall be<\/em> the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.\u201d And it goes on and on and on like this.\u00a0 We call these the \u201ccycles of discipline.\u201d\n\nThese cycles of discipline would mount, almost like a rolling snowball getting larger and larger and larger and finally at the height of it God says here\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I had you turn to Deuteronomy 28:49-50; at the height of it all the [49<\/a>] \u201cThe LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, [50<\/a>] a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.\u201d\u00a0 What is going to happen is I\u2019m going to bring a pagan power against you that will displace you from your land.\u00a0 And this becomes the spine of the Old Testament, explaining why the Old Testament reads like it does.\n\nYou know the Law of God, the Mosaic Covenant, says a king is not to place himself above the Law, he is to place himself below the Law.\u00a0 He is not to multiply wives, he is not to multiply wives for himself, Deuteronomy 17:14-20.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 17:14, \u201cWhen you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, \u2018I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,\u2019 [15] you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one<\/em> from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. [16] Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, \u2018You shall never again return that way.\u2019 [17] He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.\u00a0 [18] Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. [19] It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, [20] that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.\u201d]\n\nWhat did Solomon, the third king of the United Kingdom do?\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like he woke up one day, read Deuteronomy 17 and did the opposite.\u00a0 He put himself above the Law; he multiplied wives; he multiplied wealth for himself, and so God, as He promised all the way back in the time of Moses, brought discipline and the kingdom was divided the moment Solomon left the throne.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why when you go through the Old Testament you\u2019ll see two kingdoms; the northern kingdom consisting of ten tribes took on the name Israel, the southern kingdom taking on the name Judah, consisting of two tribes, Benjamin and Judah.\u00a0 North\/south.\u00a0 The capital of the north, Samaria; capital of the south, Jerusalem.\u00a0 The north didn\u2019t do so well.\u00a0 In fact, the north had nineteen kings, not a single king was ever called good in the north.\u00a0 Now if\u00a0 your team is going 0 and 19 you\u2019re not having the best season.\n\nSo God made good on what He said he would do through Moses seven hundred years earlier, He brought a nation that spoke a foreign tongue, called the Assyrians and they dispersed the north.\u00a0 They became scattered, the scattered ten tribes.\u00a0 Now you would think the south would have learned what happened to the north and straightened\u00a0 up.\u00a0 Not so!\u00a0 The south actually became worse and God finally brought the south into judgment, into captivity by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that God had more grace on the south than the north; they lasted 170 years longer; they were not scattered, they were brought into captivity, into a single geographic location in Babylon.\u00a0 They had twenty kings and at least they had eight good kings, quasi good, a lot of them did good things but did bad things too.\n\nSo what you see is the hand of God extending the south greater grace.\u00a0 Now why would God do that?\u00a0 Because of the prophecy that He made all the way back to the time of Jacob in Genesis 49:10 which says the Messiah is going to come through which tribe?\u00a0 Judah.\u00a0 That would be in the south and that\u2019s why God is preserving the south, giving additional grace to the south because the south has to be in place to give birth to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, several centuries later.\n\nNebuchadnezzar, the instrument that God used to bring the south into captivity, was nobody\u2019s fool; let me tell you!\u00a0 This man had a strategy and what he said is here\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do; I\u2019m not going to take down the south, Judah and Jerusalem in one foul swoop, I\u2019m going to do it in three waves.\u00a0 The first wave I\u2019m going to come and I\u2019m going to take the best and the brightest.\u00a0 So he came in 605 B.C. under one of the final kings of Judah named Jehoiakim, and that\u2019s when Daniel, as a very young man, is brought into Babylonian captivity.\u00a0 And Nebuchadnezzar has a game plan; I\u2019ve got the best and the brightest, I\u2019m going to brainwash them.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s going on in Daniel 1, they\u2019re learning all the literature of the Chaldeans because I\u2019m going to get them on my side so they talk the rest of the population into coming along peaceably, which is a great strategy of the devil, by the way, you just get the best and the brightest on\u00a0 your side and the rest will fall into place.\u00a0 They can be talked into anything.\n\nAnd then later in 597 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar comes again and this time the king in Judah was Jehoiachin and this time Nebuchadnezzar took the majority, about 10,000 people, into Babylonian captivity.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when the prophet Ezekiel goes into captivity in the second deportation.\u00a0 And then with the hard work done Nebuchadnezzar comes back in 586; Zedekiah is the last ruling king over Judah, and Nebuchadnezzar comes and destroys the remnant, what\u2019s left of the remnant; he destroys the temple and the sanctuary, something the Jews thought could never happen because that\u2019s where the Shekinah Glory of God was once.\u00a0 And yet Ezekiel traces the departure of the Shekinah glory of God and how Nebuchadnezzar took that temple apart piece by piece.\n\nAnd Jeremiah, during this time, writes the book called Lamentations.\u00a0 Why is it called Lamentations?\u00a0 Because he\u2019s lamenting; he\u2019s lamenting what has happened.\u00a0 And so this is why when you open the pages of the Book of Daniel the nation of Israel is not in Israel, they are 350 miles to the east in a place called Babylon.\u00a0 And in that time period, which basically lasts 70 years, Jeremiah is very clear in Jeremiah 25:11 and 29:10 that the captivity will last exactly 70 years, God raises up two men; one of them is named Daniel, the other one is named Ezekiel. \u00a0\u00a0[Jeremiah 25:11, \u201c'This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.\u201d\u00a0 Jeremiah 29:10, \u201cFor thus says the LORD, \u2018When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.\u201d]\n\nAnd they are the exilic prophets, if you have good eyes there, prophesying in that space or gap of time.\u00a0 Their whole ministries took place while the nation, particularly Judah, is in captivity.\u00a0 How can you understand the captivity, how can you understand what\u2019s happening without that background.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost, when he opened with Deuteronomy and not Daniel gave me a gift; he put into my hands the keys by which the Scripture can be understood and unlocked.\u00a0 And you see, that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to give to you; I\u2019m trying to help us understand that the nation of Israel has not been severed from God; the Abrahamic Covenant won\u2019t allow that.\u00a0 But \u201cWhom the Lord loves the Lord chastens,\u201d that\u2019s the outworking of the cycles of discipline; that is the outworking of the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Israel, or Judah particularly, is in captivity when the Book of Daniel opens.\n\nSo that takes us now to the message of the book.\u00a0 What is this book about?\u00a0 Simply put this book is about a period of time that has never been revealed prior, called a mystery, called the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 It\u2019s a period of time when the nation of Israel will have no king reigning on David\u2019s throne, Zedekiah being the last.\u00a0 And the nation of Israel is going to be trampled down by various Gentile powers which are detailed for us in chapter 2 and chapter 7 in the form of two visions.\u00a0 And the nation of Israel will be bullied by the Gentile nations of the earth, trampled down.\u00a0 But one of these days the times of the Gentiles will end, Jesus will return at the end of the Great Tribulation, He will rule from David\u2019s throne, Matthew 25:31 indicates that.\u00a0 [Matthew 25:31, \u201cBut when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.\u201d]\u00a0 He will set up His kingdom through the Jewish people and the times of the Gentiles will be over.\n\nSo what you have to understand, and as we speak today the nation of Israel is in the times of the Gentiles; they\u2019re still in it.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t anybody that\u2019s more pro-Israel than probably myself; I\u2019ve even tried to look at my family tree, you know how you can do that on the internet these days, to see if I\u2019ve got some kind of Jewish blood in me I\u2019m so exuberant about the nation of Israel.\u00a0 I just love the Jewish people.\u00a0 But having said that, while we should bless the Jewish people, what you have to understand is that the nation of Israel today, as a Christ-rejecting nation, is under the discipline of God.\u00a0 God has not cast them aside; He can\u2019t, the Abrahamic Covenant won\u2019t allow God to do that.\u00a0 But He can put them through severe discipline, something that they\u2019re under now.\n\nAnd God, who never leaves the earth without a witness of Himself begins in Acts 2 to raise up the church, which is us.\u00a0 The church consists of all people who have trusted by faith in the Messiah that national Israel rejected.\u00a0 We are a new man and one of these days the church age will be over.\u00a0 I think God has laid the foundation of the church, from my point of view He\u2019s putting on the roof.\u00a0 But the very last Gentile that\u2019s supposed to come into the church age will believe, the body of Christ will be complete, the church will be removed from the earth and then God will put His hand back on national Israel and make good on every promise He\u2019s ever made to them, even bringing them to faith in the midst of unparalleled distress.\n\nDaniel doesn\u2019t talk about the church; Paul does, but the concept of the times of the Gentiles is laid out very clearly in the Book of Daniel. In fact, that\u2019s why God raised Daniel up, to explain this time period.\u00a0 And more important than that how are you supposed to live in this time period?\u00a0 That\u2019s what chapter 1, chapters 3-6 are there for, because we have role models of what Daniel did in a pagan society.\u00a0 Here was his basic modus operandi<\/em>: no compromise, in every area no compromise and even though I can die I\u2019m going to trust my life and my circumstances to God.\u00a0 Oh, how God came through for Daniel and his three friends, over and over and over again.\n\nWhat compromise are\u00a0 you involved in, in your life?\u00a0 What are you not trusting God for?\u00a0 Can\u2019t God come through for you the same way He came through for Daniel and his three friends?\u00a0 That\u2019s the application to us.\u00a0 So the entire purpose of the Book of Daniel is there to encourage Judah by emphasizing the sovereignty of God during the Babylonian Captivity and to teach Judah how to live while they\u2019re outside the land.\u00a0 The Law of God taught Israel how to live while they were inside the land.\u00a0 They\u2019re in a different era now; now they\u2019re outside the land.\u00a0 What do we do now?\u00a0 You follow the example of Daniel and his three friends because although it\u2019s painful, although its uncomfortable, although you\u2019re under discipline, although Babylon is now in power God has not lost control of this.\u00a0 In fact, the only reason Babylon exists is because of the sovereign purposes of God.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the Book of Daniel is here for.\u00a0 The whole concept of the book is encouragement during a time of discipline.\n\nAnd this is the great problem that we have as Bible readers; we bifurcate the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 When most Christians think of the Book of Daniel they think of their Sunday School days where their Sunday School teacher on a flannel board somewhere told them the story of Daniel in the lion\u2019s den.\u00a0 And then when they think of the Book of Daniel they think of the last prophecy conference that they went to where all of these so-called experts were giving their opinions about the ten toes of Daniel 2.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019ve listened to some of those explanations; some of those explanations are so detailed that these folks cannot only tell you about the ten toes they can tell you about the ten toenails.\u00a0 So people think of the book of Daniel as a complicated prophecy and stories.\u00a0 What they miss is the whole message; everything in the book, whether it\u2019s a story of history or a prophecy is there to show them that God is in control; God is in charge!\n\nAnd so we ought to see the whole book for what it is rather than bifurcating it in our minds the way we do.\u00a0 Which leads us to another point, how do you outline this book?\u00a0\u00a0 Have\u00a0 you ever studied the veins on the leaves of the tree so intently that you forget what the forest looks like?\u00a0 We do that a lot in Bible study, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 Bible churches are the worst at this; we\u2019re so detailed oriented that we lose sight of the big picture.\u00a0 An outline of the book gives you the big picture.\n\nI had a friend, a friend of mine when I was living in Dallas, the two of us became friends, he was a longtime resident of Dallas and he said you know, when I drove around Dallas when I first came to this city I used to get lost all the time; and then one day it dawned on me how this city is structured, how this city is set up and I began to develop in my mind not a street by street understanding of the city but an aerial shot, and once I understood the big picture I understood where I was supposed to go; I never got lost again.\n\nYou know, I used to get upset with some of my basketball coaches because I didn\u2019t think they saw things correctly.\u00a0 So they would put me on the bench, I didn\u2019t do something right, I didn\u2019t like that very much, I spent a lot of time on the bench, by the way, and then one day I got injured so I had to sit in the bleachers at the top of the gym where I could watch the team practice, I could watch the team play games and when I saw that I wasn\u2019t just focused on my own position and myself, I could see the whole game of basketball.\u00a0 What a different view that is.\u00a0 And I began to understand why the coaches put me on the bench, I wasn\u2019t fitting into the system that you need to win basketball games.\n\nAnd see, that\u2019s what we\u2019re like with the Bible; we\u2019re so focused on a detail here and there we don\u2019t see the big picture.\u00a0 So what is the big picture?\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s the outline I used to use, chapters 1-6 is the narrative section; chapters 7-12 is the prophetic section.\u00a0 There\u2019s a little problem with that; chapters 2-7 are in a different language, called Aramaic.\u00a0 The rest of the book, chapter 1, chapters 8-12 is in Hebrew; this outline interrupts the Aramaic sections so here\u2019s, I think, the right outline of the book.\u00a0 Chapters 1-7, part 1; chapters 8-12, part 2; in part 1 Daniel interprets his own visions, he speaks of himself in the third person and he\u2019s primarily talking about the Gentile nations.\u00a0 Chapter 1 is in Hebrew; chapter 2 is what we would call an Aramaic chiasm, which is a strange method of literature to the western mind but it\u2019s very common in biblical times.\u00a0 It\u2019s arranged like an X, it gets the word \u201cchiasm\u201d from the Greek word kai,<\/em> which looks like an X, and what you have is this: the beginning and the end of that section line up.\u00a0\u00a0 And then you move in a little bit, the second section lines up with the second to last section.\u00a0 Then you move in a little bit more, the third section lines up with the third to last section.\u00a0 And the point of the chiasm is right there in the middle.\n\nThat\u2019s why Daniel 2-7 is in Aramaic; it\u2019s giving us a chiastic structure.\u00a0 Chapter 2 lines up with chapter 7; chapter 3 lines up with chapter 6; chapter 4 lines up with chapter 5.\u00a0 What is God doing in chapter 2?\u00a0 He\u2019s giving an outline of the empires that will trample Israel down during the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 My goodness, that\u2019s the exact same thing that happens in chapter 7, except in chapter 2 it looks like an image made of precious metal because it\u2019s from the vantage point of Nebuchadnezzar who\u2019s doing the trampling.\u00a0 Daniel sees the same thing in the form of four ferocious disgusting beasts; he\u2019s giving the Jewish point of view because he and his people are being trampled upon.\u00a0 Then you move into chapter 3 and it lines up with chapter 6.\u00a0 What\u2019s the topic in both?\u00a0 Civil disobedience. Is it ever right to disobey the government?\u00a0 I was asked that in our Bible and Voting series and the answer is hold the question because we\u2019re going to be getting to it in the book of Daniel.\u00a0 Daniel 3 and Daniel 6 answer that question.\u00a0 They disobey government when government contradicted God and they were willing to risk their lives in doing it.\u00a0 Chapter 3 is Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego doing it; chapter 6 is Daniel doing it in the lion\u2019s den.\n\nAnd then you move into the interior of the chiasm and God is revealing Himself to a Gentile king; the first King of Babylon when Babylon came to power over Jerusalem, chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar. God reveals Himself to Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 And then God reveals Himself to the last King of Babylon before Babylon was overtaken by the Persians, a man named Belshazzar in chapter 5.\u00a0 Chapter 4 is grace on a Gentile king; chapter 5 is judgment on a Gentile king. It\u2019s chiastically organized. \u00a0That\u2019s supposed to be Roman numeral II, part 2 of the book, the prophetic section where now an angel does the interpreting, not Daniel.\u00a0 Daniel speaks of himself not in the third person but the first person.\u00a0 He is not focused on the Gentile nations, he\u2019s focused on the Jewish nations and the language switches from Aramaic back to Hebrew.\u00a0 Chapter 8 is the vision of the ram and the goat, the ram being Persia which follows Babylon; goat being Greece which follows Persia.\u00a0 And then chapter 9 is the Seventy Weeks Prophecy which we may never get out of.\u00a0 In fact we may be in the Seventy Weeks Prophecy longer than Daniel was because that prophecy reveals the time to the day that Jesus showed up in His triumphal entry.\u00a0 It reveals a gap of time that we\u2019re in now and a final seven years of history that is yet to come.\u00a0 And then finally Daniel, in chapters 10-12 has his final vision; chapter 10 being the spiritual warfare chapter, and then the vision moves from the time of Daniel into the intertestamental period; it leapfrogs our age and goes into the tribulation and the millennial kingdom, the final vision from God.\n\nSo the flow of the book in terms of the succession of Gentile powers is Babylon is in power first, 605-539.\u00a0 The two prominent Babylonian kings are first of all Nebuchadnezzar, and later Belshazzar.\u00a0 And then there is a seat change politically, as Daniel predicted would happen Babylon is overthrown by the Persians in a single night and that political seat change happens in Daniel 5. \u00a0And then the Persians come to power and then Darius is prominent and then Cyrus.\u00a0 That\u2019s the flow of the book.\n\nThis chart here will help you keep which Empire is in place in which chapter.\u00a0 Chapters 1-4, the king that\u2019s in place is Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.\u00a0 Chapter 5, Belshazzar of Babylon is the featured subject.\u00a0 Chapter 6, the king that threw Daniel into the lion\u2019s den is Darius of Media-Persia.\u00a0 Chapter 7 and 8, Belshazzar of Babylon is in power.\u00a0 Chapter 9, when Daniel had the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks Darius of Media-Persia was in power.\u00a0\u00a0 And then when Daniel had his final prophecy Cyrus of Media-Persia is in power, chapters 10-12.\u00a0 There\u2019s a change between Babylon being overtaken by the Persians in a single night, Daniel chapter 5.\n\nYou say well wait a minute, this is out of order.\u00a0 \u00a0Babylon, Babylon, Media-Persia, wait, 7 and 8 go back to Babylon; chapter 9 goes back to Media-Persia.\u00a0 Chapters 10-12 goes back to Media-Persia.\u00a0 And you\u2019re right, it is out of order because the book of Daniel is not structured chronologically, it is structured what?\u00a0 Chiastically.\u00a0 \u00a0See, we want everything to start here and end there; that\u2019s how the western mind works.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the way the Bible is written many times.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the Aramaic chiasm is written; embedded chronology, believe it or not I\u2019m getting close to finishing, hang in there.\u00a0 There are several places where a date is given.\u00a0 Daniel 1:1, the third year of Jehoiakim, 605.\u00a0 Daniel 2:1, second year of Nebuchadnezzar, 603.\u00a0 Daniel 5 happened October 12, 539 B.C.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because my professor, Harold Hoehner, one of the greatest chronologists that ever lived, figured that out.\u00a0 Read his book, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ<\/em> and you\u2019ll see his proof.\u00a0 Chapter 7, verse 1, the first year of Belshazzar, 553, Daniel 8:1.\u00a0 The third year of Belshazzar, 551, Daniel 9:1, first year of Darius, 538, Daniel 10:1, third year of Cyrus, 536.\u00a0 Wait a minute, hold the phone, chapters 7 and 8 are what?\u00a0 out of order.\u00a0 It goes 605, 603, 539, then it goes back to what?\u00a0 553, it goes back up.\u00a0 Why are 7 and 8 out of order?\u00a0 Because the book is not structured chronologically, it\u2019s structured chiastically.\n\nDaniel served through two empires, pagan empires.\u00a0 And when you put the whole thing together he served two Babylonian kings and two Persian kings; that was Daniel\u2019s career which lasted about seventy years.\u00a0 He served under two, actually four different administrations.\u00a0 Was he tempted to compromise? You bet, but he remained faithful to God no matter where he was and who he was serving.\u00a0 And God honored him, which is the message for us.\n\nSo the last point is if we can figure out this embedded chronology we can figure out Daniel\u2019s age.\u00a0 Most believe that Daniel was taken into captivity as a very young man, about the age of 15 in Daniel 1.\u00a0 Daniel 2 happens two years later which means he was about 17.\u00a0 And I\u2019m just following the chronology that I showed you on this chart here.\u00a0 When his friends are thrown into the fiery furnace he\u2019s probably 19 or 20.\u00a0 When he interprets New Testament\u2019s second dream, chapter 4, he\u2019s probably somewhere between 45-50.\u00a0 When Daniel 5 happens and Persia overthrows Babylon in what we call the handwriting on the wall chapter he\u2019s probably in his early 80\u2019s.\u00a0 When he\u2019s delivered from\u00a0 the lion\u2019s den he\u2019s 83 years old.\u00a0 So all of these pictures you see about Daniel in the lion\u2019s den with biceps out to here, looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger, all that is false.\u00a0 He was not thrown into the lion\u2019s den as a\u00a0 young man; he was frail and old and he had no one to depend upon but God.\u00a0 And guess what position you\u2019re in when you\u2019ve got no one else to depend upon but God?\u00a0 You\u2019re in the best position you could be in.\n\nBut wait a minute, hold the phone, now we\u2019re back down to his 60\u2019s, chapter 7 and 8.\u00a0 Then we go back to his early 80\u2019s when he has the seventy weeks prophecy, and then when he has the final vision he\u2019s in his mid-80\u2019s.\u00a0 Why does it go from 80\u2019s to 60\u2019s to 80\u2019s?\u00a0 Because 7 and 8 are out of order because the book is not structured chronologically; the book is structured chiastically.\n\nAnd by the way, this is a little application here, a lot of you people think you\u2019re too old to be used by God.\u00a0 We call that retirement; oh, I\u2019ve done that, God\u2019s finished using me.\u00a0 As long as there is breath in your body God wants to use you; it doesn\u2019t matter how old you are.\u00a0 Can I say one other thing; it doesn\u2019t matter how young you are.\u00a0 He was used by God as a 15 year old and he had his greatest visions in his mid to late 80\u2019s.\u00a0 And by the way, the pattern that he had as a 15 year old, no compromise followed him into his old age, because we have a mindset today among young people that says this: oh, I\u2019m just going to sew a few wild oats, I\u2019m going to compromise a little bit and then I\u2019m going to get serious about God.\u00a0 Beloved, it doesn\u2019t work that way.\u00a0 Whatever stance you\u2019re taking as a young person, that becomes part of your character, which will follow\u00a0 you in terms of your habits of living until old age.\n\nThis is what we need to be telling young people; stand for God now while you\u2019re young because it will formulate the right character, which will allow you to stand for God later.\u00a0 A lot of people ask me, Andy, why are you the way you are?\u00a0 And I\u2019ve thought about that, why am I the way that I am?\u00a0 The reason is because as a very young person I heard the gospel; I didn\u2019t waste any time, I got serious about it and there were certain decisions that became part of who I am which largely explains who I am today.\u00a0 And I wonder how different I would be if I lived in compromise all those\u00a0 years.\u00a0 So that is a little bit of background on the book of Daniel; I hope you\u2019re looking forward to this study and we\u2019re going to begin a verse by verse teaching of it.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for the book of Daniel and the way it speaks to us in our lives.\u00a0 Be with us as a flock and as a congregation as we travel through this very ancient book and You teach us things about our time period, how to live, prophecy, and the wonderful truth you have for us.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We lift these things up in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t