{"id":18380,"date":"2016-12-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-005-god-reveals-mysteries\/"},"modified":"2016-12-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T06:00:00","slug":"daniel-005-god-reveals-mysteries","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-005-god-reveals-mysteries\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 005: God Reveals Mysteries"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18380","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 005: God Reveals Mysteries","sermon_date":"20161211","sermon_month":"12","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":4138,"sermon_slides":4139,"sermon_mp3":4141,"sermon_id":"1211161017422","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"2:1-23","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH\n\nLesson 5, God Reveals Mysteries, Daniel 2:1-23\n\nDecember 11, 2016,\n\nGood morning everybody; if we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of Daniel, chapter 2.\u00a0 The title of our Message this morning is God Reveals Mysteries.\u00a0 We\u2019ve just started the book of Daniel, I think this is our fifth sermon, we\u2019re in chapter 2 so we\u2019re moving a little bit anyway.\u00a0 The nation of Israel is in a place of confinement, unfamiliarity, when this book was written, having been exported 350 miles to the east in a place called Babylon; modern day Iraq is what we would call Babylon in the Bible.\n\nAnd the nation of Israel had been in the land for 800 years prior to this time but their sin had become so great that God decided to, just like you put your kids in time out, He put the nation in \u201ctime out\u201d for seventy years.\u00a0 And a new period of time has started which we\u2019re going to start getting a greater explanation on in this chapter called the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 What is the course of events that are to happen as the nation of Israel is being out of their land, no reigning king on David\u2019s throne, being trampled down by various Gentile powers?\n\nSo God strategically raises up Daniel as a prophet to explain this new time period.\u00a0\u00a0 But Daniel is much more than prophecy about this time period, it\u2019s how to live for God in a pagan environment.\u00a0 So Daniel and his three friends serve as role models, if you will, role models that I think we should follow because we, in our country, are living in what many have called a post-Christian country.\u00a0 How do we live for God in a society that questions over and over again the biblical assumptions it used to hold to?\u00a0 How do we, as God\u2019s people, shine brightly in that environment.\u00a0 The book of Daniel therefore becomes very important to us.\u00a0 And all of the material in this book is there to encourage the nation just like it\u2019s there to encourage us, that God is still very much in control.\n\nThe book of Daniel basically has two parts, the historical section, chapters 1-7, then the prophetic section, chapters 8-12.\u00a0 We are still in the midst of that historical section, having finished last week chapter 1, which really sets the stage for the book.\u00a0 There in chapter 1 we learned of the crisis that the nation was in.\u00a0 And then we moved into chapter 2-7 where the language changes.\u00a0 The first chapter, like most of Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the language of the Jews.\u00a0 You move into chapters 2-7 and the language changes to Aramaic; Aramaic, of course, being the common language of the Gentiles.\u00a0 So God is sending a message through that shift in language to these Gentile nations that think they have the upper hand.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have any upper hand.\u00a0 God is very much in control, and this section is organized in what is called, chapters 2-7, a chiasm.\u00a0 The word \u201cchiasm\u201d comes from the Greek word chi, which sort of looks like an X. A chiasm is a literary pattern where the outer edges of the chiasm align with each other.\u00a0 Then part two of the chiasm aligns with the second to last part of the chiasm and so forth so you\u2019re kind of moving inward.\n\nSo what I\u2019m trying to say is simply this; chapter 2 aligns with chapter 7.\u00a0 You\u2019ll read chapter 2 and you\u2019ll say wait a minute, doesn\u2019t it say the same thing in chapter\u00a0 7?\u00a0 And the answer is yes, it\u2019s repeating information but from a slightly different vantage point.\u00a0 Chapter 3, the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace reads a lot like chapter 6, Daniel in the lion\u2019s den.\u00a0 Some of you have asked me about civil disobedience, is it ever appropriate to say no to the government?\u00a0 Chapter 3 and chapter 6 answers that question.\u00a0 Chapter 4 aligns with chapter 5, in both cases God is revealing Himself to a Gentile king.\u00a0 He\u2019s giving grace to Nebuchadnezzar, chapter 4, but He\u2019s articulating judgment to the very last king of Babylon, a man named Belshazzar, chapter 5.\n\nSo I will make reference to this chiasm as we move into it and it seems sort of strange to the western mind, this literary pattern, because we like things to go chronologically but that\u2019s not how it worked in biblical times.\u00a0 They used literary devices of literary patterns called chiasms.\u00a0 In fact, the whole book of Esther is set up chiastically.\u00a0 The whole Gospel of Mark is set up chiastically, and that\u2019s what you have in chapters 2-7.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a great way to explain this literary unit because one of the things that happens to us as Bible readers is we get caught off on details, it\u2019s like studying the veins on the leaves of the tree so intently you forget what the forest looks like.\u00a0 This is the forest I\u2019m giving you here; this is the big picture.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what\u2019s important to keep in mind as we move through this.\n\nAnd here is an outline of chapter 2; don\u2019t hit the panic button, we won\u2019t get through all of this today, some of it though.\u00a0 And it begins with a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had.\u00a0 The antagonist in chapters 1-4 is this man named Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 He is the Babylonian King that God has used as an instrument of His discipline to take the nation into the seventy year captivity.\u00a0 And what we discover is that God is reaching out to this man, Nebuchadnezzar, because God wants all men saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, even those entities that He\u2019s using as enemies of the nation God loves.\u00a0 And so you\u2019ll start to see this, particularly as we move in chapters 2, 3 and 4, and I believe by the time you get to the end of chapter 4 I believe Nebuchadnezzar is a believer in Yahweh.\u00a0 I\u2019ll show you evidence of that.\u00a0 I believe that we will see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven.\n\nSo it is very exciting to me and interesting to me that God does not rule people out.\u00a0 Sometimes we give up on people; we think the grace of God will never reach a person and yet the most unlikely person can be reached in God and we\u2019ll see evidence of that as we move through.\n\nBut notice, if you will, Daniel chapter 2 and verse 1, it says, \u201cNow in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,\u201d using a standard chronology we can date this time period as 603 B.C.\u00a0 The events of chapter 2 take place about two years after the events of chapter 1.\u00a0 Daniel has had to make a stand for God in chapter 1 as a 15 year old, and now\u00a0 he is being called to make a similar stand, in fact a more aggressive stand two years later as a 17 year old.\n\nBut notice what it says here, \u201cNow in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,\u201d now immediately you look at this and you say I see a contradiction here in the Bible because Daniel 1:5 explains that the indoctrination that these Hebrew youths went through lasted three years.\u00a0 [Daniel 1:5, \u201cThe king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service.\u201d]\u00a0 In other words, Nebuchadnezzar took them under his authority, he began to brainwash them in the educational system of the Babylonians, they were under that indoctrination for three years, and then the events of chapter 2 unfold.\u00a0 So this would indicate, chapter 1, that three years have passed following Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s rise to power.\n\nBut this gets tricky because it says in chapter 2, verse 1, \u201cNow in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,\u201d so which is it?\u00a0 Is it the third year or is it the second year.\u00a0 And people like to\u2026 and the reason I bring these things up is they like to find what W. C. Fields called loopholes in the Bible.\u00a0 They are always looking for a problem.\u00a0 In fact, W. C. Fields, who was not known for his godliness, (to say the least), at the end of his life everybody was shocked that he, as he was getting ready to die was looking through his Bible and people said what are you reading that for?\u00a0 And his famous line is \u201cI\u2019m looking for loopholes,\u201d because you see, the Bible makes moral claims on human beings.\u00a0 Humanity, in and of itself, does not like to be under the authority of God so they try to attack the authority of God by trying to discredit the Bible.\u00a0 One of the ways they do this is they try to say the Bible has contradictions in it.\n\nIsn\u2019t it interesting that Dan Rather and Peter Jennings and all of these people in the media, they don\u2019t run Easter specials, or Christmas specials against Shakespeare; they run them against the Bible.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t they attack Shakespeare the way they attack the Bible?\u00a0 Because Shakespeare doesn\u2019t make any moral claim on a person.\u00a0 The Bible does!\u00a0 So you\u2019ll watch A & E or Mysteries of the Bible and they allow some very liberal theologian with their PhD from Harvard to go on and on attacking the Bible.\u00a0 They won\u2019t let any conservative on there to answer the objections; if they bring a conservative on he gets like five seconds to say something.\u00a0 And they like to plant doubts in the minds of people.\u00a0 And so your children and your grandchildren are watching these things on television or You Tube and they believe the Bible has contradictions in it.\u00a0 And unless your pastor equips you on how to answer the contradictions your children and your grandchildren will go through their entire lives thinking that the Bible is not God\u2019s Word.\n\nSo is there an answer to this?\u00a0 In fact, there\u2019s a very easy answer to it; in fact all Bible contra\u00addictions have a very simple answer to them if we would just take the time to do a little bit of research.\u00a0 The Babylonians did not count the ascension year, the year a king comes to power, as the first\u00a0 year of a king\u2019s reign.\u00a0 That\u2019s the answer.\n\nJohn Walvoord in his commentary on Daniel writes this:\u00a0 \u201cThe events of chapter 2 occurred at the end of a three year course of study, mentioned in chapter 1 and verse 5, shortly after Daniel entered the king\u2019s service, but it was officially the second year of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s reign.\u201d\u00a0 So when you look at Babylonian chronology and you understand that they didn\u2019t count the first year of his reign as an official year suddenly you can harmonize the three years in chapter 1 verse 5, with this expression \u201cthe second year of his reign.\u201d\u00a0 I bring these things up not to bore you with details but I\u2019m trying to equip you.\n\nIn this time period it says, \u201cNow in the second year of\u201d his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams;\u201d you\u2019ll notice that the word \u201cdreams\u201d there is plural.\u00a0 He had several dreams. Or perhaps that can be interpreted as a state of dreaming.\u00a0 We\u2019re not given the details of this dream quite yet, those won\u2019t come until verse 31, but he is in a state of receiving dreams to the point where his sleep is unsettled.\u00a0 It says in chapter 2:1, \u201cNow in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.\u201d\u00a0 The reason Nebuchadnezzar is troubled is these dreams, as we\u2019re going to learn, are being induced by God.\u00a0 God has ways of getting the attention of people.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 And one of the things that God does, particularly to those that don\u2019t know Him, and this happens many, many times in the Bible, is He gives them some kind of dream that disturbs them; it makes them uneasy.\u00a0 In fact, when you study this in the Bible you start to discover that God does this all of the time.\u00a0 Genesis 20:3 says, \u201cBut God came to Abimelech in a dream by night\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Genesis 41:1 says, \u201cNow it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 These are dreams that are not ordinary dreams but things that got the attention, agitated if you will, pagan Gentile kings that had no knowledge of God or relationship with God.\u00a0 That is the kind of thing that is happening here.\n\nSo what happens, as we move into verses 2-13, is Nebuchadnezzar demands, not just the inter\u00adpretation of the dream but the very revelation of the dream itself.\u00a0 I want to know, number 1, what was the dream; and number 2, what does it mean?\u00a0 And it\u2019s a standard that\u2019s so high that only God can pass it.\n\nNotice, if you will, verses 2-3 as we continue to move through this dialogue that happens in about three cycles.\u00a0 Verses 2 and 3 reads as follows; it says, \u201cThen the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. [3] The king said to them, \u2018I had a dream and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0So he brings in all of these so-called wise men of Babylon.\u00a0 We see four groups here, the magicians.\u00a0 The way that Aramaic word reads it\u2019s not referring to a magician that we think of, it refers to a stylist or a pen and so it\u2019s probably some kind of reference to a scholar of some sort in Babylonian history and law.\n\nThen you have the \u201cconjurers,\u201d these are people that traffic in what we would call necromancy where people claim they can\u2026 kind of like Sylvia Brown used to do, claim that they could contact the dead, something (by the way) the Bible condemns; conjurers could also mean a astrologers or star gazers.\u00a0 And then he mentions here \u201csorcerers,\u201d those involved in sorcery or incantations.\u00a0 And then he mentions a fourth group, the Chaldeans.\u00a0 Most understand that as astrologers or people that believe that you could map your history and future by gazing and looking at the patterns of the stars.\n\nNow it\u2019s Christmas time and we have on all of our Christmas cards the wise men coming from the east, following a star.\u00a0 We call them the magi.\u00a0 This group that\u2019s mentioned here is the magi and they are following a star and they are seeking God at a particular time in history because what we\u2019re going to learn in this chapter is Daniel, when he is given by God both the revelation of the dream and the interpretation of the dream is promoted into their ranks.\u00a0 That occurs at the very end of the chapter.\n\nSo 600 years later the magi had access to Daniel\u2019s prophecies, many of them are very specific, as I\u2019ll be sharing with you, pinpointing the exact day Jesus would proclaim His kingship to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And it\u2019s sort of a rebuke to the Jewish people that here these pagans have prophecy figured out but my own chosen people who have the full canon of Scripture don\u2019t understand what time it is Messianically.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting how \u00a0dominant these groups were in Babylon.\u00a0 The first people Nebuchadnezzar turns to are these soothsayers.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not quite too different from the United States of America when you look at the number of people that consult Jeanne Dixon, the horoscope, even fortune cookies, I don\u2019t pay any attention to fortune cookies other than the one that says help, I\u2019m stuck in a cookie factory.\u00a0\u00a0 But you know, every once in a while I look at it just to see what it says and honestly, this is what happened to me just a couple of days ago.\u00a0 I ate the cookie and I opened it up and I said to my wife, you\u2019re really going to like this one; it says \u201cyou need to take your exercise program seriously.\u201d\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0\u00a0 There\u2019s some truth to that\u2026.\n\nBut you know, interesting, if people don\u2019t know Jesus they give a lot of credibility and weight to these things and what is being revealed here is the bankruptcy of these entities; they cannot reveal the mind of God because God is going to reveal something in this chapter that could not be revealed from these other sources.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t understand anything about Jesus I hope you understand this much: Revelation 19:16, He is the \u201cKING OF KINGS,\u201d He is the \u201cLORD OF LORDS.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 19:16, \u201cAnd on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, \u2018KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.\u201d]\u00a0 He does not claim to be\u00a0 one of many spiritual members of some kind of pantheon.\u00a0 He claims to sand above and beyond a spiritual polytheistic pantheon because He is the Creator and the Redeemer.\n\nAnd that\u2019s why Daniel, as we\u2019re going to see, is only able to get this correct understanding from God Himself.\u00a0 God is going to come through where all of these other soothsayers failed.\u00a0 And Nebuchadnezzar makes this request; now watch the response of the Chaldeans, watch the sweat start to pour from the top of their foreheads, it says: \u201cThen the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic\u201d [Daniel 2:4] now that word \u201cAramaic\u201d is very important because now we begin the Aramaic section which is going to go from chapter 2, verse 4, all the way through the end of chapter\u00a0 7.\u00a0 As I mentioned before, the language switches because God is not just communicating something to the Hebrews; He is communicating something to the Gentile world.\n\nIt says there at the end of verse 4, as these soothsayers are responding, \u201cO king, live forever; tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare to you the interpretation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 A reasonable request, just tell us what the dream was and we\u2019ll interpret it.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar, of course, is not buying into this.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verses 5-6 of chapter 2, \u201cThe king replied to the Chaldeans, \u2018The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 6, \u201cBut if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation.\u201d\n\nI\u2019m not going to tell\u00a0 you the dream if you tell me the dream, and then after you tell me what the dream is give me the proper interpretation of the dream.\u00a0 Now notice the shift from \u201cdreams\u201d verse 1, plural, to \u201cdream\u201d singular, verse 5.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar had dreams but there was a specific dream of the many dreams that he had that really got under his skin.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what he is inquiring about.\u00a0 So I\u2019m standing firm, I want the revelation of the dream and its interpretation.\n\nNow people comment on why Nebuchadnezzar is doing this; the answer is we don\u2019t know because the Bible doesn\u2019t say.\u00a0 But there are some theories; some have suggested Nebuchadnezzar forgot the dream, I can understand that, there\u2019s a lot of really weird things I dream, I\u2019m glad I forget because they\u2019re so bizarre.\u00a0 But a better understanding of this is perhaps Nebuchadnezzar, for whatever reason, is putting his own people to the test.\u00a0 We know in chapter 1 that he was training younger men, no doubt with the goal of promoting them within the spiritual Babylonian religious system, and perhaps he wanted to clean out the old guard; perhaps he expected that these people were frauds and really couldn\u2019t do what they were claiming to do.\u00a0 It\u2019s like calling the psychic hotline and then they say well what is your credit card number?\u00a0 Well, if you\u2019re really the psychic hotline you have to know what my credit card number is, and beyond that, I shouldn\u2019t have to contact you to express my concern, you should know what it is.\n\nSo Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps, is thinking along these lines.\u00a0 He gives a very harsh ultimatum, he says if you don\u2019t do what I tell you to do you\u2019re going to be torn limb from limb and your house is going to be turned into ruin.\u00a0 Now that is consistent with everything we know in the Ancient Near East; the Ancient Near East was known for its barbarity.\u00a0 In fact, some of the names in the Ancient Near East that preceded Babylon were the\u2026 well, for example, the Assyrians.\u00a0 The Assyrians were the ones who invented the grizzly form of death that we call the crucifixion.\u00a0 Rome never invented the crucifixion, they just popularized the crucifixion.\u00a0 They reached back into history and they said this looks like a great way to kill people and they popularized it but it was actually the Assyrians that came up with that horrible device of death that crucified even our Lord.\n\nWhen you understand this you begin to understand why Jonah really didn\u2019t want to go preach to the Assyrians.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s a history as to why he wouldn\u2019t want to go and he was very afraid\u2026 God, I know what You\u2019re going to do,\u00a0 You\u2019re going to tell these people \u00a0You love them, I don\u2019t want You to do that\u2026 burn baby burn!\u00a0 That\u2019s what I want to see.\u00a0 Because of their known barbarity God says go to Nineveh. \u00a0Jonah went to Spain; if you look on the map Tarshish is in the exact opposite direction.\n\nAnd then the Persians would follow the Babylonians, they were known for their barbarity, and even today is it not true that we\u2019re seeing things happening in the Middle East that look like something out of medieval times, where people are thrown off buildings.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Saddam Hussein was doing to people, just toss them off a two or five story, ten story building, where people are actually put in cages and either drowned or burned to death.\u00a0 This is common of that culture.\u00a0 And Nebuchadnezzar, being an emperor was acting like a despot, he could do whatever he wanted, all power was centralized in him.\u00a0 So he issues this ultimatum and then he says but if you give me the revelation and interpretation of the dream the opposite is true you\u2019ll be greatly rewarded.\n\nNotice, if you will, verse 7 as the spiritual leaders respond yet again, \u201cThey answered a second time and said,\u2019 Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will declare to you the interpretation.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 They repeat what they said earlier, give us the dream and we\u2019ll interpret it.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar, who would probably do well taking some anger management classes, is not happy at all with that response.\u00a0 You see his response in verses 8 and 9, \u201cThe king replied, I know for certain that\u00a0 you are bargaining for, inasmuch as you have seen that the command from me is firm, [9] that if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only one decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed; therefore tell me the dream, that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation.\u201d\n\nHe\u2019s standing firm, which is the same word\u00a0 used back in verse 5; the ultimatum is the same.\u00a0 In fact, Nebuchadnezzar is growing progressively impatient.\u00a0 It\u2019s always scary to be around a dictator that loses his cool and his patience.\n\nThe Chaldeans again respond there in verses 10-11, \u201cThe Chaldeans answered the king and said, \u2018There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever<\/em> asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer or Chaldean. [11] \u201cMoreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods,\u201d plural, \u201cwhose dwelling place is not with mortal<\/em> flesh.\u2019\u201d\n\nI like what the Chaldeans say here, \u201cThere is not a man on earth\u201d who could solve this and you\u2019re right about that.\u00a0 This is beyond human intellect.\u00a0 This is beyond human ingenuity.\u00a0 This is beyond human intelligence.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting that God puts us in situations that our flesh can\u2019t weasel their way out of?\u00a0 Do you notice that?\u00a0 God puts us in situations where we\u2019re asked to do something that\u2019s impossible.\u00a0 And we say to the Lord, you know Lord, I\u2019ve got no one to trust in, I guess I\u2019m going to have to trust You with this circumstance.\u00a0 And God says thumbs up, that\u2019s what I wanted the whole time; that\u2019s why I put you in this circumstance where the arm of the flesh is limited.\u00a0 That\u2019s the circumstance these Chaldeans are in as we\u2019ll see in a minute.\u00a0 It\u2019s the circumstance that Daniel is in.\u00a0 They say the gods can\u2019t even answer this question.\u00a0 That\u2019s the gods, little \u201cg\u201d can\u2019t, but THE God, singular, capital G, who is not in the heavens but created the heavens is able to provide the answer.\n\nAnd this repetition keeps happening over and over again to show the bankruptcy of this Babylonian system, how it just cannot deliver.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar now, as you go down to verses 12-13, has had just about enough of this so the ultimatum, or the order, comes down.\u00a0 \u201cBecause of this the king became indignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. [13] So the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they looked for Daniel and his friends to kill them<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar says I\u2019m finished, all of you are dead, which would also include Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego because they were trained, chapter 1, to take their place amongst the wise men, spiritual leaders, of Babylon.\n\nDaniel\u2019s neck is on the line for a second time in this book because you might remember that his head was on the line back in Daniel 1:10 concerning the decisions that he made not to eat of the king\u2019s diet.\u00a0 Daniel 1:10 says \u201cThen you would make me forfeit my head to the king.\u201d\u00a0 This is not the first time Daniel\u2019s life has been in jeopardy; this is the second time his life has been in jeopardy and here is how God is at work in Daniel\u2019s life\u2014God prepared Daniel, in chapter 1, for the events that God knew (Daniel didn\u2019t) God knew were coming in chapter 2.\u00a0 The trial that Daniel was in in chapter 1 was preparing him for something that was around the corner (and only known to an omniscient) God two years later.\n\nThe trial that you\u2019re in right now, whatever it is, is a trial that God has already prepared you for.\u00a0 If you become sensitive to this and look back in your past what you\u2019ll discover is God put me in a similar circumstance sometime in the past.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t just push us into realms before we have the ability to withstand what it is we\u2019re pushed into.\u00a0 The trial that you\u2019re in now\u00a0 you have been prepared for.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the apostle Paul says no temptation has come upon you which is beyond that of a man to handle.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 10:13, \u201cNo temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.\u201d]\n\nAnd here\u2019s the other angle of this; the trial you\u2019re in now not only has it prepared you but it is preparing you for something coming.\u00a0 You can\u2019t see the future, I can\u2019t see the future, but God, who is outside of time and knows the end from the beginning knows what\u2019s coming around the corner; knows what\u2019s going to happen two, three, five, ten years down the road and He is shaping and molding your character in such a way that when life\u2019s circumstances unload on you down the road you\u2019re prepared.\n\nThat\u2019s why the book of James tell us to \u201cConsider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter\u201d what? \u201cvarious trials.\u201d\u00a0 The word \u201cvarious\u201d there, when you study it in Greek it\u2019s the same Greek word used to describe Joseph\u2019s multicolored coat.\u00a0 Remember that, in the book of Genesis?\u00a0 That multicolored coat that his father gave him and his brothers hated it.\u00a0 When James says, \u201cConsider it all joy when you encounter a variety of trials\u201d it\u2019s that same word for multicolored, rainbow colored, different trials and circumstances that achieve different results, and we should consider it all joy when we encounter these because God is working something in our lives.\u00a0 May times we don\u2019t understand, we\u2019ve already been prepared for the trial, and if we\u2019re sensitive to His leading He is preparing us for the next trial.\n\nAnd then we move into verses 14-23 where the dream itself actually gets revealed to Daniel.\u00a0 There are four movements here, first of all we have Daniel\u2019s request for time.\u00a0 Notice if you will verses 14-16, \u201cThen Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Arioch, the captain of the king\u2019s bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon; [15] he said to Arioch, the king\u2019s commander, \u2018For what reason is the decree from the king so<\/em> urgent?\u2019 Then Arioch informed Daniel about the matter. [16] So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king.\u201d\n\nVerse 14 is illustrative of how we are to react when the pressure hits; how did Daniel react?\u00a0 When the pressure hits\u00a0 your life is this how you react?\u00a0 \u201cThen Daniel replied with discretion and discernment.\u201d\u00a0 It has been said that going through a trial in a believer\u2019s life or any person\u2019s life is just like knocking over a cup and whatever is in that cup spills out.\u00a0 When you get knocked in life or you go through difficulties the true you,\u00a0 your true character, whatever it is, good or bad, naturally just comes right out.\u00a0 You don\u2019t evaluate\u00a0 your level of growth spiritually when times are good; you evaluate your level of growth spiritually when all hell is breaking loose.\n\nAnd you know, we can see how imperfect we are in comparison, how fast we would doubt God, how fast we would hit the panic button, but Daniel is calm, cool and collected.\u00a0 This is a 17 year old, and he replies \u201cwith discretion and discernment.\u201d\u00a0 Is that how you reply to people, \u201cwith discretion and discernment\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 James 1:19 says, \u201c\u2026be quick to hear and slow to speak, and slow to be angry.\u201d\u00a0 I hate that verse, \u201cquick to hear\u2026slow to speak, and slow to anger\u201d I\u2019m the opposite.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the reasons I know that the Bible is God\u2019s Word, it sits in judgment on my heart.\u00a0 As my mom used to tell me, God gave you two ears and one mouth, you ought to use them in proportion.\u00a0 Fast to hear, slow to speak!\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that Daniel had a bit of a reputation, I believe it was a favorable reputation.\u00a0 It was a good reputation because Arioch actually takes the time to explain to a condemned man what is happening.\u00a0 John Walvoord, in his commentary on Daniel say this: that an official would take time to explain this to one already condemned to death speaks well of both Daniel\u2019s approach and Daniel\u2019s regard for him.\u201d\u00a0 How did the commander know about Daniel?\u00a0 How did Daniel grow in the heart of this commander in terms of the commander appreciating Daniel?\u00a0 The answer is chapter 1, Daniel already stood for God successfully in chapter 1 which gave him the reputation necessary to stand for God successfully in chapter 2.\u00a0 Because Daniel would not compromise as a 15\u00a0 year old the stage was set for him to succeed as a 17 year old.\n\nBut what if Daniel had just compromised with those vegetables back in chapter 1 as a 15 year old?\u00a0 There\u2019d be no chapter 2, would there, with his success as a 17 year old.\u00a0 John Walvoord writes this, \u201cThus Daniel, the obscure Jewish captive, would have been lost to history like many others if he had compromised in chapter 1.\u201d\u00a0 But now, as we\u2019ll learn at the end of chapter 2, Daniel was going to be exalted to a place of great honor and power, like Joseph in Egypt he was destined to play an important part in the subsequent history of his generation\u00a0 because he stood for God when he was 15.\u00a0 That\u2019s a different way of looking at compromise, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Compromise has a way of disqualifying us from future opportunities.\n\nSo Daniel, verse 16, is granted an audience with Nebuchadnezzar, \u00a0and then notice his request to Nebuchadnezzar, [17] \u201cThen Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, about the matter,\u201d verse 18, \u201cso that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.\u201d Isn\u2019t interesting verse 17, that Daniel \u201cwent to his house informed his friends and then went right to God.\n\nYou know, when I have a problem sometimes the last thing I do is go to God.\u00a0 I almost use God as a last resort; I try to work it out this way in the flesh, it doesn\u2019t work. I try to work it out this way in the flesh, it doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0 I try to work it out this way in the flesh and it doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0 Finally I just say well, I guess I\u2019m going to have to go to God with this, as if God is some kind of last option when in reality God wants us to go to Him right away.\u00a0 Is that what you do with your child?\u00a0 Do you immediately\u2026 are you in the type of spiritual habit where you immediately take it to the Lord?\u00a0 I like what Luke 18:1 says in the King James Version, \u201cAnd he spake a parable unto them to this end<\/em>, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that great.\u00a0 Men ought not to faint under the load that they\u2019re under; they ought to pray.\u00a0 And how we so typically underestimate the power of prayer.\n\nJames 5:16 says, \u201cThe prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.\u201d\u00a0 I love it; sometimes we give up the greatest piece of weaponry in our arsenal in life\u2019s struggles\u2014the power and the privilege of prayer.\u00a0 Why did Daniel go to the Lord in prayer with his three friends?\u00a0 Notice the word \u201ccompassion,\u201d \u201cso that they might request compassion from God,\u201d a compassion that they weren\u2019t receiving from Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar had no grace or compassion.\n\nYou get grace and you get compassion from the Lord.\u00a0 Are people not treating you with grace?\u00a0 Go to the Lord.\u00a0 Are people not treating you with compassion?\u00a0 Go to the Lord because the book of Hebrews, chapter 4 and verse 16 says, \u201cTherefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of\u201d what? \u201cgrace\u2026.\u201d What do we expect from God?\u00a0 We should expect grace; it\u2019s not a throne of judgment for the child of God.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a throne of retribution for the child of God.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a throne of justice for the child of God.\u00a0 It is a throne of grace, \u201cso that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.\u201d\u00a0 God designed\u00a0 us in such a way that He knew we would have needs, at all different levels, and God wants us to seek Him for those unmet needs in our life just the way Daniel did.\n\nHe goes to, notice verse 18, to \u201cthe God of heaven.\u201d\u00a0 The Babylonians were worshiping the heavens, worshiping the stars; Daniel goes to the God that created the heavens and created the stars.\u00a0 [Daniel 2:18, \u201cso that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.\u201d]\n\nAnd what happens?\u00a0 God delivers.\u00a0 God gives to Daniel an indispensable piece of the prophetic jigsaw puzzle, a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that would enlighten his entire generation and generations to come.\u00a0 You see that there in verse 19, \u201cThen the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven;\u201d God gave to Daniel a mystery.\u00a0 Now this word \u201cmystery\u201d needs to be unpacked a little bit; it\u2019s the Aramaic word Araz, it kind of reads like \u00a0r-a-z, and when the Septuagint\u2026 now what is the Septuagint?\u00a0 The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament which was created by 70 scholars according to legend in 70 days.\u00a0 In other words, 250 years before Jesus walked the face of this earth there was not just Hebrew Bible in existence, but a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.\n\nWhy did they translate Hebrew Bible into Greek?\u00a0 Because of a guy named Alexander the Great who actually is going to be the focus of Daniel\u2019s prophecies in chapter 8 and in chapter 11.\u00a0 Alexander the Great believed in something called Hellenization, he wanted the entire world to have the same culture and have the same language and he spread the Greek language all over the known world.\u00a0 People spoke Greek in that era and thus they needed a Bible in their own language, Hebrew Bible, to understand.\u00a0 And beloved, that was the hand of God because the Greek language is one of the fullest dialects known to man.\u00a0 We, in English, have one word for love; the Greeks had four.\u00a0 And the fullest, richest dialect was worldwide to record the revelation of who?\u00a0 God\u2019s Son\u2014Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; they had every linguistic tool in the arsenal to record the coming of Jesus Christ.\n\nPeople refer to the Alexander the Great years as the silent years; let me tell you something, maybe God was silent but He was moving.\u00a0 He was moving the pieces around on a chessboard just before a game; that\u2019s what God was doing.\u00a0 That movement of God is going to be the subject of Daniel\u2019s prophecies a little bit later.\u00a0 God is not silent!\u00a0 And if God set the stage for the first coming of Christ how hard is it for God to set the stage for what?\u00a0 For the second coming of Christ!\u00a0 As God is my witness, I\u2019m not a date-setter, nor the son of a date-setter, but the fact of the matter is God is moving the chess pieces around if we just knew what the end time scenario looks like.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s a reason why the nation of Israel is back in their homeland.\u00a0 That\u2019s not coincidental!\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason why the political rulers of today keep crying out for a one-world government.\u00a0 If you know something about the Bible you start to see the hand of God in all of these things.\n\nAnd so when the Septuagint translators translated this word, roz<\/em>, they translated it as musterion<\/em> which means mystery.\u00a0 What is a mystery?\u00a0 A mystery is something before hidden but now revealed.\u00a0 It\u2019s the opposite of our English word \u201cmystery.\u201d\u00a0 When we\u00a0 use the word mystery, I\u2019m reading a mystery novel, let\u2019s say, I don\u2019t know who the bad guy is until the end.\u00a0 A mystery is something that has to be searched out with great diligence.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the Greek word mystery.\u00a0 The Greek word mystery is a full disclosure.\u00a0 God is taking something that has been hidden that the human mind could not even comprehend or contemplate and He\u2019s pulling it right out into the open where we can see it. \u00a0The times of the Gentiles was a terrible time that the nation had no knowledge of and God says I\u2019m about to unfold that time period for you prophetically.\n\nBy the way, the Apostle Paul revealed a mystery, called the church.\u00a0 In Ephesians 3:3-4, you\u2019ll see Paul use the word mystery, the Greek word musterion<\/em>, two times.\u00a0 [Ephesians 3:3-4, \u201cthat by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. [4] By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, [5] which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;\u201d]\n\nWhat would we know about the life of the church had it not been for the disclosures God gave to Paul, who wrote 13 New Testament books?\u00a0 What does those 13 New Testament books reveal?\u00a0 They reveal the time period that we\u2019re living in today, called the age of the church.\u00a0 You can\u2019t find out about that time period from the Old Testament.\u00a0 You hardly get any hints of this time period even in the Gospels.\u00a0 Jesus, I believe, made some veiled hints at it, like when He said \u201cI\u2019ll build My church,\u201d but the explanation of the church would have to wait until the life of the Apostle Paul.\n\nWhat is the church?\u00a0 Who are the leaders of the church?\u00a0 What is the church\u2019s function?\u00a0 What are the church\u2019s ordinances? We would have virtually no knowledge of that had God not given Paul a mystery\u2026this is why I think Paul was in jail so frequently.\u00a0 What do you have to do in a first century jail?\u00a0 There\u2019s no cable, there\u2019s no weight room, I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a tattoo place where you can get a tattoo, you\u2019ve got nothing to do but sit there and hear from God.\u00a0 And so God gave Paul a mystery called the age of the church.\u00a0 God gave Daniel a mystery that we call the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 Why did God give this to Daniel?\u00a0 Do you know why?\u00a0 Because Daniel asked for it.\u00a0 James 4:2 says, \u201cYou do not have because you do not\u201d what? \u201cask.\u201d\u00a0 So many times God wants to give us so much and yet we\u2019re so busy and we don\u2019t take time to ask.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to me that Daniel went to prayer and then God answered.\n\nDo you know what else we learn about Daniel, as you look at verse 19, Daniel expected an answer.\u00a0 Again, verse 19, \u201cThen the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision.\u201d\u00a0 He didn\u2019t just sit there and it was a shock that God delivered.\u00a0 James 1:5-8 says, \u201cIf any man lacks wisdom,\u201d anybody fit in that category, I do regularly, \u201cIf any man lacks wisdom, let him\u201d what, \u201cask of God,\u00a0 who gives to all generously and without reproach,\u00a0 and it will be given to him.\u00a0 [6] But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. [7] For that man\u00a0 ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, [8] being a double-minded man unstable in all his ways.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s not saying here that these people in the book of James aren\u2019t believers; they\u2019re believers with a divided mind.\u00a0 They\u2019re believers that are trying to walk with the Lord but there\u2019s a virtual civil war taking place in the arena of the mind.\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019re not believing God or trusting Him.\u00a0 It shows up in their prayer life and James says they\u2019re unstable in all they do.\n\nDaniel gets the answer, verse 19, look at the end of verse 19, \u201cThen Daniel blessed the God of heaven.\u201d\u00a0 Daniel got the answer, which is going to be developed later on in the chapter but he took the time to turn around and bless God, through prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.\u00a0 I find that in my personal life, this is like the last thing I do.\u00a0 I get my answer, thank you (if I even say that) now I\u2019m on to my next problem, I need another answer, when God wants us to take time to praise Him and thank Him for what we\u2019ve just received.\n\nPhilippians 4:6 talks about a heart of thanksgiving to the Lord.\u00a0 [Philippians 4:6, \u201cBe anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.\u201d]\u00a0 We should thank the Lord for His answers; we should bless the Lord, we should praise the Lord for what He\u2019s just done rather than move on to crisis B, C, D and E.\n\nYou say well, what did Daniel actually say to praise God?\u00a0 I\u2019m so glad you asked that question because it\u2019s in verses 20-23 which we\u2019re going to close with today.\u00a0 What did Daniel say to God exactly, after he received this answer to prayer.\u00a0 Verse 20, then \u201cDaniel said, \u2018Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him.\u201d\u00a0 Daniel acknowledges here the eternal existence of God.\u00a0 Psalm 90:2 says \u201cfrom everlasting to everlasting, You are God.\u201d\u00a0 Even in the famous Micah 5:2 passage related to Christmas, of Jesus 700 years in advance it says, \u201c\u2026His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.\u201d\n\nI hope you don\u2019t look at God as some kind of created being, like an animal or a star or even another person.\u00a0 God is the uncaused cause!\u00a0 He has always been and He will always be!\u00a0 Daniel praises God here, verse 20, for His wisdom and His power and then look at verse 21; you have an example of His power.\u00a0 \u201cIt is He who changes the times and the epochs;\u201d what do these Babylonians do?\u00a0 They supposedly set the times and the seasons by watching the movements of the stars.\u00a0 In contrast to them Daniel acknowledges that God is the One that actually changes the times and the seasons.\u00a0 I\u2019m not interested in establishing patterns for worship by watching the times and the seasons, I\u2019m interested in the God who has ordained the times and the seasons.\n\nAnd look at verse 21, \u201cHe removes kings and establishes kings\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Didn\u2019t we just see something like that back in November in the\u00a0 United States?\u00a0 One person, everybody says is going to win, God\u2019s people start to pray, God moves His little finger, you have a different result.\u00a0 And all of the pundits and the pollsters can\u2019t understand what happened.\u00a0 I know what happened; God\u2019s people prayed, that\u2019s what happened, and God changed the direction of a nation.\u00a0 And we shouldn\u2019t just sit there and say okay, we\u2019re done, right?\u00a0 You keep praying.\u00a0 You say well, I don\u2019t like that person.\u00a0 Well, who asked your opinion.\u00a0 We don\u2019t pray for people based on whether we like them.\u00a0 I mean, I wouldn\u2019t pray for anybody if that\u2019s true.\u00a0 Laughter]\u00a0 We pray for people because God commanded us to do that.\u00a0 \u201cHe removes and establishes kings, He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to men of understanding.\u201d\n\nNow this is very strange, why would wise men need wisdom?\u00a0 Why would people of understanding need knowledge?\u00a0 Because you\u2019re not as wise as you think you are, that\u2019s why.\u00a0 Verse 22, \u201cIt is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him.\u201d\u00a0 This is God\u2019s specialty.\u00a0 He reaches into the darkness and pulls something out into the light, which is what Daniel received in this dream, not obscure things but profound things.\u00a0 And why wouldn\u2019t God do that?\u00a0 After all, He is clothed, is He not, in unapproachable what? Light!\u00a0 In fact, in the last two chapters of the Bible the eternal state, do you know there\u2019s not going to be any luminaries, sun, moon and stars?\u00a0 Why won\u2019t you need sun, moon and stars?\u00a0 Because God is there and He illuminates all things, Revelation 22:5.\u00a0 [Revelation 22:5, \u201cAnd there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.\u201d]\n\nOne more verse and with this we\u2019re finished.\u00a0 Verse 23, \u201cTo You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise,\u201d notice the reference to the \u201cGod of my fathers.\u201d\u00a0 A common Jewish expression with one difference, the word \u201cElohim\u201d is used, not Yahweh.\u00a0 Generally when the Jews refer to the God of their fathers they use the expression Yahweh, the covenant keeping God.\u00a0 This is a different expression, it\u2019s the same word used of God in Genesis 1:1, the all-powerful Creator, because it took power to reveal to Daniel what he received.\u00a0 [Genesis 1:1, \u201cIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.\u201d]\n\nHe mentions here \u201cthanks and praise\u201d taking time as we said before to thank God for His answers.\u00a0 Philippians 4:6 \u201cBe anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with\u201d what? \u201cthanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.\u201d\u00a0 He talks about praise to God.\u00a0 What is praise?\u00a0 What is worship?\u00a0 You know we\u2019ve got churches at war with each other over worship style; most of them don\u2019t even know what worship is.\u00a0 Worship is a response to truth.\u00a0 You hear truth and you\u2019re just so blown away by it that you just can\u2019t wait to praise God.\u00a0 You don\u2019t sit there and bicker about what music style it\u2019s going to be in, you just want to praise God.\u00a0 And I think sometimes our worship wars, and we do the traditional songs here primarily, but sometimes our worship words to me are very man-centered; we want it our way; my way or the highway.\u00a0 And most of the time we\u2019ve lost sight of what worship even is; it is a response to truth.\u00a0 In fact, I have a pet heresy, I think we ought to sing praises to God after the sermon, not before because in the sermon you hear truth and in worship you respond to that truth.\u00a0 I guess Bruce is going to give you a chance to do that that in a second.\n\n\u201cTo You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, For You have given me wisdom and power; Even now You have made known to me what we requested of You, For You have made known to us the king's matter.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel 2:23] You revealed to us what Nebuchadnezzar couldn\u2019t understand and what the whole Babylonian pantheon could not understand; it came from You because that\u2019s who you are, You\u2019re the God who reveals mysteries.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for the fact that You do reveal mysteries.\u00a0 We\u2019re grateful for the fact that You reveal the end from the beginning.\u00a0 Help us as a flock to grow as we next week study this mystery, develop a more pointed view concerning Your plan for the end and walk with You very close this holiday season, remembering that Jesus is the reason for the season. We ask that You\u2019ll do this great work in our midst.\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\u2026 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