The Babylon to Come

Well, good morning, everyone. Appreciate Mr. McKeon's introduction there and trying to think, who was this guy he's talking about there? It is good to be back in Phoenix again. I was thinking, it seems like, I think this is about the fourth trip we have made to Phoenix in recent years by invitation to be a part of your congregation and speak on various topics. And so, Debbie and I have always appreciated coming out here. We've been friends with the Scribers and the Tucks for, well, we were all in college together, so that was back in the prehistoric period of time. And so, we do feel like we're coming among friends. And we've, as was mentioned, have taught many of the students that you've sent to the Ambassador Bible College over the years and looking forward to getting acquainted with Melissa and Luke this year. And we'll treat them so many different ways. They're bound to like one, and hopefully they'll come back a little smarter than they were about the Bible and God's Word as a result of having the entire experience there.

We've also kind of rubbed shoulders with a number of you at various times over the years at various feast sites as we have traveled, all of us to the international and domestic sites. And although this year is a little going to be a little bit different for all of us as we keep the Feast of Tabernacles, it's going to be a feast unlike any other that the Church has kept in our time with the upset regarding the pandemic and what has happened. And so, we'll get into it. I mean, even as late as 10 days ago, we created another feast site back in Northern Ohio to accommodate people in a little spot in Amish country called Berlin, Ohio.

And so, that's popped up and satellite sites, official unofficial sites, and just to make sure that we do take care of the spiritual needs of the people for a site during the Feast of Tabernacles. And the arrangements have just had to be turned upside down in some cases. So, we'll get it done. I'm confident about that. And it may not be a feast quite like Josiah and the Jews had in Scripture, unlike any from, you know, since the previous time, but it's going to be unique for us all as we keep the feast here. All right, everybody over there, got a different... I better keep turning over here and saying hello to everybody here. I know you. Yeah, there you go.

Good to see you. Everywhere I turn, I see these young adults. I walked in and I saw Maggie. She's put on a lot of weight lately.

Something needs to happen to you, girl. And we'll pray for that here as the...

I'll try to shake it up a little bit here today for you and bring that boy along. So, it's good to see Matt and Maggie. I've known Matt for 25 years. He and his sister grew up in our camp program back in Pennsylvania. So, I've known them a long time as well. So, we're all family. We've known each other and that's great to be able to have so many memories and experiences and to be with all of you here again. I didn't know whether we could venture out with the restrictions. I checked with Mr. McKeon a few weeks back. Are you really sure? Is this going to happen? Is this going to happen? For our book, any tickets? And this and that. Because we were hearing... You hear media reports. You don't know what to believe. And he assured me that it is okay and you're planning to. So, here we are and hopefully more of the ministry and other trips can become to be planned as this thing abates and the events of the coming weeks and months with or without a vaccine and whatever happens as we go into the winter months. None of us can predict all of these things, but we will just see it as it has been an unusual experience. And so, I was asked to come here today and to give a Beyond Today lecture this afternoon. Of course, speak to the church. And so, what I will talk about today will be, in a sense, a continuation and part of the same because of really the project that I've been involved with during this shutdown. It's kind of interesting.

Travel got shut down and so many different things rearranged our schedules at the office. We had a lot of travel planned this year and that didn't happen. And that's the way it happens. Sometimes you have to see God's hands in it. And so, I have been working during this period to write and finish and deliver to Mr. Ashley, our editor, and others a booklet on the topic of Babylon and the story of the church and the Babylon of the Bible and the Babylon to come, we read about in Revelation. And I'm down to the last chapter or so that I need to write and edit other material to put this together and to a booklet that we hope by the end of the year, maybe early next year, we'll be able to publish on the topic. So, it's been on my mind as I've had the time to just hunker down and write a lot about Babylon. And from a historical perspective, I teach the book of Daniel at ABC. And so, it's been on my mind. And so, I thought, well, I can talk about that pretty easily since it's fresh with me. And hopefully, I think I've even had a bit of a new insight into understanding certain things about the history and Babylon and all to be able to put together in a booklet that will help all of us. I told the class at ABC last year as we were winding down, and I was beginning to work on this, I said, I'm going to write this book on Babylon. I've got to get this done. And I'm going to write this from the perspective that I want you and your generation to understand what the Bible says about the Babylon to come, the final revival of this age-long system. I'm not sure that I'll be around, I've learned about it for more than nearly 60 years in the Church of God and still see it developing. But what I will write and present, I hope, will be something that the next generation can understand because they may live to see that. That may be the time that it will appear, although I do believe that we are in a period of some even new opening scenes of that. And we'll talk about that here this afternoon. But we're still here. We're still living in our society today.

And in a real sense, we've been living in a modern Babylon all of our lives with what has been built in the modern world, the global society that we live in, the wealth, the opulence, the religious deception, all the elements that Scripture describes about Babylon the Great, Mystery Religion of Revelation 17, and what we read historically, Babylon was, especially in the book of Daniel and as it impacted the Israel of God in the Old Testament. And we're in our own modern Babylon. And I know you've thought about that and you've heard sermons that have described that. And so we're here today and we're still dealing with that. How are we navigating it?

How is it impacting us? Have you shielded you and your family, your minds, your hearts from that Babylon that we live in today? Or has its culture seeped in around the edges? We're all susceptible to that. We live here, we work, we go to the schools of this society, and we see the influence of that on a daily basis in many different ways as Revelation 18.4 says, come out of her, my people, and do not be partakers of her sins. And so as disciples of Jesus Christ as called and chosen and faithful first fruits of the purpose and plan of God, how are we navigating our modern Babylon? That's a question I'll put to you today and spend a few minutes here this morning talking about that. And what I'd like to do is take you to a chapter in the book of Daniel that I think helps us to kind of put together from the example of Daniel in Scripture an understanding of certain elements and certain things from that man's life, that prophet's life, that can help us today. So I'd like for you to turn over to the book of Daniel, fifth chapter. We're going to jump right into this and a well-known passage where we have what is called the handwriting on the wall, Belshazzar's feast.

And there's a lot of good stories in the book of Daniel. As we all know, Daniel and the lion's den, Daniel interpreting this fantastic dream and image that King Nebuchadnezzar had, Daniel's own dream of beasts that come up out of the sea. And the handwriting on the wall is one of those that's really dramatic. We've done Beyond Today programs on it, and we even had a reenactment of it for us. And I think some of you that were here, I think Jasmine was in that one, and it was during the year that she was at ABC. And so we grabbed students to do all kinds of things, not just learn about the Bible, but be props for Beyond Today programs at times as well. But it's a dramatic scene, and yet it has a lot of information for us to look at in terms of how we navigate this modern Babylon and the type of people that we must be, I think, to in a sense be like Daniel, who had to navigate the streets and the culture and the morals of the Babylon of his time and still obey God, still be a servant of God, a disciple of God, as we have to be as well.

As we look at this, the instruction is right there to help us deal with the Babylon in which we live. I think you all know the story of Daniel, a young man who was probably in his late teen years when he was taken captive to Babylon, along with others, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We're in chapter 1, and they're immediately thrust into a training program that amounts to nothing more than a training program for the foreign service work of the Kingdom of Babylon, the Chaldean empire.

They were to be trained in all the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of the Babylonians in order to be used for government service. So it was an elite program. We know what Daniel and his friends did in chapter 1 by refusing the delicacies of the king's table and proving that they could, in a sense, begin to resist even the culture at that level of culinary arts and still maintain their faith in God.

Daniel quickly rose into a position of prominence. But as the years wore along, Daniel lost his corner office in the palace at Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar died, and as happens, when there's a change in whether it's a kingdom, a church, a business, new people come in, changes are made, and the old, in a sense, gets altered. And Daniel was not used like he had been used by Nebuchadnezzar. In the story of the Babylonian Empire, it comes down to a night of a feast called Belshazzar's Feast, where it says in verse 1, The king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in the presence of the thousand there.

And so this is at the very end of the time of the Babylonian Empire. In fact, historically, we know from the records that are there that the Persians were literally at the gate of Babylon.

The Persian Empire had arisen from the east, and they were on the march. This was the second part of the image of Nebuchadnezzar that Daniel predicted would come and rise after that head of gold, and the Persians were at the gate, literally. They were marching down. And Belshazzar was a king who was actually kind of a regent. His father was still alive, a man named Nabonidas. And he had left Babylon in charge of his son while he was off in another part of the realm. And Belshazzar was a king who really just wasn't up to the job.

He wasn't of the stature, certainly of Nebuchadnezzar, an ancestor there, called his father in this text, but not his direct father. But he wasn't of that caliber. And as so often happens, as time goes along and the decades and the generations pass, those who inherit greatness or great things that were done by a predecessor don't always keep it up.

Belshazzar was like that. And instead of rallying the people to defend the kingdom, he was having a party. They were feasting. And unfortunately, those that were part of the entourage, the hangers on, the government were partying with him. Unconcerned, it seems, as to what was literally outside the gates of Babylon. And so the story goes on here in verse 2. Let's follow it along. While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the temple, which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords and his wives and his concubines might drink from them.

Chapter 1 tells us, pointedly, that Nebuchadnezzar took these gold and silver vessels from the temple in Jerusalem and had transported them to Babylon. Why is the emphasis on vessels, gold and silver vessels? And they literally were made of those minerals and platters, goblets, utensils for banqueting. In the temple in Jerusalem, they were all apart not of a king's court for banqueting, but for the temple service to God. We can find pictures that can kind of reproduce what they may have looked like to give us an understanding. But part of what is being told here in the story is the reality that what happened in the ancient world when one kingdom beat up another kingdom, the winners would loot the temple of the god of that pagan nation and they would steal the effigy, the image of that god, out of their temple and they would take it back to their home temple and they put it like a trophy in a case.

And that was to symbolize that their god was greater than their god. Our god is better than your god, right? And we won, and I've got him captive over here. And it was, you know, it was a title to dominance, is what it was, is what it represented. Well, as you know, in the temple in Jerusalem, there was no image to God.

No images at all. Only vessels and a table showbred and the priest that came and went through, there was an ark with the contents of that ark and the holy of holies.

But as the pagan kings that came and went through the temples in Jerusalem marveled, these people didn't have a stone or wooden image of their god, the invisible god, the unknown god, if you will, to borrow Paul's phrase in Acts 17. And so Nebuchadnezzar could take were these vessels and they were the symbol of this conquest of the god of Judah or the god of Israel.

Now, what that means is something I think that would require an even further digression into another topic. But in 2 Corinthians 4, the apostle Paul makes a statement about, we hold as vessels of dishonor this glory, being the spirit of God and the glory of God, and vessels of dishonor. And of course, we know that the temple spiritually, our bodies are a temple. God's spirit is within us. It's a different covenant today. Collectively, we represent a type of the temple as well. But if you want to just kind of look at it generally, in a sense, these vessels represent, in a sense, the people of God, the people of Israel. And the only thing, the only representation that Nebuchadnezzar, now Belshazzar, could use to, in a sense, hold it over the people. And that's what he brings into this riotous banquet to drink wine from as a desecration. And it probably, at one level, just shows the complete disdain that had happened for not just God, but the people God used, and in a sense humankind. And if there's one thing about Babylon, the Babylon the Great, that is described in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, it is what is described in Revelation 18, and I believe it's in verse 13, that Babylon has always dealt in the bodies and souls of men.

Whether it was direct slavery, as Daniel and his friends were, or the grinding into the dust of humanity in the name of the state. And that's important to remember, the grinding of humanity into the ground in the name of the state, or the king. Because that is something about Babylon that will help us to understand today and the future. We'll talk a little bit more about that this afternoon. Trading in the bodies and souls of men, Scripture tells us. And perhaps there's some meaning here that by Belchaz are bringing these vessels in and drinking from them in a riotous banquet with no heed to the safety of not only the Babylonian people, but remember, there are still Jewish captives here. The line has crossed as to what is there. Because in verse 3 it says, they brought the gold vessels that had been taken and they drank from them. In verse 4, they drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. And so they held those goblets up from the temple of God that had been consecrated to the divine service of the one true God. And they mocked that God by drinking toasts to the various gods that they had in Babylon. From Marduk on down. Their chief god was called Marduk. And this, it seems, for even God, for even all that Babylon had done, and the power and the terror and the killing and the enslavement that had been done, a line was crossed as to what was really taking place here in Babylon. Because it is in verse 5 where it says, in that same hour, the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. So here's a disembodied hand that appears and begins to write on the wall. Archaeologists have unearthed the very palace in which this event took place. And they brought panels of brick, bright blue and ameled panels with the decorations back from what is today Iraq. You can go to Berlin, you can go to a museum, and you can see part of what would have been the walls of the palace where this happened, that are intact for us to see and to get up real close and look at. Some of them still have the bricks with Nebuchadnezzar's name on them. It's fascinating to see. And the handwriting begins to take place here. And in verse 6 it says that the king's countenance changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other. I'll leave you to fill in the blanks as to what exactly was taking place physically with Belshazzar in terms of the fright and the fear that had overcome him. Were we to see something like that ever take place in a drunken stupor, we might have the same reaction, especially if we were of the mindset of him. But he cried aloud, it says, in verse 7, and he cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the soothsayers. These were the court, part of the advisors of the court of Babylon. Babylon was steeped in sorcery and magic. Well-known, well-documented. They had superstitions and beliefs for every part of life, every part of the day, and every action that would take place in the day. And if there was something to be solved, if there was an action to be contemplated and taken, whether it was an action of state, welfare, military, nothing was done without consulting the astrologers and the stars and those who practiced the Black Arts.

It was a part of the fabric of Babylon. We saw that back in chapter 2.

And he spoke to them, it says in verse 7, saying, to the wise men of Babylon, whoever reads this writing and tells me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck, and he shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Now, notice what the scripture tells us, that these are the wise men of Babylon.

The wise men of Babylon. There's a movie that came out a few years ago called Wise Guys.

And that was a movie about the mafia. But there was another book that dealt with government that was done 30 or more years ago called the Wise Men. And it profiled a number of statesmen, secretaries of state, diplomats in the post-World War II period here in the United States, a man named Dean Acheson, some of you might remember him, George Marshall and others. But there was, as a part of the U.S. government in the post-World War II period, a group of men who influenced government well into the 60s and some into the early 70s that were experienced diplomats who had been around the world serving the United States in government. And they were this cadre of men called the Wise Men. And a book was written about it. It was quite fascinating just to know about that. And it was a different time. And if you look at government today, whether it's the United States or any other major power, a question that I come up with is, where are the Wise Men today? Where are the Wise Men today? Because you don't see a lot of wisdom enacted in the legislatures of the major nations of the world today. There's a lot of chaos, there's a lot of confusion, there's a lot of bad policy that is made. And regardless of political persuasion or whatever, to find men and women of a stature who can understand the world, the times, and have, if you will, even an understanding of certain spiritual biblical principles, it seems that that is absent today.

And it's not just this year's political class, but you can go back four years, you could go back eight years, you can go back 12 years, you can go back a number of years. And the more we kind of look, take a long view, even just speaking of America, the presence of Wise Men are few and far between to enact policies and decisions and to lead in a way that produces peace or prosperity. It's a very interesting study. Babylon had nothing but magicians to call upon at this point, and they were looked upon as the Wise Men. Well, they all came in in verse 8, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king its interpretation.

And that too is instructive. If you're steeped in deception, spiritual deception, it is hard to read the handwriting on the wall. As I try to figure it all out, I'm one of these people that I've always been an armchair historian, an armchair political junkie without engaging politically in the world, but certainly having an interest in history and the country, an interest in the Bible and Bible prophecy, and trying to figure it all out as to why we have this lack of wisdom. There's another book that I would recommend.

Some of you may remember an American historian named Barbara Tuchman. She wrote a number of books on history, and one of them was called The March of Folly. And she profiled historically the folly of human government. And the chapter about America that she focused on was what the leadership or the lack of it that got America into Vietnam in the 1960s.

Over the last couple years, I've had an interest in kind of revisiting the 1960s and the Vietnam period to try to understand how it was we got there and what happened.

And you have to go back to the late 1940s and 50s with the French and Vietnam and the mistakes they made. Then we picked up their mistakes and multiplied them with the Vietnam conflict. And it was a mistake, a big mistake. Tuchman calls that part of what she calls the march of folly when it comes to human government. And I look at whether it's history or even our contemporary politics and try to say, why is it that a leader cannot cut through and say and do righteousness? Well, it's because of deception. And there is a spiritual deception that, through the generations, has its impact. And I don't care how many evangelical pastors might lay their hands on somebody and pray for them. Although that can't hurt. But if the full knowledge of the truth of God is not present, there's still going to be a deviance from the true course. And when you look at what Scripture tells us, that whether it's a leader of Israel or a leader of a pagan, a Gentile power like Babylon, anywhere, the principles are there that the law of God has got to be at the center for us to be on a true course without mistakes, without problems.

Or you will not be able to discern righteousness. And these wise men could not read the handwriting on the wall. Where are the wise men to read the handwriting on today's wall? And what would it take to truly understand the times, what is happening, and bring about a course correction, if you will, of repentance to God? We can ask that question. We know the biblical answer, but I think we still need to ask the question. For the sake of you and I, as we make sure we're on a true course ourselves, spiritually before God, and navigating our way through today's modern Babylon, so we don't get caught up politically and make some of those same mistakes. We have to hew to a different course as we evaluate and make our decisions and have our preferences.

But if we're going to be wise, it's going to be rooted in the Word of God, the law of God, the complete way of God that we have come to understand. And that's where Daniel came in. And here is what it says.

The king was troubled. Verse 9, His countenance was changed, and His lords were astonished. The wise men couldn't give him any answers. And then into the room, because she must have been hearing somebody who must have ran down the palace hallways or to the palace that she had adjacent near the environs of the palace. In comes the queen in verse 10.

The dowager queen, probably his grandmother, or related through marriage somehow. This was not his mother. By most historians, they think this would have been Nebuchadnezzar's wife, who's still alive. The queen, because of the words of the king in verse 10, and His lords came to the banquet hall. So she comes in. And maybe I can imagine her like the dowager countess in Downton Abbey, coming in on her cane, walking into this room here. She's not been part of the banquet. But somehow she's summoned or she appears on her own initiative, and she spoke because of her stature. And she says, Oh, king, live forever. That's what she said to kings in those days. You know, if you walked into a king's presence, okay, live forever. You know, just the magic words. And so, approach, come. Don't let your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the Holy God. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. She's talking about Daniel.

Daniel, as I said, he'd lost his corner office next to the king. He'd maybe been shunted off to an annex someplace. He wasn't in the decision-making meetings any longer. He was out of the loop, as we say. And Belshazzar had forgotten about him, probably wasn't even using him. But the queen knew what he had done for Nebuchadnezzar. But notice what she says about him.

Light, understanding, and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him.

Every time I read that, I think, I would love that to be said about me by a non-church, unconverted, queen, shopkeeper, relative, friend. Wouldn't you want someone to say, that person has light, wisdom, and understanding, like the wisdom of God?

It's a testimony to his integrity, to the fruit of God's Spirit working with him, and bringing out all that was here, and all that we read about Daniel in the story. And she says, Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, caudians, and soothsayers. And we know why, because they couldn't even interpret the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. Daniel could, because God gave him that insight and that wisdom.

And go on in verse 12, and as much as an excellent spirit. Here's again just adding on another layer of commendation by the queen. An excellent spirit, knowledge and understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named De Belteschazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will give you the interpretation. So the queen knew where to go and who to bring to interpret this. No doubt she understood the magnitude of the moment, what was taking place internationally, the dangers that were outside the gates, and what was about to befall. And perhaps in her own way, she thought that Daniel might turn the heart of this king, or in some way the action would be taken that might yet save the state. Who knows what she may have thought, but she definitely knew that he could interpret what was written on the wall by this hand, because he had wisdom and understanding, that he could explain an enigma. You know, an enigma, look it up, it's a mysterious unknown riddle or situation or event that nobody can understand. Can you think of any enigmas today that show the response, the policy, or the platform, or the plan doesn't show wisdom to solve?

There's a lot of enigmas today. There's a lot of problems in America needing solutions. There are problems internationally that need solutions. They're enigmas. And patches keep getting put on various things, that's true. And to the degree peace and a treaty and a relationship can be established among nations, like recently happened between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, can be good for its time and for its place. And there will be others, I'm sure, as we talk a little bit more about that this afternoon. But in that true solution, true, lasting justice, equity, those are enigmas. And we're seeing them right now played out on the streets of American cities, the fruit of the lack of solutions to those enigmas that have been there for all of our years. I read a book about it. I read a lot of books. When the shutdown came, I said, I'm not going to watch Netflix, binge watch Netflix all the time. A little bit, but not all. Okay? So I'm going to catch up on some reading. So one of the books I read was a book that I had seen recommended. I said, I got that one. And I don't buy all my books. I've got library memberships all over Ohio that allow me to download them to my Kindle, almost automatically for free. Libraries are the best modern invention available to us. The book was a study of America from the 1960s. Actually, the author took the point of John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963. And they went into the civil rights laws of the mid-60s, 64-65. The voting rights and the civil rights law were still impacting us. And he was talking about American culture and society and what has happened in those 55-56 years. And he did a devastating analysis of the failure of the great society by Lyndon Johnson to lift everyone out of poverty, the trillions of dollars that have been spent. And we still don't have lasting solutions. Justice. We still have racial problems in spite of the programs and the policies and the money and all. It's a devastating analysis that this author just went through to show what has happened and the lack of fruit and result. Again, in that one area and why we don't have it. We can look at the reasons, but these are the things that, as many of us are, we're at that age in our life, brethren, where we do look back and we know what it was like more than 50 years ago. We've lived through all of these years. We've seen things. We've come down to what is taking place today. And we're appalled and we're shocked and we're saddened and we're angry, perhaps, where we're crying out for God's kingdom.

But we've lived long enough, I think, and at least I have, to want to know really what has happened. What is the meaning of all these events and why the failures? I do crave that understanding to help me understand, again, what God's Word tells us about the future, especially in regard to this particular topic right here. Well, you know the story here that Daniel was brought in and he spoke before the king in verse 13. And the king said, Are you that Daniel, which is one of the captives from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah? I've heard of you. Well, he certainly had just that evening from the queen. But again, he repeats what he's heard.

I've heard of you that the Spirit of God is in you and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. The one thing that would probably get me to move to Arizona would be more days of sunshine than what I have in Ohio. But I've got to take the heat with it, don't I? As we're reflecting as well the trips we've made out, usually we come out here in August. Maybe next time you could invite me in January. I mean, I've got heat back there. We're 90 plus humidity and 111. I pulled it up on my app. What's it looking like in Phoenix? So three days ago I pulled up my app and tuned it into Phoenix. 111! Great! Okay. But it's dry heat.

But it's still hot. But the light. There's something about the light here. I know you have more days of light and sunshine than we had back in the Midwest. And I like light. You like light.

It brightens your day. It lifts your spirit. You know, spiritual enlightenment is what we all seek and want to live by as well. And this is what is being spoken of by Daniel. He had a spiritual enlightenment through the Word of God. And all he had been taught and schooled in before he was taken captive. He knew he was probably from the royal family. He had been... He obviously came from a side of the family that obeyed God because of his character. And so he had studied it. And he knew he was probably born during the time of Josiah and was a contemporary of the reign of Josiah, this brief period where Judah was worshiping the true God. And Daniel would have known and heard probably Jeremiah's preaching. And so he was tuned into that and it impacted his life. And he had wisdom and he had understanding and an excellence in wisdom, it says. Excellent wisdom. They're found in you. And again, I keep coming back. That can be said of us as we study to show ourselves approved, as we labor in the Word of God, as we let God's Word guide our thoughts and our hearts, and the way we analyze and think about the world, politics, history, what's taking place, so that we don't go off on extremes, so that we don't lose our spiritual bearings, so that we know how to navigate the streets and the highways of our modern Babylon and which we live. And so that culture doesn't seep into us, our children, our grandchildren.

I mean, I've got two teenage grandchildren right now. And my one son who's in the church, I told him, you know, this one time this summer, we were talking about what's taking place.

I said, I said, Ryan, I don't want my grandchildren going to where I sent you to university. And I named one university, one college. You need to send them there. It's kind of a conservative value-oriented college up in Michigan. And he said, Dad, I don't have that kind of money. You're not Donald Trump to be able to afford that. But, you know, I'm thinking about where are my, what are my grandchildren now going to be indoctrinated in? In their schools, as they go into university. I truly fear and think about that. The lack of wisdom that is there. It's scary to see some of the commanded course offerings that are now being made at universities. I read one that was required of all freshmen at the University of Pittsburgh. Required course, mandatory, no exceptions on diversity. Part of the diversity training. And we'll go into all of it there. But I read through the course offering and unbelievable. I mean, you students would be right to boycott that one and just go ahead and take a failing grade. It was only one point, one hour, I guess, and it wouldn't probably derail them from their major, just in protest with what would have to be put into that. But this is where, I mean, it's going even stronger in that direction in our schools, and especially in our universities, as this thinking has taken over. Well, Daniel gets his commendation, and he's told that the astrologers that have been brought in, they cannot make known the interpretation of the thing. And verse 16, he says, I have heard of you that you can give interpretations and explain enigmas. Now, if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple. I'll give you a chain of gold around your neck, and you'll be the third ruler of the kingdom. Now, this was all rather empty and no doubt Daniel knew just how empty the offering was, because Daniel knew that there was about to be a hostile takeover. And it would have been very short-lived, any power authority position that he had. This was the tradition. I mean, you remember in the story of Joseph, that when he interpreted the dream of Pharaoh, Pharaoh made him number two and put a chain about his neck.

Of course, in Proverbs, I think it's in Proverbs chapter 2, or maybe it's chapter 3, the wisdom, the knowledge of God is likened to a chain of gold around one's neck.

And it's a play off of what happened with Joseph and the wisdom that he had. And this is what was offered to Daniel. And he said, look, in verse 17, let your gifts be for yourself. Gear of your rewards to another. I will read the writing to the king, and I'll make known to him the interpretation. He was not interested in that.

Daniel had already, long since, anchored firmly his values. Power, wealth, position.

The idols of Babylon, and frankly, the idols of our modern Babylon, did not interest him. We don't have stone gods that we bow down to today so much, and wooden images of idols.

We don't do that in our secular society, but we still have idolatry.

Our idolatry today is power, money, status, celebrity.

Those are the token coins of idol worship that we have today in Babylon.

Daniel didn't want any of that then, and we have got to learn how to use whatever authority, power, whatever money, whatever status we might attain to in service to God. If we have light, wisdom, and understanding anchored in our outlook, in our view of the world, then we can attain a level of success, monetary wealth, even influence in a business or in a position that we might have if we're doing it by God's way. And it won't turn our mind. It won't turn us away from God as we again navigate the streets and highways of our Babylon. He said, I'm not interested in any of that.

He went on then beginning in verse 18 to describe what had happened with Nebuchadnezzar. That's an interesting part of what he says. He said in verse 19, God gave him majesty. All peoples and nations and languages trembled and feared before him.

And when you really look carefully at the earlier chapters of Daniel, Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that he was only in his position by the purpose of God.

And it was to God's purpose. Again, you read in Revelation 17 that the power that 10 kings give to the beast for an hour is to fulfill the purpose and plan of God because God has put it in their heart. Even at that high level of international power, God works his will among totally unconverted kings, leaders. And he did that with Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel points that out. But in verse 20, he says, his heart was lifted up. It was hardened in pride. And he was removed from his position. They took that glory from him. He was made like a beast and he dwelt with the wild donkeys. And they fed him with grass like an ox. His body was wet with the dew of heaven. Chapter 4 describes that story. Because he said, he came to know, in verse 21, that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men and appoints over it whomever he chooses.

But you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all of this.

So he didn't have a humility, and that was evident by bringing in those gold and silver vessels and drinking in a defiant gesture to God from them in this riotous banquet. You've lifted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought those vessels out of that house. And you and your lords and your wives and your concubines have drunk from them, praising the gods of silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and stone, and wood, which do not see nor hear or know. And the God who holds your breath in his hand and owes all your ways, you have not glorified. This was the line that he had crossed. This was what he would not and could not come back from. And this was when the hand appeared with the fingers and the writing was there. Daniel said, I'm going to tell you what it said.

And so he began to show the inscription, Mani-mani, take a lufarsim. Verse 26. This is the interpretation of each word, mani. God has numbered your kingdom and finished it.

Takel. You've been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

Peres. Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

So that's the interpretation. Now, we can have an understanding about perhaps a deeper application of this in terms of what it may tell us about today. But just looking at it scripturally, it says your kingdom's time is up. You have been judged, weighed in the balance and found wanting.

It's over. And it's going to be given to the Kingdom of Persia. Cyrus the Great, who had been prophesied by God through Isaiah the prophet to come in through the leave gates, which he did on that evening. But it said your time is up. Every great power, anciently and in our modern age, every great nation, every great empire has arisen according to God's purpose and timetable. And when their time has passed, whether it was the Soviet Union, Rome of the ancient world, the Ottoman Empire of the medieval period, or even something today, it will come when God is ready and it will expire on God's timing. Every one of them.

Babylon's time had ended, although we know from the rest of the story that there are capped roots to Babylon that have, from time to time through the ages, sprouted and been revived. And have come back through other peoples and other kingdoms and powers, whether it was Persia, Greece, Rome, or others, and have dominated for a period of time. Babylon has never ended. Babylon still exists.

It has just mutated. It has morphed into different configurations. And it's still alive and well, and we will see one final revival of Babylon in our, maybe in our time, or maybe as I said to the students, maybe in your time. But you need to understand, you need to know the signs so that you too can come out of her and not partake of her sins. It says that in that night, in verse 30, Belchazar, the king of the Chaldeans was slain, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old. Babylon fell that night. It was in late October in the year 539 BC.

The Persian time of dominance came. When you look at all of this and you come to understand it historically, I think there's greater spiritual knowledge for us to gain from this than all the dates and numbers and timelines and other predictions that we can maybe write on, may not be completely right on, maybe partially right, and whatever, as we seek to understand these things. And I'm one of those that feel that the trunk of the tree of our prophetic understanding has been solid. We can discuss a lot of different aspects of things, but what is sure about what is said here is that sin produces judgment individually and upon a nation and upon a people. And there comes a time when a people can be found not quite living up to the times and the times can overwhelm them. We are living through, for all of us here in this room, this period of what is called a pandemic. As far as I know, unless you're 100 years old or older, none of us in this room have lived through a pandemic. And I never, you know, we've read Revelation 4, I'm sorry, Revelation 6, the Horseman of Pestilence, and taught about it and thought about it through the years, but now we've kind of lived through one. And it's not what we've lived through is not what Revelation 6 describes, that's even bigger. All right, this is what this is a dress rehearsal, what we've lived through this year and still finding our way through. This is a dress rehearsal.

And I think it's important that all of us kind of, as we've dealt with it, regardless of what you think, and I hope we won't have too many conspiracy buffs in all of this, we can think what we want, I guess. The reality is it's here and it's impacted the world and it's turned things upside down. What have we learned? What have you learned? What will you take from this? In other words, are you and I and am I, are we up to, can we measure up to the time in which we are living? This is a big time. This is a big event. And the economic fallout is, frankly, even bigger right than that of the China virus, as it can be called. I know, I just played my hand.

I was in China when this thing broke. I picked up a virus in China. I don't think it was this one, or probably in the Philippines back in late December and into January. So this kind of has been hit close to home. We got out of Hong Kong on January 6 or 7 when we flew out of there, just as all this was really beginning to come to light in the news and they were beginning to talk about it. So I feel we got out of there just in time earlier this year.

But it's a big time. It is a major event that is impacting our world.

And the handwriting is on the wall. Now, I don't think it's the end of things.

I don't think that this is the event, but I do think that it is revealing certain things to us in a clear perspective to understand. We'll pick that up this afternoon. But as I look at what Daniel went through here and what the testimony about him from the Queen, it's remarkable and it speaks to us as a big takeaway in our life. Here's my big takeaway of this story here, that I have to get a mindset and a heart set, like Daniel did, so that the culture of Babylon cannot penetrate my life. And whether it's by prayer, as Daniel did it said three times a day, as custom was, or to take a period of time and to, in a sense, which he literally did in Daniel 10, he took a retreat out into the desert and prayed. And he fasted for a period of time. And it was a fast that probably, I don't know, it had water and probably vegetables and not sirloin steak every night or wine. But he retreated from his life to seek God. And as we're told in the first chapter, Daniel knew right off as a young man, probably 18, 19 years old, that if he was going to survive, his faith was going to survive in this new world of Babylon, that it would even impact what they ate and how they ate it, and even their diet had to conform to the holiness code that God had given Israel that he remembered that he knew and he couldn't compromise. Daniel set his mind in his heart so that the culture of Babylon could not penetrate his life. And that's how he endured. That's how he came to have the integrity that is described here as the Spirit of God in him.

Wisdom of the gods. Light and understanding was what was said of because they saw it in him.

And they knew he was different. And he was able to do that year after year for the rest of his life. Until the book ends, and he's probably in his 80s at that time, we can say that he lived all of his life by what he had learned in his youth. And he insulated himself in those ways from that time. He learned to use things wisely. I would speculate if I were to ever write one of these historical novels on a character like Daniel, I would speculate that he probably took his wages and maybe he did invest it for his future, not knowing what it was going to happen in the markets of Babylon. And he planned spiritually, physically. He lasted and he endured. He used it to serve God and didn't compromise his inner faith and his integrity. And he worshipped God. And God gave him the ability to figure out difficult things. So we're in a big time. We'll talk a little bit more about that this afternoon. I hope that that could give us a little bit of a foundation to understand the type of people that we have to be. The type of disciple that we must strive to become, like a Daniel, to navigate the streets and highways of our own modern.