How Did We Get Here?

Introduction

If you have your Bibles, you can take them and open them to Daniel chapter 1. This morning, we begin a new series in which we will work through the entire book of Daniel. I cannot confidently tell you how long we will be in this book, but my hope is that through this book, you will be encouraged but also challenged as we work through the narratives and prophecies in this book. My goal this morning is to use the first 7 verses to guide us through and introduction to the book of Daniel. So, if you will stand and let’s read Daniel 1:1-7 together.

Body

(1) Relocated (vv.1-2)

a. God redeemed, Israel rebelled

- Redeemed from Egypt

- Redeemed in from the Wilderness

- Redeemed in the Judges

- Redeemed in the Kingdom

- Their Rebellion (unfaithfulness to a faithful God pictured in Hosea)

b. God spoke, Israel ignored

- God spoke to Israel through Moses

- Leviticus 20:22–23 ““ ‘And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations, and you shall do them, so that the land, to which I am bringing you to inhabit it, shall not vomit you out. And you shall not follow the statutes of the nation that I am driving out from before you, because they did all these things, and I detested them.”

- God spoke to Israel through Joshua

- God spoke to them through the Word (Kings and Prophets)

- 2 Kings 22:8 “Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the scroll of the Torah in the temple of Yahweh,” and Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it.”

c. God released, Israel regretted

- Daniel 1:2 “And the Lord gave Jehoiakim the king of Judah into his hand and some of of the utensils of the temple of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar to the temple of his gods, and he brought the utensils to the treasury of his gods.”

- Nebuchadnezzar may have thought that it was by his power that he was able to capture Israel, but it was God who handed over Judah. Israel, from the time they claimed the land, hinted that they wanted to conform to the world (by asking for a earthly king), and as time went on, they began to do the very things God told them not to do, therefore, he gave them over to the pagan nation they desired to be.

- Romans 1:24–25 “Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to immorality, that their bodies would be dishonored among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God with a lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed for eternity. Amen.”

(2) Reassimilated (vv.3-7)

a. Assimilation

- The People: Royal and Noble (The best of the best, Leaders)

- The Process: Feed them, house them, educate them, train them

- The Goal: Minimize revolution, win the whole, bring them on board

b. Deconstruction

- The Pattern of Identification and Deconstruction in Scripture

- Nebuchadnezzar’s goal was not just to provide them a place to stay for 70 years, but he wanted to deconstruct everything they believed and knew, so that they would submit to him.

- The Pattern extended today

- John 17:14–16 “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”

-Romans 8:29 “because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn among many brothers.”

(3) Reassured: (The Book of Daniel)

a. Chapters 1-6: The Narrative that Challenges our Faith

b. Chapters 7-12: The Prophecy that Gives Hope

Conclusion