Participants:
Series Code: LGS
Program Code: LGS200101A
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00:01 Hello, I'm Mel Olsen.
00:02 Welcome to Let God Speak. 00:04 Today we are starting a new study 00:06 from the Book of Daniel. 00:07 Daniel penned this about 2,500 years ago, 00:11 and it remains a powerful revelation of the love 00:14 and character of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:17 We are glad you have joined us today 00:19 as we open the Book of Daniel 00:21 and examine events of the past, present, 00:23 and the future. 00:50 On our panel today, 00:51 we have Steven Groom and David Currie. 00:53 Welcome to the panel. 00:55 I'm sure we'll have a good time together. 00:57 That's for sure. Thank you. 00:58 We should start with a prayer. Let's just bow our heads. 01:01 Thank you, Heavenly Father for the Book of Daniel. 01:04 As we open its pages today, 01:06 we will see a revelation of Yourself. 01:09 And we want to grow in the knowledge 01:11 that You have provided for us. 01:13 Guide and bless us, we pray in Your name. 01:15 Amen. 01:18 So around 2,000 years ago, David, that's a long time. 01:22 Why should we study the Book of Daniel? 01:25 Can you just put that into a nutshell for us? 01:27 Well, the Book of Daniel gives us a insight 01:31 into the times of Daniel and himself. 01:32 Yes. 01:34 God has also given a picture to Daniel of the future, 01:37 and comes right down to our time, 01:39 not only our time, but what is in the future. 01:41 So Daniel is a very important book 01:43 for us today. 01:44 It's powerful, isn't it, 01:46 that it covers such a big time expanse, 01:48 and it's good. 01:50 So we know that Daniel is writing from Babylon. 01:53 So how did he come to be in Babylon? 01:55 Yes, if we look at the first Book of Daniel 01:58 1 says, 02:00 "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim 02:02 king of Judah, 02:03 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem 02:05 and besieged it." 02:07 And verse 3, "Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, 02:10 the master of his eunuchs, 02:11 to bring some of the children of Israel 02:13 and some of the king's descendents 02:15 and some of the nobles, 02:16 young men in whom there was no blemish, 02:18 but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, 02:21 possessing knowledge and quick to understand, 02:24 who had ability to serve in the king's palace, 02:27 and whom they might teach the language 02:29 and literature of the Chaldeans." 02:32 So here's Daniel taken as a captive, 02:34 he was one of those noble good looking young men 02:37 and conserve in the king's palace. 02:39 And the king also had the idea of getting those young men 02:42 to go back to their territories 02:43 and to be governors for him in the future. 02:46 And so Daniel covered a quite a long period 02:50 from the time of Nebuchadnezzar 02:52 right down to King Darius of Medo-Persia. 02:56 So that is a probably 70 years old or thereabouts... 02:59 Yes. 03:00 Quite a long period of time. That's right. 03:01 Okay, so, Steven, 03:03 Daniel finds himself in this new environment. 03:05 How does he handle the challenges 03:07 that come to him? 03:09 Well, his service and close connection 03:11 to several of the kings of both Babylon and Medo-Persia 03:15 gave him privileged access to the high levels of society, 03:20 but because these kings worshiped 03:23 foreign gods of the Israel, 03:25 it brought him into many temptations. 03:27 And I'll give an example, Chapter 1, 03:30 King Nebuchadnezzar 03:31 thought he was doing the children of Israel a favor 03:34 by letting them eat of the table of all his food. 03:37 But this food contained 03:40 food that was not right for the Israelites to eat 03:43 according to their strict dietary code. 03:44 And then... 03:46 Yeah, I think that's a dietary restriction... 03:47 Dietary restriction. Yes. Okay. 03:49 And then Daniel Chapter 3 we have, the same king, 03:52 creating this great big image for his people to bow down to, 03:58 which was also something that the Israelites couldn't do 04:02 according to the Second Commandment of their Decalogue 04:06 in Exodus 20. 04:08 And then we have Daniel 6, 04:14 where the King Darius made a commandment 04:17 that no one was to pray to their God 04:21 for a period of 30 days, 04:22 which the Israelites could not constrain to. 04:27 And this brought him into disfavor 04:31 with the people 04:33 and this caused them to be... 04:36 Daniel to be put into the lion's den. 04:38 But it's good to note that in all this, 04:42 Daniel and his friends stood firm in the faith, 04:45 and God vindicate His faithful disciples 04:48 for their faithfulness. 04:50 So they were up against the polytheistic 04:53 kind of environment, wasn't it? 04:54 So they're still faithful and true. 04:56 So I understand that when Daniel wrote this book, 04:59 he used more than one language. 05:01 Can you explain that to us? 05:02 Yes. 05:04 Daniel's classmates, 05:05 he was inducted into the wise men 05:09 class of Babylon. 05:11 His fellow classmates were of various racial backgrounds 05:14 and they spoke different languages. 05:17 And so Aramaic was the general language 05:20 that everybody understood. 05:21 And so from Daniel 2:4, where he says, he spoke, 05:26 the Chaldeans, spoke to the king in Aramaic. 05:29 To the end of Chapter 7, 05:30 the whole narrative is in Aramaic. 05:33 These chapters deal with matters of importance 05:36 to Gentile nations of the Near East. 05:38 But the last five chapters, 05:40 Chapters 8 to 12 deal to specific concerns 05:45 of the Israelite people. 05:47 For instance, the sanctuary and talks about Jesus 05:50 as our high priest in heaven and such subjects. 05:53 You know, that's powerful. 05:54 So, David, I'm gonna skip over to the New Testament 05:56 for a moment. 05:58 There's a story of the deacon Philip, 06:00 he runs along, speaks to somebody in a chariot 06:03 and asked an important question. 06:05 So what was the question 06:06 that then how could it be related to Daniel? 06:09 Well, he says, 06:10 "Do you understand what you're reading?" 06:12 And, of course, the deacon says, 06:15 "Well, now look, I need to have somebody 06:17 to help me to understand this." 06:20 And then Philip was able to explain to him 06:24 all that he was reading about, 06:25 and that God was doing a bigger thing in this world 06:28 than he even imagined. 06:30 And I have often thought that the Christianity 06:34 that is seen in Ethiopia today, 06:37 much of it goes back to this eunuch who went back. 06:41 Okay, so there's basically, you need an understanding, 06:45 but you also need to be guided 06:47 in that process of understanding. 06:49 Yes. 06:50 And this is what the Book of Daniel really needs, 06:51 doesn't it? 06:53 It does. Yes. 06:54 And to understand it correctly, 06:56 one does need to understand the scriptures as a whole... 06:58 Yes. 07:00 And be guided by the Holy Spirit 07:01 in his understanding. 07:02 Now the Bible itself is written in different formats, 07:06 different types of styles of writing. 07:08 What are some of these, David? 07:10 Yeah, well, first of all, 07:11 I suppose the hymn book of the Bible is the Psalms, 07:14 and many quotes of the New Testament 07:17 go back to the Psalms. 07:19 Then, of course, we have the narrative 07:20 which is dealing with stories like the children of Israel, 07:22 coming out of Egypt and going into Israel. 07:26 That's what we call narrative. 07:27 And then you have parables, 07:29 which may in themselves 07:31 not have the complete understanding, 07:32 but people, 07:33 if they did understand could understand 07:35 what Jesus Himself is getting out in the parables, 07:37 and there are other parables, too. 07:39 Then there are literal aspects like in Daniel 8, 07:42 giving his exact history. 07:44 And then we have the prophetic part, 07:46 which of course, 07:48 Daniel is very full of the prophetic pictures. 07:50 Yeah. 07:51 So that gives us a bit of an idea 07:53 of how the Bible is constructed 07:54 in the different styles of writing. 07:57 I just want to go to Hebrews 1:1, 08:01 and it says, "God, who at various times 08:04 and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers, 08:09 the prophets." 08:10 And then if I move across to 1 Corinthians, 08:14 we're going to find a similar word being used 08:17 and that is the word of the prophets. 08:21 And let me just get that text, it's in 1 Corinthians 13:9, 08:27 "For we know in part and we prophesy in part." 08:30 So here we're interested to juicing the word, 08:33 prophet and prophecies, and prophesy. 08:37 So where is this taking us to, Steven? 08:41 Can you just give us a summary 08:42 of what prophecy is in scriptures? 08:44 Yes, certainly, 08:46 most of the Old Testament prophecies 08:48 belong to the broad category of classic prophecy, 08:51 which depicts God as acting within history 08:54 to restore the world to 08:56 according to the covenant established with Israel. 09:00 And for instance, 09:02 they can be found in the Book of Isaiah, 09:04 Jeremiah and Amos. 09:06 There are also Messianic prophecies 09:08 which predict how Jesus the Messiah 09:11 would come in the world, 09:12 and there's many of those. 09:14 There's also a day of the Lord prophecies, 09:16 which talk about when God comes out 09:19 and He punishes nations and people 09:22 for their wickedness, 09:24 and He also saves His people in that way. 09:26 And then there's local prophecies 09:27 where God interacts with or warns them through prophets, 09:31 such as Jonah, and his warnings to the Nineveh. 09:34 Yeah, so Jonah was a local localized prophecy, 09:37 wasn't it for that city alone? 09:38 He just want for the... Yeah, yes. Okay. 09:40 But there's more to it, isn't there, 09:42 different types of prophecies 09:43 that are specific to Daniel and to Revelation? 09:46 So what kind of prophecy would this be, Steven? 09:50 Both, Daniel and Revelation, 09:52 what we call apocalyptic prophecy, 09:55 and this deals with the closing events 09:58 of this world's history, 09:59 including the rise and fall of nations, 10:02 and these prophecies rest on God's foreknowledge 10:06 and sovereignty, 10:07 and will happen despite man's choices. 10:10 They outline a specific secrete of events 10:13 have a clear beginning and end point 10:15 and also have a single fulfillment. 10:18 So there would be a single prophetic fulfillment, 10:20 wouldn't it in the prophecy? 10:21 Yes. Okay. 10:23 An example of this can be found in Chapters 2, 7 and 8, 10:26 where God predicts the run of kingdoms, 10:30 no matter, no human choices is gonna change that. 10:33 Yes. 10:34 So apocalyptic, hard to get my tongue around that word. 10:37 Apocalyptic prophecy actually involves even more, 10:40 David than Steven was able to tell us. 10:43 So what can you add to that please? 10:44 I think there are two main sections 10:47 of apocalyptic prophecy. 10:49 When God gave many dreams and visions 10:52 to the prophet himself 10:54 that they could then understand 10:57 that these dreams and visions were God given. 11:02 There's another aspect 11:03 and that was the symbols and imagery 11:04 which you get so much of in Daniel and Revelation, 11:07 where you get these hybrid animals 11:10 with wings and horns and so on, 11:12 which many people stall out 11:14 when they try to understand these things. 11:18 Yes, good. 11:20 Since apocalyptic, I'll get it right, 11:23 prophecies help us to interpret biblical prophecies 11:27 in ways that are consistent with the testimony 11:29 of the whole Bible now. 11:32 How do we understand 11:34 that there are these long passages of time 11:37 in these apocalyptic prophecies? 11:39 Yes, this is a question many people ask 11:42 and some people even reject it today 11:43 but the Bible in several occasions 11:47 talks about a year for... 11:49 or day for a year. 11:51 And particularly in Daniel 9, 11:54 I think that's one of the great prophecies of 490 days, 11:58 which in fact, is 490 years. 12:00 And it comes right down 12:01 from Daniel's time to the Messiah, the Prince, 12:04 490 years and not just 490 days. 12:08 And so we can understand these time periods, 12:12 we get a long period of time 2,300 evenings and mornings, 12:17 or 2,300 days as we, as Adventist understand it. 12:22 And I think that Daniel 9 does give us a clearer picture 12:27 of this great time prophecy. 12:30 Okay, so, interpreting the Book of Daniel 12:33 requires some particular process, 12:36 there's different ways of understanding. 12:38 And, Steven, can you just give to us the historicist method, 12:42 at least? 12:43 Yes, the historicist method was the conservative way 12:47 of interpreting these prophecies. 12:49 And it holds that in apocalyptic prophecy, 12:51 God reveals an unbroken sequence of history 12:54 from the time of the prophet till the end of the world. 12:57 And a good example of this is the each major vision 13:01 in the book, Daniel Chapter 2, 7, 8, 13:06 and then 10 to 12, 13:07 they all follow the same sequence, 13:09 but each sign giving different perspectives with new details. 13:14 And Jesus understood the future destruction of Jerusalem, 13:19 and we find that in Matthew 24:15-20, 13:24 when He said that, 13:25 "When you see the abomination of desolation, 13:28 standing in the most holy place, 13:30 let him who is in Judea flee to the mountains." 13:33 And Luke interprets this abomination of desolation 13:37 as Jerusalem surrounded by armies. 13:40 And this can be... 13:43 He must have got this from a reading 13:45 of Daniel Chapter 9. 13:46 And if we have a look there, I'll just read that, 13:50 Daniel 9... 13:56 verse 26, it says, 14:00 "And the people of the prince 14:02 who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. 14:05 And the end of it shall be with a flood, 14:08 and till the end of the war desolations are determined." 14:12 So here is a prediction 14:14 of the destruction of Jerusalem. 14:16 And because of this prediction and Jesus' interpretation on it 14:20 and warning His disciples, 14:22 no Christians were actually killed 14:24 during that destruction. 14:26 So it has a very good point there. 14:28 Yeah. So Jesus actually quoted Daniel? 14:31 Yes. 14:32 Yes, He understood it as a prophetic book. 14:35 So there are other methods of interpreting those, Steven, 14:37 aren't there, besides just the one 14:39 that you've given the historicist? 14:41 Yes, there is preterism, which was developed in 1614. 14:46 It tends to view prophetic events 14:48 announced in Daniel as having occurred in the past 14:51 and example of this is the little horn 14:54 in Daniel Chapter 7 and 8. 14:57 They interpret that as Antiochus Epiphanes, 15:00 who reigned from 175 BC to 164 BC, 15:05 which does not make it really relevant to anyone 15:08 living in our present times. 15:10 Futurism tends to take those prophecies 15:13 and point them to the future time 15:15 so they believe, for instance, 1 John, 15:18 the Antichrist is some future person 15:20 that will come at the right at the end of time. 15:24 Then this idealism in turn holds 15:26 that apocalyptic prophecies 15:28 are symbols of general spiritual realities 15:31 without any specific historical timeframe. 15:35 So an example would be given in Revelation Chapter 20, 15:39 speaking of the thousand years 15:42 is not really a literal thousand years. 15:44 Okay. 15:45 So some of those preterism and futurism would have risen 15:49 as a Counter Reformation... 15:51 Can't use it, yeah. 15:53 As strategy for Counter Reformation. 15:55 Yeah, it's a counter... Catholic. 15:56 Counteract the Reformation in 16th century... 15:59 All right. 16:01 By Martin Luther. Yeah. 16:02 So, David, we're gonna move to, 16:03 you know, some passage of the Bible 16:05 are more difficult to understand. 16:07 Yet, Jesus knew this when He spoke to two men 16:09 on the road to Emmaus. 16:11 Explain that to us? 16:12 I'd like to read what he says to them in Luke 24:25, 16:17 "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe 16:21 in all of the prophets have spoken!'" 16:23 In Verse 27, 16:25 "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, 16:27 He expounded to them in all the scriptures 16:30 the things concerning Himself.'" 16:32 And then later again, He repeats this 16:34 and adds one more part of the Bible. 16:36 Verse 44, "These are the ones which I spoke to you 16:40 while I was still with you, 16:42 that all things must be fulfilled 16:44 which were written in the Law of Moses, 16:45 and in the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning me." 16:49 And Jesus explained these prophecies about himself, 16:52 right from Moses time, right up until His own time. 16:56 And, you know, He wanted them to understand 16:59 that they needed to do really look at the scriptures 17:01 and see what the truth was about Himself. 17:03 Okay. 17:04 So you've been talking about Jesus, 17:06 now was He evident in the Book of Daniel, David? 17:11 Yes. 17:13 Right through the Book of Daniel, 17:14 we have Jesus coming in. 17:15 Even Nebuchadnezzar, 17:17 when he build that golden image, 17:19 and the Hebrews were put into the fire, 17:22 he says, "There's one like the Son of Man." 17:24 How did he know that? 17:26 And Jesus has seen right throughout all the scriptures. 17:30 And wherever you land in the scripture, 17:32 you ought to look to see where Jesus is. 17:34 And this is what Jesus was doing to those disciples 17:36 on the way to Emmaus. 17:38 So we saw Him in the first few chapters, 17:39 what about in Chapters 4 to 60, 17:42 then, do we see God in action there through Jesus? 17:47 Oh, yes definitely. 17:49 And in fact, in Chapter 4, 17:51 we see that Nebuchadnezzar when he had that I problem, 17:54 he says, "Isn't this the great Babylon 17:56 that I have built?" 17:57 It says, he lost his sanity from that time 18:01 and his kingdom as well for a time, 18:04 until he understood... 18:07 Daniel 4:26, says, 18:10 until he understood that heaven rules 18:13 and that heaven rules obviously, 18:15 Christ ruling in heaven. 18:17 Chapter 5 reveals the hand, 18:20 that the seen hand 18:23 that wrote the condemnation of Belshazzar's actions, 18:27 his kingdom had been weighed in the balanced and wanting 18:30 and it reveals Christ evaluating 18:32 and condemning the king, 18:34 Belshazzar's apostasy 18:36 which led to the fall of Babylon 18:37 by the hand of the Persians, 18:39 and Cyrus who was the anointed one. 18:43 And Chapter 6 shows the plot against Daniel 18:46 and how God through Christ saved him from the lions. 18:49 Yes. 18:51 So you're on a roll now, Steven, 18:52 what about the rest of the book? 18:54 Yes, the whole book actually speaks of Christ, 18:57 doesn't it, as the Bible does? 19:00 Daniel Chapter 7 depicts Christ the Son of Man, 19:03 the title of Christ, 19:04 who comes before the Father, and He gains a kingdom. 19:09 And so in His account, He gets a kingdom, 19:13 and then He reigns over His people after that. 19:15 Chapter 8 comes back 19:18 and shows Christ as the priest of the heavenly sanctuary. 19:21 We have the sanctuary language there and animals there. 19:24 And Chapter 9, we have that marvelous time prophecy, 19:28 portraying Christ as a sacrificial victim, 19:31 whose death reconfirmed the covenant 19:33 between God and His people. 19:35 And Chapters 10 and 12, 19:37 presents Christ as Michael the Commander in Chief, 19:41 who rescues God's people, even from the power of death. 19:44 Yes, this Book of Daniel is a powerful book, isn't it? 19:47 David, we're heading to the theme of God's authority 19:51 now in the Book of Daniel, is that portrayed? 19:54 Yes. 19:55 And particularly in that well known chapter, 19:57 Chapter 2, I'd like it in that, notice verses 36 and 37. 20:02 "This is the dream. 20:04 Now we will tell interpretation of it before the king. 20:07 You, O king, are a king of kings. 20:09 For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, 20:12 power, strength, and glory." 20:14 Daniel was showing to the king, 20:16 how the God only could give the king 20:19 the power that he had. 20:20 And then we go to Daniel 3:38... 20:26 28, sorry. 20:27 "Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, 20:29 'Blessed be the God of Shadrach, 20:31 Meshach and Abednego, 20:33 who sent His angel and delivered His servants 20:35 who trusted in Him, 20:36 and they have frustrated the king's word, 20:39 and yielded their bodies 20:40 that they should not serve nor worship any god, 20:43 except in their own God!'" 20:45 And again, in Daniel 6: 26, 20:50 "I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, 20:53 men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel." 20:58 And then you find in Daniel 7:27, 21:03 where, "The kingdom and the dominion, 21:04 and the greatness of the kingdoms 21:06 under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, 21:09 of the saints of the Most High. 21:11 His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 21:13 and all dominion shall serve and obey Him." 21:16 And so here, Mel, 21:17 you definitely get the picture of Daniel 21:20 showing God's great sovereignty 21:22 over the whole of the universe and over each one of us. 21:24 Yes. 21:26 I noticed that this picturesque language, 21:28 were different based three dimensions 21:30 through the book. 21:32 How does God show His ultimate authority 21:35 through this? 21:36 Yeah, when God shows, 21:39 what we can call recapitulation, 21:41 what He'd showed in Daniel 2, 21:44 He shows in another way in Daniel 7. 21:46 In Daniel 2, He has the base with the various metals. 21:49 In Daniel 7, He shows the same kingdoms 21:52 with animals, lion, bear, and so on. 21:55 And so He uses this method 22:00 through what we might call 22:02 four prophetic cycles in Daniel, 22:04 recapitulating over and over again, 22:07 the fact that God has this great authority 22:09 over the whole of the universe. 22:10 So it's like a repetition 22:12 with more information on each time. 22:14 And He mentions one of these in different chapters. 22:17 That's exactly. 22:18 He adds to the same time period... 22:20 That's exactly. As well. 22:21 Okay, so sometimes, Steven, 22:22 we feel that the future can be a bit uncertain. 22:25 Can we gain confidence from Daniel's writings? 22:27 Now it may seem to us that the world is in chaos, 22:30 or someone who doesn't know the scriptures 22:32 that life goes on and may even deny that God exists. 22:36 But the story of Daniel is that in reality, 22:39 God is in control and steers the flow of history. 22:45 Through the rise and fall of empires, 22:48 we can see the agencies of the all-merciful one, 22:52 silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will. 22:56 And so our best guide is to follow God's will 23:00 and be a part of His eternal kingdom to come. 23:03 So we see Daniel and his friends 23:04 being very faithful to God through this entire time 23:08 they were in captivity there? 23:09 Yes. And we can copy that. 23:11 So Daniel and his friends remained faithful. 23:14 So can we actually use them as role models? 23:17 Oh, absolutely. Definitely. 23:19 And there's a saying that goes, "Dare to be a Daniel." 23:22 Have you heard that? Yeah. Oh, I like that. 23:24 And so the message I get is don't compromise your faith 23:28 or deny your commitment to God, 23:30 stay faithful to the Word of God. 23:32 And their faithfulness 23:34 and absolute commitment to the Lord, 23:37 provides encouragement as we face any trial 23:40 that we might see in the future. 23:41 Even if we have to face a death, 23:45 moments of death for our faith, 23:47 we can know that God will sustain us in the end. 23:51 Yeah, so that's good. 23:52 So, David, I don't usually ask the same question twice. 23:57 But I sit off today asking you, 24:00 why should we study the Book of Daniel? 24:02 Now I'm coming back to it. 24:03 We've been through, like the preparation 24:05 so we can understand this book. 24:07 And now I'm gonna say to you, 24:09 why bother to study the Book of Daniel today? 24:12 Can you highlight that a bit more? 24:14 Well, I think that we can 24:15 but the fact that God stands sovereign overall, 24:20 even when things go wrong. 24:21 Yes. 24:23 I mean, even in my own life, 24:24 sometimes things seem to go wrong, 24:26 but you trust in God. 24:28 And it's amazing how things work out in a positive way. 24:32 And when you read the Bible, you see stories like Daniel, 24:35 you have Joseph, 24:37 or earlier in the Old Testament, 24:38 you have Esther, in the period 24:39 that we've just been dealing with in the last few lessons. 24:42 And we can see how God directed their lives 24:45 in a beautiful and wonderful way. 24:47 You know, Mel, He does the same for us today, 24:50 if we just put our trust in Him as Daniel did, why? 24:53 There's God who understands us, who knows us, 24:57 and who believes in us, 24:58 and He wants us all in His Kingdom. 25:00 And we can trust in Him and His sovereignty. 25:02 Oh, I like that. Yeah. 25:04 So as we've been looking at the foundations 25:06 of the Book of Daniel today, 25:08 what we can learn from it is, is God central to all of us? 25:12 Yes. Absolutely. 25:14 Does He control the affairs of the world? 25:16 Yeah. He does, indeed. 25:18 And through His plans, what about the future? 25:21 Does He show us anything there? 25:23 His eternal kingdom will come the rock, 25:25 the rock will strike the image 25:27 and He will come and make this world His own 25:30 at one stage. 25:31 So our best advice is to make ourselves 25:35 a part of His kingdom now... 25:37 Okay. By obeying Him. 25:38 Yes, David. 25:40 And I like that in Daniel 7 where He says that the kingdoms 25:42 are gonna be given to the saints, 25:44 the people who stood firm like Daniel stood, 25:46 and who hang on to the truth 25:49 as Daniel hanged on to the truth. 25:50 All right. 25:52 So we can take a lot of courage from the Book of Daniel, 25:54 in terms of the life that he lived, 25:57 in terms of the things that he wrote, 25:59 particularly what God revealed to him, 26:02 and he was able to portray 26:03 what was actually coming in the future. 26:06 So this is really positive, 26:08 that we can gain this kind of confidence there. 26:10 And, of course, at the end of it, 26:12 as it was mentioned, 26:14 we will be restored to what we should have been... 26:16 Absolutely. 26:18 In God's eternal kingdom, we will be able to join Jesus. 26:21 And that's all in the Book of Daniel, isn't it? 26:24 Absolutely. 26:26 Of course, it's supported as well by the Book of... 26:29 Revelation. Revelation. 26:31 I knew someone would come up with that. 26:32 Which is the Greek name is Apocalypsis. 26:34 Oh, great. 26:35 Say that, again, for me. 26:37 Apocalypsis. 26:38 Okay. It's apocalyptic. 26:39 And which means we're looking forward to... 26:41 The future. 26:43 The future and the time of the end. 26:44 Well, this is something that I really think 26:47 that we can gain a real blessing from, 26:49 as we look at this book... 26:52 This quarter. Of Daniel this quarter. 26:54 And so we're just about out of time now. 26:57 And so as we studied the Book of Daniel, 27:01 we see that God is not only sovereign over all nations, 27:04 but is intimately acquainted with each of us. 27:08 We can gain great confidence in God's leading, 27:11 both in the nations and in our lives today. 27:14 Thank you for joining us on Let God Speak. 27:17 You can view all past programs on our website, 27:20 3abnaustralia.org.au. 27:24 Teachers' notes are also available 27:25 there for download. 27:27 You can email us 27:29 on lgs@3abnaustralia.org.au. 27:33 God bless you and we will invite you 27:35 to join us again next week 27:37 as we continue a 13-week study on the Book of Daniel. 27:41 We'll see you then. 27:43 Amen. |
Revised 2020-03-21