rather than the prophetic, which we may do on a Wednesday night in the future. But we're coming this morning back to Daniel chapter number 1, and we're still setting the scene, you could say. We're still in introductory terms, you could say, as we look at Daniel this morning. So Daniel chapter number 1 and verse number 1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, onto Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, 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. And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. Amen. And we know the Lord will bless the reading of this Word. Let's just pause again and ask for the Lord's help as we come to His Word. Our Father, we want to thank you this morning for your Word. We thank you that it is inspired and inerrant, and we thank you it is our manna from heaven. And Father, we thank you for the lessons we can learn. We thank You for the times, it's an encouragement. We thank You for the times, Father, where it edifies us. But Lord, we know there are times when it has to challenge us. And Lord, as we are challenged by Your Word this morning, may we open our hearts, Father, allow them to be soft to the Word of God. And we pray, our Father, that the Spirit of God would take these things, burn them into our hearts, that we wouldn't just be hearers of the Word, but doers of it also, endeavoring to live like what we've heard. And Lord, that we'd be better used in your service and conform more into the image of your son. It's in his name we ask it. Amen. We spent two weeks looking at the man of Daniel and the message of Daniel, and last week we began to set this book in its context. We looked at the content of the book, how it was made up. We looked at the context of the book, the setting in which it was put, as we think about the city of Babylon and all what that would have meant for the young man of Daniel and his friends to have entered into that city and live in that city of sin. But today we move on, and we're going to look at the conquest. And I've simply entitled this morning's message, The Reward for Rebellion. You see, this morning we're going to look really at the reasons why Judah ended up being taken captive in Babylon. And I have to say this morning that the message that I have for you as given by the Lord in the week that has been gone was certainly a challenge to my heart as we considered how Judah ended up where they are today. in Daniel chapter number 1. You see, the book of Daniel opens with a conquest, a carrying away, a painful captivity. A conquest that stands as one of the most memorable and miserable in the history of Judah. Those seventy years when they fell into the hands of the Babylonians. Now, the first thing that we must understand as we come to this portion is that this didn't happen through a random series of unfortunate events. Rather, there must have been a reason for that and all that we read in this book. There must be a reason why Jehoiakim was overthrown. There must be a reason why. What we also must see by way of introduction is this did not happen overnight. Judah's downfall was not instantaneous. Rather, as somebody said, and relating it to backsliding as a Christian, I don't know who said it, but they said, there is really no such thing as a sudden fall. Oh, the last step is only the last of a series of steps. I believe there are always many steps before a child of God reaches the verge of the precipice. I believe further that even when the edge of the precipice is reached, very few jump over. Most of them slide down slowly at first, and it is so easy, so gentle, so effortless, so natural, so pleasant that they seem to enjoy the sensation. It's only when the pace begins to accelerate terribly, it is only when control is slipping away, that this pleasant enjoyment gives way to anxiety and alarm. That's a challenging definition. But that's what happened here with Judah. They didn't end up in Babylon overnight. Rather, when we remember back in the times of the judges, when the people of Israel decided that they wanted to be like all of the other nations and have a king, that God gave them their wish. They were first ruled by Saul, David, and then Solomon. And those men ruled that one nation, which was called Israel. And while that one nation was one, it split up into 12 tribes. However, when Solomon's son, Rehoboam, came to the throne, there was a rebellion, and subsequently the nation divided in two. There was a northern kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah. Israel was made up of the ten tribes who rebelled against Rehoboam, while Judah was made up of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, who remained loyal to him. The capital of Israel was Samaria, while the capital of Judah was Jerusalem. Why do I tell you that? Well, it all sets the scene to where this backsiding began. You see, what followed was tragic, for it wasn't long before both kingdoms were fighting with each other. But worse than that, it wasn't long before both were marked by a steady spiritual decline, subsequently leaving them marred by a serious fall into both apostasy and idolatry. And here's the thing for you and I that we must remember this morning. It all started with division. It all started with dissatisfaction. It all started with disgruntlement. It all started with a departure away from God, just a drifting. And these were the foundation pillars of their problems, the beginnings of their backsliding. However, going way back to the beginning, through the man Moses, God set one thing up above everything else that he desired for his people not to do, and that was willfully departing from worshiping him and serving other gods. Upon Mount Sinai, speaking of idols, God said, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. Being the one true and living God, He demands the sole worship of His people. He doesn't want split loyalties. He wants a heart that is united to Him. And therefore, the willful departure from worshiping, only Him came with a warning for such a departure should it ever happen to Israel, would carry with it tremendous consequences. Indeed, when you go to Deuteronomy 31, again through Moses, the Lord said, then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods." What a warning. You see, this wasn't just the message of Moses, but time and again throughout their history, God had raised up prophets among His people to warn them of what would happen if they strayed from Him. God's people, as we think about them, they were designed to be greatly favored by God on the earth. They were designed to be a great force for God on the earth. They were designed to be greatly feared on the earth. They were designed to stand as a great testimony of God's faithfulness on the earth. yet for all their potential, and for all their promise, and for all their priority, the nation of Israel failed God. Oh, God did not fail them, but they failed Him. They rejected His Word, they ignored His warnings, they rebelled against His will, and they went to whoring after the man-made gods of the nations. They began making idols, worshipping images and statues. They abandoned, they turned their back on the God who had been so good to them, the God of their salvation, the God of their safety, the God of their supplication, the God of their provision. They turned their back and they went to these other idols. And eventually God grew weary with his warnings and subsequently gave his people over to judgment. The Book of the Kings make for sorry reading for both kingdoms. They stand as a particularly sorry record of the downfall of the northern kingdom Israel. Throughout the Books of the Kings, you will read time and again of Israel being plagued with disaster and pelleted with one defeat after another. Judah wasn't much better. For while they were a few godly kings who ruled that the people's hearts were far from God, they too had given themselves over to idolatry. They too had left their first love. They too had backslidden into icy waters. Again, God in His faithfulness raised up men to warn them of the consequences. God didn't spring this Babylonian exile on them without warning. Rather, in great detail, through Isaiah and Jeremiah, God explained exactly what would happen if they They left their first love if they went after these other gods. You know, just in my own quiet times, I've been reading through the Old Testament and looking, you know, at Jeremiah, and that was such a difficult book to read through. As you consider the task these two men were given, Isaiah and Jeremiah, two men given to a ministry where they would see no fruit. In fact, if you want to turn just to Jeremiah chapter number 1, as we think of him as the wailing prophet, the man who was given the task of detailing what would happen in the downfall. Let's look at His calling as God gave it to Him in Jeremiah chapter number 1. Let's listen to what is said of Jeremiah. Verse number 14 of chapter 1, Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord, and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne. at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. And I will utter my judgments against them, touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and who have burned incense unto other gods, and worship the works of their own hands. Thou therefore gird up thy loins, arise and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confine thee before them. What a calling! What a task! And yet, sadly, all these warnings fell on deaf ears. They continued to turn from the living God and serve idols. They persecuted and imprisoned the prophets. They would not heed or hear what was being said, so enough was enough, and God eventually permitted them to be carried into captivity. Now, why do I go through all of that as a way of background? Well, here's the thing that we must remember as the first challenge this morning. If you were living in Judah at that time and Jerusalem at that time, the nation of Judah still had religion, but it was the wrong religion. The temple still stood, the priests and prophets still were active, but they were false and it was all empty. Oh, the people of God, they were still praying, but not to God. They were still sacrificing, but not to God. They were still worshiping, but not to God. For now they were praying, sacrificing, and worshiping gods made with man's hands. God had called them to change the world, but the world had changed them. God had called them to go against the grain, and that they did for a while, but soon switched. Here's the challenge. If Israel and Judah show us nothing else this morning, beloved, they show us both the easiness and the deadliness of backsliding. Do you know the thing is this, this morning, from the pulpit to the pew, not one of us are exempt from backsliding. Like Israel, so many of us have had the privilege of being brought up in a Christian home, being brought up in a sound church, of having a profitable and even being pleasing in our service. But beloved, this morning, when we take our eyes off the Lord, how quickly things can change. It doesn't matter if we're a pastor, an elder, a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, Sunday school superintendent, youth fellowship leader, any other leader, When we take our eyes off the Lord, the slide begins. That's what happened with Israel for all their privilege and priority. And you see so easily and so subtly, legitimate things in our lives can become idols. Oh yes, I would doubt any of us in this room this morning are going to be guilty of bowing down before images. but so easily in our hearts. You see, idolatry is not primarily a physical thing. It's a heart matter. And so easily, God can be so quickly replaced in our hearts by so many legitimate things. Oh, it's so easy to make an idol out of our business. It's so easy. It's so easy to make an idol out of our private life. It's so easy to make an idol out of sport. It's so easy to make an idol out of our hobbies. It's so easy to make an idol out of our homes. It's so easy to make an idol out of our money. It's so easy to make an idol out of our materials. It's even so easy, and this is challenging, it's even so easy to make an idol out of our church. So many things. can capture our affections. So easy, coldness can creep in. And here's the thing, as we look about Israel, it was through a nasty division in the past that two kingdoms were divided. And so easily in your life and mine, a seed is planted, a root of discontentment can grow, we can become disillusioned with other Christians and Christianity, and we can begin going after things other than God. Do you wanna know something? This church or no other church is perfect. There will be people within your church who will always wind you up the wrong way. But we're still the family of God. And you see, it's very easy in every family to look at a family and go, you know, I don't like him, I don't like her, I don't like how that's being run, I'm going to go after other thing. And so easily we slide. Israel didn't like God's way. and they went after other things. And you know, here's the challenge, like Judah, we can still be going through the motions, but our hearts are far from God. Speaking of Judah, the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 29 and 13, for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips, they do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me and their fear toward me as taught by the precept of men." In other words, their fear of God was only intellectual. It was no longer a part of their true identity. Stopping someone in the street, oh yes, they would acknowledge God, and they would talk about fearing God, but inside it was a different story. Their hearts were far. They were captured by idolatry. How easy it is to have a heart like that. to look good on the outside and yet be walking afar off. The thing we also do well to keep in mind as we consider this conquest, this Babylonian captivity, in fact, as you consider the whole story of Daniel, do you know that it all could have been avoided? It didn't have to come to this. If you come with me to Isaiah chapter number one, just for a moment. You see, it didn't have to be this way. There didn't have to be a Babylonian captivity. There didn't have to be so much pain. Rather, Isaiah chapter number one, those famous verses that so many gospel preachers take as their text, they actually apply to Israel primarily. Verse number 13, and let's go to verse number 12 of Isaiah one. And he says, when ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth. They are trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And ye, when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. But then listen, wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead the widow. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." It all didn't have to come to Babylon. I love the way another translation renders. that verse number 18. Come now, let us settle the matter, says the Lord. In other words, the Lord says, do you know what you're doing? It pains me, and I don't like that you're rebelling, and there's gonna be pain come with it, but why not, let's come, let's sit down together, let's get this sorted, let's combine. Because there's forgiveness with the Lord. God gave Judah a chance to sort it out. Gave them an opportunity for pardon, a chance to be spared so much pain, but they pressed on, ignored the warnings, and subsequently Judah was exiled. Let's just pause. Somebody here this morning, shirt and tie, suited, hat on, Bible on your knee, you're smiling up at me. But your heart's far from God today. You've been backsliding, not just for months, for years. Today, you've grown up in a Christian home, and you're a young person, and you're cold, and you're not just sure where you are in your faith this morning. You've left your first love, and maybe for years, you've been going through the motions. At one time, you ran well for God, but slowly, over time, other things have crept into your heart. It's taken a captive, not necessarily bad things, but priorities have changed, passions have changed. Going to church is a chore. Reading and praying is really a tick-box exercise. They don't hold the same affection as going or doing other things. Are there things in your life, things in my life, that, being honest, we love more than the Lord? God says to you this morning, let's sit down. Let's stop right now. Let's stop today. Let's get it sorted. You don't need to come to me or the elders. God says, come to me. Let's halt the slide. Dear friend, can I say to you today with all the love in my heart and with the challenge of the text before us in Daniel 1, please don't drift on into the deep and deadly waters of backsliding. Before things go deeper, before life becomes a bigger mess, before God has to employ painful methods to catch our attention, before God has to exile us for a time, We're gonna close in the meeting in a moment with that lovely hymn, Oh, for a Closer Walk. I think it's the second verse says, the dearest idol I have known, whatever that idol be, help me tear it from thy throne and worship only thee. Furthermore, these opening verses in Daniel stand as a great reminder to us all that as believers, we could save ourselves so much pain if we only submitted more to the will of God for our lives. So we've just been singing, if only we trusted and obeyed more. If only we could see how many of the trials and troubles that come our way in life come as a result of our rebellion. You see, of course, there are two kinds of trials in our lives. There are trials of perfection, and they draw us closer to God. But there are trials of correction that are used to draw us back to God. Judah's captivity was a trial of correction. They wouldn't stay in Babylon forever. God wouldn't abandon his people, but he detained them for their discipline. And likewise, how often God permits those trials of correction to do just that, to correct us, and yet how much pain we would save ourselves if we stopped seeking to go our own way, stopped trying to lead our lives, stopped trying to force a door that God has already shut. You see, here's the thing, and I was just thinking about this this week, you know, God will warn us not to go down a certain path. God will warn us not to enter a certain relationship. God will warn us not to go through a certain door or go down a certain way. But if we keep pushing against Him, if we keep pushing against the door that He has shut, do you know what God might do? He might just open the door and let us fall through it. He might just let us pursue the path so that we might see for ourselves that those paths aren't right for us, that those paths only cause us more pain, that indeed we need to be back where the Lord wants us to be. You know, if you think about a fire, if you think about a flame, if you light a fire, and if I was to say to you, you know, there's a fire, don't put your hand in that fire, and we're gonna put a sign up that says, don't touch the fire for you'll be burned. If you put your hand in the fire and you're burned, can you expect any other outcome than pain? But here's the thing, folks, so long as we keep putting our hand in the fire, we'll keep getting burned every time, burned again and burned again, until we learn, uh-oh, if I do that, I'm gonna get hurt. Beloved, let me be the first to say this morning, sometimes it's hard to follow the paths of the Lord, to stay when we want to go, to wait when we want to act, to walk when we want to run, but God wants us to trust and obey, even when we are frustrated and fed up and seemingly at a dead end, we must learn from Judah. It may be hard to go against the grain of society, but here's what I'm convinced of. Without doubt, it is even harder to go against the grain of ourselves. Oh, it's hard to go against the grain of society, but the hardest thing, without doubt, above all, is going against the grain of ourselves, to not giving in to what we think is best or better, what I want to do. Remember the Lord's commission in Matthew 16. Then said Jesus onto his disciples, if any man will come after me, do what? Let him deny himself. Oh, before taking up the cross. Yes, that's part of it. Cross bearing is part of it. But before we take up the cross, the Lord said, you've got to deny yourself. As hard as it is, we're called to delight ourselves also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass." That, of course, Judah didn't do. And so here we are in Daniel chapter 1 this morning. God followed through with his judgment, employed the services of this pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar, and subsequently, we read, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, onto Jerusalem and besieged it. While in Daniel 1, we read of Nebuchadnezzar going onto Jerusalem and besieging it, the mission wasn't actually completed in one conquest. Rather, Nebuchadnezzar actually came in three conquests over a period of 19 years. Each time he destroyed a bit more of the place, each time he came he deported a few more of the people, until finally Jerusalem was utterly destroyed. The temple demolished, the glorious ornaments gone, and all that was left was a people of poverty and a city of ruin. And that's how it would be for 70 years. The land would lie desolate during their stay in Babylon, God's people. would learn to greatly loathe the idols they greatly loved. Living in a city saturated with them and living constantly surrounded by them, the Jews would never again fall foul to idolatry. Yes, they would fall into many other sins, but this period purged them from that sin of idolatry. Again, as we noted last time from verse 2, and as vitally important as we come to it next Sunday, God willing, verse 2, while Nebuchadnezzar was the agent, the Lord Jehovah was the author of this exile. It was God who planned and permitted this conquest, and yet here's the thing I want you to remember this morning. Remarkably, this exile wasn't primarily for the punishment of God's people, but ultimately it was for the restoration. And that's what I want you to understand. Maybe you're going through a time of discipline. It's not that God's trying to punish you, so to speak. He's wanting to restore you, wanting to draw you back. Sometimes God has to use painful methods. But this was God's motive. It was a motive of love. God wanted his people to return to him. And sometimes the only way to fix something is to reset it to its default setting. You know, this week I've been having a little bit of computer problems, and we went into Apple with it, and you know, the first thing they do is they just try and turn it off and turn it back on again. Sometimes the only way to fix something is to reset it to its default setting. Judah had gone so far from God they needed reset. Very quickly, and let me finish with this more from a contextual point of view. Why did it take 70 years? Would 10 years not be enough? 20 years? 30 years? Would that have done the trick? Why specifically 70 years was Judah in captivity? Well, alongside idolatry and other great sin that people had committed was robbery. Or more specifically, they had robbed God of 490 years worth of sabbatic years. When you go to Leviticus 25, God had told His people when they came into their land, they were to keep every seventh year for Him. That year was to be a rest year. The crops weren't to be harvested and sold, but rather left and dedicated to God. God had promised to provide enough in the sixth year to last them until the harvest of the eighth year. But for 490 years, God's people rejected that rule. They didn't believe that promise and went on ahead and worked the land like every other year. No doubt they thought that the outcome would be better, that the business would be more profitable, that the stocks would be greater, and their lives would be richer, and they ignored this seemingly illogical law. This doesn't make any sense. Surely we need to keep growing and our lives will be better. But for 490 years, it seemed to be working. Their consciences didn't seem to have been pricked, and by all accounts it looked like God had overlooked their sin. But as Paul said in Galatians 6, be not deceived, for God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And indeed, this day of reckoning came for God's people. As he brought this captivity along to not only purge them from idolatry, but to claim back the 490 years of disobedience. I'm no mathematician, but I can divide 490 by seven and you get 70. 70 years of exile where God, in the end, squared the accounts, balanced the books, and reminded his people that he is a God to be feared. Remind them that they cannot play around with His Word or ignore His warnings, that His Word was given to be obeyed. Beloved, you and I live in a world today much like the world of Judah. People are forgetting the Word of God, ignoring the warnings of God. We're called to be free, and we have all our own rights to say and do as we please. But as the people of God, we dare not fall into such a trap. Surely these opening verses of Daniel 1 stand as a solemn reminder that we cannot live in persistent disobedience to both the Word and the will of God without there being consequences. Another great gospel text that we often close a gospel meeting with is, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. How often that verse is so applicable to the unbeliever, but yet for us today, how appropriate it is for the believer. May we learn from Judah. He constantly heard the voice of God through his prophets, but hardened their hearts and were painfully rewarded for their rebellion. Dear Backslider this morning, dear cold Christian this morning, dear Christian walking with God this morning, the Lord has brought us to a place at the beginning of a new week to reconsecrate our lives to him. I trust you've been challenged from God's word as I have today. But it's one thing to be challenged in the moment. I wonder by the gospel meeting tonight, will that challenge still be burning deep into our hearts? Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Oh, as God's children, may we all have hearts and minds that are ever open and soft to what the Lord would have us hear. what the Lord would have us do, and how the Lord would have us live. Why should we heed and obey the Word of God? Well, because it is the Word of God, because He is God, and should be revered and feared. But above that for the Christian, because He is our heavenly Father, who's redeemed us from the pit of sin. and therefore we should love him. And as the Lord said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Let's just pray.