Daniel Honors God's Word

Alright. I guess it's got four verses. Yeah. Alright. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to title this message, so it's I think I've got it titled three different ways.

So title isn't as important as the content, but could have named it Daniel versus Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel versus Jehoiachin, or or Daniel honors God's word, or anyway, I think I have it several different ways. But we are in the book of Daniel, and we started last week with an introduction. We're gonna look at we're gonna read through the first eight verses, and then we're gonna turn to the book of Habakkuk. So get a little bit of context, help us to understand Daniel, and see a contrast between Daniel and Jehoiakim, two contemporaries. Jehoiakim, a little bit older than Daniel by probably about twenty years, but but I wanna contrast these two a bit and also be reminded that what the handwriting on the wall was for Belshazzar in Babylon that we looked at last week from Daniel five, what Habakkuk and Jeremiah had to say were the handwriting on the wall for the nation of Judah beef just before Daniel and his friends were taken captive.

So but let's start out with Daniel one one through eight. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem and besieged it. This is in June. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, of Judah into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. So as Daniel points out, God gave Israel, Judah over to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

God had protected Judah for hundreds of years despite their rebellious and up and down inconsistent manner, but the time for judgment had finally come after God's mercy had spared them time and time and time and time again. Verse three, the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, of the king's seed and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish but well favored, skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace whom they might teach the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans. The king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meeting of the wine which he drank. So nourishing them three years that at the end thereof, they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names.

For he gave unto Daniel the name Belteshazzar, unto Hananiah of Shadrach, unto Mishael of Meshach, to Azariah of Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. So that's where we're gonna start this evening. We're gonna kinda backtrack from there and then come back to it at the end.

Before the handwriting was on the wall in Belteshazzar's palace, it was on the lips of the prophets of Israel before it fell and Daniel as a result was taken captive. It should not have come as any great surprise to the people of Judah and the children of Israel that the judgment of God came upon them. God warned them over and over and over again. God said, repent or else the judgment is coming. I think sometimes people sort of dismiss God's warnings because they feel like, well, they haven't come in this lifetime, this century or that century and they they sort of dismiss God as being permissive.

And they mistake God's patience for permissiveness. God is not permissive. God cannot simply just ignore sin. God is a just God and he must deal with sin. But at the same time, God is also what?

Patient. But do not confuse God's patience with permissiveness because God will judge sin. And God's judgment does come upon those who refuse to repent and bow before him as Lord. He made us. He has every right to expect that of his creation.

He sent his son to die for us. He has every right to expect us to come to him through faith in his son. Thy praise the Lord, he is merciful and he is patient, but he is not permissive. He will bring justice as we talked about in the morning service as well. God had made it clear back in Deuteronomy to Israel that they had a choice laid out before them.

They could remain faithful to him, enjoy his blessings, enjoy the land, or they could turn to idols and God would smite them and scatter them. Since then, God sent many prophets to Israel, Northern Israel like Elijah, Elisha, Southern Israel like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah. God sent many prophets to Israel and to Judah. And at times, at least in Judah, it seems that some people listened, sometimes certain kings listened. Things turned around for a bit in Judah, but when the prophet died and the king died, guess what?

It kind of reverted back to the way they were before. By Daniel's by the Daniel's day of birth, the Northern Kingdom had already fallen to the Assyrians in July. Now the Southern kingdom Judah, and this is around June, was on the verge of defeat at the hand of the Babylonians also called Chaldeans here, who had overtaken Assyria, defeated its capital Nineveh, and would soon come for Jerusalem. Babylon rose quickly as an empire. We think of the Greek empire rising quickly under Alexander the Great.

Well, the Babylonian empire rose just about as quickly and died just about as quickly or more quickly than did than did Greece. And in doing so, it conquered Judah and ransacked Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar was God's hand of judgment on on Jerusalem, he makes that clear. Turn if you would to the minor prophet Habakkuk. So turn towards the back of your Bible.

Before you get to the New Testament, you'll come to Habakkuk. It's right before Zephaniah. So if you see Zephaniah, you're too far. If you see Micah, you haven't quite got there yet. Okay?

So Habakkuk chapter one. One of the prophets God sent was a man named Habakkuk. Habakkuk lived same time as Daniel lived. Daniel was a child probably, during the ministry of Habakkuk and the ministry of a contemporary that you probably know better by the name of Jeremiah. So in Habakkuk one one through nine, I'm gonna read what Habakkuk Habakkuk has a conversation here with the Lord.

He doesn't quite like what he hears, but he starts out with a question and if you don't wanna hear God's answer, then you might not wanna ask the question. He asked the question, he got the answer. It wasn't quite what he wanted, but nonetheless, it was God's answer. Habakkuk one, the burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry thou will not hear?

Even cry out unto thee of violence and thou will not save. Why does thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore, the law is slack, judgment doth never go forth for the wicked doth compass about the righteous, therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. He's describing the condition of Judah.

A few years previous, Josiah was on the throne and is Judah was headed in the right direction. They found God's word in the temple. Josiah heeded God's word. He had God's word read to the people. They responded in repentance.

There was a great revival, but Josiah had passed off the scene now. And with it, things with his death, things started to spiral back downward for his son who was ruling was not at all like his father. Verse five, behold ye among the heathen and regard the wonder marvelously. This is God's response to Habakkuk's complaint. For I will work a work in your days.

Now he's been very specific. Sometimes we read scripture and this will happen soon and well, God a thousand years is a day and a day is a thousand years. So not always sure when soon is, but God's pretty specific here. He says, I will work a work in what? Your days which ye will not believe though it be told you.

I'm gonna tell you and you're gonna find this hard to believe. But I am going to do something about this. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breath of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful, their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards and are far more fierce than the evening wolves.

Their horsemen shall spread themselves and their horsemen shall come from afar and they shall fly as the eagle hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence, their faces shall sup up the east wind and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. They should gather the people as captives like gathering up the sand. That is God's description of the nation of Babylon here called the Chaldeans that are going that are are even now moving their way towards Israel as Habakkuk is speaking. Habakkuk saw it coming and asked God when he was going to do something.

God replied, I am going to do something. But you might you'll find it hard to believe. Good king Josiah had died. He died at the hand of Pharaoh Necho. God told Josiah when he was reigning that God would not bring judgment as long as Josiah was alive.

God told Josiah not to go out to meet Pharaoh Necho. Josiah did anyway and he died. And his sons were nothing like him. Jehoiakim, his son was a wicked man who quickly undid the reforms of his father leading to swift judgment from God upon his nation. Though The USA is not Israel, we have certainly been blessed by the God of Israel.

I think that is a very true statement. We have been extremely blessed. But we will also one day feel the wrath of God just like every kingdom of man has fallen before us. It happened with Israel. Don't think it won't happen with us.

God is a patient and a merciful God. Praise him for his mercy. However, God is a just God and eventually, God must bring bring judgment. He has time and time again. He will one day.

We too have turned away from God as a nation into debauchery, hedonism, paganism. We call it by a name called secular humanism. Don't that sound better than paganism? Secular humanism. But that's just another name for paganism.

It's another kind of paganism. We don't worship God's images made out of stone, we worship our bank account. We worship pleasure. We worship ourselves. That's secular humanism.

We too, one day, will face his wrath and the handwriting will be on the wall. It was in this day that Daniel and his friends, nobleman by birth, as we read in Daniel one, smart, good looking, cultured young man in Israel, but godly men by choice and the grace of God were taken by Nebuchadnezzar. These young men in contrast to king Jehoiakim were more like his father. Daniel and his friends took after king Josiah, sadly not Jehoiakim. No doubt their parents had much to do with this.

Sadly, their parents would have to let go of their children very soon as their children would be taken from them. This has happened before and this may happen again. Sadly, throughout history, this has happened and is happening now. When wicked men rule, often these things happen. We see the message of Habakkuk and we'll look a little bit more closely at the wickedness of Jehoiakim in contrast to Daniel.

The wickedness of Jehoiakim. He's mentioned here. We read his name. Remember back here in verse in chapter one. I think in verse one, it mentioned, it said here, in the third year of the reign of who?

Jehoiakim. So who's Jehoiakim? Jehoiakim is mentioned, reigned in the place of his father Josiah following a brief stint, I think three months by his brother Jehoahaz who was deposed by pharaoh Necho. He immediately, that is Jehoiakim, immediately rebelled against the Lord of the word of the prophets, among them the prophet Jeremiah. He had Jeremiah thrown into prison because Jeremiah spoke against him.

And that is Jeremiah brought prophecy from God that was not want what Jehoiakim wanted to hear. So Jehoiakim's response, reaction to that is, he's attacking me. So he threw him into prison. That's again is something that kings often do. Don't wanna hear and don't want people allowed to speak something that isn't part of their narrative.

I think we're starting to see a little more of that here. He threw Jeremiah in prison, but God's word and God were not in prison. And Jeremiah called for a scribe, a friend of his by the name of Baruch. He had Baruch come to the prison and he had Baruch write down a prophecy declaration from Jeremiah to be read in the temple. Baruch wrote the words down, Baruch went to the temple and he read the message from Jeremiah.

And then some people heard that and they wanted to hear wanted him to come and speak to these people, the other group of scribes. So he did that. And one of those scribes said, well, I've got to take this to Jehoiakim and so he took the scroll that Baruch had brought and he brought it to Jehoiakim and he read the words of Jeremiah to Jehoiakim. And of course, Jehoiakim listened. No.

Jehoiakim took the scroll from the man who brought it, he chopped it up into little pieces and he threw it into the fire. Now, do you think that taking a paper scroll on which God's word is written and throwing it into the fire is going to change what God has declared? The answer is no. All he did was to demonstrate his defiance before God and to bring swifter judgment upon himself and sadly his people. This man had no regard for the word of God.

Very opposite of his father, Josiah. Josiah found Hilkiah actually the priest found the books of the Pentateuch in the temple, brought them to Josiah. Josiah wept and and tore his clothes and and led the people in repentance. That was Josiah's response to God's word. Jehoiakim's response, tear it up and throw it in the throw it in the fire.

By the way, that's been done a lot of times since then. This man had no regard for the prophets of God or their warnings. This man showed no true allegiance to God and he led Israel into judgment. This man claimed to believe in God, But when God said something he didn't like, he just what? He cast aside.

I believe that happens a lot today even in places you might not think. Not only are our places of higher learning following suit, which they are, have been long time ago, Harvard and Yale, what were Harvard and Yale when they started? They were seminaries for training pastors. That's what Harvard and Yale were. You will find little to know truth about God being taught in Harvard and Yale.

Some of the leading evolutionists and skeptics concerning God come out of Harvard and Yale. When I was interested in science, I used to get a I used to get a science magazine and it had articles in it. Two of the people that regularly had articles in the science magazine were Thomas j Gould and Niles Eldridge. And most of the time, their articles were praising and declaring evolution to be fact and declaring Christians and creationism to be myth and foolishness. They were teachers at Harvard, if I recall correctly.

Not only are places of higher learning following suit, our politicians are following suit, but even many of our pulpits and seminaries today are following suit. Unwilling to stand for the Bible in its what? Entirety. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. Even the parts I don't like, they are still God's word.

They may not fit nicely into our culture or our worldly philosophy today or our politics, but we can't just ignore them. We must believe them and find a way to apply them to our lives. Jehoiakim didn't wanna do that, he just wanted to be left alone. He wanted God to leave him alone and so he threw God's word into the fire as so many do today. That won't stop them from coming true and that doesn't change the veracity or the power of God behind them.

By ignoring and despising God's word, we choose his judgment rather than his blessing. By heeding and repenting, we welcome God's grace, his mercy, and his blessing into our lives. In Jeremiah 36, I'm gonna take a moment to turn there if you wanna find it with me. Jeremiah 36, I'm gonna read a few verses. This is what Jeremiah had to say to Jehoiakim after he tossed the word of God into the fire.

Jeremiah thirty six twenty seven. Jeremiah thirty six twenty seven. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the roll and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah saying, take thee again another roll and write it all the former words that were in the first roll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. Why why did God tell him that? Well, just to emphasize that him throwing it in the fire just doesn't change it.

It remains the same. And then, verse 29, thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, thus saith the Lord, thou has burned this scroll saying, why has thou written therein? Saying the king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land and shall cause deceased from thence man and beast. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehoiakim, king of Judah, he shall have none to sit upon the throne of David and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity.

I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they hearken not. The writing is on the what? The writing's on the wall. God told them over and over and over and over and over and over again. But I think they mistook God's mercy for God's permissiveness and that is a mistake.

The writing was on the wall. For Jehoiakim, for the nation, not for every individual, God and his mercy always has a remnant And God will never leave or forsake us who follow him as Lord and savior. But it wasn't long before Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem following the battle of Carchemish where he defeated Pharaoh Necho. You see, Judah was kind of in between two warring nations. To the South was Egypt and Pharaoh Necho, to the North was Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon and they got squeezed in the middle.

But when Nebuchadnezzar finally defeated Necho, then he came once he got rid of the big guy, he came to besiege Jerusalem. He took several of the young noblemen as captives. Who would that be? Well, there were several many of them, but among them were Daniel, Ananias, Mishael, and Azariah. And he took many articles from the temple back to the temple of his God as trophies to declare that his God, he thought, he so thought was mightier than whose God?

Than the God of Israel. You think Nebuchadnezzar's gonna find out different? Well, we know for a fact he does find out different and he does find out the hard way. The issue was not with Israel's God, the issue was with Israel. For Israel's God is just as powerful today as he was then.

Less than twenty years later, Jehoiakim would be dead and his beautiful city a heap of ashes because he wouldn't listen to what God had to say. Now, let's look in contrast quickly to Daniel to Daniel. How does Daniel fare here in Daniel chapter one? First of all, what is happening to Daniel in Daniel chapter one? Upon getting to Babylon, Daniel and his friends enter the University of Babylon and their training in the wisdom of the world began.

In Daniel's day, Babylon was the center of learning for the world. The greatest scientists and scientific knowledge in the world in Daniel's day was coming out of the city of Babylon. The hanging gardens of Babylon were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and they were a remarkable feat of physics and engineering and biology and botany and all kinds of things all rolled in to one. Much like the universities in, say, The United States, like Harvard and Yale and MIT. Daniel was privileged, though a captive, he was privileged to enter the greatest university of his day, like somebody trying to get into Harvard.

He wants to go to Harvard. Daniel got to go to Harvard. It was the Mecca of the intelligentsia of his day. And he began his training. On top of that, he was surrounded by the luxuries and pampering which came with living in the palace.

He was going on a three year for a three year degree in serving Nebuchadnezzar. But like many or most of our universities of our day, the goal in training Daniel was not to make him smart. That was the stated goal. But to make him Babylonian. That was the purpose of his training.

He was a Hebrew. He believed in how many gods? One. He believed in the God of the Bible. He believed in the word of God.

He believed he was made by God. He believed he was made by God to serve God. But this university's main purpose was to make him Babylonian and Babylonian was pagan. It was his mind they were after to mold it in the Babylonian way and to change it from the Hebrew much like many secular schools today. I I watched a movie just this week.

Can you remember the name of it? Anyway, it was a it was a movie about this young lady that went to university. She came from a Christian home. She the biology teacher at the university, of course, it was a state school was teaching what? Evolution.

And she began to waffle a bit and her dad caught on to it. Her dad challenged her dad went to the university to talk to professor and the professor challenged him to a debate. So professor, you know, he knows all the ins and outs of dad, not so much. But in the end, God provided somebody to help dad and actually came to debate and spoke up for him and and it it turned out good in the movie. And the young lady decided that she would stick with the word of God.

But this is a battle that goes on in our in our universities and in our schools every day. And many young people that come from Christian homes are are sucked into it. This was the goal of Nebuchadnezzar. They want to make Daniel and his friends Babylonians. The first thing they did really keys us in on that.

What was the first thing they did? They changed their they changed their names. They changed their names from names that reflected the God of Israel to names that reflected the gods of what? Of Babylon. They're trying to erase their their past history, their memories, their connections to Israel and Israel's God to reconnect them to Babylon and to Babylon's gods.

Daniel means God is my judge. Belteshazzar is a name honoring the Babylonian God, Bel. And they did that with the other three that are mentioned here too. They taught them the language of Babylon and with the teaching of the language of Babylon came Babylonian customs and things as well. They taught them many things in regards to probably math and science.

Some of them were probably true, some of them were not true at all. But when they tried to change their diet, Daniel took issue. He would not he determined in his heart not to be defiled by food that was directly contrary to the word of God. Why? Why did Daniel verse verse eight, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat nor the wine which he drank.

Therefore, he requested the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. He couldn't he could listen to their teaching and believe what he wanted and reject what he didn't. He could do that. He could learn their language that wasn't directly in conflict with with being a Hebrew and believing in God and serving God. He couldn't stop them from calling him Belteshazzar, if that's what they wanted to call him, didn't change him, but he could choose what he put in his what?

He could choose what he put in his mouth And this was directly contrary to the word of God, to the old covenant, God's covenant between God and the nation of Israel. Now Paul makes it clear when we get to the New Testament that some of those things in the Old Testament were only for the nation of Israel, and thus Gentiles were not even requested to follow some of the things like the dietary restrictions that Israel was. But Israel was, and Daniel was in the Old Testament, and Daniel's under the old covenant, and he couldn't do it. He was smart about the way he addressed his overseer. We won't take time to go in that story, but many of you know the story.

He said, well, just test us for how long was that? Ten ten days? Just test us for a little while and see how we fare. And if we are, you know, if if we're all, you know, no good then but if we're healthy, then maybe you would consider suggesting to Nebuchadnezzar that we not do your diet. Daniel was smart and he was wise.

But Daniel stood by what? He stood by God's word. Jehoiakim, he did what? He threw he tossed it in the fire. He threw it away because he didn't like what it had to say.

Daniel's life was on the line. And Daniel Daniel wasn't going to throw it away. Oh, how we need people today like Daniel, not people that cloister themselves away in a monastery. Jesus said, I pray father not that you take them out of the world but you protect them where? In the world.

We do need people in state universities. We have one. Her name's Carolyn Kearns. I talked to her this week. She is now professor in the University of Alabama.

God needs people, his children in places like that. He needs us at at work with people who aren't saved. He he needs us out doing stuff with our neighbors so that we can be a testimony and a light to them. But how how we need people like Daniel today, young people who know and revere the word of God, like Daniel and not like who? Jehoiakim.

Who listen and heed what God has to say, who are willing to suffer if need be to do what is right, who have the discernment to know what is necessary to take a stand for and what is not. I remember when I was a kid and growing up in a fundamental church, women did not wear pants to church. That was a no no. And in some circles, we went to a couple of camps with the kids and one of the camps we went to, girls could not wear pants to camp. They had to wear what they called culottes.

I don't even know if you know what culottes are, but they were really long baggy shorts, kinda like capris but really super baggy. And if you were doing any sports activity, not all that modest. But but they couldn't wear pants and culottes weren't pants. Why? I guess because they were baggy.

I think I don't find a verse in the Bible that says women can't wear pants. I I find a verse in the Bible that women shouldn't wear clothes pertaining to a man and man shouldn't wear clothes pertaining to a woman. In other words, we shouldn't be transvestites. Okay? That's wrong.

But clothing styles change and guess what? They make women's what? They make women's pants. And pants can be immodest, but so can what? But so can dresses and so can skirts.

They can be immodest too. And I think some people got too bent out of something, an application. They kinda made the application the rule. The rule is modesty. The rule is you don't cross dress.

The rule is not thou shalt not wear what? Pants. Yeah. That's right. But then there are some things that are that are clear.

How about thou shalt not commit adultery? Is that clear? How about homosexuality is a sin? Is that clear? How about stealing?

Is that still is that clear? For Daniel, this was clear. God had said, you can't do this. So Daniel said, I can't do that. I can't do that.

This is a hill I'm gonna die on. This is something why? Because, well, this is clearly what God says in his word. And I must follow God's word. Judgment came to Israel because men like Jehoiakim refused to honor and heed God's word.

The testimony of God shown brightly in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar and changed the empire because of one man and three friends, mainly Daniel. Because he refused to what? He refused to toss this aside. I must obey God rather than man. I must take a stand on the things that are clear, God and his word.

And because of that, God used him. Choose to be a Daniel and not a Jehoiakim. First, you gotta know God's word. Then you have to believe God's word. And then you have to heed God's word.

Then you have to proclaim God's word because the world needs to hear it. Not that women can't wear pants. They need to hear that we're sinners that need a what? A savior. They need to hear there is a heaven and a hell.

They need to hear that sin is still sin and God has not what? God has not changed his mind And that we honor God enough to do our best to not only declare right from wrong, but also to what? But also to live it. It's one thing to say it, it's another thing to live it. Which one was Daniel doing?

He was living it. Yeah. He was living it. No doubt God used Daniel as he did to be a light, a messenger, a mouthpiece for God, a prophet of hundreds of years' future yet to come because Daniel was willing to stand for God, because of Daniel's love for God and for God's word. And I will close with Psalm one.

Psalm one. And I think this kind of depicts here Daniel for us. Blessed is the man. Was Daniel blessed despite being a captive? Very much so.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. That's Daniel.

He served three kings, two different empires and he did so all the time in pagan countries standing firmly on God's word. They all knew who Daniel was and they all knew who what Daniel believed because he really did believe it and he really did live it. He really did love it. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you Lord for this day that you've given us the opportunity to be here and hear your word, preach your word.

I pray, Lord, as we leave this place, we would live your word, that we would look for opportunities to be a light and a testimony in the day in which we live. Lord, that we would keep our heart humble before you, that we would receive your word with gladness and not be those like Jehoiakim that tossed aside the parts that we didn't like. Lord, thank you for your word. It is a blessing. Lord, help us to always see it as that, to embrace it and the author of it.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.