Okay, good to see everybody in
this afternoon. For those of you visiting for the first time, we trust that
this will be a new experience. We’re glad to have you with us. And for those
of you joining us on television, it’s the same old story. We’re just a simple
Bible study. And I’m so thrilled at the response we’re getting because of
that. We’re keeping it simple, and yet people are hearing things they have
never heard before. Now you know what that tells me?
Most church people are pitifully ignorant of the Word. I mean pitifully
ignorant. It’s almost heart breaking. But anyhow, we keep hammering away.
We’re going to keep repeating some of these things. But this afternoon we are
going to digress for a little while and go into the Book of Daniel. I don’t
know how many programs that will take. We’re going to take it verse-by-verse,
because we’ve had so many requests for it. And I usually listen to what people
ask for. And again, for you out there in
television as well as all of you here, we want to thank you for your prayers
and your financial help and, as I’ve already mentioned, your letters. My, how
the letters just thrill us when people write—young and old. I mean, all the way
from 15 or 16 and on up to 90. And it is the same thing all over—we hear, “Never
have I heard anything like this before.” Well, I’m not ashamed of that,
because I’m not pulling any strings. I’m not twisting it. I’m just telling
people, hey, what does the Book say? But you know, there are a lot of people
that just can’t accept that. They’ve got to go by what they’ve always heard. What
you say doesn’t mean anything, because it doesn’t jive with what I’ve always
heard. Well, I don’t care what you’ve always heard – we’re going to
go by the Book! All right, Daniel—now I’ve got
to give some history, because I know most of you probably don’t like history as
much as I do. But if you don’t have history in your background, then this Book
is almost a closed Book—because so much of it is based on history. As I’ve
said before, God does so many things in time-frame prophecies for the Nation of
Israel. Well, when He puts it in a time frame, what does that tell you? A period of history goes by. I
was just looking at a few of them again the other night. I should have written
a note or so, and I could have passed it on. Maybe I can do it next taping. But
anyhow, how many times did God make a promise to somebody in Israel for a certain number of years? The first one was Abraham. Four hundred and thirty years. Then
there are several that are 490 years that ended right to the day. And then
there are still other 430 years, I think. All of these are definitive time frames
for a particular prophecy. All right, now the first point
I always like to make when I open the Book of Daniel is—remember, that three of
the prophets in the Old Testament wrote from outside the borders of Israel. Everybody else wrote from within Israel. You know, I always make the same point
with Paul. Paul is the only one of our New Testament writers that writes from
outside the land of Israel. And he was called outside the land of Israel. Daniel is the first one; Ezekiel is the second one; and the third one is John, who
wrote Revelation. Now you know that Ezekiel was
contemporary with Daniel out there in the Mede and Persian Empire, shortly
after the Babylonian empire passed away. But Ezekiel held forth from the River Chibar, if I remember right, and Daniel writes
from the palace in Babylon. And John writes from the Island of Patmos. They’re all three outside the borders of Israel. Then the other unique thing is—all
three write in symbolism. You have to be able to define their symbolism if
you’re going to understand what they’re talking about. Now, let’s just start with
Ezekiel, for example. What’s one of the first symbols that Ezekiel uses? The
dry bones. Well, he’s not talking about human bones out there in some meadow
some place. He’s talking about the Children of Israel in a symbolic way. They
were like dry bones out there. They’d been out there in the dispersion for
hundreds of years, and then they’re going to come back as we’ve already seen.
Well, that’s all symbolism. Now Daniel is going to give us
several symbols. The first one we’re going to see, hopefully yet today, and
that’s the image of a military type individual with a head of gold, the chest
in silver, the belly of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet iron and clay.
Well, that’s symbolism. It doesn’t say until you read through and let it
define itself. Then look at John in
Revelation. My goodness, the first thing he says in chapter 6 verse 1 is
what? “Behold, I saw a white horse and in his hand was a bow.” Well
now, he’s not talking about a literal horse and a literal human being on it.
It’s a symbolic picture of the coming of the anti-Christ. So that’s what we
mean, that these three books are written prophetically and in symbolism. But
all three were written outside the land of Palestine. All right, now another point I
like to make, before we get started here too fast, is that after the Tower of Babel—and I trust you all know where that took place. Right there where our
servicemen have been serving for the last several years. That was the location
of the Tower of Babel just south of Baghdad. In fact, a lot of the soldiers
have already written me and told me that they have been and seen some of the
residue of Ancient Babylon. Okay, so that’s the historical setting for the
Empire of Babylon. All right, then it will be
followed by the next Empire right next door. Then the other point, I’ll
probably be making it again before the afternoon is over, is that all these
kings and queens and leaders were what? Relatives. Does that shock you? They
were all relatives. And even though they fought and they murdered and they
killed, yet it was their next of kin that they were murdering. So that’s another thing you
have to keep in mind—that it was the Medes and Persians over in Babylon, but it
was a man who was, if I’m not mistaken, the son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar or
something like that. We’ll, get into that later. But anyway, this is just all
historical background. There in the Middle East, in the very cradle of
civilization, arises the first great world empire. Now the thinking man will
immediately say, “Now, wait a minute. They didn’t even know about the Western Hemisphere.” I know that. They didn’t know about it. So consequently, it
wasn’t even considered to be under their control. But all the rest of the
known world could have been Nebuchadnezzar’s domain. Even though he didn’t do
it all, he could have. He was the first great world empire. And that’s why it
starts out, then, here in chapter 1 verse 1, about Nebuchadnezzar. All right,
I think that’s enough of introduction, hopefully. All right, now the other time
frame. You’ve got to remember that the Babylonians invaded and besieged Jerusalem three distinct times. They came in the first time and they didn’t destroy the
city or the Temple. But they took all the elite of Israel back to Babylon as captives. And that’s, of course, how Daniel and his three friends came to Babylon. They were part of the elite of the ruling class of Israel. All right, then about five or
six years later, Nebuchadnezzar came back because the Jewish king that he had
left as sort of a caretaker wasn’t paying his dues. That riles these kings,
you know. So now he goes back to Jerusalem. And just to square things with this king who is cheating him on his tributes,
what does he do? He destroys the city. He destroys the walls, and he destroys
the Temple. That was on his second incursion. All right, then four or five, or
six years later again Nebuchadnezzar comes back. Now he takes all the rest of Israel that’s left back to Babylon with a few sheep herders and nondescript people who were of no
account. So always remember, that Nebuchadnezzar invaded and besieged Jerusalem and Judah three distinct times. But now Daniel goes out with
the first one. Daniel was not in the one when the Temple was destroyed. That
was after he had already been in Babylon. Now the other thing is—it says that
these guys were children. Now I’m not going to carry the point too far. But
that means in my thinking that they had not yet gone through Bar Mitzvah. And
for Israel that’s usually at what age? Fourteen. So these four kids were
somewhere between 12 and 14 years. Now imagine, those are just kids, and yet
they were taken back because of their known ability and intelligence. The Babylonians—you know, I was
thinking about this sometime, either coming up or last night when I woke up a
bit. You know, we always like to think the ancients were almost like cavemen.
They were just grunting and so forth. No. Don’t you think it! They had an
intelligence level that would just blow your mind. All right, so what I had to
think—what do you suppose those Babylonians had to do with these Hebrew kids in
order to find out who was the smartest and knew the most different things?
What do you suppose they did? They tested them. I’m sure they did. They laid
out these fancy Babylonian tests using the math and the astronomy and all these
things, and here comes these four little Hebrew boys right to the top of the
list. That’s the ones we want down in Babylon. Okay. Now I think I’m ready
to jump in and come at it verse-by-verse. Daniel 1:1 “In the third year
(Now you’ve got to watch your language here, or you’ll get mixed up.) of
the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.” Now like I said, this isn’t the time
he destroys the Temple. That’s going to come the next time. Daniel 1:2 “And the Lord gave
Jehoiakim king of Judah (Israel’s king) into his hand, with part
of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god;…” Now what I want you folks, and
my television audience the same way, what was the first commandment? “Thou
shalt have no other Gods before me.” Now what does that tell you about
Israel’s Jehovah God? He’s a jealous God. And He had every right to be,
because He’s the creator of everything, remember. All right, so now the first
thing these pagan Gentiles do is strip off some of the gold from things in the Temple. They didn’t destroy it, but they certainly vandalized it. And of all things,
where do they take it? Back into the temple of their idolatrous gods. Now again, I know we can’t put
ourselves in God’s place. I don’t ever think that. But can you imagine how
God would feel about that? My, it just made His blood boil, if I dare use that
expression. How these pagans went in there and stripped the gold and the
silver and so forth out of the Temple in Jerusalem and carried it back to Babylon and took it in as part of the worship of their pagan gods. Now you have to realize that
from the very onset of the human race, 99.9% of the human race has been—what’s
the word? Rebellious. Aren’t they? They’re all rebellious. They don’t want
anything to do with what God says. Somebody sent me an interesting clipping
from their daily paper just yesterday. It was a research firm that I’d heard
of before, so it wasn’t a come-lately. And you know what he found? Seventy
some percent of the American people are firmly convinced that everybody is
going to Heaven. Everybody’s going to Heaven—whether they’re Buddhist, whether
they’re Muslim—no matter what they are. Everybody’s going to Heaven. They can
pick and choose. They can take any way they want. Well, that must make God’s
blood boil, when He has made it so plain and puts it out so clearly that, no,
there’s not 15 or 20 different ways to Heaven. There’s one! And I’ll probably
get a lot of flack. The more we go on, the more opposition we get. But
listen, this Book is true. If I didn’t believe it, I wouldn’t make a statement
like that. But I believe it. I know this Book is true from cover-to-cover. And
the only way you can get to Heaven is by believing in your heart that Jesus
died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. All right, so continuing on now
in Daniel chapter 1 verse 2, the Babylonians--“…carried into the land of
Shinar to the house of his god;…” That was primarily the female goddess
Astarte. That was always the number one god for the ancients. It was the
female god. Verse 3: Daniel 1:3 “And the king spake unto
Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, (Now don’t throw that word out.
Keep it in your computer.) that he should bring certain of the children
of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes;” So what was
the royal line of these kids? They were in the royal family. They were
destined to become part of the royal family. And that’s what old
Nebuchadnezzar wanted. He didn’t want just an ordinary fellow out there who
was herding sheep or sawing lumber and building houses. He wanted the elite of
Israel. That’s why, I think, he tested them. Now that’s my idea. I can’t
show that from Scripture. I remind people all the time—I try to tell you when
I’m not quoting Scripture. This is just my idea. But it stands to reason. He
had a way of determining that these four kids were the best of Israel. Now verse 4: Daniel 1:4a “Children in whom was no
blemish, (They were healthy. They were intelligent. They were—what’s
the word I like to use? They were athletic. They had energy to burn.)
but well favoured, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge,…” See
that? Now, we’re describing these four little boys. We’re going to come to
their names up here in verse 7. But we’re describing these four little twelve-year
old boys. Daniel 1:4b “…cunning in knowledge,
and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the
king’s palace, (In other words, they didn’t have any problem waiting on
the king and the royal court. They had self-confidence.) and whom they
might teach the learning and the tongue (or the language) of the
Chaldeans.” In other words, they’re just going to turn these kids
inside and out and make them puppets of their regime. See that? All right,
verse 5: Daniel 1:5 “And the king appointed
them a daily provision of the king’s meat, (Now, I like the word food
better than meat.) and of the wine which he drank: (Now don’t
think for a minute those royal people didn’t have the best wine in the world.) so
nourishing them three years, (Now they’re fifteen.) that at the
end thereof they might stand before the king.” In other words, be at a
position where the king can start giving them responsibility. Now remember,
they’re only fifteen. Daniel 1:6 “Now among these were of the
children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:” Those were
the Jewish names. Now they each had a definitive definition of a name of God.
All right, but what do the Babylonians do? They give them a new name. They substitute
the names of Babylonian gods for the Hebrew’s God. Daniel 1:7-8a “Unto whom the prince of
the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to
Hananiah (he gave), of Shadrach; and to Mishael (he gave),
of Meshach, and to Azariah, of Abed-nego. 8. But Daniel purposed in his
heart…” What was the word? “Heart.” See, and again we have to
always come back to this scriptural term—that it’s the heart that God is
looking at. It doesn’t make any difference how much head knowledge we have
got; it’s what ends up in the heart. Now of course, I know that term
leaves a lot of questions in people’s minds. So far as I’m concerned, the
heart is what I call the soul—the will, the mind, and the emotion. That’s the
heart of our being. And it’s with the heart we believe for our salvation. I had to show somebody
yesterday that animals cannot be in Heaven as we are. Now I’m sure that God
has the wherewithal to place animals. But you see, they can’t die and enjoy a
plan of salvation like we do, because they do not have that spiritual entity
that man has. We alone of God’s creation have
that spiritual connection. So with this heart—it’s the invisible part of
created Adam. Now I guess I’d better use Scripture with Scripture. I had the
first guy in years complain in a letter yesterday—why do I jump all over the
Bible? He said why don’t you just stay in one chapter? Well, that’s not my
mode of teaching. That’s why. Come back with me to Genesis
chapter 1, and drop all the way down to verse 26. Now here we are at the end
of the five days of creation. And now comes the sixth day wherein God will
create man and woman. Genesis 1:26a “And God said, (Now
that word God is Elohim in the Hebrew. And that’s the Triune God.)
Let us (The plurality. He doesn’t say let me, but rather--) Let
us make man in our image, (again denoting plurality) Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness:…” Now stop a minute and think.
At this point in time was God in human form? Now I’m not tricking you, you
know. No. What was He? He was Spirit. Invisible. Eternal. From eternity
past to eternity future. He was a spiritual, invisible God. All right, so when it says that
He’s going to make man in His image, what part of His image is He talking about?
The invisible. Now you know, I’ve gone back and done this years and years ago.
I used to do autopsies when I was in the service. Not a lot, but enough that I
found out what that old human body is made of. And my part of the autopsy was,
you remember, I took out the brain. I sliced it so it could go up
to the laboratory and be examined under the microscope. Now I always do this
just for common sense illustration. As I was slicing that brain and putting it
down into little particles of cells that could go under the microscope, did I
ever see the soul? Did I ever see that person’s mind? Did I ever see their
will? Did I ever see the seat, as we call it, of their emotions? Course not.
Why? They’re invisible. But are they real? As real as you and I sitting here
today. Just as real as anything can be. So we have to know what we’re talking
about. When God says I’m creating man in our image, it was an invisible
creation. That was the mind, the will, and the emotions—the soul. And then He put in the spirit—that
part that makes man able to commune with God. Then He put that invisible
spirit makeup in a what? Well, in a body. All right, man becomes functional.
All these invisible entities are in the body. And that’s continued now for 6,000
years. All right, now going on in verse 26: Genesis 1:26b “…Let us make man in our
image, (in the realm of the invisible) after our likeness:
and let them (Adam and Eve, now, is who we’re really talking
about.) have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over the cattle, and over all…” Was all in the Garden of
Eden? Huh? No. No. Adam’s dominion wasn’t confined to the Garden. How much
dominion did he have? The whole planet. It was all under his dominion. All
right, so He says, in verse 28—I think where the word is actually used. Genesis 1:28b “…have dominion over the
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
Adam had final control over everything in God’s creation that was given to
Adam. All right, now then, he’s alone
for a good long while, because that invisible part of Eve stays in Adam. And,
oh, people can’t handle that. Sorry, but that’s the way it was. The invisible
soul and spirit of Eve was in Adam. And when Adam was put to sleep and God
says, I’m going to make a helpmeet for him, what did He do? He took that out.
And just like He put a body around Adam’s mind, will, and emotion; He puts a
body around Eve’s invisible make up. So now she’s a visible person with all
these invisible entities, as I call them. That’s the beginning of the human
race. All right, now we’ve got a few
minutes. First thing we know, and I don’t know how long, what do Adam and Eve
do? Well, they rebel. Now they didn’t commit some horrible, drunken orgy. They
didn’t commit some horrible, immoral sexual act. But what did they do? They
disobeyed God. That’s all. God says you shall not eat of it, and they said,
Satan says we can. That was their fall. All right, now come back to
Romans. I want to come back to the heart concept. Come all the way up to
Romans chapter 10 and for sake of time, drop in at verse 8. Romans 10 verse 8,
you all there? Because I want you to see it with your own eyes. Romans 10:8-9 “But what saith it? The
Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy (What?) heart:…”
(So where does the Word of God penetrate the human being? Into that mind, will,
and emotion that makes up our personality.) that is, the word of faith,
which we preach; 9. That if thou shalt confess (or proclaim audibly) with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine (What again?) heart
that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” And
that’s where most of Christendom is missing it. They’re letting people just
give them mental assent, “Yea, that’s what I’ve always heard. I believe that.”
That’s not what God is looking for. God is looking for faith that
goes down right into the heart of our being. That’s where God labors. And like
I told a gentleman on the phone, dogs don’t have that. Animals don’t have
that. Only humans. That’s why we are at the top of the totem pole in creation,
because God created man to be in fellowship with Him. All right, I thought I
had one more, yeah, still in verse 10—how Paul emphasizes the heart all the way
through here. Romans 10:10-11 “For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation. 11. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed.” All right, here’s the whole
concept then of salvation. We don’t just give a mental assent, “O, yeah,
I’ve always heard that Jesus died and went to the cross. I’ve always heard that
He died and was resurrected.” That’s not the heart. That’s head. But we
understand that this work of salvation was accomplished when Christ died, was
buried, and rose again. And we believe that with all our heart, throwing away
everything else. I just shared with a couple of people. I had a lady down in San Antonio, and I gave her an answer that just blew her away. I haven’t got time but
maybe in the next program. But listen, everything else has to be blown away—and
we stay only, only, on that finished work of the cross—where Christ has done
everything that needs to be done. Okay, good to see you all back.
We’ll get on with our next half hour. We’re going to stay in our study of
Daniel. But first I want to again thank my television audience, as well as all
you folks here, for all of your kind letters, your financial help, and your
prayers. I just want you all to know I can’t do it without it. And even
though these are rough financial times, and we keep looking for things to start
diving, they’re not. My, you can’t imagine the box of letters we’ve had each
day the last two days. So, thank you out there in TV-land. How we—our
hearts—go out to you. And again, we always are
mindful of those of you who write that you are fighting disease of one kind or
another or financial problems. We cherish taking those requests into the Throne
Room. We really do. All right, for those of you
here in the viewing audience, we’ll go back for just a moment to Daniel. To
just pick up what’s on the board, we’re in Book number 80. I don’t know how
many of these programs will continue through Daniel, but we’ll take it as it
comes, verse-by-verse. So if you’ll come back with me to Daniel chapter 1—and
I purposely deferred a couple of things, because I didn’t want to have too much
introductory stuff—but I’ve got to get it in someplace. So what I think I’ll
do is come back to chapter 1 and verse 1. I think that’s really all we need.
Why, when Israel was so connected to their God, did He permit these pagan
Babylonians to come in and do battle with them? Well, there’s going to be
reasons, and I’ll show you in just a minute. But in Daniel chapter 1: Daniel 1:1 “In the third year of the
reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.” And of course, like we’ve already seen, he took all
of the upper-crust captives back to Babylon. Then several years later he came
back and destroyed the city, the wall, the gates, and the Temple. Then he came
back a third time and took almost everything that was left of the population.
All right, so why? Well, you’ve got to remember that Israel was always under God’s blessings, but also His chastisements. Come back with me now to
Leviticus chapter 26. This is a two-fold prophecy. Now this took place the
first time, like we’ve just seen, with Nebuchadnezzar coming and taking the
people of Israel captive. It happened again when the Romans came in A.D. 70.
They didn’t just take them back to one place; they scattered them from one end
of the world to the other. But it was still two of the dispersions that were
in Israel’s future. All right, the first one is
where they went to Babylon—Leviticus chapter 26:32 and 33. But it’s a valid
prophecy even for today, and I use it whenever I speak of signs of the times—how
this is already fulfilled with Israel back in the land. But you’ve got to
remember, that it was originally directed to Israel with regard to 600 B.C.,
because Leviticus is way back in the time of Moses. See, now here again, the scoffer
cannot comprehend that. That way back, hundreds of years before the fact,
Moses is predicting this Babylonian captivity. Then we get a little closer to
it, and Isaiah predicts the name of the emperor that will send them back. I
mean, that’s what is so unique about Scripture. You know, I heard one of the
major commentators the other day interviewing one of the major scoffers of
right-wing television. I don’t like to use names. I don’t want to get in
trouble, if I can help it. But the commentator said, “Now wait a minute. You
are always condemning this network. Have you ever listened to it?” “No way.”
“Well, how can you condemn something you’ve never listened to?” Isn’t that
right? Same thing with this Book. Do you know that 99 out of 100 people who
scoff at this Book have never read one verse of it? All they go by is their
gut feeling and hearsay. And all I tell people is, “Listen, just realize how
intrinsically this Book has been put together.” I used an illustration way back
in one of the first programs twenty years ago. Just like a finely tuned Swiss
watch with all of its intricate movements—take any one of them out, and it will
stop. But, you see, that’s this Book. It is so put together – intrinsically.
All right, Leviticus chapter 26, drop down to verse 32 where God says through
Moses: Leviticus 26:32 “And I will bring the
land (That is the land of Canaan.) into desolation: and your
enemies who dwell therein (That is the Canaanites at this point in
time.) shall be astonished at it.” At what? The desolation.
How unproductive a beautiful strip of land could become, could so completely
fall apart. But God did it with earthquakes. He did it with pestilence. He
did it with drought. It stopped raining. All right, so here it is all
foretold almost 1,000 years ahead of time. Now verse 33: Leviticus 26:33-34 “And I will scatter you
among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: (In other
words, there’d be tremendous loss of life.) and your land shall be
desolate, and your cities waste. 34. Then (When Israel is out of the land and everything is destroyed, God says--) shall the land (the
Promised Land, the land of Canaan) enjoy her Sabbaths,…” Well, what was the Sabbath in Israel’s history? They had to leave the land fallow every seventh year. From the time
that they came in under Joshua, they had to leave it fallow. God said, “I’ll
give you enough extra on the sixth year and the first year that you won’t miss
it.” But did they believe God? No. They kept on farming it.
They kept on taking out the fruit. So God says it’s going to get them. All
right, here it is. So when they’re out of the land, and there’s no production,
there’s no farming, there’s no fruit trees growing, “Then shall the land
rest and enjoy her (What?) Sabbaths.” Now like I said in the
beginning of the first program, 490 years are in one of these categories. For
490 years Israel never gave the land the Sabbath rest. So how many years did
it owe God? Seventy. Seventy times seven is 490. All right, so He permitted
these pagans to bring destruction into their country and to take them out
captive, so that the land could enjoy its make-up Sabbaths. All right, now there was a
second reason that Israel was so guilty. Who wants to guess? What was their
problem? Oh, come on. Idolatry! They had a pagan god under every green tree.
The Temple was still operating, but that didn’t make any difference. They were
still worshipping all the pagan gods and goddesses. Unbelievable! I still
can’t get over it as often as I’ve read it and taught it. How these people,
brilliant as they were then, just like they are today; and yet so ignorant that
they would worship idols of gold and silver and stone and ignore the God of
Israel. It’s unbelievable. But they did. Now for that, turn with me to
Jeremiah chapter 44, and we’ll see how this becomes part of the problem. This
is why they hated Jeremiah so horribly that they threw him into a dungeon, you
know. Jeremiah 44, let’s drop in at verse 15. Now this is hard to comprehend.
Yet it’s exactly what the Book says. It describes it so perfectly. Now even
in the Book of Hosea, what was the problem? They were following after all
these pagan gods. Those of us that were up in Israel just the other day, up in the northern part, we saw the old altar of Dan—the first
tribe to go into abject idolatry. They’ve found the whole thing now, the altar
and everything, under dirt for all these hundreds and hundreds of years. But
just to prove that the Bible was not kidding, Dan was the first to go into
idolatry with all their pagan immorality. Jeremiah 44:15a “Then all the men who
knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women
that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of
Egypt,…” Now there’s a lot of Jews that ran down to Egypt to escape Babylon. All right, in Pathros, now look at their response when Jeremiah accuses
them of their idolatry. They said in verse 16: Jeremiah 44:16-17a “As for the word that thou
hast spoken unto us in the name of Jehovah, we will not listen unto thee. 17. But
we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn
incense (You remember, that was part of pagan worship.) unto the (Who?)
queen of heaven,…” See, it was always the female
goddesses that were at the top of everything, and they would send these people
into the most abject immorality. Unbelievable. And that’s who they are
worshipping, these female goddesses. Jeremiah 44:17b “…and to pour out drink-offerings
unto her, (Now remember that drink offering, because we’re going to
come to why Daniel won’t drink the wine of Nebuchadnezzar.) as we have
done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: (Now what a lie, the next statement.) for then
had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.” Jeremiah 44:18 “But since we left off to
burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her,
we have wanted all things,…” They were destitute. They needed this,
and they needed that, because they had left off worshiping the female
goddesses. What a lie. All right, now verse 19: Jeremiah 44:19 “And when we burned
incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink-offerings unto her, did we
make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings unto her, without
our men?” The women just went ahead and did it anyway. Jeremiah 44:20-21
“Then Jeremiah said unto
all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people who had
given him that answer, saying, 21. The incense that ye burned in the cities of
Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your
princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came
it not into his mind?” And what did he do? He brought
the Babylonians, and they went under abject misery. Now you’ve got to realize,
too, the Ancients—especially the upper crust—did they ever exercise any human
rights? They didn’t know what it was. They would kill left and right and
never blink an eye, because they were just serfs. They were slaves. I will never forget—I guess it
was the first time we went to Israel—we could still go up the rampart to Masada, but we can’t do that anymore. They’ve got it all fenced off. I guess it was too
dangerous. But see, when the Romans besieged Masada—I trust you all know that Masada is that high mountain that they had a fortress on the top. When the Romans besieged
Masada, the only way to the top was up what they called the Snake Trail. It’s
only about three feet wide. Well, two men could hold off an army. So they knew they would never
capture those 900 Jews by going up the Snake Trail. So, what’d they do? They
started building a rampart from the north. Ten thousand Roman troops, plus who
knows how many Jewish slaves, start building this earthen rampart from down on
the desert floor all the way to within ten feet of the top. And I’ll never
forget it as long as I live. As I was walking up that with our Jewish guide,
he said, “You know, Les, no one will ever know how many Jewish bodies were just
simply left to die, covered up by the dirt. And they just kept on going.” Well see, that was the attitude
towards the human. It’s still like that in a lot of places today, but more so
in antiquity. Human lives meant nothing to these people. You could just as
well cut off a chicken’s head. It didn’t make any difference. Always keep
these things in mind—that when these people went into captivity, they were now
going to be subjected to no human rights as we understand them. All right, now let’s come back
and we’ll pick up where we left off in the last program. In Daniel, I think
we’re still in chapter 1, and we’ll pick up in verse 9. Let’s look at verse 8
just for a review. Daniel 1:8 “But Daniel purposed in
his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king’s meat, (or
food) nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the
prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” Now
there again, you have to understand, what was the mentality? How could a good,
righteous Jew like little 15 year-old Daniel eat this meat that had been
offered to a pagan female goddess? How could they drink wine that, before they
even did anything, they would pour out a portion of it as a libation for pagan
gods? Well, Daniel said, “I can’t do that.” Well, you know, Paul had a
little bit of controversy with that, didn’t he? He said they won’t bother me,
because I know those dumb idols can’t do anything. But on the other hand, he
did condescend and say that’s all right. If it’s going to be offensive to
someone if I eat meat offered to the idols at the temples, he said, I’ll never
eat another bite of meat as long as I live. So it’s always been that
controversy. All right, but now then, back to Daniel chapter 1 verse 9. Daniel 1:9 “Now God had brought
Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince (or the top man) of
the eunuchs.” Now, does that ring a bell? I’m going to use two
Scriptures. Turn with me first up to Romans. Well, I’ve got another one of
those age-precipitated, what Floridians call a “senior moment.” I know it’s in
Romans, but I’ve forgotten my reference. Can you believe that? Romans 15. Thank
you. For our television audience, I guess I should tell them, I’m sick today.
I’m not up to par, so bear with me. (Les was really sick when he
taped these two programs, but felt he’d let the studio audience down if he
didn’t. Under the circumstances, Les did a superb job.-- Jerry Pool) Romans chapter 15 and verse 3,
no, it’s verse 4. Sorry about that if you’ve written it in your notebook
already. Romans chapter 15 verse 4, now this is the Apostle Paul writing to
us. Romans 15:4a “For whatsoever things
were written aforetime (Old Testament) were written for our (What’s
the word?) learning,…” Not doctrine. You don’t find the plan of
salvation in the Old Testament. You won’t find the Christian walk as we
experience it in the Old Testament. That was all Law. That was Israel. But here it is. It’s still profitable as Paul says, “…all Scripture is
profitable.” Of course it is. Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things
were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience
and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Now, take the young
lad, 15 years old, down in a foreign country. In a foreign palace where any
slip of the tongue and his head is off. Don’t you imagine he was homesick for Jerusalem? But, did Daniel ever turn against his God? Never. All right, another one I like
to look at is Joseph. I think rather than going back and reading it, you all
know the account of Joseph. My goodness, the young man, too, probably in a
late teen situation, and his brothers connived against him. First they were
going to put him to death. Then they thought better of that, so they threw him
in the pit. And what do you suppose old Joseph is thinking about now? Is
this all part of God’s doing? And that’s typical. I mean, we’re all
human. They were, too. All right, then he ends up in the house of Potiphar,
and he gets put in the slammer because Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of
propositioning her. And how long was he in prison? I think about ten years. Well, now ten years in an
Egyptian prison was not a Sunday school picnic. It was like a dungeon. But,
did Joseph ever give up? No. No. And the day finally came when God put His
thumb on Joseph and, by a supernatural turn of events, Joseph becomes the
second man in Egypt. He becomes the sustainer, then, of his own family. All right, now come back to
Daniel. It is the same way. Daniel, now, is there because of who he is. He’s
a believer. He’s a Jew. Yet he never relinquishes his faith in the God of
Abraham. He never gives it up. All right, verse 9: Daniel 1:9 “Now God had brought
Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince (or the head) of
the eunuchs.” Which, of course, the first thing they did, even as a
young lad; they neutered him. So he’s a eunuch, but he never stopped trusting
the God of Abraham. Daniel 1:10a “And the prince of the
eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your food
and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse looking than the
children who are of your sort?...” In other words, Daniel, I’ve got to
keep you looking as good as the Babylonian kids, or my head is off. So Daniel
says, sorry, but I don’t need your Babylonian rich food and drink. You can
bring me (What’s the word in the King James?) pulse. Now the best way I can
explain “pulse,” is Gerber’s baby food. Am I right? Pretty close. It was
strictly vegetables. It was ground to where it was just a mush. That was
pulse. And that’s all Daniel wants for himself and his three friends. All right, come back to the
text. Verse 10, the last part like I just said, they thought nothing of
cutting somebody’s head off. He says: Daniel 1:10b “…for why should he see
your faces looking worse than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye
make me endanger my head to the king.” What’s he talking about?
Swish!!! Beheading. That’s nothing new for the Middle East. It’s been there
for centuries. All right, look what Daniel says in verse 11. Daniel 1:11-12 “Then said Daniel to
Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah, 12. Prove (or test) thy servants, I beseech thee,
ten days; and let them give us pulse (Gerber’s baby food for ten days) to
eat, and water to drink.” No wine. Just water and pulse.
Daniel 1:13 “Then let our
countenances to be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children
that eat of the portion of the king’s food: and as thou seest, deal with thy
servants.” If we start looking pale and impoverished, and you can
profit by getting rid of us, go ahead. But Daniel knows it’s not going to
happen. All right, verse 15: Daniel 1:15-17a “And at the end of ten
days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the
children (That is of Babylon.) which did eat the portion of the
king’s food. 16. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their food,
and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse. (just a
ground-up vegetable) 17. As for these four children, God gave them
knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom:…” What does that tell you? Those
kids were smart. Those kids had the answers. Now remember, they’re kids.
They’re still only 15 years old. But God is using them, now, to confound all
the intelligence of the Babylonians. All right, verse 20: Daniel 1:20 “And in all matters of
wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them
(these four Jewish lads) ten times better than all the magicians and
astrologers that were in all his realm.” From one end of the empire to
the other, he couldn’t find anybody who could compare with these Jewish lads.
Now verse 21 and I’m going to have to wind this up. Daniel 1:21 “And Daniel continued
(That is in his service to these pagan governments.) even unto the first
year of king Cyrus.” Now, if you’ve never heard it before, you’re
going to hear me teach it as plain as I know how in the first few programs.
Who was King Cyrus? Well, he was the king of the next empire coming—the Medes
and the Persians. All right, what did Cyrus do? Cyrus wrote the decree that
the Jews had the full freedom to go back to Jerusalem. He gave them all that
they needed from the forests of Lebanon. He gave them absolute protection as
they traveled, so that they could rebuild the Temple and rebuild the city of Jerusalem and get things cranked up and going for the next great event. Which was what? The
first coming of Christ! All right, to recap:
Nebuchadnezzar took Daniel down into Babylon in the first year of
Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. So Daniel covered the whole scope of the 70 years of
captivity. He was already 12 or 14 when he went down there, so how old is he
at the end of the captivity? Eighty. But anyway, he’s going to stay in his
place of authority until long after Cyrus sends the decree to send the Jews
back. So where does that put Daniel. Probably 90 years old and all that time
he’s been serving in a pagan government and has never let it defile him. All right, now what is that for
us? That’s what Paul means. That all these things are written for our
learning, and they are written for our profit. How are we to operate in a
system that is totally against us? We never compromise. Don’t ever compromise
your faith. Be willing to do what Jonah did and walk the plank before you compromise
these biblical truths. Now we’re living in a time—somebody sent us a paper the
other day. Maybe I mentioned it in the last program. I think I did. Where 70%
of American Christians think everybody is going to Heaven. How can they? Impossible! Okay, good to have everybody in
this afternoon. We’ve already realized that we’ve got a lot of new folks today,
and we want to welcome you. For those of you joining us on television, we’ve
probably got the same thing, probably got a lot of folks who are just catching
it for the first time. We are just an informal Bible study. We take it pretty
much verse-by-verse, and all we can do is let the Holy Spirit open your
understanding and trust that you’ll learn to study and enjoy it like never
before. We have one book. We haven’t
advertised it now for a long time. It’s eighty-eight questions and answers that
come from the material in our program. We got a new shipment in a while back,
so we have plenty of them available in case any of you are interested. Just
call the 800 number, and we’ll get them out to you. Probably the best $11 you
will ever spend. All right, we’re going to pick
right up where we left off in our last half hour. That will be in Daniel chapter
2, and we’ll start right at verse 1. And again, in case some of you were new
and missed the last program, you remember that Daniel was one of the four young
lads that were taken captive. And when I say young, they were really young.
They were probably between 12 and 14 years of age. And I want to have you keep
that in mind when you see what responsibilities the Lord gives this young man,
or this young lad, Daniel at the age of 12, 13, or 14. He’s taken captive by
the Babylonians down to Babylon. In the number one chapter, we had pretty much
the introduction of how he ends up down in the palace of the king. All right, now when we come
into chapter 2 verse 1, we’re going to pick up where Daniel is going to be put
in a tremendous place of responsibility. And don’t forget his age. Now he
might be 14 or 15. But he’s not a man. He’s still just a child. Daniel 2:1a “And in the second year
of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar…” Now you’ve got to watch your language;
otherwise, you’d say, now wait a minute, back there in chapter 1 it says “in
the third year.” No, watch the differences in who we’re talking about. In
chapter 1 verse 1, it’s the third year of the Jewish king Jehoiakim.
But here we’re talking about: Daniel 2:1-2 “And in the second year
of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his
spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him. 2. Then the king commanded
to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the
Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the
king.” Now those were all various
groups of what they called the wise men in the time of the ancients. And they
were primarily demonically inspired and enlightened sorcerers in witchcraft and
so forth. The last group, the Chaldeans, was pretty much what you’d call the
wise. They were probably the guys that really used some intelligence,
especially in discerning the solar system and so forth. They all had a pretty
good handle on the brain. So anyway, these
so-called wise men of Babylon are now before the king. Daniel 2:3a “And the king said unto
them, I have dreamed a dream,…” Now I know there’s a lot of
controversy. Some people think he remembers it, but he just wants to put these
guys on trial to see if they’re good enough to recover it. But on the other hand, I have
to feel—since we’re dealing with the Omnipotence and the Omniscience of God
being able to reveal to Daniel what the old king dreamed—I think he had totally
forgotten it, but he had understood the ramifications of it. For one reason or
other, he understood that this was something totally different than anything
he’d ever dreamed before. And that’s why he is so set on having it recovered. Daniel 2:3b-4a “…I have dreamed a dream,
and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. 4. Then spake the Chaldeans
to the king in Syriack,…” Now, again, this isn’t all that
important, but the scoffers sure like to pick up on it. From chapter 1 verse 1
up unto this verse, Daniel has been writing in the Hebrew language. Now he
switches over to the Syriack, or what we call the Aramaic, and then he speaks
in Aramaic all the way over to chapter 7. And then he finishes the Book
in Hebrew again. And of course, the scoffers just scream at that—that just goes
to show it’s a forgery. No, Daniel is not a forgery. It just shows he’s
already been in Babylon long enough to be comfortable with the Aramaic, or the
Syriack, language. On the other hand, he was raised in the Hebrew language, so
he was able to use that as well. But anyway, now he’s speaking in the Aramaic
language. Daniel 2:4b-5 “…O king, live forever: tell
thy servants the dreams, and we will show the interpretation. 5. The
king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: (I
can’t tell you what I dreamed. You’ve got to tell me. Kind of preposterous
request, isn’t it?) The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known
unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces,
and your houses shall be made a dunghill.” Now what does that tell you?
That’s the mentality of these oriental despotic dictators. And they haven’t
changed. We see the same thing today. Old Saddam Hussein was notorious for
his cruelty. And Nebuchadnezzar was no different. It made no compunction to
him if these guys couldn’t do the impossible. He’d just as soon cut them up and
feed them to the dogs, as not. And I want you to get that—that picture of the
thinking of this oriental king. Daniel 2:6-8 “But (he says) if
ye show the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts
and rewards and great honor: therefore show me the dream, and the interpretation
thereof. 7. They answered again and said, Let the king tell his
servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it. 8. The king
answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye
see the thing is gone from me.” What’d he tell them? He said,
you’re just arguing for time. You’d better come up with it, or you’re dead.
You’re gone. And in the Oriental system of things, it wasn’t just a husband
and father who was put to death, but who else? The wife and children. That
was all part of their system. Verse 8 again: Daniel 2:8-9 “The king answered and
said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing
is gone from me. 9. But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is
but one decree for you: for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak
before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall
know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof.” Or else! That’s
about the attitude. Tell it to me, or else you are dead ducks, we’d say today. Daniel 2:10 “The Chaldeans answered
before the king, and said, (Now, these are the more elite of the four
groups.) There is not a man upon the earth that can show the kings
matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things of
any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.” King, you are asking the
impossible. Nobody can do what you’re asking. Daniel 2:11a “And it is a rare thing
that the king requireth, and there is none other that can show it before the
king, except the gods,…” Now look at that. That’s a small “g”. The
gods. Well you see, all the pagan world understood were all their gods and
goddesses. Now always remember that other than Israel, nobody had a concept of
the One True God. Not an iota. So, all they can fall back on are their pagan,
small “g-o-d-s.” Their small pagan gods. See, plural. That’s what I want you
to see. Daniel 2:11b-12 “…and there is none other
that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with
flesh. 12. For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded
to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.” Now you want to remember,
he’s an absolute despotic dictator. He has absolutely no kindness towards the
human race whatsoever, unless he can benefit from it. Daniel 2:13 “And the decree went
forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows
to be slain.” Now who’s in the same bunch? Daniel and his three
friends: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So Daniel immediately comes under
this decree to be put to death along with all the rest of the wise men of Babylon. All right, now verse 14, now we come back to the crux of the matter. Daniel is
just a lad of 14 or 15 years old. Daniel 2:14 “Then Daniel answered
with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king’s guard, who was gone
forth to slay the wise men of Babylon:” In other words, he was already
on his way to carry out the king’s decree. Daniel 2:15-16a “He answered and said to
Arioch the king’s captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch
made the thing known to Daniel. (He explained the circumstances.)
16. Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time,…”
What do you suppose Daniel wants with time? What would you do? Pray!
Absolutely. Daniel in some words said just give us some time to pray about
it. That’s what he’s begging for. Daniel 2:16-17 “Then Daniel went in, and
desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would show
the king the interpretation. (After he’s prayed about it.) 17.
Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to (His three
fellow Jewish lads, all the same age who had been renamed, of course, by the
Babylonians.) Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, his companions:” They
had been renamed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Babylonian. Daniel 2:18-19 “That they would desire
mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; (or this dream) that
Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. (See how crucial this is getting?) 19. Then was the secret revealed
unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.”
Not the gods of paganism, but the God of Heaven—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. Daniel 2:20-21 “Daniel answered and
said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are
his: (Now watch this, because God has never changed. It’s still just
as appropriate today as it was when Daniel wrote it.) 21. And he changeth
the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, (or world rulers) and
setteth up kings: (or world leaders) he giveth wisdom unto the
wise, knowledge to them that know understanding:” Daniel 2:22-23 “He (Now remember
what we’re talking about – the God of Heaven.) He revealeth the deep and secret
things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. (And
then Daniel prays.) 23. I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my
fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now
what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s
matter.” Now I’m going to keep hammering
at it. Imagine the kid, fifteen years of age, with this kind of a situation.
His faith—how well-grounded he was before the Babylonians actually took him
captive. Now verse 24: Daniel 2:24-26 “Therefore Daniel went in
unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he
went and said thus unto him, (Begging on behalf of those old pagan,
idolatrous, godless, and god worshipping pagans—Daniel still has the
whereabouts to plead their case as well.) Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation. 25.
Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him,
I have found a man of the captives of Judah, (not really a man—a child)
that will make known unto the king the interpretation.
26. The king answered and said unto Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar,
Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the
interpretation thereof?” Now again, why is he so
aghast? You’re just a kid. And you can tell me what all these magicians
can’t? You see that? Now why am I making the point? I want you to realize
the power and the Omniscience of the God of Daniel. But my goodness, He’s not
just the God of Daniel. I trust He’s the God of everyone in this room today.
He hasn’t changed. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. He’s just as
much the God of wisdom today as He was back here with Daniel. Don’t ever lose
that. We’re dealing with the same God. Now granted, He deals with us in a
different mode than He did with the Old Testament believers, but it’s the same
God. The Sovereign God of the universe. Daniel 2:27-28a “Daniel answered in the
presence of the king, and said, The secret (Now lock that word, I’m
going to come back to it after a bit.) The secret which the king hath
demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers,
show unto the king; 28. But there is a God in heaven (that the
Babylonians knew nothing of) there is a God in heaven that revealeth
secrets,…” Now I think this is as good a place as any. Come back with
me to Deuteronomy. Most of you already know what it’s going to be, don’t you?
Deuteronomy 29:29. I dropped a note the other day
to the old gentleman who made me aware of this verse years and years ago when I
hadn’t been in Oklahoma all that long. He was a retired college president. He
was a retired Army General. And he was one of my best students. He came up one
night after class, and he said, “Les, I think I have found a verse that you
will just love.” And I had never seen it before. And this is it. I wrote him
the other day, and I said, “Dr. Baker, I want you to know I use this verse over
and over and over.” How I thanked him for making me aware of it. Deuteronomy 29:29a “The secret things
(See that? Those things that man has absolutely no possible ability to
understand because they’re in the mind of God.) The secret things belong
unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed (In other
words, He’ll reveal these things little by little.) those things which
are revealed belong unto us and to our children…” Now this, of course,
is Moses speaking of Israel. But it’s still one of those verses that carries
all the way through, because of God’s unchanging Omnipotence. So always
remember that God is the One who keeps things secret. Now the reason I made such a
big deal over the secret things of God, is because of our Apostle. Now
turn all the way up to the New Testament. Our Apostle Paul is constantly
letting us know that all the things that he is writing in his epistles you will
not find anywhere else in Scripture, because they were kept secret. God kept
it secret until He revealed it. All right, the first one I want
to look at is Romans 16:25. Most of Christendom does not understand this to
this day. That’s why they disagree with me on my line of teaching. They don’t
understand that Paul had things revealed unto him that no one else had ever
been given. The Twelve didn’t know them.
The Old Testament Prophets didn’t know them. They were strictly kept secret
until God revealed them to this Apostle. And that’s what makes his apostleship
so uniquely different. Romans 16 verse 25 and if you’ve never learned anything
else before, remember this today. I don’t care if you remember nothing else
today. I want you to remember this—that this is why Paul constantly, through
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, refers to the things that have been kept
secret. Our God is a God who can keep secrets. Romans 16:25 “Now to him that is of
power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery, (And what’s the other word
for mystery? Secret. Here Paul has now been given the wherewithal to proclaim
a message that has been kept secret since when?) which was kept secret since
the ages began,” All right, now this is just one
or two of them. I’m not going to have time to look at all of them, but turn
ahead to Ephesians chapter 3 verses 1 through 9. They are all filled with this
very thing, how that God has revealed to this Apostle things never before
revealed. But I want to bring it down to the frosting on the cake, if I can
put it that way, verse 9. I haven’t got time to read all eight of them. Let’s
just read verse 9. Ephesians 3:9a “And to make all men see
(He’s not just the Apostle of Israel now. He’s the Apostle of all—Gentiles as
well as Jews.) to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery (the
secret) which from the beginning of the world had been hid in God,...”
It was kept secret. Nobody had ever heard these things before. That’s why Peter writes in his
little epistle—in Paul’s things “are things hard to be understood.”
Why? They’ve been kept secret. It was never revealed until this man. Ephesians 3:9b “…from the beginning of
the world hath been hid in God, (the same God) who created
all things by Jesus Christ:” Well, that was all aside. You
got that free for nothing. Come back with me to Daniel. Come back to Daniel
now. Daniel makes it so evident that what he is able to do is to reveal the
secrets because his God knows everything and will reveal as He see fits. Go
back to Daniel chapter 2 verse 28 again. Daniel 2:28a “But there is a God in
heaven (The same One we deal with.) that revealeth secrets, and
maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days….”
Now, you see, that’s the secret of why Nebuchadnezzar had an idea that there
was such an important revelation in this dream that it would actually be worth
killing all of the wise men of Babylon to get at the core of it. He knew that
there was something of intrinsic value to this dream, and that’s what it was.
It was foretelling the whole future of the Gentile world, and we still teach it
as such to this day. All right, reading on: Daniel 2:28b-29a “…shall be in the latter
days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; 29. As
for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should
come to pass hereafter:…” And that’s why I think any student or teacher
of prophecy will have to use Daniel as the foundation for all their teaching.
Daniel is the very bedrock of all of our end-time prophecy. And even old pagan
king Nebuchadnezzar had an inkling this was something more than just another
dream. All right, verse 30: Daniel 2:30 “But as for me, this
secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living,
but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and
that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.” Now we have to understand that
when Daniel begins to unfold and recover this dream, and we’ll be looking at it
in a future program, he’s going to lay out the whole timeline of Gentile
history starting with Nebuchadnezzar himself, who was the first of the Gentile
Empires built. Now there were other kingdoms, of course, but Babylon under
Nebuchadnezzar was the very first of the Gentile, the then-known world, Empire.
Now you’ve got to remember, the
then-known world wasn’t all that great. It was that part of the Middle East
around the Euphrates River, maybe on a little ways, and then across over the land of Israel. That’s why it’s in Scripture, because Babylon was intrinsically involved
with Israel. And then, of course, down to Egypt—that was the then-known
world. And old Nebuchadnezzar already had all of that under his thumb. He was
an absolute monarch. From this point on, then, we’re
going to see the unfolding of all the great Gentile Empires that came down the
pike one right after the other. The Babylonians and then the Medes and the
Persians and then the Greeks and then the Romans—and then the Roman Empire went
into the dust in history. It disappeared. And pretty much the rest of the
time it was anyone with control of the Muslim world. Now here we are back in
our present day and all four of these kingdoms are back in the news. Back in
the news. Almost every day. You say—what? Well, goodness sakes, for the last
four or five years all we’ve had in the front page news is what country? Iraq—and what’s Iraq? Babylon. Baghdad is only about twenty miles from the very ruins of ancient Babylon. All right, then the next was
the Medes and the Persians. Well, who were the Persians? Iran. What shows up in the news every day? Iran is back at the top. All right, and then came the
Greeks. Well, what was the Greek Empire? Well, that was that empire that
brought about all of our classics in literature and music and art and
architecture and all that. And they’re pretty much back in the news. And then what followed the
Greek? The Romans and now we’ve got the Revived Roman Empire coming up in Western Europe. I still feel that’s the prophetic empire, the Revived Ten Nations of Western Europe. All of these things were in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. But I want you to jump up to
the New Testament in our closing remarks with regard to God knowing the end
from the beginning. Come all the way up to Acts chapter 2, and we have to
hurry. We’ve only got a minute left. Acts chapter 2 and drop in at verses 22
and 23. Because when you look at the world today, you almost wonder, is
anybody still in control? Don’t you worry about it. Our God is still in control.
Everything that happens is for a purpose. Everything. You know, I told my oldest son
way last spring when all the presidential primaries began, I said, “Greg, never
forget (I think it was FDR that said it. I’m not sure, but I think he did.)
that elections are not won by people, they’re won by events. Just watch and
see what happens between now and Election Day.” Well, what was the big event
that turned the election? The financial crash. That’s all it took and, bingo,
everything went the other way—by God’s design. All right, quickly, Acts
chapter 2 and let’s go down to verse 23, where Peter is, of course, referring
to the crucified, resurrected Messiah. He says: Acts 2:23a “Him, being delivered by
the determinate counsel and (What?) foreknowledge of God,…”
Was God taken by surprise by the crucifixion? No. It was all blueprinted. It
had to happen. He had to die. He had to shed His blood. That was what took
the place of the atoning blood of the animals all the way up through the Old
Testament. It was all according to the foreknowledge of God, and it has never
changed to this very day. Okay, good to see everybody
back again for another half hour. We’re going to pick right up where we left
off in Daniel chapter 2, and we’re going to jump in at verse 31. Again, we
want to thank our television audience for all of your prayers, your gifts, your
letters, and everything. My, we just can’t do it without you. We just trust
that you’re sharing these things with your friends and relatives to get them
interested in studying the Word of God on their own. That’s my whole premise.
It is to get people into the Book. All right, we’re going to go
right on and pick up where we left off in verse 31of Daniel chapter 2. And
again, for a quick review, remember that Daniel is primarily a prophecy
concerning the coming Gentile empires beginning with Nebuchadnezzar who was the
first real world-empire dictator. Now there were other kingdoms ahead of them,
of course. But Nebuchadnezzar was really the first great world empire builder
and a total, total despotic dictator. All right, this Nebuchadnezzar
has had a dream. And Daniel has been able, by God’s help, to recover the
dream. Now he’s going to explain the interpretation. What did it mean? All
right, verse 31, and Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar: Daniel 2:31 “Thou, O King, sawest,
(in his dream) and behold a great image. (in other words, the
likeness of a man) This great image, whose brightness was excellent,
(or frightening—some translations put) stood before thee; and the form
thereof was terrible.” And again, frightening, beyond human
comprehension. Now he’s beginning to explain the dream. Daniel 2:32-33 “This image’s head was of
fine gold, (Now that’s why we know it’s a depiction of a human
likeness.) his breast (or his chest and shoulders) and his arms
of silver, his belly (or the abdomen down to the upper thigh) and
his thighs of brass, 33. His legs of iron, his feet part of iron
and part of clay (were made up of a mixture of iron and clay).”
All right, now we’re going to
just briefly—and I’ll go back and put it on the board. Here we’ve got a head
of gold, a chest of silver, a belly of brass, legs of iron, and feet of iron
and clay. Now those of you who know anything about chemistry—what are the
specific gravities of these various metals? Well, gold is the heaviest.
Silver is the next. Brass is the next. Iron is the next. And iron and the
clay is the lightest of all. So right off the bat, if you’ll use your thinking
cap, what is the balance of that makeup? It’s top-heavy. Exactly what I
wanted to hear. It’s top-heavy. The highest specific gravity, gold, is at
the top and the lowest is down here. All right, now all of this is
just sort of an inimical figure that God is showing. And in the progression of
these Gentile empires that have already been established by history, they were
just exactly that. They were top-heavy. We’re going to see the reason for
that—that when Christ returns and destroys these Gentile empires; which, by the
way, are already back on the world again tonight. All these original empires—Babylon is present-day Iraq—the very center of the news. The Medes and the Persians were
the next empire. And Iran is in the news and Syria. And then came the Greek
Empire, which was, again, predominately by a Syrian general. And then the Roman Empire, which is our Revived European Community. It’s all back in the news every
day. But I’m running ahead of myself. Back up now to verse 34. After seeing
this likeness of a man with all of these metals, he says in, your dream you
looked at that image until: Daniel 2:34a “Thou sawest till that a
stone was cut out without hands,…” Well, now if you remember, about a
year or two ago I did a whole series of programs on the Stone of Scripture.
Remember those? How that all through Scripture, from Exodus through the Book
of Revelation, God the Son, Jesus Christ, is depicted as a Stone of one sort or
another. He was the Rock that Moses smote. He was considered the Corner Stone
of Israel. He’s considered the Head Stone of the corner. All through
Scripture you have these references to Christ as a Stone or a Rock. Well, in Daniel’s vision then,
or in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, rather. Daniel interrupts it. After he sees
this humongous likeness of a man with gold, silver, brass, iron, and so forth,
there came something from a non-human concept—without hands. It had nothing to
do with man’s power or whatever. So it had to be the Stone of Scripture—God
the Son, Jesus Christ. Daniel 2:34b “…which smote the image
upon his feet (Now all of this is pertinent. He doesn’t smite it on
the head. He smites it on its feet. So Daniel says--) you saw a stone
cut out without hands (which is the Second Coming of Christ) which
smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to
pieces.” Just crushes it. All right, now if you’ve got a little
imagination at all, if you can see this top-heavy image suddenly stricken by a
rolling boulder that hits it on its feet, what happens to it? Well, it tips
over. And as that stone rolls over that tipped-over statue, or likeness of a
man, what happens? It’s ground to powder. All right, now get that all in your
imagination, because that’s what we’re drawing here. All right, “You saw
a stone cut out without hands. It smote the image upon his feet, which were
made of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces.” All right, now
here’s what happened to the rest of it. Daniel 2:35a “Then was the iron,
(the legs) the clay, the brass (the belly area) the silver,
(the chest area) and (finally) the gold, (the head)
broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer
threshing floors;…” Now we aren’t as acquainted
with threshing floors as we are John Deere combines. Isn’t that right? When
you see that old combine going across the wheat field, what trails behind it?
A cloud of dust and chaff. Well, where’s the grain? Up in the tank. It’s
saved. All right, now the likeness here is that the ancient Jews, or whoever
would use the threshing floor, would pour that grain from an elevated place and
let the wind take the chaff and the dust away, just like a combine does today.
All right, that’s what would happen to the residue of these empires. Now we’re going to come to that
as we go through the afternoon. That as those empires rise and fall, at
Christ’s Second Coming they will all be evident. And they are today. My
goodness, I’ve gone through this more than once. The Babylonian Empire—what
was it known for initiating way back in 600 B.C.? Banking—all of the world’s
banking goes back to the Babylonian bankers. That was where it first began,
the system of banking. All right, the next big empire
was the Medes and the Persians. Well, to this day what is one of the most
high-priced commodities in the Middle East? Well, I can’t even say oil now,
the way it dropped. I was going to say except oil. But what’s one of the
highest priced commodities that come out of Persia? Rugs! My, if you see a
little Persian rug that’s just nothing, it’ll cost several hundred
dollars—still today. All right, that’s been their commodity for centuries.
They are known of their beautiful Persian rugs and so forth. All right, then the next empire
was Greek. What came predominately out of the Greek empire? Architecture,
with their beautiful capitals, you know, and the columns and all that. And
literature. That all began in the Greek Empire. All right, then comes the Roman Empire. And what’s the Roman Empire the precipitator of? Courts of law. Rome was the first empire that declared a man was innocent until he was proven guilty. You
didn’t know that, did you? All right, that was all the
beginning, then, of what we now call Western Civilization. And it’s with us
full-scale again today. The whole world’s banking system ties right back to
Ancient Babylon. The whole carpet industry of the Middle East goes all the way
back to the Medes and the Persians. All of our architecture and all of our
literature and the classics and so forth go back to the Greek Empire. And our
whole system of law and courts and human rights had its beginnings in the Roman Empire. And they are all evident today. And we’re getting ready, now,
for the return of Christ. And again, as they all stand with all of their pomp
and their circumstance and their power and their corruption, when Christ
returns He’ll destroy every bit of it. Every vestige of it will be blown away
like the chaff of a thresher’s floor. That’s the beauty of prophecy. All right, let’s come back to
verse 36, and we’ll detail it even a little closer. Verse 36, now Daniel says
to Nebuchadnezzar: Daniel 2:36 “That’s the dream; (That’s
what you saw. You saw this huge likeness of a human being.) and we will
tell the interpretation thereof before the king.” And here it comes,
verse 37: Daniel 2:37a “Thou, O king, art a king
of kings:…” Now, like I mentioned earlier, there had been previous
little tribal empires. Nimrod, of course, began in that same area way back in
Genesis chapter 10. So there have been other little tribal empires, but there
had never been a world empire under one man like the Babylonian. It was the
first of the great Gentile empires. In fact, Israel under David and Solomon had a greater empire probably than even Nebuchadnezzar. But of the
Gentile world, Nebuchadnezzar was the very first. All right, so reading in
verse 37 again: Daniel 2:37 “Thou, O king, art a king
of kings: for the God of heaven (Remember what I said in the last half
hour? God puts them in. He takes them out. Even to our present day there is
not a head of government that isn’t there by God’s design.) hath given
thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.” Now, how many people realize
what a glorious kingdom Nebuchadnezzar had? At 600 years before Christ, the
city wall was so wide that four sets of chariots could go side-by-side around
the top of that wall. The hanging gardens of Babylon were one of the wonders
of the ancient world. There was nothing that ol’ Nebuchadnezzar could not
bring into being, because he taxed the masses for everything they had, and he
spent it for the beauty of the city of Babylon. So, it was a gorgeous city.
Verse 38: Daniel 2:38a “And wheresoever the
children of men dwell,…” Now again, we have to be careful. The
then-known world was pretty much centered around Israel, the Mediterranean, and
on out beyond the Euphrates, and maybe toward the western fringes of India and China. That was the then-known world. That’s all. Nothing was known yet of the Western Hemisphere. Nothing was really known of the Far East. The then-known world was
centered right there. In fact, I just drew it on a
map for one of my Oklahoma classes the other night. When we speak of these
kingdoms in the Middle East, it was just that area within a few miles of the
Mediterranean Sea and then on out past present day Iran and Iraq. That was the then-known world. And at this time, ol’ Nebuchadnezzar was in control of all of
it. He had the then-known world under his thumb. All right, you have
everything. Daniel 2:38 “And wheresoever the children
of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given
into thine hand, and hath made (Watch the language. Who made him? God
did. God gave to Nebuchadnezzar the wherewithal to be--) thee ruler over
them all. Thou art this head of gold.” Everything in that then-known
world was under one man’s control. Consequently, he was that head of gold of
the statue. He was the first great Gentile Empire. Verse 39: Daniel 2:39a “And after thee…”
Because we know the Babylonian Empire didn’t last all that long. I think if I
remember right, about 150 years. That’s not long in terms of history. And
what happened? Well, at the drunken feast of his grandson, which was a
generation or two later, the Medes and Persians, with a little more technology,
dammed up the Euphrates River that ran through Babylon. They dammed it up,
bypassed the city, and their armies walked in on the dry riverbed and caught
the Babylonians totally by surprise. So their great big city wall was all for
nothing. All right, so Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that after you have come and
gone-- Daniel 2:39a “And after thee shall
arise another kingdom inferior to thee,…” Now doesn’t that shock you?
How can an inferior kingdom defeat a superior one? Well, they weren’t inferior
militarily. They had to be superior. But in which way were they inferior?
Politically. Because now we know from history that the Medes and the Persians
were two kingdoms that came together, but they kept their authority divided. Now what’s more inept than a
committee? Isn’t that about right? What can one man do that a committee can
never get done? All he has to do is speak it, and it’s done. A committee can
sit there and argue for months on end. All right, now that’s the progress,
then, of these various metals. Even though militarily each succeeding empire is
far superior, or they wouldn’t have been able to whip them, politically they
got weaker—because more and more people got involved in government. That’s the
whole concept here. Now keep that in mind as we
come down. If I was a good artist, I’d go to the blackboard. But you know, I
keep thinking all the time—I’ve got to share this with my whole T.V. audience.
Way back in the late ‘80s I was teaching this to one of my classes in Oklahoma, and I was using the blackboard. Well, I knew that I couldn’t draw. But I wanted
to put something up there that at least had some kind of a concept of a man.
So I just used a stick-man. Just a stick with a head, legs, you know—as simple
as I could make it. Well, don’t you know, that was
a night that one of my regular attendees brought a friend who had never ever
heard anything from the Book. He told me about it years later after he’d
become a believer and one of my best students, even to this day. And he said, “Les,
do you remember the first time I came to your class?” And I said, “Well,
vaguely, but why?” He said, “You remember you had that stupid stick man
on the board? We got to the car and I said to my friend. Pat, what in the
world did you drag me into? I never heard of anything so stupid in all my
life.” And she said, “Just settle down and come back with me next week,
and in a few weeks you’ll understand.” He said, “I did. And I did.”
And he has become an avid, avid
student and testimony of God’s Grace. So I kind of cringe from going to the
board and doing something like that, because I’m afraid someone else will
happen to tune in and think, what in the world is he talking about? But
anyway, for now I’m just going to do it verbally, and maybe I’ll get to the
board if I get a lot of courage. Daniel 2:39 “And after thee shall
arise another kingdom inferior to thee, (Which we now know from history
was the Medes and the Persians, or the silver part of the image.) and
another third kingdom of brass, (the belly area) which shall bear
rule over all the earth.” Now as time goes by—each one of
these empires lasts from 150 or 200 years, leading all the way up to the Roman
Empire at about 50 or 60 B.C. going on into A.D. 300—each succeeding empire
conquered more territory. In other words, the Medes and the Persians not only
took over what Nebuchadnezzar had, but they expanded, especially to the west.
Now here again, all of this is indicative that God, in the foreordained plan of
things, went from the Middle East west rather than east. Now think about that.
Everything that has been taking place since ancient Babylon, the big push of civilization
and technology and all these things, has been to the west. Not to the east.
The East is still steeped in the pagan ancient religions. They have very
little. Now China, of course, has the underground church. I’ll never take
that away from them. But by-and-large, India, Pakistan, China, where are they? They’re still under those ancient eastern religions which all had their
roots back at the Tower of Babel. But beginning with these
empires, the big push was to the west. First Syria, and then when Alexander
the Great came on the scene, it became the Greek Empire. And then what was the
fourth one? Rome, further west yet. And then Rome, of course, extended their
empire as far west as Great Britain and Ireland and so forth. So always remember
that God in His design of things saw fit to send Christianity to the west
rather than to the east. In fact, I’ve got another of
that very same thing. I hope I can find it. I didn’t plan to do this, but
come back with me to the Book of Acts. As Paul and Barnabas began their work
leaving Antioch in Syria, they went west. First, of course, over to Cyprus, and then they went on up into what is present day Turkey. And then we find that on the
Second Missionary Journey they had again gone through Turkey and had gone all the way to the Aegean Sea. And then we come to the place where—did you find
it? Sixteen, okay, I’m not quite there yet. All right, in chapter 16, yeah,
chapter 16, they’re on the western coast of Turkey. They’re on the shore of
the Aegean Sea. Greece is just across to the west. All right, now as he had
made that trek the length of Turkey, he was going to go up north a little ways
and then swing back through Northern Turkey, through the shores of the Black
Sea and go back to Antioch in Syria. But, a miracle happened. Now
let’s pick it up. I’ve got time. Acts chapter 16—I still haven’t got it,
Jerry. No. I want it where the Holy Spirit told them they had to go back
across the Sea to Europe. Okay, okay, now we’ve finally got it. Sorry about
that for all of you on television, but that’s part of Les Feldick’s teaching.
All right, Acts 16 verse 6. Acts 16:6 “Now when they had gone
throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, (Now that’s up in central
Turkey.) and were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the word (Where?)
in Asia.” Now of course, Asia in Scripture is pretty much the
whole land of Turkey, but we can also go on back to the Middle East and so
forth. All right, the Holy Spirit forbade Paul from turning and going back to
the east; but instead, now come to verse 7. Acts 16:7 “After they had come to
Mysia, (Which is out there in the Aegean Sea.) they intended to
go into Bithynia: (Which is over there on the north part of Turkey, next to the Black Sea. They had intended to make a U-turn and go back east along the shore
of the Black Sea.) but the Holy Spirit permitted them not.” Now, you see, it wasn’t Paul’s
idea. It wasn’t anybody else’s idea. It was God’s idea. Paul – you’re not
going to go back east. You’re going to go west. All right, verse 8: Acts 16:8-9 “And they passing by
Mysia came down to Troas. (Which is the same place as the ancient city
of Troy.) 9. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a
man of Macedonia, (Now that’s Greece—west across the Aegean Sea from
where they were in ancient Troy.) a vision appeared to Paul in the night;
There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed (or begged) him,
saying, Come over into Macedonia, (Greece) and help us.”
Paul had no intentions of going to Greece, but the Holy Spirit in a vision gave
him this instruction not to go back to the east, but to continue on west across
the Aegean and go into Macedonia. Now in verse 10 we see the
obedience of the man. He had no intention of traveling on across to Europe. That was almost like barbarian territory to the man. But he doesn’t argue—verse
10: Acts 16:10 “And after he had seen
the vision, (Luke is writing. Luke says--) immediately we
endeavored to go into Macedonia, (Exactly as the Holy Spirit had instructed.)
assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto
them.” Now what does that mean? That meant that God was going to keep
moving west with the Christian message instead of letting Paul take it back to
the east. And you know, I have stressed
that in my 30 years of teaching. The Euphrates River has always been a
boundary line between western civilization and the Oriental religions of
idolatry and opium dens and you name it to the east. And the western world has
been blessed because of it. I mentioned, I think on the
program this morning. When did the female of the species really enjoy their
liberty? With the advent of Christianity. They were nothing but chattel for
the first 4,000 years of human history. They had no rights. No education.
Nothing. But, you see, Paul’s Gospel opened up the rights of not only women,
but everyone. And the same way with some of our minorities—you would never
have experienced the freedoms and the privileges that you do in Western Civilization,
because the Orient has always made slaves of any of what we call the minority. So again, I just can’t
emphasize it enough. Thank God that the Gospel went west instead of east! Okay, good to see everybody
back again for another afternoon of taping. We’ll just go right back to where
we left off in Daniel. For those of you joining us on television, we’re just a
verse-by-verse Bible study. And again, I don’t expect everybody to agree with
me on every point, but learn to search the Scriptures. That’s the name of the
game. And I think you’ll find that most of the time you’ll end up agreeing with
me anyway. All right, now let’s pick up
right where we left off in our last half hour. That was after the end of verse
39 in Daniel chapter 2. Where Daniel is going through the interpretation of
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream—the head of gold, the chest of silver, the belly of
brass, the legs of iron, and the feet a combination of iron mixed with clay. We
made the emphasis that the specific gravity of gold is the greatest, and the
specific gravity of the clay is the least. So it’s a deterioration. Now, we’re going to look at the
fourth one first. Then we’re going to go and look at some things on the board. All
right, verse 40. After these first three empires have come and gone, the
fourth empire that will usurp the other three—geographically as well as
politically and economically. This is the fourth kingdom of verse 40. Daniel 2:40 “And the fourth kingdom
shall be as strong as iron: (Now of course, this is the Roman Empire—the most ferocious military machine that had ever existed up to that time.)
forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that
breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.” Which it
did. The boots of the Roman soldiers were fearsome. All right, now verse 41: Daniel 2:41 “And whereas thou sawest
the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, (In other
words, it is an amalgamation that does not really hold.) the kingdom
shall be divided; but there shall be in it (That is this coming
kingdom.) the strength of iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed
with miry clay.” Now the miry means something like muddy. When you
take clay and add water to it, you’ve got a muddy mixture. All right, now then
verse 42: Daniel 2:42 “And as the toes of the
feet were part of iron, and part of clay, (Now remember, this is at the
bottom of the statue.) so the kingdom (This final Revived Roman
Empire that we see in Western Europe, I feel, today—with all of its ethnic
differences and all of its political differences, yet they’re in a United
States of Europe, supposedly. All right, this is the iron mixed with clay that
Scripture is predicting.) shall be partly strong, and partly broken.” Daniel 2:43a “And whereas thou sawest
iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men:
(In other words, they all have their ethnic differences. And even within any of
the European Nations, you have many ethnic groups. So, they’ll mix
themselves with the seed of men--) but they shall not cleave one to
another,…” In other words, they will not be a solid democracy like
we’ve seen in the United States. They are always going to have these differences
of opinion. See, they still haven’t agreed on a constitution. Daniel 2:43b “…but they shall not
cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” All
right, now we know that this is the closing Revived Roman Empire—this whole
consortium of empires coming down from 606 B.C. under Nebuchadnezzar and down
through the ancient Roman Empire, which disappeared and now has reappeared
since World War II in what we call the European Union. All right, all of these come
together as we see it today. Globalism on every hand and that’s why I feel
this whole financial debacle is just another step God designed to bring in
World Economies and World Government and a World Church. It’s all coming
together so fast. All right, now verse 44: Daniel 2:44a “And in the days of these
kings…” That final Revived Roman Empire, which is now 28 or 30
nations—but it is always going to go back to the original ten. That is the way
I look at it—that Club of Rome. That European Community as it first began. And I remind people, back up
during the ‘70s the media never called them anything but The Ten. And that was
the original Ten European Nations. Now I still feel that those are the ten
toes of this image, even though there have been a lot of them added. All right,
while that is holding forth, out of that Empire will come the anti-Christ, of
course, and the final seven years of Tribulation that will trigger the Second
Coming as we see in verse 44. Daniel 2:44a “And in the days of these
kings (this consortium, I think, of the European Union) shall
the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed:…” Now
that’s the Kingdom that Jesus presented in His earthly ministry, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth where He will rule and reign from Jerusalem. Daniel 2:44b “…shall the God of heaven
set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these
kingdoms, (As the stone—as we saw earlier in the afternoon—cut out
without hands. It will strike this image on the feet.) and it shall
stand forever.” All right, now someone in our
audience this afternoon had a beautiful picture of this. If I could draw it
that way, I would draw it. I’m going to see if the guys can get this on the
screen so that you’ll get a good image of what I’m talking about—this image of
a likeness of a Roman Solider. They’ve got it on there now. Okay, now if they
can draw it up, hopefully you’ll be able to see the head of gold, the shoulders
and the chest of silver, the belly of brass, the two legs of iron leading on
down to the feet and the ten toes of the iron and the clay. Now, I used that just to give
you a mental picture of this great likeness that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his
dream. Now I’m going to go to the board and, without benefit of having to do
any drawing, I’m going to do it verbally. Up here we have the head of gold,
which was, of course, Babylon—Nebuchadnezzar. Then we went down to the chest
of silver. So bear with me, because I want this all implanted in your
thinking. And you’ll remember better what you see than what you hear. So this
would be the Medes and the Persians. They consorted together—two kingdoms. Then we come down to Alexander
the Great and the Kingdom of Greece. Greece, of course, was headed up by
Alexander who died when he was 33. That’s the brass part of the statue. And
when he died at 33, the kingdom was divided between four generals. They each
had a territory designated to them. And it just so happened that one general,
Antiochus the Great, had Syria as his domain. He also was in control of Jerusalem and the Nation of Israel. That’s why we kind of associate the coming anti-Christ
as being somehow connected to Syria. All right, then the fourth kingdom,
of course, was the Roman. That’s the two legs of iron. It was a democracy, or I
prefer to call it a republic. All right, then we come on down to the Revived
Roman Empire which is several hundred years after the last one died. I think
the Roman Empire disappeared about, oh, I’m going to estimate A.D. 350. So from A.D. 350 until we come
after World War II in1945, we have the beginning of a Revived Roman Empire.
And, of course, it is the democracy that they’re trying to establish even
today. And this is a combination that does not really hold together—iron and
clay. It’s a weak admixture. It is now down to what I will call a
democracy. Now I haven’t got the time to explain the difference between a
republic and a democracy, but there is a difference. All right, now the main thing
we like to point out when we teach this on the board is that as you come down
through these various metals, even though gold is by far the most expensive,
basically for common use it’s the least. In other words, you wouldn’t build a
plow or a garden tool—even if it was dirt-cheap—you wouldn’t make it of gold,
because it’s too soft. It has no strength. All right, so you come down to
the next one. It’s a little better than the gold, but still not the best. You
come on down and brass is certainly better than either one of these. Iron is
better than brass. Then you come down to that which is still the strength of
iron and clay. All right, now this is the political side of the coin—of that
statue. You start out with an absolute
dictator. Nobody had any room to argue with him over anything. He was
absolute in his political power. But militarily he’s still over here—the least
of any of them, because even the Medes and Persians were able to defeat him.
So what you’ve got here is that as you come down through, the political concept
gets weaker and weaker and weaker because from one dictator you go to two. Then
after the Medes and Persians have run out—they’re defeated by Alexander the
Great. It ends up with four. And then you come down to the Roman Empire,
which is now the first concept of a republic. They had a senate. Even the
Caesars could not declare war or do anything without the okay of the senate.
Then you come down to the present day where we’ve got democracy. Each one of
these governments gets precipitously weaker. See that? All right, but on the other
hand, when we come to the military power. My, now look what a difference. Why
Babylon wouldn’t last five minutes under American Military power today. And
we saw that both times they invaded Iraq. It’s just stupendous—the military
power that we have! I remember reading when they first invaded Iraq. They would try to hide their tanks, maybe in a back alley someplace. Hey, we found
them and destroyed the tank without destroying anything else. So you see, when
you compare the military power of our militaries today, compared with poor ol’
Nebuchadnezzar, he wouldn’t have lasted five minutes. Well, the same thing happened
with the Medes and Persians. They were weaker politically. It probably took
them a month or two to decide when to invade. But when they invaded, they were
able to defeat Nebuchadnezzar. Now the Medes and Persians held forth for about
150 years. Then along comes Alexander the Great and he whipped them hands
down. He was known for his speed of conquest. But he died at 33, and his
empire was divided to four Generals. Well, those four Generals couldn’t hold
the empire together, so what happened? The Romans came along. The Romans usurped
the Grecian Empire, but they incorporated so much of the intellectual part of Greece—their architecture and their classical literature and so forth. So the Greek and the
Roman Empires sort of enhanced each other. But here came the Romans.
Again, compared to Babylon they were fearsome. The whole world quaked at the
thought of the Roman legions. All right, they disappeared from view, and we
have the onset, then, of the Mohammedans and the appearance of Islam and so
forth. Then we come to World War II. And out of World War II we come to the
Revived Roman Empire, when the survivors of Europe came together with their
Club of Rome and began what has now become the European Union. So this is the whole concept of
history—that these little empires, all Gentile, all of them overran and
controlled Jerusalem. Now turn with me to Luke 21, if I’m not mistaken. Luke
21—let’s start at verse 20. Here again, this is during the time of Christ. So
it’s in red if you’ve got a red-edition Bible. Jesus is speaking
prophetically. He’s looking forward only 40 years, because He was crucified at
A.D. 29 or 30, and in A.D. 70 these events took place when the Romans destroyed
Jerusalem. All right, now look at the words of the Lord Jesus in verse 20.
He says: Luke 21:20-22a “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
(That is of the city of Jerusalem.) 21. Then (when Jerusalem
comes under attack) let them who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and
let them who are in the midst of it depart out; let not them that are in the
countries enter thereinto. (In other words, if you’re living out in Egypt, for goodness sakes don’t go to Israel. It’s not the best place to be.) 22. For these
be the days of vengeance,…” Now remember, God is a God of
love and a God of mercy, but at times He becomes the God of
vengeance—especially pertaining to Israel. All through the Babylonian
captivity—why did little Daniel and his three friends end up in Babylon? Well, God was judging the nation for two purposes. Number 1, they did not keep
the seventh year sabbatical for the land. They were to let the land lay
fallow, remember? Every seven years. Well, over a period of 490 years they
never did. So what did God do? He emptied the land and it laid rest for 70
years to pick up those 70 sabbaticals. But the other reason was that
the Jews had almost completely fallen into idolatry. All you’ve got to do is
go back and read the prophets. My, they were just constantly warning Israel to turn away from all their pagan worship or He would send in people of another
language. That’s the way the prophet put it. You’ll have foreign languages in
your midst. What’d it mean? They’d be overrun by foreigners. My, they had
idols. And as we’re going to see in our next program, it was an abomination
what they worshipped. I won’t even dare put it
graphically on the program. I can’t. But it was so immoral that there was no
remedy. So what does God do? He let Nebuchadnezzar come in with his armies.
They destroyed the city and took the Jews captive. But only for 70 years, then
they were permitted to come back. Luke 21:22a “For these be days of
vengeance,…” This coming Roman invasion in A.D. 70. The Babylonian
invasion was 600 years back. This is another one. Now of course, at the time
of Christ’s earthly ministry, what was Israel’s biggest act of rebellion and
unbelief? Well, the crucifixion. That just proved that they could not believe
a thing the God of Abraham said. So He comes in with vengeance. All right,
now He’s predicting it. But it doesn’t happen until 40 years later. All
right, now verse 23: Luke 21:23 “But woe unto them that
are with child, and to them that are nursing in those days! (That is
when this big Roman invasion comes. And we know from history it did—the Roman
general Titus.) for there shall be great distress in the land,
(That is the land of Israel.) and wrath upon this people.” God’s
wrath because of their unbelief. And there was just seemingly no
remedy for it. Three years of wonders and signs and miracles—did it affect
them? No, just a precious few. The rank and file of Israel scorned everything that He said and did. And what was their final decree? “We’ll not
have this man to rule over us.” A carpenter’s son? So
they crucified Him. All right, but now you see, God
is still in His heaven. He was raised from the dead. He went back to Glory.
Thirty years later His prophecies came true. All right, now read on in verse
24. Luke 21:24a “And they shall fall by
the edge of the sword, (And they did. They died by the thousands under
the Romans.) and shall be led away captive into all the nations:…”
Now that was the beginning, then, of the dispersion of the Jewish people from
A.D. 70 up until our own present time. Then beginning about 1900, some of them
started going back to their homeland—which brought about the present-day Israel
as we know it in the news every day. All right, now watch this prophesy. Luke 21:24b “…and shall be led away
captive into all nations: and Jerusalem (Which maintained its city
entity all up through the centuries, Jerusalem has never failed to exist.)
shall be trodden down of the Gentiles,…” Beginning with Nebuchadnezzar,
followed by the Medes, followed by the Greeks, followed by the Romans, followed
by the Mohammedans, followed by the Moors, and then followed by the British. In
1948 they became an independent state, but they’re still under the heavy hand
of America and Western Union. They are not a free nation to really do as they
want to do. All right, so Jerusalem, from
the words of the Lord Himself is going to: Luke 21:24c “…shall be trodden down
of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Now
fulfilled means it’s going to come to that point in time when God is going to
re-enter the affairs of planet earth at His Second Coming. I always like to compare that,
and I think I’ve got time. Six minutes, yeah. Now jump ahead with me to
Romans, because I always like to tie these two together. Because I think it’s
such a perfect fit. Romans chapter 11 and remember the terminology. “The
times of the Gentiles” is that period of human history beginning with
Nebuchadnezzar where Jerusalem and the land of Israel are under the heel of the
Gentile governments or their military boot. All right, now in Romans chapter
11 our Apostle, the Apostle Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, gives us another
group that’s designated. Romans 11:25a “For I would not,
brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery,…” The opposite of
that is—oh, Paul says, how I wish that you could be aware of these things. But
see, most of Christendom is still ignorant. They don’t want to listen. They
don’t want to hear it. And it’s getting worse by the day. But the Book is true.
It’s going to happen! Romans 11:25a “For I would not,
brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, (Or secret,
something that has never been revealed in Scripture until we get to Paul. And
what’s this mystery?) lest ye should be wise in your own conceits;
(Now here’s the mystery that was kept secret until Paul revealed it.) that
blindness...” Spiritual blindness—that the people of Israel cannot see the truth of God’s word. And it’s so evident today. All you’ve got to do is read
some of their theologians, and it just makes you gasp. How can they dream this
stuff up? And they never, never seemingly can come to the truth of their Old
Testament. It’s just amazing. But you see, that’s all been decreed. Romans 11:25b “…that blindness in part is
happened to Israel, (They cannot comprehend the things of God. But
there’s another time word, and what is it?) until the fullness of the
Gentiles be come in.” Now you’ve got two terms
concerning Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles is when their political
and their military systems will walk and control the streets of Israel. Paul comes up with another group of Gentiles—the fullness of the Gentiles.
And what is that? The Body of Christ! A Pauline revelation you will
not find anywhere else in your Bible. That’s why most theologians today are all
mixed up. They will not recognize Paul’s distinctive Apostleship. But it is,
because he was designated to go to the Gentile world and is the Apostle of the
Gentiles as seen in Romans 11:13. Now let’s see if I can find the
other one back in the Book of Acts. Come back with me, Honey, I think it is
chapter 15. Yeah, this one I can find. Acts chapter 15 and this is after that
counsel in Jerusalem where Paul finally convinces the Twelve that his Apostleship
is divinely appointed. He is here by God’s design to take salvation to the
Gentile world. And Peter, James, and John just couldn’t see it. They thought
that his Gentile converts had to become adherents to Judaism. So they have this counsel in Jerusalem, and they hammer it all out. Finally Paul and Barnabas come to the crux of the
matter, and they win the argument. All right, now we come down to verse 12.
The setting is in Jerusalem. Acts 15:12 “Then all the multitude
kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles
and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.” Contrary to
everything in the Old Testament. All right, now the next verse: Acts 15:13-14a “And after they had held
their peace, James (who was by now the leader of the Jerusalem Church, not Peter) answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken (or
listen) unto me: 14. Simeon (Peter) hath declared how God
at the first did visit the Gentiles,…” This was unheard of in the
Jewish culture, as they had nothing to do with the Gentiles. And I’ll show in our next
taping session, why. In fact, it came up in one of my classes here in Oklahoma just the other night. Why did the Jews refer to Gentiles of their day as “dogs”?
I won’t tell you this time. I’ll let you think about it. Why were they called
“dogs”? And they were, you know. All right, I’ll leave that to the next
taping. Acts 15:14-16a “Peter hath declared how
God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them (Gentiles)
a people for his name. (Now then, prophetically, time-wise,
we’ve got to keep going.) 15. And to this (James
says) agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, (In the
Old Testament and he goes back to the Book of Amos.) 16. After this
(after the calling out of this Gentile Body of Christ) I will (What?)
return,…” That’s Christ’s Second Coming,
and that will end the times of the Gentiles ruling Israel. Christ will set up
His own Kingdom, and He will rule and reign from Jerusalem. It will be
Heaven-on-earth. No more sin. No more curse. No more death. No more
sickness. No more sorrow. It’s going to be Heaven-on-earth under the
rulership of the King of Kings. All right, but that cannot
happen until the Body of Christ is completed first. And that’s what Romans 11
is talking about. That when the fullness of the Gentiles has been brought in
and the Body of Christ is complete and it’s taken out of the way by what we
call the Rapture, then that will trigger the Tribulation and the Second Coming
and the coming of the glorious Kingdom. Okay, it’s good to see
everybody back again. We’re going to move right on into our next half hour,
which will be from Daniel chapter 2. We’re going to drop in at verse 44.
Again, for those of you joining us on television, we want to thank you for your
letters, for your financial help, but most of all for your prayers. My, we
just got back from a week in Florida, and everybody that goes by says—we pray
for you every day. Well, what more could I ask for? So continue to do that,
because without the prayers of the saints, we’d probably be in trouble in no
time. All right, we’re going to pick
right up in our study of Daniel, back to chapter 2 verse 44. For those of you
here in the studio and for those of you joining us out there in television, we
appreciate again that you let us know that you take notes and that you’re
learning how to study on your own. All right, after the
description of the Roman Empire, as we ended in our last half hour—and we put
it up here on the board. We left it up here—how the Babylonians were the head
of gold. The chest of silver was the Medes and the Persians. Greece was the brass part of that great image, remember. Then the last part, the legs of
iron, was an empire that they couldn’t even describe. And, of course, we know from
history that the Roman Empire was awesome. The Roman Legions were feared from
one end of the then-known world to the other. But they, too, went down into
the dustbin of history and disappeared from view until, you might say, after
World War II. Now, we have a re-appearance of what we call the Revived Roman
Empire. Which entailed much of the same geographical area as the original Roman Empire and that, of course, will be the ten toes of clay and iron. We’re going to
pick it up now in verse 44. Daniel 2:44a “And in the days of these
kings…” In other words, when these revived Roman Empire nations have
come together. I still feel—I’ve taught it for thirty-some years—that it will
be the original ten nations of Western Europe who formed the Club of Rome and
later on became the European Community. Even though they’ve now added and
added, yet the original ten are pretty much in control. All right, so they’re going to
be the empire of the anti-Christ in the closing seven years. That’s where we
pick them up now. This Revived Roman Empire out of which the anti-Christ has
come. The seven years will run their course, and then the next event is the
thousand year Kingdom on earth. And again, I’m realizing more and more that
precious few church people, let alone the unchurched world—yeah, I’ve got heads
nodding all over—they don’t know what you’re talking about. A Kingdom on
earth? See, they think we’re the kingdom. I’ll never forget a couple in
one of my classes here in Oklahoma years ago. They went to a Bible conference
here in Oklahoma, and they came back and said “Les, all they talked about for
the whole several days of the Bible conference was, we’ve got to build the
Kingdom. We’ve got to fill the Kingdom.” Well, we’re not in the Kingdom.
Heavens, no, we’re not in the Kingdom. The Kingdom is that which is still
future when Christ will return and be the King of Kings on planet Earth from
His headquarters in Jerusalem. We are in the Body of Christ. We’re not
building the Kingdom, per se; we’re building and filling the Body of Christ. All right, now verse 44, here
we have the introduction from Daniel of this earthly Kingdom over which God the
Son will yet one day rule. Verse 44: Daniel 2:44a “And in the days of these
kings (In other words, these final ten kings that comprise the Revived
Roman Empire out of which the anti-Christ has come.) in the days of these
kings shall the God of heaven...” Now, you see, this is the term of the
biblical God in the Book of Daniel—the God of heaven. And even Nebuchadnezzar
is going to come to this point in a future chapter—where he recognizes the God
of heaven or the Most High God is another term. All right, and this God of Heaven: Daniel 2:44b “…set up a kingdom, which
shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people,…”
As all these previous ones have. You see, when the Medes and the Persians
overran the Babylonians, they kept most of what the Babylonians had
established. And all the way down through the Gentile empires, they would keep
what had been before. But here we have the opposite. Nobody is going to be
able to take over anything of this Kingdom. Daniel 2:44c “…shall not be left to
other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms,...” In
other words, all the empire-builders of the present day age, the global system
as we now see it coming on the scene, will be utterly destroyed. And Christ
will return and set up His Kingdom. Now verse 44, the last four words: Daniel 2:44d “…it shall stand
forever.” Now that’s the terminology. Even though Revelation says
1,000 years, yet this Kingdom is going to go right on into eternity as an
earthly kingdom. Now just to tantalize your
thinking, I’m not going to stop and teach on this, but come all the way back to
Revelation chapter 21. After the thousand years have run their course on this
planet—renovated, of course miraculously—so it will be from east to west and
pole-to-pole like the Garden of Eden. It’s going to be glorious! But
nevertheless, Satan is going to come back for a short time, and he will defile
the whole. And once again God will utterly destroy it. I think He’s going to
take out the whole universe. Now that will stretch your mind, won’t it? You know, I’ve shared this
before, and I’m going to share it again. Quite a few years ago now, probably
back in the middle ‘60s; I was taking a scientific journal. There was an
article in there by a scientist, a physicist, on the origin of the universe.
And of course, a lot of it was above my head in the mathematics and everything.
But anyhow, his whole concept was that everything originated in one original
source of light. And out of that source of light came everything of the
universe and planet Earth—everything. But anyway, the exciting part was when
he came to the end of his article and he said—I can foresee that in the eons of
time, out into the future, someday that whole thing will go back into that
original source of light. Well, I think Iris you probably
remember. I said, “Honey, this guy is closer to the truth than he has any
idea.” Because who is Light? God is. So if out of that source of Light,
which was God Himself, we have the whole universe appear and planet Earth, and
everything that’s in it has all come from this original Creator, then I can see
that someday the whole thing will be pulled back into that original source of
Light because--. Now, I guess I didn’t intend to do this. I’m just flying
free here. Before you go to Revelation 21, maybe we should stop at II Peter, I
think it is. Let’s see how II Peter describes what I think is going to be the
demise of this whole universe. It has to happen, because Satan has defiled
everything. II Peter chapter 3, dropping
down to verse 10, and if this isn’t perfect language for pulling everything
back. And with God nothing is impossible. If He created it at the spoken word,
He can pull it in. And here it is. II Peter 3:10-11a “But the day of the Lord
(Now you want to remember, the Day of the Lord is that whole timeline from the
beginning of the Tribulation on into the Second Coming and through the Kingdom
and right on into Eternity.) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night; in the which the heavens (Now I feel that’s what we call
space.) shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements (In
other words, all the material that makes up our universe.) and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also (It’s not going
to escape.) and the works that are therein (Even though it’s been
a beautiful Kingdom now for 1,000 years, yet it’s all going to go.) and
the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11. Seeing then that all these
things shall be dissolved,…” Now for those of you who are
scientists, you’ll realize that that’s textbook language in chemistry and
physics. Right? See, I’ve got a good doctor over here. I can always look to
him, and he nods. It’s right? Yeah, the elements. The elements are what make
up the atomic table. Isn’t that the term for it? It’s been a long time since
I’ve had it. But anyway, all these elements will melt with fervent heat, and
they’re going to be dissolved. My, if you’ve ever worked at a chemistry bench,
isn’t that the name of the game? You see things literally dissolve right
before your eyes. It’s going to happen. The Book says so. All right, so
these things are going to be dissolved. So consequently, Peter says: II Peter 3:11b-13 “…what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12. Looking for and
hasting unto the coming of the day of God, (In other words, I feel it’s
the beginning of Eternity, not the Kingdom.) wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
(Hey, that’s plain scientific language, as plain as you can get it.) 13.
Nevertheless (Peter says, don’t let that shake you up because--) we,
according to his (God’s) promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Now that’s not gobbledy-gook,
that’s plain English. Now compare that with
Revelation 21, where I trust you already are. Now this is John writing, but
the same God. Revelation 21, and after the events that take place between the
Kingdom and the Great White Throne. The Great White Throne has been finished.
The lost are sent to their doom. Now what’s next on God’s agenda? Verse 1: Revelation 21:1 “And I saw a new heaven
(just exactly as Peter put it) I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the
first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” Now
that’s the advent of Eternity. All right, now then, what
kicked me off on that was—come way back again to Daniel. After the 1,000 year
reign and the Great White Throne Judgment has been accomplished, then I feel
this whole universe will be pulled back into the Creator, and He will re-create
new heavens and a whole new earth. Why? Because Satan has defiled everything.
And nothing of Satan’s defilement is going to go into our eternity. Now that’s
the way I have to look at it. So everything will be brand new. Okay, now
come back to Daniel chapter 2 verse 44, reading that again. Daniel 2:44b-45a “…but it shall break in
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, (that have come out of the 6,000
years of human history) and it (this coming kingdom) shall
stand for ever. 45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was
cut out of the mountain without hands,…” In your dream—in your vision
of this huge image with a head of gold, the chest of silver, the belly of
brass, the legs of iron, and the feet and toes of iron and clay—standing there
as a huge individual out there maybe on the plains of the Middle East. And
Daniel’s interpretation of the vision says that all of a sudden here came a
stone cut out without hands. Now whenever you have something
accomplished without human hands, who’s doing it? The Invisible God! This is
the power of God that will crush. It’ll be in the person, of course, of God the
Son who will crush all the residue of those kingdoms. That is toward the end of
the Tribulation, getting it ready for the Kingdom. He will crush the residue
of those Gentile empires. Daniel 2:45b “…and that it brake in
pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; (The
whole image, which is the picture of empires, remember, is going to be crushed
and ground to powder.) the great God hath made known to the king what
shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation
thereof sure.” Now just stop and think a
minute. Here this pagan, Oriental king got a picture in symbolism of the whole
time of human history from 606 B.C. to the advent of eternity. No wonder he
was all shook up. He knew that this was something special. And that’s why he
was ready to kill all of the wise men of Babylon to get down to the root of the
thing. It was the very picture of human history as we now look back on it. All right, now verse 46, after
the interpretation was given to the king. He probably didn’t get a gist of all
of it, but enough to make him pretty somber. Daniel 2:46a “Then the king Nebuchadnezzar
fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel,…” Now you see, that always
happens when the pagans have some kind of a supernatural manifestation. They
worship the guy that’s in front of them. You know, they did Peter. They did
Paul. And this is no different. Daniel 2:46b-47 “…fell on his face, and worshipped
Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto
him. (Just as if he were another one of their gods.) 47. The king
answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God (See,
now he’s getting a little bit of a revelation.) that your God is a God of
gods, (He’s supreme over all of ours.) and a Lord of kings,
(Here we come again, as we looked in the last half hour.) and a revealer
of (What?) secrets, (Because He knows the end from the
beginning, but He doesn’t tell it all. He keeps it secret until He’s ready to
reveal it.) seeing that thou couldest reveal this secret.” Daniel 2:48 “Then the king made
Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the
whole province of Babylon, (And don’t forget what we learned up there
in chapter 2. How old is Daniel? He’s just a lad. Even now he’s only in his
teens. But because God’s hand was with him, he was perfectly capable to handle
the role.) and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.” Now verse 49: Daniel 2:49 “Then Daniel requested of
the king, (on behalf of his three Jewish friends) and he set Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.” Now, if you know your Old
Testament Bible, to sit in the gate meant what? Well, you were the top dog. That’s
what the term really meant. To sit in the gate meant that you were at the top
of the heap. All right, so that was Daniel’s role after telling the
interpretation of the dream. Now let’s move on into chapter
3. We’re going to get a glimpse, now, of how awful the morality and the
immorality of these pagan ancients at the time of even the Roman Empire really
was. And if you remember at the end of our last program, I was talking
about—why did the Jews call the Romans dogs? Well, I’m going to show you right
here. This is why. Because the Romans hadn’t improved a bit; if anything,
they’d gotten worse. Daniel 3:1 “Nebuchadnezzar the king
(Now remember, I’m going to show you why the Jews called the Romans dogs.)
Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore
cubits, (Now, threescore is sixty, and a cubit is about a
foot-and-a-half. So that’s about a ninety-foot high column.) and the
breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.” Daniel 3:2 “Then Nebuchadnezzar the
king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the
judges, the treasurers,…(in other words, all of his governmental
people)…to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the
king had set up.” Now, I do not dare tell a T.V.
audience what this image really was. I’ll let you do that yourself by the
searching of Scripture. But it is so obscene, it is so immoral. That’s why God
called it over and over an abomination. And I’ll let you do that on your own.
I’m not going to do it on a public program. But anyway, here’s this great
image, now. And they bring all the governmental big-whigs to celebrate the
erection of it. Come down now to verse 4. Daniel 3:4 “Then an herald cried
aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages.” See,
it’s a universal decree for that then-known period of time. Now remember as I
said in the last half hour, the then-known world was primarily what we call the
Euphrates Area, the Middle East, the area around the Nation of Israel, and the
Mediterranean Sea. They knew nothing of the Western Hemisphere. They knew
nothing of South America or anything like that. Even Europe was pretty much
still out in the barbarian areas of history. All right, nevertheless, he
calls all the representatives of his empire together at the dedication of this
horrifically immoral image. Daniel 3:5a “That at what time ye
hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all
kinds of music,…” Ring a bell? What do you do today when you’ve got a
big event? Why, you surround it with music. These guys weren’t as ancient as
you thought they were. They were civilized, but they were so pagan and immoral
in their worship. Daniel 3:5 “That at what time ye
hear the sound of the…kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image
(Now no doubt it was made of wood and covered with gold.) that Nebuchadnezzar
the king hath set up:” Now, I’m just going to give you a couple of
Scripture verses to help us get an inkling. Come back with me to Ezekiel
chapter 16 verse 17. Then, for those of you taking notes, we’re going to go
back and look at Numbers 33:52. Let’s look at this one first. Ezekiel 16
verse 17, and while you are looking it up, let me remind you. Where did all this kind of
gross immoral idolatry begin? Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel—you go back and you study some of that. There’s a tremendous book. It is hard reading,
and I don’t like to recommend it, but it’s called The Two Babylons by a
guy by the name of Hislop (H-i-s-l-o-p). I’ve read it at least twice. But,
oh, it’s laborious because it’s such small print. But see, he goes back and he
constructs all this paganism of the gods and the goddesses and how they would
just—unbelievable—and yet these people bought into it. And they weren’t
stupid. They were intelligent people. Yet they were so satanically consumed by
this stuff that it became the very basis of their whole civilization. And
archeology is proving it. Archeology is constantly digging up the worship of
this horrible pagan society. All right, Ezekiel 16 verse 17—now I’m going to
take you all the way back to Moses, so just bear with me. Verse 17: Ezekiel 16:17 “Thou hast also taken thy
fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, (Now
God is speaking to the Jews, to Israel. You have taken the things--) and
madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them.” With
what? The images. They’d fall down and worship that vile filthy image as part
of their everyday worship. No wonder God had to take stringent matters. All right, the next one is
Numbers 33:52. And this is all along the same line. It’s all dealing with the
same kind of idolatry. Numbers 33:52 and those of you who are Bible students,
you can carry on from here. And you wonder how God put up with it as much as He
did. All right, now here’s one of those chapters where you really should read
more of it than just one verse in order to pick up the flow of the whole
chapter. But here we’re dealing with Israel preparing to go into the Promised
Land. The Canaanites have been there now for 400 years. And what was the
prophecy? Now I’ve got to keep testing you people, so you don’t forget what
I’ve taught you. When God told Abraham he would
have to wait 430 years before his children’s children’s children could go in
and take the land, why was he going to have to wait so long? Because the
iniquity of the Canaanites had not reached the full mark. Now here again, God
knows the end from the beginning. God knew that these Canaanites were going to
keep going deeper and deeper and deeper into gross immorality. And when they
hit the full mark, then He’s going to send Israel in with the command to do
what? Kill every one of them. They were so vile. At what level were they?
Dogs! And that’s exactly why Israel called the Gentiles dogs. They had
a dog’s morality. All right, Numbers 33:52. My goodness that half hour is
gone already. Let’s start at verse 51: Numbers 33:51-52 “Speak unto the children
of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; 52. Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from
before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten
images, and quite pluck down (or take down) all their high
places:” Which were, again, images much like what Nebuchadnezzar was
speaking of in Daniel. Now as I was preparing this
over the last several weeks, we know that the world is coming full circle.
Now, we’re not to the place where we’ve got images in our backyard. But what
is now in the living room of almost every home of any consequence around the
world? The internet. And what is the plague of all plagues on the internet?
I haven’t seen it, fortunately. But, oh, I’ve had so many of the people
understand it. They catch it accidentally, and it’s awful. Pornography. Pornography. It’s taking the
world by storm. I get enough calls just in my little ministry from both men
and women—my husband is all hooked on pornography. Once in a while a husband
will call—my wife is hooked on pornography. Hey, it’s the very thing God was
dealing with way back here in Israel’s history. So this is all a part—that’s
why I’m doing what I’m doing, so that you’ll realize that this isn’t anything
new. We’re facing it again. Come back with me to
Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 1. Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 1, let’s do this
quickly. I’m going to run out of time. Deuteronomy 7:1a “When the LORD thy God
shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast
out many nations before thee,…” And why is He casting them out?
Because of their gross, vile immorality. Now a lot of people think God’s
unkind. He had to, or it would totally destroy His other people. So always
remember, there’s nothing new. It’s just back on the scene. All right, it’s good to have
everybody back from their break. We’re going to jump right in where we left off
in Daniel chapter 3 and verse 6. And those of you watching on television,
again, we always like to remind you that we’re independent. I’m not associated
with any group. And, yes, I’m just a cattle rancher. It is baby calf arriving
time. I love my ranching, and I love the cattle, but I love this even more. It kind of amuses people that
I’m a cattle rancher and still doing what I’m doing with the Word of God. But
God has seen fit to bless us with both sides of the coin. Hasn’t He, Honey?
And we do love our ranching. When we are out in these cities—like all week in Florida last week—my, what a joy to drive up our hill to the ranch! So, we just praise the
Lord for everything. As always, we want to thank you for your letters, your
prayers, and your financial help. We just couldn’t do it without you. God is
so good to the ministry. All right, Daniel chapter 3 and
we’ve been talking about this horrible image that Nebuchadnezzar raised out
there on the plains of the Euphrates Valley. No wonder Daniel would rather go
to the lions’ den as fall down and worship such a vile, immoral image. All
right, verse 6, Nebuchadnezzar puts out a decree. Daniel 3:6-7A “And whoso falleth not
down and worshippeth (this image) shall the same hour be cast
into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. (Okay, I’m sorry. I said
lions’ den. This is into the fiery furnace, first.) 7. Therefore at that
time,…” At the time when the decree goes out through the whole empire
that everyone now has to pay homage to this image that’s been raised by ole
Nebuchadnezzar. Now like I showed you, three score cubits—that’s 60 and 30; that’s about 90 feet tall. And six cubits across, so
it’s quite a humongous thing. Verse 7: Daniel 3:7a “Therefore at that time,
when all the people heard the sound of…(I’m not going to list all the
music.)…and all kinds of music, all the people, the nations, and the
languages, fell down and worshipped…” Now I know that not everybody
from every nation was there. But like we saw earlier, it was their governmental
representatives. It’s just like when we have a big deal in Washington, whether
it’s the funeral of an ex-president or like on inauguration day. Everyone on
earth sends representatives. I think that’s what we’ve got pictured here. It
isn’t that everybody on earth was there, but all their representatives, all
their government wheels. Daniel 3:7b-8 “…the languages, fell
down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
8. Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, (Now remember
what the Chaldeans were. They were the top dogs of all the soothsayers. They
were sort of a little click all their own.) the Chaldeans came near, and
accused the Jews.” Now don’t lose sight of the
fact that the Jews had been taken out of their homeland several years previous
to all this. They’ve now been relocated to the country of Babylon, which is
present day Iraq. All right, so these Jews, not just Daniel and his three
friends, but probably multitudes of them, were not taking part in bowing down
to this image. Now, I think it bears
repeating. In one of our previous programs after we started the Book of
Daniel, there were two reasons that God used Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians
to invade and defeat the Israelites and take them captive to Babylon for
seventy years. The first one, you remember,
was they had not kept the seven year sabbatical. This meant that from the time
they went in and occupied the land under Joshua, they were to let the
productive part of Israel, that is the farmland and the orchards and what have
you, to lie fallow every seventh year. It was called the sabbatical year. But
they never did. For four hundred and ninety years they never kept a single
sabbatical. So what did God say? I’m going to get it! So He uprooted them,
and the land lay utterly desolate and unproductive for 70 years. But the other major reason for
God dealing so drastically with Israel was they had fallen so far into
idolatry—unbelievable—in spite of all the warnings. Now, let’s go back where
we left off in the last program. I’d been debating whether to go back and
finish that or not. But let’s go back to Deuteronomy chapter 7; because, you
see, this is so intrinsic in our understanding of how God does, or why God
does, the things that He does. Well, it’s not because He was unkind or that He
was ruthless. But He had to control the behavior of the human race some way or
other. When you come back to Deuteronomy chapter 7, Moses is—more or less—in
one instance he’s reviewing, and then on the other hand he’s looking forward to
the time when Israel would come in and occupy the land of Canaan. He knows
it’s going to happen because—well, like down at verse 12. Deuteronomy 7:12-13a “Wherefore it shall come
to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD
thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he swear unto thy
fathers: 13. And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee:…”
He would give them all these things, and they would be blessed beyond measure.
But the warning was, don’t fall into their idolatry, because God can’t stomach
that. And did they fall? Yes. My, I’ve shown you Jeremiah 44 over and over
through the years. At the time of Jeremiah, which
was just before the Babylonian captivity, who were they worshipping? The Queen
of Heaven. And what was the worship of the Queen of Heaven? The grossest
immorality! All right, but back here in Deuteronomy chapter 7, now come all
the way down to verse 22. Deuteronomy 7:22-23 “And the LORD thy God
will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not
consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. 23. But
the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a
mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.” Now that’s speaking of
the Canaanites. Deuteronomy 7:24-25a “And He shall deliver
their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under
heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have
destroyed them. 25. The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire:
thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them,…” Now like I
said in the earlier program, they would usually make these things out of a wood
base and then veneer it with gold or silver. Is that the right word? Veneer?
They would veneer it with silver or gold. Deuteronomy 7:25b “…nor take it unto thee,
lest thou be snared therein: (That is by this idolatrous worship.) for
it is (What?) an abomination to the LORD thy God.” And
that is one of the worst words that the English language can give us to show
how God looked at these idolatrous practices. It was an abomination. Now
verse 26 and this is what made me think of the internet. And I closed with
that in the last half hour. Deuteronomy 7:26a “Neither shalt thou bring
an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou
shalt utterly detest it,…” Now listen, beloved, this is exactly what
our attitude has to be today. I don’t believe in going out in the street and
marching and wearing placards and all that. But on the other hand, we have to
let whoever we can know how we detest these immoral behaviors. This started
way back here with Israel. Deuteronomy 7:26b “…but thou shalt utterly
detest it, and thou shall utterly abhor it; (Why?) for it is a
cursed thing.” And sooner or later it’s going to trigger God’s
judgment, even as it did on Israel. Well, I think I’d better show
you the verse in Jeremiah once again, even though we’ve used it over and over.
Go all the way up to Jeremiah 44. Because this is why God was so judgmental,
if I may use the word, and why He was so severe with Israel—because they had
rejected the worship of the true God and had fallen into idolatry. Jeremiah 44:15-17a “Then all the men who
knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, (See, it
wasn’t just the men, it was the women.) and all the women that stood by,
a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in
Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,” In other words, they had actually
migrated down into Egypt and taken all this immoral idolatry with them. Jeremiah 44:16-17 “As for the word that
thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee.
17. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth,
to burn incense unto the queen of heaven,…” Now, every culture had their
female goddesses. Astarte, what’s the other one I’m trying to think of—Diana
of the Ephesians was one, and Athena of the Athenians. They were all the top
female goddesses of their idolatrous worship. All right, so here again, these
Israelites, these Jews, were offering incense to the “queen of heaven.”
Jeremiah 44:17b “…and to pour out drink-offerings
unto her, as we have done,…” and so on and so forth. I want you to
realize that I’m not just putting out fluff when I say that the Jews had fallen
so deeply into gross immorality centered around these pagan gods and goddesses.
All right, let’s come back to
Daniel. Confronted with this vile pagan worship of immoral things, Shadrach
and Meshach and Abednego—they just couldn’t handle it. They had prayed again,
as they had before. All right, now the Chaldeans in verse 8 came and accused
the Jews, primarily Daniel and his friends, but probably others as well;
because most of the nation, you know, has now taken up residence in Babylon. Verse 9: Daniel 3:9-12a “They spake and said to
the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live for ever. 10. Thou, O king, hast made a
decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the…music, shall fall down
and worship the golden image; 11. And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth,
that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. 12. There are
certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon,…” Now see, this is what got
them. That these Jewish young people—now let’s give them a little more
credit—maybe they’re up to 16, maybe 17, but they’re actually in the top rungs
of government in Babylon. These others just couldn’t handle it that these
young Jewish lads were in such places of authority, and yet they are flying in
the face of the king by not bowing down to the image. They’re staying true to
their God. All right, verse 12 again: Daniel 3:12-13 “There are certain Jews
whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve
not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
(Again, I can’t tell you what it was, but it was awful!) 13. Then
Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and furry commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king.” Daniel 3:14-15 “Nebuchadnezzar spake and
said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, do not ye serve
my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 15. Now if ye be
ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the…music, (I’m not going
to name all the instruments every time.) ye fall down and worship the
image, which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the
same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that
shall deliver you out of my hands?” You see what a pompous fool he
is? In other words, even the God of Israel could not overrule him, he
thought. Now, we’re going to see what happens to the guy a little later in the
Book of Daniel. But see, isn’t this exactly typical of many of the world
leaders that we have seen in our own time, especially those of you that are as
old as I am? My, you go back to Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Gorbachev,
Khrushchev, Mao Tse-tung, what ignoramuses. And yet they were so pompous. And
actually, Mao Tse-tung, especially, actually considered himself a god to the
Chinese. It’s not just Nebuchadnezzar. It’s so typical throughout the human
race. And, of course, all of this is
showing us a picture of the coming Tribulation. I haven’t mentioned that
before, but I should have. This is all drawing us a symbolic picture of what
Israel will be going through in the Tribulation under the rule of the pompous
jerk that’s coming, the anti-Christ. But he won’t be a jerk. He’s going to be
extremely intelligent. He’s going to be extremely charismatic. We’re seeing
a lot of it in our own country today. How one man can all of a sudden get the
world to just fall at his feet. Well, I’m not claiming he’s the anti-Christ,
I’m saying he’s a prototype. It’s just showing us what can happen in just a
matter of a few months. Well, I’ll let it go at that. Now come back to
chapter 3 verse 16. Daniel 3:16-17 “Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful
to answer thee in this matter. (We’re not worried about how we
answer.) 17. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us
from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O
king.” Now remember, this is a picture of Israel going through the
Tribulation under the horrors of the anti-Christ. That’s what I want you to
compare now. Daniel 3:17b-18 “…our God is able to
deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine
hand, O king. 18. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not
serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou has set up.” Then
verse 19, here’s the man’s true nature. He’s serious. Daniel 3:19-20 “Then was Nebuchadnezzar
full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-nego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the
furnace seven times more than it was wont to be heated. (In other
words, really fire it up. Now, I’m thinking they must have used bellows, much
like a forge.) 20. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his
army to bind…(these three Jews)…and to cast them into the burning
fiery furnace.” Now you’ve all heard the story, but hopefully I can
pull a little more out of it than what you’ve normally gotten. Daniel 3:21-23 “Then these men were
bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments,
and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 22. Therefore
because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the
flame of fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.
(to throw them into the fire) 23. And these three men,…fell down bound
into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.” Daniel 3:24-25 “Then Nebuchadnezzar the
king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counselors,
Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and
said unto the king, True, O king. (Now watch it.) 25. He answered
and said, Lo, I see four (Not bound, they’re loose.) men loose,
walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the
fourth is like the Son of God.” And that’s who it was. Christ immediately identifies
Himself with these three believing Jews to give us the picture of how He will,
likewise—and I think I’ve got a minute now. Let’s jump all the way up to
Matthew 24 to start out with how there’s going to be a remnant of Israel in the
very middle of the fiery furnace of the Tribulation, and God is going to spare
them. He’s going to protect them, just like He did the three Jews in Babylon. For that, let’s go up to
Matthew 24 in the words of the Lord Jesus Himself. We’ve looked at it before,
but it never hurts to repeat. In fact, I guess our letters say it constantly,
don’t they, Honey? Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. We had a letter yesterday just
exactly that way. Les, repeat, repeat, repeat. I got one from a fellow who had
been a Catholic priest in a monastery. I don’t remember the details, but he said
the same thing. Les, he said, repeat, repeat, repeat; otherwise I would have
never gotten it. So bear with me. We’ll repeat again, Matthew 24,
when the Lord Jesus is speaking to the Twelve concerning the Tribulation. Now
remember, Matthew 24 is all Tribulation-ground. Don’t let anybody kid you.
Verse 15 is at the mid-point when things are really going to get hot. The
first three-and-a-half years are bad enough, but now it’s just like the fiery
furnace of Babylon. It’s going to be heated seven times more than you can ever
imagine. So verse 15: Matthew 24:15 “When ye therefore
(Jesus is speaking.) shall see the abomination of desolation, (In
other words, the anti-Christ that’s coming is going to be just as an
abomination as Nebuchadnezzar’s image. And I just compare the two to the same
thing.) when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken
of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him
understand:)” Matthew 24:16 “Then let them who be in
Judea flee into the mountains:” Now here is what I’ve always called the
escaping remnant of Israel. And from Zechariah 13, it’s one third of them.
So the prophecy is sure, that one third of Israel is going to go through this
fiery trial; two thirds will lose their lives. But here we go. This one third
of Israel is going to flee into the mountains. Matthew 24:17-18 “Let him who is on the
housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18. Neither let him
who is in the field return back to take his clothes.” In other words,
urgency. Matthew 24:19 “And woe unto them that
are with child, and to them that are nursing in those days!” Young
mothers. In other words, it’s going to be a mixed cross-section of Israel. This is not the 144,000. This is an escaping remnant that is going to survive the
Tribulation and be able to go into the Kingdom under Christ’s rule and reign
and repopulate the Nation of Israel. But the verse I want you to see is verse
20. Matthew 24:20-21 “But pray ye that your
flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: (Now watch
this.) 21. For then (at the mid-point of the seven years)
shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to
this time, (And then He looks ahead through the centuries.) no, nor
ever shall be.” Now, for an exercise in your
memory, can you think of all the horrors of past history? Why, it’s more than
we can number, the horrors that the human race has gone through. But I guess
the epitome was the Holocaust. The Holocaust—six million Jews lost their lives
over a matter of a couple or three years. And don’t you ever doubt it. You know, I’ve always told
people. If you ever have a doubt about the Holocaust, just come and I’ll tell
you. We knew a fellow that was with the paratroopers. They were one of the
first ones into one of the major death camps. And they saw all the carcasses
of those emaciated Jews. Piled like cordwood, but every once in a while they’d
see fingers still moving. And he had the proof of it,
because the regimental photographer was with them. And he took tons of
pictures. And he had those pictures in his attic until one night he just
couldn’t stand it anymore. He got up and went down and threw them into the
fire. And he was rehearsing that with our Jewish guide. You remember? And
Eli said, oh, if the Israeli government would have known that, they’d have paid
you thousands for those pictures, because they were official. They were taken
by the army photographer. Don’t ever doubt the holocaust. Don’t ever doubt
how awful, awful it was. All right, but the Lord Jesus
said this is going to be worse. If I read language, He said there is nothing
like it—never has been, nor ever will be. So, this is like the fiery furnace
of Daniel for this remnant of Jews. But in the midst of it, they’re not going
to be touched. God is going to supernaturally protect this remnant of Israel. They won’t get a thing touching them of anything that could possibly be done. God
is going to help them survive, so that they can come back and come into His
glorious Kingdom. All right, this whole concept
of the fiery furnace is the only emphasis I want to make. This is a picture of
the remaining, or the remnant, of Israel going through those final years of the
Tribulation with the anti-Christ standing over them. Well, let’s go back to
Revelation. I’ve got time enough. Let’s go back to Revelation, and we’ll get
a picture of their escape. Revelation chapter 12 verse 13, and remember, the
dragon in these verses is the anti-Christ with the power and influence indwelt
by Satan himself. Revelation 12, jumping in at verse 13, this is the
mid-point, again, of the Tribulation—the same thing that Jesus was talking
about in Matthew 24. Verse 13: Revelation 12:13-14a “And when the dragon
(Satan, in the person of the anti-Christ) saw that he was cast unto the
earth, (In other words, he’s now ruling and reigning through the man
anti-Christ.) he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man child. (which
is Israel) 14. And to the woman (Now, of course, we’ve got to
remember that we’re not dealing with the whole, we’re dealing with the remnant,
the third part of Israel.) And to the woman were given two wings of a
great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness,…” Now, don’t picture her being
picked up by American helicopters or anything else. They’re going to walk.
Because you see, when Israel left Egypt, it is the same language. Remember--I
took you and I gave you wings of a eagle that you might escape Egypt. Well, it’s the same thing here. They’re going to walk or maybe drive cars, I
don’t know. But they’re not going to fly. They’re going to escape out into
their place of safety, wherever it is, by a supernatural working of Israel’s God. In this case, He’s going to put them-- Revelation 12:14b “…into the wilderness into
her place, where she is nourished (In other words, God is going to take
care of them. Just like He did Israel in the desert.) for three and a
half years...” Then when you come down to
verses 15 and 16, the anti-Christ sends out a military force to destroy them.
But God opens the earth just like He opened the Red Sea. The earth opens up,
and the anti-Christ’s military, or whatever it is, a regiment or whatever, we
don’t know—but it’s going to be swallowed up by the earth. And then verse 17: Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon
(the anti-Christ and Satan) was wroth with the woman, and went to make
war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have
the testimony of Jesus Christ.” In other words, God is going to
supernaturally save out of the fiery furnace His remnant of Israel. Okay, good to have everybody
back from your break time. We’ll get right back to where we left off in Daniel.
But again, I always like to welcome our television audience. My goodness, I
don’t want to forget that they are out there, because they are so faithful and
the letters are so encouraging. And we just praise the Lord every day. My, when we were in Florida, we had dinner after church on Sunday with a couple who were “snowbirds”. They had
come out of a dead religion. My, how excited. You just can’t image how excited
people can get when they finally find the truth of the Word of God. And to
think that we’re a part of it is mind-boggling. So, that’s why we always
appreciate everybody’s prayers. Not just for us personally, but for our
listening audience—that we’ll get “Lydia’s”. And every once in a while we get
a letter—I’m one of your Lydia’s—that’s what we love to hear—“whose heart
the Lord opened.” They’ve listened to what we said and choose right.
Because it’s still a choice, you know. You can choose to reject it or to
believe it. All right, let’s come back to
where we left off in verse 26. Is that right? Chapter 3 verse 26, I don’t
know what I’d do without my front row. They’re the ones that kind of keep me
up to par. Daniel chapter 3 verse 26, and here we have Nebuchadnezzar, again,
aghast that these three young Jewish lads have survived that heated furnace. Now, I suppose the scoffer says
this is just legend. But no, it’s not. The God in the Old Testament did the
miraculous and all for our learning. After all, God is the same, but He’s not
working in those kinds of miraculous ways. Because you see, we have the Book.
This is the miracle in itself. That we have everything we need right here
between two covers. So all these things, as Paul said, were written for our
learning. And I think I made my point in the last half hour, that this is all
a preview of the Nation of Israel going through the horrors of the Tribulation,
the fires that are still coming. And I appreciate when people
come up and share things with me. I just had one of our listeners share at
break time where he was witness to one of the tests of our nuclear bombs back
in 1950, and how horrendous that was. Then imagine what they are now. Because
see, they don’t quit. They don’t quit improving, improving, improving. I
know. I read a book sometime back that was pretty much the life of these
Ph.D.’s—young, sharp scientists out there in our laboratories working on these
weapons of mass destruction. And they’re just constantly refining them. And like he said, where they
had detonated, everything, the steel towers, the mock villages, and everything
were totally reduced to ash. Well, that was in 1950! Can you imagine what
they’re doing today? So, when I speak of the Tribulation days and the earth
being reduced to rubble—with over 2,000 of those now in warehouses around the
world, why, they could destroy this earth twice over. And we know it’s
coming. It’s going to have to happen, because God is yet going to bring in
that glorious Kingdom, which will be like the Garden of Eden. All right, but
back to Daniel now: Daniel 3:26 “Then Nebuchadnezzar came
near to the mouth of the burning furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high God, (Now he’s
making a little headway, isn’t he? He’s not there yet, but he’s not referring
so much to his pagan gods. But now he’s recognizing that the God of the Jews is
the most high God.) come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the fire.” Daniel 3:27 “And the princes,
governors, and captains, and the king’s counselors, being gathered together,
saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, (The fire never
touched them.) nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their
coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.” Miraculous?
Absolutely! It just shows us, again, what our God is able to do. You know, I’m constantly
aware—because you see, as I mentioned in one of our previous tapings, the most
popular books the last twelve months in America, three of them in particular,
sold by the millions. And all three of them were authored by atheists
ridiculing the concept of God. So, I have to come back with the opposite
approach. Our God is still the One who created this universe. And all you have to do is on a
clear night, go out away from a lot of light and look at the sky. And then
remind yourself that you’re only seeing just one little particle of the whole,
and God’s in control of all of it. He can do whatever He wants with it. And
just because we’re not seeing things happen today like happened back here,
doesn’t mean that God has lost His power. He just hasn’t seen fit to use it.
But the day is coming when, yes, He’s going to intervene again in human
history, and we are going to see the results of His power. All right, so here is just a
good evidence of His miraculous power. That these young Jewish lads, in such a
heated furnace, came out without even a hair singed. All right, now then, ol’
Nebuchadnezzar’s starting to get the gist, isn’t he? He’s waking up a little
bit. Daniel 3:28 “Then Nebuchadnezzar
spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who
hath sent his angel, (Now in this case, I feel it was God the Son
Himself.) and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have
changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve
nor worship any god, except their own God.” In other words, they
stayed true. Well you see, believers have
done that in the last 2,000 years of human history—where they would rather die
the martyr’s death as to give in to something false. All right, now ol’
Nebuchadnezzar completely changes his attitude, and now he makes another
decree, verse 29. Daniel 3:29 “Therefore I make a
decree, That every people, nation, and language, who speak anything amiss
against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces,...(Now
he’s going the other extreme. Now he’s going to cut up anybody that opposes
it. The foolishness of men is the only way I can put it. And they haven’t
changed all that much.)…because there is no other God that can deliver
after this sort.” Well, that’s certainly true. At least he got the
message. Now verse 30: Daniel 3:30 “Then the king promoted
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, in the province of Babylon.” In
other words, they moved even further up the governmental ladder. And remember
now, they’re still rather young lads. Now, we’ll go on into chapter
4. Because we’re going to go through the Book of Daniel chapter and verse, and
after that? I don’t know yet. Daniel 4:1a “Nebuchadnezzar the king,
unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth:…”
Now here again, I’ve got to remind you. How much of the earth does
Nebuchadnezzar know? Just that little sphere of the Middle East. They have no
idea of the vastness, I don’t think, of China and the islands of the sea. They
certainly know nothing of the Western Hemisphere. They know nothing of Europe, but only of their then-known world, the present area of civilization. Of course he
was the ruling monarch, and he makes these decrees. Daniel 4:1b-2 “…who dwell in all the
earth; (That is his known earth.) Peace be multiplied unto you.
2. I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought
toward me.” Now, I think it behooves us—go back with me to Genesis.
Because you know, I love to compare Scripture with Scripture. So come back to Genesis chapter
14, if I’m not mistaken. I want you to see the difference between God as He
revealed Himself to Israel and God as He’s now revealing Himself to this pagan
king. Because it’s the same God, but He certainly has various names and titles
and so forth. Now back here in Genesis 14 we
have Abram shortly after his call out of Ur of the Chaldees. He comes to the
rescue of his nephew Lot and his fellow Sodomites. All right, Genesis chapter
14 and they have defeated those people who overran Sodom, with Lot and fellow citizens, and now verse 17. Genesis 14:17-18 “And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the
kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale.
18. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the
priest of the most high God.” Now, that’s as far as we can carry it
here. This was his title—Melchizedek was the priest of the most high God. All right, now let’s move up to
Exodus chapter 6. Now we come to the name of God that was intrinsic in God’s
relationship with Israel. So, we start out with Abram still recognizing the
most high God, which, of course, is what Nebuchadnezzar is realizing. But Israel gets to the place where the name of God that is most convenient or well known to
them is Jehovah. And we find that in Exodus chapter 6 verse 3. Exodus 6:3 “And I appeared unto
Abraham, (In other words, God is speaking to Moses in verse 2.) unto
Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, (See, the Most High
God, but now move on.) but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.” But
now He is. All right, so the term Jehovah,
then, becomes that name of God that Israel was most associated with. And Jehovah
is what’s used, usually, in our Old Testament. It’s capital L, capital O,
capital R, capital D. That’s Jehovah. When Saul of Tarsus on the road
to Damascus fell to his knees and cried out “Lord, what would you have me
to do?” Well, what Lord was he speaking of? Jehovah! That was the
name that Israel was associated with and understood. And Jehovah, again, was
God the Son. Now that’s just basic biblical understanding. That in the Old
Testament, yes, the Gentile Nebuchadnezzar and Abraham, early on, understood
the God of Heaven, or the Most High God. But when it came down to a
relationship between the believing Jew and that same Most High God, it was
Jehovah. It was God the Son. It was LORD. Follow me? All right, see, I just
had to give you that free for nothing. But, here this ol’ Gentile,
pagan king as yet understands nothing more than the Most High God. He’s come
that far. All right, back to Daniel chapter 4. Daniel 4:3 “How great are his signs!
(Well, I reckon! When you can throw young men into a furnace and have them come
out un-singed, I reckon that’s a sign.) and how mighty are his wonders! his
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to
generation.” Well, that’s exactly, of course, what Daniel saw in his
vision back there in chapter 2. That this coming Kingdom ruled by God the Son
is an everlasting Kingdom. But it’s going to be a literal, earthly kingdom
now, not a spiritual thing, a literal. Daniel 4:4-6a “I Nebuchadnezzar was at
rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace: 5. I saw a dream (The
ol’ boy is constantly dreaming, isn’t he? And he had another one. Now he’s
got a dream that’s rather disconcerting, because it’s going to affect him
personally.) which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the
visions of my head troubled me. 6. Therefore made I a decree…” He liked to use his authority,
didn’t he? You know, you’ve got to look at these world leaders. There’s just
something about them, and they haven’t changed. When they get to the place
that the whole world is looking up to them, it affects them. They get the idea
that, you know, they’re something special. They lose sight of the fact that
they’re mere flesh. This ol’ Nebuchadnezzar is a good example of world
leaders. Daniel 4:6b-7 “…made I a decree
(same thing as he did before) to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream. 7. Then
came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers:
and I (Nebuchadnezzar) told the dream before them; but they
did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof.” But here comes
Daniel to the rescue, verse 8. Daniel 4:8a “But at the last Daniel
came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my
god, (In other words, that’s why he renamed him.) and in whom is
the spirit of the holy gods:…” See, now there again, ol’ Nebuchadnezzar
still hasn’t got it all straight. He recognizes there’s a Most High God, but
he’s still going to hang onto his own pagan gods. But, verse 9: Daniel 4:9 “O Belteshazzar, master
of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and
no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and
the interpretation thereof.” Now I’m going to bring you on. No, I
guess I’m close enough. I’ll keep going—verse 10. I didn’t want to spend a
lot of time just reading, but sometimes you have to. Daniel 4:10 “Thus were the visions of
mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and
the height thereof was great.” Now you know, it’s rather interesting.
What’s one of the first things we learn in Genesis? The tree. Which one? The
tree of life. And the tree of life is, of
course, intrinsic to all of Scripture. And it will appear again in Revelation
chapter 22. So, it’s interesting, when you look at the human race, how they
take things that began in Genesis or maybe in the Garden or even shortly after,
and, in fact, all the way up to the Flood. They can take those things that
were ordained of God, and they have completely adulterated and polluted it. Now, one thing I’m referring to
is the horoscope. Now the horoscope was well-known by the Adamic Race long
before the Flood. They understood the movements of the constellations. It was
actually the Word of God in the stars. And they were able to interpret it.
But, what did mankind, under Satan’s instigation, do? They polluted it. They
adulterated it, so that now the study of the stars is usually Satanic and
demonic. All right, now the same way
with the image of a tree. We already saw an instance of it back here in
chapter 3. What’d they make an image like unto? A tree. So the tree becomes a
polluted thing of that which was so holy and so perfect. So, just kind of
watch for these things as you study Scripture. All right, now in this dream
he sees a tree. Where was I? Verse 11. Daniel 4:11-12a “The tree grew, and was
strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to
the end of all the earth: 12. The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit
thereof much, and in it was food for all: the beasts of the field had shadow
under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs…” and so on
and so forth. What’s he seeing a picture of? Himself. His own sovereignty,
and how he was in the place of providing for his, today we’d call them the
electorate, I guess, but his subjects. And he was responsible for their
welfare. All right, when he was a benevolent king, he could do that. All
right, verse 13: Daniel 4:13-15a “I saw in the visions of
my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher (an angel) and an
holy one came down from heaven; 14. He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the
tree, (In the dream, now, he sees this huge beautiful tree with all of
its provisions, not only for humans, but also for the animals and the birds and
everything, and the angel says--) Cut down the tree, and cut off his
branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away
from under it, and the fowls from his branches: 15. Nevertheless leave the
stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass,…” Now, what should that
immediately send you back to? The first image of gold, silver, brass, iron.
In other words, there’s going to be following empires that will still preserve
much of what ol’ Nebuchadnezzar began. In fact, I’ve taught it here on the
program over the years. Every one of these empires left certain attributes
that are in the world today. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire were the
beginning of what we call the banking system. Not like it is today, but
anyway, the banking system had its origin in ol’ Nebuchadnezzar. All right, now what’s also
going to be involved here? He’s going to have certain residue of the Roman Empire, the iron, that’s going to carry on, and the brass which was the Medes and
Persians. All these attributes are still going to be evident, starting with
the stump that is Nebuchadnezzar. All right, now let’s move on. Daniel 4:15b “…and let it be wet with
the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of
the earth:” In other words, Nebuchadnezzar, like this tree, is
going to be cut down to the earth. Now verse 16, now remember, this is still
the miraculous God that saved the little Jewish boys in the fiery furnace.
This same God is going to bring this about in the life of ol’ king
Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 4:16 “Let his heart be changed
from man’s, and let a beast’s (or an animal’s) heart be given
unto him; and let seven times (or seven years) pass over him.” So
what happened? He lives like an animal for seven years. Daniel 4:17a “This matter is by the
decree of the watchers, (angels who have intervened) and the
demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know
that the most High (See, here we come back to that title of God again.)
ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will,…”
Now we’ve got to always be aware of that. As much as we love our democratic
form of government and our liberties and all these things, yet we also have to
know that the God of all has His thumb on everything. All right, this is what we’re
to learn from the Old Testament. Five minutes left? All right, verse 18: Daniel 4:18 “This dream I king
Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now thou, O Belteshazzar, (Remember, that’s the
other name for Daniel.) declare the interpretation thereof, forasmuch as
all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known unto me the
interpretation: but thou art able; for the spirit of the holy gods
(See, he’s still got that pagan mentality.) is in thee.” All
right, I hope we’ve got time to go through this interpretation. Then we’ll be
ready to move on in our next taping. Verse 19: Daniel 4:19-21a “Then Daniel, whose name
was Belteshazzar, was astonished for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him.
The king spake, and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream, or the
interpretation thereof, trouble thee. Belteshazzar (Daniel) answered
and said, My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation
thereof to thine enemies. 20. The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was
strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, (In other words, was well
up into the air.) and the sight thereof to all the earth; 21. Whose
leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much,…” In other words, it was
a beautiful tree, productive in every area. Daniel 4:21b-22 “…and in it was food for
all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the
fowls of the heaven had their habitation: (That was the picture of his
kingdom.) 22. It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for
thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end
of the earth.” In other words, he controlled the then-known world. Daniel 4:23 “And whereas the king saw
a watcher (an angel) and an holy one coming down from heaven, and
saying, Hew (or cut) the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the
stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, (We’ve
already explained.) in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet
with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field,
till seven times (or seven years) pass over him;” Now
verse 24: Daniel 4:24-25 “This is the
interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come
upon my lord the king: (In other words, speaking through Daniel.) 25.
That they shall drive thee from the men, and thy dwelling shall be with the
beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they
shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, til
thou know (Now here it is. Here’s the whole crux of the matter.) til
thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to
whomsoever he will.” In other words, why did
Nebuchadnezzar get to the place that he got? Because of God. Why will he
become like an animal of the field? Because of God. It’s going to be restored
as we go on, but I haven’t got time today. But it’s all in the hands of a
Sovereign God. And the world can’t comprehend that. The world thinks they are
running it their own way. No they’re not! You know, I’ve said on this
program for all these years (man, I can’t believe it’ll soon be 19 years).
I’ve said it over and over, when God sent the whole ball of wax rolling back
there in Genesis chapter 1 and instituted time, and here we are 6,000 years
later and everything that has happened in 6,000 years was by His design.
Everything! Nothing was by accident. And now here we are approaching
the end-time, and everything is coming together so fast. I feel this whole
financial thing is no more than setting the stage for a global world system. A
global banking system! I wouldn’t be surprised that in another year we’ll
probably have a new currency. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit, but I hope not.
But, it could very well happen. Why? Because in God’s design, it has to
come. By the time the anti-Christ makes his appearance, the world has to be
ready for a world government and a world currency and a world religion. And,
oh, all the forces are working so frantically to bring their religions of the
world into one. Now, I remember reading about
the ecumenical movement when I was a teenager. And it scared the socks off of
me, because the writers back then used to make it so stringent that there would
be so much pressure from all the big major religious systems of the world to
bring everybody under the umbrella, and if not, your head would go. Well, it’s
coming. And we can see that it’s coming. And all according to God’s plan.
Every bit of it is according to His blueprint. And like I’ve said over and
over, is He ever a day late? Not one hour. Everything is right on schedule. So anyway, we’re going to leave
it here. Time is gone. Nebuchadnezzar now is going to go out and live like an
animal for seven years, so that he’ll come to his senses and realize that the
God of Daniel is the God of Creation! Okay, good to have everybody in
this afternoon. It’s another beautiful day in Tulsa. For those of you out in
television, we want to welcome you to another Bible study. We are so thrilled
at the response that you are learning to use your own Bibles and you’re getting
an understanding of things you never had before. What else could we ask for?
We just praise the Lord for it. Again, we want to thank
everyone (you in here, as well as our audience) for your prayers and your
financial help; and that we can just continue to reach more and more folks with
the truth, we trust, of God’s Word. All right, we’re going to
continue right on where we left off in our last program, which was a few weeks
ago when we finished taping. But nevertheless, we’re going to pick right up in
our next verse, which would be Daniel chapter 4 verse 24. Daniel chapter 4
verse 24. Now remember, we were just looking at the dream that ol’
Nebuchadnezzar had concerning a huge tree. And the tree was supplying
everything of the needs of not only humans but the animals and the birds. And
it was to be interpreted, again, by his little Jew, Daniel—who had already
interpreted an earlier dream. So Daniel comes to his rescue once again. Daniel 4:24a “This is the
interpretation, O King, and this is the decree of the most High,…”
Now, I’ve got to stop there a minute again. Remember, this is the term of
deity that we see throughout the Book of Daniel, because it is dealing with
Gentile subjects. And to the Gentile, He was the Most High God. And as I pointed out in one of
our previous programs, to the Nation of Israel He was the LORD. He was the God
of Abraham, but primarily Jehovah was the name that Israel understood as the
God of Abraham. But here, concerning these Gentile kings, the term the Most
High, or the Most High God, is the prevalent
one. All right, now you come to verse 25. Here comes the interpretation of
that dream of a great tree. Daniel 4:25 “That they shall drive thee
(that is Nebuchadnezzar) from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the
beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they
shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee,
(seven years will go by) till thou know that the most High ruleth in the
kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” Now this is
something that is hard for even those of us who are believers to comprehend,
that God puts evil men in places of authority. But we’re not to question it.
In fact, a thought just comes to me. Keep your hand in Daniel. We’ll be right
back. Jump all the way up to Romans chapter 13 where the Apostle Paul is making
the same claim. Romans chapter 13, and let’s start at verse 1. Because when we
look back at history, and we look at men like Hitler, you mean, he was there by
God’s ordaining? Yes! Absolutely! If God wouldn’t have wanted Hitler to
rule, He would have gotten rid of him long before he got old enough to even
aspire for office. But see, here’s how the Apostle Paul puts it for us even
today—Romans 13 starting at verse 1. Romans 13:1 “Let every soul (or
every person) be subject unto the higher powers. (And he’s not
talking about the powers of God. He’s talking about powers of human
government.) For there is no power (no government, no emperor) but
of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” Isn’t that
something? Every ruler is there by God’s design. Verse 2: Romans 13:2 “Whosoever therefore
resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall
receive to themselves condemnation.” Now here, of course, is the way
we normally look at government. They are to be benevolent, and they are to be
for our good. Romans 13:3-4a “For rulers are not a
terror to good works, but to the evil. (In other words, it’s the law
breaker who should fear government.) Wilt thou then not be afraid of the
power? do that which is good, (In other words, be a good citizen.)
and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4. For he (the leader, the
emperor, the king, the president) is the minister of God to thee for good.…”
Now, that’s hard to swallow, isn’t it? But that’s the scriptural
concept, and we have to leave it at that. All right, come back to Daniel.
Again, Daniel is interpreting the dream of this pagan King Nebuchadnezzar. All
right, verse 25 again: Daniel 4:25a “That they shall drive
thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they
shall make thee to eat grass as oxen,…” In other words, he’s going to
be out there like a wild animal for seven years. What’s the purpose? To teach
that king a royal lesson, because he’s been so pompous. He’s so proud of
everything he’s accomplished in setting up the city of Babylon and the kingdom,
and he just about got himself convinced that he was God himself. So God’s
going to teach him a lesson that he will be whatever God wants him to be. In
this case, it’s going to be like a wild animal. Daniel 4:25c “…and seven times
(or seven years) shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High
ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.”
Now, believe it! God is Sovereign. He’s still the ruler of this universe and
planet Earth in particular. Now verse 26, Daniel continues on. Daniel 4:26 “And whereas they
commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto
thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule.” Now when this tree, which is
indicative of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, is cut down, do you remember the
instructions in our last program? They were to leave a stump, and around the
stump were to be a band of brass and band of iron. Well, the symbolic issue
was that the succeeding empires are still going to be part of the Babylonian
empire. And we’ve seen it all through human history. We have the influence of
the Babylonian, the Mede and the Persian, and the Greek and the Roman Empires.
They are with us still today.
Even though those empires went into the dust of history, here they are.
They’re back in the news everyday. Iran is Ancient Persia. Iraq is Ancient Babylon. Syria was a part of the Greek empire. Now, I had an interesting
little note last night after we got home from Branson. I had to catch up on
our reading, and what did I run across? Our new Secretary of State, Mrs.
Clinton, is making overtures now to re-establish diplomatic relations with Syria. We broke off all relations with Syria several years ago, because they were
inundating our efforts in Iraq. Now isn’t it amazing that Syria—now, I’ve got to show you something else. See, this is a teaching class. I don’t worry about
following a format or a syllabus or anything like that. That doesn’t bother
me. Come back with me to—I just
about lost where I was going—Ezekiel 38, just a few pages back from where we
are in Daniel. Ezekiel 38 and how I think in light of the present day situation
everything is coming together so fast. And when I read that our Secretary of
State is going to reinstitute relations with Syria. Why?—when we’ve been so
careful to keep them on the back burner because of their terrorist activities.
Well, just like we’re seeing here in Nebuchadnezzar’s situation, God is in
control of everything. Now Ezekiel 38 and this, of
course, is the chapter concerning what we call the great northern invasion.
Here are the nations that will be associated with Russia. Verse 5, Ezekiel 38,
Persia—well, I’ve already told you, that’s Iran. Ethiopia, that’s down in Africa. Libya is northern Africa. Gomer—that’s
more or less probably Eastern Europe: the Balkans, Yugoslavia, and so forth. The
house of Togarmah—that’s Turkey—and all his bands. Who’s
missing? Syria! Why? Oh, I guess your guess is as
good as mine. But Syria is not going to be involved in this great northern
invasion. Syria is going to be more involved in the Tribulation and the coming
of the anti-Christ. It’s just amazing how all these things fit even in the
absence of Syria. Well, why is Syria absent? Well, for a reason. All right, back to Daniel. You
got all that free for nothing! Back to Daniel chapter 4, so they left the
tree roots, verse 26. Daniel 4:26b-27a “…thy kingdom shall be
sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens
(or the God of heaven) do rule. 27. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel…”
Now remember, who’s talking? Daniel. And Daniel is no longer the 12 or 14
year old lad that we started out with in chapter 1. Years have been going by.
Nebuchadnezzar is just about to
the end of his life already and Daniel, too. He’s getting old right along with
everybody else, you know. Time doesn’t stop for anybody. So by the time we
get to the end of Daniel, he’s going to be probably up in his 90’s. They went
from one empire to the next, but here Daniel’s still dealing with
Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel’s probably in his late 50s or 60s by now. Daniel 4:27 “Wherefore, O king, let my
counsel by acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and
thine iniquities (How?) by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may
be a lengthening of thy tranquility.” Or your peaceful pursuit of
happiness, because he’s had it pretty good. Nebuchadnezzar has been living
royally. Now verse 28: Daniel 4:28-29a “All this came upon the
king Nebuchadnezzar. 29. At the end of twelve months...” A year after
Daniel has warned him—King, you better start changing your ways. You better
start treating the downtrodden better instead of being pompous and concerned
only with the super. All right, but it didn’t have a bit of effect. Daniel 4:29 “At the end of twelve
months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.” You know,
I started to think as I was preparing this—you know, I think maybe some people
would wish I wouldn’t read all these verses. Why don’t you just skip a bunch
of this? But what you’ve got to realize
is, there’s a vast segment of my T.V. audience that never has read this Book.
They call and tell me, don’t ever take the Scripture off the screen. It was
the first time I had ever read anything from this Book. So, when I start
reading, just bear with me, and we’ll trust that the Word will have far more
impact than anything I can say anyway. So, that’s why I’m not going to
apologize for reading a lot of these things. Because it’s still the Word of God
and the Word of God is what’s so powerful. All right, so the king is now
speaking in his pride and his pomp. Daniel 4:30 “The king spake, and
said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom
by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” You see
the egotism there? But see, that’s most world leaders. Just as soon as they
get into a place of power—and it starts a lot further down the ladder than just
the very head of a nation. I think you can almost look at every state
governor. They immediately get a certain amount of pride and power and
authority. It’s just human nature. But here’s this king, all puffed up with
his own importance. Then verse 31: Daniel 4:31a “While the word was in the
king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven,…” Now here’s another
thing. I can’t help this. We’ve got to be reminded that all through the Old
Testament the supernatural is commonplace. I trust you know that. Not that it’s myth. It’s not
legend. It’s as true as anything can be. But God did work in the realm of the
miraculous all the way up through Israel’s history. Now you see, in our Age of
Grace, that’s absent. I’ve said it over and over, and I know this upsets some
of these miracle workers. But I just simply say that God is not doing the
miraculous in this Age of Grace. Because it’s unnecessary. We don’t need
situations like this. You know why? We’ve got this Book. This is all we need
and the Holy Spirit who is inspiring us to read it and study it. But you’ve got to remember that
here, and again when the Tribulation opens, that just as soon as that man
anti-Christ goes to Jerusalem with the idea of setting up a treaty between Israel and the Arab world, the supernatural is going to kick in. God will sovereignly cause
the Arab world to sit down and make a treaty with Israel with the brokering
power of the anti-Christ. The supernatural for the next seven years is going
to be constant. Everything that takes place during the Tribulation will again
be supernatural, just like here. Here this old king is no more than gloating
in his own pomp and circumstance and God speaks from Heaven. Well, that
doesn’t happen today. But it happened all through the Old Testament. All
right, so pick it up where I just left off—verse 31 again. Daniel 4:31b “…there fell a voice from
heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is
departed from thee.” What you think is yours and what you think you
are enjoying, by tomorrow morning at sunrise is going to be gone so far as you
are concerned. Why? The kingdom won’t disappear, but Nebuchadnezzar goes out
and lives like a wild animal. All right, reading on in verse 32. Daniel 4:32 “And they shall drive
thee from men, (In other words, because they’ll think he’s insane.) and
thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: (That’s what the
Book says. And that’s what happened. He actually went out and lived seven
years like a beast of the field.) they shall make thee to eat grass as
oxen, and seven years shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High
ruleth in the kingdom of men, and (He) giveth it to whomsoever he
will.” Now are you getting the gist? Who’s in control of every
government? The Most High God. Now I’m speaking deliberately.
I’m thinking of when we were in Branson. We had a fellow there who has a whole
series of radio stations from West Africa to East. Right down though the heart
of Muslim Africa. And most of his radio time is our material. I asked the
question—how in the world can Africa understand my program in English? Well,
his answer was, English is still the basic language of the business world. So
even the most common place African may not be able to converse in English, but
they can understand it. And, he said, the other thing about your program is
that you speak deliberately and slowly, and they can get it. So bear with me. See, I keep all that in mind.
We’re going to speak like that if possible, so that anyone can understand. I’m
getting to the place on the phone, when these young secretaries go
‘prprprpr’—you know. I just have to say, hey, young lady, I’m getting old.
Slow down. I can’t understand people who talk so fast. So bear with me. This
is why I purposely try to speak slowly and read slowly. Because we’ve got
people out there that are trying to grasp it, and they wouldn’t if I talked too
fast. Okay, that’s just a common sense explanation. All right, now verse 33: Daniel 4:33 “The same hour
(Even as God has spoken and said the kingdom would be taken from him.)
was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and
did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his
hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, (See, he was like a madman,
insane.) and his nails like birds’ claws. Daniel 4:34 “And at the end of the
days (Now Nebuchadnezzar has come to his senses.) I
Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth
for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from
generation to generation:” Daniel 4:35 “And all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay (or
resist) his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” No human
has that kind of prerogative. Daniel 4:36-37 “At the same time
(Nebuchadnezzar says) my reason (his sanity) returned unto
me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me;
and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my
kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. 37. Now I Nebuchadnezzar
praise and extol and honor the King (capital K) of heaven, all
whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he
is able to abase.” Or put down like a beast in the field. Have you seen the progression?
How did he start out? A total pagan—proud of the fact that he could put to
death anybody he wanted to put to death. He could make second in the Kingdom
anyone. He had total, total power. And all he relied on were the gods of
paganism. Israel’s God was just another god among the gods, although it did
have more power. But you see, he has progressively moved from that to this
testimony. Now, will Nebuchadnezzar be in
Heaven? I kind of think so, because he has come to this full realization of
faith in the God of Glory. Now, that’s just my own opinion. And I think we
can have the same thing with Darius and Cyrus. All three of those pagan
oriental kings, before they died, came to a realization that the God of Heaven,
the Most High God, was the True Ruler of the universe. And I think God
probably honored that as sufficient faith for their salvation. So anyway, that carries
Nebuchadnezzar throughout pretty much the rest of his life. Now we’re just
going to keep on going. We drop down into chapter 5 and now we’re already two
generations down the road. Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson is now ruling. Now
you’ve got to go back into some other areas. In fact, now is as good a time as
any. Let’s go back to Jeremiah
chapter 27 verse 7. Jeremiah, you know, is the prophet that was holding forth
at the time of Daniel, although Jeremiah never got to Babylon. You remember,
they found him in a dungeon in Jerusalem. But nevertheless, Jeremiah is still
contemporary at least with the earlier part of Daniel’s life. Jeremiah chapter
27 and, oh, let’s jump in at verse 6. Jeremiah 27:6-7 “And now have I given all
these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant;
(Because God put him there.) and the beasts of the field have I given him
also to serve him. 7. And all nations shall serve him, (that is
Nebuchadnezzar) and his son, (who was the General Nabonidus) and
his son’s son, (or his grandson) until the very time of his land
come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.”
All right, now when you come
back to Daniel chapter 5, Nabonidus is the son of Nebuchadnezzar. He’s ruled
in the interval. Now we’ve already covered so many years of time, that when we
get into chapter 5, we have the name Belshazzar who is going to see the
handwriting on the wall. He is Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson. Not son, but his
grandson. Okay? Daniel 5:1-2a “Belshazzar the
king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the
thousand. 2. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden
and silver vessels which his…” Now the King James says father. I
didn’t check any other versions. I haven’t got one anyway. But it should be grandfather,
because Belshazzar was a grandson. But the reason is that the term father and
grandfather in the Hebrew is the same word. So it was up to the translators to
use whichever one they wanted. But here in verse 2 it should be grandfather. Daniel 5:2b “…his grandfather
Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; (Of
course we covered that in the early chapters.) that the king, and his
princes, (That is the present king now, Belshazzar.) his wives,
and his concubines, might drink therein.” Now what are they doing? They
are blaspheming the holy things of Israel’s Temple. Now, when we say holy,
remember that the things in the Temple were designated as holy because they
were set apart for Temple use. They were holy. All right, the priests were
holy. They were set apart for the Temple services. That’s where we get the
terminology for these vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple before they destroyed it. He carried them to Babylon, but at least he had the wherewithal
not to use them in his pagan temple worship. But Belshazzar does, and he’s
going to pay through the nose for doing so. Daniel 5:3 “Then they brought the
golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was
at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines,
drank in them.” In other words, he just has a great, you might say, a
drunken banquet. They drank from them. Verse 4: Daniel 5:4 “They drank wine, and
praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.”
Count them, how many are they? Six. And six in Scripture is what? The number
of man. This whole thing is completely absent of God. Okay, good to have everybody in
this afternoon, again, and back from your coffee break. Once again we want to
welcome our television audience wherever you are. It’s so thrilling to get our
mail—I think from every state in the Union now, as well as various places around
world. It’s just amazing how the internet, for one thing, covers all the
world. We were just told in Branson the other day that we’re on a European
system that I didn’t even know we are on. We’re not paying for it, but it
covers a hundred million households. So pray for that. You just trust we’ll
fill up the Body of Christ and we’ll be out of here! All right, let’s get back to
where we left off in the last half hour. We just got started in chapter 5, in
case somebody out there missed it. We’ve now gone beyond King Nebuchadnezzar.
He’s faded off the scene. He goes into the dustbin of history. His son
Nabonidus took over in the meantime. Now in the break time, a lot of you were
asking me what the guy’s name was, and I hope you can catch it. N-a-b-o-n-i-d-u-s—Nabonidus—and
he was the son of Nebuchadnezzar. But in chapter 5 we’re already into the next
generation. Time keeps going, you know. Belshazzar, then, is the son of
Nabonidus. He’s the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. All right, now that’s history.
Now, I know a lot of people don’t like history, but if you’re going to
appreciate this Book, you’d better learn to love history, because this is what
it is. It’s God’s Story. And He’s the One that’s in total control. All right, we were introduced
in chapter 5, in the first four verses of our last program, to this King
Belshazzar who is blaspheming by using the utensils that were brought back from
Jerusalem. They literally stole them from the Temple. But at least
Nebuchadnezzar and his son did not commit the blasphemy of using those holy
vessels of silver and gold for their drunken banquets. But Belshazzar does.
And he’s going to pay royally for doing so. All right, so he brings out all
the vessels that had been brought from Jerusalem and uses them in their drunken
banqueting. Verse 4: Daniel 5:4 “They drank wine, and
praised the gods (the pagan gods which were made) of gold, and
of silver, (there’s two products and) of brass, of iron,
(there’s four) of wood, and of stone (six).” And
as I mentioned in the closing remarks last time, six is the number of man. So
this was something that was totally absent of anything of God’s power. All right, now then verse 5.
You’ve all heard the story of the “handwriting on the wall.” This is how it all
came about. We’re going to take it verse by verse; otherwise, you’ll miss
something. Daniel 5:5 “In the same hour
(while they’re banqueting) came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote
over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace:
and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.” That’s all that was
visible, was the part of a man’s hand. Daniel 5:6 “Then the king’s
countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of
his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.”
Honey! Do you remember? The one and only time that she got up to do something
in public, she was glad she was behind something because she said her knees
were knocking! And you’ve probably all
experienced it. You know, polls have been taken—really. What is the most
frightening thing that people can think could happen? To speak to a public
audience. Well, when I was looking this up—I didn’t say anything to her until
now. But she had an experience, and she said never again. But her knees
knocked. And she said, “You didn’t hear them?” But see, this is nothing new.
This is way back in antiquity. You didn’t know that did you, Honey? Even old
Belshazzar’s knees were knocking. All right, verse 7: Daniel 5:7a “The king cried aloud to
bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans,…” Now remember, we covered all
that in chapter 1. These were all segments of the magicians and soothsayers,
but they had their rank. And the Chaldeans, of course, were supposedly the
most intelligent and the most gifted of all these others. Daniel 5:7b “…the Chaldeans, and the
soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon,…”
Now you’ve got to remember that these pagans did not depend on anything of the
God of Scripture. All they knew were the pagan gods and goddesses of all the
way back to the Tower of Babel. See, that’s when they really began. All
right, so he says to these wise men. Daniel 5:7c-8a “…Whosoever shall read
this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with
scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler
in the kingdom. 8. Then came in all the king’s wise men:…” Now, I hope
you’ve got enough imagination to picture all this—how that all these
astrologers and these soothsayers and these guys that were drawing on demonic
power are coming together to try to interpret this handwriting on the wall.
But they could not. Daniel 5:8-9 “Then came in all the
king’s wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the
king the interpretation thereof. 9. Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and
his countenance was changed in him, (In other words, he starts to show
his worry.) and his lords (his underlings) were
astonished.” Verse 10: Daniel 5:10-11a “Now the queen by reason of
the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house: and the queen
spoke and said, O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor
let thy countenance be changed: 11. There is a man in thy kingdom,…” Now stop and think. When
something like this happened, who should have been the first person to come to
Belshazzar’s mind? Well, Daniel! These people were human. They knew what had
been taking place in the past. Don’t think that they didn’t talk about things
and discuss things like we would. Don’t you suppose that old Nebuchadnezzar
shared with his son, and maybe even this grandson, how Daniel had interpreted
his dream? And how the three little Hebrew boys were cast into the fiery
furnace and never got touched. That was all rehearsed. They knew that. And
yet, the last thing they think of is anything that pertains to the God of
Heaven. All right, but the queen evidently did. So she said: Daniel 5:11a “There is a man in thy
kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods;…” You see how deep
that paganism goes? Even though Daniel had proved over and over—and the other
three young Hebrew lads—how the God of Israel was superior over all the pagan
gods, yet they try to connect it, if anything, to their own gods. All right,
so verse 11 again. Daniel 5:11 “There is a man in thy
kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father
(Grandfather, again, we’re going back to Nebuchadnezzar.) light and understanding
and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, (small g—their pagan gods) was
found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy (grand) father,
the king, I say, thy (grand) father, made master of the
magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;” In other words,
Daniel just put them to shame with his God-given wisdom. Daniel 5:12 “Forasmuch as an
excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and
showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same
Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will
show the interpretation.” Verse 13: Daniel 5:13-14 “Then was Daniel brought
in before the king. And the king spake and said unto Daniel, Art thou that
Daniel, who art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king, my (grand)
father brought out of Jewry? (Or out of Jerusalem.) 14. I
have even heard of thee, (Well, I would think so!) that the
spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent
wisdom is found in thee.” But see, who’s he leaving out?
The True God of Israel. The Most High. They’re still leaning on the gods of
paganism. It’s just unbelievable, and yet it isn’t. We’re no different
today. The world is no different today. All right verse 15: Daniel 5:15 “And now the wise men,
the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this
writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof; but they could not
show the interpretation of the thing: 16. And I have heard of thee, that thou
canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the
writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed
with scarlet, and have a chain of gold (same thing as he said before to
the Babylonians) about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the
kingdom.” Now Daniel comes forth. Now,
how old is he? Have you been keeping track? He’s up in his sixties, maybe
even seventies. Remember, he was twelve when they took them from Jerusalem to Babylon. But Daniel has stayed in the high echelons of the Babylonian
government all through Nebuchadnezzar’s rule and all through Nabonidus’ rule.
And he’s still there with the third one now, Belshazzar. And then, if you want
to see something interesting, let’s just jump all the way over, I hope I can
find it, to chapter 10. Now this is just to wet your appetite. Daniel 10:1a “In the third year of
Cyrus king of Persia (Now that’s the king of the next empire!) a
thing was revealed unto (Who?) Daniel,...” Well, I figured it up the other
night. He is now 80-some years old—which makes sense. Because how long was the
captivity? Seventy years. Well, we know he lived beyond the captivity. How
young was he when he went down? Twelve or fourteen. So, twelve plus seventy
in my arithmetic is 82. But he’s already going on into the Mede and Persian Empire. And from what I gather, he probably lived to about 93 or 94 years of age,
which in antiquity was quite a while. Okay, coming back to chapter 5,
again, Daniel is coming along in years. He’s certainly not at the end of it,
but he’s probably in his late 60’s or 70’s. Verse 17: Daniel 5:17 “Then Daniel answered and
said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, (You can have your gold
and your silver, because you’re not going to be around to give it to me
anyway. It’s kind of a clue right here.) and give thy rewards to
another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the
interpretation.” Verse 18, here it comes. Daniel 5:18-19a “O thou king, the most high
God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy (grand) father a kingdom, and majesty,
and glory, and honor: 19. And for the majesty that he gave him,
all people,…” That is for the then-known world, remember—which is only
that area out in the Middle East and up to the Mediterranean., as that was
about it at that time. Daniel 5:19-20 “And for the majesty that
he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before
him: (Because don’t forget, now, that head of gold was absolute.) whom
he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; (He was absolute in
his power.) and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.
20. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he
was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:” Daniel 5:21a “And he was driven from
the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was
with the wild asses: (that is the wild animals of the forest)
they fed him with grass like oxen,….” Now I’ve got to stop a minute.
Do you think old Belshazzar knew that? Of course he would have, because he
knew Grandpa had been out there in the world with animals. Why, of course he
knew. Well, what’s Daniel doing? I think Daniel is just pushing the dagger
into the very spiritual heart of this wicked king. He’s reminding him of the
power of Daniel’s God. All right, verse 22: Daniel 5:22 “And thou his
(grand) son, (Now, I’m making the correction as we go. I trust
that you’re seeing that.) O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart,
though thou knewest all this;” They knew it. They knew what
kind of a God they were dealing with in reality. But, I can’t help it. Are
men any different today? Not one whit. They have no concept of the power of
the God of this Book. I doubt if there’s hardly anybody in Washington D. C.
anymore that has a true understanding of the God of this Book. Oh, they may
give Him some point of a reference, but to really know that He’s in control?
I have to doubt it. All right, so it’s no different back here in 500 and some
B.C. Daniel 5:23 “But hast lifted up thyself
against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house
(that is the Temple) before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and
thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of
silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, (all those pagan
worthless gods of idols, and you know that they--) which see not, nor
hear, nor know: and the (True) God (capital G) the
God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose (in other words, who owns) are
all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:” Daniel 5:24 “Then was the part of the
hand sent from him; and this writing was written. (Now here’s the part
I know you all know. This, everybody, I think, realizes—how Daniel came down
on him with all the force of the God of Glory.) 25. And this is the
writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” Daniel 5:26 “This is the
interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished
it.” But how many times is the word spoken? Twice. Emphasis.
That’s what you’ve got to look for in Scripture. That wasn’t an accident. God
is emphasizing that very statement. God has numbered your kingdom. God has
numbered your kingdom. And what did he find. “And finished it.”
Daniel 5:27 “TEKEL; Thou art weighed
in the balances, and art found wanting.” Now, I read sometime back,
that in antiquity almost the heart of their world was the balances. Everything was established by
balances, whether it was trade or buying commodities and everything. It was
all on the basis of the balances. You know how they are. All right, so God
used that as an illustration that he and his behavior and his absolute
rejection of the God of Daniel—because of that the balances were completely
against him. Daniel 5:27b “…weighed in the balances,
and art found wanting.” Belshazzar, you don’t stand a chance. Now
it’s rather interesting that Daniel makes no effort to help this man
spiritually. Nebuchadnezzar he did. But this man, he makes no indication.
All he’s giving him is his judgment. Which, of course, will fall before the
next morning. All right, So “MENE, MENE—God
hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.” Belshazzar you’ve had
it! It’s over. “TEKEL—You’ve been weighed in the balances and you don’t
measure up.” Daniel 5:28 “PERES; Thy kingdom is
divided, and given to the Medes and the Persians.” Now, I don’t know
if you know history well enough. While they were sitting in this huge banquet
hall there in Babylon; where, of course, the Euphrates River flowed right
through the center of the city. Unbeknown to the Babylonians, what had the
Medes and Persians done? They had diverted the water away so that the Euphrates going under the wall dried up, and they walked in on dry ground and completely
surprised the Babylonians. They were defeated before sunrise. Okay, now that’s the history.
All right, the kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians,
which were indicated by the silver of Nebuchadnezzar’s image back there in
chapter 2. All right, so verse 29: Daniel 5:29-30 “Then commanded
Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about
his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third
ruler in the kingdom. 30. In that night (Not the next one. That same
night.) was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.” Daniel 5:31 “And Darius (The
next emperor of the combination of the Medes and the Persians. Now you see,
that whole Middle East is so closely connected. The Medes and the Persians
were just off to the northeast of Babylon. And a lot of their government
people were intermarried. They were cousins and so forth. So this was all
pretty much a family thing, really.) And Darius, the Median took the
kingdom, being about sixty two years old.” All right, now then, Daniel
moves right on from this Babylonian palace over to the palace of the Medes and
the Persians. He continues to be a high government official even in the next
empire. Now we come into chapter 6, and we’re going to be dealing primarily
with this next kingdom, the Medes and the Persians. It’s this kingdom that
will give the Jews permission to go back and rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem. But it will not be under Darius, it will be under Cyrus. And like I’ve already
shown you, by the time Cyrus becomes the king, Daniel will be up in his 80’s,
and on up into his 90’s before he evidently passes off the scene. Okay, so let’s keep moving
verse by verse, because there’s no chapter breaks in the original. Chapter 6
verse 1, the Medes and the Persians are now the ruling empire with the capital
over in Shushan. Daniel 6:1 “It pleased Darius to set
over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over
(or they will rule as authority) the whole (Mede and Persian
empire) kingdom;” Which would cover that whole part of the Euphrates Valley and all the way on over to Israel and even down into Egypt. Daniel 6:2a “And over these (would
rule) three presidents; of whom Daniel was first:…” Now, you see,
this is amazing. I mean, this is, again, the miracle working of God. That
here this little fellow Daniel—kidnapped, really, at the age of twelve and
taken from Jerusalem to Babylon—becomes from almost the age of 15 a ruling
entity throughout the Babylonian Empire, and just moves on over a hundred miles
or so to the next capital, or the next empire, in Shushan. Just unbelievable.
And he becomes a leader of the empire. All right, so Daniel is the first of
the three presidents who gave account, of course, to the hundred and twenty. Now what are you seeing
governmentally? Well, Nebuchadnezzar didn’t report to anybody. He did not
have a congress. He did not have a cabinet. If he needed help, he called in
the astrologers, and so forth, but he had no political organization to which he
reported. All right, now you see, by the time we get to the next empire, the
Medes and the Persians—you remember when we described the image, the head of
gold was totally a singular head. Then we come to the Medes and Persians.
It’s down to two. But even the two heads of the Persian Empire have these 120
princes to whom they would report, and then the three presidents. So what have
you got? Well, you’ve got the beginning of republic or democracy type of
government. It’s no longer an absolute
monarch. Remember, that was the whole idea of Nebuchadnezzar’s image of gold,
silver, and so forth. All right, so then verse 3: Daniel 6:3 “Then this Daniel was
preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit
(in other words, the Spirit of the God of Israel) was in him; and the
king thought to set him over the whole realm.” Daniel is coming close
to being the king of the whole Mede and Persian Empire. Verse 4: Daniel 6:4a “Then the presidents and
princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom;…”
What was their number one reason? He’s a Jew! That’s what the Gentile world
can’t handle. A Jew in our Gentile Empire, with this kind of power? It just
ate at them like a cancer. Daniel 6:4b-5 “…sought to find occasion
against Daniel…(Because they could see that since God’s power was
within him and directed him…)…they could find none occasion nor fault;
forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in
him. (In other words, he had no scandal. He had no dishonesty. He was
what a political leader should be.) 5. Then said these men, We shall not
find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning
the law of his God.” Now here it comes. The Satanic
power was, again, trying to pin Daniel to the wall with regard to his worship
of the true God. Verse 6: Daniel 6:6 -7 “Then these presidents
and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King
Darius, live for ever. (That was an oriental greeting that was pretty
much used commonly.) 7. All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors,
and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to
establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosever shall ask a
petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast
into the den of lions.” What are they doing? They’re
setting him up. You’ve heard of conspiracies, haven’t you? Well, this is a
total conspiracy in order to trap Daniel. And the main reason was their
jealousy because he was a good Jew. Okay, looks like everyone is
back from the coffee break once again. We’re ready to start program number
three this afternoon. So again, we like to welcome our television audience. I
have to keep reminding you that we’ll never cease to thank the Lord enough for
all your prayers, your kind letters, and, my—I always have to look at Iris—how
we enjoy your letters. You know, I’m blessed. I know
I mentioned it on a program years ago. One of the things that made me really
not want to jump on this when they called and asked if I would come on
television was because I thought I would just get abused, and I would get
verbally taken to the woodshed, you know. But it hasn’t happened. We’ve
probably had two or three letters that were less than kind, but those kinds are
not hard to put in the trash can. So, we do thank you for your letters of
encouragement. We praise the Lord that He’s seen fit to protect us from all
the attacks of the evil one, so like poor Daniel. Okay, here we are in Daniel.
And because of his faith and his trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
God had blessed him with all of his wisdom and understanding—his integrity. Yet
the world can’t stand it, can they? They just can’t handle a man of
integrity. And I could make comments even in our own political system. Let
someone make a stand on their faith, and they will be attacked like you will
not believe. Well, the same thing happened to Daniel. Just as soon as that
decree was signed, instead of putting his tail between his legs and running,
what does Daniel do? He just flaunts it all the more. And here we’ve got it, now, as
we pick it up in Daniel chapter 6 and verse 10. Reading verse 9, again—that’s
where we just left off. Daniel 6:9-10 “Wherefore King Darius
signed the writing and the decree. (That he had been kind of hoodwinked
into signing.) 10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed,
(And don’t think he didn’t know every word that it said.) he went into
his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled
upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God,
as he did aforetime.” The decree didn’t change one iota of Daniel’s
respect and love for his God. All right, verse 11: Daniel 6:11-12a “Then these men
assembled, (Now remember who we’re talking about. We’re talking about
the 120 back there in verse 1 and the other two of the three presidents.
Daniel was one, and there were two others. So the two presidents and the 120
are the conspiracy against him.) and found Daniel praying and making
supplication before his God. 12. Then they came near, and spoke before the king
concerning the king’s decree;…” And this is what they tell the king. Daniel 6:12b “…Hast thou not signed a
decree, that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within
thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The
king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes
and Persians, which altereth not.” In other words, they could never
change something that had been signed and decreed. Daniel 6:13-14a “Then answered they and
said before the king, That Daniel, (See how they’re pointing the finger
at him.) which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, (that Jew) regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed,
but maketh his petition three times a day. 14. Then the king, when he heard
these words, was sore displeased with (Daniel? No.) with
himself,…” He got tricked, because he had
a lot respect for Daniel. Now Darius, too, like Nebuchadnezzar, is going to be
making progress to the place where he finally has to admit that the God of
Israel is the God of everything. But so far, he’s still sort of halfway
between. All right, so he was utterly disgusted with himself. Daniel 6:14b “…and set his heart on
Daniel to deliver him: and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver
him.” Now what he did, we don’t know. But he was evidently trying
everything that the law would allow to reverse the decree, but these adversaries
give him no room. Verse 15: Daniel 6:15-16 “Then these men (the
122) assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that
the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king
establisheth (or signed) may be changed. 16. Then the king
commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions.
Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, (I suppose on his way to the
lions’ den.) Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will (What?)
deliver thee. ” What do we have? I think an
inkling now of Darius’ faith in the God of Daniel. Now just watch for it—as
these men come ever so slowly to a final recognition of the God of Glory. All
right, he says, I am sure your God will deliver thee. Daniel 6:17-18a “And a stone was brought,
and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet,
(So that there was no possible way of somebody slipping in and rescuing him.) and
with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning
Daniel. (Now we’ll just move on.) 18. Then the king went to his
palace, and passed the night fasting:…” See, he’s not just forgetting
about Daniel. He’s doing everything he can to make sure that the God of Daniel
will rescue him. He begins with fasting. Daniel 6:18b-20a “…neither were
instruments of music brought before him: and his sleep went from him.
(I think he paced the floor most of the night.) 19. Then the king arose
very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions. 20. And
when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel:…” I imagine the old fellow
thought he was spitting into the wind, as we say, that Daniel was long down the
throats of the lions. I don’t think he really expected an answer. But on the
other hand, I think his faith is increasing so that he felt it was possible. Daniel 6:20b “…he cried with a
lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel,
servant of the living God, is thy God, (See, he’s not talking about his
pagan gods now. He said, Daniel, is your God--) whom thou servest
continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” And verse 21. Now listen,
don’t ever take this as just a story. This is the Word of God to prove His
power. And like I said at the beginning of the first half hour, we have to
understand that all the way up through Israel’s history, the supernatural was
not that unusual. Even in the life of some of the prophets and David and
Solomon, the supernatural was evident. Not like we are today. Well, you know,
I always like to refer to Sir Robert Anderson’s book The Silence of God.
If you haven’t got it, for goodness sakes buy it. One of the best
books you can have in your library—The Silence of God. What’s he
showing? That during this Age of Grace, God’s not doing things like this.
We’re not to expect it. We’re not to look for it. But it’ll pick up again as
soon as the Tribulation starts when He starts dealing with Israel. All right, back to Daniel. Daniel 6:21 “Then said Daniel unto
the king, O king, live for ever.” He’s as well as he was twenty-four
hours ago. Daniel 6:22 “My God hath sent his
angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch
as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I
done no hurt.” I haven’t done any scandalized “cooking the books.”
Are you with me? Daniel says—I’m not guilty of that. He said—I haven’t
embezzled. I haven’t done anything contrary to your will. So there was no
spiritual reason for God to punish him. He said, “I’ve done no hurt.”
Daniel 6:23 “Then was the king
exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of
the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was
found upon him, because he (What’s the word?) believed in his
God.” See? His faith! It’s always been the faith! Starting with
Adam—when he was restored to fellowship, it was Adam’s faith. Likewise,
Daniel’s faith—because he believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
All right, now verse 24: Daniel 6:24a “And the king commanded,
and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, (See, now the worm
turns, doesn’t it? And those 122 men who had accused Daniel--) and they cast
them into the den of lions,…” But as the Orientals did
all through history, it wasn’t just the husband. They would kill the whole
family. Even as late as the Romans—if one of their politicians was found
guilty, it wasn’t he alone, but his wife and children as well. So this is all
typical of the Oriental mindset. So they cast these 122 men into the den of
lions. Daniel 6:24b-26 “…them, their children,
and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and broke all their
bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den. 25. Then king
Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages; that dwell in all the
earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. 26. I make a decree, That in every
dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: (Why?)
for He (The God of Daniel. He’s not just some piece of some rock
or gold or silver. He--) is the living God, and steadfast
for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion
shall be even unto the end.” All right, now I’m thinking of
a time way back during Moses serving Israel—Exodus chapter 18. Let’s turn
back, because I want you to see that even though God was primarily dealing with
Israel from the call of Abraham—whenever I put it on the board, I always say Jew
only with what? Exceptions! And I want you to realize that. God
did make exceptions. There were times when Gentiles came to a faith and trust
in Israel’s God. And I suppose I can just about use the rest of this half hour
on this situation in the life of Moses. It’s his father-in-law. Who remembers
the name of his father-in-law? Jethro! Hey, that’s good. I’ve got some Bible
students out there. Jethro—he was a Midian prince.
And you remember that when Moses was first driven out of Egypt because he had killed the Egyptian, he took up with the gals that were watering the sheep.
Remember the story? And he ended up marrying one of them. So his
father-in-law was this Jethro, a Midianite and a Gentile. All right, now here’s the
account. I can’t help but come back and show how Jethro expressed much of the
same things as Nebuchadnezzar and Darius and, I think, Cyrus. I think all
these Gentile kings came to a knowledge of salvation by faith in the God of
Abraham. All right, Exodus chapter 18 starting at verse 1, Honey. Exodus 18:1-4a “When Jethro, the priest
of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and
for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt; (You
remember, when he was leading the children of Israel.) 2. Then Jethro, Moses’
father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back. 3. And
her two sons;…Gershom;… 4. …and Eliezer;…” Exodus 18:5-7 “And Jethro, Moses’
father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness,
where he encamped at the mount of God: (down there at Mount Sinai)
6. And Jethro said unto Moses, I thy father-in-law Jethro am come unto thee, and
thy wife, and her two sons with her. 7. And Moses went out to meet his
father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; (You know the
Oriental way.) and they asked each other of their welfare; (Well,
that’s typical, isn’t it?) and they came into the tent.” Exodus 18:8-9a “And Moses told his
father-in-law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to all the Egyptians
for Israel’s sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and
how the LORD delivered them. 9. And Jethro (What’s the next word?) rejoiced…”
Now the average Arab wouldn’t feel that way. They didn’t think anything
good should happen to Israel. But Jethro did. Exodus 18:9-10a “And Jethro rejoiced for
all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out
of the hand of the Egyptians. 10. And Jethro said, Blessed be the LORD, who
hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of
Pharaoh,…” Verse 11: Exodus 18:11-13 “Now I know that the LORD
is greater than all gods: (Small ‘g’—see how far he’s come?) for
in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them. (In other
words, the God of Abraham is the God above everything.) 12. And Jethro,
Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron
came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law
before God. 13. And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the
people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.” And then, of course, we see
that Jethro comes up with a method of helping Moses deal with all the
responsibility. But what I wanted you to see was that even way back here the
father-in-law of Moses comes to a faith in the God of Abraham. All right, now
then, with that, let’s come back to Daniel, once again. So Darius is following
in the footsteps of Jethro and a few others throughout the Old Testament; who
were Gentiles, but they came to embrace the God of Israel. And now we have
Darius. All right, let’s drop down to where we left off. So now Darius writes
a new decree speaking of the God of Daniel. Daniel 6:27-28 “He delivereth and
rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who
delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. 28. So this Daniel
prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of (the next big
emperor) Cyrus the Persian.” All right, now then, I guess
we’ve got a few minutes left. We’ll go on into chapter 7, and once again we
have a prophetic view of the future empires. But instead of metals of gold,
silver, and so forth, Daniel is going to see these Gentile empires as voracious
beasts. And that, of course, is what the Gentile empires have been. They’ve
been bestial in their overall behavior. Daniel 7:1a “In the first year of
Belshazzar king of Babylon…” Now this, of course, backs up again. This
is a chronological unfolding. But now we are at its period of time when Daniel
is probably in his mid-80’s. Daniel 7:1-2 “In the first year of
Belshazzar the king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon
his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. 2. Daniel
spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven
strove upon the great sea.” Now that’s not the Mediterranean or the Atlantic. It’s the great sea of Humanity. Even in that period of time, the then-known
world was already teaming with millions of folks. And out of that great sea of Humanity-- Daniel 7:3 “And four great beasts
(wild animals) came up from the sea, diverse one from another (each
one different from another).” All right, now here we begin the
unfolding of these same four empires spoken of as beasts of prey. Verse 4: Daniel 7:4 “The first was like a
lion, and had eagles wings: I beheld (in his vision) till the
wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand
upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.” Now
that’s Daniel’s picture of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. And we have already seen
how Nebuchadnezzar was removed and then his grandson had the empire taken from
him. All right, now then, following the Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar,
Nabonidus, and Belshazzar-- Daniel 7:5 “And behold another
beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and had
three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto
it, Arise, devour much flesh.” All right, now we have the Mede
Empire coming all the way from present day Iran, across present day Iraq, present day Persia, down across the land of Israel or Palestine, and all the way down to Egypt. That all became part of the Mede and Persian Empire. That’s why it spoke of
devouring much flesh. Now this is all history in advance. Now verse 6: Daniel 7:6 “After this (Here
comes the next empire.) I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which
had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads;
and dominion was given to it.” Now of course, what that is depicting,
I think—you know the story of Alexander the Great. How he went swiftly across
the Middle East and conquered more territory than even the Medes and the
Persians had conquered, but he did it in such speed for that day and time. You’ve got to remember that
they were on foot. They were on horseback and so forth. But he would take
chances. In other words, he would cross maybe a bay at low tide, and he could
do it quickly enough, that instead of going miles around, he could just cut
across. That was Alexander the Great. He took tremendous chances. But by it,
he moved so swiftly. All right, now the vision
depicts four. Well, we also know from history, that when Alexander the Great
died at the age of 33, his empire was divided between his four major generals.
So the empire was divided. And the part that affected Israel is that with which we concern ourselves the most. That, of course, was Persia and Egypt, with Israel in the middle. All right, so that was the prophecy, then, of the
third empire, the Greek. Now we come to the fourth,
which follows the Greek, and that is the Roman. And now we find an empire
that, just like the feet of iron and clay was indescribable, so also was
Daniel’s vision. He just can’t describe this fourth and final Gentile Empire.
Daniel 7:7 “After this I saw in the
night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong
exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and
stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was (different or)
diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” Now we know that the vision of
the Medes and the Persians was a two-horned creature. Greece was a one-horned creature. But this fourth beast has ten horns; and, of course, it jumps all
the way over to the end time when the anti-Christ will come out of a ten nation
consortium. All right, so the Roman Empire follows all these three previous
ones. And it was by far more powerful, more fearsome, and more heartless than
any of the rest of them put together. All right, now verse 8. We’ve got to
keep moving. Daniel says: Daniel 7:8a “I considered the horns,
and behold, there came upon them another little horn,…” Now this is
leaping to the Tribulation period. That’s what Scripture does. He’s leaping
all the way from 500 B.C. to wherever time is in front of us as yet—when the
Tribulation will begin with the appearance of this man of sin, the son of
perdition, and all the various terms of Scripture. I think there are twelve of
them, if you search through it. Daniel 7:8b “…there came upon them another
little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns (out of
the ten) plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn (This
anti-Christ, this prince of Daniel chapter 9, the son of perdition in II
Thessalonians chapter 2, the man of sin. All those various terms are dealing
with this anti-Christ that is yet future. He’s still out in front of us. And
here’s his description.) in this horn (in this coming prince) were
eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” All right, let’s just skip
ahead to chapter 11. We pick up a further description of this one little horn
who is the coming anti-Christ in Daniel chapter 11. Drop down to verse 21. Now
all these descriptions of the anti-Christ, whether it’s in the Old Testament,
or whether it’s in Christ’s earthly ministry, or if it’s in the Book of
Revelation. They all depict this coming world ruler, which we feel the whole
global system is being prepared for. Daniel 11:21a “And in his estate shall
stand up a vile person,…” Now, he’s going to be charismatic. In other
words, he’s going to be the kind of a person that the masses will flow to.
They’re going to worship him. But yet he is wicked to the ‘nth’ degree. Daniel 11:21 “And in his estate shall
stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom:
but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom (And I think
it’s basically the European Union. He will obtain--) the kingdom by
flatteries.” What does that tell you? He’s a smooth talker if ever
there was one. He’s going to be an orator. He’s
going to be someone that’s going to be glib with his answers. Nobody’s going
to be able to embarrass him. He is going to just simply bamboozle, if I can use
that word, he’s going to bamboozle the world. They’re literally going to fall
at his feet and acclaim him as the world’s messiah and Israel’s Messiah all wrapped up in one. So, never lose sight of the
fact that this little horn of Daniel chapter 7 is the anti-Christ of the coming
Tribulation period. We’ll pick it up in our next half hour. Okay, program number four for
the afternoon. We’re all back, and we’ll get right on with it so we can get out
on time and be on our way home. For those of you out in television, I trust
you know by now that we put four of these programs together in one afternoon.
If you’re ever in the Tulsa area, we’d love to have you stop by. The food is
all gone, isn’t it? It’s just unbelievable. I went over to see if there was
anything left, and, no, it’s all gone. So, if you want a good afternoon of
snacks and meat from the Word – why, come in and see us. Okay, we’re going to pick right
up where we left off in Daniel chapter 7. Then we’re going to run back to the
New Testament. We’ll get a brief picture, where I’m not getting real in depth.
And again, I always realize that when it comes to these prophetic things, it’s
just like chronology. You can’t find two prophecy guys that agree. Everybody
has their own idea. And I still like to stick
pretty much to the ones I’ve had over the years. I’ve seen no reason to change
a lot. Now, I know with the advent of Islam and the Muslim world, a lot of the
prophecy guys are going in that direction—that the anti-Christ will be Muslim
and all that. But I don’t think so. He may be Muslim, but he will still come
out of a revived Roman Empire, and that, of course, means Western Europe. You
want to remember that Europe is turning Muslim so fast, it’s no problem for
somebody in the European government to be a Muslim. But anyway, the anti-Christ is
probably alive and well. I think so. I think we’re that close. He will never
be made known while we’re here, because he cannot make his move until after the
Church is gone, as II Thessalonians tells us. But we’ll look ahead at him a
little bit. You know, I don’t like to spend a lot of time on these things.
We’re going to be gone in the Rapture anyway. This isn’t what really matters.
It’s all right to have a
cursory knowledge of these things, but don’t get all hung up on those final
seven years—because, after all, we’re gone. One of the most ridiculous
statements I ever got was the guy who wrote, “I can’t agree with you on a
pre-trib Rapture. I want to be here.” Imagine? He can have it! He thought he
wanted to be here to witness it. Well, these kinds of people are so ignorant.
Just as soon as the Church is gone, our Gospel of Grace ends. And that’s the
only Gospel that he would know, I would think. But you see, Jesus made it so
plain in Matthew 24, that when these final seven years start, it will go back
to the Kingdom Gospel, Matthew 24:14, “And this Gospel of the Kingdom
shall be preached in all the world…and then shall the end come.” Well,
when’s the end coming? When the seven years are finished! So somebody of the
Grace persuasion won’t get very far in those seven years. So, it’s ridiculous
to even think in those terms. If you’re saved, you’ll go in the Rapture; if
you’re lost, you will stay. All right, we left off in
Daniel 7. I’ll read it again before we jump into the New Testament and pick up
some more descriptions of this little horn who comes up out of the Ten. Daniel
chapter 7 once again, just to pick up where we left off—verse 8. Daniel saw in verse 7, of
course, a vision of this beast who had ten horns. Now remember, these beasts
are all governments. They’re not wild animals. They’re merely symbolic of
these empires that would be coming, and this last revived Roman Empire would
have ten horns—ten nation states or ten governments. All right, verse 8 again: Daniel 7:8a “I considered the horns,
(in other words, these ten nations) and, behold there came up among them
another little horn, (in the midst of the ten) before whom there
were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots:…” In other words, I think it’s
the three nations that are the smallest in the European Union. I’ve said this
for 35 years, and I see no reason to change. It will be the three little
nations of The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. They’re all three part of
the ten of the European Nations, and I think that they will all of a sudden
just lose their identity. Out of those ten nations, then, will come this man
anti-Christ. Daniel 7:8b “…among them another
little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the
roots: and, behold, in this horn (this coming world leader, the
anti-Christ) were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great
things.” And I made my comment just before the end of the half hour,
that he will be charismatic. He’s going to be a smooth-tongued manipulator.
He’s going to be brilliant, and the world will fall at his feet. All right, come up with me now
into the New Testament. We’ll go to II Thessalonians chapter 2 where is one of
the few instances Paul makes a reference to Old Testament prophecy. But he
hits the nail right on the head, of course, because the Holy Spirit inspired
him to write it. II Thessalonians chapter 2 starting at verse 3 and we’ve
looked at these verses many, many times over the years. II Thessalonians 2:3 “Let no man deceive you
by any means: for that day (That is the beginning of those final seven
years when the peace treaty is signed between Israel and the Muslim world,
brokered by this man anti-Christ.) shall not come, except (or unless)
there come (a departure first) a falling away first, and
that man of sin (See, that was one of his titles in Scripture) and
that man of sin (the one horn of Daniel) be revealed,
(Here’s another title.) the son of perdition;” These are all
titles concerning this man anti-Christ. Now look how Paul describes the son
of perdition. II Thessalonians 3:4a “Who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God, (In other words, the
world is going to forget all about the God of Scripture, and this guy is the
one to whom they’re going to be loyal.) Who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God…” The
anti-Christ will actually be like the Caesars, you know, who claimed Deity.
Only this guy is going to do it even to a greater extent. II Thessalonians 3: 4b “…so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God, (Which, of course, will be reconstructed
in the first three-and-a-half years by virtue of the seven-year peace treaty.)
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, (Which will be rebuilt
in Jerusalem) showing (or letting the world know) himself that
he is God.” All right, now that’s Paul’s
account. Now let’s come back to Revelation chapter 13 and John the Revelator
gives us another description of this same individual. And remember, he will be
a human, born of a woman. But in the middle of the seven years, Satan is going
to indwell him like he did Judas at Christ’s first advent. Revelation 13:1 “(John writes) And
I stood upon the sand of the sea, (a symbolic picture of the sea of
humanity—the teaming billions of the world’s population. And out of the sea of
humanity--) and saw a beast (Now again, this is a symbolic
picture of this political world leader that’s coming.) rise up out of the
sea, (out of humanity) having seven heads and ten horns, and upon
his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” Now, the beast in Revelation I
usually picture as two entities. It can be the government of that final seven
years, and it can be the man anti-Christ. Now here, of course, we’re dealing
with this government with the ten horns and so forth—which I still feel is the
composite of the European Union. And this government that will be coming forth
will have all the vestiges of the previous empires before. I’ve gone over this
a hundred times. The Babylonian was what? The
banking system. The Medes and the Persians were commerce. They are still
known for their carpet production and so forth The Greek Empire was known for
its intellectualism—the arts and the sciences and the architecture and the
literature and so forth. That was all part of the Greek Empire. Well, it’s
still with us. Then the Roman Empire was predominately known for its
democratic form of government and the courts of justice. That’s why Paul, when he
couldn’t make first base there in Israel in Caesarea, who did he appeal to?
Caesar. Why? Because the Roman government prided itself that a man was
innocent until proven guilty. Well, isn’t that our credo. Absolutely! So
where did it all begin? In the Roman Empire. That was unheard of in the first
three empires. So, you have all those attributes of the first four great
Gentile empires coming together now in a revived Roman Empire. And I feel it’s
headed up by the European Union. That’s why I said, thirty-some years ago,
that the Euro would appear and it would go right by the dollar. Well, it did.
And it still is. And now, I think, we’re probably headed to a completely new
global currency, but that’s neither here nor there. But here in chapter 13, we have
the appearance, first, of the seven year government out of which will come this
great world despot. All right, so now in verse 2: Revelation 13:2 “And the beast which I
saw was like unto a leopard, (the vestiges of the Greek Empire) and
his feet were as the feet of a bear, (the remains of the Medes and the
Persians) and his mouth as the mouth of a lion (the remains of
the Babylonian): and the dragon (Satan) gave
him his power, and his throne, and great authority.” But now,
remember, who is Sovereign above Satan? Well, God is. God is still the One
that’s in control. So this man will come into authority and power and satanic
indwelling by virtue of God’s Sovereignty. All right, now in order to see
how Satan is going to indwell this individual, back up a page or two in
Revelation to chapter 12. Now, these are things that are hard to take except
by faith. You cannot put two and two together and make it make sense, because
it’s not the way we normally consider these things. But the Word of God says
it, and that’s what we have to go by. Revelation chapter 12 and we’re at the
midpoint. That’s obvious because of verses 5 and 6, so at the midpoint of
those final seven years, verse 7: Revelation 12:7-8 “And there was war in
heaven: (Who would ever think of war in the Glories of Heaven? But
there’s going to be.) Michael and his angels fought against the dragon;
(Who’s the dragon? Satan.) and the dragon (or Satan) fought
and his angels, (in other words, all his demonic hordes) 8. And prevailed
not; neither was their place (that is Satan and his demons) found
any more in heaven.” And here’s why. Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was
cast out, (out of heaven) that old serpent, called the Devil, and
Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his
angels were cast out with him.” Now, just to make this more
believable, come all the way back to the Book of Job—which is probably one of
the first portions of Scripture put to print. Job. You all know the account.
But again, I want to have you see it with your own eyes. The Book of Job
chapter 1 verse 6—I trust you all know them, but let’s look at it. Now, why am
I coming back here? That Satan has access to heaven. Job 1:6 “Now there was a day when
the sons of God (Which in this case, we feel, were the angelic hosts.)
came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.” You
see that? In other words, when God is having a conference with his angelic
hosts, old Satan is in the midst of them. Verse 7: Job 1:7-8a “And the LORD said unto
Satan, Whence comest thou? (Where’d you come from?) Then Satan
answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from
walking up and down in it. 8. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou
considered my servant Job,…” All I want you to see, was that Satan was
already having access into the heavenlies clear back here at the time of Job. All right, come back with me
quickly, then, to Revelation chapter 12. Now at the midpoint of the
Tribulation: Revelation 12:9b-10a “…Satan was cast out into
the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10. And I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God,…”
I’ve been emphasizing throughout these last years of television that there’s
coming an earthly kingdom over which Jesus Christ will rule and reign. Well,
at this point now in Scripture, it’s just three-and-a-half years away. Revelation 12:10b “…Now is come salvation,
and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: (Why?)
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, (That is, out of
heaven.) who accuseth them before our God day and night.” Now that’s hard for us to
comprehend. But I have taught it before, and I’ll say it again—every time one
of us sins, who points it out to God? Satan does. He’s right there, “See what
your servant just did?” He’s a constant accuser of you and me as believers.
All right, now verse 11. Revelation 12:11-12 “And they overcame him by
the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not
their lives unto the death. 12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that
dwell in them. Woe (Now watch this carefully.) to the inhabiters
of the earth and of the sea! For the devil (Satan) is come down
unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short
time.” How long? Three-and-half years. Now, isn’t it evident that at
the midpoint of the Tribulation he’s cast out of heaven knowing he only has
three-and-a-half years left? He’s going to pour out everything of his vile and
his power and his hatred, particularly to the nation of Israel, but to humanity in general. That’s why I, many times, make the statement that the
Tribulation’s last three-and-a-half years, which Psalms calls the wrath and
vexation of God, is also the wrath and vexation of Satan. So, it’s
double-barreled. It’s a doubled-barreled attack on planet earth by virtue of
this satanic being. All right, now when he comes
down to the earth, he’s going to indwell this man anti-Christ. That’s where
he’ll get his power according to this verse in chapter 13. Now then, come back
to Revelation 13 verse 2, repeated. Revelation 13:2 “And the beast which I
saw was like unto a leopard, (This is the empire. The government has
all, like I said earlier, the vestiges of the previous four.) and his
feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a
lion: and the dragon (Satan) gave him his power, and his throne,
and great authority.” So, Satan is going to indwell him just like he
did Judas of old. Revelation 13:3 “And I saw one of his
heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the
world wondered (or were amazed) after the beast.” And
now, of course, we’re not talking about the empire; we’re talking about the
individual. Revelation 13:4-5a “And they worshipped the
dragon (Satan) who gave power unto the beast: (the man
anti-Christ) and they worshipped the beast (anti-Christ),
saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with
him? 5. And there was given unto him a mouth…” Remember what Daniel
said—he will come speaking flatteries. He has the wherewithal to speak
fluently. Revelation 13:5 “And there was given unto
him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; (He’s satanic to the
core, remember.) and power (first, from Satan; but sovereignly
under God) was given unto him to continue forty and two months.”
See, that’s why I can definitely say this is the middle of the seven years.
Because what’s forty-two months? Three-and-a-half years. And he’s going to
continue until the end, which is the end of the seven years. Revelation 13:6 “And he opened his mouth
in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them
that dwell in heaven.” See, that’s what Daniel foretold at first, and
the Lord Jesus repeated it in Matthew 24. And that is in the middle of the
seven years. I think we’ve got time. Go
back to Daniel a minute, so that you’ll see where I’m coming from. Go back to
Daniel. Jump ahead a couple of chapters from where we are, and go to chapter
9. These are verses I think most of my listeners are aware of. That in the
middle of the week, that final seven years that as yet has not been
consummated—it’s still out there in the future regardless of what some of these
scoffers may say. The prince that shall come up there in verse 26-- Daniel 9:27 “And he shall confirm
(or make) the covenant (or a treaty) with many (It
will involve Israel and the whole Arab world—the whole Middle East.) for
one week: (Or seven years—it will be a seven-year treaty. But here’s
the kicker. Here’s the whole clue.) and in the midst of the week
(or at the end of three-and-a-half years) he shall cause the sacrifice
and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall
make it (that is the restored Temple in Jerusalem) desolate, (He
will defile it.) even until the consummation, (in other words,
the end of those three-and-a-half years) and that determined (In
other words, everything that’s been prophesied.) shall be poured upon the
desolator.” All right now, that’s the horn
that we talked of in chapter 6. Now back to Revelation 13. This is the man
anti-Christ in all of his satanic power. And with that power, of course, he’s
going to just literally get the world to fall at his feet. All right, back to
Revelation 13 So here, again, is a reference to that rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. He’s going to blaspheme—verse 6. Revelation 13:6b-7 “…to blaspheme the name
of God, and his tabernacle, (In other words, the Temple that had been
operating for three-and-a-half years. He shuts it down. But he’s also going
to blaspheme the--) and them that dwell in heaven. 7. And it was given
unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given
him over all kindreds, and tongues, (or languages and dialects) and
nations.” In other words, he’s going to have total control of the
whole world’s population. Now, I had a fellow in the
business world tell me already two years ago, that the world now has computer
capability of giving a bio—about a one page biography—of every human being on
earth. All seven billion of them. So he will have total control of every individual
and will be able to track them. You know, this is mind-boggling, and yet it
shouldn’t be any more when we see the technology that’s exploding around us. All right, so he’s going to
have total political power under the satanic power, but still under God’s
Sovereignty. All right, now verse 8 and, listen, when you see what is
happening right here in our own country; my, this isn’t hard to believe. This
next verse: Revelation 13:8a “And all that dwelleth
upon the earth shall (What?) worship him,...” Why?
They’ll think he’s the messiah. Israel is going to take him as the Messiah,
and the rest of the world will fall in suit. So they’ll worship him, those who
have never become believers. Revelation 13:8b-9 “…whose names are not
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world. 9. If any man have an ear, let him hear.” Wake up! Be aware
of what’s taking place in the world now-a-days. We are in exciting times, no
doubt about it. Now then verse 10: Revelation 13:10 “He that leadeth into
captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be
killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”
This world ruler with absolute power, almost like Nebuchadnezzar of old, will
be ruling planet earth at least for the last three-and-a-half years. Now, he
will be evident in the first three-and-a-half, but not with the satanic power.
He’s going to be more or less doing it on his own. But he’s still going to be
something to be dealt with through the first three-and-a-half years. All right, then his “sidekick,”
if I can call it that, is in chapter 11. And that is another beast, or
another human personality, coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a
lamb, but speaks also as a dragon. We call this individual, then, the False
Prophet. Now where we get the title is in chapter 19. I think we’ve got time
to look over there a minute. So these two men working in consort, under the
power of Satan, will literally control planet earth. All right, we pick them
up in their end in Revelation 19 verse 20. Then we’re going to close. Revelation 19:20a “And the beast
(the man anti-Christ) was taken, and with him the false prophet…”
The one with the two horns like the lamb—he is a religious leader under the
world religion that’s coming. Revelation 19:20b “…These were both cast
alive into a lake of fire burning with fire and brimstone.” So those
are the two major characters of those final seven years—the Beast anti-Christ,
and the False Prophet.LESSON ONE * PART I
DANIEL: PART I
Daniel 1:1 – 2:39
LESSON ONE * PART II
STUDY of DANIEL – PART 1
Daniel 1:1 - 2:39
LESSON ONE * PART III
DANIEL – Part 1
Daniel 1:1 - 2:39
LESSON ONE * PART IV
DANIEL – PART I
Daniel 1:1 - 2:39
LESSON TWO * PART I
DANIEL - PART II
Daniel 2:40-4:25
LESSON TWO * PART II
DANIEL – PART II
Daniel 2:1- 4:25
LESSON TWO * PART III
DANIEL – PART II
Daniel 2:1- 4:25
LESSON TWO * PART IV
DANIEL – PART II
Daniel 2:1 - 4:25
LESSON THREE * PART I
DANIEL – PART III
Daniel 4:26 – 7:8
LESSON THREE * PART II
DANIEL – PART III
Daniel 4:26 – 7:8
LESSON THREE * PART III
DANIEL – PART III
Daniel 4:26 – 7:8
LESSON THREE * PART IV
DANIEL – PART III
Daniel 4:26 – 7:8
Copyright © 2009 Les Feldick Ministries. All rights reserved.