Daniel Bible Study | Introduction

The Sovereignty of God as the Key to Daniel

We're going to talk about Daniel, but to get into Daniel, this is our second introduction. After last week, I felt it important to talk about the sovereignty of God, because that is so central to the book of Daniel.

So we're going to, today, we're going to talk about sovereignty. We will look at just the first two verses, because that basically brings this idea of God's sovereignty over the nations into the book, and then we'll do an outline.

We were, Jeff and I were talking to an individual earlier today who had various medical issues, and I believe this individual is a believer. And the sovereignty of God sometimes can just amaze you, what God does.

And this individual was going to be going through a significantly serious spinal surgery, and was stressed out over it, and as he was driving, I think it was a couple of days before the surgery was to take place, up in the sky, he saw, within the clouds, what appeared to be the presentation of a spine in perfect, perfect shape.

In fact, this individual showed us a photo he took with his smartphone and said, yeah, there it is. He even got a photo of it? Yeah. Now, in reality, what it was from a physical, pragmatic standpoint, you know what a contrail is?

From a plane. From a plane, yeah. As an airplane goes through a moisture-laden atmosphere, it creates a cloud behind it, if you would, and we call it a contrail. God had, in his sovereignty, had a plane go overhead enough in advance that the contrail had started to dissipate, and through the wind, had created the curvature of a spine.

And when you looked at it, there was a spine in perfect condition. Now, this turned out to be a sign of encouragement. Sign of the spine. Yeah, it's a sign of the spine. But I bring that up to say that it's amazing how often God does something, and it's like, how did he do that?

Well, he's sovereign. What can he do? Why not? What can't he do? That is almost a better question, what can't he do? He can't lie. What? He can't lie. Because it's against his nature. There you are. Something God can't do.

Can he build a brick too big that he can pick it up? That's a ridiculous question. That's a ridiculous question. We have to go into the nature of God. He can hold the earth. He can hold the earth. He can hold a brick.

He can hold a stone. We have a God who is absolutely sovereign. We talked last week, we started to talk about the concept of the sovereignty of God, but then got into a discussion of how did Judah end up where they ended up?

It's the journey to exile, and you have to start all the way back from the beginning of creation and work your way to there, to where they actually ended up in exile. And the question of what is the sovereignty of God came up in Carol.

I think you actually read it off the app. You read a definition of the sovereignty of God. We need to spend a little bit of time scripturally seeing the sovereignty of God. If you are reading in your various versions of the Bible, if you're reading out of the ESV, the word sovereignty will show up.

If you read in other versions, the word sovereignty is not there. Things like ruler or potentate are there, but the reality of what is the sovereignty of God, according to E .H. Neuster, you all know him.

Rich, you know him? E .H. Neuster? Okay, I didn't know him either, but he is one of the contributors of articles of definition in something called the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. And his definition of the sovereignty of God is king, supreme ruler, and lawgiver of the entire universe.

That's a pretty good definition. It's pretty close to what you actually read. Pretty close to what you actually read. We're going to spend a little bit of time going through the sovereignty of God, because as we get into Daniel, it's like, how did he do that?

Well, he is sovereign. And why was Daniel and his friends so confident in God? Well, he is sovereign. And how can we take the last six chapters of Daniel seriously? Well, he's sovereign. It's the same answer in all cases.

So we're going to get into that today. And Jeff, would you open us?

Sure. Father, it is a delight for us to consider your sovereignty. And Lord, we recognize here we are on earth. So we cannot fully grasp who you are and all that you have done and all that you control.

And your ways are higher than our ways. Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts. But we are so blessed and so privileged that we can open your word and consider these things and be taught in your way.

And Lord, we ask that you would give us eyes to see, that you would give us hearts that trust, and that we would leave this place with a higher view of your sovereignty than each of us came in with. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Rich, I'm going to ask you to get Jeremiah 32. It's on my page. Jeremiah 32, 17. And John? Jeremiah 32. Yeah, it's there. And Colossians 1, 17. Ex nihilo. From nothing. Out of nothing. How does that inspire a thought of the sovereignty of God?

I've been thinking about that all week. Go for it. What did you conclude? Have you been up to 2 o 'clock in the morning like this? I don't think so. Any visions on the tent? What did you conclude?

Well, obviously it's a very difficult concept to consider, because if you consider it a concept, then it is nothing. Wow.

Ex nihilo. Out of nothing. God created. Totally denies what the world wants you to believe. That somehow, you have to erase God to accept things like evolution, Big Bang Theory. You just have to erase God.

But you have to erase God if you're discussing genuinely complete ex nihilo, because God is a thing.

What is fascinating, what is fascinating, well, we're rabbit trailing already and I haven't even gotten started. What's fascinating is God and His sovereignty allows us not to really understand Him, but to understand what He's like.

And so we use that as a vision point to say, I can understand God because I get, I think I get the idea of holy. I can understand God because I think I can get the idea of love or creator. All these attributes of God, what they do is they, from a human standpoint, we start to paint pictures of what God must be so that we can worship Him.

Ex nihilo, in the beginning, God. That is, it's there, it's in John 1 .1, in the beginning, God and He created. Which is to say that in the beginning of what we know of as time, okay, there was an eternity prior to that, but at His own predestined time, in that beginning, He created.

Jeremiah 32 .17. Jeremiah 32 .17. Lord God, it is You who made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.

Nothing is too hard for You. This is, this is our known realm, our known realm are the heavens and the earth. That's our known realm. We can't even get into the outer reaches of the heavens. Here's one to blow your mind.

I am a New Earth believer in the theology of New Earth, the creation 6 ,000 years old, give or take. I believe you are too. Young Earth. Yeah. Young Earth. Yeah. How are we seeing stars that are supposedly 5 billion light years away?

Go ahead. If God can create all things from nothing, it's not beyond the human understanding to understand that He created a star with a history of life. Let me put it, a tree with age. There you go.

This is, this is our sovereign God. I answer that question by saying He established the light that would be coming, that would show up on Earth at the predestined time of 2023 and scientists in their wisdom would say, oh man, that light, that's 6 billion light years away.

Well, this is my sovereign God. He creates all with the image of age. He created Adam and Eve with the image of age. This is my, this is our sovereign God. Not only did He do all of this, but Colossians 117.

And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

We are nothing without God holding it all together. Yeah. And what is, what is even amazing when you consider this aspect of the sovereignty of God is that from before the foundation of the Earth, He knew, He knew that man was going to rebel against Him.

And He still holds us all together. Creation today is groaning because of the impact of sin, but God is holding, He sustains all things. If it wasn't for God, poof, yeah.

What's awesome about that verse is when you think, just to get a simple hydrogen or helium atom, two protons, positive charge, should repel. What holds them together?

That's a great question. What holds it? What creates a magnetic force? I mean, I'm an engineer, I can go into that, but it's like, how can you think that all this was an accident of a Big Bang theory?

I just recently got done doing a series when I would get the pulpit preaching out of the book of Joshua. And this is one of my favorite stories. Joshua prayed because the battle was going good. Lord, stop the sun so that we can keep the battle going.

And He did. Now, we know He didn't stop the sun. What He did was He stopped the rotation of the Earth. Now, my sovereign God is not going to have a problem with the fact that the circumference of the Earth at the equator is something like 24 ,000 miles.

Roughly 24 ,000 miles. The math would be much easier than the little pieces. Because here's the thing. It rotates in 24 hours. That means that at the equator, everything's moving 1 ,000 miles an hour.

Okay, that's a little bit slower as you go further north. That does two things. One is the oceans are moving at 1 ,000 miles an hour. And they stopped. And there was no slushing and tidal waves and everything else.

He just made it okay. He just made it okay. Joshua, who was traveling at perhaps where he was around 800 miles an hour, boom, stopped. He didn't like it. Everything stopped. Because the Earth is rotating, we have something called centripetal force.

Gravitational force is pushing you down. Centripetal force is moving you up. And the difference to the two is what we know. I weigh 200 pounds. If there was no centripetal force, I would be squashed like a pancake.

That didn't happen. And by the way, He started it all back up. This is our God. He sustains all things. He is so supreme. He is the king over all. Romans 13, I'm going to ask you to get that. And Psalm 22, Bob, I'll ask you to get that.

And then Daniel 4 .17, just so we can get into Daniel, I'll ask you to have that. There is nothing on Earth that is outside of God's sovereign rule. That includes the kingdoms and the kings. That includes the President of the United States.

That includes AOC. That includes Pastor Jeff, who is the shepherd of our flock. There is nothing that is outside of God's rule. 1 Timothy 6, if you're reading in the ESV, it's going to say, He is the blessed and only sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords.

But if you're reading in other versions, that word sovereign will say potentate or ruler. I'm just saying that if you look up the word sovereign or sovereignty in Strong's Exhaustive Coordinates, that's the only place you're going to find it, is right there.

The sovereignty of God is one of these concepts that we just understand because of the expansiveness of His sovereignty. Romans 13. There is no authority, there is no institute, except that God puts it in place.

Just because a nation goes wicked, just because a nation becomes atheist or idol worshippers, doesn't mean that they're outside of God's authority. The tribal leaders in Africa in the 15th century, 16th century, who would conquer a neighboring tribe and take the men, women, and children and sell them to slave traders, who would be put in the holds of a ship like chattel and bought.

Those tribal leaders, they were under the authority of God. Those captains of that ship, under the authority of God. The people in the United States when we were colonies then that would buy human beings, it's all under the authority of God.

There is nothing outside of Him. Psalm 22, please. You don't want the whole thing.

Verse 28. For dominion belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nation. That is Him.

And this gets so, so germane when we get into the book of Daniel, because you've got the Babylonians and then you've got the Perdomesians, and you've got the Jews who are in exile over there. He is sovereign.

He is sovereign over all of this. The fact that they're there does not put them outside of God's sovereign control. The fact that they are, I love the story of the Northern Kingdom that took the ark and put it in the temple of Dagon.

What happened to Dagon? He broke his nose. I love that story. Sometimes the humor of God is good, but it's a sovereign. Daniel 4, do you have that?

This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the Holy Ones. In order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men.

This almost sounds like it's Daniel giving a decree to Nebuchadnezzar to don't diss God. This is Nebuchadnezzar. After everything that has happened to him, this is Nebuchadnezzar realizing that the God of Daniel is the Lord of all.

King of kings. So God, He gave insight to Nebuchadnezzar. I don't know if we're going to see Nebuchadnezzar in glory or not, but He gave insight to him that even this king, and he was a pretty bad king from a wicked standpoint, eventually he says, that God of Daniel, He is the God of all gods, the Lord of lords, He is the King of all kings.

So this is the God who has nothing over Him, and what is it about God that is so amazing, we can give a list of that, there is nothing that's going to happen that's outside of His predestined will. Amen.

I even included Proverbs 16 .33 for you, because I know that you appreciate that. Acts 2 .23, Barb, if you would get that. And Ephesians 1 .11, Carol, if you would get that, I'll talk to the other. We know from Scripture, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not die, but have life everlasting.

We know from Scripture, God demonstrated His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We know these verses, learned them in Sunday school and everything. But we know that God created all, each day He said, it is as good, as good, as good, six day created man, it is very good.

We know the story of Lucifer up in heaven, we know the fall of man. None of this was a surprise to our God. And recognizing what would be, He ordained those who would record His very words. Our faith is that these are the actual inspired words of God in the original language, which is to say that as it gets translated, there might be some nuances of words here and there, language has its limits, but God spoke through the hearts of men who wrote His actual words.

And what is in this story, from the very beginning all the way through, who is in every chapter of the Bible, every book of the Bible, who's in it? Jesus. He is. He is. 6 ,000 years, He's been there. For 4 ,000 years before the cross, He was in that Bible and everything.

He predestines. He even predestined that man would be such a problem, they would try to build the tower, and He would befuddle them, He would scatter them. He even predestined that man then would get so wicked that there would only be one family left, and so there was going to be a flood.

And then He predestined coming out of the flood that He would create a rainbow. By the way, God owns that rainbow. LBGTQ does not own that rainbow. They did, let's claim it back. But He also predestined that in His time, His Son would take on the form of flesh and walk on the world.

Acts 2 .23. By His foreknowledge. And His sovereignty. Man did not kill Jesus. Jesus went to that cross. Man was the instrument that was used to execute that death, and they're going to be judged for it.

But man didn't do something that God said, I really didn't want you to do that. No, this is God's predestination. We know that from Job. You can touch Him, but don't go any farther than that. He sets limits.

And the beauty of it is for us. Ephesians 1. Isn't that... Just as He decided. Just as He decided. I could not respond to God, but He gave me the grace. And that wasn't going to happen, but He designed it.

And He predestined it. By the way, we're talking now about the salvific issues, but Scripture is very clear. If you go into Acts 24, whatever your hand desires happens. The world can't stop. Whatever your heart desires is going to happen.

What on earth was that fish doing swallowing Jonah? And then spitting him back up on the ground. Well, how could Jonah survive for three days in the belly of a fish? Well, he's got it. He's got it. And then what does...

What does Proverbs 16 .33 say? And what does that mean? He is sovereign and He has predestined. And what He has predestined is going to happen. What we have to realize about God is that He knows all. Daniel 2 .21 is going to say He knows times.

He knows kings. And He is the one who gives wisdom and knowledge to man. He is the one who gives wisdom and knowledge to man. Go ahead and spend time being as clever as you can, studying as many books as you want, and looking for the nuances of even this book, but if you're not looking for God to help you understand Him, you're not going to understand Him.

What was it you said earlier about the secret things of God? No, the secret things of God belong to God. Okay, and then He says that man cannot understand only by the Holy Spirit. He's the one who gives wisdom.

Go on to the beginning of Proverbs. That's where I'm at right now in my quiet times. His true word gives us knowledge. His wisdom gives us knowledge. As we get into the book of Daniel, we will start to see, well, even preceding Daniel, we see in Chronicles, the Assyrians attempting to take over Jerusalem.

The Shekinah glory is still in the temple. What happens one night? You know this story, Rich. What happens one night while the Assyrians are laying siege of Jerusalem? One angel. One angel. 184 ,000 soldiers.

185. It was 185? Do I hear six? Who wins? Because of God. Because of God. The powers of the world in 1 Chronicles 29, it says, Thine is the greatness and the power and the authority. Everything. Everything.

You have dominion and power over it. As we get into the book of Daniel, we see Nebuchadnezzar believing that he can control. He's going to say, let's take the cleverest and the smartest of the young and bring them up in the way of the Chaldeans, of the Babylonians.

This isn't going to work out because God is still all-powerful. Story after story after story. Matthew 19, 26. John, I'm going to ask you to pull that one out. If you are in a stressful situation at work, if you are, if you're wondering, coming out of Monday night's meeting, how are we going to do this?

By the way, we were talking about this. He presented four options. There's actually a fifth. One is, knock it off. Just stop. Another is, just go all speed forward. Another was to put a tent. Another was to put brick and mortar.

The fifth is to continue our course. Just slow it down until the money matches the desire. Each one of these has got an obstacle in its way. And you might be wondering, what do you got there?

Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. There you go. Oh, I've been sleeping well. It was just that one night. And Bob says,.

Wouldn't it be nice if you would come down and tell us which of the five? We're praying exactly that prayer. Where do we go? Where do we go? We don't see it. We don't get it. Where do we go? By the way, isn't this what Habakkuk does?

I don't see it, God. Don't you understand? Well, in his case, he said, yeah, I'm going to send the Babylonians. Let's not ask for the Babylonians, but let's ask for him to give us the directions because with man nothing, with God all things are possible.

He is all powerful. God has a purpose and a design. We were talking about what kind of questions might you get asked if you're going through an ordination council. One of them might be, how many wills does God have?

And they can attack you whatever answer you give that. But I'm going to say this. When it's God's will, it's going to come to be. He is absolutely sovereign. Daniel 4 .35 is going to basically say that.

He does according to his will and nothing is going to stop him. He is the sovereign one. Proverbs 19 .21. Sandy, I'm going to ask you to get that and read that for us. In Psalm 135, it's going to say, God does whatever he wants.

Whether it's on the heavens or whether it's in the earth or whether it's on sea, God is going to do whatever he wants because it's his game. He created it all. He sustains it all. He's all powerful. Everything else, he is sovereign.

Proverbs 19 .21, Sandy. Stop right there. This is now the test of where are you. Are you making plans and are you seeking to make plans? Are you so concerned because option A is nasty because we're going to blow out the seams.

Option B is tough because we don't have the money to go. Option C is tough because now it might take five years. All of these. We can be looking at man's plans. We can be looking at the Babylonians. They're going to say, let's assimilate the people into our way of life.

He's going to take those four. We're going to teach you. We're going to give you the food. Man has plans and those plans are limited because they're not sovereign.

But if we get caught as people trying to decide one wants this plan, one wants that plan and this one's wrong and that one's wrong and we keep going and going and going, we'll never do anything. We have to depend on God for his sovereignty.

If we don't pray to him to give us words and gives us thoughts and answers to our prayers and show us, I don't know, this rock fell from here and that means so and so. Whatever he does to show us, we have to depend on him.

Or we're going to fail. So what you're basically encouraging us is to pray. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Yes.

Absolutely. That's so well said. Thank you. Well, share our plan that we talked about today. Go ahead. Okay, so we decided that we were going to take a day of prayer and fasting for 24 hours and end it with a meal together.

So it will be Sunday, May 7th. It will begin at like 6 p .m. And then everybody go that next day and then on Monday, May 8th, the whole church come together and have dad's deli or something like that and just have that whole 24-hour period of fasting and prayer for wisdom because James says, if anyone lacks wisdom, ask him.

We don't have to figure it out. The Lord will give us his wisdom in some way. Amen. So, yeah, that's the plan. You like that one? Yes. Yes, it wasn't my idea. It was Natan Abinger. He texted me with that idea yesterday.

And then we discussed it today and thought, yep, that's it. That should be all in on that. Yes. But they got that from God, that idea.

Yeah. And from you, you just said it as well. Sandy, start the verse again and I won't stop you until you're done. Well, I wouldn't get it. You did, all right. Proverbs 19, 21. Yes. Amen to that. Yeah.

Daniel 1–2: The First Tests of Faith and Wisdom

Yeah. Daniel 1, verses 1 and 2. Jeff, if you would read those for us. Daniel 1? Yeah, verses 1 and 2. Gotcha.

Here. All right. One page away. All right. Daniel 1, 1 and 2. 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 and 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 placed the vessels.

In the treasury of his God. Get this word. The Lord gave Jehoiakim into his hands along with some of the vessels. Nobody could get into those vessels as long as the Shekinah glory was in there to take them out.

So what we've got right now is we have had the wickedness. We've had the Shekinah glory out as we read in Ezekiel. And now the Lord gave, gave Nebuchadnezzar and some of the vessels that got taken away.

And where does he take them? To the house of his God, small g. So this is still the sovereignty of God what has happened here. Judah was taken into captivity along with the vessels from the temple according to the sovereign will of God.

We have to hold true to that. What has happened here, there are a few things that have happened here. First of all, we talked about these last week. The fulfillment of the prophecy. Deuteronomy 28. If you don't obey my commands then these curses.

That happened. And we get into Leviticus 26. If you do not give the land its Sabbath every seven years then I will give the land a Sabbath rest. And that there will be seventy years of Sabbath rest a year for every week that you didn't give it.

The wickedness of the king is being judged by God. That's in Ezekiel 11. And Shekinah Glory leaves and leaves Jerusalem vulnerable now to the next kingdom that's coming. By the way, this is after Assyria attempted and one angel killed off the army.

185 ,000, thank you. Sennacherib goes back and now the Babylonians take over. We know that is going to happen. And his sons kill him. The exile happens because of the Shekinah Glory. This is all fulfillment of God's sovereign will.

And he projected it in advance. And it's recorded in the book of Habakkuk. I will raise up a mighty and horrible nation. You can call them the Chaldeans, the Babylonians. It's basically the same. Candy, if you would get, I'm sorry, Rich, you're next to read.

Get Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah chapter 46, verses 8 and 9. This whole book makes sense when it's put under the umbrella of the sovereignty of God. This whole book doesn't make sense if you try to explain it from a worldly human standpoint.

And then the prophecies become ironclad because you know of the sovereignty of God. Isaiah was written in the time of the wickedness of the nation. It was so bad, God said that even if you pray, I'm not going to listen to you because your heart's not into it.

But at the same time of the judgment, there are promises of the Messiah to come, that beautiful chapter, Isaiah 53. And in the midst of this, this proclamation, Isaiah 46, verses 8 and 9.

Isaiah 46, 8 and 9. Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old. For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. I am God.

Remember this.

Remember this. I am God. There is none like me. We're going to do a very quick, rapid overview of 12 chapters of Daniel. And next week you're going to start us in as we go into it. Daniel chapter 1, it's actually the first two verses, God gives the people.

He gives them the land. Verse 2, the Lord gave Judah. The Lord gave Judah into his hand. And it's actually verses 3 to 21 is the first test. And the first test is, are you satisfied with God? Or can you be enticed by all kinds of sweet things?

My mind goes to a scene and the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. And the white witch, is that what she was, what was she called? I forget. Turkish delights. Right? She offers him Turkish delights. Are you going to be satisfied with Turkish delight?

Or are you going to accept the fact that God will give you what you need? First test. They pass that one. Then in Daniel 2 is the first time there's a dream. And he is distressed by that dream. And he even calls his seers and he says, I'm not going to tell you the dream.

You're going to tell me what the dream is. And then you're going to tell me what it means. And they all said, we can't do it. You're all dead. You're all dead. But then they give the chance of Daniel and he says, don't put him to death.

My God will not only tell me your dream, but he'll tell you what it means. And then Nebuchadnezzar professes, well, your God is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Second test. Bow down. Worship me.

Worship my idol. And then they get dimed out because they would pray to Yahweh and not pray to him. They were drachma'd out. I'm sorry? They were drachma'd out. Dimed out. Drachma'd out. I got it. Okay.

Thank you. I wonder if they had that phrase back then. Probably. Drachma'd out. Okay. Anyway. The three friends are put into a fiery furnace, put hotter than ever before. And when they looked in, there were four in there, one like the Son of Man.

We know that that is the image of the Son of God. And they're delivered to the second dream. And again, he's distressed. And Daniel gives him the interpretation of the dream. And he says, you're going to be like a beast eating grass until you know the most high rules.

And Nebuchadnezzar professes God. Chapter five. We shift in now to King Belshazzar. Mini, mini Tekel Parson. And we have a scene from the Addams family where a hand comes out and writes on the wall. What he is doing there is he's having a feast and he's had all of the princes and all the greats around come into this great hall.

And he says, take the vessels that are in storage. Where do those vessels come from? Temple. God's temple. God's temple. And he totally displeases God. Mini, mini Tekel Parson, your days are numbered.

Your kingdom will be divided. That night, Medo-Persian attacks and Belshazzar is killed. Third test. You're going to be again warned and given an idol that you must worship. And this time, Daniel is thrown into the lion's den.

And Darius is troubled all night long and he wakes up the next morning. Daniel, Daniel, are you there? Are you okay? And Daniel says, yes, my king. My God has preserved. He has shut the mouth of the lion.

Did you know that Darius then says, may the God you serve deliver you. And the book of Daniel records a profession from both Nebuchadnezzar and from Cyrus. To the God, is the God the one that can deliver?

But Belshazzar never does. Belshazzar is killed. The death of Nebuchadnezzar and the death of Cyrus isn't recorded here. Or Darius is not recorded here. An abrupt change because we go back into the time of Belshazzar.

We start to see Daniel get visions. And why do we trust that these visions are true? Because the first six chapters are an evidence of the sovereignty of God. You can't explain these first six chapters away without accepting the sovereignty of God.