Daniel's test succeeds - Daniel 1:16-21

Let's pray father. Thank you for the wonderful book that you have us studying and We ask with the disciples on the road to a mass that you would let us see

Jesus in this book Your word is about your son and your word lifts you up and you have put it before your name

Let us give it that do that it deserves this morning as you illuminate our hearts and our minds

That we might honor you and all that we do with what we receive from your teaching today, and we'll thank you in Christ's name

Amen So I was trying to figure out how to read Just enough to get context and Daniel is such a fast -paced book with vignettes that quickly change

It's really hard to do that. So we're gonna read chapter 1 that will give us the context So if you would open your

Bibles to Daniel chapter 1 I sound kind of loud Or maybe I'm it might just be me you guys know what you're doing

Daniel chapter 1 in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim King of Judah Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon came to Jerusalem and 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 Ashkenaz the king of his officials the chief of his officials

Excuse me to bring in some of the sons of Israel including some of the royal family and of the nobles youths in 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 for serving in the king's court and he ordered him to teach them the literature and 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 three years at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service

Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them and to Daniel he assigned the name

Belteshazzar to Hananiah Shadrach to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abednego But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank

So he saw 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 am afraid of my lord the king who has appointed your food and your drink for why should he see?

Your face is looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king

But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials that appointed over Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah Please test your servants for 10 days and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink

Then let our appearance be observed in your presence And the appearance of the youths who 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 tested them for 10 days and at the end of 10 days

Their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king's choice food So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink and kept giving them vegetables

And as for these four youths god gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom

Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them

The commander of the officials presented them before nebuchadnezzar and the king talked with them and out of them

All not one 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 10 times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in his realm

And daniel continued until the first year of cyrus So our study last time ended with verse 15 where the young man had

Undergone the 10 -day test And at the end of that test they appeared better Than and they were fatter or in better shape than all the youths that had been eating the king's choice food and we discussed how god had given daniel

Discernment and understanding that in this particular king's court To eat the king's food his special choice of food and to drink the king's wine

Was to participate in the worship of demons the worship of idols And so for that purpose for that reason daniel and the four other three youths had purpose not to eat the king's choice food

Because by doing that they would be saying it was much more Significant in those days and even not too too many generations ago when you ate someone's food you were in agreement with them

They would have been demonstrating to the the entire babylonian kingdom if they ate the king's choice food that they had acceded to the fact that the idols that these that these foods had been sacrificed to Were worth worshiping

And daniel and these other three young men chose not to do that In the same way later on we will see the three young men not bow to the statue

It was the very same worldview biblical theological worldview If you will that informed their um, their consciences and their choice of duties

They would not bow the knee In any aspect whether it was eating the wrong food or actually bowing the knee in front of a statue

They were the same thing to these young men And so many over the decades over the centuries,

I guess over the millennia There have been two schools of thought or three or four

I'm not going to try and limit them because when you start looking at the different perspectives people have you take this perspective and then somebody else comes up with a little tinge on it and it gets all out of whack and And at any rate the idea has come about that.

We should be vegetarians And this section of scripture in no way teaches that nor does it teach

That you better eat meat or you're going to die tomorrow What it teaches Is and in the historical grammatical method of studying scripture

You understand the history of the time and we just discussed that in the history of this time

The consuming of foods that have been used to worship idols Meant you agreed with that worship and that is why daniel chose not to eat

So there needs to be a word said here about the concept that the book of daniel promotes an only vegetarian diet first We must understand that the jewish diet included plenty of meat

There were certain requirements for the butcher butchering of animals and the blood had to be drained And this is consistent with scripture.

Remember it is important to let scripture comment on itself In the book of beginnings genesis chapter 9 3 teaches that in the same way

God gave adam and eve plants to eat Now you shall have everything that moves to eat

What does the word everything mean? usually in context Doesn't it mean?

Everything yeah so Later on there will be dietary restrictions placed in the new old testament scriptures for the jews themselves that we will that we can look at if we want to but So later god placed some restrictions which on which animals could be eaten and so leviticus chapter 11

Details which animals were consumable in the old testament times and which were not on the list

And it's repeated in deuteronomy chapter 14 So for those of you who want to look that up leviticus chapter 11 and deuteronomy the book of second teaching deuteronomy chapter 14

The list provided that animals that chewed the cud such as cattle sheep goats, etc Were allowed many types of fish and fowl were allowed and certain insects were allowed

Any of you ever eaten an insect? I tried it once I opened my mouth and a mosquito flew in.

Yeah, it was terrible The fact that god went to such great lengths to provide a list of allowable that is clean versus unclean animals

Militates against pure vegetarianism as a doctrine of choice in acts chapter 10 peter

Is given a vision now, it must be said that this vision in context understanding scripture in the historical grammatical

Method of studying scripture was designed to remove peter's aversion to giving gentiles the gospel

That's what that was about in acts chapter 10 But the fact is god's declaration that what he had provided was clean and was not to be refused is a clear indication

That animals could be consumed could be I said And it was bolstered by what is later said in by paul in first timothy

So first let's look at acts chapter 10 verses 9 through 14 On the next day as they were on their way and approaching the city peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray

But he became hungry and was desiring to eat but while they were making preparations He fell into a trance and he saw the sky opened up and an object like a great sheet coming down Lowered by four corners to the ground and there were in it

All kinds of four -footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air a voice came to him and said

A voice came to him get up peter kill and eat But peter said by no means lord for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean

So peter was talking about some of the animals that were in that sheet That he would not have been allowed as a jewish man to eat

Then in first timothy chapter 4 which I also mentioned just previously to this chapter 4 verses 1 through 5 But the spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons

By means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron

Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods What's god has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth

For everything created by god is good And nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude for it is sanctified by means of the word of god and prayer

Later in acts chapter 15 when the apostles were dealing with false teachings about the gospel

Mention is made again of the type of food that could be eaten It included animals that had been properly butchered

Not strangled but properly butchered actually mentions that in the text remember

Now that daniel's diet Back to that back to the diet the king james uses the word pulse and what you find often in Translating scripture when a word is used once in scripture

There's often some ambiguity because often hebrew words as do many words

Y 'all know what a thesaurus is a thesaurus is so that you can look up the pool of words that are similar to the one you've chosen

It's like it's like an expanded definition or an expanded dictionary And so this particular word had kind of an expanded meaning and it meant anything that was grown from the ground

So it could have meant tomatoes and beans and peas and carrots But it could also have meant grains that could be harvested and made into breads and other types of things

I don't know if they had pasta in ancient israel, but I hope they did Hebrew spaghetti

So the purpose The main purpose I wanted to do this this morning was so that we would get the impression or get the understanding

That we shouldn't build doctrines on silence Scripture clearly teaches that vegetables are good

Didn't your mom say they were good, too Didn't she? Okay, I want to see a few nods on my mom did matter of fact

I got in trouble for trying to flush some brussels sprouts once Before I ate them Vegetables are good.

Scripture also teaches that meat is good And when we go beyond that we begin to create doctrines that we require of other people that god never required of us

So let us always be careful about that and then remember as Biblicists we study scripture

But using the grammatical historical context or the grammatical historical method So we need to understand the history of the times and we have to understand that these words were written from someone who lived in the 7th century bc

Who knew that in a kingdom that they lived in if they partook of the king's food

They were acknowledging the king's rule and his worship of his gods And daniel would not do that.

That is what this section is teaching us more than anything And what what can we learn from that we can learn?

To let scripture guide us in our dealings with other people and with how we um

Approach everything in life. It's not a sunday book, but you all know that So are there any questions before we move on?

Comments Verse that would have been verse We ended at 15.

So we're on verse 16 verse 16 daniel chapter 1 verse 16 So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink and kept giving them vegetables

So god's sovereign approval of daniel's decision to honor him daniel's decision to honor him clear is clearly evident here

And so daniel and his friends were allowed to continue this diet which would honor god and refuse to honor the gods of babylon

This was not lost on his overseers This was not lost on his overseers.

They understood the import of daniel and his three friends decision They were alone in the babylonian kingdom captives

Choosing to continue to honor their god in the midst of a pagan culture That is a terrifying thing and they were probably 15 to 17 years old

What an example that can be to us so This is a testimony to daniel's firm resolve not to dishonor god to remain true to scripture and to his upbringing

And more importantly it allowed him to see that god would sustain him In honor to honor his obedience.

I would not say that he was necessarily unafraid to do this But he was willing to take whatever came when he put it put as it were his foot down and decided to honor god

He knew what this could mean what it could have meant to him. It could have meant Loss of he could have been killed

These particular perverse Kingdoms of those days, especially babylon, which was the most powerful kingdom of the day

Remember we talked about this when esther came in before the king She knew that if he didn't even acknowledge her she could have forfeited her life

That's pretty close -minded. Don't you think? Daniel knew about this and daniel was worrying to take that willing to take that chance and honor god

Spurgeon said it this way He said I think that a christian man should be willing to be tried He should be pleased to let his religion be put to the test there says he hammer away if you like do what you want

Do do you want to be carried to heaven on a feather bed? Do you want always to be protected from everybody's sneer and frown?

And to go to heaven as if you were riding in the procession on lord mayer's day So spurgeon put it to his the people of his time

If you truly will stand for what god has said you will be persecuted

You will be now that persecution can take different, uh There's different kinds of persecution depending on where you live right now in parts of africa

If you're a christian, you may end up dead by machete here We might be called out on facebook

And I I know that's hurtful But it's a whole lot different than having your throat cut And so we should we should remember that And spurgeon,

I think he caught it. Well any comments or questions about verse 16 Verse 17 as for these four youths

God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams

So the hebrew word for knowledge describes thought and science The hebrew word for intelligence bespeaks prudence in wisdom

But put together these young men were described as having critical thinking skills And being able to use those critical thinking skills to come to solid conclusions about everything they came into contact with Even though they were probably versed in the silly magical arts of the chaldeans

These young men would have been able to separate the truth from the fiction in that They were they were given all the teaching of the chaldeans much of that would have been good solid history some science and probably literature and understanding of of uh

Proper critical thinking skills. Well, those proper critical thinking skills would have allowed them to separate the wheat from the chaff if you will

And recognize that the magical arts of the chaldean were just as silly as any magical arts of any time

So the word translated literature Describes anything whether books or documents and the in and the word translated wisdom describes the concept of carefully assessing something

And wisely dealing with it. It's not just being able to think properly about it It's being able to assess it and then respond to it correctly in your life and in your actions

These were character qualities that everyone should aspire to but god gave them to these young men in spades

If you will further daniel was given the special ability to understand visions and dreams and that's an interesting statement

That even in those times when it seems like everybody thought they could understand that stuff The scripture says no daniel was given this ability shadrach meshach and abednego weren't

Interesting to me I won't go ahead and build a doctrine on silence there because I just told you not to But it seems very interesting that only daniel was given that special ability

And this would have helped him in his role as an actual prophet of god Living in the land that gave undue value to visions and dreams these assets would serve daniel

Well, and they would serve the other young men well as well. So they were Being prepared both by the teaching they received were receiving from the overseers and by god himself to become

Excellent servants in the in the court of the king, but also witnesses for him in a pagan land

Remarkable witnesses for him in a pagan land and we'll see more of that as we go through the book of daniel It's just a marvelous testimony to the sovereignty and the grace of god in the same

They're like those are like two stamps on the front and back of the same coin god is sovereign

But he is full of grace He is sovereign, but he is full of grace verse 18 Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them

The commander of the officials presented them before nebuchadnezzar. So fast forward now because This indicates that the three -year training period had passed and daniel does this often all actually all books of the bible do this often

They'll you'll have a a whole section of scripture That's a detail of something that happened in a five -hour period and then your three years in the future

Boom so we're three years in the future At this point they had they had the the commander the head commander

Brings all the young men in he presents him to the king This would have been a formal presentation and would have been attended by some pomp and circumstance

I don't know what but probably music and and uh parade I don't know just whatever those kinds of things did in those days.

These young men would have been about 20 years old at this time 20 years old 20 years old.

Do you remember when you were 20? I didn't even know which end was up in when I was 20 What I would give sometimes to go back

To those early days and have at least some of what I understand now I would make far fewer mistakes or i'd really make good mistakes at one of the two

So any comments about 17 and 18 commercial concerns questions? For those of you that are new you jump right in if you have a question if I can't answer it i'll tell you that I won't be a politician verse 19

The king talked with them And out of them all not one was found like daniel.

Hananiah Mishael and azariah, so they entered the king's personal service. So the king actually conversed with each one of them

That would have been quite an honor in itself So this would have been very time consuming

I don't know how many there were but this would likely have taken a day or two in his conversations

This king discovered that daniel and his three friends were superior to all the rest Each of them as indicated here entered the king's service here began their life of work

Of as functionaries in the administration of king nebuchadnezzar So the king would have actually spent intimate one -on -one time with each of them

I don't know if he brought daniel and his three friends in together I get the impression from the scripture and i'm not going to be hard and fast about this that he spoke to them individually because in order to Draw out of someone enough information to understand all that it appears nebuchadnezzar understood about each of them that they were the best

They were the most impressive. They were the smartest. They were the most wise You would have actually had to spend time with each of them one -on -one and So out of this out of these conferences

Comes for king nebuchadnezzar that he's got four really really good servants and he's going to make use of them

So it says and verse 20 as for every matter of wisdom and understanding About which the king consulted them

So in that verse in that phrase in verse 20 right there. He consulted them consulted them about wisdom and understanding

Matters of wisdom and understanding so he would have asked them questions. He knew what they were learning He knew what they were being taught in those three in the three -year period

Indeed, he probably helped formulate the lesson plans Maybe so he would have asked him specific questions about all the things that they had learned over the past three years

How long would that take for each person? I'm thinking it would have taken a couple of hours of conversation with each person That's just my impression.

I can't say that. I see that in scripture, but that's my impression And he says he found them now

Here's some hyperbole maybe maybe not 10 times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm 84 of statistics are made up on the spot

No 46 .7 percent of statistics are made up on the spot. Now. I'm not saying that's a made -up statistic at all.

I'm just saying that that Hyperbole is a useful tool to help people understand that something is really really much better than this

So bacon is ten times better than tofu Maybe a hundred times better.

Maybe a thousand times more Okay 10 ,000 times better Hyperbole Um, and actually that would be subjective too.

Maybe there's people in here who really like tofu And that's okay We'll pray for you

This statement indicates in a traditionally hyperbolic method that these young men had who had honored god's commandments in their lives

Were far better advisors for the king in any than any of the rest Of the people of the young men who were brought before king, uh brought before the king who had come from judah

They were better than any of the magicians and conquerors He was allowing that he and the three other young men were not involved in the in the

Some people think that because he uses the word magicians and conquerors some critics That daniel and his four three friends were involved in the occult arts.

This is not so Daniel was simply describing the other advisors who had come up through the ranks of the chaldeans

And were put into the service of the king He and his three friends had remained true to god throughout the entire three -year period

It is completely unnecessary and even silly to assume that they then became magicians

Of course, they didn't did they not stand for what was right in every situation? to the possible loss of their lives

Why would they all of a sudden accede to the strange and stupid arts of the chaldeans?

Um And so that is again one of the things that the critics bring forward. Daniel was describing who the others were

So any comments or questions about those two verses? Verse 21 and we'll finish up this chapter.

I was trying to decide if i'm going to start chapter two It's quite an introduction, but we'll see what happens.

So Another verse that the critics like to to attack No, really?

Yeah, they attack everything about daniel verse 21 and daniel continued until the first year of cyrus the king

Because of this simple statement critics have again attacked the book of daniel regarding its accuracy and indirectly its supposed chronological consistency

Inconsistency, I should say daniel's vision was given to him in the third year of cyrus's reign There is no inconsistency here.

The statement is simply indicative that daniel continued his work into cyrus's reign The verse does not say daniel died in the first year of cyrus's reign

It is simply a statement summing up the introduction to the book, which is chapter one Further since cyrus's reign was at the end of babylon's rule.

Daniel has indicated that he survived the entire Babylonian rule he was still alive when cyrus came on the scene and he was still serving

Clear in to the first year of cyrus's reign in a similar manner Jeremiah in chapter one verse three indicates his ministry extended until the end of the 11th year of zechariah zedekiah, excuse me

Let me rephrase let me restate that In a similar matter jeremiah in chapter one verse three indicates his ministry extended until the end of the 11th year of zedekiah king

Zedekiah chapters 40 through 43 show that he ministered far beyond that time and as john walvard has indicated

These statements simply show that the prophet's ministry extended through the period in question without implying that the ministry ended in that period

It's just a statement of consistency Daniel's reign or daniel's service extended all the way into cyrus's first year and it did extend beyond So that ends chapter one

Any questions or comments about it? And we have plenty of time to go through the introduction to chapter two, so i'm going to do that But let's first chapter two

Is a long one if I remember right? Yeah, so we're going to read We're going to read the first 17 verses of chapter two.

So daniel chapter two Now That means in light of all that's gone before All the information you have in this introduction all of the studies

All of the information you have about daniel about history friends about the king about the work they did about how they refused to knuckle under to pagan philosophies now

In the second year of the reign of nebuchadnezzar nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him

Then the king gave orders to call In the magicians the conjurers the sorcerers and the chaldeans to tell the king his dreams

So they came in and stood before the king and the king said to them I had a dream and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream

Then the chaldean spoke to the king in aramaic. Oh king live forever Tell the dream to your servants and we will declare the interpretation

That seems reasonable enough, doesn't it? Tell us what your dream was and we'll interpret it for you The king answered and said to the chaldeans the command from me is firm if you do not make known to me the dream and Its interpretation you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made into a rubbish heap

But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you'll receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor Therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation

Now at that point i'm thinking that the chaldeans mouths dropped open Uh -oh, he's on to us

They answered a second time and said, um, let the king tell the dream to his servants and we will declare the interpretation

The king answered and said I know for certain that you were bargaining for time In as much as you have seen that the command from me is firm

That if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only one decree for you You will have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed

Therefore tell me the dream that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation The chaldeans answered to the king and said there is not a man on earth

Who could declare the matter for the king and as much as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician?

conjure or chaldean Moreover the thing which the king commands is difficult and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods

Whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh because of this the king became indignant And very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of babylon all

The wise men of babylon that would include daniel shadrach meshach and abednego So the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain and they looked for daniel and his friends to kill them

What an introduction to chapter 2 by the way, the great prophecies of chapter 2 don't begin until verse 31

It's like daniel felt quite a need to Set up everything and to give background about all the things that went on so you could we could all fully understand

Just how committed these men were to honoring god Chapter 2

Is where the great prophecies of daniel begin the first 30 verses of chapter 2 show a turn for the worse

In the lives of the soothsayers and diviners of babylon before this in the book of daniel

The main focus has been on the captivity of the israelites and daniel's dealings with his superiors In coming to terms with how their captivity would be spent

Chapter 1 ended on a fairly positive note as positive as could be expected

When we are dealing with the life of a captive of a slave Chapter 2 begins with nebuchadnezzar's dream

This is the dream that daniel will interpret and which will describe The great broad sweep of history from his time until the second coming of christ

Throughout this entire section in chapters 2 through verse chapter 2 through chapter 7

The future is revealed in various segments And so here the critics the critics focus some of their severest attacks on the authenticity of the book and so we remember

That there are two views of this section of daniel as well as all of daniel The first view is that this is a history written after all these events occurred

It was written after all these events had happened all this had taken place The second view the correct view

Is that this is a prophetic section that details the history to come? Frankly, especially considering the later predictions of the third and fourth kingdoms.

This is the only view that makes any sense Because he's predicting things that hadn't even happened by 166 ad or bc, excuse me 80

Further for those who take that this view that this is prophecy. There are two distinct subdivisions

And we will get to those we will deal with deal with them as we as we Encounter them the first subdivision

For is those who interpret the vision from a post -millennial or amillennial view? And the second would be from those who interpret this vision from a pre -millennial view

In his commentary john walvard explains the importance of this section and the understanding Of the section in relation to those two views.

He says this The difference here resolves itself largely in differing views from how of how the image is destroyed and how the revelation

It relates to the present age and the two advents of christ few chapters of the bible are more determinative

In establishing both the principles and content of prophecy than daniel 2 its study accordingly is crucial to any system of prophetic interpretation beginning in this section in verse 4

Daniel will switch from hebrew the language of the israelites to aramaic the language of the common people of the babylonian empire

He uses aramaic through verse 28 of chapter 7 This is the language of diplomacy during and after daniel's time.

It was an international language understood by gentiles and jews Since this section of the book of daniel deals with god's rule over gentiles

Daniel naturally wrote in a language that the gentiles would understand He had he written it in hebrew very very few of the day would have understood the message

Um, I didn't develop this completely this thought completely but basically in our day and age the business language of the world

Whether it's right or wrong is english That is the business language of the whole world so when trading stocks oil futures those things are

Published in english in every language in every country If they were published in the language the largest the language that has the most people who speak it

You and I would be lost Does anyone in here know mandarin chinese? 900 million people speak mandarin chinese

And I would allege that many of them understand english Because it is necessary especially in the world of business for them to understand the business language

This is not much different from what is happening here Daniel wrote in the language of the empire of the day

Because this this information was to be propagated to the entire world at the time

And if it was propagated in hebrew a very small segment of the world would have understood this most important information

But it was propagated in aramaic, which was the international language of the day and far more people

Most people would understand what was going on So as we work our way through the sections of prophecy

The understanding of some basic definitions will be helpful The three views of the end times are millennialism pre -millennialism and post -millennialism

Are there's a lot of l's in those words are defined thus wrong way so Amillennialism is the teaching that there is no literal 1000 year reign of christ as referenced in revelation 20

It sees the 1000 year period spoken of in revelation 20 is figurative instead. It teaches that we are in the millennium now

And that the return of christ 1st. Thessalonians 4 16 through 5 2 At the return of christ there will be the final judgment and the heavens and the earth will then be destroyed and remade 2nd.

Peter 3 10 That is a very basic definition of amillennialism

And as you might have guessed Based on some of the other things i've said in the last couple weeks.

There are different shades of view about amillennial Amillennialism and we may get into some of those pre -millennialism

Is the teaching concerning the end times eschatology? It says that there is a future millennium 1000 years as mentioned in revelation 20 where christ will rule

And reign over the earth at the beginning of the millennium Satan and his angels will be bound and peace will exist on the entire earth

At the end of the thousand years satan will be released in order to raise an army against jesus Jesus will destroy them and then the final judgment will take place with the new heavens and the new earth being made

That is pre -millennialism and finally post -millennialism. So ah Not it's actually not not millennialism.

They believe in the millennium. They just believe we're in it now I was trying to think of a better word Now millennialism or something

Neo -millennialism, I don't know that it amillennialism Amillennialism is what it has been described of since generations

Centuries ago Post -millennialism after the millennium Is an eschatological position within christian theology that interprets revelation 20 as a period in which

Through the preaching of the word of god that the entire world will eventually be converted christianity And this will usher in the kingdom of christ

This is when christ will return it is post -millennial It is post -millennial in that after the thousand -year reign of christ that the world will be converted and the final work of god will be completed

Some post -millennialists believe that the thousand years is literal and others believe that it is figurative it is

Inevitable that in 2 000 years of christian history, we would have come up with a lot of views of things Because that's what we do best.

No, it's like they said if you lined up all the economists in the world You'd never come to a conclusion

Or you'd have No, i'll leave it at that. So of course There are variations of each one of these that have arisen over the millennia.

No pun intended And as we progress through this study, we will touch on some of those To complete our introduction to daniel chapter 2 walvard in his commentary describes this section from chapter 2 verse 7 thus

He says chapter 2 Through 7 chapters 2 through 7 form a chiastic pattern that offers encouragement and hope to the jews in the times of the gentiles

Beginning in chapter 2 verse 4 daniel switched from hebrew the language of israel to aramaic the international language of the day

This change in language highlights daniel's focus on the times of the gentiles that would exist from this day until god established his messianic kingdom chapters 2 and 7

Explain the succession of four gentile empires that would exert control over jerusalem and the jews until god finally establishes his kingdom chapters 3 and 6

Warn the jews of the persecution they would face during this period And exhorts them to remain faithful to god in spite of this persecution like daniel

Meshach shadrach meshach and abednego did or hennani mishael and azariah just like that Chapters 3 and 6 warned them of the persecution they would face and to remain faithful chapters 4 and 5

Encourage the jewish remnant by reminding them that a time would come when even the gentile rulers would acknowledge that the god of israel

Was ruling over the nations Won't we look forward to that? When even the gentile rulers will walvard uses the phrase chiastic

Pattern to describe the next six chapters a chiasm Which is in a southern way of saying a big hole in the ground?

Because everything in south the south has at least two syllables and and Am I right?

Come on A chiasm also called a chiasmus Is a literary device in which a sequence of ideas is presented and then repeated in reverse order

The result is a mirror effect as the ideas are reflected back in the passage Each idea is connected to its reflection by a repeated word often in a related form an example would be when the going gets tough

The tough get going you didn't know you knew a chiasm. Did you? You all learned people there

Another one would be Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted scripture uses chiastic statements and chiastic structures often

There are people who think the entire book of genesis is a chiasm. I don't I read that and I went really who had that much

Time just to read genesis 83 000 times, which is probably what we should do Um, there are entire poems that exemplify the chiastic structure

Some chiasms chiasms are easy to spot and others are far more difficult for our purposes as we study the book of daniel

We will simply note that scholars have designated The six these six chapters in daniel as a chiasm and as we can we will note some of their characteristics

So that is the introduction to chapter two and uh, we will be getting going on that in july

I'm, not sure when jim's going to start god wrote a book again. Yeah, we'll talk about that but uh, this is there's exciting times coming in this best book of the bible, there's a lot going on and uh,

And you often think that when someone's standing up here teaching that they know everything you all know be well enough to know better than that But i'm really enjoying studying this stuff

And i'm discovering that I had a pretty Stunted view of eschatology

In my life, I hadn't really thought it all through and so i'm i'm hoping you'll help me do that as we progress through the book of daniel

This is an incredible sweep of history and it's going to be a wonderful study and it's going to be challenging at times

There are many different views and in as are the case as is the case in much of christian theology

Biblical theology for us as fallen creatures who haven't really have the mind of god.

We aspire to it, but we don't have it There will be things that other people believe that are not heresy.

They're just different And there will be things that we will believe that other people may think is heresy, but it really isn't it's just a different way of of organizing the end times

Eschatology if you will and understanding it And we'll try to comment on that as we go through there are different views of pre -millennialism

Amillennialism and post -millennialism and in many cases there are Serious people who will defend to the death their particular shade in this

When in fact we should be gathering around the most important aspect, which is that the book of daniel speaks of christ

And christ is to be exalted at every turn At every turn and the father is to be exalted at every turn and the holy spirit is to be exalted at every turn

And we will attempt to do that as we study daniel any comments or questions before we close in prayer Let's close father

What a wonderful thing you did to give us this book What an incredible gift it was so that we would not have to rely on soothsaying and Diviners and and the kinds of things that seem to permeate the difficulties that people had to understand thousands of years ago

You gave us your word and on that word we stand let us rightly divide it Always honoring the lord jesus christ always lifting up you and always humbly submitting to you