Daniel Chapters 5-6

Let's turn over to Daniel 5. I have used the Preachers Outline and Sermon Bible Commentary for preparing this message today. Just a little bit of a review. Last week we covered some of chapter 5. Where we're at now in the story of Daniel's life, Daniel is now in at least his early 80s. We know that from the very last day of the Babylonian Empire, the very last few hours. We know when that empire went down.

We know it to the day when it went down, October 12, 539 BC. We realize Daniel was taken into captivity at 605 BC. You do the math. Daniel's been a captive for over 65 years. If he was 15 years old when he was taken captive, that makes him 80. If he was 20 years old when he was taken captive, that makes him 85.

So Daniel is well into his age. He's at least 80 years of age. At this point in world history, Babylon is very much on the way down. Again, we're looking at the last few hours of this world ruling kingdom. Persia is on the way up. They have been gobbling up territory and peoples. Now we find that the army of the Persians are just outside the gates of Babylon. A vast army is just outside the gates. Now Babylon was a great city of its day, or very great city of its day.

Today, from what they've excavated of the city, they believe it's about two-thirds. It was about two-thirds of the size of today's New York City. So a pretty good-sized landmass. It was encompassed by three walls, as I may have mentioned to you last week. The outer wall was 25 feet thick. Then there was a space of about 38 to 40 feet between that and the second wall. The second wall was 22 feet thick. Then, I don't know the gap there, but then the third wall, the last wall, before you entered into the city itself was 12 feet thick.

So if anybody was able to penetrate that first 25-foot wall, they would find themselves in a 40-foot area. The walls were 90 feet high. They had guard towers every 160 feet. Your army gets in, and then the guard towers, they shoot arrows and rocks and whatever things that they want to throw down at you. It's basically a kill zone. If you get through that second wall, then there's a third wall to contend with.

So the people, the citizenry of Babylon, thought, hey, we are really safe. They had enough food for several years for in case of the siege. They had the Great River Euphrates going right through the middle of town. So they thought they had a great water supply. So they were all set, they felt.

So last week we talked about, in verse 1 of chapter 5, a false sense of security that the king was perhaps trying to convey to the people. He had this great big party. Again, he realizes the city is going to be under siege or under attack, so maybe he's doing this as a way to bolster morale. But it's a false sense of security. In verses 2 through 4 in chapter 5, we see God being mocked.

The Babylonians brought out the various cups and what have you that were in the temple in Jerusalem. And they are toasting the false gods and certainly making a mockery of the true God. Then in verses 5 through 16, we see the handwriting on the wall. You've heard that phrase before. The Bible is the basis for that phrase. So that's the background to where we're at. Let's start in verse 18, chapter 5. Daniel 5, verse 18. It says, O king, the Most High God, gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. As we've talked about in times gone by, this is a major theme in this book.

That God gave Nebuchadnezzar the kingdom and majesty and glory and honor. It wasn't that Nebuchadnezzar was so great of him by himself. This is something God does. God makes and unmakes kings. Verse 19. And because of the majesty that he gave him, all peoples, nations and languages, trembled and feared before him. Again, God made this possible. Whomever he wished, he executed. Whomever he wished, he kept a lie. Whoever he wished, he set up. And whoever he wished, he put down. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.

Now, brethren, we are approaching the Passover season. I think we're already in the Passover season in terms of the trials that many are going through right now.

But one of the things, as you and I read the Scriptures, we want very much to apply them to ourselves. This is not just old history. This is something that should be a part of our daily experience. As I was relating earlier today to the congregation over in Ann Arbor. Do you remember your mindset when you first started coming to church?

I remember my mindset. I remember so clearly. It was probably the third weekend in August 1970. I was 18 years old. The very next day, I was going to be in California going to Ambassador College. I'd never been to church at service in my life. And the minister said, Randy, if you're going to go to Ambassador College, you should at least be in church one time before you go to Ambassador College.

And of course, as you know, my parents for those three years when they first called me, they wouldn't let me go to the services. So I went to church, and it was really interesting because when I walked in, my feeling was, Look at all these perfect people. They know the truth. And in Hebrew, when you know something, it means you are to do it. It wasn't until the Greeks started philosophizing that you could know something and not do it.

But to the Hebrew mind, if you knew something, you did it. At least, that's the way it's supposed to be. And so I guess I was partially Hebrew at the time. I thought that as I walked into the building, all these perfect people were keeping everything perfectly. And of course, I was so backward and awkward. I spent a lot of time in the restroom that day trying to hide myself from all these perfect people. I remember so clearly, I brought my little Bible. It's one of these deals with a cardboard back and front.

It had the red trim on it. And then I sat down next to two ambassador college students, and they had these huge Bibles. I mean, I open my Bibles like this. They open their Bibles like this. They're writing in their Bibles with those rapidographs. And I didn't know what a rapidograph is. And they've got those little rapidographs. And they've got color in their Bibles. Is God okay with that? They're coloring their Bible. They're adding to the Scriptures.

But I remember so distinctly that the attitude back in those days is we came to church to learn. Unfortunately today, too many come to church. And they'll have literature with them. They come to church to teach. I remember a number of years ago, over in the Ann Arbor congregation, we had some people who literally came to church with boxes full of literature. And they considered themselves ministers. And they were sizing me up.

Well, can we come to services and start handing out our stuff? And so they came for a few weeks, and I was told by some of the members, well, you know, I think something's amiss here.

They're wanting to talk about different things that we don't believe in. And then finally, after about two or three sabbaths in a row, then the literature started appearing. At which time I tap them on the shoulder and say, can I have a word with you? And I said, you know, you're welcome to attend.

We enjoy you attending. We enjoy anyone who wants to come and fellowship as long as it's done peacefully. But when you bring literature that contradicts what we teach, and it looks like you're trying to draw a group after yourself, then we would consider that a violent type of situation. And we would not feel very pleased with that. And so they never came back, and I was pleased with that.

But here we see that, you know, this king was in his heart, you know, very stiff-minded, stiff-necked, stiff-minded, unrepentant. And God says, you know, I'm going to have to deal with this. I'm going to have to deal with this. And God did deal with that. So this Passover season, brethren, let's make it a point to go back to where we were maybe decades ago, if we're not there already. Let's make it a point that when we open up the Scriptures, when we pray in the morning and ask God to inspire us and inspire our study, that we open up the Scriptures with the idea that every time we open the Bible, it's going to change our life.

Now, obviously, most all of you have been in a church a long time, so the major things are already sorted out. You don't need to worry about, you know, the Holy Days of the Sabbath or not keeping Christmas. Those things are long since decided. But, you know, we're now to the fine points, the fine-tuning, a little nuance here, a little nuance there. And God is expecting us to do something with those little nuances here and there. Okay, verse 21. Then He was driven from the sons of men. His heart was made like the beasts. His dwellings with the wild donkeys.

They fed Him with grass like the oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven, till He knew the most high God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses. So, again, this is what happened to Nebuchadnezzar.

We talked about that earlier. But you, His son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew this. He knew what had happened. He knew what the great God could do. And He was wanting to just disregard what He knew, which is a very dangerous thing. Verse 23. And you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, your concubines, have drunk wine from them.

You have praised the gods of silver and gold and bronze and iron and wood and stone, which do not see or hear, or so forth. And this angered God, verse 24, then the finger of the hand were sent from Him, and the writing was written. I'm going to get into that in a moment. But I want you to pause for a second here, put a marker in this section of Daniel. And there's a couple of concepts I want to put together here.

Let's go to Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15.

And verse 16. Genesis 15-16. There's an important principle here that affects you and I today. It affects all mankind at every age. But Genesis chapter 15 verse 16.

But in the fourth generation they shall return here, and this is the key here, this last phrase, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

Why do I pause and say, let's understand that phrase?

When we were studying about Nebuchadnezzar, we appreciated the fact and documented the fact that after God gave him the understanding of his vision, God gave Nebuchadnezzar one full year to chew on what he had heard, to think about what he had heard, to do something about what he had heard. He did nothing. So there comes a point where God says, enough is enough. And that's why we have this phrase here. There comes a point where the iniquities are complete, where God says, I've given you enough rope, and now there's no more rope to give. I've been very patient. I've been very merciful. But God is merciful. He is not permissive. God isn't permissive. He is merciful. So there comes a point in this particular scripture, the Amorites, they hadn't come to the end of their spiritual rope yet. But there comes a point when that happens.

Now, let's take a look, combine this principle with something we see over here in Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12 and verse 17. Hebrews 12-17. For you know that afterward, let's start here in verse 60. Must there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright? Now, you know the story of Esau. He was really hungry. He sold his birthright for some food to his brother. But now it's verse 17. For you know that afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place to repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

So, brother, how do we understand verse 17? Do we worship a God that when we are trying to repent and change and we are so sorry, we're tearful, that God says, I'm sorry, I'm not going to listen to you? Is that what this verse is talking about? Well, when you go back and you study the story of Jacob and Esau, at this particular point in Esau's life, was he truly repentant? The answer to that is no. If he was repentant, he wouldn't want to kill his brother. But it got to the place where Esau wanted to kill him. You're not repentant when you want to go and kill somebody. So, what is this verse talking about? This verse is talking about Esau giving away his birthright, and then it says he wanted to inherit a blessing. Well, he made a decision. You and I make decisions. And sometimes the decisions we make are bad decisions. But we've got to live with the consequences of bad decisions. And that's exactly what's happening to Esau. He's having to live with the consequences of giving away his inheritance. It says he wanted to inherit the blessing, but was rejected. Why? Because he gave it away. For he found no place for repentance. In other words, the word here means he couldn't change what he had already done. He couldn't unring the bell. He had given away his birthright.

And he says he sought it with diligence. He was so sorry for making a bad decision. But you know what? Bad decisions have consequences.

And so, why do I bring all these things up here? Well, the Babylonian kings had made a series of bad decisions. And of course, the last day of the existence of the Babylonian empire, they're thumbing their nose at God. They are full of themselves. They think they're self-sufficient. They think everything they've got, they did on their own. And so, these are all bad decisions. And God says, you know, your time has come. The fullness of your iniquities has come. It is now complete. There's no more rope. You can't unring the bell.

So, we go back now to Daniel 5, verse 25. And this is the inscription that was written. And again, think on this, brethren. You know, if right here in this room, all of a sudden, a giant hand started writing on the wall, and it dealt with you or me, and it wasn't too complimentary to you or me, I think that would be rather unnerving. Right?

Many, many, tekil, you far some. This is the interpretation of each word. Many. God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. In other words, the iniquities have been completed. We're talking about over there in Genesis, chapter 15.

Tekil, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. You're not a repentant, people. Certainly, king, you're not repentant.

Faraz, your kingdom has been divided and is given to the Medes and the Persians. And that's going to happen in just a few hours.

Then, Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Well, what's that all about? Well, maybe this guy is superstitious. He says, boy, this is Daniel. He knows the stuff.

Maybe if I honor Daniel, we'll placate his God. His God will back off and we'll be okay.

And so, basically, what you have here is somebody just being superstitious.

Verse 30, that very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain, and Darius the Medes received the kingdom, being about 62 years old.

Now, how did this happen? With all those three mighty walls, all the thicknesses of all three of the walls, the walls were 90 feet high, they had all these guard towers, they had a great military. All that. How did this take place?

Well, when the Persian army came to Babylon, they saw the Euphrates River flowing through town.

They diverted the river, and they walked in on the riverbed.

Let me read to you from Herodotus, the historian, and I quote, Hereupon the Persians, entering the stream, which had now sunk as low as to reach midway of a man's thigh, and thus they got into town.

But as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise and took the city.

Going to the vast size of the place, inhabitants of the central parts, didn't know what was happening until the very end.

The city was taken without resistance. We think, as a nation, we are invulnerable.

And, you know, brethren, if I was a foreign nation, I wouldn't want to attack America.

But think on this. In World War II, what helped turn the tide?

At the very onset of World War II, we broke the German code, we broke their enigma machine, we broke the Japanese code.

We knew what they were going to do before they did it, in many cases.

And we barely beat them, because God intervened on our behalf.

Now, what's going to happen at the end of the age when God intervenes on our enemy's behalf?

And they find a way to bring down our vaunted technology.

So we can't use our submarines, we can't communicate.

We've read in the book of Isaiah, I think it was, for one of the minor prophets, where the call to war goes out and no one answers.

Well, if you can't communicate, you can't answer.

Our nationwide grid goes down, where we can't communicate.

I mean, all sorts of horrible things can happen.

And, unfortunately, prophecy shows they will happen.

So this is not just something for musty old years gone by.

We look at this and we see our nation, who think, you know, it's American ingenuity.

We have what we have because we're such a great people, no?

Just like what's said here, God gave us this land.

God gave us the opportunity.

God put us in an area where we've got two great big seas, oceans on either side of us.

He gave us a land where we've got, as we used to say in the broadcast, when we first began this country, was in some cases over a foot or more thick.

Some parts of the world, they talk about top zone and less than an inch.

We had rich-like chocolate, vast forests.

You know, today the resource people covet is oil.

But back when this country was founded, the resource that was coveted was timber.

Because that's what made the ships, that's what made the commerce of the world go.

England was almost denuded of trees because of building their ships.

And yet, this country had vast tracts of forest.

So vast people didn't know how deep into the country it went.

God gave that to us.

And God, just like here, God at one point, at some point in the future, God will take it away from us.

And therefore, brethren, we need to be like Daniel.

We need to have the kind of lifestyle he had, which we're going to find out here.

We're going to talk more about this in chapter 6.

So let's now get into chapter 6.

Remember, at this point, chapter 6, Daniel is in his 80s, either early 80s or mid 80s.

He's an old gentleman.

He's already been through one world-ruling empire. And he's now about to start serving, and in a second, world-ruling empire.

Chapter 6, verse 1.

It pleased Arias to set over the kingdom 120 safe traps to be over the whole kingdom.

So when the Persians conquered Babylon, they had a situation they had to deal with.

Much like when the allies conquered all of Europe at the end of World War II, the allies were faced with, well, we've got to keep the trains running.

We've got to keep things moving. How do we do that?

Well, as you watch the movie, Patent, what did Patent do?

He kept some of the Germans in charge of various things to make sure society kept on running.

The Persians did the same thing.

They said, well, who has been running this society? Let's keep them in office.

So we have a flow of society, flow to the society.

Verse 2.

Over these three governors, whom Daniel was one, that the safe traps might give account to them so the king would suffer no loss.

Now, I'm sure that Darias here, and I just, in passing, will say this.

If you go to our Bible reading program or our Bible commentary online, ucg.org, there's an interesting commentary about chapter 5, verse 31, and who this guy really is.

History has a lot of question marks as to who this gentleman is.

It could be Darias, it could be Cyrus, or it could be a general.

But the scholars, the historians, are divided as to who this is.

Now, that's really into the weeds. It doesn't make a difference to you and I who this guy is, in one sense, but I thought I'd mention that in passing.

But whoever this person is, they saw the value that Daniel was to the Babylonian kingdom, and they wanted him to keep on being a part of the rulership of strata.

Now, that tells us something, again, about Daniel.

The Bible goes on and on and keeps on talking about how he had an excellent spirit, and how the people in the world saw that excellent spirit, much like Pharaoh saw the excellent spirit that was in Joseph.

Brethren, don't you want for your employer to look at you, or your next-door neighbor, or perhaps relatives, and think, you know, so-and-so, you put your name in a blank, they have got an excellent spirit.

And they get things done, and you can rely upon them to get things done.

Chapter 6, verse 3, Then as Daniel distinguishes himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm, basically making him a prime minister.

When Debbie called me this last week, you know, she just needed some encouragement, and we were talking on the phone, you know, about healing and so forth, working through people, you know, a number of surgeries and what have you.

I related to her the Scripture there in Exodus 31, verses 1-6.

In Exodus 31, verses 1-6, we see God giving his Holy Spirit to physical people to do a physical work.

It's a very interesting section of Scripture. I'm not going to take the time to turn to it now.

But it said that God wanted these men, these artisans, to do a good work in building a tabernacle.

So God gave them his Spirit to do that.

And I told Debbie, I said, you know, Debbie is certainly proper for us to be praying that God would give his Spirit, at least temporarily, to your doctors and nurses and technicians and the various medical staff that you're going to be seeing, so they can do a good work as they operate on you.

Your body is the temple of God's Holy Spirit. And so here's the same thing.

Daniel was a spiritual man, but God's Holy Spirit also enhanced all the other areas of his life.

And we can legitimately ask God to do that for us.

God, help me to be a better this at work or that at work.

Allow your Spirit to enhance my natural abilities and talents.

Verse 4.

So the governors and the satrap sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no charge or fault because he was faithful.

Nor was there any error or fault found in him.

So we notice here in verse 4 that, you know, these guys were wanting to find dirt on Daniel.

Now, I don't know about you, but I do know about me.

If somebody wanted to find dirt on me, I don't know that they'd have to go real far, you know?

I've got my share of flaws and weaknesses, and I'm sure that I wouldn't want to have my life shot up on the screen behind me.

I'm thinking the same thing is true for you.

But Daniel was different.

He was one of the three most righteous people who ever lived.

We learned from the life of Jesus Christ, but we also learned from the life of somebody who wasn't God in the flesh.

And we can want to strive to be somebody that is so faithful that two world-ruling kings want him on their staff.

But notice there's a time here of religious persecution.

Verse 5, then he's been said, We shall not find any charge against this Daniel, lest we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

And again, brethren, this is something for us to think deeply about, because this is going to be happening in our lifetime.

Put a marker there. Let's go over to Revelation, the book of Revelation, Chapter 6.

Revelation, Chapter 6. You know, we believe that there's a very good chance Christ will come in our lifetime.

If that is indeed the case, then this is also true, and this will also take place in our lifetime.

Revelation, Chapter 6, Verse 9.

When he opened the fifth seal, now we understand what the fifth seal is.

The fifth seal is the Great Tribulation.

It's Satan's wrath on mankind. It's the last three and a half years before the return of Jesus Christ.

We realize that the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord run concurrently.

The last three and a half years. The last year, even, the Day of the Lord.

Verse 9.

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.

In other words, people in the past, our brothers and sisters, who were martyred because of believing what we believe.

Verse 10. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you have judged and avenged your blood on those who dwell on the earth.

Then a white robe was given to each of them.

Obviously, this is symbolic.

And it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both a number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

Now, we love to talk about going to a place of safety, and we tend to think that everyone is going to be okay.

Well, maybe there is a place of safety, and maybe there isn't.

I don't know. I can't state that dogmatically.

What I can state is what we see right here explicitly, that at the end of the age, some people will be martyred.

And it doesn't mean that the people who are being martyred aren't faithful Christians.

These are faithful Christians who will be martyred, just like the apostles were faithful, and they were martyred.

So, brethren, I say this to you because I want you to prepare yourself for the worst.

If we prepare ourselves that, well, when the hard times really come, God is going to punch a ticket for us, and we're going to escape everything.

If we go on to the times of trouble with that thought, and then we find trouble, then we're going to crash and burn.

We've got to prepare ourselves for the worst eventuality.

Now, if God decides to take you to a place of safety, or me, hey, I'm not into pain, you're not into pain, but on the other hand, if God wants us to do what it says here, then we're going to do what it says here, and we need to prepare for that.

Okay, we go back now to Daniel 6.

So these governors and saitraps thronged before the king and said to him, King Darius, live forever. Long live the king.

All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators, saitraps, counselors, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

They consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions any god or man for 30 days except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.

So a very specific edict was plotted out to hammer Daniel.

Daniel was very much in the center of the bull's eye. Have you felt that way in life?

Have you felt that Satan had you squarely in his crosshairs?

Well, certainly Daniel was.

Now, O king, establish that the Koreans sign the writing so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.

Now, you talk about a group of people who are full of themselves.

They were so full of themselves, they thought, you know, everything we put in a writing has to be perfect, and if it's perfect, why would we ever want to change it?

We're us. We're Persians. We know everything.

Therefore, King Darius signed the written decree.

Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home and in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as his custom was since the early days.

So, here we see a man who says, you know, I'm not going to be intimidated by the laws of the land.

As it says there in Acts 5, I think, verse 29, we obey God rather than men.

Daniel knew he was being watched, and he wasn't just trying to bait people, but he wanted to be a light.

And he was a light. He was a light to those people who, you know, just like Pharaoh's army that perished in the Red Sea, at some point those soldiers are going to be resurrected, and they're going to remember that the God of Israel killed them in the Red Sea.

At some point, these people who were after Daniel are going to be resurrected, and they're going to realize, even when we were coming after him, and he knew we were coming after him, he prayed. He was diligent in his prayers through his God.

And that's going to be a teaching tool for all of them.

But also, I think Daniel, there's a good thought here that Daniel may well have opened those windows, because he wanted to be a light to all the other Jewish people in the realm.

He wasn't the only captive that was deported into Babylon and then became a part of the Persian Empire.

He wanted to be a light to everybody else, and the word would spread that here this man, on pains of being killed, fed to the lions, he was going to stand tall for the truth. He was going to stand tall for God's way of life, and he did.

Verse 11, Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.

They went before the king and spoke concerning the king's decree. Have you not signed a decree?

So basically they're saying, hey, king, remember what we had? Do we advise you to sign? And you signed, king?

I mean, they're kind of rubbing it in in some ways.

That every man who petitions any god or man within thirty days except you, king, shall be cast into the den of lions.

The king answered and said, the thing is true according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.

Then they answered and said before the king, that Daniel, who was one of the captives from Judah.

Oh, you've got to be anti-Semitic. You've got to be after these Jews. These Jews, they were over the Babylonians. Now they're over us as Persians. Let's get this guy.

That Daniel was one of the captives from Judah does not show due respect to you, king, or the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.

And the king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased with himself.

He realized he had been worked with. He had been handled.

And, you know, as you read the remainder of this chapter, brethren, I can't help but wonder if this man had a growing friendship with Daniel.

He saw the man's quality. He saw the man's worth. He saw what the man was able to do in Babylon.

And it could well be... I mean, think about who Daniel was. A lover of the great God of Israel.

Do you think Daniel kept quiet about that? Or do you think Daniel had words to the king and said, you know, king, let me discuss my God with you.

You want to discuss your gods with me? Let me discuss my God with you.

And I'm betting to some degree this king had receptive ears to what Daniel had to say.

And so the king, he loved, and had a great admiration, I would think, for Daniel.

That's why it says here, he was greatly displeased with himself and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him.

Again, that shows something about Daniel and how he interacted with the unconverted.

You know, too many times in the church will have the attitude, well, they're the unwashed. They're the unconverted. Let them go. No. It wasn't Daniel's thought. Daniel had a tremendous relationship, and this guy wanted to deliver him. Notice at the end of verse 14, and he labored to go down to the sun to deliver him.

Didn't have entertainers come, didn't have jokesters come, didn't have a big feast.

He said, I've got to work to find a loophole here. There's got to be some way of getting around this.

Verse 15, It is the law of the Medes and Persians that no decree or statute which the king established may be changed.

So again, they're coming back to him and saying, King, we know what you're up to. You can't change the deal here. The deal was this guy's going to the Den of the Lions.

They were afraid that King was going to go back on this word.

Verse 16, But the king spoke saying to Daniel, Your God, whom you serve continually, Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.

Is Daniel the only person in this chapter who's showing faith?

Faith's getting contagious here, isn't it? Why? Because this man had some knowledge of the true God. And he certainly had knowledge of who Daniel was and what kind of character that Daniel had.

Verse 17, And this stone was brought and laid in the mouth of the den, and the king steeled it with his own signet ring, and with the signets of his lords, the purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed.

So, brethren, pause here for a second.

You and I are going through troubles. We're going through trials. We beg God to take us away. And then God doesn't take us away, and sometimes we get mad at God.

Well, did God take us away from Daniel? No.

Was he thrown into the... Brethren, I don't know that we... Let's take a look here. I don't think we've got anybody in this room who's 80 years old. Right? When you're 80 years old and you're thrown into something, you don't bounce too well.

You know, that was probably enough trial as it was, for the poor God to be thrown into a pit.

Now, maybe he was lucky and landed on one of the lions. You know, they're soft and fuzzy. Maybe that happened. But, you know, God did not just automatically remove him from the situation. He was going to go through this. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were in the furnace. Just like you are in whatever you are in right now. Just like many years ago, and I think I made mention of this, when Mark Reeland was dying of cancer, and he was only 44 years of age, and people said, Mark, why is God allowing this to happen to you? And Mark said, why not me? Now, there is a man of faith. Why not me? Brethren, why not you? Why not me? The things we're going through.

Verse 18, now the king went to his pals and spent the night fasting. Notice, the king is fasting. The unconverted guy is fasting for the converted one. And no musicians were bought before him, and also his sleep left him. Then the king arose very early in the morning. Now, he didn't have to rise early in the morning, because of his affection for Daniel, he wanted to get up. He wanted to find out what was going on.

Then the king arose very early in the morning and went up in haste to the den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The king spoke, saying to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God. Notice how the king is phrasing this. Servant of the living God, has your God whom you serve continued to be able to deliver you from the lions. So here's the king. He's pleading. He's wanting to know what's going on. Then Daniel says, long live the king.

And the king's thinking, hey, wait a minute, long live Daniel. Forgive him long live the king, long live Daniel.

Daniel says, verse 22, My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, so they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before him. And also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.

Now, there's nothing wrong with wanting to make sure the error is clear. Daniel wanted very much to clear his name. God cleared his name.

And, you know, again, God sent an angel to take care of matters.

How many times have angels taken care of matters in your life or mine? Well, we'll have to wait until the resurrection to ask God all that. But I'm sure many times. Verse 23, Now the king was exceedingly glad for him and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury, whatever, was found on him, because he believed in his God.

And brethren, when you and I are facing the lion, the roaring lion that the Bible talks about, you know, in Peter, where he wants to destroy us, he wants to devour us, our weapon is belief in the great God. Our weapon is our faith in the great God.

Verse 24, And the king gave the commandment, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions. Them, their children, their wives, and the lions overpowered them, and broke all their bones and pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den. Now some people said, well, you know, the reason that Daniel wasn't touched is the king quietly unannounced anybody. The king went in there and fed those lions all sorts of meat.

They weren't hungry for some scrawny 80-year-old guy.

Well, you know, it looks like the lions are pretty hungry for these people.

You know, here comes another one down. You grab a leg, I'll grab a leg, and, you know, split them apart.

A couple of thoughts here. You know, the Bible talks about the sins of the father being visited to their families.

You've got that thought here, which for those of us who are, who have got family, we want to make sure that we are right before God so our lives don't hurt our families, kind of like the situation with Achan back in the early part of the Old Testament, where because he had stolen the accursed thing, Israel was losing battles in war. So that's one idea here.

Another idea here from the king's perspective. The king realized that he had people under his control that were wanting to pull the wool over his eyes. And when you're a king, you don't like those kind of people around you. And he could have just killed the fellows who asked them to make the edict, but in his mind he thought, well, you know, if I kill the guys, if I kill the dads, then their sons are going to grow up and want revenge.

And so the thought is, let's wipe them all out. Let's wipe them all out. And that well could be what took place here. Verse 25, then King Darius wrote, Through all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell on all the earth. So here we have in Daniel's life, with Nebuchadnezzar, an unconverted person, writing this special letter to the whole realm, and now we've got a Persian king writing to his whole realm. We've got two men in the Bible who are not converted, Nebuchadnezzar and Darius. But God is inspired to write a portion of the Bible, and every word these men are saying is approved by God, which again shows how great God is that he can even use the unconverted as a tool.

Can God use the unconverted in your life as a tool to bless you? Certainly he can. We can pray to that end. Pc. multiplied to you, verse 26, I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. Sounds a lot like what Nebuchadnezzar wrote, right? For he is the living God, and steadfast forever.

His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, and he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. So this is Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Darius Cyrus the Persian.

So Daniel here, under the rule of two different world-ruling empires, and these various kings, did something that nobody else had done. He set a tremendous example. It was a tremendous light. Now, in closing, brethren, remember, next Sabbath I'll be in Chicago, and all through April, this is the last time we'll be going through Daniel until May. But I want to, to me, it's a very interesting conclusion. We're halfway through the book. The first part of the book was basically Christian living. There was some prophecy.

There'll be some Christian living in the second portion of the book, the next six chapters, but that portion is mostly prophecy. But what we have here is interesting to me, and what we've covered so far is how God delivers His people, how God delivers His people.

If we truly trust God, He will deliver us through the trials of life. No matter what the opposition, no matter how bad the odds look, God will be there for us. Let's take a look at one final scripture for today, over here in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. And let's start here on verse 8. 2 Corinthians 1.8. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure.

Debbie says she's been experiencing pain every day at the 8 and 9 point level. She feels burdened beyond measure. I'm sure you have felt burdened beyond measure. It's not pleasant. It wasn't pleasant for Paul. We were burdened beyond measure above strength. Have you ever felt that you didn't have the strength to carry on, that you didn't have the strength to put your foot one foot ahead of you for the next step?

So that we despaared even of life. Now here is a man who was a minister of God and an apostle of God who was taught face to face by Jesus Christ and he says, we despaared of life. I don't know that there are many of you who have been in that situation, but if you have been, you appreciate what Paul is saying here. People can find that kind of depression, and you're not unconverted because you feel that way. Paul felt that way. He was very converted. Verse 9, yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves.

That's how dire it was for him. We had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in the God who raises the dead. And, brethren, I think so many times our problems, your problems, my problems, the reason why we are banging our head against the wall so much and hurting so much is because we trust too much in us, in our strength, in our ability, in our wisdom, in our might, in our ingenuity, and whatever.

That we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. In other words, what Paul is saying there, it doesn't get any worse than dying. Yet even God can fix that. Notice now, verse 10, Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us, in whom we trust that He will still deliver us. So the idea of being delivered by God was very strong in Paul's heart and mind. And as you and I meditate on what we've already seen in the book of Daniel, we can see how God has intervened and delivered Him.

He could have died way back in 605 BC at the hands of the Babylonians. No. God delivered Him. It was a tremendous trial. They wanted to brainwash Him, and so on. But no, He became a man who was greatly loved in two world-ruling empires, because God put Him there. So, brethren, think about where God could be using you and placing you. And let's, you and I, remember Daniel and all these lessons we've learned, and put them into effect in our lives.