Part 8 of 11 in Daniel Prophecy Series given at Maraval, Trinidad SDA church.

<p>Part 8 of 11 in Daniel Prophecy Series given at Maraval, Trinidad SDA church.</p>

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Daniel Prophecy Series

Norman McNulty

Daniel 1—Undefiled in Babylon

Alright, well thank you so much Pastor Dolly for the invitation to be here at the Marival Church and I'm excited about what we are going to be doing the next 12 presentations or over the next 3 weeks as we go through the book of Daniel.

Now before we get started I'd like to have a word of prayer and then we'll get right into the message for this evening.

Father in heaven, We thank you for giving us a new week of life.

We thank you for the privilege of being able to study from your word.

And we pray for a special blessing tonight and over the next few weeks as we study these messages.

All right, I just want, by way of curiosity, how many of you here tonight are coming to hear a presentation on the book of Daniel for the first time.

You've never heard a presentation on the book of Daniel.

We welcome you here and we're glad that you're here for these presentations.

And I trust that as we go through these meetings you're gonna learn a lot of things and you're gonna have questions and you're gonna want to study more.

Now how many of you have studied the book of Daniel at least once in your life?

How many of you feel like you've studied it well enough that you could be doing the presentation?

Okay, I'm sure there's at least a few of you who could.

Certainly the pastor and some of the others here also.

That gives me an idea to know what my audience is.

So what you will probably find is some of the information, maybe some of you will find like, well, I'm not sure what that is, but don't get lost in the details, look at the big picture.

And for those of you who have studied before, you can look at the details a little more closely and then everyone will get something out of this.

Now, this is a 12-part seminar And we're going to go through the book of Daniel chapter by chapter.

Now the outline is such that for the most part we'll do 1 chapter per night.

The 1 exception will be our third presentation where we will do Daniel chapter 3 and 4 together.

And then towards the end, Daniel 11 is so complex, and there's so much information, we're going to do it in 2 presentations.

So other than that, it will be 1 chapter per presentation, with the exceptions of the ones that I mentioned.

Alright, so as you can see from the slide, our title for tonight's presentation is Undefiled in Babylon.

Now the book of Daniel was written by Daniel, a Hebrew captive.

He was a young man taken at a young age into captivity into the city of Babylon, which would be in modern day Iraq, from Jerusalem, which is modern day Israel.

Now, how many of you know what the name Daniel means?

So if Daniel's name means God is my judge, what do you think the book of Daniel might possibly be about?

Yes, the book of Daniel has much to say about judgment and God's role as our judge.

So that's 1 of the things we're going to be learning as we go through here.

And what you're going to find is that the judgment scenes especially start to come up in the last half of the book.

But what we're going to see that in the first 6 chapters, we have a lot of stories, Stories that some of us maybe have heard growing up.

Daniel being taken captive, Nebuchadnezzar having his dream, the 3 Hebrew boys, Daniel being thrown into the lion's den, the handwriting on the wall.

But what we're going to see as we go through the first 6 chapters is that the first 6 chapters show us how we should live with respect to the fact that there is a judgment in heaven.

The stories in the first 6 chapters show us how we should live our lives with respect to the fact that there is a judgment in heaven and that God is our judge.

So, let's open our Bibles now and turn to Daniel chapter 1 starting in verse 1.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it." In verse 2, "...and the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar..." Now Shinar is another name for Babylon.

"...to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God.

Now, what we see here is that God's people, the people of Judah, are brought under siege and taken captive by a pagan kingdom, the kingdom of Babylon.

And You may be asking the question, why did God allow a pagan nation to take his chosen people, the Jews, into captivity?

And if you study this out carefully, if you study the history of the Old Testament, you will see that God's people consistently resisted the warnings of the messengers that God sent and they continue to go off into idolatry.

Maybe they will listen to me if I allow them to be taken into captivity and when they are taken into captivity I will be able to use some of them to be my witnesses in a foreign nation.

Because you see, God had raised up Israel and Judah to be his witnesses to the world.

They were not to hide their special truths to themselves and hide in the temple and say, we're the best people in the world, I'm so glad we're not like the people out there.

They were supposed to take the truths that God had entrusted to them and share them with the world around them.

And interestingly, Jerusalem and Judah and the nation of Israel were strategically located at the crossroads of the world at that time.

So God had placed them there to be his witnesses.

But instead of being his witnesses, they had become conformed to the nations around them, and so finally God said, you know what, in order for you to be my witness, I'm going to allow you to be taken captive, and by doing so, My messages of truth will then be given to the leading kingdoms of this world.

Now, before we go any farther in our study of Daniel chapter 1, I want to show you in this next slide why we are studying, and I should have done this earlier in the presentation, why do we have a prophecy seminar?

Is there any special insight in the book of Daniel for our time?

I'm going to read, this is a book called Testimonies to Ministers written by Ellen White.

She has some interesting things to say about studying prophecy that all of us would benefit from hearing about.

Here she says, there is a need of a much closer study of the Word of God.

Especially should Daniel and the Revelation have attention as never before in the history of our work.

And you're going to see as we go through these prophecies point by point, you're going to see why we should understand the prophecies in these books.

She then says, read the book of Daniel, and hey, we're here, we're going to study the book of Daniel these next 3 weeks, amen?

Call up point by point the history of the kingdoms there represented.

Behold, statesmen, councils, powerful armies, and see how God wrought to abase the pride of men and lay human glory in the dust." Now, continuing on, the light that Daniel received from God was given especially for these last days.

Yes, it may have been written way back in the 500s BC, but it's especially for our time.

And when the books of Daniel and Revelation are better understood, believers will have an entirely different religious experience.

Do you want to have an entirely different religious experience?

Do you want to have such an experience with the Lord that you were just ready to walk 1 step more into the kingdom of heaven.

We are here to study these things so that we will come closer to the Lord.

And she continues on, they will be given such glimpses of the open gates of heaven that heart and mind will be impressed with a character that all must develop in order to realize the blessedness, which is to be the reward of the pure in heart.

We wanna have an entirely different religious experience.

Now here we see, going back to what we read in the first 2 verses, this is a picture of the city of Jerusalem.

This is a representation of it being besieged by the Babylonian army around 605 BC, and again another picture.

And as we read in the text, not only was the city besieged, but the sacred vessels of the Lord that were used for holy purposes were taken by Babylon into their land, into the house of their God.

And we're going to see that later on in the book of Daniel, specifically in chapter 5, that these vessels are used again.

Now, continuing on in verse 3, it says, "...and the king spake unto Ashpenaz..." this is Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, "...the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans." Notice what the king is doing here.

The king is saying, look, we have taken a lot of captives from the city of Jerusalem.

I want you to find the best and the brightest from the captives so that we can educate them.

Now notice, when you take a group of people captive, that's obviously going to be very demoralizing to the entire group of people, right?

So then, after they're demoralized in their captivity, Nebuchadnezzar says, the next thing we're going to do is we are going to educate their best and brightest so that they will then influence all of the others that have been taken captive.

Rather than trying to educate the whole crowd, you take the best and the brightest and say, we'll influence them, And once we get them, we'll have all of them.

They'll say, hey, you know what, these Babylonians aren't so bad.

They're actually treating us really nice.

And it's interesting, they were able to determine those who had wisdom, knowledge, understanding science, and those who had ability.

We as God's professed people, those who are following God, we should do our very best to be as educated as we can be and to know as much as we can.

And in this particular instance, the king of Babylon wanted to identify those who were the best and the brightest, and including those who came from the king's seed." So here we see Daniel taken in captivity.

Now something very interesting happens starting in verse 5.

It says, "...and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them 3 years, that at the end thereof, they might stand before the king." So boy, the king's being so nice to these captives.

He's like, you know what, you might be slaves, you might be captives, but I'm going to give you a really nice favor here.

Daniel 2—A Vision for the Latter Days

It's great to be here again at the Marival Church.

And I'm very excited about our presentation this evening because we are going to be covering Daniel chapter 2, which is the foundational chapter for all prophecy related to the end of time.

So tonight is our first night in the series where we're really going to get into some of the prophecies, And I'm excited about that.

So before we get into the message for this evening, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the privilege of coming into your presence.

We thank you for bringing us here tonight.

And I pray as we go through a study of Daniel chapter 2 that you would be with us and that you would speak through me and that all of us would learn something that will draw us closer to you and to help us to be ready for your soon coming.

So the title for tonight's presentation is Nebuchadnezzar's Dream, which of course is found in Daniel chapter 2.

Now, again, I like to know my audience to some extent.

How many of you have never studied Daniel chapter 2?

This is the first time you're going to be hearing Daniel chapter 2.

Okay, and how many of you have maybe heard it a few times, but you don't feel that familiar with the story of Daniel chapter 2?

So this is going to be very helpful as we lay a foundation for the rest of the book of Daniel.

As we saw in Daniel chapter 1, we saw that God's chosen people, the nation of Judah or the Jews, they were taken into captivity into the land of Babylon.

And obviously, God's chosen people never could have expected to be taken into captivity by a pagan nation.

But of course, if you study the history, you will see that because of their disobedience to the laws and ordinances of God, finally, he had to try something to wake them up and allow them to witness to others.

Now, Daniel chapter 2 continues this amazing story because when we see the vision of Daniel chapter 2 that Nebuchadnezzar had, we realize that God gives a vision or a picture to a pagan king of what will happen down through history till the very end of time.

Now there were lots of men and women among the Jews and the nation of Israel.

And of all the people that God chose to give this vision to, he chose to give it to a pagan king so that he could speak to that king so that his name could be glorified.

And we're going to see how God worked in Nebuchadnezzar's life tonight and tomorrow as well.

So of course, here we see Nebuchadnezzar has this dream and you have this famous image, the head of gold, the chest of silver, the thighs of brass and the legs of iron, the feet of iron and of clay.

Now Ellen White, who we quoted from last time, she has a lot of interesting things to say about prophecy and other topics.

And in Prophets and Kings, page 491, she says, "...soon after Daniel and his companions entered the service of the king of Babylon, events occurred that revealed to an idolatrous nation the power and faithfulness of the God of Israel." So God is speaking to Nebuchadnezzar to say, look, you may be the king of Babylon, but I am the faithful God of Israel, which is the nation that you took into captivity." So don't start thinking too highly of yourself.

Nebuchadnezzar had a remarkable dream by which his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him, But although the king's mind was deeply impressed, he found it impossible when he awoke to recall the particulars.

Now if you look through the story, Nebuchadnezzar does something that is really, it's actually very ridiculous.

He has this dream, he wakes up, and it's obviously astonished him, and he can't remember what it is.

He can't remember anything about it, and So he calls for the wise men and the magicians of Babylon to come and tell him what he had dreamed and what the dream meant.

Now can you think of anybody, any human being, that could tell me what I dreamed about last night and what it meant.

Now, first of all, I didn't have a dream like Nebuchadnezzar.

But if I had, there's not a human being in the world that could be able to do that unless God gave them that gift.

Now Nebuchadnezzar perhaps in his mind he was being reasonable because he thought that these wise men had power from the Babylonian gods and the Babylonian gods should be able to speak through them to tell him what he had seen.

But obviously that didn't happen and they said, you know, we can't do this, King.

I don't know why you're expecting us to tell you what the dream was." And if you read the verses, they say, if you tell us what the dream was, then we'll give you the interpretation.

Now Nebuchadnezzar says, well, anybody could do that.

I want you to prove that you are supernatural.

I want you to tell me what the dream was and give me the interpretation." And they say, there's not a man alive on earth who can do this.

Now Nebuchadnezzar got so angry that he said, all of you are going to die.

If you can't tell me what this is, I'm putting you to death.

Now, guess who was included in the wise men of Babylon?

Guess who had just had a death decree placed upon his head?

In fact, if you recall from chapter 1, he was 10 times wiser than the other wise men.

And it's interesting, Nebuchadnezzar didn't call Daniel, he called the guys that he knew, even though Daniel was 10 times wiser than them.

Perhaps, and we don't know for sure, Perhaps he didn't want to call someone from captivity and make his Babylonians look bad.

I guess you could say that he was being political, whatever the case may have been.

So obviously he puts a death decree upon the wise men, And obviously if you're a wise man and you're being put to death for something you think is unreasonable, it's going to be very scary and very frustrating obviously.

Daniel, if you read the story, he goes in, he asks the king's captain, that's starting in verse 15, and I'm just summarizing in the interest of time because we're going to get to the actual dream itself.

Daniel goes into the king's captain and he says, why are we being put to death?

He wants to know for what reason he's going to be put to death.

And At this point, his life is already marked, and what he decides, he says, hey, tell the king, let me talk to the king, that if he gives me a little time, I will be able to tell him what the dream was and give him the interpretation.

Now think about this, and this is where we tie together what we talked about on Sunday night.

If Daniel had compromised in chapter 1, Do you think he would have had faith to believe that God would hear his prayer now when his life was on the line?

And do you think God would have listened?

You know, that's a debatable question, but most likely not.

That because Daniel had been faithful in chapter 1 and because he had seen God work in a miraculous way so that his health was blessed, so that he was healthier than everyone else, and not only that, he was wiser than everyone else, and he knew that he was being faithful to God, he was not being presumptuous to then go to the king and say, if you give me time, my God, the all-powerful God, will tell me what your dream was so that I can give you the interpretation.

Daniel, because of his faithfulness, knew his God and he had faith that God would hear him.

And so when you read the story, he and his 3 friends, they come together and they pray earnestly.

And then you read in verse 19, it says in chapter 2, then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision, then Daniel blessed the God of heaven." Now notice what he says here in verses 20-22.

Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever.

Now can you imagine how Daniel must have felt at this point?

He tells the king, give me some time, and God hears his prayer and reveals the secret to Daniel.

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever.

You know, if that had been me, my excitement would have not have been containable.

I would have been so thrilled that not just that my life was being saved, but that God's name was going to be glorified to the leading king in the whole world.

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his, and he changes the times and the seasons.

Now notice this, he removeth kings and setteth up kings.

And this is what the vision of Daniel chapter 2 is all about.

And you know, we can make a practical application for that.

God chooses who he chooses for leadership in whatever situation you may think of.

Whether it's in leading the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, or where I'm from, the United States of America, or even at the church level, It's God who sets up and it's God who removes.

He giveth wisdom and I might say sometimes we don't necessarily understand why and in our human wisdom we may have seen it differently.

He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding.

He knoweth what is in the darkness and the light dwelleth with him.

I thank thee and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might, and has made known unto me now what we desired of thee, for thou hast now made known unto us the king's manner." So Daniel is thrilled that God has revealed this secret to him.

And he knows that God has marked out his life for a very special purpose.

Because he was faithful, because from his training up, his parents had taught him to love God, to obey Him, and to always seek to do what would bring glory to God.

Now, as a Hebrew captive, he is being put in a position to be in a position of influence to the leading kingdom of the world.

Notice what Ellen White says, Prophets and Kings, this is pages 494-497.

"...behold the Jewish captive, calm and self-possessed, in the presence of the monarch of the world's most powerful empire." Notice Daniel walks in, and he's walking in before the most powerful monarch of the world, but because he knows that he's the child of the heavenly king, he's calm and self-possessed.

In his first words, he disclaimed honor for himself and exalted God as the source of all wisdom.

You know why God could give this thing to Daniel?

Because he knew Daniel wasn't going to take the honor and glory for himself.

You know, sometimes God can't work through certain human beings in whatever the situation may be because he knows if he gives them power, then they will misuse it to take the glory for themselves rather than to give God the credit and the glory.

Daniel 3 and 4—The Fiery Furnace and the Fall of Nebuchadnezzar

That was a blessing, that special music, amen?

And I'm thankful to be here again on this Friday evening to open the Sabbath.

Today is actually my fourth anniversary with my wife.

If you're here tomorrow you will get to meet her and my nearly seven-month-old daughter.

This is our second anniversary here in Trinidad.

We've been here about a year and a half now, and the Lord has blessed.

I'm very thankful for her, and I'm glad that you'll get to meet her tomorrow.

And I'm glad to see so many of you here tonight, and I hope that this message tonight will be a blessing.

Before we get into the message, I'd like to offer a word of prayer, so let's bow our heads.

Our Father in heaven, We thank you for the blessings you've given us this week.

We thank you that we could be here again tonight to study more from your Word.

And as we study tonight from Daniel chapter 3 and chapter 4, may it help us to understand better the kind of lives that You want us to be living at this time in Earth's history.

We had our second presentation Wednesday night and tonight we're going to be covering Daniel chapter 3 and Daniel chapter 4.

In our first presentation we covered chapter 1 and if you were here 1 of the key points that we saw from Daniel chapter 1 is that the name Daniel means God is my judge.

So the book Daniel is a book about judgment.

And we also saw that Daniel made a key decision along with his 3 friends that helped to shape the rest of his experience in Babylon.

And that was that they purposed in their hearts to not defile themselves with a king's meat nor with the wine which he drank.

And because of that, they were found to be 10 times wiser than all the other wise men in Babylon.

Then we came to chapter 2, and the quiz that you just took, and I liked the quiz.

I didn't write the quiz, but I thought it was a good quiz.

We saw the kingdoms that are represented in the image.

The head of gold, the chest and arms of silver, the brass, the thighs of brass, the legs of iron, the feet of iron and clay.

And we saw that a stone strikes that image and that stone becomes a mountain which becomes a kingdom, God's kingdom, which fills the whole earth.

So, Daniel chapter 2 lays the foundation for the rest of Daniel.

So we'll try from here and take it from here.

So tonight's presentation is the fiery furnace and the fall of Nebuchadnezzar.

Now, We're going to start off in Daniel chapter 3 verse 1.

Here we read, Nebuchadnezzar, the king, made an image of gold which was 3 score cubits and the breadth thereof 6 cubits.

He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon." So here we see this image, its height is 3 score or 60 cubits, and it's 6 cubits wide.

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