(Daniel: The Man God Uses #1) Christ the Goal — Ed Miller

Daniel, Man God Uses,. TAPE 1, CHAPTER 1, CHRIST THE GOAL.

Chris, certainly in your presence we find all things. We pray that you might teach us what it means to abide in the presence of the Lord. Thank you for every part of your word and in a special way tonight we thank you for this section of Daniel that we'll be looking at.

We've sung in thy presence, in thy presence there's light. In thy presence, in thy presence there's sight. We just pray that we might have eyes to see your light. We'd ask you to deliver us from all that is flesh and all that's from man and man's ideas.

Ground us thoroughly in yourself, in your heart. Thank you. We pray in Jesus' name. Let me say a few things by way of introduction. Now I didn't know who was going to be coming to this first study and I see it's those that have been here before and so welcome again.

Studying Scripture to Know the Lord

But let me just say this by way of introduction. Whatever we study, what we're going to begin now or when we resume our Thursday nights, whatever we study, whether they be book studies, whether they be topical studies, character studies, whether we're in the Old Testament or the New Testament, it's our one purpose to study the Bible in order to know the Lord.

That's why we gather, that's why we meet together and that's what we're going to be looking at. We want to know the Lord more intimately. Since 1965 or there around, I've been convinced and I believe it's by God, I've been convinced that the only profitable, edifying, even legitimate scriptural way to study the Bible is to study the Bible in order to know Him.

And so that's why we gather. Really, when you think about it, what good is prophecy and what good is doctrine and what good are dispensations and theology and all the rest if you don't know how to walk with God?

If you don't know intimate fellowship with the Lord, what good's all the rest? And so that's why we're going to gather and look into God's Word. We want to see from God what His revelation of His own heart is.

We want to see Him, His will, His purposes and so on. A second thing that I'd like to mention is this. I really attempt, I'm not saying I always succeed in this, but I really attempt to make each study stand on its own two feet.

And what I mean by that is this. It's true that the studies build. Lesson two is built on lesson one. Lesson three is built on lesson one and two and so on. But because we're studying to see the Lord, let's say that you miss a few lessons and you come in the middle or three quarters of the way through.

You don't need to be embarrassed about that because each study is a study in itself. And so even if you miss, it's true that there's some building, but if you miss each study, hopefully because of the age-abiding principles, you'll still be able to see the Lord and profit through it.

And if you miss one or two or five or ten studies and you'd like those, they're all being taped as you see and you're welcome to have those tapes without cost. Just let us know. Let Lillian know. She's the one that does all the work and then she'll make sure you get those.

In this connection, just a reminder, since we are taping and many of these tapes go out to many different places, we would ask you if you have any questions or comments, if you'd be so kind as to hold them till the end.

We want to hear your ideas and your comments, but rather than break up the continuity for those studying by tape, if you just hold those to the end or jot them down or something and then we can discuss them.

And even our discussion will be on the tape, but at the end, so that others might benefit from your light, if you have some light. I just don't want to break up the thought, so if you'd be so kind as to do that.

And then I suppose I should make one comment about, we've had so many calls about babysitting. And do we have facilities and all to babysit? And you know, that's tough, because we've tried that in the past and it's been, it's sort of overwhelmed our girls, because at one time we had 30 children.

And it's just, there's no way, there's no possibility that we can accommodate all of the requirements. And it's a little tough on us to, in a place like this, down in the cellar to have that many people.

And one child did get hurt and we are a little nervous about that. So we'd appreciate it if somehow you could make some kind of accommodations. I hope that that doesn't inconvenience you in such a way that you won't be able to attend.

Now, that's our desire, but that's not an ironclad rule. I mean, if somebody brings a child, we're not going to call the sheriff or anything like that. And if you can attend the needs of your child and still listen to the Bible study and it's not disturbing anybody, there's not a problem.

But as far as babysitting itself, we're not going to provide that. So we just hope that you'll understand that and cooperate with that. Okay, having said that, I don't know what else we need to say by introduction.

Everybody knows where the restroom is and so on. If you don't, it's right across the hall there on the other side. Okay, let me share what I'd like to look at this fall. I'll ask you to open to Daniel, if you would.

Daniel and the Heart of God in the Prophets

Chapter 1. There's a series of studies that I've been working on now for some time. And Lillian still hasn't finished my research on all of it. So we're still working on that. But it has to do with the heart of God in the prophets.

And it's a very general look at the place of God in the writing prophets. And rather than studying the message of Obadiah and the message of Nahum and the message of Micah and so on, it's not a book study.

But it's sort of a standing back and seeing where Nahum fits in the whole history of the Old Testament. And it is really an eye opener. As far as your understanding of the whole Old Testament, it's a real key to unlock an awful lot.

And we're going to get into that. But before we do, there's something that is sort of an introduction that God just broke on our hearts this summer as we were studying the prophets. And so I want to spend the first five weeks on this.

The first six chapters of Daniel. Now, Daniel is unique among all the prophets. He's different than all of the prophets. And what we want to do is get a good look at him. Not the book of Daniel. The man.

We're going to look at the prophet himself, Daniel, from the first six chapters. And I believe it will take us far into the understanding of God's heart in the rest of the prophets. I think that will make sense as we go along.

So this will sort of be a character study of the man, Daniel. If I had to give a title to this series, these five lessons, it would be, The Man God Uses. By the way, if you want that fan on. I don't know if that, if it's not, no, you don't want it on?

All right. If it is, just push the button, Jim. You just come up then. You're in charge of the fan. Okay. Can you? Kurt, make sure he does it right. It would be, The Man God Uses. God has done something wonderful in this book of Daniel.

And Daniel just sort of stands out among the prophets. Now, I think some of you have sat through some of our introduction studies before, and I find I'm always chewing my tongue to a stump trying to apologize for introduction lessons.

And yet, they're important. And they're necessary. And my wife keeps nudging me and I'll say, hurry up, get through that and get into the meat. But really, some of the meat doesn't taste as good if you don't get some of this background.

So I want to do a little donkey work and ask for your patience as we just sort of fly over the whole book in order to catch the flow of the Holy Spirit and try to key in on what will become the master key to all of the prophets, I believe.

Now, I don't know what your background is and what you're familiar with in the book of Daniel. But I think in many cases, some people are afraid of Daniel. And they just sort of lump Daniel together with Revelation.

They say, Daniel and Revelation, oh no, full of mystery, full of prophecy, full of symbols and weird creatures. How in the world are we going to understand massive images of men with heads of gold and shoulders of brass and hips of silver or the other way around and legs of iron and feet of iron and clay?

How are we going to understand a tree that reaches all the way to heaven and whose branches shade the entire globe? Strange beasts like winged lions and lopsided bears and four-headed leopards and ten-horned beasts and rams and he-goats and large-mouth horns and so on.

And you go through that and you say, oh my, I give up. To understand Daniel, you almost have to be a mathematician. You go into chapter 9 in his 70 weeks and so on. And you have to understand Egyptian and Medes and Persian and Greece and Roman history and background and all of that.

You realize you can know all of that and miss the Lord. You can memorize every word in Daniel and miss God. Wouldn't that be a tragedy to be an expert on the facts, on the bark, on the shell of Daniel and miss the Lord Himself and the Revelation of Himself?

Even if you were able to nail down what those things meant and say, now this applies to Babylon and this applies to the Medes and this applies to the Persians and this belongs to the Macedonian Empire and this is Alexander the Great and this is Antiochus Epiphanes and here's where it divided up into four and this is Rome.

Even if you were able to trace it to the coming of Messiah and outline all of those, that timetable for the coming of Messiah and the cross, you can still miss God. In fact, thousands and thousands of Christians study Daniel and never see the Lord.

And that's tragic. And so when we study Daniel or any book in the Bible, it's got to be in order to know the Lord. Now, let me make three non-controversial observations. I say that because Daniel is such a controversial book.

God Makes Himself Known in Daniel

And almost everybody that approaches it has their system of theology and they all approach it a certain way and if you don't approach it that way, then you don't understand the book and so on. There are three observations that I make from this book that everybody who has a heart for the Lord, I'm not talking about the destructive critics, I wouldn't give two cents to study them, but I'm talking about people who love the Lord.

They all agree on these three things and so there's no controversy here whatsoever and I think those three things that are so clear contain the message of the book. So let me give you those three observations and we'll sort of fly over the book as a whole.

What I'm going to ask you to do, I'm going to spot check verses and you just come through the whole book and then we'll home in on the six chapters and then I think you'll see where we're heading. Alright, whatever else you see in Daniel, everybody agrees on this.

God is doing something in Daniel. That's pretty general. God's doing something and it's clear what he's doing. In the book of Daniel, God is making himself known. That's what he's doing in the book of Daniel.

You see, the story of Daniel is more than a history of one nation conquering another nation. Some people approach Daniel, they say, well, Babylon beats up Israel and then the Medes and Persians beat up Babylon and then Greece beats up the Medes and the Persians and then Rome comes along and kicks them and so on.

It's more than that. There's a war and you see it right in the first verses. There's a war going on behind the war. There's something going on behind the scenes and you're going to miss everything. If you miss the significance of the invisible world in Daniel.

One of the great sins that God was dealing with in his people that brought them to captivity and in this book, they're in captivity or at least they're beginning their captivity, was idolatry. They had run to other gods.

When you open the book of Daniel, don't just start reading la la la. It was a great crisis when Jerusalem was destroyed, when the wall was torn down, when the holy temple was invaded and the holy vessels were taken out of that temple.

They were taken out of the temple of the house of God and they were brought into the temple of the false god, the heathen gods. I see this wasn't just a battle man against man, Babylon versus Judah. In their thinking, it was the Babylonian gods against Jehovah.

It wasn't men fighting men. And when they had a victory, they praised their gods because their god conquered the other god of that particular nation. When you go through Daniel, you're going to be reading about Bel and Nebo and Merodach and Aku and some of these Babylonian gods.

And the whole idea is they're more powerful than the god of heaven. You're only two verses deep in the book. Look at chapter one, verse two. Good evening. 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 gods. See, we're changing gods. And he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god. And the book begins with that victory. And Babylon is now victorious over Israel.

Babylon's gods are victorious over the true God. The word Daniel means God is judged. And my, you're going to see that God is going to show himself as judge in this book. We're going to be reading as we go through the book of Nebuchadnezzar's conversion.

But I'll tell you, this is more than one man getting saved. One man coming to the Lord. This is the man that burned Jerusalem. This is the man that raped the holy temple and carried away the kings and the princes and the priests and the prophets of the Lord.

And then adorned his heathen temple with the vessels of God's holy temple. To see the true God loving that man to his knees. That's an amazing thing. To see God bringing out of Nebuchadnezzar's mouth a confession.

An adoration. Changing his heart to promote God's glory and worship and pronounce peace on the very people he oppressed. That's an amazing thing. You see it in every chapter. In chapter one, you see this change of gods.

God has been defeated and now the heathen gods are victorious and they're rejoicing and celebrating their great victory. All through chapter one, and we'll see it when we do a detailed look. All through chapter one, you see behind the scenes, there's God.

There's the true God. In chapter two, if you just glance at the chapter, it's the true God that gives Nebuchadnezzar his strange dream. It's not an accident. Glance at verse 10. That Nebuchadnezzar requires an impossible thing so that the wise men of Babylon have to cry out.

Chapter 2 10. There's not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king. No one else who could declare it to the king except gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. Everything in this chapter presses you outside of politics and into the realm of God.

And now Nebuchadnezzar is demanding something that only God can do. Glance at verse 17 and 18. It's to the true God that the Hebrews pray. The true God answers in verse 19. The true God, Daniel acknowledges in 28.

There's a God in heaven who reveals mystery. And then look how chapter 2 ends. God makes himself known. And finally, he says, surely your God is a God of gods, a Lord of kings, a revealer of mysteries.

God’s Sovereignty in History

Turn to chapter 3. Look how chapter 3 ends. Verse 28. Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who put their trust in him, violating the king's command, yielding up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.

Therefore, I make a decree that any people, nation, or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap inasmuch as there is no God who's able to deliver in this way.

Now don't forget, this is politics. These are the nations of the earth. And at the end of every chapter, God makes himself known. Therefore, look how it begins. Verse 2. It seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me.

How great are his signs! How mighty are his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His dominion is from generation to generation. That's how it begins. Look how it ends. Verse 34. At the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven.

My reason returned to me. And I blessed the Most High. I praised and honored him who lives forever. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing.

He does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. No one can ward off his hand or say to him, What hast thou done? Verse 37, please. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven.

All his works are true. His ways just. He's able to humble those who walk in pride. Don't read that la la la. Daniel, above all other books, maybe Jonah accepted. Daniel, above all other books, is a book on evangelism.

It's a book of soul winning. It's a book of missions. It's a book of revelation. God is making himself known. Every chapter. Every chapter. It's been said that Daniel covers the period of time called the age of the Gentiles.

See, that's not an accident. What's God doing during the age of the Gentiles? He's making himself known. It's all about. He's making himself known. Chapter 5, same thing. Another king. The great grandson of Nebuchadnezzar.

It's the true God that writes upon the wall. It's the true God that calls him into judgment and allows his kingdom to be overthrown. Look at verse 22 of chapter 5. You have not humbled your heart. You've exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven.

They've brought the vessels of his house before you. You've praised the gods of silver and gold and bronze and iron and 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.

Chapter 6, another king, another kingdom. What's God doing? Still making himself known. God's everywhere in this chapter. And at the end, again, a decree is written. Verse 26. I make a decree, says this heathen king, that in all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel.

He's the living God and enduring forever. His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. His dominion will be forever. He delivers and rescues and performs signs, wonders in heaven and on earth. Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lion?

Whatever else you see in Daniel, everybody has to agree on this. God is making himself known. Now hold that fact. Here's fact number two. And everyone that studies the word has to agree on this. Daniel is also a book of history.

Daniel as Prophetic History

It's a book of history. There are real people, real events, real kings, real kingdoms, real nations going against other nations, wars and victories. Nebuchadnezzar really lived. And so did Belshazzar, his great grandson.

And so did Darius, the king of Persia. And so did Cyrus. There are real people that really lived. Now some people get all afraid because there's such symbolic language in Daniel. No symbol is left unexplained.

Yes, it's symbolic language, but it's just talking about history. Say, oh, there's this man with a golden head and he's a giant. Look at chapter two, verse 38. At the end of that verse, he explains it.

You are the head of gold. You don't have to wonder what it means. Verse 39, after you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you. Then a third kingdom of bronze. Then there'll be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron.

He explains those symbols. There's a tree that reaches all the way to heaven. Say, how in the world am I going to understand that? Look at chapter four, verse 20. The tree that you saw, and then glance down to verse 22.

It's you, okay. You don't have to wonder what it means. He comes out and tells you. He even interprets the handwriting on the wall, everything. In chapter seven, you scratch your head and say, four beasts and what weird beasts they are.

My, you just read that and you wonder if you'll ever understand. Look at chapter seven, verse 17. These great beasts, which are four in numbers, are four kings. Who will arise from the earth. He tells you.

You don't have to wonder what they are. You say, yeah, but what are the 10 horns? Verse 24, as for the 10 horns, out of these kingdoms, 10 kings will arise. Say, yeah, but then in chapter eight, there's a ram and he's colliding with a eagle.

What's that all about? Look at chapter eight, verse 20. The ram, which you saw with the two horns represented the kings of media and Persian. Verse 21, the shaggy goat represents the kingdom of graves.

And the large horn that's between his eyes is the first king. That's Alexander the great. He tells you, you don't have to wonder. Yes, it's full of strange language, but in every case, he tells you what it means.

He tells you what it means. And in every case, it's history. It's history, nations, people, kings, kingdoms, wars, men. The book of Daniel is describing history until the end of time, not just four kingdoms, but it takes you all the way to when he sets up his kingdom at the end of time on the earth.

We won't go into it now, but he's that little stone in chapter two, verse 44. In the days of the final kings, he comes down and he destroys the kingdom. And then that little stone grows into a mountain and fills the earth.

That's the final, that's his kingdom. The whole book is history, history, history. I call attention to that because of this. What is God doing in Daniel? He's making himself known. What is God's stage, his platform?

What is the scene of God's activity? Where does God make himself known? It's always in history, always, always through history, history of nations, history of individuals, at all times and in all places.

God is making himself known in history. The book of Daniel, I think, is the greatest revelation in the Bible, showing us that history is not just an arbitrary sequence of events that just happen. In this book, God's behind the scenes and God's at the helm and God's pulling the strings and God's pushing the buttons and God is controlling.

And God gives you a one-time look at four different nations. And he says, I want you to see Babylon didn't just come in, I did it. And I was with the Medes and I was with the Persians and I was with Greece and I was with Rome.

Get a good look at that. And then God steps back again and he says, now what you saw here will be true throughout all the age of the Gentiles. I'll show you once, so you'll know forever. That's what Daniel's all about.

God is behind the scenes. And what was true of the Babylonians and the Medes and the Macedonians and the Romans, God is doing that now, today. God is behind history. Daniel shows you an active God. He's alive.

He's moving, whether we see him or not, in the most insignificant event, in the most catastrophic event. He's behind every festival. He's present at every funeral. He is involved in everything. He's behind the baby's cradle.

He's behind the monarch's throne. He's ruling in history. He's behind history. He's forgiving. He's neutralizing. He's ruling. He's overruling. He's initiating. He's creating. He's upholding. He's regulating.

He's restraining. He is doing all things. He's moving in every fact and in every event, in every place, in all of history. History is not some dry chronicle. I remember when I was in school, taking the same history course five times.

That must have been a record. And finally, they allowed me, that Lillian will explain maybe later. I filed my diploma under M for Miracle. I really did. In my file, my diploma's under M, because I was going to flunk out again because of history.

And I just closed my eye and I just, you know, all multiple choice, A, M, C, O, B. And I aced the test. And I didn't even read most of the questions. Now, that's grace, and that's why I put my diploma.

But that's history. To me, it was just a dry chronicle of departed mummies and all these ancient ruins that meant nothing. But in Daniel, you see that God is always moving on the stage of history. Behind all the fume and all the smoke of world events, great things, small things, history of nations, history of people, your history, my history, their history, our history.

Gah! Gah! He's there. He's alive. History is not just dead facts. It's program. It's alive. It's progress. It's finale. It's the Lord moving. And it'll be consummated according to chapter 7, 12 to 14, when the Lord Jesus comes the ancient of days and sets up his kingdom and so on.

History is the stage on which God always works. That's his platform, behind the scenes, weaving in and out of all events, God. Now, you're not going to understand Daniel if you don't see that God is making himself known.

You're not going to understand Daniel if you don't see that God is making himself known on the stage of history. In every event that comes into your life, God's there somewhere doing something. The third observation, and I think once we see this, we'll understand where we're heading.

God Uses His Captive and Imperfect People

Average person thinks of the book of Daniel, especially these six chapters. He thinks, wow, what wonderful faith of these servants of the Lord. Let's study the fiery furnace. Let's study Nebuchadnezzar's conversion.

Let's study the handwriting on the wall. Let's study the lion's den. These are stories the artists have found. These are the Sunday school stories. We have a brother that shares with us at the men's conference sometime.

I think some of you know him, Dana Cognon. And Dana, he's just a wonderful teacher of the word of God. And he has a saying. You share a blessing with him and he'll go, that'll preach. That'll preach. Well, when you come to these six chapters, that'll preach.

It just stands on its own. Who isn't thrilled to hear about the fiery furnace and the fourth man in the furnace? That'll preach. It just preaches itself, these six chapters. But if these six chapters aren't more than something that some artist can put on a canvas and some hymn writer can put into a hymn, this is more than good flannel graph lessons.

It is that. And praise God, I don't want to take it away from the teacher. These are wonderful stories and they're great topics for conference preachers and so on. But there's something about these six chapters which is fantabulous.

Something that's great. And the Holy Spirit does something over and over and over again in these chapters. Now, if you're going to see this common denominator in these six chapters, you need to realize in a little background that the Holy Spirit focuses on a group.

And then he focuses on a group within the group. And then he focuses on a group within the group within the group. I'll show you those groups. In the first, in a general way, the whole book has to do with God's people.

And at this, they're the group, the big group. And at this time, they're under discipline. God didn't just say, live in Jerusalem. That was intentionally named Jerusalem, Salem, peace. Because God intended that his people live in the city of peace.

And because his people sinned, they were taken out of the city of peace and brought to a place called Babylon, confusion. And they were, they moved from peace to confusion. And now they're, when this book opens, this is the first of three invasions.

And they're going to spend 70 years here. And now the group, the big group, they're enslaved. They're in captivity. They're in bondage and they're about to spend a couple of generations in this terrible bondage.

And then the Holy Spirit takes his spotlight and says, now you see the whole group, the people of God. Sadly, they're in captivity. And I don't mean this to degrade God, because I know he can. But he says, I won't use them.

See, they're in captivity. And then the spotlight falls to another group illustrated in chapter one, verse three and four. The king ordered Asphenes, the chief of his officials, 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, who had ability for serving in the king's court.

And he delivered him to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. Now, of course, there was a military reason for this kind of a thing. This is the first of three invasions. And Daniel, he's about 14 years old now, not more than 20, but probably around 14 or 15 years old.

And he was taken as a prisoner of war. And the policy of the foreign tyrants was to control their captors or their captives by stripping them of their brains and their wealth. And so they go into a land and they take out all the politicians and all the smart people and all the educated people, and they just leave a lot of the peasants.

And they said, we'll have no trouble from them because they're not going to operate. They have no leaders. And that was the military reason. But God is writing a spiritual history here, too. This group was the royal family, the nobles, the princes, the skilled.

You see, the Holy Spirit said, I want you to see God's people. And then he says, they're in a mess. They're in captivity. And then he says, let's look at the best of God's people, illustrated by good looking and smart and intelligent and noble and royal and rich and so on.

And so he looks at the best of God's people. The ones that had the most light and the most privilege and the most opportunity and the most responsibility. And they were a mess, too. God's people, they're in bondage.

God's heart is pounding, saying, I've got to make myself known. I've got to make myself known in history. Who will I use? My people. They're in a mess. The best of my people, they're in a mess, too. And then the spotlight falls again on four men, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego.

The group within the group within the group. Now for the next six chapters, the Holy Spirit is going to begin to tell the stories of these men who are known for their union, their heart, their walk with the Lord.

Understand the book of Daniel. You got to know that God's doing something. He's making himself known. You need to know that God's doing something on the stage of history. That's where he always makes himself known.

Hey, I suggest to you, brothers and sisters in Christ, that God always uses men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Every place on this globe where God is making himself known in history, he finds a Daniel.

He finds a Shadrach, a Meshach, and Abednego. Those are his instruments. God never makes himself known in history until he has that. That's the remnant of the remnant. That's the best of the best. And I felt like we couldn't get into the study of the prophets unless we understood what these men look like.

We need to get a look at the kind of men that God always uses on the stage of human history when he makes himself known. And oh, it's my prayer as we look at some of these things. Look at some of the characteristics of the select group that God would raise up from among us.

Men like this. God's going to make himself known. There's no question about that. And he's going to do it in history. Wants to use men like these. So now you know what we're after. This is what we're looking.

And I believe that's the theme of the book of Daniel. It's how God makes himself known in history using men like these godly men. I'd like us to look at the first principle and then we'll close. And that'll set us up for next time.

Setting the Heart to Please God

Oh, by the way, these chapters are rather lengthy. And it's fall. It's school time. So can I sign some homework? It will really help if you would read the chapter in advance. But I don't want to take the time to read 54 verses and put that on tape, you know.

So in other words, next week, we'll do chapter two and then the week after chapter three and so on. So each week, sometime during the week, just read the chapter. And maybe some of you more ambitious people like to even study it and do a little digging.

That'll be beneficial and so on. Daniel chapter one, just a couple of verses here. In verse five, the king appointed for them, that is this select group, a dearly rationed from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank, 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, Meshach, and Azariah. That's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego with their other names. Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them.

To Daniel, he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah, Shadrach, to 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 sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the official. Now let me just tell you the story here.

I think you might know it. Uh, he was finally taught his commanding officer into allowing them to eat vegetables, lentils, and they were tested for 10 days. And at the end of 10 days, they came out stronger and fairer than all those who fed on the king's dainties and so on.