MESSAGES

FROM THE

WORD

WHY DANIEL IS IMPORTANT

Daniel

SERIES:  Daniel

Message # 1

            In the Middle Ages, a psychic met with the Pope to discuss some envelopes he had in his possession.  After introducing himself, the psychic stated, “God has revealed to me the future of the world and they are contained in these seven envelopes.  I will sell them to you for a million dollars”.  When the Pope laughed, the man lit one envelope on fire.  He then stated, “God has revealed to me the future of the world and they are contained in these six envelopes.  I will sell them to you for one million dollars”.  As each envelope went up in smoke, some of the Cardinals became more and more anxious.  With three envelopes left, the Pope caved and purchased the envelopes.  Don’t you wish you knew what was in those envelopes?  The fact is, if you want to know the future of the world, simply take out your Bible and read the book of Daniel.

            We begin this morning to examine the most powerful book in the entire Bible.  The most important book in the Bible is Genesis, because every important doctrine we believe has its origins in that book.  However, the most powerful book is Daniel because it combines two critical issues.  First, it portrays for us the power of a holy life.  Second it portrays for us the power of prophesy.  We are going to take our magnifying glass out and examine these twelve chapters and digest each and every morsel.  The reason for this is clear.  There has never been a time when holiness is more needed.  In addition, there has never been a time when God’s word has more to say about our culture than we see today.  As we begin to look through these verses, I want us to first look at why Daniel is so critical.  As a preview, I want us to look at eight words that will show up in the pages of this book that will make the study more relevant.

            THE FIRST WORD IS HOLINESS.  Holiness is a big topic throughout the Bible.  Five times the phrase, “BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY” appears in the book of Leviticus.  That phrase is repeated in Peter’s first letter.  The concept of holiness is a primary theme of Jesus, the Apostles, and the early church.  The book of Daniel is a great model for this theme.  It does this in two ways.  First, it gives us examples of holiness through the lives of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, & Azariah.  If those last three names are unfamiliar it is because we know them better by the names given them which were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.  Daniel is also given a new name, Belteshazzer, but he is always referred to by his Hebrew name of Daniel.  For some reason the other three are noted by their Babylonian names.  Second, it gives us examples of what happened to those who failed to live holy lives. 

            We see this in the first verse.  We read       DANIEL 1:1, 2           Jehoiakim was the king over Judah when Babylon came to attack the Holy Land.  Throughout Israel’s history, God had delivered His people from far superior forces.  Why didn’t God deliver His people from Babylon on this occasion?  We are told,     II CHRON 36:5            When the leader of God’s people is corrupted by sin, there is a price to pay.  As we will see later, God does not abandon His people, but He does remove His protection from them.

            We need only to remember the stories of the fiery furnace and the lion’s den to understand God’s protection for those who continue to walk in holiness.

            THE SECOND WORD IS ACCURACY.  So accurate is the book of Daniel in its historical record and in its prophetic passages that those who refuse to believe God’s word claim that the book was written after the fact.  It would be like me writing a letter for a time capsule, dating it as Jan. 1, 1959 and predicting that a man from Plains, GA. would arise and be elected the president. There are several problems with the premise that Daniel was written after the fact.  When Alexander the Great conquered the world, he came into the Holy Land.  When he arrived in Jerusalem, he planned to destroy the city.  However, he was met by the High Priest who presented him with a copy of the book of Daniel and read the passages predicting a king from Greece would come and conquer the world.  That so impressed Alexander that he spared Israel.

            At the same time, Greek became a world language and the Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew into the Greek.  It was translated by a group of 70 scholars and was called the Septuagint, which means “70”.  This made it possible for non-Hebrew speaking people to read the Old Testament.  Because many of Daniel’s predictions occurred after the book had been translated into the Greek, it couldn’t have been written after that date.

            Throughout the book, we will see amazing prophesies.  Daniel predicted the battle that took place in about 160 BC which lead to the celebration known as Hanukkah.  When we get to chapter 9, we will look at the most amazing prediction in the entire Bible.  It is one that brings us all the way into the 21^st century.  We will see that the predictions in Daniel are absolutely accurate to the very day.

            THE THIRD WORD IS SOVEREIGNTY.  This is a big theological word and it basically means that God oversees everything.  Our Founding Fathers understood this concept.  The last line of the Declaration of Independence reads, “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor”.  “Divine Providence” is Puritan talk for the sovereignty of God.  This is not an easy concept to understand.  Its understanding also leaves us with many unanswered points.

            It is most easily understood as the belief that nothing catches God by surprise and everything happens within His permissive will.  This opens up many areas of questions.  Certainly it opens up the issue of why God allows evil.  Evil in not God’s plan, yet He allows it to occur within His permissive will.  However, you will notice as we study through Daniel that God’s sovereignty shows itself in many ways.  We just saw that God allowed the Jews to fall into the hands of the Babylonians.  One might conclude that this would show God’s weakness.  Quite the contrary.  As you move through this book, God’s power is demonstrated in many ways.  Certainly the fiery furnace and the Lion’s Den are two examples.  The writing on the wall and the various dream interpretations are two other examples.  God allows sin to make its decisions, but He always brings them under His control.

            For the people of God, this is Romans 8:28 in operation.  We read           ROMANS 8:28        Nothing takes God by surprise.  God has to allow evil because He has given us a free will.  However, He also takes that evil and moves in it so that His will works out.  God’s sovereignty is always more noticeable when God’s people are going through a difficult time. 

            THE FOURTH WORD IS COURAGE.  This is a book about courage.  Courage does not mean we have no fear.  It means we overcome our fear by allowing God to control us in the middle of our fear.  We see this in the life of Joshua.  We read      JOSHUA 1:6-9       Did you notice the reason why Joshua did not need to fear?  It is because God was with Him.  Picture a child going to a new school.  On his first day, he sits in a seat and some bully comes up and begins to threaten him for sitting in his seat.  You might think that the new kid in school would be fearful.  Except, this kid is the son of the president and as soon as the bully began to move, three secret service agents sprang into action and took the bully out.  At the beginning of the next day, the new kid and the bully both walk into class at the same time.  Which of those two kids walks in fear?  It is the bully, because His power is minor when compared with the agents.  God walks beside you.  His angels overshadow you.  Bad things can still happen, as we see in the lion’s den and the fiery furnace.  We read                 DANIEL 3:8-18                  Did you notice their response.  They believed God would save them.  However, they left room for the possibility that this was the end of their life.  No one wants to die, but courage allows us to stand tall when that moment comes, because we understand that God is in the middle of the flames, or the lion’s den, or the firing squad, or the cross, or the jail cell.  He is using us in those situations to bring life to a dying people.

            THE FIFTH WORD IS CONSEQUENCES.  Life is filled with choices and the consequences of those choices.  Certainly Daniel and his three friends were blessed because of the decisions they made.  Daniel also shows us the flip side of this.  Part of this fits into what we discussed as the sovereignty of God.  One of the principles of warfare at this time was the belief that if you defeated a people it meant that your gods were more powerful than theirs.  We see this in the Middle East today as Allah is given credit when the Jews or Americans are pushed around.  Because of this, we are told that Nebuchadnezzar went into the Temple and took some of the holy utensils to take with him back to Babylon.  After all, what’s God going to do, defeat him in battle?  This manifested itself in chapter 5.  We read        DANIEL 5:1-6           This guy did not understand that Israel had been defeated by God, not the Babylonians.  He thought he could mock God and get away with it.  In one of the most amazing battles in all of history, Babylon fell that night without a shot being fired.

            We live in a culture that believes it can mock God and suffer no consequences.  Whether it is the removal of the Ten Commandments or “In God we trust”, whether we reject God’s plan for the family and government, or whether we promote immoral lifestyles, there is always a consequence for doing right and a consequence for doing wrong.  Paul writes       GALATIANS 6:7, 8                Many of you have purchased items for little or no money down, a low monthly payment and a balloon payment at the end.  Our nation was told that we could mock God’s plans without consequences and we are now reaching the point of the balloon payment being due.

            THE SIXTH WORD IS PRAYER.  There is no greater example of the power of prayer that the life of Daniel.  This is interesting, because Daniel does not ever teach people how to pray.  He simply prays.  It is his prayer life that results in his being thrown into the lion’s den.  When we arrive at Daniel 9, we are going to look at the most powerful prayer in the Old Testament.  When I preached through Daniel twenty years ago, we spent three weeks in this passage.  This time, we may spend ten weeks.  The principles that are gleaned from this passage will change your prayer life.  None of us have a prayer life that we feel is sufficient, but this passage will get you closer to what it should be.

            THE SEVENTH WORD IS INFLUENCE.  One of the most important realities I have learned over the past twenty-five years is the difference between influence and authority.  This reality will be very evident in our study.  We mentioned earlier that God’s sovereignty is seen most when His people are in trouble.  This book is a perfect example.  It begins in chapter 1.  Nebuchadnezzar thought he was the big dog because he had conquered Jerusalem.  Then, God gives him a dream that causes him to lose sleep.  Only Daniel can solve the riddle.  Belshazzar thought that because his side had taken the cups from the Temple, he could do anything he wanted with them.  Only Daniel could solve the puzzle.  The leaders had authority and threw the three young men in the furnace.  They then threw Daniel in with the lions.  No authority, but the four of them had influence with God which gave them influence with the king.

            As the story opens, these four young men between the ages of 14-18 are removed from their home and thrown into a totally pagan culture.  Not unlike what you go through when you send your kids to school, the mall or to the entertainment practices of our nation.  As you look at this story, Babylon does everything it can to force these young men to cave to their way of life.  Do you know what Babylon is?  We read           GENESIS 11:1-4         The spirit of Babylon is chose us not God.  What is the number one reason why kids get into trouble?  It is because they are told, “Everyone else is doing it”.  The call of God to His people is to teach their children to oppose the cultural norms and stand for Him.  This is why Solomon wrote            PROVERBS 22:6        In a recent survey, only 10% of the teenagers surveyed lived their lives based on Biblical principles.  The rest decided based on “What is everyone else doing”?  Let me ask you the most important question you will ever be asked as a parent.  What are you doing to help your children stand against the culture and to stand for God?  If you were removed from their life tonight, would they know how to live a godly life in a hostile environment?  When confronted with compromise, these young men stood for God because that is how their parents had trained them.

            THE EIGHTH WORD IS ISRAEL.  This book is a book about God’s plan for His people, the Jews.  The New Testament discusses a doctrinal issue called “The Times of the Gentiles”.  Because Israel rejected her Messiah, God put her on hold and is working through what we call the church.  There is coming a day when the church will be removed from this Earth and God will go back to working with the Jews.  This is why we still refer to the Jews as God’s People”.  We read                  DANIEL 9:24-27       I believe this is the beginning point of Biblical prophesy.  If you understand this passage, everything else makes sense.

            We will not get into the interpretation today, but I want you to grasp the heart of the passage.  The word for “weeks” means “Sets of Sevens”.  Bible scholars accept this as a set of seven years.  God has set aside a period of 70 sections of seven years, or 490 years. He breaks up this period of time into three sections of time.  There is a “7 Weeks” section, a “62 Weeks” section, and a “1 week” section.  At the end of this 70^th week, the “CONSUMMATION” occurs.  In other words, the end of the world takes place.

            I want you to look at several critical points.  1) This involves “YOUR PEOPLE AND YOUR HOLY CITY…”  In other words, the Jews and Jerusalem are central characters.  2) There is a beginning point.  We will look at this when we study the passage and it is an order to rebuild Jerusalem.  3)  There is an ending point to the “7” and “62” weeks of time. This “69 weeks” of time, goes from the rebuilding of the city, “UNTIL MESSIAH THE PRINCE…”  The last day of this time period will be when the Messiah enters Jerusalem.  Then two events take place.  We are told               VERSE 26a         4) There is a time freeze at the end of the “69^th week”, or the 483 year period.  After the Messiah entered Jerusalem, He would be killed and the city and Temple would be destroyed.  Jesus was crucified about 30 AD and the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD.  There is a gap of time before the “70^th week” is to begin.  So far, that gap of time is almost 2000 years long between the 69^th week and the 70^th week.  5) The “70^th week” or the final seven year period of time, must involve the Jews, Jerusalem, and the Temple.  This guy who is to come ends the sacrificial system and the offerings.  There is only one place Jews can offer sacrifices, the Temple.  In other words, Israel, Jerusalem, the Jews and the Temple are a part of God’s future plans and they will be around to see them fulfilled.  They are in unbelief today, but they will be restored by God in the future.

            On January 6, 1822 Heinrich Schliemann was born.  As a child, Schliemann was transfixed with the stories of ancient days.  After making a very nice living as a business man, he decided to invest his fortune in seeking the treasures of the ancient world.  He was especially transfixed with the stories of Homer.  Up until that time, historians accepted The Iliad and The Odyssey as mythical events.  Schliemann believed them to be true.  On June 14, 1873, after months of excavations, his team found a room filled with gold.  Shortly thereafter, his team discovered the ancient city of Troy.  His discoveries proved that the Trojan wars did in fact take place.  Because he believed an ancient text to be true, he became wealthy and is considered the greatest archeologist of all time.  The book of Daniel is an ancient book that is considered mythical by its deniers.  However, those who take its message at face value will uncover untold riches.

This message is from the teaching ministry of Glen Jackson, pastor of Faith Christian Church in Simi Valley, CA.