Hello, friends and
welcome to Books of the Book.
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We're studying
the book of Daniel,
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my name is James Rafferty.
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And I'm Ty Gibson,
this is going to be
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our first study in the book
of Daniel in a series of 13.
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And James what we decided
to do in this first program,
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is to do an overview of
the entire book of Daniel.
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We won't give any details,
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but we're going
to do an aerial view.
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We're gonna fly over the
terrain of the book of Daniel,
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but we're not going to
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specifically land
and give the details.
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We're going to look
at Daniel from the air,
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what do we have here
in Daniel's 12 Chapters
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and then in the future
programs we're going to backup
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and we're going to look in
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greater detail at each Chapter.
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You know, this is a
significant thing to do,
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is to look at the aerial view,
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because Daniel
is a powerful book
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of prophecy and relationship.
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And we're going to
see those two aspects
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of the book of Daniel
come together and direct us
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to what we understand
to be the New Covenant
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or a New Covenant experience.
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Daniel Chapter 1 through 6
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is primarily
dealing with relationship,
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Christian experience,
the walk of a believer,
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a follower of God.
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Daniel Chapter 7 through 12
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is primarily dealing
with prophecy, visions,
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predictions of the
future, history of the world,
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past, present, and future.
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And these two come
together and bring to us
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a powerful picture of
the Christian experience,
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the Christian walk and
how we can have faith in God.
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I appreciate the fact,
James, that you've pointed out
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that Chapters 1
through 6 of Daniel
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primarily deal
with our relationship
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with God emphasis on primarily,
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because in fact there are some
prophecies that unfold there.
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And then when we come
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to the second half
of the book of Daniel,
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you've pointed out that,
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it primarily
deals with prophecies.
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But it's also a
very, very beautiful thing
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that Daniel's experience
with God continues to deepen,
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to unfold into enlarge
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in the second half
of the book as well.
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Absolutely, so
you've got a primary aspect
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or focus on
relationship in 1 through 6
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but there is prophecy.
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And then you got a
primary application
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or unfolding a
prophecy in 7 through 12
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but there is still relationship.
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And each one of
those comes together
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and forms a beautiful picture,
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a beautiful
prophetic picture of who God is
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and what He is
calling us to as believers
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Okay, James, let's
take the journey then.
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Let's begin
with Daniel Chapter 1
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reminding those who
are studying with us
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that we're not
going to get into details,
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we're just gonna move
through the entire book.
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In the first
segment of our program,
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we'll try to get
through Chapters 1 through 6.
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In Daniel Chapter 1 the
book opens by showing us
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that Daniel and his
people have been taken captive
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to a foreign country,
that country is Babylon.
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Yes, here is a man,
has been devastated,
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he's lost his family,
he's lost his sovereignty,
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he has been separated from
his country, from his kinsmen.
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This Chapter tells us that we
can survive the worst calamity
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that can come to us
if we have faith in God.
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Daniel Chapter 1 is directing us
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as we look at Daniel
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to a young man
actually a teenager,
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he was probably 15 or 16
years of age to a teenager
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who though his
life seems devastated,
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he has made a unique in
this court of this heathen king.
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He has this trust in God,
his purpose is to follow God
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no matter what and through
that he is able to deal with
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this terrible trail and calamity
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that comes into his life.
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You notice in
Chapter 1 that there are
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two primary characters
in the onset of the story
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and they are,
King Nebuchadnezzar,
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the king of Babylon and Daniel,
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this captive lad
in a foreign land.
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You would think that
King Nebuchadnezzar would
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just be peripheral to the story
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and that there wouldn't be
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specific attention given to him,
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but it's incredible
as the story unfolds
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that you begin to
realize as you read Daniel,
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that wait a minute,
not only as God concerned
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with His captive
people in Daniel as this,
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this young man that he
is going to work medially
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through to
unfold this prophecies.
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But you begin to get
the sense in this prophecy
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that God is very interested
in Nebuchadnezzar himself.
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And so Chapter 1 as
it begins to unfold,
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we realize that God is laboring
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for the conversion
of King Nebuchadnezzar,
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this despotic ruler that is,
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not in a positively light at all
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for most of the book of Daniel,
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but eventually we
see that he is brought
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to the worship of the true God.
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And that must be what God
impresses Daniel to understand.
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One of the ways that
we can make it through
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trails friends in this life,
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is to get our
focus off ourselves
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and to get our focus
not attention on ministry
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and reaching out
to somebody else.
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And this is a principle
we find in Daniel Chapter 1.
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Well, Daniel, can be overwhelmed
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and maybe even just want
to forget the rest of his life
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at this point
in this experience.
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He allows God to, to
imbue him with His spirit,
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with the spirit of
God, the spirit of Christ.
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He allows God's will
to be done in his life
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and he becomes a
vessel, a channel through which
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God's love can be communicated
to this heathen king.
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So, so as Daniel continues
his experience in Chapter 1.
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He emerges as this young
man who purpose is in his heart,
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he is determined to
maintain faithfulness to his God
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in this captivity situation
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and then Chapter
2 opens up, James.
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In Chapter 2, we
find Nebuchadnezzar man
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who is all
powerful, a man who is,
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is the
wealthiest man in the world
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having a dream that troubles him
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and basically this dream
troubles him so much and that,
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and no one can help
him understand this dream
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that he is fraught with anger.
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He wants to annihilate all
the wise men of his Kingdom
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including Daniel at this
point because he is recognizing
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or realizing that no
matter how powerful you are.
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And no matter how much
you have of this world's good.
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That no matter
how many counselors
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and wise men you have around you
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that nothing of this earth
can satisfy your deepest needs.
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James, in Chapter 2 of Daniel,
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it's evident that God
is achieving two goals.
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On the one hand
he wants to reveal
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world history in advance.
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He wants to give a
prophecy that can be studied
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down through the
ages and especially
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at the end time
of human history.
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But at the same time God is
achieving the goal of reaching
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into Nebuchadnezzar's heart
in laboring for his conversion.
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Nebuchadnezzar
is a heathen King.
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Why doesn't God just
give the prophecy to Daniel,
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Daniel is a prophet after all.
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Daniel is faithful to
God, but God gives a vision,
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a prophecy to someone
who isn't even a believer.
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Nebuchadnezzar at this point
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needs to feel his
need and he doesn't.
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He just conquered all the world,
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he has taken
Daniel's God into captivity
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basically the
vessels of his sanctuary,
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so he doesn't
feel his need at all
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and so this is the way
that God helps Nebuchadnezzar
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to feel his need
through this dream
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that cannot be understood
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or interpreted by
any of his wise men.
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Nebuchadnezzar
comes to the place
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where he is so
frustrated that he gives up
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all hope at anything that
is of earthly wisdom around him
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and in that point God
steps into the picture
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and Nebuchadnezzar
realizes at least intellectually
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that there is something
bigger, something better,
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something more than
anything that he is accustom to,
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anything that is
known to him. Yes.
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In the realm and the
world that he has been living
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and that's exactly what
God wants to be for us friends.
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He wants to at times
breakup our ease or prosperity
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or satisfaction with
the things of this world.
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He allows us to
experience trouble
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as Nebuchadnezzar
did with his dream,
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so that he can awaken in us
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the real need
that we have for him.
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So relationship
begins in Chapter 2
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between
Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel,
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because Daniel is
the one who is called in
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to interpret King
Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
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We're gonna look at the
dream specifically and breakdown
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what it reveals of
world history in advance
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as we deal with the prophecy
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specifically in
a future program,
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but then we come
to Daniel Chapter 3.
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This Daniel
Chapter 3 is incredible,
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because here is the
king who has intellectually
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acknowledged the interpretation
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of the dream of an
image of three different,
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four different types
of metals and then he goes
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in Chapter 3 he
goes on to in a sense
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turn away from the light
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that has been given
to him from God. Yes.
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And created image
that is all of gold.
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Now, what this does really is
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it reveals to us our
deepest need and fear.
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Nebuchadnezzar recognized
in the first dream himself,
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his kingdom, it was
the kingdom of gold,
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symbolized by the head of gold,
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but in Chapter
3 he is in denial,
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because he wants his
kingdom to continue on forever.
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Now the danger in
these friends is that
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we need to recognize
and God wants to show us,
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that there is no
forever without God.
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God is the only one
that has eternal life, yes,
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and God wants you and I
to have that eternal life.
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He doesn't want us to be
without that eternal life,
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but in order to have it
we need to recognize him
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as the creator and the redeemer.
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So
Nebuchadnezzar is moving through
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a progressively
deepening experience with God.
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Nebuchadnezzar doesn't even know
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that God is
pursuing him at this point.
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He doesn't even
know that he is entering
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into a relationship with
the Most High God of heaven.
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All he knows is that he has
received this troubling dream
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and he wants to
know what it means.
00:09:53.32\00:09:55.06
Daniel tells him the
dream, interprets the dream
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and at the end of Chapter 2
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Nebuchadnezzar has
acknowledged Daniel's God.
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He is actually voiced
praise and thanks to this God
00:10:03.47\00:10:07.90
and then he
proceeds in Chapter 3
00:10:07.94\00:10:09.60
with this intellectual knowledge
00:10:09.64\00:10:11.44
that God has given him
to defy that knowledge,
00:10:11.47\00:10:14.61
to create an
image that goes contrary
00:10:14.64\00:10:17.31
to what God actually revealed
to him through his dream
00:10:17.35\00:10:20.75
and Daniel's interpretation.
00:10:20.78\00:10:22.72
But God's not done
with Nebuchadnezzar yet,
00:10:22.75\00:10:25.42
He is not giving up on this guy,
00:10:25.45\00:10:27.46
He sets up this image of
gold and he exercises force
00:10:27.49\00:10:32.09
in his kingdom to
demand, to command that
00:10:32.13\00:10:36.00
everyone worship the
image of gold that represents
00:10:36.03\00:10:38.83
the perpetuation of
the Kingdom of Babylon
00:10:38.87\00:10:42.04
for all time in eternity,
00:10:42.07\00:10:43.87
no doubt in
Nebuchadnezzar's mind,
00:10:43.91\00:10:45.51
he just wants Babylon
to go on and on and on
00:10:45.54\00:10:48.31
and even though
he's defying the vision,
00:10:48.34\00:10:52.08
God doesn't abandon him.
00:10:52.11\00:10:53.92
God continues to draw
close to Nebuchadnezzar
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and gives him a second dream.
00:10:57.62\00:10:59.85
Daniel Chapter 4
reveals the second dream
00:10:59.89\00:11:02.06
and it's really
interesting here when you study
00:11:02.09\00:11:04.06
or understand human nature,
00:11:04.09\00:11:06.09
lots of us want
to have religion,
00:11:06.13\00:11:08.13
we want to
intellectually acknowledge God,
00:11:08.16\00:11:10.60
we move past maybe the
stage of atheism or unbeliever,
00:11:10.63\00:11:14.60
but we want God on our
terms, not on Gods terms.
00:11:14.64\00:11:17.94
Nebuchadnezzar
wants God on his terms.
00:11:17.97\00:11:19.97
Okay, I believe your
God is the God of God's,
00:11:20.01\00:11:22.71
but this is the way
I'm gonna worship God.
00:11:22.74\00:11:24.91
This is the way God can be
part of my life and God says,
00:11:24.95\00:11:27.28
no, it can't be that way.
00:11:27.32\00:11:28.65
Daniel Chapter 4 is a revelation
00:11:28.68\00:11:31.95
of the truth of
the matter and that is,
00:11:31.99\00:11:34.59
that nothing in this world
is more important than God.
00:11:34.62\00:11:38.93
Nebuchadnezzar is still
putting things ahead of God,
00:11:38.96\00:11:40.73
he's still, he's
still placing worldly things
00:11:40.76\00:11:44.63
as more important than God.
00:11:44.67\00:11:46.74
By the time this vision is
finished and by the time this,
00:11:46.77\00:11:50.84
we'll talk about it more,
00:11:50.87\00:11:52.24
the seven years
passes over Nebuchadnezzar,
00:11:52.27\00:11:54.91
God is first and
foremost and everything else
00:11:54.94\00:11:58.31
is secondary and that is
00:11:58.35\00:11:59.68
when Nebuchadnezzar's heart
is filled with joy and peace.
00:11:59.71\00:12:02.58
So Chapter 4 of
Daniel is a testimony
00:12:02.62\00:12:05.82
from Nebuchadnezzar
that indicates his
00:12:05.85\00:12:08.42
for incomplete
conversion to the Lord,
00:12:08.46\00:12:12.13
but then Chapter 5
unfolds and we see a contrast.
00:12:12.16\00:12:15.23
Yes, in Chapter 5,
Ty, we have Belshazzar,
00:12:15.26\00:12:18.27
Nebuchadnezzar's
grandson and he is exactly
00:12:18.30\00:12:21.24
the opposite in response to
God that Nebuchadnezzar was.
00:12:21.27\00:12:25.17
Belshazzar is overwhelmed
with the things of this earth,
00:12:25.21\00:12:28.58
the gods of silver, and
stone, and wood, and iron,
00:12:28.61\00:12:31.71
and he does not acknowledge God,
00:12:31.75\00:12:33.72
he does not
acknowledge that in Him,
00:12:33.75\00:12:35.62
we live, and move,
and have our being.
00:12:35.65\00:12:36.99
He does not
respond to the gospel,
00:12:37.02\00:12:38.59
the good news,
and the love of God
00:12:38.62\00:12:40.52
and finally comes to the place
00:12:40.56\00:12:41.92
where he receives
the judgment of God.
00:12:41.96\00:12:43.93
Chapter 5 of Daniel is
a- the story of Belshazzar's
00:12:43.96\00:12:49.40
drunken feast and it is in
Chapter 5 that we have the,
00:12:49.43\00:12:55.70
the body less hand that
writes the words on the wall
00:12:55.74\00:12:59.34
at Belshazzar's feast
"Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin"
00:12:59.37\00:13:04.11
you are weighed in the
balances and found wanting.
00:13:04.15\00:13:07.52
And Chapter 5
brings us to the conclusion
00:13:07.55\00:13:09.82
of the Babylonian empire
00:13:09.85\00:13:11.75
and the Medes and Persians
take over at that point.
00:13:11.79\00:13:14.36
Yeah, then we get into
Chapter 6 the final Chapter
00:13:14.39\00:13:16.76
in this first half
focusing again on relationship.
00:13:16.79\00:13:19.89
This one is an astounding
00:13:19.93\00:13:23.06
summary of
Daniel's faith in God.
00:13:23.10\00:13:27.24
Here's the man
who praise morning,
00:13:27.27\00:13:30.24
evening and at noon and prayer
and communicating with God
00:13:30.27\00:13:32.71
is the most
important thing friends.
00:13:32.74\00:13:34.54
Daniels testifies
of that truth and even
00:13:34.58\00:13:37.21
when laws are passed
that forbid him to pray,
00:13:37.25\00:13:39.91
he continues to
pray and of course
00:13:39.95\00:13:41.65
we know the story so well,
he ends up in the lions den
00:13:41.68\00:13:44.35
and there God delivers him
from the mouth of the lions.
00:13:44.39\00:13:47.79
Daniel Chapter 6 is
a powerful testimony
00:13:47.82\00:13:51.33
of how we can have faith in
God in the toughest of times
00:13:51.36\00:13:54.36
and through the
greatest of trials.
00:13:54.36\00:13:55.93
Don't go away,
we'll be right back
00:13:55.96\00:13:57.70
to cover the second
half of the book of Daniel.
00:13:57.73\00:13:59.87