History Is in God’s Hands
“Daniel’s Determined Destiny”
Daniel 1:1-21
Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor
By now, every Christian should realize this year’s presidential election involves a lot more than the basic, philosophical differences between the two candidates and the political parties they represent.
- This election is about whether America will remain a nation under God, as it was founded for His purposes, or will become a nation under Satan, to be used for His purposes.
- This election is about the introduction, or the delay of the New World Order, which means it is about the rapture of the Church, the rise of the Antichrist, and the beginning of the Tribulation.
- I believe there is sufficient evidence to prove the 2020 election will be remembered as the greatest fraud in our nation’s history.
- The globalists are determined to take over America, abolish the few civil liberties we have left, and transform us into a Marxist-Socialist nation.
Having faced this reality, several additional questions must be asked and answered:
- Seeing our society totally saturated in sexual immorality, are we at the last stage of a dying culture as the Apostle Paul outlined in Romans 1:18-32?
- Seeing the spiritual weakness of the evangelical church, are God’s people being chastised for their apathy toward spiritual things and He is using these events to call us to repentance?
- Seeing many other major biblical prophecies being fulfilled around the world, are we at the end of the Church-Age, with the rapture as the next event on God’s prophetic calendar?
- Seeing the specific global activity Jesus described in Matthew 24, and in Luke 21, including the “distress of nations, with perplexity,” could it be all of the above?
- Perhaps the most important question we must ask ourselves is found in 2 Peter 3:11:
- “Therefore, seeing all these things, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?”
The prophet Daniel was taken captive to Babylon when he was 14-years old.
- God allowed Daniel to be removed from every form of spiritual structure he had depended upon his whole life.
- He was removed from his family, the temple, the annual feasts and celebrations, and the godly atmosphere of living in the Holy City of Jerusalem.
- God allowed Daniel to be taken to Babylon, and to live among the most ungodly people in the world in that day.
- However, God enabled Daniel to continue to live for God in an ungodly environment.
- Daniel was chosen by God to show God’s people of every generation:
- How to live in the present, but keep their focus on the future.
- How to live in the midst of evil, but keep their focus on what life will be like in the ages to come.
- How to avoid being drawn into the ever-increasing level of evil by keeping their focus on the glorious kingdom which is soon to come.
1. Daniel’s Dilemma – Daniel 1:1-7
- Daniel wrote this material when he was about 50-years into his servitude in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar.
- While the invasion of Israel by the Babylon armies was a major victory for Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, Daniel said it was God who had given Judah into the king’s hands, as the evidence of His loving discipline over His people, and therefore His sovereignty over the events of history.
- In Deuteronomy 28, God told the Israelites, if they ever strayed from Him, He would send them into exile, and He did.
- He had warned them through Isaiah and Jeremiah, but they had not heeded the warning of the prophets.
- In Jeremiah 24, God told them they had ignored the Sabbath Day for years; that, in fact, their 70-years of captivity was His way of reclaiming the Sabbaths Israel had neglected and violated.
- What the Jews refused to learn about God in their freedom, they would have to learn from Him in their captivity.
- Daniel and his friends faced:
- A crisis of authority – they were to be indoctrinated with the Babylonian culture, which included the godless philosophies of superstition, astrology, sorcery, charms, witchcraft, spells, and black magic; subjects forbidden to be studied by their fathers, as well as their Rabbis.
- A crisis of morality – they were to be fed foods that were forbidden by their Jewish dietary laws.
- A crisis of identity – their names were changed to separate them from their Jewish culture, and they were to learn the “tongue of the Chaldeans.”
- Nebuchadnezzar’s four-fold strategy was:
- Isolation – separating them from their families and their daily disciplines that reflected their devotion to God.
- Indoctrination – saturating their minds in the culture of Babylon to give them a new world view.
- Accommodation – allowing them to see how all of their needs could be fulfilled apart from their God.
- Transformation – changing their names to remind them they were under the authority of a Chaldean King and the Chaldean gods.
- However, Nebuchadnezzar’s goal was not achieved in Daniel.
- God gave Daniel the ability to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and to interpret the words that appeared on his son’s wall.
- God gave Daniel the ability to describe the four world kingdoms that would follow the Babylonian kingdom, and in so doing, he established the biblical timeline of human history.
- God entrusted Daniel with the complete, panoramic vision of His unfolding plan for our redemption.
Daniel’s Decision – Daniel 1:8-21
2. Daniel made a four-fold decision:
- It was a heart decision – Vs 8 – Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not recant his faith in the God of Israel.
- It was an individual decision – Vs 8 – some of the other captives had given in to their captors, but Daniel and his friends had not.
- It was an influential decision – Vs 10 – Daniel revealed his leadership skills by encouraging those who had not yet given in to stand firm in their faith in God.
- It was a humble decision – Vs 8-16 – even though Daniel had godly values and strong convictions, he expressed himself before the Babylonians in a humble and respectful way.
- Rather than simply refuse to obey his captors, Daniel designed an alternative method to accomplish their goals, and it was accepted.
Because of Daniel’s decision to remain faithful unto his God:
- God honored Daniel’s faith by giving him and his friends the gifts of knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.
- Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaria were found to be ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers in the king’s realm.
- Daniel’s friends were chosen to serve the king.
- Daniel rose to the level of statesmen, and by official appointment, he served as confidant and prophet in both the Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires.
- Daniel adjusted to what he perceived to be God’s will, and he used every opportunity to exalt the name of His God.
- God exalted Daniel, even in the eyes of the ungodly, as he told “the Magi” (Persian magicians) about the “star in the East” that would indicate the birth of our Savior.
