Daniel's Life to the Gentile World

Happy Sabbath, everybody! Good to see you all, and happy Sabbath to our brethren up in Santa Rosa that are also listening in, I believe, today. Good to see you all. I see you all fared well with the Holy Day season, and you made it here on the Sabbath. I think we had a wonderful Holy Day season, by the way, from what I hear. We had very good offerings from the different places I've heard from. We had over $80 a person here, which is something, I think, of a record, if I'm not mistaken. I don't remember the offerings being that high. I talked to Howard Davis yesterday, and he mentioned it up in the Portland area.

They had $77 a person. So, you know, we don't normally mention about the per person, but I think it is quite remarkable that in these times that we live in right now that God is blessing us in that way within the church, and I certainly thank you for it. You know, Mr. Spears, by the way, made a couple of errors in pronouncing some of the towns back in Alabama.

And I don't know, Mr. Spears, where you're sitting, but oh, he's hiding behind Mark Morigian back over there. But it's Tuscaloosa. You know, I made a mistake, by the way, going in certain areas of mispronouncing the names of some of the cities, too, so it's not surprising when that happens. But we do need to be praying for our brethren back in Alabama and Tennessee and that area. I'm sure that because of the fact that they don't have electricity and probably there are a lot of emergency vehicles also that are out on the roads that are trying to take care of finding people. I think that's a lot of the problem that probably they're running into down there, finding the people that perhaps have been missing, some of them for several days now. So please do remember praying about that. You know, and even though, of course, we had these terrible tragedies in the United States with tornadoes and we may very well have others with floods and so forth, it seems like the whole world's eyes were fixed on the wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton. You know, it is just amazing that two billion people watched that wedding. And how many of you saw vestiges of it? I didn't see it all myself. I saw part of it. I think all of us are sort of intrigued by that. You know, I think it's interesting to me the third of the world is intrigued by the royal wedding that takes place here between Prince William and his new bride Kate.

I guess I don't know whether that's what they're going to call her or not, you know, but anyway, it was an interesting thing to watch. One wonders what it's going to be like in the future when Jesus Christ marries the church. I think there's going to be probably a lot of fanfare, don't you think? Not just the world, but the angelic world. It's going to be a wonderful, wonderful thing. But you know, when we see what happens, as happened down Tennessee and Georgia and Alabama, you see this tremendous destruction that takes place in the power of the forces that exist in terms of weather up on this earth. We can kind of get a feel of what war, frankly, might be like. You know, when bombs begin to drop and cities begin to be obliterated, you might say that the same thing we're seeing right now that was done by weather can be done by man. Man can, you know, of course, has power to harness tremendous destructive power, and he has the power to unleash it as well. And we know prophecy does indicate in the end of the age, and Ezekiel 6 talks about how that the cities of Israel are going to be laid waste. And, you know, all the high places where men have worshiped false gods are going to be brought low, the Bible mentions, in the future. But I want you to imagine that time in the United States, what if our nation, brethren, was besieged by an enemy nation, and our capital city was destroyed, and much of the surrounding area was plundered and destroyed? Well, brethren, this was the case when King Nebuchadnezzar sent his armies into Judah and Jerusalem in the 7th century BC.

What happened is, of course, a lot of the cities were laid waste. And, you know, perhaps you could see the fires burning in the distance of many of the buildings that have been brought down because of the armies, the encroaching armies of Nebuchadnezzar. And the best of everything that was in Judah was taken away. And the people were, of course, taken away by the Babylonian Empire. Josephus wrote that King Nebuchadnezzar ordered that the most, that some of the most noble of the Jews that were children, and the kinsmen of Zedekiah, who was the king of Judah, who had a remarkable beauty about themselves. You know, they were handsome in their countenances, and that they be delivered into the hands of tutors to improve them. And so they were brought up to Babylon, and they were to be put in tutoring, some sort of a schooling system that they had set up for these young people. And among them were four of the family of Zedekiah. And Daniel, of course, and his three friends, were among those that were taken into that captivity. And it indicates that Daniel and his three friends were of royal blood. And so these individuals would have had very much acquaintance again with nobility in the land from which they were taken captive. Let's go over to the book of Daniel here, and talking about this subject here today. In Daniel chapter 1 and verse 1, it says, "...in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it." And of course, this was the most formidable army upon the face of the earth at that particular time, because it was a world ruling empire. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand.

And so God actually allowed Judah to be defeated. And the reason was because of the sins of the people. And you know, the sins of people in a nation, I remember Mr. Armstrong talking about when people were over 50% with unrighteous. And sometimes God makes judgments, and likely this was the case with regard to Judah. It may have been more than that, because it extended even into the priesthood, that many within the priesthood were corrupt.

And so God gave him into the hand of the king of Babylon. In fact, we know that God told them, look, you better cooperate with the Babylonians, or you're going to be put to death. You know, you need to surrender to them and go with them. And so God gave Jehoiakim into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, and with some of the articles of the house of God, and which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God, and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God.

And then it says the king instructed Esphinaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel, and some of the king's descendants, and some of the nobles. So again, in this case, Daniel may have been, in his three friends, may have been of noble birth, of royalty. In verse 4 it says, Young men, in whom there is no blemish, in other words, strikingly good-looking men, as it mentions in the next few words, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach, the language and the literature of the Chaldeans.

And so they were going to be taught the language, and be able to communicate, and to also know the literature, the history, and all of those things of the Chaldeans, as it clearly says. Now this was in 604 BC when this began to happen, where there was the extrication of the Jews, and the expulsion of the Jews from the southern part of Israel, and they were taken off to Babylon.

Let's go down to verse 21, and we see here that Daniel was in this system for quite a long time. In verse 21 it says, Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus. And so when we again figure these years, one fell in 539 BC, and the book of Daniel covers roughly about 70 years or so, because that was the time that the Jews were in that captivity before they were able to return back to Palestine.

And we know, of course, the story about that, where they returned to rebuild the wall and to set up again the system. So all of Daniel's adult life he spent in a Gentile world. Here was a young Jewish boy, he began out, and he spent 70 years of his life in a Gentile world. And he lived during the demise of Babylon and the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire. And he witnessed very interesting times, like brethren we may very well be in very interesting times right now. Seeing what is happening in the world, you know, and how the United States, in fact, is beginning to diminish in power, you know, we may be seeing again the demise of the United States.

I wish it wasn't so, brethren, but all of the news that I read about, all the things I study, you know, that are in the news, quite frankly, don't speak about a triumphant future for the United States from an economic standpoint and from other standpoints as well. So we live in interesting times like Daniel did. But Daniel proved to be a brilliant student, as did his three friends. And he later ascended to high position in the government of Babylon.

Daniel, in Hebrew, by the way, means God is judge or God is my judge. And it is interesting that in the lifetime of Daniel that God judged Babylon. And of course in the balances, and she fell in 539. So today, brethren, let's learn the powerful lessons of the life of Daniel as he lived in a Gentile world. Because in one sense, brethren, you and I live in a Gentile world, whether we want to or not.

I mean, we of course realize that the United States has some Israelite descendants within it. But brethren, our method of governance, our method of law, and all of it, I think we would have to admit, is basically like everybody else's law, at least in the Western world among democracies, we're basically the same. And people do not keep the Sabbath, they do not keep the Holy Days, they do not observe the laws of clean, unclean mates, they do not observe many of the laws that God of course established in the Old Testament, and they certainly sometimes don't even obey those things that Jesus Christ himself said. So we live in a Gentile world by default, and it probably is going to become more and more that way, especially when the times of the Gentiles begin, which they may in fact have already begun. But he was taken from his homeland, and he had to learn some very valuable lessons. There are lessons we can learn, brethren, from Daniel to help us function in society, which grows further and further away from God every single year. Daniel was a man greatly beloved of God. Hopefully you and I, brethren, can someday fit into that category where, you know, as we know that that was said to Daniel, that he was greatly beloved. Remember, he was praying for God to give an answer to a prophecy, and an angel told him that he was greatly beloved. And brethren, also in Ezekiel 14 verse 14, I'm not going to turn there, but it seems to identify Daniel as one of most righteous men in the Bible. Daniel, of course, was one. I think Noah was another. And Job was another. The three that were identified and singled out, and yet it was said of them that they could only deliver themselves. They couldn't deliver anybody else. So Daniel, apparently, was a very righteous man in every sense of the word. You know, you think about it, if you and I were thrown into the political sphere of today, how would we be impacted by it? You know, if we received political appointments and we were slaves, how would we deal with it? Would we begin to take on the characteristics of those who were in charge? You know, I think typically that's what people would do. You know, thinking about the fact that if you're the only one, you know, think about it. You've got nobody as your peer, basically, except in this case Daniel had his three friends.

But Daniel was the only one, and he had to stand by the laws of God and that kind of an atmosphere all the days of his life. And so Daniel was a man who certainly had characteristics. And rather than there are lessons about Daniel's life where we can see his qualities demonstrated, that we as Christians today, living the world that we live in, brethren, need to strive to attain and to be like the prophet Daniel. Now, I think the very first thing, the first lesson that we learned from Daniel, brethren, is Daniel rose to meet the trials that came at it. And he rose to the circumstance that he was in, whatever that circumstance was. You know, he would not have chosen in all of his days to go into, obviously, the captivity that happened to Judah and to be a slave. I mean, what person in their right mind would want such a thing or even dream of such a thing? Perhaps Daniel thought it could come. I don't know. I know that they were being warned by the prophets about what was going to happen, you know, with regard to the nation and on many occasions, as a matter of fact. But here he was. He was ripped from his homeland at a very early age. Probably he was, you know, 16, 70, 17 years of age, you know, the age that may be where he could go off to an educational system and be there with other young men who were taught the same things that he was. But what did he do? Even though he, again, was ripped from his homeland as a very young age, he dealt with it and made the best of it. Now, that's how he did handle it, brother. He was torn from his family. Think about that. You know, that someone comes in and takes you away from your mother and your father and maybe your brothers and sisters. And they drag you off to a country, a land that you don't even know where it is. Now, maybe, again, he was aware of all those things. But, again, to think about what it would do to a child, say, of 16 or 17 today, to be taken off like that, it would have probably been very devastating for them. You know, sometimes on the camper applications, there is a part on it where they ask the minister's opinion about whether or not a camper will get homesick going to camp.

You know, what kind of a camper application would Daniel have had? You're going to get homesick, Daniel. You better believe he's going to be homesick in a Gentile world like he was, surrounded by it. But he was taken from his family and placed in an educational boot camp.

I think this is probably a good way to look at it in Babylon. And so he had that job of learning, of training. And, you know, that's what we need to learn about life, brethren. Here with Daniel, he was willing to, again, rise to meet the trial that was in front of him and the circumstance that he was in. And he was willing to have a right attitude about it. You know, life, brethren, is what we make of it, no matter the circumstance. You know, if we're looking for God to feel sorry for us, if we are in a circumstance like even Daniel was in, brethren, God is not going to feel sorry for us. He's going to say, make the best of it. Whatever the circumstance may be, God will bless us in our efforts if we move forward in that circumstance and perform, you know, according to what a Christian should do. You know, sometimes people can play, woe is me, woe is me. You know, so long it becomes almost like a shrieking fingernails on a chalkboard. You know, we need to move on and again rise to the circumstance.

But let's go over here. Daniel chapter 1 and down in verse 3, it says, Then the king instructed Asphinas, the master of the eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles. And so they were brought into this, again, kind of an educational boot camp there in Babylon. And down in verse 7, it says, To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel the name Belthaschazar to Hananiah, Shadrach, to Meshach, into Azariah, Abednego. Of course, we know them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But those were the names that they had. But Babylon, in Babylon, they were given other names, perhaps to let them know that they had a new Babylonian identity, that they're going to be trained again in the Babylonian culture. And down in verse 10, And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who has appointed you your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king. When they got there, they found out that they were going to have to eat the king's meat and drink from the king's wine and those things, the drinks that were available.

And, you know, if you've studied anything like about this, just about everything that probably was on the king's table would probably have been polluted. If it were not unclean, you'll think about the fact that in this Gentile world, mostly unclean foods would be eaten, it may have been sacrificed to an idol, which would have been foreboding for Daniel and his three friends to eat of. And also, even the wine, if there was wine that had been available, it might have been dedicated to the gods. And so there are a number of reasons why Daniel and his three friends did not want to eat the king's meat. But, you know, here, since Aspenaz was the master of the eunuchs, if he were to again tell the king that Daniel was not going to do that, in fact, he could have very well been put to death as well. So Daniel could have been put to death.

But I want you to think about the fact that here is a young man, again, that has so much courage, and he rises to the circumstance. He rises to the circumstance, and he doesn't back down.

You know, sometimes in our lives, brethren, we are put in a situation, all of us in one sense, you know, have to kowtow to someone. If you have a job, you've got to kowtow to that person, you've got to submit to that person. And, you know, if any of you remember, in the past, of having to ask off work for the Sabbath, sometimes it's not easy to do that. Sometimes you can have some intimidating employers, and a person who is going to follow God's way of life must be courageous, and they must trust in God. And in this case, Daniel and his three friends trusted in God. And like I said, they rose to the trials that were there, and they rose to the circumstances that they were in. And Daniel, again, was one, apparently, stood out. Now, another interesting thing about this whole circumstance that I think we must also include in the discussion of Daniel, is since Aspenaz was the master of eunuchs, it's possible that Daniel himself was made a eunuch. Can you imagine? Again, here's a young man, if that were the case, who could not ever have children.

And apparently, you know, he was able to, again, be courageous and move forward in a positive way in this circumstance, and not let him devastate him for the rest of his life. I have to admit that something like that were to happen in my life, and I'm sure that probably also many of you here also many of you here in this auditorium here today, that we probably would never recuperate from it. We would never bounce back from it. You know, Daniel realized, though, he was in, again, a situation that he would not have chosen, but he had to survive, and apparently, the three friends also had the same attitude that Daniel did. But, you know, he was deeply, Daniel was deeply, deeply devoted to God. And, brethren, if we're going to rise to an occasion or circumstance, we have to be devoted to God. And that can carry us through, brethren, anything we go through, anything. You know, sometimes, you know, circumstances can be so devastating to us, and yet, if we're devoted to God, we move through it, and we're better for it. We're stronger for it.

Let's go on up here in verse 4. And so, these were young men, in whom there was no blemish, as it says here, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge, and quick to understand who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language in the literature of the Chaldeans. And so, here he was a super-intelligent person from what this says here. And, you know, after, of course, they refused the king's meat, we see that God blessed Daniel and his three friends here, down in verse 20, and in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them afterwards, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm. Well, think about that. You know, David, of course, mentioned that his law made him wiser than the ancients. You know, God's law. And, brethren, you know, if we live by every word of God that proceeds out of his mouth, then, brethren, we're going to be the wiser for it in the end. But we've got to be devoted to God. You know, he learned the language, he learned the literature of the Chaldeans, and he gained wisdom and understanding day by day. And, you know, again, he found himself in this predicament that he certainly would never have chosen, but what he did is he made the best of it that he could in every way. He showed courage. He showed faith. He could have been put to death as a slave for refusing, you know, to follow through and have the kings meet, as I mentioned, at any time. But he believed.

He had trust in God. Well, brethren, sometimes we face trials in our lives. And, you know, what God wants us to do is simply deal with the circumstance. Deal with the circumstance. Stop complaining.

You know, what he wants to do is to have wisdom and faith and look to him. You know, Daniel, I'm sure, probably could have bolted and run. He could have run away or died trying in doing.

But what he did is he lived the best he could as a slave. Sometimes that's a choice we have, brethren, to live the best we can as a slave. You know, even in the church of God, in the early church, there were some of God's people were in the situation of slavery, you know, like Daniel.

And basically, you know, what Paul told the people to do? Well, deal with it. Deal with it.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7. And we see this about the time of Daniel, or the time of Paul, I should say. But in 1 Corinthians 7 and down in verse 20, you know, here he was talking about circumcision and uncircumcision. But in verse 20 here, Paul says, "...let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called." And it says, "...were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it." But if you can be made free, rather use it. You know, if you can be free and do so, do that. But, you know, don't be concerned about it if you are a slave. You can still live as a Christian. No, we have men that and women that are in prison, by the way. You know, it's pretty hard to obey God when you have a prison system that sometimes makes you do things on the Sabbath and puts food in front of you that is not clean. It's pretty hard sort of dodging, isn't it, on the line in doing that. But, you know, you just deal with it. And, you know, they can't change the situation. You know, they have to again serve whatever sentence they were given, live the best they can in prison, and change their life again when they are able to get out. Going on, it says, "...for he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's free man." In other words, we're free whether or not we're in slavery or not. Likewise, "...he who is called while free is Christ's slave." So we're all slaves of Jesus Christ. And it says, "...you were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of men, brethren. Let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called." So here, you know, Paul is basically telling those of her slaves that in the first century here, that, look, you'd be a good slave.

You conduct yourself wisely in what you do. And, you know, you are God's freed man.

And that is, again, the situation that Daniel was in. He was, of course, in captivity. He was a slave.

But, you know, he lived God's way of life no matter what, and he put God first. So that's a great big lesson, brethren. You know, when a great trial is thrown at you, brethren, you rise to meet that trial, and you rise to meet the circumstance that it presents to you. And you have that trust and that faith in God and courage to step out and obey God, you know, even in that circumstance. And so, Daniel was a remarkable man. You probably could give sermon after sermon about the kind of man that Daniel was. Another thing, I think, that we see about Daniel here in the book of Daniel is that Daniel, you know, was a real person. He was a real person.

I don't know if you've ever met people that are not real.

You know, I remember one time I was on a golf course, and I saw an individual that did not look real, at least from the outward appearance. He didn't. Maybe he was the most genuine guy on the face of the earth, because he was wearing lavender everything. He even had lavender little socks on his golf clubs, you know. And I don't know. People who like that bother me.

Maybe you don't mind that at all with people. But I think people that are like that are trying to put on airs, you know, or trying to show themselves as something that they really are not.

But Daniel was a real person. He didn't put on a facade. You know, what you saw is what you got, in other words. You know, you bet people like that, haven't you? They're not going to put any airs on. I used to have an aunt. She's been dead now for quite a number of years, but she was that way. The problem with Aunt Ellen, she would say most anything at any time. And it could be embarrassing in the process. Now, I'm not saying that we should be that way, but Aunt Ellen was.

And you always know what you thought, no matter what. But Daniel was the kind of man, again, who had no fake facade. He expressed what he really thought and let the chips fall where they may.

And that's what we have to do, brethren, sometimes in our lives. We have to speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may. And Daniel had the courage to do that. It takes courage to do that when you have to step up like he did with being asked to eat the king's meat.

He had to step up, and he really expressed what he thought. And again, he did not act like someone he was not. Let's go over to Daniel 2. Here was an interesting experience that Daniel went through, and we can learn a lesson from it. But in Daniel 2, verse 1, it says, Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was so troubled, it says that his sleep left him. You know, you probably had a sleepless night like that, haven't you? You know, not being able to be able to get to bed because you're thinking about these thoughts that you have in your mind. Maybe not a dream, but Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that really troubled him. And then the king gave the command to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dream, so they came and stood before the king. And the king said to them, I've had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.

And so here King Nebuchadnezzar was having these dreams, and apparently he could not remember even the dream. I don't know if you've ever been had a dream like that before that troubled you, but this one did with him. We call that a nightmare, by the way, when you see something terrifying.

But here in this case, he could not remember the dream. And he demanded that the wise men tell him the dream and the meaning. Now, this is a pretty hard thing, isn't it? You want to know the dream, and that's quite a dilemma that they had, because they couldn't come up with the dream. They could not tell him the interpretation of the dream. They simply could not. And the king threatened and said that he was going to put all of them to death if they could not come up with the dream and the understanding of the dream. Let's go this down in verse 12. Verse 12 of chapter 2 here, and going down to verse 16. I don't know how I turned my page there, but I did.

So anyway, he was very angry again with these astrologers and the Chaldeans and the so-called wise men. And Daniel inquired about this in verse 12, and he says, For this reason the king was angry and very furious, and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went out, and they began killing the wise men.

And they sought Daniel as companions to kill them. And so here, their necks were on the line in this case, so they started commencing the killing of these wise men. In verse 14, it says, Then with counsel and wisdom, Daniel answered Ariok, the captive of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. And it says, He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captive, Why is the decree from the king so urgent? And then Ariok made the decision known to Daniel. And so Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time that he might tell the king the interpretation. Now again, what is interesting in this, Daniel did not know the answer.

He did not know the answer, and he did not pretend to know the answer to it in this case.

And he sought more time. That could have cost Daniel his neck right there, because of what had happened before, because the king actually said to these astrologers, he says, Look, I know you're just buying time. That's all you're doing. But Daniel asked for a little time.

And then Daniel went back and revealed it to his three friends what the sentence of the decree was, and he and his three friends prayed for God to reveal the matter to them. Now, by the way, Daniel was a prophet. I want you to think about that, brethren. He was a prophet of God. And it's interesting, the false prophet claims to know, but does not. Daniel was a true prophet who did not know, but he knew how to get the answer.

And, you know, there were many false prophets in Judah and in Israel that claimed to know. And it's interesting that among the false prophets, very often they would proclaim good things to come about the king. And then, of course, if you were a prophet and you were a false one, especially, that's what you do, because you want your neck lopped off. But prophets like Jeremiah and, you know, others like Jeremiah prophesied not good things.

And it didn't put them in good stead with the kings of Israel or Judah in the process. Elijah's another one of those that was that way. So Daniel did not pretend to know about that, but he knew how to get the answers. And so they prayed, and God revealed the answer to them.

Now, let's go down to verse 24. Therefore, Daniel went to Ariach, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and he said thus to him, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation. Then Ariach quickly brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, who will make known to the king the interpretation. Now, I've found him here. He can make known the interpretation. Now, I want you to notice the difference here between Daniel and Ariach.

Daniel does not pretend to know the answer before. He's real, in other words. He's telling the truth about what he knows. Daniel is the one that really went to Ariach, and not vice versa.

The captain of the guard did not come to Daniel, but rather Daniel went to Ariach.

And Ariach says, I found a man again. So, this was not true, because, of course, Daniel is the one that found Ariach. And the reason for it is, perhaps Ariach was trying to curry the favor and maybe a reward of the king. Now, this is, of course, the way very often in authoritarian governments that it is. There's always somebody trying to curry a favor with someone. But this was the kind of person that Ariach was, but Daniel was not a pretend type person. Daniel was real.

If he said something, he was telling you the truth. You know, the Bible says in Proverbs 20, in verse 11, it says, even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right.

And, you know, so a child is known. You know, sometimes you can know if a child is inclined to lie. And after a while, you kind of figure out that you really can't, in some cases, believe a child. But on the other hand, you can have children again that you know they're going to tell you the truth. But, you know, a parent knows. I think that children sometimes think that parents are brain dead, you know, and that we don't know when they're telling a fib. Like, for instance, kids realize this. You go to your mom and you say you haven't been in the chocolate, and you got chocolate all over your face. Dead giveaway there, you know. But, you know, that's the kind of thing sometimes that, you know, kids don't realize. I know with our children, by the way, we always found out.

You know, the Scripture says, be sure your son will find you out. Our kids, we found out about everything, generally, so they couldn't hide it from us. And, you know, so you do know. Parents do know. But children are known by their works. A child is known by what they do. And adults, in fact, are known by what they do, as well. And we will always, generally, you know, I think we can say there's a wide generality. We can always find the kind of person that someone is if we wait long enough, because we see what they do. You know, putting a facade on, brethren, for the moment and pretending something that is not true is contrary to God's way. And we, as God's people, again, need to realize that we need to speak the truth always. We should not try to pretend to be something that we're not. Daniel was the kind of person, again, that was what you saw in him, was what he was. Flattery will get us nowhere. Flattery will simply end up, you know, in a ditch somewhere, you know, in our lives and not progressing. Let's go to 1 Samuel 16. I find this an interesting thing in this context, that Daniel was a real person.

In 1 Samuel 16, remember that Samuel was sent out to find the next king who would replace Saul.

Saul, who was one of the most probably handsome men in all of Israel, head and shoulders, as the scriptures say, taller than the average man in Israel. And the thing about Saul at the beginning of his life, he was a very humble individual. He was small in his own eyes.

But given the office of being a king, unfortunately, his ideas about himself became too lofty, such that God had to reject him as king. And Samuel here was given the task of going to the family of Jesse and choosing the next king. And it's interesting that the first one that passed before him, who was Eliab, he says, surely this is God's anointed standing in front of him.

And it probably was because he was a handsome, tall, debonair kind of person, maybe a wonderful personality about him. And yet God rejected him.

So isn't it kind of interesting that Samuel would have chosen the very first son of Jesse that he saw as the king, the next king, over Israel. But instead, he chose the last one.

God directed him to choose the last one that appeared before him, the one who would not be chosen. And that was, of course, King David. Now, by the way, that doesn't mean that King David was an ugly duckling. He was probably a very handsome individual as well, but he was not like Eliab. He was not like the rest of the young men that were there in the house of Jesse. But here in person, Samuel 16, down in verse 7, let's notice this, but the Eternal said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Eternal does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Eternal looks at the heart. And so, as much as we can, brethren, you know, we need to look to people's hearts.

To try to see what is the inner core of this person. What does this person really want?

What does this person really like? You know, what's interesting is when Mr. Armstrong used to send out these baptizing tours back in the 50s and early 60s, you know, there were people that were baptized in those years. Some of them had not overcome smoking. You know, some had not overcome other things. But Mr. Armstrong always told the men going out, what you do is you look at the attitude. What is the attitude of this person? Because the attitude gives you a window into the interior of that person. And what is in the inner part of that person? And so, brethren, we need to learn again to judge those things in that way. I'll be very careful about that because, again, we can't absolutely see clearly within people. You might think somebody has a tremendous attitude when, in fact, they're their opposite within them. So, you know, again, with Daniel, he was true and blue on the inside and on the outside. And, you know, remember with the Pharisees, if during the time of Jesus Christ you had seen a Pharisee, certainly if you had seen the high priest, you would have been impressed. I mean, if you've ever seen a peacock with his feather is all spread out, you know, and how beautiful that a peacock is, you probably would have been impressed by the high priest, particularly, in the days of Jesus Christ. But, you know, Jesus Christ was not impressed by that. Because, remember, he said of them that what they were is they were white-washed tombs full of dead men's bones. What a description of what was going on in the inside. You know, they did not fool Jesus Christ. No, the first thing we must be mindful of, brethren, is what does God think about my actions? What does he think about my actions? Well, let's not worry about what other people think. Let's think about what God thinks about our actions. You know, Solomon said, the fear of the eternal is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

So, let's make sure, again, we're concerned with what God thinks, and then we'll make sure the inside of the cup is clean. And if we clean the inside of the cup, brethren, you won't have to worry about the outside, because we will take care of that. God's character in us will help us to have the right outside. In Proverbs 28, let's do turn over to Proverbs chapter 28. In verse 13, verse 13, notice it says, He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. And so, God will give his mercy to us, brethren, if we are open, and we don't hide our sins, but we go before him, and we confess those sins, he will forgive them.

But if we're attempting to somehow hide our sins, don't expect to be successful at what you endeavor to do. If you're certainly looking to God, help prosper you.

And so, brethren, we need to realize, again, that God wants us to be real inside and on the outside.

And God knows our sins, so, brethren, we can't pretend with him, can we?

You know, when we go before him, we're like an open book. Well, Daniel was the kind of person, again, who was a real person. Let's become real people so that, you know, what you see is really what you do get. You know, the person you're talking to is the same on the inside as they are on the outside. Another thing that I think is remarkable, a lesson, brethren, that we need to take and to remember. We've said something about this recently. Daniel maintained a good name.

He maintained a good name. You know, a good name is a very valuable thing. You know, I remember my parents telling all of us children, and I had five brothers and three sisters, you represent us in this community. We lived in the little community called Rollin, Oklahoma.

That is the culture capital, by the way, of Oklahoma. But not quite. I think I've told you before, it's a plumb in a poke town. You know, you stick your head out the window and you plumb out of town, you know, or poke your head out the window, you plumb out of town. But it's a small, small town. But everybody knew everybody else. And all it took is one fly in the ointment to smell up a person's reputation, you know, in a community like that. And so we felt responsible for maintaining the name in that community. You know, we are known by our works, and it's important to sincerely perform good works in our lives. You know, young people, when you go off to school, you represent your parents. Make sure that you're diligent, you know, in doing your work, that you set a good example in the classroom, you know, where you're attending school, that you're respectful to the teachers that are there. And show your teachers that you are diligent, that you want to learn. You know, that's what they want to see. That really is what they want to see. And, you know, your reputation will last a long time in that school, by the way, if you set that kind of an example. You know, obviously, if you develop another reputation, you can... that will last a long time as well. But set a good example, and you will have a good name in that school. You know, I had brothers and sisters that went before me at the high school where I attended, and I had to uphold their name, too. I had to uphold their example that they had worked hard to set in that school where we all attended, and in the community, and so forth.

So, brethren, we need to, again, maintain good works. We should be known for being consistent in our thinking. We should be known to be faithful, dependable in our obedience and service to God and the Church and in the communities where we live. And also, brethren, we should be known to be compassionate for people and understanding of people and not judgmental of people. Let's go to Daniel chapter 5. Daniel chapter 5, and notice about Daniel's life, brethren. He was this way.

I think we've lost a lot of that sense of family, brethren, that we used to have in communities and so forth. Nowadays, so many broken families. But it doesn't mean, again, we still can't practice these principles and certainly should practice right principles. In Daniel chapter 5, in verse 9, it says, "...then, Beldeshazzar..." This, by the way, was a dream that was dreamed by a new king here, who is the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. This is then, King Beldeshazzar, who saw the handwriting on the wall, "...was greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed, and his lords were astonished. And the queen, because of the words of the king and the lords, came to the banquet hall.

The queen spoke, saying, O king, live forever. Do not 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.

In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, chalvians, and soothsayers. Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and exclaiming the enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Beleshozar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation. What a reputation this man had. And so Daniel maintained his good name through all those years. Now again, he's living in a gentile world, probably a cutthroat, kind of a gentile world, you know, probably not unlike today in the United States, the way that again some treat one another. And so you can go on and read this this account here, but Daniel does give the answer to what, you know, the king wants, what his dream means. And so the queen knew him, and here the new king came to know Daniel. He had a good name, he had a good reputation, and brethren, it proceeded before him. Your name, your reputation, goes before you. You know, there are people in the ministry that I have never met, but I have a lot of respect for them, by the things I know about them, that I hear about them.

And you know, a lot of times we go to the ministerial conferences, and I'll meet somebody that I've heard about for years in the ministry, and you bump into them, you're able to talk to them and meet them face to face. It's like you already know them, you know. And I believe that the reason is, again, these men have proven to be faithful, have good names. I, of course, knew Mr. Warren before I got here. We do one other at Ambassador College in Big Sandy.

I knew Rex before I got here, even though I'd never met you before, I don't believe.

You know, you were on the elders forum in writing notes and so forth. I don't know why you were so vitriolic. No, I'm just kidding about that. But, no, I thought he was, he wrote some wise things on the elders forum. So you know somebody that way. And so Daniel maintained a good name. I'm not going to go to it, but in Proverbs 22 and verse 1, it says, a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold. You know, would you rather have the favor of God or silver and gold? Why? There's no choice, is there? You want God's favor. A good name, though, is to be chosen rather than all of those things. You know, there's some men who have worked all their lives to build a good reputation, and one little thing, though, has ruined it. So be very careful. You have to be very careful with our names. So a good name is better than riches.

Reputation, again, has to be earned over a long period of time. Another thing about Daniel.

Daniel was faithful and diligent. He was faithful and he was diligent. He was a skillful worker, very skillful. You know, he knew his stuff, if I can put it that way. He knew what he was doing, and he became very good at it. In Daniel 6, verse 1, it says, And it pleased Arias, here this is after the fall of Babylon, and it pleased Arias, who said over the kingdom one hundred and twenty satraps, to be over the whole kingdom, and over these three governors, of whom Daniel was one of them. So he had this reputation, again, that just carried over from the Babylonian Empire over into the Beel Persian Empire.

Again, that reputation begins, continues, I should say, that the satraps might give account to him so that the king would suffer no loss. Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and the satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm. He was going to put him over the whole realm, as it says here. And so the governors and the satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could not find a charge or fault, because he was faithful, nor was there any error or fault found in him. He walked uprightly, like Job was upright in spirit, and they couldn't find any error in him. So Daniel was so diligent, he was showing so much wisdom and such good judgment that the king was going to put him over everybody.

You know, in that particular case, he would have been like Joseph in his case, if that had been the case. But, you know, we, brethren, need to again be faithful and diligent the way that Daniel was. Over in Proverbs chapter 3, Proverbs chapter 3, we see over here Solomon talks about that we need, brethren, to be seeking out wisdom and desiring to have that wisdom.

It is something that we ought to seek like gold. But in chapter 3 verse 13, it says, Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her proceeds are better than the prophets of silver, and her gains and finds gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot be compared with her. Length of days is in her right hand. In her left, riches in honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

And so, you know, if we choose to again go and be faithful and diligent and use wisdom like Daniel did, you know, the reward of it is just so tremendous. Wisdom brings its own reward to us.

So we should be praying that God will bless us and the wisdom we show in trying to overcome and change and the choices that we make in our life. You know, we want to make sure that every choice we make counts. That's what Daniel did. He made sure that every decision he made, he tried to make the right decision. Again, you can always do that, brethren, but if you get most of them right, your life is going to be a whole lot better. You know, you're going to be blessed.

Proverbs 22 and verse 29, it says, Do you see a man who excels in his work? In other words, he's very adept at the job that he does. He will stand before kings. He will not stand before unknown men. You know, a man who does exceptional work and is diligent at that work becomes known by it. I remember my uncle, he started out with a Baldor electronic company. I'm not sure exactly what they make, but he basically started out working generally in maintenance. He was just good at it, good at maintenance. Pretty soon, they put him over the whole company in terms of taking care of maintenance within that company. What was interesting is they kept him on as a worker even after he retired. He'd be at home and they would call him and say, could you come over and fix this? Because they didn't have anybody that could do the work that he could do. I've heard stories like that. My uncle was not the most educated man, but even those who were engineers out of university could not do what he was able to do. But he was just skillful. If people do exceptional work, and people, of course, do that in other fields as well.

If we do that, brethren, we're going to be known by that. Daniel had such an attitude about himself that he excelled above others in his duties and responsibilities. The final lesson, I think, that we learned—there's probably a hundred or more from Daniel—but Daniel maintained contact with God through prayer. All the success that Daniel was able to do, brethren, was because of his prayer life. You know what the wise men and the satraps tried to do to Daniel?

They could not find fault with him because of his religion. They had to find some way to cause fault because of his religion. And you remember the story about how the king made a decree, that everybody had to fall down and worship and all of that. This was something, of course, that was done before. But also, in this particular case, Daniel would have been forbidden from praying.

He was very loyal to the king in every sense of the word, but he was loyal to God in what he did. But let's notice in Daniel 6 and verse 5, they said in verse 5, we shall not find any charge against Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of God.

So these governors and satraps, strong before the king, and said thus to him, King Darius lived forever. All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and the satraps, and the counselors and advisors have consulted together to establish a royal statute to make it 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. And so the king established that as a law.

What did Daniel do? Well, he went back to his home and he prayed like he always did.

He didn't hide it. He did not hide it from anyone, but he was very consistent in praying exactly the way that he did. And, you know, God answers prayers. And Daniel worked at his prayers and he was consistent in his prayers. You know, in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 17, it says, we are to pray without ceasing. Daniel did not stop, even though his life, in this case, would have been on the line. Let's go to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 and verse 12.

Romans 12 and verse 12. Here Paul says that we should be rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. Sort of like what was said again in Thessalonians, that we should be consistently praying, praying without ceasing. So, brethren, these are the lessons from the life of Daniel. And, you know, this is what we've seen as he lived in the in the gentile world. We live in a world where we must associate often with people on the job. We have to associate with people at school or in the communities that we live in. We are in this world, brethren. We can have similar experiences like Daniel, and we can utilize these lessons that we see in the life of Daniel today as a foundation for us to establish a strategy of our lives.

Jesus Christ said we are the light of the world. Let his brethren be the kind of light that the prophet Daniel gave during his lifetime. Let's use the examples, the lessons of Daniel, and be a light to our communities and people around us in our work and at school.