Daniel 1:1-7

We good? Good morning. All right.

Andy was kind enough to give us this room because we needed some more room so that everybody wasn't piled on top of each other, so I was thankful for that.

Would one of you gentlemen want to open us up with a word of prayer? Anyone? Any takers? Any takers?

All right, I'll take it. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity once again to open your word.

Father, you have been so gracious to give us a revealed will and revelation of how you were going to work out your plan of redemption through first your covenant people, the nation of Israel, on through the church.

And Father, we thank you for this opportunity. God, I pray that as I teach your word that I would explain it clearly, that it would be with understanding, and that Father, you would be honored and glorified, and your son would be magnified in Christ's name.

Amen. All right, so if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Daniel chapter 1.

I'm gonna read the whole chapter. We'll probably go through verse 7 though, but I'm gonna read the whole chapter.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

He besieged it, and 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. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of the officials, or some of your translation may say eunuchs, to bring some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and the nobles and the youths, into whom was no defect, who were good -looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability to serve in the king's court.

And he ordered him to teach in the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.

And the king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated for three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service.

Now, among them were the sons of Judah, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

And the commander of the officials assigned new names to them. To Daniel, he assigned the name

Belteshazzar, to Hananiah, Shadrach, Mishael, Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego.

But Daniel made up in his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank, so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.

Now, God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials.

And the commander of the officials said to Daniel, I'm afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink.

Why should you, why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the other youths who are your own age?

Then you would make me an offense to him and he would take my head or forfeit my head.

But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, please test your servants for ten days.

Let us be given some vegetables to eat, water to drink, and then let our appearance be observed in your presence and in the appearance of the youths whom are eating the king's choice food and deal with your servants according to what you see.

So he listened to them in this matter and he tested them for ten days. And at the end of the ten days, the appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the other youths who had been eating the king's choice food.

So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and wine and they were in their drink and kept giving them vegetables.

As for these four, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom.

Daniel even understood all kinds of dreams and visions. Then at the end of the days, the king had specified, at the end of those days, he had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials, to present them before Nebuchadnezzar.

Then the king talked with them and out of all of them, not one of them was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

So they entered the king's personal service. And as for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the other magicians and conjurers who were in all of his realm.

And Daniel continued until the first year of the reign of Cyrus the

King. Well, last week we, remember, we had wrote kind of some time, some dates on the board for us to figure out where we were at.

Does anybody remember what this date was from last week?

Let me clarify this. Anytime I'm using dates, this is going to be B .C. Okay? So that nobody thinks we're in the modern era.

Remember what I said this date was last week? First. First.

First. Now, I would imagine a good, and I want to clarify this, because I didn't think

I had time last week to get through all the dates. Most of your, if anybody here has studied

Bible, I bet they probably say 605. Okay? Anybody? I'll say 605. Actually, that's what this

Bible says, and it's not even a study Bible. It's the Pope Pew Bible. Oh, it says 605?

It says, Exile of the Babylon in 605. Daniel was, yeah. Okay. I am in the minority.

I'm just going to let you know. I use this date. And I'm fixing to explain why I use that date, because I know if you read, if you read in other commentaries, if you listen to somebody else preach, they're going to say 605.

There are other people that believe that that isn't the first deportation. They believe that the first deportation was really not a deportation, and they begin the date at 597.

Y 'all remember that? That was the second. And this is when, if you remember last week, that's when

Ezekiel goes, and we know that, because Ezekiel tells us that. So we know that this date, but let me tell you how

I come up to this date, and it has to do within these first couple of verses.

It says, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Who's Jehoiakim?

Smart guy. He's the king, alright?

He was the son of Josiah. Last week, remember, when we were talking,

Josiah went to battle against Pharaoh Necho, and was killed in the valley of Megiddo.

Jehoiah, his son, was put in his place as to reign.

That he was put in place to, actually, that was the succession. Necho didn't like that.

Jehoiah was not pro -Egypt, so he hauled him off to Egypt, and he put

Eliakim in his place, then changed his name to Jehoiakim, okay? That's how he gets his name

Jehoiakim. So that's who's in power when this here takes place.

That would have been in the third year of his reign, and it says that the king Nebuchadnezzar sieged

Jerusalem. Now, that's alright.

He sieged Jerusalem. Now, we know from Babylonian cuneiforms that Nebuchadnezzar did not even come,

I'm gonna put it back this way, so he didn't, he, his regal year didn't even start until 604.

Okay, regal year. Regal year means his first year, his first year of reign.

His accession year would have been 605.

That's when Nebuchadnezzar died, his dad. Remember, when he is made, when Nebuchadnezzar is making his conquest across the

Mesopotamia, across Syria, Persia, all of that, that started back 612 when the fall of Nineveh happened.

Nebuchadnezzar was the general, so he's not even, when these, back before all this, when they're first getting their rise, so if you go back to Habakkuk, the prophet, he's talking about this very thing that's happening.

He talks about, wait a minute, these guys were ruthless, they're hateful people, you're gonna send the

Chaldeans to judge us? They were just making their rise into the world seen as a great world empire.

They were just starting their conquest. So, you may remember what last week with that date was, 605, what happened?

Battle of Carchemish. Battle of Carchemish is where Nebuchadnezzar defeats the

Egyptian power and the Assyrians. Now, it is at this point

Babylon is the superpower. 605.

And that, exactly, and this is why they believe this is when it begins, and I'm saying no, and we have biblical internal to support my idea.

If you disagree with me, just don't throw a chair of hot coffee at me, okay? I'm gonna explain how

I came up with that number because I know the vast majority of your Bibles will have something different, okay? They become the superpower.

It is at this point where Nebuchadnezzar now demands whoever was paying tribute to Egypt now must pay tribute to me, not me, my call your name, pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar.

So, who does Judah owe tribute now to?

Nebuchadnezzar, right? Nebuchadnezzar. Turn your Bibles over to 2nd, I think it's in 2nd Kings 24.

No wonder that said

Zedekiah, that was in 25. All right. In his days,

Nebuchadnezzar came up and Jehoiachin became his servant for three years. Number 1?

24 verse 1? 2nd Kings. I'm sorry, did I not say that?

I apologize. 2nd Kings 24. This would have been his session year, first year.

Where does that bring us to? That's how you get to three years. You're gonna see this constant discrepancy through the book of Daniel.

You're gonna hear third year. Well, wait a minute. It says now he's in his second year, and it has to do with when they ascended to the throne, the first year, okay?

And the year that they're in. That makes three years, okay? Right? In Hebrew literature,

Revelation, any Hebrew chronology, one portion of one thing could mean the whole year, okay?

And could be the next full year, and any portion of that following year mean three years.

Just as it says Jesus was in the grave three days, it's the obvious discrepancy.

Well, no, he was not. Well, yeah, he died before the sun went down there. His body was put in the grave in the daytime.

He was in it in a day, and the night. You understand? We good? We all agree or disagree? No?

Okay. If I'm not explaining it well enough, I need to know, because I don't want to be confusing.

So, now this is three years, okay? Three years. Verse 1 of 2

Kings, and in his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years.

Then he turned and rebelled against him, and the Lord sent against him bands of Chaldeans, bands of Arminians, Arminians, Arameans, bands of Moabites, bands of Ammonites.

So he sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken through his servants the prophets.

Understand? Three years. He was supposed to be paying tribute. Now he's decided he's going to throw off Nebuchadnezzar.

Okay? That puts us here. Then it says in verse 3,

Surely he commanded the Lord it came upon Judah to remove from them from his sight because of the sins of Manasseh according to all that had been done, and also for the innocent blood which he said in Jerusalem with the prophets.

And the Lord would not forgive him. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not in the book of the

Chronicles of Judah? All right. Now we want to know more about what happened?

Turn your Bible over to 2nd Chronicles 36. Look. 2nd

Chronicles 36, and I'm gonna begin in verse 1 because it basically gives you the rundown of how we got to where we're at.

It says, And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and made him king in the place of his father in Jerusalem.

Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he reigned for three months. Then the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem and imposed land to find a hundred talents of silver, 100 talents of gold, and the king of Egypt made

Eliakim, remember? Eliakim, his brother, king over Judah in Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim.

But Necho took Jehoahaz, brother of Egypt. All right. Here it is, verse 5. Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king.

He reigned for 11 years total in Jerusalem, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him, bound him with bronze chains, and he took him to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar also brought some of the articles of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his temple.

And now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and the abomination which he did, and what was found against him, behold, are they not written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah?

And Jehoiakim, his brother, came to his place. So you understand what happened now, how we come to this day.

Everybody understand? For three years he was supposed to be paying

Nebuchadnezzar. He did not. Nebuchadnezzar said, all right, I got something for you. He besieged the city.

Not only did he take off Daniel and his three buddies, who does it say he took with him?

Jehoiakim. He took Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim comes back though, okay? Jehoiakim comes back, and he does rule for 11 years.

Now, if you just want to, for the, just for historical purposes,

Josiah was a reformer, okay? Jehoiakim was a tyrant.

This man right here persecuted the Prophet Jeremiah more than any other person.

Any. I mean, he, Zedekiah knew he got thrown in a hole and all of that, but he persecuted

Jeremiah horribly. This guy let homosexuality run rampant in the temple, precincts.

He actually took the Word of God that was condemned to him by the

Prophet Jeremiah, and some of you might remember this narrative. He, as he had it read to him, he took his knife, he cut it in pieces, and he had the

Word of God burned. That was this guy here. Zedekiah, which would come after him, he was a weather bank.

He did whatever. Whatever. If Egypt's coming, we can get help with Egypt, we'll do this. If Babylon's good, we'll go with Babylon.

If the false prophets tell me to do this, I'll do that. This guy would just did whatever. This is just a historical, last, actually, last real two kings of Judah.

So, where did my? The whole naming thing on those guys is what makes it confusing though, because one guy got assigned a different name, you know.

Yes, what you need me to clarify, do I need to clarify? No, I was just saying it makes it hard to follow. Yeah. There is one guy that is in the middle here,

Jehoiachin, and it's not mentioned in what we're going to talk about, but he is in 597 when

Jehoiakim dies. There is, let me see,

I think it's in Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 36, it talks what what takes place about the burning of the burning the scroll and the

Word of God. There's a there's a prophecy made to him by the Prophet Jeremiah from God.

He says, because of what you have done, your body is going to be thrown over a wall, you're going to be treated like a donkey, your body is going to rot in the in the sunlight during the day, and your body is going to have the frost on it at night as a degradation to what you did to me and my prophet and your word.

You can read that whole thing if you want to in Jeremiah 36. I just looked it up. You can go back and read it.

Now, we don't have the historical account of that prophecy being fulfilled in Scripture, okay?

But if you go to Josephus, Josephus tells us that in 597 when they do the next deportation, when

Nebuchadnezzar comes in, does it again, he finds Jehoiakim, he kills him, drags his body through the city behind a horse and a chariot, and then throws him over the wall to rot.

So Josephus tells us that's how that prophecy was fulfilled, and Josephus says that's how he even understood the prophecy being fulfilled from Jeremiah.

I think that's in, if you want to write it down, Antiquities Book 10,

Chapter 6, Section 3, I think, pretty sure. I know it's

Book 10, Chapter 6. So, all right, have I confused y 'all enough with dates and times, and we good?

We good? Okay. Back to Chapter 1, verse 2 of Daniel.

It says that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, came, he besieged 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.

Does anybody say Babylon where land of Shinar is? Or does y 'all say Shinar in your

Bibles? Everybody's Bible say Shinar? That's the, that is Babylon, okay?

To the house of his gods, and he brought the vessels into the treasure of his

God. Would we just read in 2nd Chronicles? Tells us that Nebuchadnezzar came, he hauled off Jehoiakim, and he took the vessels.

So, that's why I say we know what took place here. Now, it doesn't say that this happened by chance, does it?

Does it? Who gave Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar's hand?

The Lord did it. The Lord did it. Why did the Lord do it? Can I erase this?

Why did the Lord do it? Correct.

We read part of that in the, in the

Kings passage, didn't we? It said part of what Manasseh had done. Manasseh was Josiah's dad.

Horrible. It's also because they were supposed to have left the ground fallow every seven years, okay?

Gotta remember the book, the book of Daniel is fit within a covenant context. The reason why the

Lord gave Jehoiakim into their hands, because God had promised, because you did not let the ground lay fallow every seven years,

I'm going to send you off into captivity for 70 years to cover that 490 years that you didn't do that.

Every seven years they were supposed to do that, and they didn't do that for 490 years. That is why

God had sent prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet covenant prosecutors to tell them, you need to repent.

You're not doing what we're telling you to do. God even would send good kings at times to come and to to try to lead them into reforms just like Josiah did.

Josiah came along and led, I mean, just terrific reforms. He pulled down the male prostitute shrines within the temple complex.

He pulled them down. He went out. He burned the false prophets' bones. I mean, he did all kinds of stuff to help do that, but as soon as Jeremiah died,

I mean, Josiah died, what happened? They went right back off into whatever idolatry they were doing because they weren't following God.

They were following a man, okay? So God does this for the reason of breaking

His covenant continually. They continually did it. This will be the theme of Daniel throughout the book, that the sovereign

God of all creation is in the heavens and He does what He wants. He does what

He wants. That don't sit well with some people. They don't sit well at times, but God warned them, and now

He is saying, I'm done with it. I'm going to give you the opportunity to repent, and they did not, and He says, all right,

I'm gonna lay down the hammer and see if this will make them turn, and it does not because we knew in 597 it happened again, and in and after 597 they didn't repent.

What did He do? He finally said, all right, I'm done with it. I'll knock the holy place down, and that's exactly what

He did, and we know that there's a God in heaven who raises up nations, and He crushes nations.

That will be probably the secondary thing of the theme of the book of Jeremiah.

You're going to see kingdoms come and kingdoms go. As a matter of fact, even some of the visions that he gets, the kingdoms come and kingdoms go.

Kingdoms come, kingdoms go, and that's going to be the constant thing, but there, remember, there's going to be one kingdom that will come, and Jeremiah will,

I mean, Daniel will prophesy this. There will be a kingdom that will come that will never be destroyed, and that's going to be the kingdom of Messiah, and that's what we look forward to.

So it says that the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand along with some of the houses, the vessels of the house of God.

Why would He take some of the vessels from the house of God? Why would He do that?

What would be the reasoning? That's one. Okay, we'll say restitution.

Yeah, back payment, backpack. Why else would

He do that? To show that His gods are better and bigger, and for those of you that were in First Samuel study, you remember what happened when they put the

Ark of the Covenant, and I think it was in First Samuel chapter 7. You remember what happened? They took the Ark of the

Covenant out there, where Hopheus and Phinehas, and remember Dirtbag 1 and Dirtbag 2? Took them out there, and they were going to use the

Ark of the Covenant as some superstitious thing, and it was going to save them, and what happened? The Ark of the

Covenant got taken, and it got taken to the Philistines temple where Dagon was at.

Now God took care of Dagon by cutting off his head and his hands and all that stuff, and giving them all hemorrhoids and all kinds of stuff.

Remember it hopped around for nine months like a hot potato where the presence of God was hurting people. Well, in this case, they took the cups, the menorahs, whatever.

This is what they believe went, and I think the menorah was one of the things that was taken.

The reason why I believe that is when we get to Belshazzar's Feast, it talks about the specific.

They had the vessels in there, and that had come from the house of God, and they used the lamp stand to light the party.

That's why I believe the menorah was part of that that went. So it was to show that Yahweh was now subservient to Marduk, Aku, Bel, all these others.

That's the point. Now is God subservient to anybody? No. We know this because God's the one who did this.

God's the one who let his vessels that were ordained for his purposes and for his uses to be taken to use for the the implements of his worship, but if you go back and you look at Chronicles and Kings, these implements were already being used for desecrated purposes.

I mean these guys, these kings, man, were having parties of abominations with these things anyway.

So they haul them off to the house of their God, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his

God. So that's where I would say, yes, some of that is restitution, back pay for what he what he wanted.

Now we get to verse 3. It says, and then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and the noble youths, in whom was no defect.

Okay, so Ashpenaz is the head of the eunuchs, okay?

Anybody know what a eunuch is? Anyone? Any takers? He has been emasculated.

Yeah. Now, before we go any further, we have to say, was

Daniel and his three buddies castrated? There are many people that say, no,

I'm not that guy. I'm the guy that says they did. If you can disagree with me, I'm fine with that.

And I have multiple reasons why I believe that they were. One, in,

I think it's in Isaiah 29, the prophecy of what's going to happen when your people are hauled off, when your young men are hauled off to Babylon, they're going to be made eunuchs, okay?

They're going to be made eunuchs. They're going to be emasculated. They're going to have their manhood taken.

They're going to be in the king's court. Now, being in the king's court put them near the queen.

That's why a lot of the reasons why they had them emasculated, and it did not allow them, once they had their manhood removed, to run off into some type of sexual immorality with one of the princes, princesses, not princesses, but princesses within the the king's court.

There is another reason that points to why I believe that Daniel was emasculated, is when he has the opportunity to go back to Jerusalem.

He doesn't go. Some people say, well, he was too old. Wait a minute, he was royalty. He could have had, he could have had a royal procession from Cyrus to take him back.

He refuses to go back, and the reason why I believe he refused to go back, and if you disagree with me,

I'm fine with that, is because under the Mosaic legislation, if you had been emasculated, you could not go on the temple complex property.

So what good would it have done for him to go back? Zero. Now, if you don't believe that's what he did, and they were just made eunuchs in the sense of they were just put into service by the king, and you believe that, that's fine, okay, but that's not the position that I hold.

And one, we don't see anywhere where Daniel had children. We don't see anywhere where Daniel got married.

Obviously, the short little bit of time we see of his three buddies, we don't see them getting married either. But any questions on that?

Anyone? Anyone? Yes, sir? Oh, and just another reason is, if you've been emasculated like that, you can't have a family, you can't have children that rise up to overgrow whoever's in power.

Yeah, that part of that is in, yeah, it's to, it would, it would eliminate the seed of, of heritage and nationalism.

Yeah, you're right. You're not gonna have, you're not gonna have a family.

And it says, then, where did it, where are we at? It said, the king ordered Ashkenaz, the king of the officials, to bring some of the sons of Israel, and look at this, including some of the royal family and the nobles.

Okay, some believe that these were descendants of Hezekiah, because it was part of the royal family.

We certainly know it was part of Judah, because Judah was the kingly, the kingly family.

But hey, these weren't people that were slum.

These weren't poor people. He was taking very well -off men or youth into his custody.

It said, including some of the youths in whom was no defect, and they were good looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discernment and knowledge, and who had ability to serve the king's court.

Meg's going, where are those guys at? These guys weren't ugly.

They were without blemish. I can only imagine as they were going around knocking on doors.

Man, this would be the first time somebody with a crusty tooth, freckles, a crazy eye, bad toenails, this was good for them, because that means they ain't going.

Think about it. What does it say? No defect. Hey, I want you to understand, this wasn't just walking up, knocking on doors, oh, that's a sharp -looking dude.

That's a sharp -looking young man. I'm gonna take that guy with me. That's not what happened. There was obviously an inspection that took place.

Hey, it also talks about them being intelligent in every branch of wisdom. Now, I don't think at this point this is talking about every branch of wisdom in a sense of the

Chaldean, because that hasn't happened yet, but these men would have already been trained in Hebrew culture and were very smart.

Daniel and his three buddies were smart, sharp -looking dudes.

Young dudes, though. I believe this is the age. What's that?

Yeah, except I don't think these guys could fight real well. This is how old

I think they were. 13 to 16. The Hebrew word there is yalit, that's used there, and it means young, not anar, which can mean up to 20 years old.

This means, now that word, yalit, can go from anywhere from infant up to before the age of adulthood is what it is, so you have that wide range, but we know that they're old enough to have learned, so that's why

I put them in this category. Why would they want to take them this young, though? Exactly.

They're very manipulative. Think about how young people are very easily manipulated by older people that can come along, groom them how they want, do them how they want.

Hey, but not only are they grooming them the way that they want, they're taking them to a land that is going to be absolutely off the chain.

I want you to understand, when you think about these young men, young boys, these teenagers being hauled off into captivity, don't think of it as like they're on the slave market.

They have got balls and chains put around their legs and hands, and they're being hauled off into slavery.

That's not what's happening here. That's not what's happening. They're going to a place where you could take

Las Vegas, Six Flags over Georgia, and Disney World, and put them all together, and that's where these kids are going.

They're going to have a blast. They're going to a place where the food's gonna be really good, the scenery's gonna be great, there's gonna be beautiful women, any type of sensual pleasure you want, they can get, and the king's going to want them to do that.

That's the goal, is to take them, to remove them, re -educate them, then to get them to be confused at, hey man, this is what my culture did, this is what we want to do now, and then they can indulge in any kind of thing that they want, and as Mike said, once they get them to do that, they can get them to do whatever they want.

They can get them to be loyal to King Nebuchadnezzar. Disagree?

Agree? No? Making sense? Not making sense? Okay. It says, and he ordered him to teach them the litter,

I'm sorry, let me back up, verse 5. Yeah, the king appointed them a daily ration of the king's choice food from the wine which he drank, and appointed them to be educated for three years.

So, look how long this education thing is going to take place. We're talking about three years. Three years of them being educated.

All right, they're going to be educated for three years. At the end of that three years, they would enter into the king's personal service.

Now, among them were Judah, of the sons of Judah, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the commander of the officials, assigned them new names, and we have got to move quickly if I'm gonna get through these names, they're important.

All right, Dan means judge,

El means God, Elohim, right? What does it say it changes his name to?

How do we spell it? I can't spell. Bel, is it Belta? Is that right?

Bel would have been Bale, or Bel, that means prince.

So, they've taken judge of God, or judged by God, they have changed his name to a

Babylonian pagan name, Prince of Bale, right? What was the next kid's name?

Hananiah? Yeah? This is short for Yah, Yahweh.

Anybody remember where we've seen Hannah before in Scripture? Samuel's mom.

Grace, gracious gift from Yahweh is what his name was to be. What did they change his name to?

Aku was the moon god, that's where this comes from, Ak. Shorak, Shorod, Sherood, some of y 'all's may have in your study

Bible may be spelled S -U -R -D -U, that means to command. This is now to be commanded by Aku, a

Babylonian moon god, okay? What was the next kid's name?

Mishel. What does

El mean? Elohim. This will be heard by God.

Shema, remember that? Where'd we get that from, Deuteronomy what? Okay, that's it.

Heard by God, that would be the, that would be his name, okay? What was his

Babylonian name? Mishel. Aku, now heard by who?

Aku. You see what they're doing? They're taking their names, these

Hebrew names, and they're tweaking them to make them more Babylonian.

Last dude's name. Abednego. How do you spell it?

Abednego. She said A -bendego. Hang on, bendego.

Actually it's Abednego, the D is bendego. Abed, that's right, because that means servant. And what was, it was what?

Azariah. What does uh mean?

What was that point? Yahweh, right? Anybody remember what Azar means? Anybody remember where we've seen that in scripture before?

Anyway, every time I see that, I think in the garden, God said he's gonna make a helpmate for Adam, right?

Azar connecto. Symbols by Azar connecto. Helped by Yahweh.

That's what that means. What do they do here? Abed now means servant of Nebo, Babylonian God.

You see what they've done? Taking every one of them Jewish boys name, and they've changed it to mean something

Babylonian. Not only are they removing them from their home place, right?

They're re -educating them, and now they've renamed them. You see what they're doing to these men, young men.

They're wanting to make them Babylonian servants, and like I said, they don't think they're being hauled off to Alcatraz.

I mean, these these young boys are going to Vegas, and they're gonna be able to have any type of food that they want, any type of desire their hearts can want, any type of entertainment, and another reason why, you know, something you don't see them introduced to.

I believe that they were castrated. There's one thing you don't see them involved in. You don't see them involved in any type of sexual immorality, because they don't have the apparatus to do it, okay?

Any questions, comments, outbursts of anger, riots or demonstrations? We got 30 seconds.

Anyone? Enlightenment.

Yeah, that's, yeah, they're of enlightenment. That's how I would understand it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

These were selected from the group that was carried away, correct?

They were selected, the first people, they were selected as, but specifically went to the nobles and the royal family.

Remember, man, the king don't want ugly people in his court. I mean, just think about David. He didn't marry no ugly chicks.

I mean, David always had pretty women, just like a court's not gonna want an ugly person.

If you remember even with Nehemiah, Nehemiah couldn't even come in with a haggard face.

He couldn't even come in with a face showing sadness. Why? Because he's worried about Xerxes whacking his head off, because he came in with his countenance being looking bad.

Anything else? Anyone? All right.

Mr. Foskey, would you pray for us? Sure. Father God, thank you for this opportunity for us to hear your word and have it explained so well, and I thank you for giving

Mike the gift of your spirit to be able to teach us and to be able to help us to understand the details of the word so well, and I pray now as we go in to worship you that you'll be with us and that we would worship you in spirit and in truth.