I'm going to have you turn to the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter number 1, and just put a marker in there, and then we're going to flip over to 2 Kings and get a little background. 2 Kings chapter number 21. So Daniel chapter number 1, that's where we're going to eventually wind up at, but 2 Kings 21. We are starting tonight with the prophet Daniel. Some 25 centuries ago, Daniel was a young man who loved God and served God faithfully in the midst of some very wicked times in his own nation. Judah was God's chosen people, and they should have served God after all God had done for them. But as a whole, the nation had backslidden from the ways of God. We see that in 2 Kings 21. The real problems begin here with a king by the name of Manasseh. In 2 Kings 21, we see in verse number 2 that he lived like a heathen. It talks about him in verse number 1. Manasseh was 12 years old, very young when he began to reign. He reigned 50 and 5 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord at the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. Not only did he live like a heathen, but he restored idolatry and Baal worship. Look at verse number 3. For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven, and served them." Not only that, we see he desecrated the house of God, the temple, in verse number 4 and 5. It says, "...and he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven, and the two courts of the house of the Lord." Then he was involved in witchcraft. And it just gets better. No, not at all. It gets worse. He made his son pass through the fire, verse 6 says, and observed times and used enchantments and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. And he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And then we see he calls the people of God to live worse than the heathen, down in verse number 9. says, but they hearkened not, talking about the people, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. How sad, right? And we find that he shed innocent blood, according to verse number 16. Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood, very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, beside his sin, wherewith he made Judah the sin, and doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord." See, he was one bad cookie. And God pronounced judgment upon Judah there in verses 11-15. Back up to verse 11. It says, Because Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all the Amorites did which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever shall hear of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem, the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down, and I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance." and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies." Remember that verse right there, okay? He's going to forsake the remnant of his inheritance here and deliver them into the hand of their enemies. Verse 15. Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day." So, we see God pronounced the judgment upon Judah, and after 55 years of Manasseh's reign, Ammon came to power. Look down in verse number 19. Verse number 19, Ammon was 20 and 2 years old when he began to reign. He reigned two years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Meshulameth, and the daughter of Haruz of Jopheth. Okay, that's a mouthful right there. Look at verse number 20, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh did. And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served and worshipped them. And he forsook the Lord, God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the Lord." How sad, right? Ammon's own servants conspired against him and slew him in his own house. That's how his end came. According to verse number 23, Now, Josiah then came to power. Josiah then reigned, and a short-lived revival took place for a period of time. There in 2 Kings 22, look at 2 Kings 22, in verse number 2, it says, And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not his side to the right hand or to the left. We see under his reign the house of God was repaired according to verse 5 and 6. It says, And let them deliver it unto the hand of the doers of the work that have the oversight of the house of the Lord. Let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the Lord to repair the breaches of the house, unto the carpenters and the builders and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. So the house of God was repaired. We see the book of the law was found in verse number 8. And Hilkiah the priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan and he read it. And then it was read in verse number 11. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book, of the law, that he rent his clothes, and when they would rent their clothes, that was a sign of mourning, deep mourning. I mean, he heard, and what he heard, he knew that judgment was coming. So, Josiah was given, he sought counsel of the Lord, first of all, in verse number 13, verse number 13, Go ye and inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all which is written concerning us. So, he sought counsel. Josiah was given reprieve by the Lord, down in verse number 19 and 20. Verse 19, it says, and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.' And they brought the king word again." So, he got a reprieve, and what was his reaction to that? Well, he cleaned house. Look at 2 Kings 23 and verse number 25. 23 and verse 25. says, And like unto him was there no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, neither after him arose there any like him. So he did a great thing there. But the hearts of the people had not turned, You know, the Lord still had not turned from His great wrath, according to verse 26 and 27, but understand that I'm not going to turn over there to read it, but Jeremiah 25, when we were doing Jeremiah, we read those verses, Jeremiah 25, verses 3 through 11, the hearts of the people had not turned, and so His wrath was imminent after Josiah passed off the scene. We find there in 2 Kings 23-26 that the Lord had not turned from His wrath that Manasseh had provoked. He delayed His wrath for Josiah's sake, but He had not turned from His wrath. And after Josiah, things began to return to the way they had been before Josiah came to power. Jehoiah has reigned and returned to wickedness. Look at 2 Kings 23 verse 31 and 32. So Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamotah, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libna, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done. After him was Jehoiakim, Jehoiakim reigned and nothing changed. Look at chapter 23 there, the last two verses, 36 and 37. Jehoiakim was 20 and 5 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebuda, the daughter of Padua of Rumah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done. So, we come to 2 Kings 24, verses 1 through 4, and we see exactly what is happening when we get to Daniel 1 and verse 1. Let's read the first four verses here of 2 Kings 24. Verse number 1 says, In his days Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up and Jehoiakim became his servant three years, and he turned and rebelled against him. And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets. Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did, and also for the innocent blood that he shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon." So, now we turn to Daniel chapter 1. Daniel chapter 1. And I want you to note that what happened to Judah came at the commandment of God. So this was God's will for this to happen to them. Note that what happened to Judah came because of the sins of Manasseh as well. Look at Daniel 1.1, it says, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem, besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand. Who gave him? The Lord did. The Lord gave that king over to Nebuchadnezzar with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried away into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. And we see in verse number 3, "...and the king spake unto Penias, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes." Here's where Daniel and the three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as we know them, their actual Hebrew names were different than that. They were known as Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. We know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. At least that's the way I grew up. It was a whole lot easier to remember. Now when all this came down, Daniel and the three Hebrew children were already serving the Lord. They were part of God's remnant. Understand that. They were already serving the Lord, but they were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar. They're young kids. They're probably teenagers. These are very young men. Now understand that Daniel and his friends could have despaired, right? I mean, you get carried away into captivity and your whole life is turned upside down. Your whole life is changed. It's easy to get into despair. They could have given in to the wickedness that was going on around them. They could have given up on serving the Lord. But they didn't do any of that. What would God have us to know of these four servants of God? Well, you know, we're just touching the introduction tonight. Just touching the introduction, alright? I wanted to give you the preliminaries on that. And this week and next week, pretty much the introduction of Daniel, Daniel 1. And then Lord willing, we're going to consider the prophet Daniel by himself. And then later in our studies on the people of the Bible, we're going to look at more than just the prophets, Old Testament prophets. We're going to be looking at other people of the Bible. We will consider Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego together in a future study as we look at their life a little bit further. Well, I'm going to go one little step further here. We see there in verse number one and two that we just read, we see their dilemma. And their dilemma was that the Lord gave Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. We know that it's a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah that was given to Hezekiah in Isaiah 39. Look at Isaiah 39. Isaiah 39. And I know I'm going to butcher these names, okay? I've already butchered a bunch tonight, and I'm going to butcher a few more right here as we read these big old long names. I could even practice them, and I'm going to butcher them anyway. Y'all understand what I'm saying? All right. chapter 39 verse 1. At that time, Merodot Baladam, the son of Baladam, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had been sick and was recovered. Now this was before Nebuchadnezzar's day, all right? Hezekiah is in charge. And here they come with bearing gifts. Look at verse 2. And Hezekiah was glad of them," notice this, "...and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not." Now that wasn't real bright. He just wasn't. Not at all. And then Isaiah is going to let him know. Look at verse 3. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men, and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon. Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days come that all that is in thine house, and all of which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. and of thy sons that shall issue from thee which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." And that word eunuchs means that they were castrated. I mean, just plain and simple. And Daniel and the three Hebrew children were part of that group, all right? And think about that, when you think about that, they were still serving the Lord even after being abused like that. They loved the Lord. I want you to notice Hezekiah here in verse 8. Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. He said, Moreover, for there shall be peace and truth in my days. Well, at least I'm not going to have to deal with it. My days are going to be okay." What an attitude. Hezekiah had done foolishly and it would wind up costing Judah. And then this was a fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy that was given to Judah, and I mentioned previously in Jeremiah 25, 1-11. I'm not going to go read that. We read it. when we were dealing with Jeremiah the prophet. But Jeremiah 25, 1-11, for 23 years, Jeremiah and others preached, but nobody listened. Nobody listened. And so we see what happened there. That's what the dilemma was. All right, that's all we got time for tonight. We need to put a mark there. We'll come back, pick up there, and finish our introduction. We're still just touching the introduction right now. Appreciate you being here tonight. We're going to pray for the needs that we mentioned earlier. Pull out your prayer list, and then we'll be dismissed with this prayer.