The Passion of Daniel the Prophet

Well, brother, the book of Daniel has always been one of my favorite books of the Bible. I would imagine it's probably one of your favorites, many of you, anyway. There's just so much in the small book of Daniel. I guess you could say Daniel is my favorite prophet. I think it's okay to have a favorite prophet. Not that I don't really appreciate and love the others or like the others.

But Daniel is quite an example. This sermon goes along very well with what Mr. Doden had to say about faith. Daniel was certainly a man of great faith and courage. The first six chapters of the book of Daniel contain accounts of faith and courage that never cease to inspire me. The last six chapters are filled with apocalyptic visions and prophecies that challenge even the most advanced Bible students and scholars. In fact, it's very similar to the book of Revelation in a number of ways.

So it is quite an intriguing book. It has a lot of inspiration. It has prophecy. It has some wonderful stories of great faith and courage. However, it is a book that has often been attacked and been maligned, attacked especially by biblical liberals who deny its inspiration, maligned by those who cast doubt upon its validity by claiming the stories contained in it are exaggerated or even flat-out fabricated.

Some Jewish rabbis also discredit the book of Daniel largely because of the 70 Weeks Prophecy. Now, why do you think they would discredit it because of the 70 Weeks Prophecy? Because the 70 Weeks Prophecy clearly shows that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. He was the Christ and He came at the appointed time. So they don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

So, of course, they would discredit the book. When properly read, understood, and most importantly, believed, the book of Daniel will inspire us to greater faithfulness in our service to God. It will also strengthen our faith in the inspiration of the Bible. If we believe that indeed the 70 Weeks Prophecy did indeed occur, it was fulfilled. It was a prophecy that was fulfilled and we can look back and we can see that.

That should give us tremendous faith in the Bible that these things, these prophecies do come to pass. That God does carry out what He says He will do. So today I'd like to give some of the historical background regarding the man Daniel and also the times in which he lived and prophesied. So today we'll have a bit of a history lesson. I will be throwing out some dates and some things, but I'm sure it will be inspirational as well because there are so many wonderful, inspiring things about Daniel's life and his example.

So let's draw faith and courage from Daniel's commitment and his devotion to the same God that we all serve today. Now I used actually a number of sources in preparation for this sermon. Esaured Bible software was helpful because there are a number of commentaries on Esaured that are easy to look up. So I used a number of those, Fawcett and Brown, Clark's commentary, Henry's commentary. Also I have Keel and Delich, and there's some information certainly in that book. That's a little bit harder to wade through, a little more scholarly in many ways than some of the others.

And also, I took some information from Pastor and historian Mark Copeland in helping compile some of the information, some of the dates, and so forth. So let's begin by talking about Daniel the man. The name Daniel means, God is my judge, or God is judging.

Now we don't know exactly Daniel's age, because it doesn't tell us exactly when he was born. It is very likely that he was only 12 to 15 or 16 years old when he went into captivity in Babylon. So let's go to Daniel, let's go to the book of Daniel and read a little bit of it here.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he besieged Jerusalem at that time. That is the third year. And according to my notes, the third year of the book of Jehoiakim. I'll get to this later, but I thought it might be helpful to mention it now, if I can find it easily. It doesn't look like I'm finding it easily. I don't want to misspeak. There's a number of dates here. No, it's right here in front of me. Oh, here it is. 606 BC was considered, according to Usher's chronology, 606 BC is the third year of Jehoiakim's reign.

So it was in 606 BC, roughly, that Nebuchadnezzar came and besieged Jerusalem. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinarch, the house of his God, that is, to the house of the Babylonian God. He brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, 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, young men in whom there was no blemish, 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 and the literature of the Chaldeans or the Babylonians.

And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. Now, this word that refers to them as children, children of Israel, this is actually a word that could be translated boys, lads, or youth in this case. So evidently, Daniel was quite young. My Bible says in the introduction to the book of Daniel, a little commentary before it, they say he was 16 years old.

Now, I don't think we can say that he was exactly 16, but he was somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age, most likely, when he came to Babylon. Now, it is interesting to me that a young man like this could have doubted God because so many doubted God. God allowed them to go into captivity. Surely, God wasn't with them. But it's very clear that Daniel understood, that Daniel knew why they had gone into captivity. Daniel wasn't one of those who was blaming God or was doubting God. He was one who had faith in God, and he knew why they had gone into captivity.

He knew why he had gone into captivity. Not that he himself had brought it about, but that the whole nation is a people, and not just those people living right then, but those who had come before them, their ancestors. Because of their sins, God had warned them over and over that he would punish them for their sins, and that's what God was doing. So, we see that he was young, but he did not doubt God. He had faith in God from an early age.

Just for interest's sake, Ignatius says Daniel was 12 years of age. He's considered one of the early church fathers. I don't really have any backing for that, why he believed he was 12. Chris Christo stone, you may have heard of him. Another one of the early church fathers says he was 18. People have differing ideas on how old he was, but anyway, they all say he was quite young, most likely a teenager. So, we see from a very early age, Daniel was a person of deep and abiding faith. As a youth, he was also clearly a leader, because if we go back to the book of Daniel, let's see his reaction to what the king and what the chief of the eunuchs wanted him to do.

By the way, since he was under the chief of the eunuchs, it's likely he was a eunuch. Now, we don't know that for sure, but it's very likely that he had become a eunuch, unfortunately, not something that any of us would want to go through, I wouldn't think. But Daniel may have been subjected to that because of his captivity and because of being selected for this program. So, he was under the chief of the eunuchs. In verse 7, it says, the chief gave Daniel a Chaldean name, Belteshazzar, to Hananiah, the name Shadrach, to Mishael, the name Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego.

So we refer mostly to the three friends of Daniel by their Chaldean names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but we refer to Daniel as Daniel, very seldom Belteshazzar. Interesting. Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself for the portion of the king's delicacies. Very likely this included seafoods like shrimp, oysters, that sort of thing, very likely pork and other unclean foods. It could have also included various desserts that were not healthy, not good for the body. We don't know that for sure, but there was something about the king's delicacies that Daniel knew would not be good for them.

So he stood up, he went to the chief of the eunuchs, and he basically got permission to have a test. Test us for 10 days, see how we look. You know, let us eat vegetables. Now we don't want to eat all these delicacies of the king, and so it says in verse 15, at the end of 10 days, their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies.

Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables. And so they ate more healthy. As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now not too many people get understanding in visions and dreams.

In fact, Daniel is rather unique. I would say John in the book of Revelation is another one. Although he was not the interpreter so much, he just told what he saw, but God gave Daniel the ability to interpret dreams. And it's very interesting. It says, The king interviewed them, and among all of the ones that were selected, none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they served before the king, so they had a special place right before the king.

And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them not just a little bit better, but he found them ten times better. Now some would say that's an exaggeration. Well, I would say that, no, it's basically the truth. This is what was his opinion. You know, these men are ten times better than all the rest. Thus Daniel continued until the first year of the king Cyrus. So here we see a leader among men as a young man, leading the way, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were close behind following Daniel.

Now if we go to Daniel chapter 2, in the first several verses, it talks about Nebuchadnezzar's dream that was troubling to him, and he couldn't remember the dream. And also, by virtue of not remembering it, he couldn't tell the people, the astrologers and so forth, the soothsayers of the land, the magicians, he couldn't tell them the dream. Now they insisted on knowing the dream because then they could give an interpretation. But Nebuchadnezzar was smart enough to realize that if they were really sharp, then they could tell him not only the interpretation, but they could tell me the actual dream.

And so he was holding out for that because he couldn't really do anything anyway. He didn't remember the dream himself. Of course, when Daniel began to interpret the dream, then the dream came back. He remembered the dream at that point. So he was very furious with these magicians and astrologers and so forth. And so he began having them killed. And even in fact, they were after Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Hennoniah, Mishael and Azariah.

They started to search for them to put them to death. So Daniel, it says in verse 16, he went in and asked the king. So he had a special relationship where he could go before the king and not get killed because of that. Because that was somewhat presumptuous to come before the king. So Daniel had a special relationship there. He was allowed to talk to the king and actually the king gave him a little time. No doubt, Daniel had gone to him and said, Listen, King, I know the true God, the great God of everything. And he will tell me this vision, but you got to give me just a little more time here.

And he respected that and he gave him a little more time. So that evening, Daniel went to his house. He made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and they began to pray together to God. They sought God's mercies in verse 18 from the God of heaven concerning this secret so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

So this was a life and death matter here. The secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven and noticed this prayer that he gives in thankfulness to God. He said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. For wisdom and might are His, and He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. See, God can do whatever He pleases to do, whatever He chooses to do.

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him. I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and might. You have now made known to me what we ask of you. See, He was not one to forget God.

He wasn't one to just rush off to the King and exalt Himself without... Well, He didn't exalt Himself, period, but He certainly thanked God first. And then He humbly went before the King and gave God credit for everything, because God is the one who deserves the credit. So He was very, very grateful that He revealed this to Him. And so Daniel explained the dream. He told Him exactly what He had dreamed about. He told Him what the dream meant. Of course, Nebuchadnezzar had this image of gold that he had dreamed about.

And He told Him that this image actually was symbolic of four world-ruling governments. And the head was actually Nebuchadnezzar. It was the Chaldean, the Babylonian Empire. And then after that would be the means and the Persians. And after that would be the Greek dynasty under Alexander the Great. And when Alexander died, then it was passed on to his four generals. And then after that the Roman Empire.

And it showed that actually the Roman Empire would exist until Christ returns. Until, as it says in verse 44, and in the days of these kings, or these rulers, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, and shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

So here we see Daniel with great power and strength proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God. God is coming again, and He's going to establish a government and a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And that was the message that Daniel had. It's the same message that we preach today. It says that King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face in verse 46, prostrate before Daniel. That's unusual for a king to bow before a young man. But Nebuchadnezzar was rather unique, and God was working with some of these pagan kings. And so He respected this, and He said He had a present of offering an incense to him.

Of course, Daniel would not have wanted that, but in verse 47, the king answered Daniel and said, Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret. Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts. And he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon. Now here's a young man who was taken captive, and now he's being promoted and exalted in the land of Babylon.

He was still a prisoner, he was still a captive, and yet he was given great favor by the great God of heaven. He became chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon. Also Daniel petitioned the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. And Daniel set in the gate of the king.

So Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was three square cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits. And he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. I just had to do that. Some of you know that when I was in college, I had to memorize the entire chapter, the third chapter. We did special... it was actually a special reading for special music. It wasn't really special music, but it went at the same time as special music.

I was in a speech class with Dr. Walter, and he had us do this before the congregation. He didn't have a lot of faith in us, I guess, because he actually had it recorded. And we were up there basically lip-syncing, which I didn't feel good about. I felt like, you know, come on, at least have some faith here. We would have done just fine. But anyway, that's another matter. So in chapter 3, it talks about this image of gold. It talks about the fiery furnace, and Mr. Doden referred to that in the sermonette.

Certainly, the three friends of Daniel were like him. They had faith in God, and God did deliver them. Remember, the furnace was heated seven times hotter than normal, because Nebuchadnezzar was furious. They were not following along. So Nebuchadnezzar, you know, he could go from hot to cold when it came to God. You know, he would be worshiping him one moment, and then trying to kill his servants the next. And that's the way it goes when you don't have God's Spirit dwelling in you.

Sometimes you see some things, but other times you go right back to changing your mind. So the furnace did not kill these men. They were thrown into this furnace. They came out alive. But the man who threw them, what happened to them? They were all burned up, because even getting close to this furnace, it was so hot. Again, this is a book of tremendous faith in God, in the God who delivers. So I never grow tired of reading the book of Daniel and studying the book of Daniel. Notice verse 18 of chapter 4. Now, this was actually after another dream.

Nebuchadnezzar had a second dream. And notice in verse 9 of chapter 4, first of all, Belthas Shazur, who again was Daniel, chief of the magicians. I don't know if he'd like to be called chief of the magicians, because he was not a magician. He was a God-fearing, Spirit-led man of God.

He says, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God is in you, and no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen in its interpretation. And then he goes ahead and talks about the dream.

And in verse 18, this dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belthas Shazur, declare its interpretation, since all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the Spirit of the Holy God is in you.

And of course, that makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it? If we have God's Spirit dwelling in us, then miraculous things can occur.

So we must not sell the Spirit of God short.

We need to have more faith, brethren, that God can work in us in miraculous ways.

God's Spirit is powerful.

So let us walk in greater faith, knowing that God can work in us in the same way that he worked in someone like Daniel.

Daniel was a mere man. He's flesh and blood.

He was not perfect. He was a sinner.

And yet, he was also a righteous man that trusted and believed in God and had faith in God.

Of course, this is the story when Nebuchadnezzar becomes like a beast.

Because, frankly, Nebuchadnezzar had a lot of pride, and he needed to be humbled.

And God humbled him. He became like a wild beast.

It's speculated that perhaps God had taken the Spirit of man away from him for a time.

Because we would become like animals ourselves if it were not for the Spirit and man. Some of us seem to be more like animals at times. Some of the things that we hear, man's inhumanity to man.

All right. So we're moving quickly through the book of Daniel, trying to get a sense of the faith and the courage that Daniel and his three friends had.

Now, Daniel was a contemporary with other prophets, namely Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

So Daniel lived approximately from 620 to 534 BC.

He died an old man in captivity. He was around 86 years old.

Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem before and during the Babylonian exile.

Now, according to the research I did, and I don't know if I got this correctly now, I look at it and I wonder because, according to this, Jeremiah prophesied from around 626 to 528.

That's a period of 98 years. So I don't know that Jeremiah lived that long. I may have to go look further into that.

So, but anyway, he was a contemporary with Daniel prophesied in Jerusalem. Remember Jeremiah that went before the kings in Judah and told them what was going to happen. And they didn't like it. They threw him in a dungeon. He suffered persecution for being faithful to God. And somewhat reluctantly, he did what he told him. Ezekiel prophesied in Babylon among the among the exiles from around 592 to 570 BC. So for about 22 years, Daniel prophesied in the capital of Babylon somewhere around 605 to 586 BC for about 19 years.

Now, very little is known of Daniel's personal life outside of the book of Daniel.

Daniel. It's likely that he did come from royal blood. He was one of those in the line of the kings. He descended from one of Judah's prominent families. Again, he was likely a eunuch, but we don't know that for sure. There's no indication that he was ever married. He doesn't mention his wife.

Some other key dates to consider around the time of Daniel was 612 BC when Nineveh fell. This is the capital of Assyria. So Assyria ruled for about 200 plus years. In fact, they began ruling around the time of Tiglath-Pileser around 845 BC. The capital of Nineveh fell in 612 BC.

So Assyria had ruled the world since the time of Tiglath-Pileser for over 200 years.

Now, Nabopileser came to the throne in Babylon. Nabopileser was actually Nebuchadnezzar's father.

So Nabopileser began reigning in 625 BC and he rebelled against the Assyrians.

His son, Nebuchadnezzar, was the general who led the Babylonian army against Nineveh, defeating it in 612 BC. God had used Assyria, the nation of Assyria, to bring the house of Israel into captivity. The house of or the nation of Assyria was actually an instrument in God's hands in bringing the house of Israel into captivity. Babylon was also God's instrument in bringing the house of Judah into captivity. So this was 612 BC when Nineveh fell. In 605 BC, the Battle of Carchemesh took place. Carchemesh is in Syria around Turkey and, of course, the Babylonians defeated Pharaoh Naco of Egypt in this vital battle. So Egypt was basically defeated. Assyria was defeated and now Babylon was ruling the world. It was in Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar heard of his father's death. Nabopileser died, so Nebuchadnezzar returned to assume the throne in Babylon.

Now the captivity continued in Jerusalem, however. The first group of Jewish captives that were taken was the group that came with Daniel. Daniel and his friends, they were in the first group that were taken captive. There was a second group that were taken into captivity in Babylon from Jerusalem in 597 BC. 597. Jehoiachin, also known as Konaiah or Jekonaiah in the Bible, followed the reign of his father Jehoiachim. Now Jehoiachin reigned only three months when Nebuchadnezzar took him and about 10,000 Jews to Babylon. Let's go to 2 Kings. We'll take a moment to check out 2 Kings where it talks about this happening here. 2 Kings chapter 24.

2 Kings chapter 24 verse 8. 2 Kings 24 verse 8. We see that Judah is going to be overrun by its enemies. So Jehoiachin or Jekonaiah was 18 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for just three months. Verse 9. He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father had done. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came up against Jerusalem and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came against the city as his servants were besieging it. And then Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his princes, his officers, went out to the king of Babylon and the king of Babylon in the eighth year of his reign, took him prisoner. He carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, and he cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon the king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord. Now I think it's interesting to contrast what's happened here. We see the house of Judah being taken captive. We see Daniel was among the first that was taken captive, but instead of being in chains and instead of being oppressed, Daniel was exalted in Babylon. He actually became the third in line after the king, and I suppose the queen, or maybe the king's son, I'm not sure exactly, but it says in the Bible that he was basically third in the kingdom.

So here we see a young man who's being exalted while his people back in Jerusalem and in Judah are being oppressed, being taken captive. Even some of the king's sons we will see having their eyes put out. You remember that? Zedekiah's sons, the eyes were put out. So what a contrast. Here we see one man being exalted and a whole nation going down. Why is that? Well, is it not because of their personal conduct? The nation would not repent. God had warned them. He'd sent prophets to them time after time. The kings were unfaithful. So the nation went down, but certain individuals were exalted. Who's not to say this could happen again? Now those who are faithful to God will be exalted in due time. If you remain faithful to God, God will perhaps use you in a mighty way, a way that you might not even comprehend today. I'm sure Daniel would not have comprehended such a thing. It was quite miraculous what God was doing with Daniel and his three friends.

The reason being because Daniel was a faithful, God-fearing, obedient man of God.

The others were unfaithful and disobedient. Not all of them, of course. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. They followed in Daniel's footsteps and his example. They noticed they stuck together those men. It's good to have friends like that that you can draw strength from. We should all seek out people who have the Spirit of God dwelling in them and make them our allies, make them our friends. It's good to have a camp out like this because we have extra time to sit around the campfire.

And frankly, I hear a lot of talk about the Bible on these campouts. To me, that's very encouraging to see us get together and to discuss the sermon, discuss the Bible in various ways.

I know that's pleasing to God, and I would imagine last night some of that was going on. I wasn't able to be here with all of you. You know I like to camp. I would have enjoyed being here, but you do what you've got to do. I needed to be in Tulsa this morning. I would have enjoyed it out here with you. It's a good thing when we get together with people who have God's Spirit. We encourage one another. God likes to hear these conversations. In fact, there's a place in the Bible that talks about that, where God likes to hear us get together and discuss His ways.

So I take great encouragement from the book of Daniel.

Let's continue on with some other important dates and things that were going on.

So this second remnant was taken into Babylon around 597 BC.

The second group of captives included Ezekiel. Ezekiel the prophet was in this group. Let's go to Ezekiel chapter 1. So Jehoiachin and Ezekiel and 10,000 Jews came to Babylon in this second remnant that was taken captive. Ezekiel chapter 1. We'll read, starting in verse 1.

Ezekiel chapter 1 verses 1 through 3.

Now, it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Kebar, that the heavens were open and I saw visions of God. Ezekiel was another one that saw visions. Of course, he had lots of visions, too. I should have included him with John and with Daniel. On the fifth day of the month, which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity, the word of the Eternal came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi or Buzzeye, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Kebar, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. Now, it's a fascinating vision. I don't have time to go into that. Now, that's for another time. But it was Ezekiel who was taken captive at this time in the Second Remnant. Now, there was another group that actually fell in 586 BC. When Jerusalem fell, the temple was destroyed in 586. Zedekiah was installed as a king in Jerusalem, but he was a weak and vacillating king. Eleven years later, Jerusalem was totally devastated by Babylonian forces. That's 2 Kings chapter 25. I'm not going to take the time to go read it. You can go read it later if you'd like. But 2 Kings 25 verses 1 through 10 shows that Jerusalem was totally devastated by Babylonian forces. So there was this third group taken into Babylonian captivity at this time, and Jeremiah was among those who stayed behind. You can go to 2 Kings 25 and read that.

Also, Jeremiah 39 and Jeremiah 40 speaks of this particular time. This third group that was taken into Babylonian captivity. Some of the poor were left in the land. Jeremiah was among those who stayed behind. Now, in 536 BC, we see some people starting to come back to Jerusalem at this time. I believe this was around the time that Daniel would have speculated that he died around 534 BC. This was 536 BC, so just perhaps a couple years before he died. The first remnant returns to Jerusalem. He was obviously an old man at this time. Babylon falls in 539 BC. So this is the fulfillment of that prophecy. That head of gold, Babylon, was to fall in 539 BC. Cyrus, the king of Persia, began to rule at that time the Medes and the Persians.

It was Cyrus who sent the first remnant back under the leadership of Zerubbabel.

You can go to Ezra chapter 1 and read about that. Also, Ezra chapter 2.

The foundation of the temple was soon started, but the temple was not completed until 516 BC. You can go to Ezra chapter 3 and also Ezra 6 to read about the foundation of the temple, and the temple finally being completed years later. So the first remnant came back to Jerusalem in 536. There was a second remnant that came back about 40 years later in 457 BC.

They returned to Jerusalem at that time. Ezra the priest returns with this group.

You can read about that in Ezra chapter 7. And then in Ezra 9 there's a much needed revival. And God's Holy Days. They start to actually keep the Holy Days again.

So there's much history in the Bible. It's very interesting history. So if you haven't read Ezra and Nehemiah lately, then it's always a good time to read it again. There was a third remnant that came back in 444 BC. A third remnant returns to Jerusalem. This group is led by Nehemiah.

You can go to Nehemiah chapter 1 and 2 to read about this remnant that returned.

Under Nehemiah's leadership, the walls of Jerusalem are rebuilt.

Nehemiah 3 talks about that through chapter 7. Together with Ezra, they restore much of the true faith to that part of the land. So when Christ came back, there was a remnant of the people that were keeping the Sabbath. They were keeping God's Holy Days to some degree.

And Christ came back at that particular time to those people.

So Daniel lived through much of those earlier times that we spoke about again, 620 to around 534 BC. He was among the group of captives taken to Babylon. He continued there over the entire 70 years of captivity. Daniel was certainly a remarkable man. His greatness was recognized by his contemporary Ezekiel. Let's go to Ezekiel 14. Read what Ezekiel says here. Ezekiel 14.

And if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord God. So these were three men that were picked out. Noah, Daniel, and Job. That's a pretty select group of people. Because of their righteousness, says the Lord. Daniel was a righteous man. He was a faithful man.

He was a God-fearing man. Also, verse 20 says, Even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it as I lived, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither son or daughter. They would only deliver themselves. You see, that's why Daniel was delivered because of his faith. He was delivered into captivity, but he was exalted in captivity. We don't know what's going to happen in the days ahead, do we, brethren? We believe that the Scripture says that modern-day Israel is going to go into captivity.

Will God have some people that he will exalt in those times who are faithful, who will set an example? Perhaps you could be one of those people.

God is not a respecter or person, man or woman. It could be you, if you will draw close to God and allow God to work in you in faithful ways.

In chapter 28, let's go to chapter 28 of the book of Ezekiel, chapter 28.

God is talking. You know Ezekiel 28. Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, speaking here, this time, to the Prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God, because your heart is lifted up.

And you say, I am a God. I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas. Yet you are a man and not a God, though you set your heart as the heart of a God.

Behold, you are wiser than Daniel. At least, that's what they think, isn't it?

There is no secret that can be hidden from you. It's tongue in cheek here. But Daniel is brought out as a person of great wisdom.

So Daniel was quite an example, one that we should look to and follow.

So let's consider the theme of Daniel for a few moments. We talked quite a bit about this type of thing already.

An important theme is God rules in the kingdoms of men.

God rules in the kingdoms of men. And Daniel understood that.

Daniel spoke of that.

And actually, pagan kings exalted God because of Daniel's example.

In the case of the fiery furnace, even, if we go back to chapter 4, let's read a few verses there. You know, God was exalted in that case as well by a pagan.

Daniel, I'm going the wrong way here, Daniel chapter 4.

Near the end of the chapter, I believe, Daniel chapter...

Oh, this was Daniel chapter 3.

Okay, Daniel chapter 3 verse 26. Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace. He spoke, saying, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the midst of the fire.

Verse 27, it says that not even a hair of their head was singed, nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.

See, God performs not little miracles at times, but huge miracles.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel or his messenger, who likely was the one who became Christ, and delivered his servants who trusted in him.

And they have frustrated the king's word and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own god. Therefore, I make a decree that any people, nation, or language, which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces. Their houses shall be made an ash heap, because there is no other god who can deliver like this.

And so the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

And there's a number of places where God is exalted. In Daniel 4, verse 34, at the end of the time, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven. This was after he was like a beast for seven years.

In my understanding, he returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever.

For his dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom is an everlasting—is one from generation to generation.

All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand or say to him, What have you done?

At the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me. I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me.

It's only because God allowed this to happen that he was ever exalted. You know, normally, if you go nuts, you go crazy like he did.

That's the end of you.

But not in this case. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven.

All of whose works are truth, and his ways are justice.

And those who walk in pride, he is able to put down.

Let us not walk in pride, but let us walk in faith.

That's the theme of the book of Daniel. God rules the kingdoms of men.

God is ruling today, no matter what we see happening around us, no matter what God allows, God does allow it.

God is the one that's in charge.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We serve the same God. God will be exalted in due time.

There's a bug or something down my back here.

Sorry.

All right.

That's one thing you have to put up with when you come out to these places in the wilderness.

Not that this is a great deal of wilderness. It looks pretty nice here.

So again, we see there's so much more that we could talk about today.

We could go to many more parts of the book of Daniel to see Daniel's determination, to see his purity, to see God exalting him and lifting him high. What about the lion's den? We didn't even touch on that.

Daniel was thrown into a den of hungry lions, and they were quite hungry. Why do we know that?

Because those who accused Daniel were tossed in right after him, remember?

And what happened?

They crunched their bones.

All of their bones were broken before they even hit the ground.

These lions were fighting over these bodies.

They were gobbling them up because they were hungry, and they liked the taste of blood and flesh.

But God stopped the mouths of those lions.

Talk about a bunch of frustrated lions.

By the time the bad guys were tossed in, they were ready to eat.

I bet they could not figure out why they could not open their mouths or even tear the flesh of Daniel.

Another great miracle.

And again, after that incident, remember how the king, I believe it was Darius at the time, he fasted and he prayed because he had a relationship with Daniel. He saw Daniel was a unique person, and he exalted God because of Daniel. And he didn't want to see Daniel dead the next morning. But he expected to see Daniel dead the next morning.

That was not the case. God had protected Daniel through the night.

And remember, the first thing he heard, oh, king, live forever. I'm alive.

God has not allowed me to die.

So there's great strength in obeying God and following him.

I hope we will follow Daniel's example. Daniel was indeed a passionate man of God.

He saw and experienced visions and dreams unlike any of us here today. None of us have gone through this, but who's to say that God may not pick us someday?

To be exalted not because of our greatness, but frankly, because of our humility, which is great.

But you can't make a person humble, can you?

I mean, God is the one that humbles us.

Let us be humbled by the hand of God that we might be exalted in due time.

Daniel was a man of great courage who stood up tall and strong and even greatly prospered during a time of great trial, tribulation, and captivity. He had a very personal relationship with God, and that gave him the wisdom and the understanding that he so desperately needed during difficult times.

Again, may we follow the example of Daniel the prophet in regard to courage, in regard to faith, in regard to zeal, in regard to character, and also in regard to passion.