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Blue Mountain Academy

Strong in Babylon: Lessons from the Life of Daniel

Eric Walsh

01 Feeding the Mind

I'm looking forward for our weekend together.

And I'll actually be here with CORE the beginning of next week.

And our theme for today and tomorrow is Strong in Babylon, Lessons from the Book of Daniel.

And so we are gonna go through 4 of the key stories of the book of Daniel.

Now, when you look at the book of Daniel, there are kind of 2 parts.

Part of it is the life of Daniel and the 3 Hebrew boys.

The reason that's so important is because while the last part of the prophetic chapters of the book give us a clue as to what would happen historically and especially in these last days, the first part, Daniel gives the example of how it is that we should live in these last days.

Do you think we're living in the last days?

Let me tell you something, you can't turn on the news and not see that we are living in the last days.

Storm after storm, war after war, crime after crime.

It is becoming more and more evident so to the point where even the secular folk are asking what's going on.

So we who have the Bible and have these truths ought to have an answer and that's why you're here.

You're here to be prepared to go into the world and give an answer at the most difficult time in Earth's history.

So like I said, the theme is strong in Babylon.

Our scripture reading for tonight's message is 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 31.

Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.

So our message tonight is entitled, Feeding the Mind.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your Word.

We thank you for Blue Mountain Academy, for the administration, the teachers, the staff, the students, for these hallowed grounds, Lord, where all this happens.

And tonight, Lord, we are asking you to visit this place 1 more time.

Lord fill us now with your Holy Spirit that he Lord would be here with us leading and guiding us into all truth.

As we go through this lesson tonight, Lord, I pray, Lord, that we would have a heart and mind to hear your truth.

It's our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

So we're going to go to the book of Daniel, the first chapter is where we're going to start tonight.

Like I said, we're gonna do 4 stories from Daniel's life.

If I had time I'd go into all the prophecies, but the stories are what's gonna be relevant.

And I'll give a little bit more about this tomorrow, but you have to remember that Nebuchadnezzar in his second invasion or an incursion against Jerusalem and Israel took captive the princes of the land.

And So when you read the book of Daniel, you understand that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were royalty.

They weren't just average, regular young men.

And they were the ones who were taken captive.

They would have had to walk, probably on foot, all the way from Jerusalem around the Fertile Crescent all the way to the city of Babylon.

Their God would have been mocked and ridiculed.

Eventually, even the holy vessels, as we'll talk about tomorrow, would have been taken out of the temple.

It would have been a serious walk of shame from Jerusalem to Babylon.

And remember that in those days if 1 nation conquered another nation, really what was said is that the gods of 1 nation conquered the gods of another nation.

Let me submit to you that in all of the Old Testament this is 1 of the lowest points for the followers of Jehovah because at this point it seems as if Marduk and Bel, the gods of Babylon, are superior to the gods of Israel.

It is a horrible experience just to trek it from Jerusalem to Babylon and this is the experience of Daniel and of his 3 companions and as we go through these 4 stories I want you to realize that they are walking and having to believe when all belief makes the least amount of sense.

The book of Daniel is written it seems as if God's people have lost.

Daniel 1 and verse 1 says, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, into Jerusalem and he besieged it.

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 another name for Babylon to the house of his God and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God verse 3 and the king spake to Ashphenaz the master of his eunuchs that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seeds and of the princes.

Children in whom, now watch the type of children that they wanted.

They were well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science and such had ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.

When the Babylonians went to pick, to choose which young people would be taken with them all the way back to Babylon, they made sure to pick the ones that were not knuckleheads.

They picked the ones who could stand before a king.

They took the ones who were performing well in life, in school, and at home, they took the best of the best in order to try to make them Babylonian.

Let me submit something to you young people.

Satan wants to take you and make you Babylonian.

Verse 5, 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.

Now, Nebuchadnezzar was a pretty brilliant leader.

Rather than having to fight with Israel forever in Jerusalem, what they would do is they would just take these guys, bring them over, put them through like Babylon University, feed them Babylonian food, make them think, act, eat, drink like Babylonians, name them like Babylonians, so that they could send them back to Jerusalem and they would rule and be the emissaries as it were or the representatives of Nebuchadnezzar himself.

That way Nebuchadnezzar's troops could go and fight somewhere else.

It was a brilliant strategy actually and it started with this idea that they would feed them to make them Babylonian.

You ever heard the phrase you are what you eat?

Verse 6, now among these were of the children of Judah Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names, for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, and unto Hananiah of Shadrach, and to Mishael of Meshach, and unto Azariah of Abednego." Now in the Bible, what does it mean when someone's name is changed?

It is a statement that there's a change in character.

This is 1 of the few times in the Bible that the name change is going in the wrong direction, which means Nebuchadnezzar had a plan to not only make them Babylonian in culture, but to make them Babylonian in character.

And you're going to see tomorrow what happens when you're Babylonian in character.

And I'll give you a little bit of a spoiler alert.

Diddy, all the different names the man has, that brother there is in prison now because he became a Babylonian.

In Hebrew, Daniel means God is my judge, or the judgment of God.

He was renamed Belteshazzar, which means Bell's Prince, after Bell, the ruling God of the Babylonian pantheon.

So he didn't want them to believe that Daniel, you know, represented judgment, which is what the book of Daniel is about, from Daniel 7, Daniel 9, it's about judgment.

Hananiah means beloved of the Lord, but his name was changed to Shadrach, which means illumined by the sun.

And now look at this, Mishael means who is as God, but his name was changed to Meshach, which means who is like Shaq.

But his name was changed to Abednego, which means the servant of Nego, who was 1 of their other pagan gods.

So they changed the names to get them to, so when we, tomorrow morning at Sabbath school, when we talk about them in front of the idol, I want you to understand the process of making them bow to the idol began as soon as they got there.

With the idea that if you could change their name, you could change their behavior.

This is why you don't just let people call you anything.

How you name yourself, how you think of yourself, what you let people call you matters because many times you will begin to behave like you're called.

02 Standing for Christ

All right, we're going to continue on in the book of Daniel.

And today, again, we have some heavy material, so I hope you all are prayed up and that you're praying for me.

To be taken from 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, 2 Timothy 3 and verse 12, which says, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

So our talk for Sabbath school is entitled, Standing for Christ.

And so we're going to get into this, but let me give a little bit of background information after we pray.

Father God, I ask once again that you just fill us with your Holy Spirit, Lord, lead us into truth, be what this study this morning, Lord, and help us, Lord, to garner what you want us to take from it, and then, Lord, mold our minds and our characters to be more like you because of what we hear.

Let us Lord be malleable to the effects of the Holy Spirit.

This is our prayer in Jesus's name, amen.

So the background now is last night we did Daniel chapter 1.

I'm gonna skip Daniel chapter 2, 1 of my favorite chapters of Scripture, but I'll touch on it here.

You remember in Daniel chapter 2, somebody had a dream.

Who was it that had a dream in Daniel chapter 2?

And I didn't say this last night about sleeping, but 1 of the reasons sleep is so important is that sleep is also when we naturally deal with trauma.

Sleep is when we naturally deal with trauma.

So recent research has shown that when you sleep, the neurotransmitter, noradrenaline or norepinephrine is released and it is when you sleep that you actually get to manage and deal with emotional scars and trauma.

A lack of sleep will lead to poor mental health because it's when you sleep that your body actually processes.

And this happens in the rapid eye movement stage of sleep.

When you dream, Your dreams aren't just nebulous things.

It's actually your body and your mind working through issues, problems, challenges, traumas.

We start there with a man, a king named Nebuchadnezzar, asleep.

And in this dream, he sees this giant image, this giant statue.

And you remember that the head is of gold, and it goes all the way down.

We go through, I'll show you a picture of it later on, with all of the different kingdoms that it represents.

And Finally, a stone is cut out without hands, and you remember what happens?

The stone smashes against the feet of this image and shatters the whole thing into dust.

The wind comes and sweeps it away, and a mountain raises up.

A whole new kingdom is created that lasts forever.

Nebuchadnezzar has this dream because his trauma, his issue is, what is his legacy?

So when he sees this image, and then ultimately Daniel is the only 1 who's able to give the explanation, when he says, you, King Nebuchadnezzar, your Babylon is the head of gold.

But it went to his head literally, and from there Nebuchadnezzar began to do something that we as Adventists really are careful of, different from most denominations.

I'm actually going to read you from the spirit of prophecy, manuscript 63, 1899, which is a statement about what the toes represent in that image.

And I'll show you the image again in a second.

The mingling of churchcraft and statecraft, meaning the mingling of the church and the state, the government and the religious bodies, is represented by the iron and the clay, that's the feet.

This union is weakening all the power of the churches.

This investing the church with the power of the state will bring evil results.

Men have almost passed the point of God's forbearance.

They have invested their strength in politics and have united with the papacy.

But the time will come when God will punish those who have made void his law and their evil work will recoil upon themselves.

There's a warning that when the church and the state come together, and this political cycle, I don't have time to get into it, it is 1 of the issues that has come to the forefront.

The idea that the church and the state should actually be working together.

And so when that happens in ancient Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar erects a statue.

And interestingly, it's like 600 by 60 by 6.

It actually lays out to be in dimensions like 666.

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was 3 score cubits, and the breadth thereof 6 cubits.

He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

And you can see the 2 of the sixes there, 60 cubits, 6 cubits.

So it winds up being like the dimensions are 666.

He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

And this is Nebuchadnezzar, great and mighty, powerful king, very real in history.

This is what the image would have looked like in his dream.

And so you remember it was the head of gold as Babylon.

The arms and torso of silver represented Medo-Persia.

We'll talk about that at the next service.

The thigh and waist of bronze was Greece.

Then the feet of iron and clay is more modern times, represents how the Roman Empire got broken up and what will happen up to the last days of Earth's history.

So you get an understanding that this is what he saw, and he ultimately erects a statue.

Verse 2, then Nebuchadnezzar the King sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image with Nebuchadnezzar, the king, had set up.

So he sets up this image in hopes that by getting everyone to recognize, worship, and honor it, he can extend his time as king.

Nebuchadnezzar is looking to elevate himself to the level almost of deity.

Verse 3, then the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

So this mighty sea of dignitaries is standing in front of this idol.

These are all of the leaders, these are all of the important people, all standing there, and among them are the princes from Israel we talked about last night that were also taken captive.

Well, in verse 4, it says, then a herald cried aloud, to you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, to you it is commanded that at a time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar, the king, had set up." So he says, listen, when you start to hear the music, when the music plays, that is the time for you to fall down and notice it's not just to fall down, it's to fall down in what?

That's the point of this, to get them to worship this image because there's a trade-off in worship.

Nebuchadnezzar wants the image worshipped so that his gods will give him longevity in favor.

Verse 6, and whoso falleth not down and worshipeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a Burning fiery furnace.

So then this is where you see the mixing of church and state.

If you don't do what the religion of the government says, you will be punished.

In this case, you'll be thrown into a fiery furnace.

Why did, why, I mean this is a weird way to execute people, very unique in all of human history.

Well, it's because in Babylon there were no stones.

They had no stone to quarry to build their structures, So Babylon had to master the art in kilns, in furnaces, of making stones.

And what archaeologists have actually found, to show you that the Bible is very accurate, they have found the literal stones with the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar on the stones.

04 Message

I'll tell you, when I hear that song, I get emotional because when I studied in Israel for 2 months, I took college classes and studied Jewish history, and I remember walking where they say Jesus would have walked in Jerusalem.

And as you take the steps, you think that Christ took those painful steps knowing he was going to die.

And the whole time he was walking, he was not thinking about himself.

Who was on Jesus' mind as he walked the Via Dolorosa?

He took the beatings, he wore the crown of thorns, he suffered, and he died.

And he did it willingly so that you and I would have a chance at eternity.

Jesus took the death we deserve so that we would have the life he deserves.

Roger Murnau says that after he came out of demon worship and the demons would come after him, he says that he would every night for devotional, his last devotional thought every night, he would read the story of the crucifixion of Christ and he would read it out loud and when the demons hear the story of how Jesus died for you and I they flee and a White says that we should contemplate the cross, the death of Christ, for at least an hour every single day.

You're a different Christian when you realize what God is asking you to give up pales in comparison to what Christ gave up.

And because we forget his sacrifice, we think that What he's asking us to do is too much.

And that's why Paul says that we are to give our bodies a living sacrifice.

And then he says, this is our reasonable service.

It's reasonable because the deal is on us.

We're the ones who don't follow what God says, and he's the 1 who died in our stead.

We'll keep going with Daniel, but thank you, Jenea, that was very beautiful.

Romans chapter 1 is our scripture reading for tonight, 16 and 17, so we're gonna finish our four-part messages really emphasizing now the need to stand for God at a time when it's most difficult.

The need, the ability to stand for God when it's most difficult.

Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.

As it is written, the just shall live by what?

So our message this evening as we close the Sabbath is entitled, Is Your Window Open?

Father God, we thank you for the book of Daniel, not just for the powerful and important prophetic aspects of it, but for the stories from the life of Daniel that encourage us and inspire us to live for you in modern-day Babylon.

Now Lord I pray again that you speak and I, Lord, not be heard.

This is our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

So we're going to go to Daniel 6, verse 1, and it says, It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and 20 princes which should be over the whole kingdom and over these 3 presidents of whom Daniel was first that the princes might give accounts unto them and the king should have no damage so to continue in the life of Daniel we get past a Belshazzar's feast Daniel this is how this is how much a man of God Daniel is.

He literally survives the change of empires.

Daniel is still in leadership at the change of empires.

I'll talk more about this in a second, but I was with the Bush administration.

And when Obama won the election in 2008, I stayed on that committee.

But it didn't take long when they figured out I was a Christian that they booted me off of that committee.

It's not easy to survive a change of leadership, definitely not in Washington DC, But Daniel survived.

Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king thought to send him over the whole realm.

What happens when you as a Christian do what God says and God blesses you?

They get envious and jealous and they want to bring you down.

And let me submit to you that God has given you as young people, he's given you, the Bible gives you 2 ways that God exalts you.

Just saying I'm gonna follow what God says do.

By doing that you protect yourself and by default in this world you'll do better.

The other 1 is returning a faithful tithe.

Now I know most of you are still in the category of negative income.

So the tithe on negative income is nothing.

But when you do get birthday money, when you do get a little pocket change, you'll be surprised what God will do for you if you make sure to set aside 10% at least and return that to the church.

But the third way that we are blessed, you see how it says Daniel had an excellent spirit in him?

Isaiah tells us that if you keep God's Sabbath, he will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth.

I was born, I told you guys a story last time I was here, the Wednesday night on forgiveness, the message.

I told you my mother raised 3 of us by herself.

She was a third generation Seventh Day Adventist, and we kept the Sabbath in our house.

When my mother got home from work on Friday afternoon, the house had to be spotless.

And there were only 3 boys, so we were very good at cleaning that house and making sure it was clean because we were very afraid of our mother, in a good way.

Now, I never thought growing up, when people thought for sure you 3 black boys being raised by their mother alone, there's no way these kids would be successful.

Series

Strong in Babylon: Lessons from the Life of Daniel

04 Message

Transcript

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