Participants: Ty Gibson & James Rafferty
Series Code: DBOTB
Program Code: DBOTB000002B
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00:01 Welcome back to Book of the Books, friends.
00:03 We are looking at the book of Daniel and we are in Chapter 1. 00:05 James, I think that is important to come back to 00:08 where we left off before the break. 00:10 In the first segment we were talking about Divine providence. 00:13 We were talking about how God orchestrates certain things in 00:17 our lives, He doesn't micro manage the world, He is not 00:20 sovereign in the deterministic sense, where every single thing 00:24 that happens is the direct result of God pushing be zap 00:27 button, for instance, and making things happen to people. 00:30 But we do know this, that Scripture points out that God 00:33 who is in love with every member of the human family, 00:36 so much so that He gave His only begotten Son, 00:38 to die for the human race. 00:39 That God regards each one of us as dearly beloved to Himself. 00:44 That God looking down from His vantage point of infinite wisdom 00:49 knows what's best for us. 00:50 In knowing what's best for us, God makes judgment calls 00:54 sometimes, He chooses to allow the results of our choices to 00:58 take place sometimes, even though suffering is going to be 01:01 involved, He is not the direct result of imposing suffering 01:05 on us, but He does allow us to experience suffering sometimes 01:08 in order to arrest our attention. 01:10 To wake us up, to turn us back to Him and so God does these 01:15 things from the standpoint of allowing. 01:17 Absolutely, and one of the things Ty, that is important or 01:21 significant in relation to this, is recognizing that God does not 01:25 separate from us through these sufferings, through this pain, 01:28 through this evil, 01:30 through these trials. 01:31 Now you not only see this in the 01:32 context of the book of Daniel, 01:34 but you also see it in the 01:35 context of the cross. 01:37 God is demonstrating in the cross be He suffers with us. 01:41 Isaiah 63:9 says, "in all their affliction He was afflicted. " 01:44 So when you look at the context of this heathen nation coming in 01:51 and taking God's beloved captive you recognize that God Himself 01:57 is being taken into captivity. 01:58 The vessels of His house are going in there. 02:00 He is being lightly esteemed by this heathen nation. 02:04 They are looking at Daniels God as and insignificant God. 02:07 His reputation is on the line. 02:09 Moses pled many times for his people and their transgression 02:13 and disobedience, he said spare them, do not do this to them. 02:17 Because what will they even say about You, Your name? 02:21 Your name, about Your character? Exactly! 02:23 So we see the same thing happening here. 02:25 God is actually establishing the principle of the 02:28 cross right here because the principal the cross is that He 02:31 humbles Himself so that His character, His love 02:34 can be exalted. 02:35 So here as God's people go into captivity, God goes with them. 02:39 He bares reproach, He bares affliction with them. 02:43 When we go through trials, individually and personally, 02:46 God feels our pain. 02:48 God feels are suffering. God is there with us. 02:50 As a parent hurts for a child, so God hurts for us, 02:54 but even more so. 02:55 This is a vital point, that God doesn't stand aloof from us 02:58 in our suffering, He's with us in our pain. 03:00 Like it says in Hebrews 4, Jesus is touched with the 03:06 feelings of our infirmities. 03:08 He doesn't give us over to pain-and-suffering, and to our 03:11 bad choices because He wants us to suffer, and He certainly 03:16 isn't separate from us. God feels the pain that touches 03:20 each of His children. 03:21 Absolutely and so as the chapter develops as we move through 03:26 Daniel 1, we see God present with His people. 03:31 You would think Daniel, man he went through some terrible 03:35 experiences, been separated from his family, 03:36 been taken to this heaving court and made a Eunuch, 03:39 but God is with Daniel. 03:40 God, it says in verse 9, God brings Daniel into favor and 03:45 tender love with the prince of the Eunuchs. 03:46 In other words God is working through Daniel's experience. 03:50 He is there for Daniel. 03:51 He's bearing with him and He wants to bless him. 03:54 He wants to give him favor in this heathen court, in this 03:59 foreign nation, He wants to give him favor because 04:01 God has a purpose. 04:03 What we have mentioned a few times that God's wisdom in this 04:07 matter of Daniel's captivity, and the captivity of Israel 04:12 to Babylon involves infinite wisdom. 04:15 God's wisdom is so infinite in fact James, 04:19 He has multiple things going on here at the same time. 04:23 Not only is He chastising His people in seeking to arouse 04:27 repentance in their hearts, but simultaneously God in His wisdom 04:32 looks down and says, I see My son, yes my son Nebuchadnezzar. 04:37 This heathen king, God even loves and wants to reach 04:41 his heart so He says, from His standpoint, not only am I going 04:45 to work this for the good of My people in their captivity, 04:49 but I am also going to pull off conversion of Nebuchadnezzar. 04:54 This vicious war mongering King that is the enemy of My people, 04:58 I can actually use Daniel by strategically placing Daniel 05:03 in this situation. 05:04 I can work for the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar. 05:07 And God pulls it off! 05:08 I like that Ty, because even 05:10 what we have been talking about this heathen king, God loves. 05:13 As if it was a surprise, it is a surprise, it is a 05:16 surprise to us as human beings. 05:19 But it is not a surprise when you know the character of God. 05:22 When you understand that God is love, that there is no other 05:24 option for God but than to love. 05:27 God loves every single person in this world. 05:31 When we look at the worst we see that in Nebuchadnezzar. 05:34 We will get to that as we examine his character and come 05:38 in contact with who he is. 05:39 As we look at the worst and think how could God love that? 05:43 But indeed the Bible teaches us that a God of love, loves 05:47 every single human being and sends His people on a mission 05:51 to rescue those whom He loves, who He has created, and redeemed 05:54 through the blood of Jesus Christ. 05:56 The playing field is so leveled James, that I heard somebody say 05:59 one time, when we get to heaven we are going to be amazed at 06:03 some of the people we see there. 06:05 Then another person said when we get to heaven some people 06:07 are going to be amazed to see us there. 06:09 I mean it is not that there is some kind of hierarchical sense 06:15 in which God had disdain for some and loves others. 06:19 He loved Nebuchadnezzar and is working through Daniel to reach 06:23 Nebuchadnezzar's heart. 06:24 It's incredible! 06:25 Now having said that of course we recognize that there is a 06:28 disdained that God has for pride for sin, for the wickedness 06:32 in this world. 06:33 So God is working to separate us from that wickedness. 06:37 He is helping us to realize our need for Him. 06:39 Now Nebuchadnezzar does not obviously feel his need of God. 06:42 He is a powerful monarch, he is a very wealthy man. 06:44 He is basically in charge of the world. 06:47 He goes in and takes Jerusalem, he takes Judah, and he takes 06:51 captives, puts the vessels in his, with his gods in his temple 06:55 and basically says educate these boys and see what they 06:59 can give us, see what they can give to the kingdom of Babylon. 07:02 I'll give them a test in about 3 years and see what happens. 07:06 Basically he is pretty, and you would be too, he is pretty proud 07:10 of his accomplishments, of who he is, and where he is at. 07:13 He doesn't feel his need of God until he has a dream. 07:16 That is interesting, because as 07:18 we get into the book of Daniel, 07:21 we recognize that while men 07:23 work with chariots and horsemen 07:25 horsemen with guns with military 07:28 might, God can actually work things like dreams. 07:31 If you can imagine He could topple nations and He can help 07:34 people to realize their need by just giving them a dream. 07:37 Until the point that Nebuchadnezzar receives that 07:40 dream, I think is incredible to realize, as we read the story, 07:43 that the whole time that Nebuchadnezzar 07:47 is going along doing what he 07:49 thinks he ought to do. 07:51 It is his right to do, this 07:53 powerful monarch just being 07:55 governed by arrogance and pride. 07:57 The whole time he is utterly oblivious to God's consciousness 08:01 of him, he doesn't even know that Daniel's God is the only 08:05 true God and that Daniel's God loves him and is looking down 08:09 upon him and is working out a plan to reach his heart. 08:13 He is unaware of God's awareness of him. 08:16 Finally he becomes aware, wow! 08:19 Finally this God of Daniel has been pursuing me, Nebuchadnezzar 08:25 all along and brought Daniel here in captivity in order 08:29 to reach me, he finally comes to realize that as we will see 08:32 later on. 08:33 We are believers, we follow God. 08:36 We believe in evangelism, we believe in sharing God's love. 08:38 How do you reach a king? How do you reach a world ruler? 08:41 How do you reach a monarch? How do you reach a man that is 08:44 so powerful, so wealthy that he has no needs whatsoever? 08:47 How do you reach someone like that? 08:48 Well look at Daniel 1:8, "but Daniel purposed in his heart 08:55 that he would not defile himself with a portion of the kings meat 08:59 nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the 09:03 Prince of the Eunuchs that he might not defile himself. " 09:05 This is how you reach anybody. 09:06 You are particular about the very small details of your 09:12 relationship with God. 09:13 He comes first, before anything else. 09:16 It's a heart work, it is not a profession. 09:18 People see right through profession, they see right 09:21 through hypocrisy, they see right through all that show, 09:24 that religious show, that religious garbage, if you don't 09:26 mind me saying that? 09:28 That glitter and falsehood, they see right through it all. 09:31 They are looking for it, they are looking for people who 09:34 are dedicated to God, surrendered to God. 09:36 Who in their worst times, in the worst of the their experiences, 09:39 you know it's one thing to say well if you become a Christian 09:42 everything is going to go well, and you are going to get all 09:45 the things you need, and all your bills are 09:46 going to be paid off. 09:48 You're going to have the right things at the right time and 09:49 God is going to bless you completely, and with that, 09:52 Oh well, then I'll be a Christian. 09:53 But it is completely another thing for us recognize that 09:56 Daniels life was completely devastated. 09:58 I mean it is devastated. 10:00 At that point Daniel said, everything I have and everything 10:03 I am I'm giving to God and I'm standing for Him. 10:05 This is not the one of the most meaningful and significant lines 10:10 of Scripture, it just stands out. 10:12 Daniel purposed in his heart, that he would not defile himself 10:17 This is the power of decision, this is the power of integrity. 10:21 Daniel makes this decision and at this point he is a young man 10:26 as you said, he's a teenager. 10:27 He is determining that he will not violate his integrity, 10:30 he will not violate his conscience, he will continue 10:33 serving the Lord his God, regardless of what comes. 10:36 The result is verse 9, through his integrity, he comes into 10:43 favor and tender love with the Prince of the Eunuchs. 10:47 Later on in Daniel 1, it says they were found, Daniel and his 10:52 friends, in verse 20, were found to be 10 times better 10:55 then all the magicians, and astrologers, 10:59 of the realm of Babylon. 11:01 It was evident that these guys were under God's blessing. 11:06 Now let's go back, verse 9, 17 this is your reference, here it 11:10 is, the question was how do you reach these monarchs? 11:14 How do you reach the these power people? 11:15 How do you reach anybody in the world? 11:17 Well notice the two phrases here. 11:18 Verse 9 says, "Now God had brought Daniel into favor 11:23 and tender love", verse 17 says, 11:26 "As for these 4 children, God 11:28 gave them knowledge and skill 11:29 in all learning and wisdom. " 11:31 What we recognize here is a 11:33 principal and that is, it's God! 11:36 Not us! We don't do it! We can't do it! 11:39 God is calling us to surrender and He is calling us to be 11:41 faithful, He is calling us to give everything into His hands. 11:45 He is the one who accomplishes His purposes through us when we 11:49 surrender our life to Him. That's God. 11:50 It's incredible that not only are we recognizing this as we 11:55 read the book of Daniel. 11:56 But Daniel later on as we'll see 11:59 in a program in the future, 12:01 Daniel says to the king when he 12:03 is brought before him to give 12:04 and interpretation, he says King I want you to understand 12:06 something, I'm going to give the interpretation of your dream, 12:10 but it is not because I am wiser or smarter or better then any 12:13 of the other wise men in your kingdom, there is a God in 12:17 heaven who reveals these things and that God want you to 12:21 understand your dream. 12:23 That's how I can tell you, it's God every step of the way. 12:26 Ty if we can only understand this truth, if our viewers 12:28 could only understand this one truth that it is all about God. 12:32 It is not about us. 12:34 Daniel recognize this because he had nothing, he had nothing 12:37 left in his life, nothing he could point to, nothing that 12:41 he could attribute to himself. 12:43 Everything was gone and when everything was gone friend, 12:48 Daniel gave it all to God and he had nothing that he could point 12:52 to himself and say this was me. 12:53 Everything, everything directed the mind of the King and the 12:58 mind of anyone who looked on, to God and we are praying that 13:02 will be your experience as you 13:04 give your heart fully to the Lord. |
Revised 2022-11-03