Faith Under Fire-Daniel 1:1-7
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God’s Sovereignty in the Face of Turbulent Times
As we begin this morning, please turn in your copies of God’s Word to the book of Psalm, we will be reading chapter 93 shortly so go ahead and have that chapter marked and ready for that time. Also, you may as well put a bookmark in Daniel 1 as will will spend most of our time there this morning.
Last Sunday morning in a message entitled Shining God’s Light in the Darkness, we looked at the importance of shining the light of Christ even in the midst of dark troubled times. For the one who has placed their faith and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, this is especially key as we are living in times that are becoming increasingly darker by the day and if we live for Christ in dark times, His light shining through us becomes more and more brilliant.
At the same time we were reminded that as dark as things appear, there are many individuals on the pages of Scripture and throughout the history of the church, who have faced even darker times, yet they remained faithful to God, understanding His sovereignty in all things. They understood that just because things were turbulent, in no way diminished the sovereignty of God.
Additionally, we spent a good amount of time last week looking at 8 different individuals, both male and female, that made a significant impact on their world for God, despite the fact that they were young teenagers. Acknowledging that the same God Who worked through them is still working today.
We closed by considering how there isn’t a single one of us that doesn’t have incredible potential for the kingdom of God. You see, the one thing every individual that was mentioned last week had in common, wasn’t physical stature, it wasn’t incredible strength, it wasn’t unmatched knowledge, it wasn’t great abilities or talents, it wasn’t their family heritages. The one thing they all had in common, was they lived lives completely surrendered to God, lives yielded to Him. As a result, God’s light shined so brilliantly that each one of them very literally transformed the worlds they lived in for the kingdom of God. And we were reminded He wants to do the same thing through us, if we will just surrender to Him completely.
Now, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word?
The Lord reigns; He is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed; He has put on strength as His belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. 2 Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.
3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. 4 Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty!
5 Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits Your house, O Lord, forevermore.
May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.
Let’s go before the Lord in prayer;
Heavenly Father,
We praise You, The Lord Who reigns; You are robed in majesty; with strength as Your belt. As the sovereign Creator, You have established the world, and it shall never be moved. Father, as the Ancient of Days Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting. All creation praises Your Holy Name. Even The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. As all creation understands that You are Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, Your Name shall be lifted as You are the Lord on high and You are indeed mighty! And Father Scripture declares that You are more that just truthful, You are truth, You are the ultimate source, definition, and embodiment of truth, knowing this we understand that Your decrees are very trustworthy. And God, knowing You are El Elyon, the Most High God, set apart from all else, we are here this morning, set apart unto You holiness fits You and Your house, O Lord, and based on what is declared in You Word, we can trust in You forevermore.
Father, now as we consider the truths of Your Word, we present ourselves to You our hearts and minds to You, O that You would find us soft and pliable, that we would be molded by these powerful unchanging truths into mighty instruments in the Hands of You, the Master Craftsman.
These things we pray In Jesus Name, Amen
These past 2 Sundays we have read the first 6 verses of Daniel chapter 1, this week we add the 7th verse. We really didn’t discuss the verses as we were laying the groundwork for our time in the book of Daniel. This morning we will take out our knives, forks and spoons and begin the feast that is the book of Daniel.
Of course our title this morning is Faith Under Fire-God’s Sovereignty in the Face of Turbulent Times.
Ultimately the Book of Daniel has one undeniable overarching theme, that is God’s sovereignty. We will review some of the verses briefly this morning and of course in more detail when we get to them as we move through Daniel, but here are some of the many verses;
We see it in Daniel 1:2, which we will look at shortly. We see it in Daniel 2:20-21 which we will also look at shortly. We see it in Daniel 2:23
To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for You have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of You, for You have made known to us the king’s matter.”
We see it in Daniel 2:28
but there is a God in heaven Who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days….
If this be so, our God Whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him Who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from
generation to generation; 35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His Hand or say to Him, “What have you done?”
but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of His house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in Whose Hand is your breath, and Whose are all your ways, you have not honored.
I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God, enduring forever; His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and His dominion shall be to the end.
And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; His kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.’
And of course as we move to the last half of Daniel and Daniels many apocalyptic visions, God’s ability to forecast with great detail what the future held, particularly for the Gentile Nations, His sovereignty is undeniable.
As we read on, we continue to see;
God’s Sovereignty Over Earthly Rulers. Daniel 2:20-21
Before we dive into chapter 1, let’s take a few moments to consider Daniel 2:20-21
Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the Name of God forever and ever, to Whom belong wisdom and might. 21 He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding…
While Daniel declared God’s sovereignty to King Nebuchadnezzer, it would be another 23 years before he would fully understand it, which we will look at in the coming weeks when we look at chapter 4 more closely. But I want you to notice some of the specifics of this verse. First we see God’s timelessness in the words “forever and ever”. Then Daniel identifies God as the giver of “wisdom and might”. Next we see Daniel declaring God’s sovereignty over nature when he points out “He changes times and seasons”. We will come back to the next thing we see momentarily but right now move to God’s providential Hand where “He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding”.
Now, let’s go back to the one I skipped in verse 21; “He removes kings and sets up kings”.
We would have to look very hard to see a nation this applied more to than the Babylonian Empire. There were 2 periods in history where the Babylonian Empire could be considered a superpower. The first time was from 1900-1600 BC, which would have been the tail end of Abraham’s life through the days of Joseph. Interestingly, archaeological evidence from the Old Babylonian Period included a flood account very similar to what we see in the book of Genesis, but that is for another time.
What I want to look at for the next few minutes is their 2nd period as a super power. It was really quite remarkable. As an empire, Babylon was almost nonexistent after their demise in 1600 BC. While the people remained, they were always a part of other empires.
Before they ascended to prominence once again, the Assyrian Empire was the most prominent power in the middle east and had ruled ruthlessly for roughly 300 years. They were a constant thorn in the side of the united Nation of Israel for a long long time. Israel’s hatred for the Assyrian empire is clearly seen in the Book of Jonah, when the prophet Jonah was sent to warn the capital city of Assyria, Nineveh of their pending judgment if they didn’t repent. When they did repent, thus avoiding God’s judgment, Jonah spent a considerable amount of time mourning their avoidance of God’s judgment, to the point he actually asked God to strike him dead! But for the most part they were wicked to the core. About a 100 years after Jonah, God brought another prophet to prophecy agains Assyria, the prophet Nahum, this time they refused to listen, which is where the Babylonian Empire comes in to play.
As best we can ascertain from a biblical perspective, God brought Babylon to power, just as Daniel states in 2:22 where he declares “He (God) removes kings and sets up kings”. A clear indication of this is seen in how quickly Babylon rose to power and then how quickly they were removed from power.
God’s Two-Fold Purpose for Babylon.
To a large degree, God had a 2-fold purpose for Babylon.
The Destruction of the Assyrians.
First, they were the Nation selected by God to fulfill Nahum’s prophecy concerning the destruction of the wicked Assyrians. They quickly rose to power in 626 BC and a few years later conquered the Assyrians between 612-609 BC. Not long afterwards, they swept down through Judah for the purpose of conquering Egypt, which brought on one of the more famous battles in all of history, the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC. Where they soundly defeated the Egyptians as well as what remained of the Assyrians.
As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, during the Battle of Carchemish, Nebuchadnezzer was the Crown Prince while his dad, Nabopolassar reigned as king.
The next purpose for God lifting Babylon to power is the Babylonians were;
2. God’s Instrument of Judgement on Judah.
While Nebuchadnezzer was returning from defeating the Egyptians and Assyrians, he figured he may as well conquer the southern kingdom of Judah at the same time. While in that process he received word, his father had died. As far as we can tell, he took the young royals and nobility from Jerusalem with him, as well as the vessels from the temple treasury and quickly made his way back to Babylon, making that 500 mile trip in just 2 weeks. This was a trip that usually took months. But he knew if he didn’t return quickly someone else may ascend to the throne.
Now, let me ask you a question right now, before we look at how quickly the Babylonian empire faded from the scene. Based on Jeremiah’s prophecy, how long was the Babylonian captivity supposed to last? (70 years).
With that in mind, Babylon rose to power in 626 BC, conquered Assyria between 612-609 BC, then Egypt in 605, which is when the first deportation from the Nation of Judah took place, which included Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The second deportation from Judah took place in 597 BC, which was when Ezekiel was led into captivity. The the final deportation and the complete destruction took place in 586 BC.
The Babylonians were later conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire in in 539 BC. The total time they ruled was 87 years, and in that time they accomplished God’s 2-fold purpose for them.
It is hard to look at the rise and fall of the Babylonian Empire and not clearly see the sovereignty of God. Daniel knew what he was saying when he declared “He (God) removes kings and sets up kings”!
Now lets look at the first few verses of Daniel chapter 1. The first 2 verses confirm God’s sovereignty over earthly rulers as we read; Daniel 1:1-2
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with 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.
Again, this took place in 605 BC. When Nebuchadnezzer conquered Jehoiakim, who was the king of Judah, Jehoiakim had been serving as a puppet king for Egypt for 3 years. Knowing Jehoiakim was spineless, Nebuchadnezzer left him to serve as a puppet king for him for the next 3 years. Well Scripture is clear that Jehoiakim was wicked, which is interesting since his father Josiah, whom we looked at last week was a righteous king that led Judah in a period of national repentance and restoration. Jehoiakim was so wicked that about a year or two after this event, God sent the prophet Jeremiah with a scroll, warning Jehoiakim and Judah to repent. Jehoiakim was so furious he took the scroll, which by the way was the very Word of God, cut it into pieces and through it in the fire.
In keeping with our declaration of the sovereignty of God, Who was it that gave Judah, Jerusalem and Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand? (And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand).
Our next question is;
Why the vessels from the House of God?
The answer is probably a two-fold answer;
As a Thank Offering to his false god, Marduk.
Most kingdoms and nation in the ancient mid east were polytheistic. They worshipped multiple gods representing many different areas. To be honest, while there have been a few individuals who didn’t believe in any sort of god for much of history, atheism didn’t become a belief system until the 1500’s. While the Babylonians believed in many gods, their main god was Marduk. Thus, when they were victorious in battles, they would bring a thank offering to Marduk’s temple.
Our god is greater than your god!
In some ways this was all a way to taunt the defeated nations and their perceived defeated god(s). Providing evidence that their god was greater than the god or gods of the nations they defeated they would place religious artifacts in the temple of Marduk. For most defeated nations, they could place temple idols in Marduk’s temple, but there were no such idols om Jerusalem, so they took temple artifacts instead.
Moving the verse 3 we read Daniel 1:3
Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility…
Which brings another question to mind.
Why young males from the royal families and families of nobility?
To a large degree, this is answered in verse 4 where we read;
youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.
The ultimate goal was for them to be “competent to stand in the king’s palace”.
Before we look more at what they did with these young men, I want us to look back in history, where we will once again see prophecies being fulfilled.
Pride comes before the fall…
In 2 Kings 20 and Isaiah 39, which took place roughly a hundred or so years before our current passage, we see an account where Judah’s King Hezekiah became ill, ill to the point he was going to die. Hezekiah was a good and godly king and quite famous in the middle east. Well, long story short, God chose to heal Hezekiah and bless him with 15 more years to live. Not long after that, Babylon, which was largely a small and insignificant kingdom at the time, sent an envoy to congratulate Hezekiah on his restored health. As we continue to look at this account, it appears that Hezekiah, to he was a good and godly king, became a little prideful. He proceeded to show off to the Babylonian envoy. We read in Isaiah 39:2
And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
Now, perhaps your wondering how this fits with the 4 Hebrew young men. The answer is in Isaiah 39:6-7
Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. 7 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
Now, let’s look again at verse 3 of Daniel chapter 1.
Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility…
What was Ashpenaz role in Babylon? (Chief eunuch).
History tells us that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, & Azariah also became eunuchs. Thus fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy from 100 years earlier.
We will look more deeply at Daniel and his 4 companions next week. But I’d like to close with 2 main lessons.
First, we need to understand that our God is completely sovereign, and His sovereignty is not diminished in the face of turbulent times. It is hard to come up with a time more turbulent for the people of god than what Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, & Azariah were living through at this point in history. Here they were, somewhere between 13-17, ripped out of their homes, which for these young men were homes of royalty, and dragged hundreds of miles away, never to see their homeland again. Yet as we read on in Daniel, we see they remained steadfast in their faith and trust in God, even in the face of death.
Second, only God is sovereign, and in the event He choses to do something through us, whether big or small, all the glory goes to Him. We must resist the urge to be prideful in self, always giving glory to God.
Let’s close our time this morning in prayer.
