Shall we? Lord, we want to thank you that we're coming to your word. This wonderful book, this wonderful prophetic book, which many people have wrestled with, many commentators have written many books on. We ask that you will draw near to us this evening as we ponder on it, And Lord, tonight and over these coming weeks, may our hearts be just caught up in awe about how great you are and about your plan that will be fulfilled. So we just ask you to speak for we're listening. Amen. Just to let you know that if all goes to plan, that's a big if, all the Bible studies will be recorded now and put up online so that if you miss any, hopefully, Lord willing, you'll be able to go back and get the recording of them. Anyway, we're going to move into Daniel. We're going to start on the book of Daniel. I hope you've been reading it. I hope you've been digesting it. I hope you've been excited by it, because I know I have. I always am. Daniel is one of those books that just seems to get you. Before I read, I just wanna give a, tonight's gonna be, we are gonna look at a couple of verses, but we're more gonna be introductory in nature, because I believe we have to understand the structure of the book of Daniel. before we actually get into the book of Daniel, okay? So this is gonna be a bit of an introductory session, but I think it's very important, and I learned a lot in doing this. But as we approach the book of Daniel, and when you read Daniel, I wonder what your first impressions are. I wonder what springs to mind, especially when you get to chapter 7 and beyond. I wonder what springs, what your first impressions are. I wonder what questions come to mind when you read through Daniel. I wonder what your thoughts are there. Many people sort of, while they find the first six chapters more understandable, they tend to focus more on the second half, and they get so caught up with all the prophetic, which we will get there sometime next year. I wonder what objections, if any, you have concerning Daniel. That's not a question you're asked very often, especially in a bad... a Bible study, but as you've read Daniel, I wonder what objections you have. I wonder perhaps what things you may have heard people critique Daniel. I'm hoping as we go through it, we'll attack some of those, we'll confront some of those, and we're gonna let the Holy Spirit speak to us. We're not gonna try and come and force anything in this scripture. We're gonna try and see what God has to say to us out of scripture. Because in these passing days, I've got so excited about Daniel and Revelations in these past days. Especially when I've been thinking about the digital ID card and everything else and how it all works out in the prophetic world and the fulfillment of prophecies and all the rest. I think these things, as Christians, we have to engage with. So we're gonna see what Daniel has to say to each and every one of us as we go through. Now, you will remember when we did the book of Jonah, I was saying that Daniel is a very important Old Testament book. In fact, when we were studying the book of Jonah, our attention was drawn to the fact that Daniel is one of the three Old Testament books which could be said that Satan especially hates. Okay, just as a point of recap, we have Genesis. Satan hates Genesis. With the youth, we had a quick fly through 11 chapters. I know that sounds like a miracle, but it was. And we've seen how they are the most debated chapters of all of Scripture, because it is believed that in the first 11 chapters is the seedbed for all the doctrines that we have throughout the rest of Scripture. For example, in chapter three, we've got the prediction of the incarnation of Christ, how Christ would come, the seed of a woman, and he would crush Satan's head. So you've got that whole prediction of his incarnation and the fact that there would be victories through the cross. Jonah talks about his death and points to the resurrection, along with Isaiah, points to his death, the type of death, but also the resurrection. And of course, Daniel, He predicts the second coming of Christ. Daniel is very keen to predict, and we'll see this at some point when we get to Daniel 7. Especially Daniel 7, he focuses on the second coming of Christ. So Genesis, Jonah, and Daniel are three books that basically cover the whole life and ministry of Christ and the second coming. And I think we have to understand this. And so while we're dealing with a book here, and I'm hoping that we will not get a how-to in how to interpret Daniel, and especially the prophetic elements. Because I've heard some wonderful, weird and wonderful interpretations of Daniel in my day. What I want us to do is be in awe of a sovereign God working out his plan and we'll see this as we go through the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel is one of the books in the Old Testament scriptures that is quoted or alluded to in most of the New Testament writings. We don't often think that, we always think about the law, sort of Leviticus or Numbers or even the Ten Commandments. But Daniel is alluded to, it's one of the Old Testament book scriptures that is quoted or alluded to in most of the New Testament writings. According to the Index of the United Bible Society, in the Greek New Testament, Daniel is quoted five times and is alluded to or echoed some 130 times. So we see the importance of Daniel. where the book that we are looking at is not just gonna be something that was there, not something about the empires that have come and gone. This is a book that is crucial, especially when we get to the second coming, and we will be looking at that because that is crucial. So I wanna read, I want us to base, obviously, in Scripture, this is very important, we're here to study Daniel, so I wanna read Daniel chapter one, verses one and two, And verse 21, Daniel chapter one verses one and two and verse 21. And it says this. Because the bits that we're gonna look at is to do with history, okay? I think this is very important. We see this as a book that is birthed in history. So Daniel chapter one, starting at verse one, says this. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. and the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God which he carried into the land of Sinai to the house of his God and he brought the articles into the into the treasure house of his God. And verse 21 says this, thus Daniel continued until the first reign, or the first year of King Cyrus. This is an important aspect. I wanted to read this because this, grinds the book of Daniel in history, okay, a specific part of history. And we're gonna unpack some of that as we go through. There is a contradiction already that some will see, and especially as we go through, that Daniel chapter one says he was there, he continued until the first year, but later on in the book, it talks about the third year of King Cyrus. So the keen eyed would say, is that not a contradiction? And my answer to that would be, no. Just because it said he continued there could have meant he worked there until he retired in the first year of King Cyrus and actually died in the third year of King Cyrus. Cyrus, so it's not a contradiction. It's just how in one area where he worked or ministered and one and the other one is about where his life Came to an end or his physical life came to an end. I may I may say but the date of authorship I want to put this in I think this is very important. The scholars have argued over this. The Daniel, I believe, was written around 536 BC. 536 BC. That is, if you're one of those scholar types and you're doing a lot of reading and studying, that is approximately 69 years into the exile, the Babylonian exile. So the book of Daniel, I believe, with the studies I've been doing, was written 69 years into the exile. And I'll tell you why that's important unless you already know, but we'll get there at some point. While the book of Daniel records the passage of four empires and the coming of the Lord, the book itself deals with two of the empires it refers to. So while when we get into sort of chapters two and four, and we see the great visions of these great empires, these four great empires and then the fifth, the kingdom, God's kingdom, it only deals with two. The Babylonian and the Medes and the Persians. And again, we'll cross this. But I wanted to birth this so that if you're a history buff, you can go back and you can look at this. Because this is real living history, as it were. Daniel records. for us. So Daniel was between, and this is roughly all these dates and ages are roughly because nobody can really say pinpoint exactly, but Daniel was around 83 to 86 years old when he died. And that's depending on the age he was taken into captivity, because again, there's a debate. How young was he when he was taken into captivity? Some say he was 13. Some say he was a bit older. But depending on when he was taken into captivity, some say he was around between 83 to 86 when he died. So you're talking about Daniel, the end of Daniel 6. Daniel is 86 years old. I want you to get that. In six chapters, we will have spanned 70 years, okay? And I think that's something we miss, because we tend to look at Daniel and we tend to go through it like it's happening each week, when it's not. Sometimes there's years gaps in between each chapter. The author, I believe, wholeheartedly is Daniel. Daniel refers to himself five times when he uses the first person pronouns like I, me, and my. So I believe he wrote it because he's speaking from a first-hand, first-person perspective. And again, all these will discuss Daniel's visions and experiences. And I believe also that Daniel wrote it because Jesus said so. Jesus ascribed the authorship of this book to Daniel. We read about that in Matthew 24 verse 15. So again, I stand on good ground, not just because of the scholars, but because of Christ. Christ said, Daniel wrote it. That's good enough for me, but also the scholarship will back up what Christ said. And Daniel wrote the book. So we're going to see here four historical facts or four historical points of reference at the very start of the book. And again, I don't mean to labor these points, but this excited me. And this will show you why this is important, the rest of the book, and what God is doing. The first point is in the third year of Jehoiakim's reign. That's the first. If you make underline stuff in your Bible, underline that. If you take notes, write it down. The third year of Jehoiakim's reign, the second historical font is Nebuchadnezzar. It highlights the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. So that means you can go back into your history books and look for this king, Nebuchadnezzar. The third historical fact is Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem. It talks here in these two verses of how Nebuchadnezzar attacks and lays siege to Jerusalem and will capture Jerusalem. And we'll take some of the temple utensils off to put them in the treasury. And here's something I didn't notice until recently. They turn up again in chapter 5. Interestingly. I'd never noticed that. But here, right at the very beginning, when I believe Daniel is around 13 or 14, The Nebuchadnezzar takes some of the ones like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and a few other ones of noble birth, and some of the utensils from God's temple, and takes them off into Babylon. And again, it highlights something that I think is very But we'll not dwell, we'll not build on it until next week. But he says he puts it in the temple of his God. So the things that should have been set aside for the honour of the one true God is put into the temple of a false God. What disgrace and shame that must have been. And then the fourth thing I want us to look at is King Cyrus. It says the first year of his reign, and that's in chapter one, verse 21. And by the end of the book, it says about the third year. of King Cyrus. And that's why I said, I don't believe it's a contradiction. I just believe the first one is when Daniel stops service, stop ministry within the courts. And the second one was when he finally went to be with his Lord. So that's where we go. That's the four historical elements. Within this, one of the exciting things, and I hope you see it throughout the whole book, is this. We see a sovereign act. It says in verse 2, the Lord gave. The Lord gave. And I think this is very important for us to understand because I do not believe that anything happens by accident. I do not believe that anything can happen that God does not already know about. I do not believe that anything can happen that God isn't aware of. God is sovereign, he knows all things. As we looked at his omniscience some weeks ago, here we see God's sovereignty and his omniscience. He knows these things, the Lord gave, because as we will see, the rebellious act of Judah, he sent them into captivity. So here, I want us to build this out, because I think it is very important we see where we're going with this. I want to try and give you the picture, as it were, the heart of God. We have just a quick journey through the kingdom. We have the United Kingdom. We're not talking about Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We're talking about King David and what's known as the United Kingdom, when it was one kingdom, all the tribes together. You had King Saul, King David, and then King Solomon. King Solomon married a lot of women, built a lot of temples for their gods. And then we're told that from about 931, there was the divided kingdom. That's when it split both the north and the south kingdoms. And in the northern kingdom, it was from 931. Well, the whole divided kingdom stage is from about 931 BC to 606 BC. The Northern Kingdom, again I get carried away with a few statistics, so forgive me if I bore you, but this is an exciting thing for me. It lasted, that was the ten tribes, or it's also known as Israel or Ephraim, it lasted 210 years. So it ended at 721 BC, and it was captured by the Assyrians. It was taken into captivity by the Assyrians. In fact, it was dispersed. That's why they're known as the Lost Tribes of Israel, or the Diaspora. They were dispersed, and they never actually came back. They never actually returned from that. Within this Northern Kingdom, you have 19 rulers, 19 kings. All are bad. Not one of them was good. As I said, it consisted of 10 tribes. It's capital was Samaria, we looked at that on Sunday night. It was captured by and dispersed by Assyrians at 721 BC and there was no return. The southern kingdom on the other hand, it lasted for 345 years. So it ended around 606-605 BC, depending on who you read, until it was completely captured and exiled by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar. The southern kingdom had 20 rulers, 20 kings. Do you know how many of them were good? Eight. Eight good kings. Well, in fact, some of those eight started good, but didn't end very well. But it's generally believed there were eight good kings. They were Asia, Jehoshaphat, Johannes, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jothan, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Those were the good kings of the southern kingdom. assisted of the two remaining tribes, its capital was Jerusalem. The city was sieged and the first wave, and we have to grab hold of this, there were three exiles. The first wave was around, depending on who you read, was in about 605 B.C. and they were taken into Babylon. The second wave was in 586 B.C. and the third wave was in 582 B.C. and if you want to read about that, you can read about that in Jeremiah chapter 52 verses 28 to 30. So again, this isn't just all scholarly stuff, this is biblical stuff. Jeremiah states that Babylon attacked Jerusalem three times. And I don't know about you, but every time I read Daniel, or every time I heard someone teach on Daniel, it always seemed to be there was one exile. But there wasn't. There was three. And I think it's very important. And again, the statistics will change between how many exactly were taken into captivity. I'm not going to go down that route because it's very hard to pinpoint. Just like there were three exiles, there were three separate returns. And again, I'm trying to give you the overview of scripture here to show you how Daniel fits in this scripture. The first return was in 538 BC under Zerubbabel. I love that name, Zerubbabel. Just sounds so good, doesn't it? Zerubbabel. The second one was in 458 BC under Ezra. You read his book. And the third one was in 445 BC under Nehemiah. So you have three returns under Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah. All with a particular task that they were coming to do. The first return focused on building the second temple. That's the temple we have at the minute. It's known as the second temple period because they built the second temple. We read about that in Ezra chapters 1 to 6. We see here in this area we have the prophets Haggai and Zechariah who prophesy around this time. And the events of Esther. You remember that story, Esther? They take place around this time too. I think it's very important, this whole concept of Purim, that feast of Purim that the Jews go through, it's all based around this time, especially in the Medes and the Persians. So around the first return, first, second return, Esther fits in there. The second return was aimed to restore the Torah, the law, and to ensure pure worship in the temple. We read about that in Ezra chapter seven through 10. And the third return focused on the building of the walls. I think that's a wonderful concept here. The prophet Malachi ministered around this time, and he was a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah. So here you get Daniel and the events that are happening in Daniel impact and can be read throughout other aspects of the Old Testament. And I believe we have to learn to read these books in context or in how they fit into the other writings. These things are important. Egypt, I think one of the things we must understand is how it was captured. Egypt was trying to flex its muscles. And I believe it was in the film Gladiator, the first one, that they talked about the war of Gargamesh. And this is where Babylon defeated Egypt. And once they had defeated Egypt, on the way back home, Nebuchadnezzar decided to pop in and subdue Judah. And that's when the first siege happened around 605 BC. Again, all this is recorded in Jeremiah chapter 46. So Josiah had been killed at Megiddo in 609 BC, and in the fourth year of Jehoiachin's reign in 605, Daniel was deported when he was still a boy. And I stress this, when he was still a boy. I don't know about you, but again, whenever I've heard this taught, whenever I've heard it said in the past, I always told you he was a young man. But a lot of scholars believe he was a boy, a teenage boy. So Daniel, Hananiah, Miguel, and Azariah were all teenagers. which speaks to me, challenges me, and how are we preparing our young people, should anything happen, for example, like happened in Daniel, that they could stand and be a Daniel. Could, have we invested enough in our people, in our young people, that they would be like Daniel at the age of 13 and be able to stand up to an emperor on behalf of God? This is the question. These are the challenges that are coming to me as we've looked at Daniel. This is the real life implication of Daniel. Depending on who you read, Babylon was around 900 miles walk from Jerusalem, depending which way they took. It's roughly around 900 miles, give or take 100 miles. Does anybody know where Babylon is today? modern day Iraq. That's where Babylon is. So whenever you hear what's happening in the Middle East and Iraq pops its head up, you think of Daniel. Okay, so this isn't something that's gone off in the annals of history that is not relevant. We still see a lot of turmoil in the Middle East. One of the things I love about this passage, does anybody know the famous song that came out of Psalm 137? by the rivers of Babylon where we sat down. Sung by some weird group actually, anyway. Can you picture it? Can you picture Daniel and his three friends or even a few more that were with him by the rivers of Babylon singing that? Hoping for Jerusalem, yearning for Jerusalem. It puts a whole new context about the Psalm as well. That this was a cry of desire to go back to Jerusalem, even though we will say the prophecy was that they weren't going to be coming back until 70 years was up. The exciting thing about this, and I touched on this earlier one of the other weeks, was this, that in captivity, Ezekiel turned up in Babylon. I'd never come across that. Nobody had ever really told me that. Nobody really showed me the connection. But Ezekiel, we have, he was talking about how in Ezekiel chapter one, God is still on the throne. He's prophesying, but then when he's taken into captivity, he starts to prophesy great prophecies of hope. I want to give you the first one, one of the first ones he prophesied. Son of man, can these bones live again? Can you picture that? He's going around the streets and babbling on, speaking to the Jews, he's prophesying to the Jewish people and he's saying, God has said, can these bones live again? So it's a concept that God isn't finished with the people yet. God is going to breathe new life into them. God was giving Ezekiel this message of hope to share with the people, even in Babylon. And in Ezekiel 47, that Israel was still going to be used by God to fulfill his global purpose. Again, can you picture this? That in the middle of captivity, That Ezekiel is saying, don't worry, Israel is still going to be used by God. God hasn't thrown you away. God hasn't discarded you. You're still of use. And all this is the historical context that we see here in the first two verses that is just mentioned. It's just sort of skated over very quickly. This is the history that we have. So Ezekiel was placed by God to minister among the people in exile. And Daniel, who had been there for some nine years by the time Ezekiel turned up, he was placed by God in the palace to minister to the royal court, the Gentiles, the pagan kings, the Magi. We've come across those before, haven't we? The Magi. So here you've got God working on two fronts. Ezekiel is there prophesying to the guy on the street, the Jew on the street. And Daniel and the ones that we know as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are in the palace ministering to the royal court. So God's at work in both areas. We are unsure if they knew each other, so we can't really be aware of that. Daniel chapters 1 to 5, someone said is we have around 66 years spanning this time. So within the first five or so chapters, you've got around 66 years. Again, let's not take that as rigid. That's a ballpark figure. But Daniel is, by the end of chapter 5, you're nearing the end of the exile. And that's crucial to remember. But you may say, but Rodney, there's still another seven chapters in the book to write. What do you mean? Is he not going to write those? Well, we'll see when we get to those. I want us to, I keep saying there's 70 years and I think it's very important to understand that Jeremiah states in chapter 28 that, I think it's also in 2 Kings, yeah 2 Kings 24 as well, this prophet Hananiah said to the king, don't worry, you're gonna go into captivity, but it's only gonna be for a couple of years. Don't build houses, don't get a job, don't get married, don't unpack, because you'll be home quickly. And Jeremiah walked up and went, that's a lie. God says 70 years. 70 years, so settle down, build homes, Get married, give your sons and daughters in marriage, 70 years before you return. And that's crucial to put in context because again, when we get to, I think it's around Daniel 9, it says that Daniel was reading the prophet Jeremiah and realised that's where this is coming from. So again, I'm trying to draw connections so that this isn't a big shock when we get to where we're going. So all these prophets are linked. There's a mesh happening. God's at work in different levels through Ezekiel, Jeremiah, in the life of Daniel, and then we'll see him in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and others. Daniel's right in the middle of it all. I'm trying to get you to get excited about this book, because this is a fantastic book. For me, it just throws open the doors to all that God is doing. Again, I had so many more dates, but I'll not bore you with dates. The structure of the book of Daniel, very important. Again, this really struck me. The structure of the book of Daniel, I am going to amaze you with wisdom. It's divided into two sections, chapters 1-6 and chapters 5-12. Are you impressed by that? No, there's a bit more to that than just that. But it is. Chapters 1 to 6 are historical. Chapter 7 through to chapters 12 is prophetic. That's basically the structure, the broad structure of the book. Many people are comfortable with the first six chapters, even though they don't like the thought of being put in a fairy furnace or a lion's den. But they're happy with that because you know, we're there, it's sort of people in history. The second half we're not so comfortable with because it's prophetic, but again, I think it's a wonderful thing to get. The book, again, somebody once wrote, the book is one of the most important prophetical books in all, in the Old Testament, and is indispensable as an introduction to New Testament prophecy, dealing with the times of the Gentiles. You'll come across this in the New Testament in Luke chapter 21. It talks about the times of the Gentiles. Daniel deals with that. So I'm trying to show you that a lot of stuff that we will touch is not just one-off. This is something that is flowing through all the rest of the scriptures. It shows the manifestation of the man of sin, the great tribulation, the second coming of Christ, the resurrection and judgments. Well, if we get through all that, we'll be going well. Daniel's vision encompasses the whole period of the Gentile world rule to its destruction and the setting up of the messianic kingdom. Okay, so if I could put it like this, in a simple way, from the ascension of Christ through to the second coming of Christ, we're living in the time of Daniel. Because Daniel deals with this. Daniel's speaking into this. So I'm trying to paint you pictures that will get you, when you get into the book, you're going, wow, this is like us. This could be us, because it deals with a wide spectrum of stuff. So as I said, the book of Daniel has two halves, chapters 1 to 6, chapters 7 to 12. But here's the interesting thing about the rest of it. I'm going to break it down a bit more, because I believe this will help us as we approach how we understand the book. Chapter 1 is written in Hebrew. Chapter 1 is written in Hebrew. Chapters 2 through to 7 are written in Aramaic, and chapter 8 through to 12 is written in Hebrew. Okay, so there's two languages in the book of Daniel, Hebrew and Aramaic, and I believe there is a reason for that. Okay, so chapter one, in Hebrew. Chapters two to seven, Aramaic. Chapters eight to 12, in Hebrew. And if you've spotted it, most of the prophetic is in Hebrew. God speaking to the Jewish people. But again, I just want you to put that out there because many times we attack it and we fail to see the importance of even the linguistic breakdown of this. Again, we can go even further than this. And again, if you're taking notes, great. If you get a chance to hear it on recording, if it's being recorded, think this one through. We have, in one sentence, you can break it all down in a pair, well, one triplet. is this. Even though chapter 1 is an introduction, it lays the groundwork. Chapters 1, 3 and 6 run through a particular theme. If you took time to read them you would see it. Chapters 1, 3 and 6 all deal with a particular aspect, a particular theme. Chapters 2 and 7 deal with a particular theme. And chapters 4 and 5 deal with two kings and how they dealt with their pride. The rest of it is prophetic. And as I said, it's written in Hebrew. So I've tried to show you as we go through this. We'll go through it as it's written, and I'll try and bring you back to how chapters may have overlapped or whatever. But I want you to see this. The chapters, if I could put it down like this, chapters one, three, and six deal with how we stand and our witness as Christians. 1, 3, and 6. Chapters 2 and 7 deal with prophecy, the four empires, and then the kingdom of God. And chapters 4 and 5 deal with Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar and their particular pride and how each one responded differently to God. So this is how the structure of the book breaks down. And as we We see a God dealing with the Hebrews. We see God dealing with the Gentiles in different ways. We see God at work getting the glory and we see the sovereignty of God working through it all as we go through history. This is an absolute brilliant, exciting time. So in the weeks to come, we'll be touching on the stories of faithfulness despite persecution, and they're meant to offer hope to God's suffering people. I don't think the challenge in how to keep yourself pure. I don't think the challenge in not worshipping any other idol, any other God except God alone. I don't think the challenge to pray to no one else except God alone, and the punishments that followed from all of that. I don't think that was put in there to frighten anybody. I think they were put in there to give them hope. Because in all the stories, God moved, yes? God acted in miraculous ways. And so these are put in, in a time, so when we look back, we can go, God works. So when we are put under pressure in our day, we can go, I dare to be a Daniel, because my God still works. My God still moves. Chapters four and five, and they suffer because human kingdoms have rebelled against God. We need to understand that the passage of the four kingdoms and the four empires, they are the Babylonians, the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, they have all rebelled against God. And that rebellion will increase in severity. And so we see these four empires as they kick against God in chapters two and seven, the visions which encourage patience. God is not in a hurry. God is never early and God is never late. God's prophecy always works out in due time. I wonder when Daniel got the prophecy of the Babylonian Empire and how it's going to pass away and the Medes and the Persians. I wonder after he had that, if the next day he's going, God, when's that going to happen? I want to go home. He didn't know the full timing of it. All he knew was they were going to be in Babylon for 70 years. That's all he knew. And so God gives us enough that we need to know, but we also have to have confidence that he works out the passage of time. Of course, chapters 8 to 12 will set out to explore the timing of how God is going to establish his eternal kingdom. And I think that's also crucial. He is going to set out, he's going to tell us, he's going to show us this great establishment of his kingdom. I don't believe it's just a spiritual kingdom. I believe it's going to be a physical kingdom. And he's going to tell us how he's going to set it all out. So that's sort of the history, that's where we get, that's why I just started in those two verses, because I want us to see that this deals with history, this deals with a battle of empires, and it's gonna go out all throughout the coming time between Babylon and Christ. It's gonna be, it talks about our time. But I want us to be encouraged in this, that we see the Savior in Daniel. Again, I'll just put it out here, because I think it's very important that we see on the pages of Scripture, God. We see our Savior. And it's this, in chapter 1 verse 17, we'll see it next time, it says, He is the giver of gifts. God is the giver of gifts. And as we look upon that on Sunday as well, the Holy Spirit moves on people and these days moves in people to give gifts, to glorify God, to accomplish God's good and perfect will. And it's the same here, that because they took a stand for God, God gave them gifts. And I just want to put this out. I haven't got this in my notes, but I just want to put this out here. Do you realize that all throughout the captivity, we get it in chapter two, we get it even in chapter six, chapter five, with the writing on the wall with Belshazzar. Do you realize when they couldn't understand anything, who did they call? It wasn't Ghostbusters. It was Daniel. Why? Because God had given him gifts. God had given him gifts that lasted all the ministry that God had him there for. And so this is the wonderful thing. So chapter one, he's the giver of gifts. Chapter two and sort of chapter seven and nine, he's the explainer of dreams. He can reveal the hidden. God reveals the hidden. He explains what no man has seen or heard. So he is the explainer of dreams. Chapter three, he is present in the fire. The fourth one looks like the son of man, one like the son of man, son of God. So here's the reality. God is in the fire with us. God is in the turmoil with us. And so this is put in to encourage the people that God is right there with them. Chapter six, God is over creation. God is over creation. He's in control, because you know what happened in chapter six, don't you? The lion's den. And I don't know how, all I know is the lion's mouths were shut up. Perhaps God took away their appetite. I don't know. You never know. All I know is God is God over creation and all those hungry lands didn't eat, didn't have a go at Daniel up until his enemies were thrown in. And then all of a sudden their appetite came back. God is God of God, God is God over creation, and we mustn't forget that as we read through Daniel. Chapter seven, and then 13 and 14, is one like the son of man. He's given authority, he has sovereign power, he is the focus of worship from people of every language, tribe, nation, and tongue. He is the one who's coming to judge. And of course, chapter seven and eight, God is in control of world events. This is our God that is seen throughout Daniel. And it starts at the beginning, as we said, because the kings rebelled against God and God said, right, I'm taking you into captivity to teach you a lesson. You haven't learned the lesson of history, you're going to learn the lesson in Babylon. God is the God of world events and can make things happen. We also see a sovereign act. As I said, God gave. Nothing happened in the book of Daniel that God was not sovereign over. God was never trying to catch up. God was never trying to get a plan B, as it were. The fact that it says in verse two, the Lord gave, shows a sovereign God who is in control of all of this. So in the book of Daniel, we will come to see four great truths about God. Four great truths, some of which we've highlighted. That God is in control of his world, God gave signs and wonders, God is faithful, and God will reign over all. Those are the truths that we will see, that we will unpack, that we will be confronted with. But this is the beginning of the book of Daniel. I hope you're excited because we see a God at work, a sovereign God at work, and a God who's about to take a number of 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and change an empire. Here's a challenge I've just thought. If God can take four teenagers and change an empire, What would he do with a room full of adults? What could he do? That's the questions we need to put this into our day, into our age, into our situation. Not just train up the young to be another Daniel, but would we dare to be a Daniel in our coming day? So we're gonna carry on next week. We're gonna carry on chapter one. We've started, so we'll finish. So I hope you're excited. I hope you're enthused as we see how God works out his will and his way for his people. Amen. Right, we're gonna go to prayer. We're gonna,