Opening the Door to Daniel

Father, we thank you for tonight. We are grateful that we can be here. We are grateful Lord that you've given us your word And in the word Lord you teach us Everything that we need to know That pertains to life and godliness And we are grateful Lord that we have the opportunity to study this this great book book of Daniel To once again start something new Take it through to the end and be able to watch the thread of the Most High God run through every verse and every paragraph and chapter of this great book And we realize Lord that there will be so much information given over the next several weeks several months It'll be like drinking water from a fire hose So much information and yet Lord we realize that through the preaching of your word and the opportunity to come and listen There is a great Confirmation that takes place in our lives.

You want to conform us to your image? You want us to look just like you? Act just like you and that comes through reading and studying and memorizing the word of the Lord And so father as we embark on this great major prophet we pray Lord that You would really open our eyes open our hearts Pray that we would not be like Israel Because of their sin they they went into captivity and you warned them not to but they did it anyway May we not be like that? May we not harden our hearts to the truth? May we be softened By the hammer of your word that we might truly follow you With all of our heart soul mind and strength Until you come again as you most surely will in Jesus name.

Amen Well, if you got your book, we're gonna open the door to Daniel this evening We're gonna open the door by looking at Daniel chapter 1 verse number 1 and verse number 2 We're in really no hurry to get through the book because there's so much information to give you because this inspired word Is really truly a unique and special book as you will see even this evening So let's begin this way yesterday in Israel. They celebrated their new year Rosh Hashanah was yesterday and that begins ten straight days of penitence That leads to Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement and Israel is in the mode of anticipating the arrival of their Messiah And we know that all throughout this past year Israel has faced all kinds of adversity.

We know that Hamas had shot close to 4,500 rockets into Israel killing over a dozen people injuring hundreds of them Anti-semitism is probably at its highest level in many years all throughout the world and so Israel lives in this sphere of and not fear but sphere of anticipating the arrival of the Messiah at the end of each service on Friday in the end each Celebration service that Israel has they as a ritual go through Their 13 pillars of faith and the 12th pillar of faith in the Jewish creed reads as follows I believe with a perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah and Though he tarry I will wait daily for his coming Now we agree with that statement Except we would add a word his coming again But we agree with that Israel lives in anticipation of the coming of their Messiah They do so because of what takes place in Daniel chapter 1 verse number 1 now from the very beginning in Genesis chapter 3 there was always this Promise of the coming seed the promised Messiah was going to come And yet when you come to Daniel chapter 1 verse number 1 you begin what the Bible calls the times of the Gentiles We'll call it Gentile supremacy always under God's sovereignty the land in Israel is under Gentile Domination even though they're back in the land and even though they have Developed their their statehood and even though things seem to be going fairly well for them It is still the times of the Gentiles and that began in Daniel chapter 1 verse number 1 Now Daniel is the last of the major prophets You have Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and Daniel and they all play a role in warning Israel If you go back and you read Isaiah He prophesies about a hundred years before their captivity in Daniel 1 verse number 1 And Isaiah was concerned about the people not listening to the Word of the Lord They lived in rebellion to God But yet they thought everything was okay There really wasn't any problems things seem to be running pretty smoothly.

So they weren't too concerned about Isaiah's words But Isaiah saw their spiritual apostasy and he warned them you need to repent Well after Isaiah came Jeremiah and Jeremiah prophesied during the last five kings in the southern kingdom Judah remember the kingdom was divided after Solomon's reign. You had a northern kingdom ran and led by Rehoboam and then you had the southern kingdom ran by Rehoboam Jeroboam in the north and Rehoboam in the in the south and Judah and Benjamin were the two tribes in the south and the other ten tribes were in the north And the northern kingdom would go into captivity in 722 BC they were taken captive by the Assyrians Wouldn't be to a little over a hundred years later that Daniel 1 would come and the Babylonians would take Israel into captivity or Judah into captivity But Jeremiah would prophesy during the reign of the last five kings in Judah's lineage of kings they had 19 of them.

Okay 11 of them were evil eight were good That's in the southern kingdom in the northern kingdom. They were all bad. They were all wicked. They were all evil and yet God would use those kings in a unique and special way and So Isaiah would prophesy a hundred years before the captivity then Jeremiah would come and he would prophesy he would prophesy up to the Eminency of the captivity he could see it unfolding right before his eyes And then you have Ezekiel Ezekiel would prophesy while they were in Babylonian captivity and Yet when Ezekiel prophesied he prophesied a lot about the hope of Israel the future of Israel The good things that were going to happen when Messiah would would would arrive so even though there was Prophecy about judgment.

There was all this prophecy concerning the hope of Messiah So Ezekiel would gather the people around while they were in captivity and tell them about the hope of the arrival of the Messiah Daniel he too prophesied while Israel was in captivity, but he didn't do it like Isaiah Jeremiah and Ezekiel They did it among the people Daniel did it from above the people Not because he was better than anybody else because he wasn't But because he had risen to a place of prominence in Babylon in fact the reign of of Daniel would span two world empires the Babylonian Empire and the Medo-Persian Empire and in both of those empires there was a rise to prominence and As he began to prophesy he would tell Israel about all that was going to take place from Daniel 1 verse number 1 from the beginning of their captivity from the beginning of the times of the Gentiles all the way to the very end To Messiah's arrival in the development of his kingdom in the eternal state He would take them all the way to the end Which is very very important.

You need to get this Why because you're gonna need to understand the book of Daniel Why? Daniel was a man who lived well into his 80s and we will see as time goes on. He had an impeccable life a man with great courage extremely faithful a man of supreme integrity and there's a reason for that and The reason is this The clearer You see the future The cleaner you will stand in the present Did you get that? The clearer you see the future The cleaner you stand in the present in other words if you understand What's going to happen in the future You live in unblemished life in the present.

That's how important prophecy is You need to get a real clear grasp on what Christ is doing Where he's going what prophecy is all about and that's exactly what Peter said Peter would say these words in 2nd Peter chapter 3 when he talks about the day of the Lord and how all these things are gonna Be burned up with fervent heat how he talks about the arrival of the Messiah and in the coming of the eternal state He then says these words he says Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way What sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and Godliness Because the Messiah is going to come because this present earth is going to be destroyed.

There's going to be a new heaven and a new earth Well, because if you understand that Then you need to be a holy people There's no reason not to be a holy people and it uses that phrase in the old King James what manner of people ought you to be same word used of of the Messiah in Mark chapter 4 what manner of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? John heard that he would use the same phrase in 1st John 3 What manner of love is this that the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God?

Peter in the boat of Mark 4 also says the same phrase in 2nd Peter 3 what manner of people ought you to be and the phrase is used of an alien nature Another dimensional nature. In other words, it's so foreign. It's so unnatural to what we see every day It's completely alien therefore Jesus When used of him what other kind of dimension is this man from that the wind and the waves obey him what kind of alien like power does the Messiah have that the wind and the waves obey him because They've never seen anything like it What kind of love does the Father bestow upon his children because it's not from this dimension.

It's from another dimension It's from a supernatural dimensions from a heavenly dimension so Peter says because all these things are going to be destroyed and The Messiah is going to come Instead of the eternal state because the day of the Lord is right around the corner What manner of people ought you to be from another dimension? alien like creatures so foreign That you live a holy and godly life If when you read the book of Daniel like when you read the book of Revelation If you don't become more and more clean you didn't read it, right?

You misunderstood the prophecy. You didn't get the prophecy Because John said it this way Knowing that when he appears we'll be like him for we'll see him as he is, right? He then goes on to say in first John chapter 3 verse number 3 That he who has this hope in him purifies himself Even as he is pure You see there's something about the arrival of the Messiah.

There's something about the prophetic revelation of God there's something about the future that does it work in the believer in the present and If you read about the future and if you study prophecy and it doesn't change your present You didn't read it, right? You didn't understand it And you go back and reread it the book of Daniel is going to do that to you The book of Daniel is going to redirect your life It's going to help you understand how to live a pure life because that's what Daniel did Why was it Daniel could live as long as he did?

with a life of supreme integrity This impeccable life this faithful life where he would be called He'd be called my greatly beloved Three times by God He was greatly beloved of God Because there was nobody else like him And the reason there was nobody else like him because he was able to see and understand the future better than everybody else And when you know that everything in the present Changes and Daniel the book is all about that So my prayer for you for me is that our lives would be completely turned upside down changed revolutionized because we're beginning to understand the future and Daniel takes the future from the very beginning of his time in Daniel 1 verse number 1 it takes you all the way to the very end.

He saw more than John the Revelator ever saw Because without Daniel you have a hard time with Revelation and without Revelation You have a little difficult time with Daniel So they both play off of one another in scripture and the Lord did it that way so you and I could get a clear Grasp of the future so we can live a holy life in the present. That's where we're going. It's exciting I can't wait to take you through the book. I've done everything except chapter 11 and chapter 12 And so we're excited about what's going to happen next The book is divided in two ways chapters 1 through 6 chapter 7 through 12 chapter 1 through 6 is the rise of Daniel to prominence in Chapter 7 to 12.

It is a revelation of Daniel in prophecy and So you're able to understand the prophet and his prophecies the man and his message and it all comes together as it begins to unfold Before us and The Bible is so unique So let's read the first two verses because if we don't we'll never cover them So let's read Daniel chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim King of Judah Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and beseeched it the Lord gave Jehoiakim King of Judah into his hand along with some of the vessels of the house of God And he brought them to the land of Shinar to the house of his God and he brought the vessels into the treasury of His God You know, one of the greatest things about saying the Bible is the principles of observation and the outline tonight is basically the principles of Observation, we're just gonna give you five words we're gonna talk about the where the when the who the what and the why of Verses 1 & 2 that's it.

And when you read it you see what you see Jerusalem and you see Babylon you see the center of the holiness of God in Jerusalem and you see the center of Satanic rule in Babylon They are contrasted one with the other One is the holy city of God and the other is the pagan city of Babylon And so when you read it the very outset there's this huge contrast and What you're going to see as we understand this is how God is doing everything Remember 12 times in 12 chapters the phrase El Elyon is used God most high Used more in this book than any other book in the Old Testament except for the book of Psalms where it's used 22 times but in 12 chapters 12 times it's all about El Elyon the God most high Daniel would learn how to submit to the God most high Nebuchadnezzar would also learn that and Nebuchadnezzar is quite the unique Individual, do you know he's mentioned in nine different Old Testament books?

Do you know that Nebuchadnezzar is the most talked about pagan king in all the Bible Because something drastically changes in the man's life the man actually experiences Redemption I'm gonna see that and how God brings him to a place of redemption But God would only do that because there was a man who would reveal God to him and Stand against all of Nebuchadnezzar's edicts and be used in a powerful way in Nebuchadnezzar's life because Daniel was into revealing God to a pagan Society Daniel was taken captive when around 15 years of age from Jerusalem there in in Judah he would be taken to Babylon and he would live in a pagan culture for the rest of his life and As he lived in that pagan culture He was able to stand strong against all the wiles of the devil And you're gonna learn how to stand strong amidst a pagan culture You're gonna learn how to stand against society Because we live in a modern-day Babylon America is like Babylon the way of the world and all of its idolatry and all of its impurity and all of its iniquity And we have to learn to stand as fathers.

We have to teach our children how to stand The thing about Daniel is that he would not be indoctrinated by the pagan society He could not be indoctrinated by it because his mind was clean his mind was pure his mind was fixed on the God Most High and So he would not be indoctrinated Interesting Daniel Shadrach Meshach and Abednego would be four men who would come Along with the other 60-plus people that came there's only about 70 in that first deportation But you know none of the names of the others and that's because they would not stand Alone They would not stand apart Therefore they could never stand above anybody else They were indoctrinated in the culture But Daniel Shadrach Meshach and Abednego these four Hebrew men young men when they came Would not bow to a pagan culture They would stand way above everybody else and became models of What it means to love the one true God Nobody else's name is mentioned So we don't even know who the rest of the young men were that came with them And so you're gonna learn as Daniel learned What is it we need to do every day?

How do we live our lives for the glory of our great God the Most High God? the ruler of heaven and earth so Daniel 1 verse number 1 begins with a tragic event and As well as a triumphant event it begins very simply with Israel being conquered by Babylon They would lose their freedom They would lose their temple. They would lose their land. They would lose their possessions They would lose their joy their honor their well-being they would lose everything But they were warned They just did not believe what the prophets said and yet as tragic as it was it was all ordained by God It was all a part of the plan of God to bring about his purposes for his children Israel everything was Nothing happened by accident nothing happened by mistake God was in complete charge of everything God was doing what he was doing because he was going to unveil the future for Israel and they needed to know the future And when Jeremiah 29, we read it last week when the Lord said I know the plans I have for you plans for Prosperity and not for calamity plans to give you a future and a hope Well within all those prophecies Was their future?

It was their hope And then he said I want you to seek me. I want you to seek me with all of your heart And after those 70 years of captivity Israel began to seek their God with all of their heart but God had a plan and This was part of the plan So let's begin With the first word where where did this happen?

Well It happened in Jerusalem the great city of the Holy God the most important city Then the most important city now and the most important city in the future the city of Jerusalem is The most important city in the history of the world Listen to what the Bible says in Psalm 87 His foundation is in the holy Mountains that was speaking of Jerusalem The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob the gates of Zion is the city of Jerusalem Interesting that God would say that he loves the gates of Zion.

He loves the gates that lead to a city Never says that he loves the bridges in New York City Doesn't say he loves the the the gates surrounding Los Angeles If that God never said he loved any city except Jerusalem It's a special city It says glorious things are spoken of you. Oh city of God the city is so great that Revelation 3 tells us that the one who overcomes the one who lives by faith and lives for the glory of God will have the New Jerusalem the city of God Written on him This city is so important because it signifies your citizenship that The overcomer has the name of the city of my God Christ says written on them The Bible says That the city of peace Jerusalem is called the city of our God in Psalm 48 the city of the great king The city of the Lord of hosts Psalm 48 verse number 8 Salem in Psalm 76 verse number 2 and Zion in Psalm 76 verse 2 as well.

It's called the city of the righteous. It's called a faithful city It's called Ariel the Lion of God It's called the Holy City the city of the Lord My delight is in her the throne of the Lord The Lord is our righteousness the perfection of beauty the joy to all the whole earth. The Lord is there Yahveh Shema the city of truth the holy Mountain, it's called the city of Judah. It's called the city of David has a variety of names but it's all God's City And here this beautiful place in the promised land that God had designed for Israel With this beautiful temple had been built Was besieged By King Nebuchadnezzar He wasn't the king at first He was just a military leader he had just won the great battle in Egypt Carchemish and he had won that battle and overtook Egypt And he was on his way to Jerusalem to besiege the city there and while they were in Engulfed in battle he was called back to Babylon because his father was was about to die While there his father died He then became king of Babylon King Nebuchadnezzar Came back finished the the battle there in Jerusalem and thus began the first deportation back to Babylon You see Israel had been warned The people in the City of Peace Jerusalem Had been warned they would lose their peace Way back in the book of Deuteronomy Listen to what Moses says Deuteronomy chapter 31 the Lord says to Moses The Lord said to Moses behold you are about to lie down with your fathers That is Moses.

You're gonna die and This people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land Into the midst of which they are going and will forsake me and break my covenant Which I have made with them now remember They have yet to embark on the promised land Moses is reiterating all of the law of God They're encamped ready to go they'll be led into the promised land by by Joshua and God is telling this to Moses as he's about to die He says my anger will be kindled against them in that day And I will forsake them and hide my face from them and they will be consumed in many evils and troubles will come upon them That they will say in that day Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?

But I will surely hide my face in that day Because of all the evil which they will do for they will turn to other gods So here they are about to embark on their promised land and God says to Moses Let me tell you something you're gonna die and this people They're gonna turn their backs They're gonna go toward other gods My anger will be kindled against them and I will forsake them This is a warning Moses would have to reiterate that to them.

Of course Israel's like, you know, that's not gonna happen to us Hey, we're God's chosen people. We're okay. We're good to go. I mean the promised land is just right across the river there It's gonna be all right. We're gonna get there. Everything's gonna be great that's what they thought and God warned them In fact, he warned them over and over and over again In fact all through the Kings and all through the judges. He sent disasters He sent national disasters upon them to get their attention to warn them It's like what God does today.

He sends Disasters and in all kinds of heartache to warn people of impending judgment. That's going to come Hurricanes just don't happen. God sends hurricanes floods just don't happen. God causes the floodwaters to rise Earthquakes don't just happen God causes earthquakes earthquakes to happen God does all this people die because it's an appointed time for them to die and God says like we've talked about so many times in Luke chapter 13 when the pool I mean the Tower of Shalom fell over or Salome and fell over and killed the 18 people there in the city They said well, well who sinned more what was wrong and Christ said?

nothing But if you don't repent You will likewise perish It's a warning about God's impending judgment. You never know when you're going to die. We just never know So you need to be always ready to die You'd be ready to face the Living God because judgment is coming And so God sends disasters. He sends calamity. He sends tragedy to get people's attention their wake-up calls You better pay attention Because the time is coming Where you too will die? Are you ready to die? And that's what God was doing all listen for four hundred and Ninety years That's a long time.

I Don't care how you add it up. That's a long time He just kept warning them and warning them and warning them He would send Judges, he would send prophets. He would raise up Kings They just would not listen in the kings of Israel of the 38 39 kings of the southern and northern kingdom only eight Were good the rest They were all evil And Hosea tells us like priests like people as the leadership goes So goes the people and that's exactly what took place in The land of Israel, so God would warn them So where did this?

Siege take place it took place in Jerusalem the question number two is When well, it tells us in the third year of the reign of Jehovah Kim king of Judah Jehovah Kim was an evil king Thus he led Israel into the ways of idolatry into the ways of evil and Yet not everybody followed because there was Daniel there was Shadrach Meshach and Abednego They didn't follow the king into his evil idolatrous ways as young teenage boys They stayed true.

They weren't weren't like all the others there in the land of Israel And so Nebuchadnezzar he would come in and he would begin to destroy Jerusalem and the Bible tells us that there are there are three three deportations of the Jewish nation The first one happened in 605 BC.

That's where we are in Daniel chapter 1 verse number 1 That's when Daniel was taken into captivity The second one happened in 597 BC That's when Ezekiel was taken into captivity the third one happened in 586 BC and That's when Isaiah was taken into captivity so you can look at each of the three deportations and look at these three great prophets as to when they were taken into captivity and Begin to connect all the dots But in the very first deportation with only about 70 or so young men taken from royalty Because Nebuchadnezzar wanted to use them in his court.

He wanted to indoctrinate them. He wanted to change them That was his plan And so he began the process by taking these young men first We remember the third invasion the most because that's the one where the temple was destroyed The city was plundered and everything was laid to ruins That's when Nebuchadnezzar just destroyed everything but before that Jehoiakim he was the leader Nebuchadnezzar mentioned in nine different Old Testament books Quite the king quite the pagan ruler and yet there are many lessons to learn from his life He's not mentioned by accident God puts him there so we can begin to understand how we respond to evil rulers how Daniel did as Well as how we we we pray for evil rulers I know we're in the process of trying to recall our governor right here in Southern, California Listen Newsom needs more than a recall Newsom needs redemption He needs to be redeemed And quite frankly, I don't have much hope that that's ever gonna happen.

Remember we're in the state that voted To pay ten cents for plastic bags every time you go to the store That's the mentality the people in our state We voted for that every time I go to the store. I scratch my head and I ask the cashier. Did you vote? So that we could pay ten cents ten cents for extra for a bag They always say no now, maybe they did I don't know but that's the people we live among here in, California So I don't have too much. Hope that the people of California are smart enough to recall the governor But you know what?

That's under God's God's auspices. Anyway, God's in control of all those things, right? So whether or not he's recalled or not We'll know on September 15th God's in complete control of all that happens And so we can rest in that we can't wait we won't be disappointed on the 15th We won't be you know depressed on the 15th Because we know our God is still in charge and God would want him to continue to lead this state Whether we like it or not That would be God's choice right and we can affirm that because our God is a sovereign God So let's go to question number three and that is who?

Who? Notice there were three Kings. There is Jehoiakim Nebuchadnezzar and the Lord Jehoiakim is all about iniquity Nebuchadnezzar is all about brutality and the Lord is All about his sovereignty. He rules over all things no matter how Iniquitous the time no matter how cruel the leader God the Lord of Lords the King of Kings rules over all Kings and he is a complete charge of everything Jehoiakim is the great-grandson of Hezekiah Hezekiah Had a son His name was Manasseh He ruled for 55 years in the land of Israel The Bible says in 2nd Chronicles 33 verse number 1 That Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem He led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to sin and to do worse than the heathen Whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel Think about that Israel's King Led Israel to do worse things than All the pagan people that God had already destroyed That's how bad Manasseh was he ruled for 55 years When he died his son Ammon took over and he ruled for two years When he was assassinated Then came King Josiah this young man became king at the age of eight and Josiah would revolutionize the nation he would commit to the law of God following the law of God Serving the Lord his God And Josiah had four sons The first son was Jehoaz the second one son was Eliakim and So when when Josiah was wounded in a battle in Megiddo He would end up dying Upon his death Jehoaz became the king in Israel But he only lasted three months Why?

because Egypt who had engulfed all of Judah in terms of its territory decided to put Eliakim as the king of Jerusalem and they changed his name to Jehoiakim and That's why he was the ruler in Israel. That's why Nebuchadnezzar went after Jerusalem. Think about this Nebuchadnezzar went after Jerusalem because he had just defeated the Egyptian army, but because Jerusalem and Judah was under the auspices of Egypt He didn't want Egypt to rise up again against him. So he had to go to Jerusalem and destroy those who were there God was a part of all those things Now note this the Bible says in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand You see a circle that God gave Jehoiakim into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar would go back and say man, you know what we just destroyed everybody we wiped everybody out our pagan Gods helped us do this.

We are an amazing military machine We can destroy anybody look what we did No God gave Jehoiakim Into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. See that was Nebuchadnezzar's problem He would look at Babylon and think this is the great Babylon that I built the great army that I built this is what I did and God had to humble this man Bring him to his knees to a place of repentance because we go through life thinking look at this great job.

I attained Look at this great sermon. I preached look at this great team. I coached look at this grace house I bought look at the great things I have done and God says no I gave it into your hands See we think we do we do because we got this great education wrong Nobody ever got to where they were because they got a good education Doesn't mean you shouldn't get an education Because there are people who get great educations and people with no education and the person with no education Rises above the guy with all this education You see God's hand moves you God does all these things What do you have that you did not receive?

answer nothing God does it all God is sovereign. That's why you have Jehoiakim the king of iniquity You have Nebuchadnezzar the king of brutality and you have the Lord the king of sovereignty because he rules over all kings and he gave Jehoiakim into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar This was all a plan This began that phrase right there began the time of Gentile Domination this begins the times of the Gentiles and it does not end until the Messiah returns and rules in Jerusalem This is when it will end But Daniel chapter 1 verse number 1 begins the times of the Gentiles Because God placed Jehoiakim the king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar Now note this The Bible says in Jeremiah 43 verse number 10 that Nebuchadnezzar is called by God my Servant The pagan king mentioned more than any other pagan king in the scriptures is called my Servant think about that.

Do you know the president of our country is God's servant? the governor of our state is God's servant They all serve the true and living God. They don't recognize that they do Nebuchadnezzar didn't But they do They serve the true and living God, oh by the way in 722 When Assyria came and took the northern kingdom captive Assyria was called in Isaiah 10 verse number 5 the rod of mine anger The rod of mine anger I'm gonna use Assyria. They are the rod of mine anger and I'm gonna use them to take the northern kingdom into captivity Nebuchadnezzar is my servant.

I'm gonna use him to take Judah into captivity And that's exactly what took place went right along as God had planned it why Because he is El Elyon the God Most High and Nebuchadnezzar would say in Daniel 4 verse number 17 he learned the hard way that the Most High El Elyon ruleth in the kingdom of men and Giveth it to whomever he Wills took a long time for Nebuchadnezzar to learn that but he did We need to learn that lesson That none of us in the room achieves anything without the sovereign hand of God moving in and among us as his people and Directing us in the way that we should go God does all that and that's just such a great freeing up of our own lives It minimizes all your anxiety Why because if you're in a running for a job, guess what you only get the job of God wants you there If he doesn't want you there, guess what?

You're not gonna get the job So when the guy says you up sorry get to somebody else you say, okay got my answer God kept me out of that job for some reason God does that God's in charge We trust him to show us which way to go now Jehoiakim Was a problem because One day God said to Jeremiah I'm going to tell you something. This is what he says In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah King of Judah the word came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying take a scroll and write on all the words Which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah and concerning all the nations from the day I first spoke to you from the days of Josiah even to this day Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them In order that every man will turn from his evil way, then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin So God is saying I'm gonna give him one last chance under Jehoiakim Jeremiah listen, I need you to Write this down.

I Need you to tell Israel about what I'm going to do So that they will repent so that they will turn from their wicked ways This is my last ditch effort for you to do this so he calls in Baruch and Baruch writes down what Jeremiah says because God told him what to say and Baruch make sure that King Jehoiakim reads it and As he reads it to Jehoiakim Takes a scroll reads it Jehoiakim takes out his knife and begins to slice and cut the scroll and Takes the pieces and throws them into the fire Because he didn't care what God said It made no difference to him He wasn't going to follow And then he demanded that Baruch and Jeremiah be thrown into prison But Jeremiah 36 says that God protected them and God hid them so they would not be taken and thrown into prison and God made it very clear that About Jehoiakim He said in verse number 30 He said therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David And his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night I will also punish him and his descendants and his servants for their iniquity and I will bring on them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the calamity that I have declared to them But they did not listen They would not listen so for 490 years God kept warning them over and over and over talk about the long-suffering of God talk about the mercy and patience of God Talk about the compassion of God.

He didn't just warn him once Say that's it. I'm done. No over and over and over again Which leads us to the what? What was taken? Well, we know the people were taken only about 70 of them and although they're not named We know they're taken because Daniel is taken into captivity along with Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and a slew of other young men are taken We'll talk about that next week those who were chosen to go back to Babylon But not only were these people taken but the possessions of the temple were taken and isn't it interesting then Daniel 1 1 and 2 there's no emphasis upon the people that were taken Just the possessions of the temple that were taken it says Along with some of the vessels the house of God And he brought them to the land of Shinar to the house of his God And he brought the vessels into the treasury of his God though Shazar will use those vessels in a blasphemous way in Daniel chapter 5 as We will see in the future But what was taken were not just the people but the possessions We know that they were laid with gold Solomon had spent so much time so much money making sure that the house of God had the best of everything and it did Nebuchadnezzar saw that They said I'm gonna give that to my gods My gods Which leads us to the why?

Why did this happen what went on? Why 70 years Why not? 10 years Why did it have to be 70? Well, the Bible is very clear about that And we need to understand it Israel went into captivity for two reasons number one It's very clear throughout the scriptures that they defied and disobeyed the Word of God and number two They despised and departed from the worship of God so knowing that You can begin to understand What takes place?

God had designed Israel with all kinds of commandments and laws But one thing he said That he wanted to make sure they did that every seven years The land His land remember it's God's land It's my land. He calls it my land over and over and over again the Old Testament and my land I have given to my people. Okay, so it's not anybody's land, but God's land and God didn't give it to anybody else but to Israel the Jewish nation My land every seven years will have what we call a sabbatical There will be no cultivation of the land every every seven years.

There will be a rest in the land Why because God said so God rested on the seventh day God was in to rest It was all a part of what he wanted to teach Israel and part of their obedience was listen at the end of those seven Years the land is to have a sabbatical And you're not to cultivate that land for that seventh year So for 490 years Israel disobeyed that in other words there were 70 Sabbatic years that they disobeyed and Because there were 70 sabbatic years that they didn't that they disobeyed God said, okay You won't do what I tell you to do.

I'm going to make you do what I tell you to do That's why It's 70 years of captivity because There were 70 years you didn't do I told you to do And so therefore you're gonna go into captivity for 70 years You see they just defied the Word of God It didn't make any difference what God's Word said. They just weren't gonna obey it No matter what the judge said no matter what the Prophet said no matter what the King said they just weren't gonna obey And finally God said enough's enough It's time You're going into captivity for 70 years and then You will seek me and then you will find me When you seek me with all your heart, but why Babylon Why the land of Shinar That's another name.

That's the ancient name of Babylon Israel had a problem all throughout their history And their problem was what they could not separate themselves from the world They could not separate themselves from all the idolatrous worship They could not cut themselves off from how the pagans did it. They were so enamored with pagan idolatry They were so overwhelmed with what the world was doing. They just could not remain faithful to the true and living God And ultimately they would go and engulf themselves in pagan religion because with that pagan religion came all kinds of iniquity and all kinds of immorality and They just loved doing that stuff So God says okay.

I've told you don't commit idolatry. I told you that I am your God You should have no other God before me, but that doesn't make any difference to you So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna send you all the way back to the origin of idolatry I'm gonna send you all the way back to the beginning of pagan worship the land of Shinar Babylon So that you will get your fill of it So when it's all said and done, you will say you know what no more and you know what that's exactly what happened Israel became monotheistic They broke themselves off from idol worship and pagan worship Because God had a plan and the plan was 70 years because for 70 years you did not keep the sabbatical like I like I said and Therefore you defied my word Disobeyed my word Now I'm gonna make you obey my word And I'm gonna make you obey it in a place That will overwhelm you with pagan idolatry Because this is where it all began back in Genesis chapter 11 and Genesis chapter 12 in the land of Shinar So I'm gonna send you all the way back there and oh by the way when you get to the book of Revelation the 17th chapter Same thing is true in Babylon The Antichrist and his rulership will begin to lead the world in In idolatrous worship, so that's why There are 70 years That's why Nebuchadnezzar That's why Babylon We need to understand that my prayer is this Second Thessalonians 3 verse number 5 may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the Patience of waiting for the Christ, that's our prayer May the Lord direct us And how to love our God more and more and more So that we with patience can begin to wait for the coming of our Messiah What will happen?

Over the next months is that you're gonna read the scriptures and you're gonna study the scriptures and each and every week it's going to unfold for you all the different promises all the different predictions all the different prophecies all under the providence of the Living God Who is directing Daniel to help Israel understand the future of their people in the coming of the Messiah Because the only thing that matters is That we are placed here to worship the king and to wait for his coming again That we might go home to be with him So we need to be prepared for when he comes We need to be pure until he comes And we also need to preach the gospel Until he comes So others will know there is hope there's a future and We know the future and the clearer you see the future The cleaner you will stand in the present Let's pray Father we thank you for today a chance to begin this great study in the book of Daniel Lord we thank you for all you did in this man's life We thank you for what you did in Israel's life So many lessons to learn from their disobedience Our prayer is that we would not live in disobedience That we will not set up idols in our hearts Things that are more important to us than you But that you would be the sole the sole exaltation in our lives That we would lift you to the highest place And that we would honor and glorify your name Thank you for those who are here You pray Lord that you'd bring more to come They might hear your word and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and that what we hear tonight in every Wednesday night Revolutionize the way we think not just about today, but especially about tomorrow because tomorrow affects Today we pray this in the name of our soon coming King Jesus Christ our Lord Amen