Address—D. Bilisoly
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In our meeting this afternoon by singing 197.
100 I beg your pardon, 179.
Brightness of the eternal glory shall thy praise an uttered lie. Who would hush the heaven sent story of the Lamb who came to die came from Godhead's fullest glory down to Calvary's depth of wool. Now on high we bow before thee streams of praises, ceaseless flow sing. His blessed triumphant rising. Sing.
Him on the Father's throne sing till heaven and earth surprising.
Reigns the Nazarene alone. Some others start that force, please.
Now let's ask God's help. Let's turn to the book of Daniel.
Daniel, Chapter 9.
And verse 23.
At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee.
For thou art greatly, beloved.
Therefore, understand the matter and consider the vision.
Now you know this is a unique statement in Scripture, a man greatly beloved.
Three times that was said about Daniel.
I believe it was developed through the years but.
We see to what extent the exercise of that dear man.
Reached in this 9th chapter especially.
Now, of course, all the Lord's people are beloved. You know the Lord Jesus as your savior, your beloved of him, and scripture is very clear over that.
But of course, we know there's one that even exceeds Daniel.
And that is his beloved Son. We think of those the heaven opening there, and Matthew 3 and that voice from the open heaven. That said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.
Then we were just discussing or someone mentioned this afternoon.
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How that there at the mount of transfiguration?
What a privilege to consider that the Disciples had such a preview of the Kingdom.
And their hearts were so much upon the Kingdom. And what a privilege to have.
A little foretaste, a little preview of that Kingdom when they saw the Lord Transfigured.
And his garments were white and glittering. And there was Moses and Elijah.
And they communicated. They spoke together on those things concerning his decease which he would accomplish at Jerusalem. What an amazing thing, I believe, that tells us that everything depended upon the cross of Calvary, the blessing of all ages from ages past and even the future to come. As far as God's purposes on this earth are concerned, everything depended upon Calvary's cross. We can't make too much of the cross.
Can we, beloved brother? It's the center of two eternities. We'll never weary of the subject. When we get home to glory, we'll rejoice, and we'll revel in that great victory at Calvary's cross, that which transpired in three hours. Abundant witness. Can we take it in? How could it possibly be? But with God all things are possible. He compressed, as it were, the sins of all those believers in that three hours of darkness. And the Lord sustained it and all the wrath and the judgment. And he said it is finished.
So, dear ones, here we have to deal with the beloved one. Indeed, we are accepted in the beloved.
But you know, as you read a statement like this.
This is a remarkable thing, that we have a man three times over spoken to as being greatly beloved.
Well, you know, it didn't just happen overnight. It wasn't just a matter of.
Someone experience as it were, but I believe it is a development of things and that's really what I had on my heart this afternoon was just to look a little bit in the book of Daniel and look at the person and see perhaps if we can trace out a little bit of the development of that quality. I trust that it might be of some benefit and.
Of course, the circumstances we have to consider.
We can hardly get into prophetic things. I don't have the ability to do it, but if we should happen to touch on a thing or two and their questions are raised, we might just kind of turn it over to our students of prophecy.
But should we not have an outline of these things?
Peter told us. He says you have a more sure word of prophecy where until you do well to take heed as the light that shines in a dark place.
Until the daystar of the morning star arise in our hearts. So the Lord's coming held in the affections, is the brightest light to our hearts. But let's not neglect the prophetic word, because the Lord has been pleased to allow us to see things in a stage setting way that are astounding. We must be on the very brink of His coming. Why are we still here, I'm sure.
Many that have enjoyed and looked into these things raised that question again and again. Why are we still here?
And so we want to try and keep simple about these things. But I might just suggest this to you. Many of you know these things already. And that is the book of Daniel is a very unusual book of 12 Chapters. And you can just take the book of Daniel and you can just divide it right down the center.
In the first six chapters, you know, give us well, first of all, I better say this that.
It commences the times of the Gentiles.
And just think of the situation that Daniel came out of because he was part of that captivity of Jehovah. How about Jehovah? Well, we get a little insight into that. The contempt of that man, how he had no regard for the word of God. Indeed, contempt for the word of God and as Baruch or as the Servant came and read the Scripture, read the message.
From the Lord by the hand of Jeremiah.
King Jehokam was sitting in front of a winter fire in his palace.
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And he took a penknife, and each, as each part of the roll was read, he took it.
Cut it off and threw it in the fire and cut it off and threw it in the fire.
Till the whole thing was gone. And yet there was number, fear, and you know, the influence of a king or a person in high rank. The influence they have on their subjects is appalling because his servants followed suit with him and there was No Fear. They had No Fear of what they were doing, the seriousness, as it were, cutting up and burning the word of God.
Could they destroy it?
You know the answer. Remember what happened?
Jeremiah, by the word of God, penned those words all over again.
We can't destroy the Word of God. Thy word, O Lord, forever is settled in heaven.
Can't change it. But God added more words to it. And yet those men.
What was their outcome? Destruction. It all came to pass according to God's precious word.
So patient was he to give them opportunity. We were just talking the other day. How many times was it that the?
Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem before God allowed them to actually just take it over and destroy it three times. Isn't that a patient God? Isn't that a gracious God till there was no remedy? It says in the end of chronicles. And so he had to allow the Babylonians to come and take it away. That's what really distresses havoc, you know, because he sees a people far more wicked than Israel overwhelming their land and taking them into captivity.
But God had to do it. He had to allow it.
So here's Daniel in that all that situation. Here's Daniel as a young man. A tender young man.
And I, as I lookout here, I see some very young in the faith, perhaps, and some young men and young women. And we don't want to just limit, as it were, our thoughts to the young men. Certainly there is that for the hearts of the dear young sisters, and certainly the word of God gives full consideration of that. I love the book of Ruth in that respect, you know, because it shows what the grace of God can do, as well as other passages.
We've often mentioned this. You know, we've talked a little about Islam and the awfulness of it.
And you get into real, fundamental Islam, and they put the woman down South. It's pitiful and tragic and so dishonor her, as it were. But really, Judaism elevated the woman in Christianity even more so in her place. So we see that God esteems A godly sister, a godly brother. But here Daniel was thrown into all of this as a very young person.
But now wait a minute. I really did want to consider another thing before we go.
And consider Daniel a little more closely.
We already made mention of the beloved 1 outstanding. This is my beloved son.
I believe there's at least seven or more references, indirect or direct, of the Lord Jesus in the book of Daniel. Shall we just take a quick glance at it? Turn to Daniel chapter 2.
If we have the time, we might tie this in a little more with Daniel's experiences.
But I'll just touch on it right now and you can think about it for yourself.
In Daniel chapter 2.
And verse 33.
Verse 34.
Thou sawest.
Till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image on his feet that were of iron and clay and break them in pieces. Amazing statement, a stone.
Was cut out without hands. That's all supernatural, but it shows us not the work of man. It's entirely of God. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect and precious the stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner.
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Well, that's an amazing subject and let me just say this in connection with all these references.
Or indications, directly or indirectly, of the Lord Jesus. They all, as it were, head on toward the Kingdom. You know, really beloved brethren, we do long for the rapture, of course. We we're so anxious to have the Lord come and to take us, to be with himself, And I trust that we're really both watching as well as waiting. But the Lord God takes note.
If we really love his appearing, do you know what I mean?
Do we love the thought that the Lord Jesus will have that most exalted place?
In that coming day.
Does that warm our hearts to think that he will?
Put down all opposition to the glory of God. He will put down everything that stands in opposition to his glorious Kingdom.
And the book of Daniel looks on to that time. And you know, there's an interesting thing here.
I better say it while I'm thinking about it.
That about half of the Book of Daniel originally was written in Syriac instead of Hebrew.
You say Why? Well, I'll tell you a thought that comes before me. See, it begins in chapter 2 and verse 4 where it says then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac and said, O king, live forever.
And this goes on all through Chapter 7. Why is it?
I'll just suggest this to you.
Why did they switch over to Syriac here from whatever language they ordinarily were speaking? I'm not just quite sure. Airmaker something.
But this apparently was the sacred language, and I believe they wanted to gain more of their point with the king, but he didn't buy it. But my the thought that comes before me is this.
That these wise men of Babylon employed this sacred language.
Perhaps to carry more weight with the king.
But it seems to me as though God says, OK, we'll go on right through with this language.
Until we get the full exultation of my beloved Son in their sacred language.
Astounding. I don't know any other reason for it. There might be maybe some of our prophetic students can help us, but isn't that an unusual thing to consider? There is maybe a place or two elsewhere where we have that in the Old Testament, but not like this. This employs nearly 7 chapters complete, or 6 chapters from chapter 24 clear on through 7.
And if you carefully read the close of Chapter 7, you see it is the exultation of his beloved son. But let's get these points while we're thinking about this and see if we can pick this up.
I believe the other place is over here in chapter 3.
And verse 25.
The form of the 4th is like the Son of God.
Now actually what Nebuchadnezzar was saying is that.
This must be one of the sons of the gods, you know this. Maybe even an angelic person or something of that sort.
But the truth of the matter is, it was the Son of God.
Do we have any question or doubt about that?
Oh, we do not.
Now, you know, in focusing upon Daniel, I know what you're thinking. You're saying why was Daniel not cast into the fiery furnace? Well, all I can say to you is that they didn't catch up with him.
They just didn't catch up with him. Certainly he would have been there, but his three friends were the ones that got caught.
As it were. But this is beautiful in itself, because even though he was influencing them for good, and he was, as it were, more or less the spokesman of these four godly young men, they were not just riding on his faith. You know, we had a lot before us this afternoon or this morning in regard to faith. They were not just coasting on Daniel's faith. They knew where they stood.
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They had convictions of their own. Do you have convictions of your own or you just?
As it were. Depending upon the faith of someone else, it won't get you by.
It won't hold up in the real time of testing. Oh dear ones here.
What a marvelous, What a wonderful thing to have convictions of your own.
Well, let's trace on here a little bit and.
Well, let's see. Maybe it's over towards seven, yeah.
Chapter 7.
This is a very important subject, you know. It has to do with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 13 I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven.
Well, there it is. We have the Son of Man brought into question here. That's a subject in itself. How much should I say about it Now? You know, he was rejected as the Son of Man, and so it is as the Son of Man that he will take the Kingdom and he'll put down all opposition to his Kingdom.
Now we see that we come to another thought here in verse 13 and also over in verse 22.
Until the ancient of days came, and the judgment was given unto the Saints of the Most High.
And the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom.
Now the ancient of days here.
Is it perhaps one and the same?
I believe it may be a little bit like Revelation Chapter 5 where the Lamb you remember.
Goes and receives the title deed to the earth from the one that sat on the throne. Well, it's mysterious, it's mysterious, but I do believe the Lord Jesus indeed is the ancient of days. Likewise one other place here.
And that's over in chapter 10.
Now if I've missed any.
No, I have missed something. We'll have to hold off here. I went too fast. Let's go to Chapter 9.
This is too important to miss, and that's verse 25.
Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince.
Shall be 7 weeks and three score and two weeks and so forth.
Now we've got Messiah, the Prince in question here.
And also he's the Prince of the host.
That is so clear, That is so unequivocal. Who else is Messiah? The Prince? It's our Lord Jesus Christ, very clearly. And here as we read on, we see that the Messiah shall be cut off. Verse 26.
And shall have nothing. This is very important to consider because.
He was cut off before he could receive his Kingdom.
He had full right and title, even his last entry into Jerusalem. You remember Hosanna?
And they they sang, and they give glory to him that cometh in the name of the Lord. And then they crucified Him. He was cut off so that he didn't have, as it were, his Kingdom. He will have it. Oh, that's a marvelous thought in itself. But now, Chapter 10, I believe this may be the last reference.
If we've overlooked any.
Please let me know afterwards.
Verse 5.
Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Euphaz and so forth. And as we read on and read on, we see that we have a description very much like Revelation chapter one.
Why would we have the Lord Jesus described in this way in a way that is very solemn?
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In a, shall we say a judicial way?
Well, it's because.
That when he does come and take his Kingdom, of course all of these opposing powers will be put down. But you know, it's very solemn to consider him in his appearance in Revelation Chapter One in a similar way.
It's very solemn to see him viewed there because he's in the midst of the candlesticks. That is, he is reviewing the state of the church here in this world, and he's seen in the very same way.
That Daniel viewed him here in this 10th chapter.
Well, anyway, let's back up now. Back way up to the first chapter again of Daniel.
Let's take a little closer look, I trust.
At Daniel's experience.
You know the story well enough.
Here are these young men and they're just, shall I say, children. I doubt if they were very old at all.
Very young persons. And here they were linked with royalty, so they must have known some of the comforts of the court there in Jerusalem and what have you. And here all of a sudden they're wrenched out of their homes and out of their environment, they're forced off into.
A foreign place. Do you ever try and put yourself into these circumstances when you read the Bible? Dear ones, I hope we all do. Privately. Do you think about it and consider what would I do in such circumstances? What would I do to be suddenly put into such a foreign situation? Have you not walked into a situation sometime that was so strange and different to you that you just felt intimidated? I have.
But just think that he had no choice about it. He was a captive. He was forced to come to that land of a people of different tongue.
And a people that were absolutely steeped in idolatry, I should just mention this now.
And that is, as I already said, the book of Daniel is divided right in the center.
The first six chapters have to do with the conduct and the character.
Of these gentile empires while Israel is.
Set aside, you might just say this, that God is at work, transferred his throne from Israel and established it with the Gentiles and with this very first leader, Nebuchadnezzar.
He made him the head of gold, and he put under his.
Authority. The beasts of the fields of the field and the birds, the foul of the air, but not the fish of the sea. He was reserving that for the son of man. Psalm 8.
But he gave Nebuchadnezzar amazing power and authority. And so here's these young men, young children, as it were, and they're thrust out of their land, they're brought into this strange land, and here they're surrounded by idolatry.
What would you do?
And they knew that this King's provision, because it was the idea of the king, of course, to nourish them up and to use them for his own advantage, to please himself. And this is the way the world ever works, you know. They want to get all the fruit and the advantage of the believer. And so we see that Daniel purposed in his heart verse 8. That's the first thing I want to consider.
I can remember.
At the time I was first saved.
I was talking to a brother.
And we were remarking about the energies and the interests of some other young people. And he said, well, they'll be kept if there is purpose of heart, you know, I pondered that remark.
Purpose of heart.
And I thought, do I have purpose of heart?
Do you have a purpose of heart? I believe that Daniel learned the fear of God much before this time. Whatever age he was at this point, he learned the fear of God. But he knew that all of these things were so connected with idolatry, and so he purposed in his heart. If the Lord gives us grace and courage to give him the 1St place and to purpose in our heart, and I believe purpose of heart can be developed.
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The more we continue on with the Lord, the more His precious word is given that place.
Of authority in our hearts, it will form and develop more definite purpose.
Of heart. And so we see that what a request to make Put yourself in this situation, they easily could have said.
We're here against our will. We're captives. If we resist this power, it'll go bad for us. They could have made every legitimate excuse why they they couldn't abstain from this. But see, the Lord was with them and working things out in their behalf. And so he moved the heart.
Of those that were put in trust over them and they granted them this pulse, whatever it was. It may have just been vegetables or something, I don't know. I'm inclined to think that that king had a pretty well balanced diet, but whatever the case was.
The men over them, the chief of the eunuchs, and all he.
He was afraid for their help. Well, we see how God took care of them, and we see that the fear of God with these young men put them in a good position. God was able to work things out in verse 17. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Well, I believe that God was with those dear young men in their faithfulness.
And I might just add this too that you'll notice that.
Everything was geared to bring them into this idolatrous environment, to affect their minds and make them more subject to this whole idolatrous environment. Even the changing of their names. They were given names that had idolatrous connections. But now you'll notice this that perhaps the faith of Daniel's three friends were not quite the same as his. I don't know. Or their exercise perhaps did not go quite to the same extent as Daniel because.
There doesn't seem to be the same effort on their part to retain their original names that had God attached to them. But Daniel. Daniel all but outright refused this name that was put upon him, and we see that many times over. Even the Kings referred to him as Daniel. Isn't that lovely? I appreciate those things to see that.
But anyway, here we see that God allows a very testing thing in chapter 2.
Here we see that the king has a dream and he can't even remember the dream.
He can't even remember what he dreamt. Have you ever had that experience where he woke up and you say it was an awful dream, but I can't remember what I dreamt.
Let alone the interpretation of it. And God allowed this to happen.
And so here the king calls in all of these wise men of Egypt and.
Of course they wanted the king to tell what the dream was so they could give the interpretation thereof.
But apparently the king was losing some confidence in these wise men and he became irritated immediately. And as we read the account, we see that Nebuchadnezzar was an absolute monarch. He had everything his way.
When you get into the other realm, the Medes and the Persians, they have laws that altered not.
In other words, the king couldn't even alter his own law.
But with Nebuchadnezzar, he was an absolute monarch. And so God allowed this, this way. And here's a decree to put to death all the wise men of Egypt, and they searched out Daniel in his three friends, verse 14.
Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom.
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Well, you can see a quality developing here. I don't know how old he was, but we're told that he had some wise counsel. We're told that he had some wisdom and already he's being he's respected.
And so.
He's able to convince the king to delay. He goes into the king. He seems to have access here in verse 16, verse 17.
And the king gives him time.
Then what does Daniel do? Verse 17. He recognized the need of his brethren.
I believe all of these things should be very.
Suggestive to our hearts and should encourage us and exercise us.
To realize how much we need our brethren.
How limited was his fellowship? Just think of where he lived in the condition of things.
Where else could he go? But here he had those that were, like, minded. Isn't that lovely? How merciful of the Lord to grant that these four would have each other. Oh, I trust that we value our brethren. You know, the local assembly may be rather small, but we need each other, brethren. We really do. And it seems like the Lord has permitted us to be reduced to a large extent. We're seeing fewer numbers among many, many of the assemblies as we travel around.
And I think in some ways it helps us to value more our local brethren. It's good if we have a rapport with our local brethren. And do we pray for our local brethren at least every day? Of course our prayers should reach farther as much as possible. But how nice it is if we can mention by name all our local brethren. Do we do that daily? That's quite an exercise, isn't it? But it's a good thing.
He valued his brethren and the Lord.
Granted an answer to their.
Collective prayer over this matter and when the answer is given.
In verse 19, Daniel does not hesitate immediately to give.
God the Glory.
Oh, he's so quick, so ready to recognize the source of this revelation. We were told earlier that he had the ability to understand visions and dreams, as it said in chapter One, verse 17.
But this is the source, and he he does not neglect to acknowledge it, and he does not neglect to thank God.
In verse 23 I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my Father's, who hath given me wisdom, and might, and hast made known unto me. Now what we desire of thee, for thou hast made known unto us the King's matter. Now you might say, Well here Daniel and his three friends have this brought before him, because of their dependence and trust in the Lord. And you would have expected, perhaps he would have rushed right in.
And have given the interpretation.
But I do believe we discover another quality of Daniel here in verse 24.
And that is, he says, destroy not the wise men of Babylon. Oh, there's compassion with Daniel. Two. These wise men were corrupted and idolatrous. They were steeped in the occult, and Daniel could have said, oh, they're just a bunch of pagans anyway, let be what may happen to them. But no, we see compassion with Daniel. Isn't it lovely to see such a spirit of things? No wonder later on we read.
That he had an excellent spirit. Now, you know, that didn't come about overnight. That was a developed thing.
Somebody once remarked, How can we be a gracious old man or a gracious old lady if we weren't that way in our youth? You know, these things follow us all the way, don't they?
And this excellent spirit that we read of later in Daniel came about as a result of a developed thing. Lovely to see this. Another thing to consider here in this chapter, verse 30. And that is humility with Daniel. He was not seeking honor and credit. But As for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom.
That I have more than any living but for their sakes or the marginal reading is probably clear. Or but for the intent that the interpretation may be made known to the king, I believe that's the better rendering of it.
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He fully credits the Lord in all of this matter. He doesn't.
Take, as it were, the credit for himself.
Beautiful to see that, that spirit of things. Now in verse 49 of this second chapter, we see that Daniel does not want to share, as it were, all the glory of what occurred.
Here again, he draws his friends into it, and.
They had places of responsibility in the Kingdom, but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. Now, you know, I thought this over and considered that we see all of this quality developed with Daniel. We see the Lords words of recognition and honor to Daniel. And bear in mind that Daniel was not, as it were, an active prophet circulating as it were among the people. Oh no.
Now do you realize that he was carrying on a full time job all the way through?
And you can't help but notice this, that he always seems to drop in the background and when a crisis arises they go to search him out.
You say, how is that? It's because he did not make an effort to retain?
His position?
And there were others that were more clever. We used to call them at work opportunists that would seek Ways and Means to get ahead of the pack, and they would look for the better jobs and the better places any way that they could get them. I know, you know, many of you know exactly what I'm talking about, and you perhaps have experienced some of these same things in your employment. But Daniel made no effort to retain his positions. Whatever the case may be, he just went on faithfully.
And diligently in his work, he was number slacker. He had the King's business to do and as we read later on.
And he's no shirker or slacker. And all of this is so much to his credit. What a lesson we can learn. We'll not have the time to even get into this. But look and read for yourself and consider this the setting of this whole thing that he was carrying on a steady job day after day. And we read of these events as though they happened one after another. No, they did not. When Daniel was thrown in the lion's den, was he a young man? No, he wasn't. He was an old man, most likely.
And as time went on, he was too old, perhaps even to come down to Jerusalem.
When the opportunity was there to come down, was he indifferent to what was?
Occurring there in Jerusalem, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Not one bit. Of course he may have passed on by the days of Nehemiah, but I'm thinking of the days of Ezra. No, even in the the third year after the proclamation for them to go back and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, he was there in the land of the Chaldeans laboring.
And burden about that people. Oh, what a man of God he was.
Anyway, at the last chapter 4.
Here again is another another point.
And that is in verse 8.
Here again, Daniel came in last. He didn't just push himself ahead. Don't you see the spirit of that man?
He finally comes in, and he's the only one that has the answer.
And when Nebuchadnezzar wants this interpretation of this dream.
In verse 19.
It says then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished for one hour and his thoughts troubled him.
The king spake, and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream, or the interpretation thereof trouble thee.
Belteshazzar answered and said, My Lord, the dream be to them that hate thee.
And to the interpretation thereof, To thine enemies. Now, brethren, you know.
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I see in Daniel.
A real feeling of deep concern and sorrow, perhaps.
Over what is interpreted here, he's astonished for one hour.
Why did this bother Daniel so much that this King Nebuchadnezzar was going to lose his reason and be driven out of the Kingdom? I have no doubt that Daniel was exceedingly concerned how it may affect his people.
And he felt these things. Oh, brethren, you know, we shouldn't be indifferent to what occurs. I can remember when Theodore Roosevelt died. I can remember my parents weeping over the loss of that president.
And I can remember weeping, too, when Kennedy was assassinated. You know, these things are shocking, and we can be extremely thankful for stable government. Scripture encourages us to pray for those in authority, and I must confess that I often neglect to do so. But I'm sure if we felt things, as they feel in some lands in China and other places, we may pray more for those in authority.
But Daniel was troubled over this situation. He didn't know, I suppose, what may occur in the Kingdom, what may happen.
With this King put down. God had to allow this, of course to happen to King Nebuchadnezzar. He had to learn.
His condition And you know, when we talk about the character and conduct of these gentile monarchs while Israel is set aside, you can sum it up at almost with one word. They became beasts. They became just like animals. And here we have the picture of it and we see it in the first six chapters. How idolatry permeated the Kingdom and self esteem was very evident.
And the refusal to respect the consciences of others, You have all of this considered in the character and conduct of these monarchs. But you know, even King Nebuchadnezzar was given space to repent. Our God is so gracious. Thou seest Ahab, how he humbled himself. You know God.
Is so ready to withhold the judgment. And he gave King Nebuchadnezzar 12 months, a solid year to repent of his pride, he says. But in the end of that time he says, is this not great Babylon which I have built for the House of my Kingdom and by the might of my power, and for the glory of my majesty, and all of a sudden his he lost his reason, and he was driven out like a beast.
Well, a very solemn thing to consider, but Daniel took no pleasure in what happened to that powerful monarch in that way. Rather, he was troubled and astonished.
Chapter 5 just a little in.
In regard to.
Daniel's obscureness.
Not seeking a place in the Kingdom, verse 10. Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his Lords, came unto the banquet house. And the queen spake, and said, O king, live forever. Let not thy thoughts troubling, nor let thy countenance be changed. There is a man in thy Kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.
And so forth and so forth. Well, you know, when Daniel appears before this king Belteshazzar, he does not give him the respect as he did Nebuchadnezzar, his grandfather. Why? Because this man was absolutely profane. He had contempt for God and the things of God, and Daniel is a faithful witness and lays it right before him.
Chapter 6.
Now Darius is a man, is an honorable man.
But Darius got trapped into this self esteem movement.
That they were not to request make a request of any God but of him.
For this length of time.
And.
So we see that the whole objective was to get Daniel. You see in verse three it says.
Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and Princess, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Well, watch out, watch out. The enemy is ever ready to get at 1:00, so faithful as that. And so they tried to lay a trap, as we see for Daniel, but in verse four consider now This I believe has to do with his work habits, with his duties in the Kingdom.
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And it says, for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. He was not purloining from the king. He was not.
Juggling the books. He was not trying to Curry favor and do things.
To gain advantage in the Kingdom, he was just doing his job as faithfully unto the Lord, whatsoever thou doest, do heartily unto the Lord.
And not unto men. Oh, there's much for our conscience, beloved brethren, in all these things that we're reading of here. They couldn't find a thing to lay a charge on him, and so they the only way they could trap him was concerning his religion.
And what was this? Simply that he prayed and gave thanks before his God.
Three times a day.
I'll just ask a question here.
Don't answer me, answer yourself.
How many of us here get on our knees every day, three times a day?
I really believe that Daniel, in all the circumstances and all the environment.
Of that Pagan situation and all that idolatry, he keenly felt his need of strength day by day. Three times a day, I suppose, even through the day's business, he would feel the pressure of it in his soul, and he would be glad to get home at lunchtime and get on his knees. Oh, brethren, is that not a voice to our conscience? And so this was a practice with Daniel. It was not an act of bravado.
It was a practice. If you have a practice like this, do I have a practice like this?
As he did a four time, why should he change his customary thing? This was his strength. This was what sustained him.
Well, we're missing on some very important things, but over here in Chapter 9, we must just take a quick glance at this.
And that is.
Verse two of Chapter 9. And by the way, this is in the first year of Darius.
We see there's a change in the Kingdom.
In the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolation of Jerusalem. And I set my face under the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
Daniel read his Bible. Can I put it that way? I believe he was doing it all the time.
His reading was very timely on this occasion.
Because here in reading the book of Jeremiah, all of a sudden he came upon this passage that said 70 years were determined in the desolation of Jerusalem, and I can just picture a thrill that went over Daniel.
He put it all together and said we're at this point, so we know Daniel had to be of quite an age at this point.
He put it together and he said this is it. Oh beloved brethren, you know, this prayer of Daniel Chapter 9 is absolutely sublime.
We know the prayer of John 17 is so majestic.
But for a man of like passion, this is astounding to see the spirit.
Of that man and as we already had remarked in the meetings.
He makes the sin of the people his own. That's his first confession. You know, fasting would be self denial, sackcloth would be humility, and ashes would be nothing. So you can see the spirit of that dear man of God. He's into the word of God. He's got understanding now, and God has opened his understanding. And so we see that he gets right on his knees. And God is pleased to give us this prayer in detail.
And he recognizes what is due to God. He honors God in all that God has done against that people, the necessity of it. And he includes himself. And he recognizes the righteousness of God in what happened. I think he uses that word righteousness three or four times.
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Verse 16 for example. But finally he makes supplication. He reaches the point where he begins to make supplication.
And he's heard. And this, I believe.
Is what finally brings us to this expression.
Old man greatly a man greatly beloved in chapter 10 three times.
He's referred to in that way and you understand that.
When the answer comes.
It has a far greater answer than his immediate thought.
It goes on into future events as we well know, bringing us to the last week of Daniel 70s weeks.
Anyway.
I might just say this in closing that you have the words of the Angel here in chapter 10 and Chapter 11. And as we've had in the meetings, you'll see by the things said to Daniel that there is indeed a spiritual conflict there. There are principalities and powers against God and on God's part, and there are conflicts that we have no idea of. And we see how Michael is a faithful guardian Prince.
Of the children of Israel is very active in their behalf and whoever the Angel was, perhaps Gabriel that came to speak to Daniel, he was supportive in all this matter. We have no idea what's going on, but the day is coming like we've had referred to in the meetings when Satan will be cast out of heaven in Revelation 12 and then he will know that his time is short, he will have lost his place in an anti priestly character as the accuser of the brethren.
And so he'll accelerate in the character of the false king and the false prophet.
Horrible to consider all that, but those times are coming upon this poor world. But may we, by the grace of God, beloved brethren, both brothers and sisters, follow the example of that dear man of God, even though we're thrown into a world that's an evil day.
But still, this is where we are right now. Are we going to continue to glorify him while we're here? May the Lord give us grace to consider ever His glory. Shall we pray, Blessed God and Father, We do thank thee for the examples of the.