Daniel’s walk with God | Dr. Conrad Vine

[Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e e [Music] good morning everyone looks like they've had some sort of sleep first night in a different place is always a bit different isn't it it's my second night here so I had one advantage on you but it's good to be here I think this is one of the biggest early morning meetings we've had um so it's a blessing to have you all here including Terence who is just popped in from Oakland this morning so um it's good to have you here with us Terence and everyone else that's come from far and near let's um start off with a song show we're going to have when he cometh let's um stand up and get started for the morning [Music] of the shy he his [Music] children children loveer the the morning bright sh for let's stay standing and have one more song Softly and Tenderly got a number for you ler 287 [Music] Jesus is gling calling for you and for theing for you and for [Music] are Jesus isly why should we Jesus is for you and [Music] for for [Music] [Applause] Jesus is Holy pro pro for [Music] you he has mer and for you and [Applause] for Jesus is GL [Music] let's just kneel shall we and have a word of prayer Our dear heavenly father we thank you for bringing us together here this morning we thank you that you are a great God who sees each one of us individually and yes we're all different we've come from different places different backgrounds but yet you look at us as your precious child and I pray that as we Fellowship together here this morning that you will um impress upon each one of our hearts the message that is being shared I pray that you'll please be with Conrad too as he speaks that you give him a Clarity of mind and the ability to share may you give us all ears to listen as well please keep us through the rest of this day may may our fellowship be sweet and our learning be great I pray in jesus' name amen amen thank you Conrad we'll pass it over to you and looking forward to this message this morning good morning everybody morning it's a beautiful morning yes yeah Chris fair and um I stepped out of my room this morning I thought it's lovely cool air here in New Zealand I was was uh dreading speaking last night in the Heat and the temperature and I thought this morning is just a blessing that we can work work at a normal temperature so has my computer disappeared on us here do I need to say again so I'm on extend my mouse has disappeared on where's my mouse going see so my mouse has disappeared where is it w this is a mystery isn't it is good all right thank you very much all right when I was growing up my dad said never work with children or animals and uh i' add it to that um it was working at 6:30 this morning it was all set up and ready to go so anyway um for this morning um I I thought I'd talk more on on a devotion theme about Daniel's walk with the Lord because when we talk about the Book of Daniel we often talk about Daniel's prophecies and we're very familiar with the Prophecies of Daniel 2 most of our Evangelistic Series starts out with Daniel chapter 2 and then we move into Daniel chapter 7 then we do Daniel chapter 9 then we go back to Daniel chapter 8 then we just avoid 10 through2 completely we jump to Revelation that's the normal way we deal with the Book of Daniel but today I want to share with you about Daniel's own walk with the Lord because whether we are young today in terms of age or whether we've been blessed with gray hair like myself and we're further along the path of life um and whether we are young in our walk with the Lord and whether we've been walking with the Lord for 50 years there is something in Daniel's walk with God that applies to each one of us today and so um I'm conscious we have till what 7:30 I think so I'm just watching that clock carefully there and um so let's bow our heads and we ask for God's blessing upon us this morning heavenly father as We Gather here in your presence I pray that your spirit that inspired the Book of Daniel that your spirit will inspire and move upon each of our hearts today Father I ask that the lessons that we see in the life of Daniel we can apply to our own lives that we will see our own lives in his walk with you and I pray Lord that like Daniel we will have the promise that one day we will see Jesus face to face so Lord we give these next moments into your hands I ask that you still the voices of the world outside or whatever has happened in the the world whatever whatever has come in on our emails and our texts and the other notifications father we ask that you steal those voices and the only voice we hear today be that of your spirit in the name of Jesus we humbly ask amen all right so um the the life of Daniel if you if you look at the life of Daniel chronologically if you rearrange the chapters in chronological order based on how old Daniel was when he had these stories that's the that's the the that's how you'd um put the The Book of Daniel so we start out with daniiel 1 and then in Daniel 2 and Daniel 3 is nowhere to be found he doesn't appear in that chapter then you go to four but instead of going to five you go then to S and 8 then you go back to five and six before you go to Daniel 9 10-2 so if uh if you look at the Book of Daniel almost every chapter has an identifier in the opening verse of the chapter for when that story happened so if you arrange the books of rearrange the chapters of the Book of Daniel in a chronological order uh this this is this is what we find and Daniel 1 Daniel is a teenager and Daniel 10 through 12 he's an old old man and he's not going to go back to Jerusalem he's going to die as um in a foreign land and so that's the progression we're going to go through this morning so we will spend two or three minutes on each of those chapters just seeing what we can learn about Daniel's walk with God as he went through his life so let's start out with Daniel chapter 1 and this is the map of the Assyrian Empire and the Assyrian Empire EMP was based around Nineveh the city up here it's a modern day city of mosul and this was the known as the Fertile cresant here because you got the Tigris and Euphrates rivers going up here and you have mountains up here where you get snow and then you've got down here to Lebanon you got two mountain ranges in Lebanon um just along one along the coast one further in land between sidon and Damascus you've got two mountain ranges so you get a lot of rain and snow up there and you even get snow in Israel around around Mount Herman which is up here year round so this is where you got fresh water that's why it's known as a fertile cresant and the the Assyrian Empire um they were the Empire that was dominating the world at the time of the birth of Daniel and the Assyrian Empire actually lasted over a thousand years and it was one of the most brutal empires in Earth's history uh the Assyrians invented the word holocaust and they would capture a city and they would they would um dig pits full of fire and they would have the prisoners run around and the prisoners that got tired got pushed into the burning fire and that was with with um with oil that they were using and so if you read the stories of asab anabal and tiglath Pisa and those great Assyrian monarchs um you read their stories of what they did to people it is beyond brutal and this was the Empire at the time when Daniel was born but in 605 when Daniel is maybe a toddler um the the Egyptians down here and the Babylonians re revolted against the Assyrian domination and uh the king of Babylon was uh his the father of Nebuchadnezzar he and his army marched up and uh they destroyed Nineveh and then there was a battle at Kish and that battle at Kish was between the Babylonians and the Egyptians on one side and the remnants of the Assyrian army and the Assyrians were destroyed and then what as what often happens you know thieves they argue over the spoils the Babylonians turned on the Egyptians and chased them all way back to Egypt and on their way they came through Jerusalem and that's where um that's where Daniel was conquered and he was taken captive and sent back to to Babylon so when Daniel was growing up as a teenage boy he was living in the midst of what then was a World War and there was a clash of Empires going on and Daniel and his three friends in 605 BC they were forced when when the the Babylonians are chasing the Egyptians down to Egypt on his way to Egypt where where neb as he did conquer he stopped at Jerusalem 605 BC and he took as hostages and as captives some of the best young young men of of the land including Daniel and his three friends and he was then forced to walk not across the desert um because they didn't do that they would have to walk all the way around this area it's about 600 miles and he'd be marching day by day all the way back to Babylon where he was taken into the king's Palace and once they got to Babylon um they were then introduced to this is the Babylonian Empire they take over the Assyrian Empire and rather than the capital being ninev up here now the capital is Babylon down here and here's nartis impression of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon uh Babylon is in a desert and Nebuchadnezzar's wife was from northern Iran and she was homesick for the mountains of Northern Iran so he built her the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and um it was one of the wonders of the ancient world and it was uh irrigated through the the waters that went right by the City and under the city walls actually of the river Euphrates and so Daniel was invite was was brought into this city here and if you ever you go to Berlin you can see um the a German archaeologist he dug up the Ishtar gate and it literally is blue glazed brick with with winged lines on it it's a magnificent thing and the whole thing exists now in the Berlin Museum and you can see the the the the um the major gate that Daniel would have walked through on a regular basis and it really is um bricks with blue glaze on it and winged Lions on it which of course we find in Daniel 2 but the winged lion was the symbol of Babylonian Jews of their own Empire just as like the Americans use the bear and the Americans the Russians use the bear and the Americans use the bald eagle So Daniel um is brought into into the palace Daniel is a teenager and in those days people believe that what happened on Earth mirrored what was happening among the gods in Heaven Above So if the king of Babylon had conquered Jerusalem logically the gods of Babylon are more more powerful than the god of Israel That's The Logical conclusion to draw as a teenager as you're being forced to march from Jerusalem all the way across to Babylon and when Babylon when NE Daniel gets to Babylon he's put into the Babylonian University he's taught philosophy the Babylonian language he's taught their religion he's taught about astronomy and astrology because they were the experts in astrology and he would been introduced to the occultic Arts of his Babylonian conquerors and the Babylonian astrology remains today we still have the Zodiac don't we the 12 signs of the zodiac people still use horoscopes all of that is derived from Babylon as was their mathematics which was based on the number six they didn't have the concept of zero that comes later with the Arabs that's why today there are 60 seconds in a minute 60 minutes in an hour 360 degrees in a circle that's all based on multiples of six it's Babylonian mathematics and if you say I don't want anything Babylonian in my life you shouldn't be wearing a watch because watches are based on Babylonian calculations of time they're multiples of six and so so the purpose of this was so that the these young Hebrew boys they were going to be trained in the ways and the philosophy in the worldview of their Babylonian conquerors because Nebuchadnezzar's policy was to send those young men back to rule the Nations on his behalf that he just conquered and they had now been turned into good little Babylonians but they understood the culture they came from and so the purpose was for Daniel to become a Babylonian in belief and practice and his way of thinking he was also given a new name his name was changed from Daniel to belto shaza and his three friends hananiah mishael and Azariah we know them as Shadrach mishek and Abednego those are those are their Babylonian names if we were to ask them how should we remember them they would say hananiah azarah and mishel they would not want to be known as Shadrach mishek and Abednego but that's just the way they've been remembered through history and so the king of Babylon was trying to change their very identity and they were being fed the food and the wine of Babylon but Daniel decided he didn't he didn't want to eat the food from the king's table and we know from history that the Babylonians they drank a lot of beer they were expert beer makers and they ate a lot of pork pork was a prized food out there and Daniel decided he wasn't going to eat this food this is what he asked for this is a teenage boy he says prove thy servants for 10 days and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink and so Daniel decided he wasn't going to defile himself with the King's food and he asked for vegetables to eat and water to drink but why vegetables I wouldn't have asked for vegetables when I eat vegetables for the matter of conscience not because I enjoy vegetables I enjoy carbs potato pasta and bread uh to me the ideal food um but Daniel asked for for vegetables here well where's he taking this from he's taking it from Genesis 1:29 and he's saying to the king of Babylon that you once give me me food from your table but I want the food that the original Creator gave me in Genesis 1 and the phrase that is given this pulses are herb bearing seeds that's the phrase that's used here and so in Genesis 1 it says God said behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the Earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seat seed to you it shall be for meat or for food and so God gave us every herb bearing seed and I used to remind my mother that Brock brol is not a herb bearing seed and uh she she debated this with me and I explained that we only eat broccoli after Noah's flood when we're really sunk in sin but she never saw the logic of this but what Daniel was saying here when he asked for this he was asking in the Hebrew for this here he was asking for the original diet he was saying that my daily sustenance does not come from the king of Babylon my sustenance comes from the god of Heaven and I'm going to show my loyalty to the god of Heaven not to the gods of Babylon by asking for the food that God gave us in the Garden of Eden not for the food that comes from the king of Babylon he was showing his allegiance to God by what he put into his body and that's not the first time in human history that people are fac fac to forced to make such choices he chose to show his loyalty to God through his choice of his food he was being faithful in a small matter as a teenage boy and he was thus showing God that he could be trusted in larger matters when we are faithful in the small things of life we're shown to God that we can be trusted with greater responsibilities and if we're not faithful in the small things of life then we're showing God that we cannot be trusted with broader responsibilities so be faithful in the small decisions of life when God has given us light you know we have for instance a spirit of Prophecy live in the light that God has given you don't keep putting it off embrace the light that God has given us because as you do so God sees he can entrust you with more and great spiritual wealth and responsibilities and blessings the interesting thing about this chapter for me though is that Daniel does not have a dream he does not have a vision he doesn't get a message from another prophet he is a teenage boy his world has fallen apart Jerusalem has been taken he's been taken as a prisoner to a foreign land he was almost certainly emasculated because that was the practice if you served in a foreign king's court and so he was a prisoner and a slave and an emasculated teenage boy and despite the evidence of the world around him where the god of Israel had not protected him he chose to remain faithful to God no matter what he was walking by faith not by sight he's not a prophet yet in this chapter here and there are times in our lives where our world seems to be falling apart and we walk along the guide rails like the railway tracks that God has given us in scripture not because we see God at work in our life today in fact we may say where is God in my life but we're choosing to walk in the line the path of Faith trusting that God will reveal himself and make it clear to us in his time and in his way so you may be young in your walk with the Lord and you may not be having dreams and Visions like Daniel had and you may say how do I hear the voice of God in my life well a good starting place is to live a life of obedience to the word of God and you may not understand all the reasons why just yet but in living a life of obedience you're bringing your heart and your mind and your spirit into harmony with God's Will and eventually you will start to realize how he is speaking to you know I've just we've just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and um there's much I could say about that it's a real blessing actually um but I I can tell you that there are times as a husband when you walk by faith okay you know this is what is expected of you and you don't understand why but you just know it's going to be good for you to do it and one day you'll understand why okay and generally speaking it takes a young man about 5 years to be thoroughly domesticated and while you're going through that domestic ation process you walk by faith and obedience understanding that one day it will be good for you so anyway the point about this Daniel chapter 1 is there is no dream there is no vision there is no Prophet here is somebody walking in obedience to God doing what he understands is right but God hasn't revealed himself yet to Daniel at this stage of his life the next chapter in Daniel's life is Daniel chapter 2 and the first verse there it dates it for us this is says the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his Spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him and so this is the second year of Dan of uh first year of Daniel's captivity this is 604 BC Daniel is about 14 or 15 years of old years of age at this uh stage because he was taken captive as a as a young boy uh young young teenager We Believe from neb from Jerusalem 605 BC So Daniel is now a te teager he's still in the Babylonian University at this stage and God gives the first Vision or dream in the Book of Daniel but who gets the dream Nebuchadnezzar Daniel does not get the dream and he does not get the vision um then the dream comes to Nebuchadnezzar you know God speaks to pagans in strange ways God spoke to um po um Pharaoh he gave him two different dreams and that's what he spoke to the ruler of the world at the time that was Pharaoh then God speaks to neb nezzar in a dream and so God speaks to presidents and prime ministers in ways that maybe he doesn't speak to his his own people through because he knows that's how we can get through to them and in the Muslim world today and all across the Middle East people Muslims they receiving dreams and visions of Jesus all the time incredible dreams and when you look at what the dreams consist of they're almost entirely from The Book of Revelation and we see in Aben Frontier missions that God is giving dreams um The Three Angels Revelation 14 Jesus walking among the can in Revelation 2 the second coming of Jesus in Revelation 19 those are the most common dreams and visions that Jesus is giving to Muslims right now and Muslims may not actually have access to the physical word of God but they're giving God is giving them the same visions that he gave John 2100 years ago it's an incredible thing that's happening around our world today and Nebuchadnezzar um he was angry because his wise men couldn't give him the answer so I'm hoping most of you know the story this a very abbreviated telling here and when the the execution has come to Daniel's home because the king wants to execute all the wise men Daniel asks for time and he gathers his three friends and they pray and Daniel's First Resort in moments of Crisis was not to write an email it wasn't to check out YouTube it wasn't to get um gossip with his friends it was to turn to the god of Heaven he's a young boy and he knows that his first option is to turn to God and so H God reveals to him that night what what the content of the King's dream were and Daniel then goes to the king and he said the secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men the astrologers The Magicians the soothsayers show unto the king but says Daniel there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days thy dream and the visions of thy Head Upon thy bed are these so Daniel recognized here that only God could answer the King Daniel did not claim claim any Glory or credit for the giving of the dream the interpretation to King Nebuchadnezzar in this chapter here the dream comes to Nebuchadnezzar Daniel approached God through prayer who then revealed the meaning to Daniel But ultimately the vision was for the king it was not for Daniel likewise in our walk with God today I want to encourage you to make prayer your first Resort when you're facing a challenge not your last resort in the Catholic tradition they have the sacraments of uh extreme unction or we call it last wres and so in the Catholic tradition people are blessed by a priest just before they die and the Protestant way of doing this is James chapter 5 if anybody is sick let them call the Elders we are to call to God first for healing when we're facing challenges not when we anoint people to bless the living not to Usher them off into the dead into into the the grave which is the Catholic way of doing this so in chapter one Daniel walks by faith not by sight he's trusting God and he's just being obedient to what knows is true in Daniel chapter 2 the king receives a vision and D A Dream Daniel interprets it for him um but the lesson for us from Daniel chapter 2 is turn first to God when you have challenges don't try and fix the problem in human ways before you've turned to God In Prayer because God has a thousand and one solutions that we cannot begin to imagine for ourselves we then come to Daniel chapter 4 and Daniel chapter 4 is Nebuchadnezzar's personal testimony and Daniel chapter 4 is is a chapter of the Bible written by a formerly Pagan King who's had a conversion experience and in Daniel chapter 1 Nebuchadnezzar is a mon a polytheist it means he has many many gods and in Daniel chapter 2 if you read the Nebuchadnezzar's Testament the end of that chapter um King Nebuchadnezzar is a a hthe which means he believes in many gods but there is one God among all the others and that's the god of Israel and finally in Daniel chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar is a strict monotheist he believes in the god of Israel and the god of Israel alone you see that in his testimony so you see Nebuchadnezzar's spiritual journey in chapters 1 2 3 and 4 he goes from polytheist or monotheist and at each stage of the journey the people who encourage him to move closer to God are the young boys he's captured from Jerusalem like you may be in an abusive relationship but you may be the agent of that person's salvation by being faithful where you are today you may be in a situation where you feel trapped you may be a situation where you feel you have no way out and if that is the case maybe God is using you to be the agent of that oppressor salvation that's not an easy thing to talk about I understand that but that's what happened with Nebuchadnezzar and his constant contacts with the the boys he took from Jerusalem well In this passage here um the King has a dream of a tree it's not the first time the dream of a tree has occurred in the Bible before that it happened in the prophet Ezekiel and it referred to the king of Assyria who' grow into a great tree and all the birds of the air nested in the trees and the Animals gathered under the shade of the branches and then Gods chopped down that tree so when Dan when Nebuchadnezzar receives this dream in Daniel chapter 4 um Daniel he trembles because he knows that this is not a good dream for the king and in those days they would literally execute the messenger remember when um the battle between s David and absum his son and when absam was dead joab said who's going to go and tell the king and he eventually chose an Ethiopian Runner remember why he chose the Ethiopian Runner because he says if if one of my own Sons abishai or asahel if they go and tell the king that their son is dead his son is dead they may have their own heads chopped off so he sends an Expendable Ethiopian Soldier to go and tell the king first uh because he was afraid that Daniel would literally kill the me David would kill the messenger in that case here so when Daniel receives um he that then theing Nebuchadnezzar has his dream and he asks Daniel for the interpretation Daniel gives him the interpretation here and uh when it when it when Daniel gives him the interpretation Daniel responds by saying my Lord the dream be to them that hate thee and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies as Daniel was extremely tactful In This Moment he could have said to the King Nebuchadnezzar aha God is going to bring judgments upon you for taking me and my friends captive God is going to judge you for all the oppression and Injustice ice you've caused across the Middle East and now you're going to know the pain that I've experienced he could have said that but rather in the midst of his Injustice he was an agent of healing and mercy for this oppressive King and he responded with Mercy to the king and um he he says to the king wherefore O King let my counsel be acceptable unto thee and break off thy sins by righteousness and thy iniquities by showing Mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthening of thy Tranquility So Daniel says to the king if you want to have an extended reign in peace you need to change your ways Daniel is not vindictive in his answer to the king here he still Wishes the best for his oppressor he bore Nebuchadnezzar no ill will he did not give any indication that he wanted Nebuchadnezzar to suffer rather he points out the way of salvation for Nebuchadnezzar now Nebuchadnezzar refused to listen he was struck down with Madness for 7 years and when he finally recognized the sovereignty of God it says I when I lifted my eyes to the heavens my mind returned or my reason returned to me read later in that chapter and so in this chapter here once again Daniel is a faithful messenger of the righteousness of Christ he points Nebuchadnezzar to the path of righteousness he talks with Nebuchadnezzar about repentance and salvation and the mercy of God um but that still in this chapter here um Daniel does not receive a dream or a vision so we we don't really consider Daniel a prophet even in this chapter here but like Daniel in our walk with God we are not to be vindictive to those who've hurt us rather we are to manifest a loving concern for their salvation because we are ambassadors of Christ and God is not willing that any should perish and when we manifest Mercy to those who've hurt us we are participating in God's Plan of Salvation for those people so maybe there is somebody who's hurt you and I believe The Godly response is to be a messenger of God's mercy to them because they will see Jesus Christ in you it's easy to react with anger when somebody's attacking you to react with with patience and mercy May May mean that you are the agent of their salvation so this is Daniel in chapter 4 then we come to Daniel in chapter 7 and this chapter is also dated it's in the first year of Bel shazza king of Babylon so the date there um is this this is now 550 BC the first year of Baza and why is that significant because Daniel is now about 70 years of age he's an old man apologies to anybody 70 year above here today but he's not a young boy anymore is he and Daniel has yet to receive a dream or a vision in his own right and we think of Daniel the Prophet he's now a retiree and he's yet to receive a dream or a vision that is God is reserving the greatest moments of Daniel's life for when the world thinks he's a retiree and should be sitting at home and waiting for death that his life has been building up to this moment and now this is the first time in his life that Daniel actually has dreams and visions and it's when he's about 70 years of age and the story here oh man we only got six minutes left okay so we won't go too much into the story other than Bel shaza had a father called nabonidus and he had gone off into Saudi Arabia to work the moon God called sin I left bazz as the king of Babylon as his co-regent which explains why Baza said whoever interprets the handwriting on the wall I'll make them the third ruler in the Kingdom because naban ninus was a co-ruler with his father we know that from the tablets that have been dug up now in the London the British museum in London but in this chapter here um in this chapter here Daniel for the first time receives a dream or of dream and Revelation himself he now becomes a prophet in good and regular standing up until he's 7 years of old Daniel's job has been to interpret Revelations that God gave to others but now he was the recipient of a direct Revelation from God himself in Daniel chapter 1 there is no dream there's no Revelation there's no prophecy Daniel walks by faith and obedience in Daniel chapter 2 and Daniel chapter 4 God speaks in dreams to a foreign King and Daniel is called to interpret those dreams and then from the second year of Nebuchadnezzar to the first year of bazer Daniel is a faithful civil servant for this these foreign Empire highes and there there doesn't seem to be anything happening in his life from about the age of 15 and 16 to about the age of 70 nothing seems to be happening in his life other than we presume he's faithful to the Lord and now at the age of 70 for the first time he gets a revelation from God for himself it may well be that your greatest moment in life for God is not when you're a teenager or in the prime working years of life but it may be that during those years God is merely shaping you and molding you for the challenges that are coming ahead that God is preparing you for that hour late in life when he's going to call you for that moment that that witness or work of a lifetime so I encourage you to be patient in your walk with God trusting that everything that happens today is merely a preparation for what God knows is coming tomorrow so then we come to Daniel chapter 8 again this is this this this passage is dated for us in the chapter it's 2 years later after Daniel 7 it's now 548 BC Daniel is now about 72 years old he's been in Babylon for 57 years as a servant of of his conquerors and uh In this passage here and again our time is moving on so I'm going to skip through this very quickly um in this pass passage here he has a vision now a vision is different to a dream because a dream you see at night when you're asleep a vision is something you see when you're awake and so this is a closer it's a more direct Revelation than a dream in and and of itself so now Daniel in Daniel 7 Daniel has dreams when he's asleep in Daniel 8 at the age of 72 or so he now has a vision and In this passage here um he hears a man's voice speaking to an angel called Gabriel and Gabriel explains the interpretation of the vision to David to Daniel In this passage here so God sent Gabriel to Daniel to help Daniel understand the vision Gabriel came to Daniel personally D Daniel was overwhelmed by the appearance of Gabriel So Gabriel reached down and touched Daniel physically and set him on his feet and so what we see through this life of Daniel so far is that the older Daniel gets his communication with God gets more and more open and explicit from walking by faith in chapter one foreign dreams chapters 2 and 4 handwriting on the wall Daniel 5 where that's given to everybody Daniel has the interpretation of that and then you come to Daniel chapter um 7 he gets a dream for himself as an old man then here in Daniel chapter 8 he has a vision and God sends the angel Gabriel to physically explain the interpretation of the vision to Daniel um at this stage of his life so like Daniel the more we walk with God the more clearly we s we learn to see the hand of God the the longer you like if if my wife says it's our wedding anniversary tomorrow I know where she wants to go to eat I don't need to be told at this stage I I know and so if you you've been married for 25 years like I have and my wife after 25 years you don't need to say there's a lot of stuff you don't need to say to each other because you know what the other person thinks is that right yeah you me somebody says something and you both know what the the outcome of the discussion is you don't need to have the discussion because you both know where it's going to go okay so silence becomes meaningful when you've been married for 25 years okay it's like the man who said to his wife I need to watch a rugby game I'd like the silent treatment for two hours please you know that's that's not the kind of meaningful silence we're talking about here although the men may wish for that so uh but the point about this chapter here is that as Daniel is getting older and older in life so God's means his walk with God is becoming more and more open and clear and explicit and Daniel does not receive an interpretation a vision and and an interpretation from Gabriel when he's a teenager he receives that after many years of faithful service to the Lord and God knows he can trust him with these Revelations and Daniel can now is better able to receive those Revelations from God so as we walk through our life with the Lord we should be looking for and expecting a greater understanding and a deeper Intimacy in our walk with Jesus Christ we should be expecting that go that God will reveal his will to us ever more clearly that if somebody poses a question for you you don't need to say I need to search the scriptures on that you already know what the word of God says on those things and you know the character of God and you know what the response needs to be and so as Daniel walks carries on with his walk with God through the through his life his walk with God gets more and more clear he is able to sense the presence of God to hear his voice know more instinctively God's will for him and the same is true for us the more clearly we understand God's purposes for us then as in this chapter here the greater our response of worship and obedience needs to be because there is more greater clarity about what God's will for us is in our lives so it's not just that God's will becomes clearer and clearer to us our response is one of more and more obedience and um worship because we know what God's will truly is we're not acting in ignorance anymore we then come to Daniel 5 which is 539 BC and it dates it for us in in the first verse of that chapter there it's the last night of the Babylonian Empire uh nabonidus the father of Bel shaza has been defeated outside the walls of Babylon by Cyrus and his Persian Empire armies and now um Cyrus is at the gates of Babylon Babylon was protected by two sets of walls there were large walls it had the river Euphrates going under the walls and so Bel shaza felt confident he was well defended he had plenty of supplies a strong Army so he held a party it was a massive party but in that party a hand appeared and wrote many many teasin on the wall and the text is amazing it says the king's knees knocked together he was so terrified when he see this it's like an eyewitness account that we're seeing here and the the queen mother comes in and she reminds belazza there is a man in this Kingdom called belazza and the spirit of the Gods is upon him so at this stage of his life Daniel is about 80 years old in 539 BC when Daniel 5 Daniel 5 takes place in those days to be 80 years old you were um like a National Treasure I mean average life expectancy then was 35 to 40 or so so to be 80 years old Daniel was really special and the the royal family knew that the spirit of God rested upon him they knew that he was a Godly Man and the Queen Mother recognizes this and she tells Bel Bel belazza um to call Daniel and Daniel tells the story of what happened with Nebuchadnezzar and he says to belar and you are King you knew this like you knew the visions of God you knew the Prophecies of God and you ignor this and if you have your Bibles just open to Daniel 5 Daniel gives a subtle hint that that very night the whole order of things is going to change because in Daniel chapter 5 and verse four when Bel Taza Baza is is is drinking and feasting with his wives princes and concubines you notice there that it says Daniel 5:4 it says they drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver and brass and iron and wood and stone now does does that order remind you of anything else in the Book of Daniel yes it's the order of this Daniel Daniel chapter 2 yes gold and silver are the top two but when Daniel Comes interprets for the king that and he says you know the kingdom is going to change tonight Daniel says in verse 23 he says to the king you King have lifted up yourself against the Lord of Heaven and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee now thy Lords thy wives their concubines have drunk wine in them and thou has praised the gods of what silver and gold and brass and iron so at the start of the chapter neb Bazar is praising the gods of gold and silver bronze and iron because that's the order in which the Daniel 2 Vision was given and when Daniel gives him the interpretation he switches the order now he doesn't say gold and silver he says the gods of silver and of gold so he's indicating to belshazzar that tonight the order is going to change now silver is the dominant Kingdom not gold and so Daniel he he reveals this to King Baza In This Moment now once again Daniel did not mock belshazzar as previously he could have mocked Nebuchadnezzar he didn't let 70 plus years of captivity and slavery fill him with bitterness he simply and Faithfully interpreted the message from God in this case the Revelation was seen by everybody but only Daniel could interpret that is the closeness of Daniel's walk with God was evident before the entire leadership Elite of the Babylonian Empire and like Daniel if today God calls you to speak painful truths let them be said in a loving manner with a concern for the Salvation of the person you're sharing with without vindictiveness and without bitterness wouldn't it be wonderful if God's people would be remembered for the nobility of their character the purity of their speech and the Heavenly peace of their countenance and so as Daniel has been walking with God for all these years after 70 years of captivity the Babylonian Empire is about to change that very night and the king belshazzar is going to be killed Daniel there's not a word of vindictiveness on his lips he Faithfully passes on the message from God and then you come to Daniel 9 well I won't do Daniel 6 that's the Lion's Den that happens a few days later and that's the same as Daniel 5 everybody sees that the go God shuts the Lion's mouths but it's not necessarily a revelation for God from God for Daniel um you then come to Daniel 9 that's the next chapter in Daniel's life and Daniel 9 is um one of the most famous passages in the Book of Daniel and this is the first year after the collapse of Babylon it's 538 BC Daniel is about 80 years old he understood the 70-year prophecy of Jeremiah and he was asking God to act to restore his people to Jerusalem he prayed over the scriptures he did not pray for material blessings he prayed for God's word to be fulfilled he prayed for God to be merciful and to be forgiving to his people and their Collective sins he did not pray for material or financial blessings he asked for forgiveness for himself and for his people he prayed over the word of God he prayed with a very specific situation in mind and he prayed as a first result and In this passage here it says while I was speaking in prayer even the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision beginning being caused to fly swiftly touched me about the time of the evening oblation now in this passage here Daniel does not have a dream he does not have a vision there's no handwriting on the wall given to the Nobles of Babylon now God speaks directly to to Daniel through the prophet through the angel Gabriel So God's walk with Daniel is becoming closer and closer and more and more explicit the older he goes get gets on as he Journeys through life there's no vision that Gabriel comes personally to explain a portion of the vision of Daniel 8 which which have been received 10 years before this so now Daniel receives a direct Revelation from God through the angel Gabriel face to face God's communication with Daniel is now direct it is open it is unmistakable and like Daniel our prayer should be a walk of our life our journey through life should be a walk of prayer praying over God's promises in scripture praying for God's promises to be fulfilled in our lives praying for God's will to be Supreme in our lives prayer that involves humility recognition and confession of our sinfulness and our own sins and prayer that seeks God's glory in our life not our own Glory these are some of the lessons you pick up from Daniel chapter n and In this passage here the angel Gabriel comes personally to Daniel not in a dream not in a vision the dream was not given to a pagan King God is now speaking directly to Daniel so then you come and it's time for us to draw this to a close Daniel 10 through2 um this is is at a late stage of Life Daniel chapter 1 God acted behind the scenes there was no dream no vision um no handwriting on the wall Daniel chapter 2 and four God worked indirectly with Daniel through the dreams he gave to Pagan Kings and then in Daniel chapter 5 God worked through angels using handwriting in front of the Babylonian Elites Daniel chapter 8 was a day Vision in Daniel chapter 9 God speaks to D Daniel directly through the angel Gabriel So God's walk with Daniel is getting more and more explicit and more more open with every passing chapter of this of his life now at the end of his life this scene here happens and just to set the context for this the Exiles have already returned to Jerusalem by the time this happened with zerubabel Daniel knows that he's not going to go back to Jerusalem again if he' wanted to go back to Jerusalem to the land of his birth he would have gone with zerubabel but he didn't he's an old old man he's probably way too frail for the difficulties of going all those hundreds of miles in the heat from Babylon all the way back to Jerusalem Daniel now knows at this stage of his life that he's not going to see his homeland again he's not going to see the walls of Jerusalem he's not going to see where the temple was he's not going to see where his mom and dad raised him Cyrus had already issued the decree to rebuild Jerusalem by the time Daniel 10 happens Daniel was probably too old and frail to go to his homeland he now knows he's going to die in Exile in the land of his oppressors away from Jerusalem in his homeland he almost certainly has no children and it seems that his Three Friends Are Dead He's outlived them all it's not a very pleasant position to be in at this stage of his life many people before they die they want to see their Homeland one last time they want to go back to where they were raised many people in and they have and they get dementia their short-term memory goes but their long-term memory becomes very Vivid in a life they can remember all the details of their childhood and they want to go back and see for one last time where they were raised but this isn't going to happen to Daniel Daniel now knows he's going to die in a foreign land the land of slavery and he's not going home indeed he was buried in the modern day Iranian city of of shushan or Susa and his tomb is still there to this day and what happens when this passage here he says I looked and saw a man clothed in linen with a belt of gold from muas around his waist his body was like Barrel his face like lightning his eyes like flaming torches his arms and legs like The Gleam of burnish bronze and the sound of his words like the Roar of a multitude I Daniel alone saw the vision the people with me did not see the vision though a great trembling fell upon them and they fled and hid themselves and so when I heard the sound of his words and when I heard the sound of his words I fell into a trance and faed to the ground this passage here is very similar to Paul meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus the people around him are terrified and they flee but Daniel falls to the face of the ground as did Paul when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and when you read this description here Daniel doesn't just read meet a regular Angel at this moment of his life and he doesn't meet the angel Gabriel when we compare this with Ezekiel chapter 1 where Ezekiel sees the Throne of God and one like the likeness of the glory of God sitting on the throne and when we compare this with Revelation chapter 1 where John sees the Risen Christ walking among the lampstands we come to this conclusion on the basis of Ezekiel Daniel sees an appearance of God but on the basis of Revelation Daniel sees Jesus Christ personally at the end of his life at the end of his life a life of faithful prayer and Walking with God Daniel finally meets Jesus he been faithful all his life he's been persecuted snatched from his home probably never saw his parents after he was taken from Babylon he was thrown into a lion's den he watched his friends being cast into the fiery furnace he' faced racial Prejudice throughout his life as a Hebrew slave in the Babylonian Empire he had taken his life into his hands whenever he brought a message from God to a foreign Tyrant whether it be Nebuchadnezzar and Bazar his countrymen have returned to Jerusalem and left him behind he is going to die an old man in a foreign land the land of his oppressors what is there left for Daniel at this moment in his life but now he sees Jesus face to face you may believe that you old and forgotten Daniel it may appear that the world has moved on that we don't need people of your age and seniority anymore but your life is not a failure you may die an old slave in the foreign land Daniel but you've walked with me you've worked for me you've prayed to me you suffered on my on my behalf you've witnessed for me and you are not forgotten no says Jesus to Daniel you are greatly beloved you are greatly beloved at this stage of his life and Jesus gives his promise to Daniel he says but go but go thou thy way till the end be for Thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days so Jesus says this to Daniel Daniel I've seen your labors you are greatly beloved by the king of Heaven you're now going to go and rest you're not going to go back to Jerusalem you can rest in the land of slavery but you will rise again at the second coming so Daniel has the assurance and promise of Salvation just before he dies Daniel walked Faithfully with God in the midst of a violent and a pagant era throughout his life because of his faithfulness to God God revealed himself ever more openly and closely and directly and intimately to Daniel as he went from a teenager to an old man in a foreign land and some of us today may be young enough walk with the Lord and if that's where you are today I'd encourage you to be faithful and living the light that God has given you because you will learn to recognize the voice of God more and more clearly as you go through life and some of you may been walking with the Lord for many many years and maybe you are in a foreign land and maybe you know you're going to pass away soon maybe you're carrying a disease here today and maybe you know that there may not there may not be too many Christmases left for you or whatever you celebrate and you need the assurance that you are greatly beloved by God and you can rest one day with the assurance that Jesus will call you from the grave as Daniel walked through life we see Daniel's life the whole the whole story but he didn't when he was 20 and 30 and 40 and 50 and 60 years all those middle years of his life he was not a prophet as we would consider it he was a slave in a foreign land we call him the Prophet Daniel a prophet but really his greatest life moments came in when he was 75 and above and maybe maybe God is calling you to that greatest moment in your life when you have an impact for God's kingdom not when you're 20 30 40 50 or 60 but when you're 70 80 and in your 90s because God can trust you at that age he knows you and you know him Daniel's walk with God I think is a model for us of what our walk with God should be as well it's a life of prayer it's a life of faithfulness it's a life of obedience it's a life of worship and it's a life where as Dan is faithful and obedient to the Lord God can reveal himself ever more clearly and openly to Daniel and my prayer is that each one of us will have that walk with God in our own lives wherever we are in terms of age or in terms of our walk with the Lord seek a closer and more personal walk with God he wants to reveal himself to you and when he sees you are faithful with what you have today God can entrust you with greater spiritual riches beyond that so walk in the lights that you have be faithful with what you know and as you are Faith fa F obedience builds faith and as do Faith builds up so that leads to more obedience it's a s it's a it's um it it helps itself out faith and obedience are two sides of the same coin the more faithful you are that results in more obedience to the will of God the more obedient you are to God that builds your faith in life and faith in God so as you walk through life and I don't know where you are in your stage of Life today and work and your stage of your walk with the Lord um think about how Daniel walked with God and one day we may not see Jesus face to face in this life but we have the assurance that if we walk with Jesus we will one day we shall rest we have the promise that one day we will stand when Jesus comes again the Assurance of eternal life and like Daniel did the climax of our Christian walk we we see Jesus face to face and he says well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy that has been prepared for you and that's the Blessed hope and for a world of Sorrow World of Pain world of suffering it's really Humanity's only hope so be faithful walk with the Lord live in the light that God has blessed us with seek a closer walk with God every day and God will reveal himself to you and when he reveals himself to you don't push it off or push back say Lord I'm going to be humble I'm going to live with this light I'm going to put it into practice I'm going to do what you want I'll go where you want I'll say what you want I'll be the kind of person you want me to be I want to change every day so there's less of me and more of Christ in my character and as we go through this process of life we have the assurance that one day we will see Jesus face to face so be faithful in your walk with the Lord and one day like Daniel we'll see Jesus face to face let's bow our heads for a word of prayer heavenly father I thank you for the life of Daniel I thank you for his faithfulness to you father I I thank you for the way that you revealed yourself to him in many and various ways father I thank you that that um that at the end of his life he he met Jesus face to face and the Assurance of the resurrection and today father I pray that as we walk with you and we serve you and we talk with you in prayer and we hear your voice in the scriptures and the preaching of your word and in fellowship with brothers and sisters I pray Lord that you will give us also the Assurance of salvation that you'll give us the promise that one day we will see our Lord and Savior Jesus face to face until that day father May each May each of us be found faithful in this portion of the vineyard in jesus' name we pray amen amen [Music] e