Flight DAN01 - Part A

No matter what evil is around you and pushing in on you, though there are people and powers that mean it for evil, God always means it for your good. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose. God orchestrates the events of our lives to carry out a good plan for His children. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip introduces you to the prophet Daniel, sharing how God moved in history and still moves in your life today. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will help you break free from anxiety and experience the peace Jesus offers.

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800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now, as we join Skip Heitzig for today's teaching, we're in the book of Daniel. Daniel the prophet is to the Old Testament what the book of Revelation is to the New Testament. So I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is there's only 12 chapters in the book of Daniel.

That's the good news. The bad news is it's the book of Daniel. And 12 chapters in Daniel is like, you know, 80 chapters and in any other kind of didactic literature, poetic literature. So it's a flight by in the book of Daniel tonight at 30,000 feet.

I'm going to attempt to do that. We're going to kind of zoom in on landmarks in this book. It's pretty easy, I think, to understand now that we are a few thousand years removed from its writing and so much has been fulfilled.

So in retrospect, we can look back and it's easy to see how those puzzle pieces fit together. That Daniel predicted. I have had the opportunity to go to Iraq where Babylon is located on two different occasions. And the first time I went to Iraq, I went to Babylon.

This is in the 90s right after the Gulf War. And I was able to see the city remains where Daniel the prophet lived and worked for his adult life. And I was able to see the Ishtar Gate and go down sort of part of the main thoroughfare.

And they showed me where they believe the lion's dens were and the courtyard and room where Belshazzar, the king in chapter 5, was sitting when the handwriting wrote on the wall. And that was a very moving experience to be in Babylon. I then went years later, not to Babylon, but the city of Erbil up in Kurdistan, part of Iraq.

And I went there and I worked with some IDPs, internally displaced peoples, as well as refugees from other countries. And I share that, I unpack that because those two experiences of mine being in Babylon and dealing with refugees are a perfect set up for this book. Because this book takes place in Babylon and Daniel was a refugee. He writes as a refugee, as one of God's holy people, Jewish people, who had been taken captive and placed in this foreign land of Babylon.

It is the setting of the book. Now ancient Babylon, even the ruins are amazing, but ancient Babylon in its glory was absolutely magnificent. The walls of the city were 85 feet thick, 300 feet tall. Every 65 feet above the level of the wall were watchtowers, which made it more impressive. And even around that city, and by the way, the circumference of the city of Babylon, according to ancient historians, was 60 miles. 60 miles of wall around the greater metropolis of Babylon. And to top it off, just outside the walls was a moat.

So it was heavily protected. Through the center of the city of Babylon went the Euphrates River. Right under the wall, through the city, kind of working its way through, taking a turn and going out again under the city wall. If you were to go through the ancient Ishtar Gate on a normal day in Babylon, you would be on a street that would be 65 feet wide of paved, pure limestone, flanked by two red tile sidewalks. Like a gorgeous modern city. I mentioned the river Euphrates ran through the center of town, and the retaining walls on the banks of the river were out of a fired, shiny, blue brick, and placed within the brick, yellow mosaic of lions, a symbol of Babylon, and dragons.

So this is a few thousand years ago, and you're dealing with a very sophisticated and opulent, magnificent, and very well protected city. The founder of Babylon was a guy by the name of Nabal Palazer. He was the dad of Nebuchadnezzar. We're familiar with Nebuchadnezzar.

He is mentioned in this book. Nabal Palazer, Neb's dad, named him Nebuchadnezzar because in their language that name means, O Nabu, which is one of the chief gods of Babylon, O Nabu protect my son. What's interesting about the god Nabu, and they worship several deities in Babylon, is Nabu was the god of wisdom and prophecy. I think that's noteworthy because in this book, Nebuchadnezzar, O Nabu protect my son, the prophecy god protecting his son, he didn't have anybody in his palace who could tell him what dreams or prophecies meant except one guy, and that was a guy by the name of Daniel because Daniel showed that not Nabu, but Yahweh is the god of wisdom and prophecy. So it is sort of like a showdown of the gods when you get through this book. The thing about Nebuchadnezzar is that he had a hot temper and a short fuse, not a good combination. He was the guy who took King Zedekiah of Judah, killed his young sons in front of his eyes so he would have that as the last living memory of his eyesight after killing them in plain sight of his dad, then he put Zedekiah's eyes out, blinded him so he would always remember that to his dying day. That's his temper. Add to that chapter 3 of the book of Daniel where anybody who doesn't bow down and worship an image essentially of him gets thrown into a fiery furnace.

This guy has issues with anger, right? Let me take you back to one of those three dates. Remember last week and the week before I mentioned those dates to you of Judah's capture and assault. I gave you 605 B.C., 597 B.C., and 586 B.C. Remember those dates?

Sorry to do this again, but by now you're becoming like historic Bible experts. That first date, 605 B.C. Let me tell you why that's monumental and why that's the first date. The reason that became the first date for the captivity of which Daniel was taken captive in that first assault.

Here's why. There was a showdown at the O.K. Corral. Not literally the O.K. Corral, but sort of the equivalent in ancient times.

But the O.K. Corral back then was the city of Karshemish which was on the modern day Turkish-Syrian border. Karshemish was a town where three armies converged. The Egyptian army along with the Assyrian army that formed one huge army against the Babylonians. That's where they had a battle for who would win the battle and be controller of the earth.

And in that battle of Karshemish at 605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar won. Because he won, he conquered Assyria and Babylon and essentially everything else.

Because those were the two superpowers, so the rest of the world was easy pickins. And so he marched. And in his march to let everybody know he's in charge, one of those stops was Jerusalem. And he announced he won the battle. His troops were there, nobody dare argue with him.

He did damage to the city, though did not destroy it. And took the first round of captives and one of those was the young Daniel. So the book of Daniel is very easy to outline.

You can cut it in half. There are 12 chapters. You can take the first six and the second six and there's your outline. The first six are organized as historic literature. The next six are prophetic literature.

So in the first six chapters, it's all personal. And in the second six, it's all prophecy. So we have in chapters one through six, the prophet Daniel. And in seven through twelve, the prophecies of Daniel.

That's easy to outline, right? That's how the book is laid out. Now, Daniel is ascribed as the author of this book.

But wouldn't you know it? You'll get liberal scholars who say, Daniel didn't write this book. And they have an old theory that has been debunked time and time again, but they keep trudging it up.

Because they don't have enough intelligent acumen creativity to come up with a new theory. And the theory is Daniel didn't write it, but somebody in the second century BC during the Maccabean era wrote it. He was writing history disguised it as prophecy. The only problem with that is we have made discoveries, not we as an I personally, but the world has discovered a very interesting archeological dig over in Israel called the Dead Sea Scrolls. They've been around now for several decades and when they were discovered in Qumran by the Dead Sea in Israel, remind me when we're there, I'll point that cave out to you. Cave number four is where they found a copy of the book of Daniel that predated the Maccabean era. So, I think that the scholarship that has been intact before and since all of that stuff has been drudged up and the Bible accused of a forgery has pretty well been debunked.

But all of that aside, whether we made the discovery or not, here's really the way to debunk it. The words of Jesus. He said, and when you see the abomination of desolation as spoken by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, you were in Jerusalem fleet of the mountains. Jesus called Daniel a prophet and referred to one of his prophecies that he writes about in chapter 9. Okay, Daniel chapter 1 verse 1. We're going to hit it hard.

You ready? In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God.

Who's in charge here? Well, it mentions king Nebuchadnezzar who asserted his power, his authority, his military prowess. He's mentioned here as taking over the city. But it seems clear from the next few statements that God is assuming responsibility for it all.

The Lord gave Judah into his hand. Nebuchadnezzar could not have won the battle of Karshamish in 605 BC nor have taken the city of Jerusalem were it not for the Lord. So God proudly takes responsibility for the misery of his own people taken captive in Babylon. You should note that.

That's an important thing to see. God delivered him over. Nebuchadnezzar was strong. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was the king. In reality, Nebuchadnezzar was a pawn on God's chessboard. God is moving Nebuchadnezzar to this place.

Like it says in Proverbs 21, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and like the rivers of water he turns it wherever he wishes. Why is that? Why would God do that? Why on earth would God allow this to happen? There are two reasons. It's a divine sentence.

Second reason, it's a divine setup. First, it's a divine sentence. God is doing what he said he would do. He's judging the land for their sin. The Jews time and time again, decade after decade, century after century disobeyed God's law. God said, you keep doing that, I'm going to take you into captivity in Babylon. The other prophet said that, we read their prophecies, considered them. It's a divine sentence. But second, it is a divine setup. To get Daniel into a key position so he can write this book and influence no less than five historic kings.

I love the book of Daniel. How often in trouble we go, it's the devil. This is the work of the devil. Satan's against me.

So, you just figured that out? He's been against you your whole life. Or, we say, how could a God of love allow that to happen to me? What you need to do is frame what you go through with the wisdom of Joseph who went through harder trials, I believe, than even you. And said, God, you meant this for evil, but God meant this for good. No matter what evil is around you and pushing in on you, though there are people and powers that mean it for evil, God always means it for your good.

God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose. Down in verse six, it tells us who some of these captives are. Now from those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

To them, the chief of the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel, that's his Jewish name, the Babylonian name, Belteshazzar. Which means, Bel, protect the king. Bel is not the name of a god, it's the name Lord. It could refer to any of the gods, it's a generic term. So, Daniel's new name was basically God protect the king, or God save the king.

So every time you would say, Belteshazzar, you're saying basically, God save the king. That was Daniel's name. To Hananiah, Shadrach, to Mishael, Meshach, to Azariah, Abednego. Please mark that Nebuchadnezzar thought it was important to steal from every captive, his most private possession, his own name. He re-designated the captives, he re-named them, he took away their identity.

Why? Because to a Jew, that was his spiritual identity. Daniel means, God is my judge.

That name is stripped from him, he is given a new spiritual identity. This is Nebuchadnezzar's attempt to conform captives into the image of Babylon. Like it says about us in Romans chapter 12, be not conformed to this world, but transformed. The world is always trying to make you like they are. They work hard at that every day, in every song you hear, in every billboard you read, in every message and value system that is passed in a court of law.

The world is trying to conform you to their image. What you find out about Daniel quickly is that this boy was not a thermometer. He was a thermostat. He did not go up and down with the temperature around him, like most other people do. If people are cold, he's cold. If people are hot, he's hot. He wasn't that kind of a person, he was a thermostat.

Man, he'd walk into a room and set the temperature. He was bold, and here's why, verse 8. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank.

Therefore, he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. A three-year training course for these captives, to pamper them, to indulge them, to get them thinking, man, life is a lot better here in Babylon than it ever was in Jerusalem. And then to put the dots together, saying, well, our God did not protect us from the Babylonians, and life was bad in Jerusalem. My goodness, it pays to live in the worldly system.

This is great. Who would want to go back to Jerusalem? He could have easily said, when in Babylon, do as the Babylonians.

Even if I do return to Judah, what happens in Babylon, stays in Babylon. He could have had all sorts of excuses, why not indulge? Who's watching?

Who cares? But Daniel wasn't looking for an excuse because Daniel was living with a purpose. And when you live with a purpose, you're not looking for an excuse. He purposed in his heart.

He made an internal commitment. You might say, Daniel conquered inner space. We have celebrated 50 years after going to the moon. It's great. I saw that little special they did on Apollo 11. It was moving. How we got from this speck of dust in the Milky Way galaxy to that speck of dust.

Amazing. We can conquer outer space pretty well. Our big problem is we don't do so well with our inner space.

When it comes to your own life, what's around you, the way to conquer your outer space is to first conquer your inner space, to conquer what's inside, to purpose something in your heart, to live with conviction so that you don't fall in compromise. Chapter 2 is a good illustration of how God can use insomnia. In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His spirit was so troubled, the word means agitated or disturbed, that his sleep left him.

The old boy has a case of insomnia. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dream. So they came and stood before the king. And the king said to them, I've had a dream.

And my spirit is anxious to know the dream. There's a great old saying, Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. It's great to be king. That's what Tom Petty is saying.

But with it comes a price tag. All the worries about the kingdom. All the fear of the future. If I conquered this kingdom, I'm in charge. But who else out there could be stronger than me, waiting to conquer me?

So he's troubled, he's agitated, he's tossing, he's turning. You and I dream. Do you know that you dream every night? And I don't know, I remember my dreams frequently these days. Maybe it's because it says your young men will see visions, your young men will dream dreams. But the truth is we all dream. And you start dreaming about 90 minutes after you fall asleep.

It's when you go into REM. And every 90 minutes through the evening, you go into another dream. And when you do, I mean thereabouts, that's the average span.

Each one gets a little longer as you go through the night. That's why typically you remember those right before you wake up. The large cells in your brain stem fire spontaneously and send the stimuli to the cortex of your brain. That's what causes you to have the memory of the dream you dream.

Now all of that happens for everyone. And in this case, God's behind it. God is causing the cortical stimulation to occur with just the right images at just the right time and just the right intensity.

That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series The Bible from 30,000 Feet. Now we want to share about an exciting way you can help encourage others by keeping teachings like today's broadcast going strong. Do you want to see lost souls brought out of the darkness of this world to encounter the light of Jesus?

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800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Hyten shares how the visions and prophecies of Daniel can give you deeper confidence in God's Word. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His Word. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.