Apostasy Described (Hebrews 10:28-29) Part 2

Good morning. Boy, that sure had a chilling effect on your talking. Welcome to Kootenai Community Church Adult Sunday School. We will be in the book of Daniel again, chapter five. Let's open in prayer.

Father, we are grateful for your word, for what it teaches us, for how it directs us to you and to your son and to the Holy Spirit. And this morning, as we look into Daniel, we pray for illumination that we might see how this applies to our lives today.

Lord, wake this world up if you are going to tarry to the evils that are occurring around us. And it is history repeating itself. And you have given us instruction. You have given us a way to serve you and to honor you and to glorify you and to have a nation be blessed.

Let us see that happen. Lord, we ask it. And so this morning, teach us, encourage us, and Father, might we do everything we do today to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Daniel's Sermon to Belshazzar and the Writing on the Wall

And so we finished up last week on chapter five, verse 21, where Daniel is setting up, he's preaching what has been called the sermon of Daniel, chapter five. He starts back in, oh, should've had that on the tip of my tongue, shouldn't I?

Verse 17, so verse 17 is where Daniel starts his sermon and he's going to lay the groundwork to Belshazzar before he explains to him that basically it's all over, but the shouting to, dude, your kingdom has been judged.

And that's what we're going to see when we get to, oh, I just gave it away, didn't I? That's awful. Nobody likes to have the end of the story given away. But at any rate, so he starts his sermon and he starts out after Belshazzar was encouraged by his mother to bring Daniel in to interpret this writing on the wall that no one else could interpret.

And actually they couldn't even read it. But Daniel comes in and Belshazzar remembers what his mother said, and then he also says some of his own. He says, I remember you, I know who you are. He remembers the stories probably from his youth.

He was probably a young teenager when Daniel was doing many of the exploits that he had done in Babylon. And so he offers a great series of gifts to Daniel if he will but interpret this. Now, generally speaking, when a politician or a prince or a king or somebody in power offers you money to do something for him, the outcome should, he wants the outcome to be beneficial to him.

And Daniel knows that, and he says, remember what he says in verse 17, he says, you keep your gifts to yourself, give your rewards to someone else. However, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him.

So that's, Daniel is, we're gonna continue with his sermon, but Daniel is setting up the time when he will be able to explain to the king that the kingdom of Babylon has been judged and it's over today, and it actually happens that day.

So to give us the context, let's go ahead and start reading in chapter six, verse 10. Daniel chapter six, verse 10. Excuse me, Daniel, yeah, yeah, right. Since we're studying Daniel five, let's read in Daniel six, what do you think?

Daniel chapter five, verse 10. Then the queen entered the banquet hall because of the words of the king and his nobles. The queen spoke and said, oh, king, live forever. Do not let your thoughts alarm you or your face be pale.

Remember what we talked about that last week? That was a mother basically saying to her son, buck up, dude, quit freaking out. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods, and in the days of your father, illumination, insight, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him.

And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans, and diviners. This was because an extraordinary spirit, knowledge, and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, and solving of difficult problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar.

Let Daniel now be summoned, and he will declare the interpretation. Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke and said to Daniel, are you the Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father, the king, brought from Judah?

Now, I have heard about you, that a spirit of the gods is in you, and that illumination, insight, and extraordinary wisdom have been found in you. Just now, the wise men and the conjurers were brought in before me that they might read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not declare to me, declare the interpretation of the passage.

But I personally have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems. Now, if you are able to read the inscriptions and make its interpretation known to me, you will be clothed with purple and wear a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.

And here's where Daniel starts. He says, and then Daniel answered and said before the king, keep your gifts for yourself, or give your rewards to someone else. However, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him.

Oh, king, the most high God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar, your father. And because of the grandeur which he bestowed on him, all peoples, nations, and men of every language feared and trembled before him.

Whomever he wished, he killed, and whomever he wished, he spared alive, and whomever he wished, he elevated, and whomever he wished, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken away from him.

He was also driven away from mankind and his heart was made like that of beasts, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized that the most high God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and that he sets over it whomever he wishes.

Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart even though you knew all this, but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives, and your concubines have been drinking wine from them.

And you have praised the gods of silver and of gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, hear, or understand, but the God in whose hand are your life breath and your ways you have not glorified.

Then the hand was sent from him, and this inscription was written out. Now, this is the inscription that was written out, mene, mene, tekel, ufarshin, ufarshin. This is the interpretation of the passage.

Mene, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. Tekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. Peres, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.

Then Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a necklace of gold around his neck and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.

That same night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of 62. So as I said last week, we left off on verse 21, where Nebuchadnezzar's malady was described by Daniel.

He was driven away from mankind and his heart was made like that of the wild beasts. But the most important part of all of this is Daniel reminding Belshazzar that when kings are arrogant and do not follow the ways that God has prescribed for them, they can be deposed, and they can be deposed instantaneously.

And you're gonna see Daniel is going to be made the third ruler in the kingdom, and it's gonna be the shortest third rulership in history. I think it lasts maybe two hours before the Chaldeans or the Medes and the Persians take over the city.

So then with the beginning of that sermon, where he explains all of the basics and then he reminds Belshazzar that Nebuchadnezzar lifted his heart up and was deposed, he says this to Belshazzar, he says in verse 22, he said, yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart even though you knew all this.

So Belshazzar was familiar with all of the history that had preceded him in the past, oh, 20, 20, 30 years. Remember there were 23 years between, oh, actually there's 23 years between chapters here, between five and six, but there were many years had passed, many kingships had passed between Nebuchadnezzar, who wasn't his father.

Remember we talked about the fact that the word grandfather did not exist in Persian, doesn't exist in Aramaic. So when they wanted to say grandfather, sometimes they just said father and the context gave the indication as to who it was.

Sometimes they would say your father's father, that would make it more clear. But in this case, he's referring to Nebuchadnezzar as Belshazzar's father when in fact, in keeping with the lack of direct translation, he was mostly, he was his grandfather.

Yet you his son have not humbled your heart. So Belshazzar was his grandson. Here the crux of the matter is alluded to in that Belshazzar knowing all the things that had happened to Nebuchadnezzar had still lifted up himself in pride and wickedness.

And this bringing those implements of the temple into the throne room and desecrating them was a direct affront to Jehovah God. He did this intentionally. He was shaking his fist at God. It wasn't just, let's try these different kind of drinking tumblers out.

This might, maybe the drinks will taste better in this. It wasn't that at all. He knew exactly what he was doing. He lifted his heart up against Jehovah God and Daniel points it out. Daniel calls him out on it.

Now, what do you think?

Think about that.

These are kings, we've talked about this before, that when they didn't like you, they just killed you. And it was copacetic for them to do that. It was within the law. And Daniel calls Belshazzar out.

You knew this and you didn't humble yourself. He called Belshazzar out. So what does Belshazzar's, he says this again, and then he goes even further. He says, but in verse 23, he says, but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven and they have brought the vessels of his house before you and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them.

And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, hear, or understand, but the God in whose hand are your life breath and all your ways you have not glorified.

Daniel is being very careful to separate Jehovah, Yahweh, from the false gods of stone, bronze, iron, and silver and all the other gods that they had. He names him the Lord of heaven, which was a common Syrian term for their greatest gods.

And he appropriates that for Jehovah and sets it against these other names. So the indictment here becomes more pointed. Daniel makes clear that he understands as the Lord does that Belshazzar had elevated himself, exalted himself specifically against the Lord of heaven.

He uses the term Lord of heaven, which properly designates Jehovah, but also directly contradicts the idea that the gods of Babylon had any power whatsoever. There was much more in this statement than just the name of God.

Daniel was lifting up Jehovah and putting down the gods of the Babylonians. And that could be interpreted by a king as insolent and atheistic, if you will. You could be killed for that. It's remarkable though, that after this soliloquy is finished, Belshazzar does not summarily execute Daniel for his insolence against the gods of Babylon.

It's very likely that all the noise in the hall had ceased as Daniel delivered his incitement. You know his indictment. You know how noisy it can be when a thousand drunk people, well, maybe you don't.

I hope you don't know how noisy. Let me rephrase that. I wonder what it's like to be in a hall with a thousand drunk people celebrating and raucous and the presage to much more profane activities later on in the evening.

It was noisy. And when Daniel comes in and begins to deliver this indictment to Belshazzar, it's my opinion that the noise died down and everybody would pay very pointed attention to what was going on.

They would have heard it. I think that everyone would have heard this sermon much to the dismay of Belshazzar and yet he listens. He listens to the entire message. He doesn't shut Daniel down. He doesn't interrupt.

He listens to the entire message. Now, most certainly Daniel was disgusted with the way Belshazzar had desecrated the Jewish temple implements, but he sternly but politely delivers his message. And I love the way at the beginning, he makes sure that Belshazzar knows I'm going to tell you the truth.

I'm not interested in your gifts. Very important, very important. He also reminds him of the very fact that he is King and that he is the fact that he is still King and that he is still breathing is a grace of Jehovah God.

His kingdom and his life are as he says in the hands of the Lord of heaven. Much has been made of this sermon and rightly so. It is notable that this is an encapsulation of the way the world responds to Jehovah.

If you read it, you'll notice that this is a very concise way of the world, the way the world responds to the Lord of heaven. Men continue on in their own way, hating God and acting as if he doesn't exist.

It's been said about atheists that atheists don't believe in God and they hate him. Think about that. They don't believe in God and they hate him. Everybody in their conscience knows, as Belshazzar knew.

And so Daniel calls him out on this. Men continue on their own way as if nothing is going on, as if they can just continue on merrily doing the things that they're doing, the life that they're living, the way that they're acting, the way they treat others as if nothing will ever happen.

Belshazzar had not learned from the judgment of Nebuchadnezzar, which was clearly in his, well, maybe not that night, maybe a bit fuzzy because of the alcohol, but for the most part, it was in the recent past for him.

It's something that he would have remembered, something in the 90s. You people my age and even people younger, you can remember things that happened 20 years ago, 20, 15, 20 years ago. Some, especially your wives, can remember things that happened 15, 20 years ago.

And I'll just leave it at that. So Belshazzar still worshiped the false gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which as Daniel said, do not see, they do not hear, they do not understand.

The implication, the clear implication is though is that Jehovah God sees, hears, and understands. And you are about to find out what that means. Any questions before we jump into the translation and the part that everybody likes about this chapter?

Okay, verse 24. Then the hand was sent from him, and this inscription was written out. So the hand was then finally sent from God, as Daniel describes this, and wrote out the inscription. Daniel is explaining that the hand was sent.

The hand was sent. That so troubled Belshazzar and the magicians could not translate. This is the scripture, this is the only time in scripture that this has ever happened, that something like this has happened.

Verse 25, now this is the inscription that was written.

I'm gonna see if we've, this is the inscription,.

And I put it in English, it's, I found it in English on English characters online. This is the inscription that was written. Mene, mene tekel ufarshin. The inscription was very meager. There's not much there.

Only four words. The first, mene is an Aramaic word related to the Hebrew minah, which is equal to 50 shekels, and was primarily a word that meant to number. It is repeated twice, most likely for emphasis.

The second word, tekel, is related to the Hebrew word shekel. A shekel was also a unit of weight and a unit of monetary value, but it also meant to weigh. It meant to weigh, to weigh something. The third word, ufarshin, was related to the Hebrew word paris, which was a half shekel unit, and was another word related to weighing or division.

It can actually be translated dividing. So that word, the last word, can be translated dividing. Seeing monetary units in descriptions of division, in descriptions is very commonly understood in modern day America.

After all, what is a quarter? It's a fourth of a dollar, but we think of it as that round thing with GW's head on it. That's a quarter. It's one fourth of a dollar. It's a division. We do the very same thing in our language, and in many other languages, they do the same thing.

After all, a quarter is simply one fourth of an American dollar, but it can also mean to divide something. So I grew up on a cattle ranch, and we used to butcher our own beasts, and we would quarter the animals, and then take care of each of the different quarters in a different way.

So to quarter something is to make it into one fourth of the original. So to divide can be used as a verb. Simply saying the word quarter communicates monetary value to the average American, but that may be completely lost to a foreign observer.

In the same way, these Aramaic words have multiple understandings in their day, but when one was talking about exchanging goods, it was understood that they were words that were related to monetary value.

I trade you a bushel of wheat for a certain number of shekels, or a portion of a shekel. I don't remember what the value application was there. There have been suggestions made that the writing was done vertically.

And now, again, a lot of this is just speculation, and it's fun, but what we have in the Scripture is what we have in the Scripture, and that's what we need to focus on. But just as a way of helping us understand some of this, there's been suggestions that the writing were vertical.

And we must remember that Hebrew and Aramaic are read from, this doesn't have a pointer, from right to left. So the two many, many are on the right there, and you read right to left, which is how it would have been written on the wall in the throne room.

So the inscription would have looked something like this. Adding complication to this, it is possible that some unfamiliar form of the Aramaic characters may have been used. In any event, it took divine intervention to accomplish its interpretation.

It will be seen as we read the translation in the next verses that Daniel's rendering is completely reasonable. And a lot of scholars have objected to what he came up with. Well, it was a divinely inspired to Daniel translation of these four words, like the rest of Scripture.

Verse 26, this is the interpretation, Daniel says, of the message. Mene, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. Put an end to it. Here begins Daniel's interpretation. The momentous end of the Babylonian empire would be accomplished at this particular point.

Verse 27, Tekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. Your pride, Belshazzar, has tainted all you do, and your kingship has been found defective. And then the last word, verse 28, Peres, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.

And finally, with likely, likely, a play on the word divided, which could also refer to the Persians, the kingdom will be split and given to the Medes and Persians who at the time were united under one king.

Another important aspect of this translation is given by Daniel is that it firmly places these happenings and this book in the 6th century BC. As one commentator stated, for those of you who haven't been here, there's quite a bit of controversy has been arisen over the centuries that Daniel was, basically the idea was is that the prophecies in this book were too accurate.

They couldn't have been prophecies. They had to be a history written after the fact. So therefore the book was written in the 2nd century BC and not the 6th century BC. The fact is it was written in the 6th century BC.

These were prophecies and this particular section right here helps confirm that. So as Gleason Archer said in his commentary, he said this, the important consequence of this identification of the combined Medo-Persian empire as the second kingdom in Daniel series of four, which are embodied in Nebuchadnezzar's four-part dream in chapter two, is that the kingdom, the third kingdom must be the Greek one.

Therefore, the fourth empire must still be the Roman empire, which of course did not actually take over the Near East until 63 BC, a century after the Maccabean uprisings, which is where the period of history is that some critics believe this book was written.

Back to this quote, therefore this handwriting on the wall demolishes the Maccabean data hypothesis, which insists that nothing in Daniel's prophecies in any event later, that nothing Daniel prophesies, that Daniel, let me start over, which insists that nothing in Daniel prophesies any event later than the death of Antiochus Epiphanes in 164 BC, a hundred years before Pompey annexed the Palestine Syria to the Roman empire.

So the fact that he quotes that Daniel interprets this to talk about the Medes and the Persians places this squarely in the sixth century BC, because that is when the Medes and the Persians took over the Babylonian empire.

So even as these events were happening in the throne room, the Medo-Persian army was pouring into the city to conquer it. Now I can't remember if I went through the actual tactical method that the Medes used, the Medes and the Persians used.

We'll talk about it if I don't have it in here. But at any rate, these are the three words. So God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. Tikal, you have been weighed on the scales. You, Belshazzar, have been weighed on the scales and found defective, deficient, and perish.

Your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and the Persians.

Doesn't that sound like treason?

Daniel is saying, you're going to be conquered today. And I'm delivering that information. Very dangerous thing to say to a Babylonian king in any event, because they were not known to take difficult information very well.

Generally, it was dealt with by lions or furnaces, or just much stabbing would ensue. Verse 29, then Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple. This happened right after Daniel gave this horrifying prophecy of what's going to happen.

They clothed, excuse me, they clothed Daniel with purple and put a necklace of gold around his neck and issued a proclamation concerning him that now he now had authority as the third ruler of the kingdom.

He did that right there in the drunken throne room. That night, as soon as Daniel finished his proclamation, they put the robe on him, purple robe, which means kingly robe, somebody who's in charge. They put the gold necklace around him.

Only kings had those kinds of ornaments on them. And then they made the proclamation that he is now the third ruler in the kingdom. So remarkably, Belshazzar, instead of summarily executing Daniel for his insolence, keeps his promise and bestows upon Daniel the very short-lived title of third ruler in the kingdom.

Daniel understood that the accolades of this world are passing, and especially this one, because he knew that the Medes and the Persians were outside the gate. They were gonna take the city. He's now third ruler in the kingdom for somewhere between 10 minutes and five hours.

The irony of this entire situation is captured very well in John Walvoord's commentary. He said this, in its rise to power, the Babylonian empire had conquered Jerusalem, taken its inhabitants into captivity, looted its beautiful temple, and destroyed the city.

Yet this empire, the Babylonian empire, was to have as its last official act the honoring of one of these Hebrew captives who, by divine revelation, predicted not only the downfall of Babylon, but the course of the times of the Gentiles until the Son of Man comes from heaven.

Man may have the first word, but God will always have the last word, unquote. And then here it is, that same night, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was slain. As mentioned before, the Medo-Persians were already pouring into the city, and that night took Babylon and killed the city, or killed the king.

Yeah, killed the city, too. Killed the king. Now, remember, they had 20 years of supplies. They had what at the time was known as the most formidable army on the planet, at least in the world, in the known world.

They were taken in one night. Now, if you read Herodotus, or I believe it's in Herodotus, chapter 11, I think. At any rate, it talks about how this was accomplished, where one of the commanders began draining the river.

He broke down some barriers and drained that part of the river off into some surrounding low-lying lakes. And the river that ran through, I think we have. Oh, Brian was aiming at the stupid thing up there.

Yeah, and then we go right to the end like that.

Yeah, just, there.

That river going through, they drained it down so that a man could walk in it. It was only thigh deep, and he could walk underneath the wall into the city. It was a remarkable accomplishment at the time.

I mean, they didn't have Ron's excavators. They had shovels and slaves, and they drained the river down and then walked underneath the walls. And while they were celebrating and wrapping this robe around Daniel, actually, they weren't celebrating at this point, wrapping the robe around Daniel, giving him the gold necklace, the Medo-Persian army was marching into the city.

Okay. Any comments or questions about that section? And then we'll finish up this chapter.

Yes.

No, that moves it backwards. I know, cause I screwed up and did that. There's no, there's no, okay. There's no laser on this. So then verse 31, Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of 62.

Now, the fall of Babylon was prophesied in Isaiah 13, 21, and in Jeremiah 51. Isaiah 13 says this, in Isaiah chapter 13, verses 17 through 22. Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold, and their bows will mow down the young men.

They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb, nor will their eye pity children. And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans' pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation, nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there, but desert creatures will lie down there, and their houses will be full of owls.

Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there. Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers, and jackals in their luxurious palaces. Her fateful time also will soon come, and her days will not be prolonged.

So the history of Babylon is recorded by Herodotus and Xenophon. Modern discoveries discount the liberal theories that attempt to make Daniel look like a liberal book. So for many years, make Daniel look like a later book, a later book.

Cyrus himself had an inscription made that has been found describing the fall of Babylon. And here's what he said. Marduk, that's one of the gods of Babylon, the great god of Babylon, the great Lord, a protector of his people, worshipers, beheld with pleasure his good deeds, that's Cyrus' good deeds, and his upright mind, literally his heart, and ordered him to march against his city Babylon.

He made him set out on the road to Babylon, going at his side like a real friend. His widespread troops, their number like that of the water of a river, could not be established. Strolled along, their weapons packed away.

Without any battle, he made him enter his town Babylon, sparing Babylon any calamity. He delivered him into Cyrus, his hands, Cyrus, Nabonidus, the king, who did not worship him. Remember, Nabonidus had vacated the city and left the city in the hands of the kingdom, that part of the kingdom, in the hands of Belshazzar.

He was busy off in another city, building a different temple to the moon god. And it was, it really affected his kingship. It made many people in Babylon angry, Babylonians angry, that he was not properly worshiping Marduk.

And so this is Cyrus saying that Marduk took care of that. So, closing, finishing up here, this incredible chapler, divinely included in scripture, chronicles fulfillment of prophecies regarding Babylon, and demonstrates that divine justice does indeed come to pass on the world and its wickedness.

This was an important, this would have been a sorely needed encouragement to the Jewish captives of the day. And it should speak to us today in the very same way. The Lord Jesus is coming again, and his second coming will be one of divine justice that will be glorifying to Jesus Christ, and that the church will give glory to God for.

Remember, the church is the believers that he has taken, the ecclesia, the called out ones, that he has called out and made Christians, made believers. The Babylonians were the original preppers. They were ready for a 20 year siege.

Their city was impregnable, they thought. Their army, the envy of the earth, there was nothing that could stop them. There was nothing that could conquer them. There was nothing that could right the wrongs that they had perpetrated on the other nations.

And then God decided Babylon must fall, and it did. No matter the strength of the nation, if the Lord God Jehovah is not the God of that nation, it will fall. And this should be a message to us, not to try and, I'm not saying that, we need to evangelize people.

Let me just say it that. It's the heart that needs to change. There are no political solutions that God needs to have us perpetrate. He needs to, the gospel must be preached, the gospel must be spread throughout the world, and he will change the hearts of those whom he has chosen to give to his son as the bride of Christ.

Our part is to preach that gospel. I'm not saying there aren't those who necessarily work in individual nations, trying to right wrongs that are going on within those nations, but the church needs to most certainly be about the business of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the gospel that changes hearts.

Belshazzar's heart wasn't changed. I think Nebuchadnezzar's heart was changed. I know when you take a poll of scholars, I'm not a scholar, but when you take a poll of scholars, there's different opinions.

Calvin doesn't think he was saved. Many of the more modern scholars and some of the older ones think he was, that at this point, at one point in his life, Nebuchadnezzar turned to the true God. Belshazzar did not.

As near as we can tell, Belshazzar did not, and his kingdom was numbered, divided, and it fell. And that is the answer to any, any, who try to rise up against God. So next time I'm with you, I think Jess will be teaching next Sunday, we will be looking at chapter six.

How many of you are aware of the controversy that attends chapter six regarding Darius the Mede? Okay, so there are, the Bible is the only place in history where the word, the name Darius the Mede appears.

And because of that, critics have decided there was no Darius the Mede. The funny thing is, is that the Bible has been demonstrated, we know it's the word of God. We know that every stitch of it is true.

But the world doesn't believe that. But where it is corroborated by history, or where it corroborates history, well, that must be true. But when a part of the Bible is the only part that exposits some part of ancient history and no other secular source exposits or confirms that, well, then the assumption is the Bible must be wrong.

Why is that? It's accurate, it's always accurate. But just because there's nothing else talking about Darius the Mede doesn't automatically make the scripture wrong. But the world thinks that way. The fact is, we will see there are plenty of explanations as to who Darius the Mede is and what his place in history was, and the fact that the scripture is rendered true as normal.

And we will see that Darius the Mede indeed did have quite an influence on Daniel and on history. And chapter six, chapter six is considered possibly one of the most, if not the favorite chapter in the entire Bible.

Do you know what's in chapter six? Daniel in the lion's den. Who hasn't heard Daniel in the lion's den? Quite an interesting story. An interesting story of the protection and the sustainment of Jehovah, of those whom he has called to fulfill his purposes.

And we will see all of that. As we get into chapter six, we'll look into the controversy. Jim, we'll, yeah, but see, I'm an old guy, so I've already forgot what it was. We'll look into the controversy surrounding who Darius the Mede was, but we will also exposit this wonderful story about God's protection of Daniel.

Jim.

All of that. The theme of the book of Daniel, as Jim just mentioned, is that God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men. He lifts up, he puts down. I'm not gonna be able to repeat it exactly as you said, but one of the interesting things about it was even the kings themselves acknowledged this.

Nabonidus in his chronicle pointed out that he was, I was the lowliest of men, and here I am, the king of Babylon. He didn't know how that happened. Jehovah God put him in that position. And then Jehovah God took him down.

God rules in the affairs of men every day, every second. Nothing catches him by surprise. The fact is, the Jews needed this encouragement during this time that they spent in captivity because they had lost.

Jerusalem was sacked, and they were taken captive, and now they were captives in Babylon. But to see to the observant Jew and to us today, the observant Christians, to see God raising up and taking down kings right in this kingdom, at this time in history, had to have been a great comfort to the Jewish captives.

They knew their God was supreme, they knew their God reigned, and they knew that he would take care of them. And we need to remember that today too. Now, that doesn't mean you're gonna live a life of leisure, but it means that everything that God does is good.

Romans 8, 28 is true, whether your life is sailing or sinking at the time, you may think. I'm thinking that Daniel, as a captive at 15, must have thought, this is just not good. And now look where he's at.

The third ruler in the kingdom for 20 minutes or more. Any other questions or comments about this?