Thank you, Jeff. And as you saw from our reading, we begin a study today in the book of Daniel. Daniel is one of the less ancient books in the Old Testament. The events in Daniel occurred about 530 to 600 years before the coming of Jesus. The book was written by Daniel around 530 BC. when Daniel was now an elderly man. Elsewhere in the world, events occurring about the time of Daniel. Aesop wrote his fables. Confucius and Buddha both lived. Construction on the famous Acropolis in Greece began. And here in North America, the Mayan culture flourished in Mexico. But the center stage of the world was focused on the great Babylonian dynasty. And the longest ruling king in that empire was Nebuchadnezzar, whom we encountered here in verse one, where Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and overtook the city. And as a result, four Hebrew boys were taken from Jerusalem to the court of Nebuchadnezzar. the world's most prominent king at that time. I'm going to read to you a brief Psalm written by King David about the city of Jerusalem. This is taken from Psalm 122. You can note the tone of rejoicing about the city of Jerusalem. I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces. For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, peace be within you. Because of the house of the Lord, our God, I will seek your good. Well, how did it come to pass that the great city of Jerusalem inhabited by kings like David and Solomon less than 400 years earlier? How did it fade to the point where evil and cruel Babylon ransacked the city of God and took teenage boys captive to a pagan land. To understand how, we need to go back to the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 28. If you would turn there, you'll notice, I believe in your bulletin, there's extra passages listed. And it would be good if you put a ribbon or something in those extra passages. And this one is Deuteronomy 28. Deuteronomy was written after God gloriously rescued the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. It was a book of instructions and laws in which God explained to his people how he wanted them to live and how he wanted them to worship in the promised land which they were about to enter. So we'll read verse 15 and then we'll skip down a ways. Deuteronomy 28, 15. But it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And then begins a long series of curses, grievous warnings that they would experience if they chose to disobey. The culmination of the curses is seen down in verse 62, if you'll skip down there. You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude. because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. And it shall be that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do good and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing. And you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess. Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone. And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place, but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. Well, how well did the Israelites do then in terms of obedience to God? A summary of the people's behavior is found in 2 Chronicles 36. And I'll read in 2 Chronicles 36 from verse 14 to verse 20. Moreover, all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more. according to all the abominations of the nations and defiled the house of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by his messengers rising up early and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets. until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak, he gave them all into his hand. And all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures Of the king and of his leaders all these he took to babylon Then they burned the house of god broke down the wall of jerusalem burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious possessions And those who escaped the sword He carried away to babylon where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the king of persia That's why Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were torn from their families and taken to a land of strangers and pagan customs. Now, let's leave Daniel and his friends and 2,600 years of history and consider how the book of Daniel may apply to the United States in 2024. It seems to me that we're Experiencing a sea change in. America away from a nation that formerly had regard for the God of the Bible. Remember. Remember the Pledge of Allegiance as many of you quoted it day by day in school. One nation under God. indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Do you suppose that if a revised pledge were being created today, it would include the words under God? You know it wouldn't. America has turned from a nation that generally had reverence for God to a nation that now generally despises the God of the Bible. Church attendance is down, churches close. Weekly Bible literacy is significantly down. Millions know the name of Jesus only as a curse word. The commands of the Bible regarding sexual morality are disdained even in churches. Missionary fervor has waned perilously This is a picture from the meeting of the Women's Home Missionary Society 112 years ago. Where do you find this many men or women meeting together to promote missions today? The Great Awakenings, the last of which is 100 years in the rear view mirror now, brought crowds, as large as 30 or 40,000 to hear gospel messages from men like John Wesley, George Whitfield, Charles Finney, D.L. Moody, who preached often in the open air with no audio equipment. Revival meetings, intent meetings, which flourished after the Great Awakenings and which a few of you remember have vanished from the stage of American life. In place of these, there is spiritual apathy and disdain for God. Has then, God's grip on America loosened? Is he losing control? Well, that was the question of the Jewish nation at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's ransacking of Jerusalem. If God is in control, then why is Jerusalem destroyed? The holy articles of worship taken by a vain and profane king. Why are the people of God killed? And why are young people taken from their homeland to be servants in a land of pagan idols? To the human eye, the pagan idols had just won a tremendous victory over Jehovah, the God of the Bible. Note what Nebuchadnezzar did with the worship articles taken from the temple of God at the end of verse two, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God. And he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. They were trophies that Nebuchadnezzar brought to place in front of Marduk, the storm god, or whatever other gods he worshipped, because Marduk apparently was greater than Jehovah. God's chosen nation was defeated, scattered among the nations, temple worship stopped, and the world entered into the times of the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles are spoken of in Luke 21, 24 by Jesus in simplest terms. The times of the Gentiles are the times when Gentile nations rule in the political and socioeconomic realms of the world. Since the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, We have been in the times of the Gentiles and we will be until the return of Jesus when his kingdom is established on earth and he becomes king of not only heaven but of the earth as well. But in the early days of America, it seemed like we had a reprieve from the times of the Gentiles and that America was a Christian nation or at least a nation on good terms with Christians. We are entering a time, unless there is a revival, when the United States will be less and less friendly to Christians. Back in Daniel's time, the Gentile nation of Babylon stormed into Jerusalem and swallowed up, spiritually speaking, weak men, spiritually weak women, and spiritually weak young people, many, really most, of the Jewish people were absorbed into the worship of the false gods of the Gentiles. Here in America, many people, certainly many youth, have similarly been swallowed up by the secular system around them and have left the faith. So then, back to the question. Has God begun to lose control? Well, let's read again verse one and the first part of verse two. 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. See, in spite of what it looked like on the ground, God was in charge. The destruction of Jerusalem was according to his design. He gave Jehoiakim into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. Here's two key verses in the book of Daniel, Daniel 4.34. And at the end of the time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. And then chapter five, verse 21, speaking again about Nebuchadnezzar. Then he was driven from the sons of men. His heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till he knew that the most high God rules in the kingdom of men and appoints over it whomever he chooses. So our theme for today and really for the book of Daniel, God rules in the affairs of mankind at all times when his control is evident and when his control is not evident. And I think clearly in the book of Daniel was a time where the rule of God in the affairs of men was not very evident. Let's look at the text for today. Verses one and two, God gave Jerusalem into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. He took articles of worship as trophies and placed them in the temple of his God. And as part of the takeover of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to ensure that the people of Judah were absorbed into the Babylonian lifestyle. The way he chose to do that was to indoctrinate some of the people who would then become leaders among the Israelites advocating for the Babylonian religion and the Babylonian government. In reality, this indoctrination is done by many nations. When a communist leader takes over a nation, he indoctrinates the people. To this day, the second most sold book in the world Behind the Bible, by far, is Mao Tse Tung's book, which we call The Little Red Book. Indoctrination, if you were part of his kingdom, you had to have one. You were taught it. You were, in a way I could say, brainwashed. It was propaganda to make his kingdom run smoother. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were to be imbibing Babylonian propaganda and then eventually be teachers of Babylonian propaganda. And the best people to advance propaganda are persons who are the most compelling. Listen to verses three and four again. Then the king instructed Eshpon as the master of his eunuchs to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles young men and in whom there was no blemish. So they were descendants of the king and they were from the nobility. They were They had no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had the ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. So these young men were hand-picked because they were compelling young men. All right, the system of indoctrination. What do we know about it? It involved a new venue. In verse four, these young men had the ability to serve in the king's palace. They were torn away from their home and brought to a new land. It's difficult to say the age of Daniel and his friends when they were taken into captivity. A lot of people were estimating between ages 10 and 18, maybe perhaps around 15 years of age. At this young age, they were plucked away from all Jewish influences and flooded with the influences of Nebuchadnezzar's court. And this change of venue is very powerful. I think about the way in which many young people when they leave churches and go to universities, are successfully indoctrinated into the world system by a change of venue. A change of venue, a change of education, whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. Think about young persons you know that are perhaps 15 years old. How would you feel about them going into a re-education system with absolutely no one from their early life to consult with? No contact with family, no contact with church. Really, the chances that these four young men would retain their faith was really very, very low. New names. To them, the chief of the eunuchs gave names. Daniel, Belteshazzar, Hananiah, Shadrach, Mishael, Meshach, and Azariah Abednego. So the four men were renamed after Babylonian gods. They had Hebrew names, they had wonderful names. Daniel means God is my judge. Hananiah, Yahweh is gracious. Mishael, who is like God. Azariah, helped by God. Now they were named after Babylonian deities, gods of wood and gods of stone. And then a new diet. The king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank. Now we wonder why the diet was so important to Daniel. In the Old Testament, God told the people that proper diet was required in obedience to him and to please him. The Old Testament diet laws are given in Leviticus 11. You may remember, for example, that the Jewish people, when they ate meat, could eat only animals that had both, what, cloven hooves and chewed the cud. No doubt some of the king's delicacies violated the Hebrew dietary laws, and furthermore, I think it's likely that the food they were provided had been offered in front of Babylonian idols. They had sat in trays in front of these gods of wood and stone and metal. Now, the first three parts of indoctrination, Daniel and his friends couldn't control. While they were being whisked away from Jerusalem, they were not able to say, well, thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll stay here in Jerusalem. They had no choice about their new education. Yeah, thanks, but we prefer to continue to learn from Old Testament scripture rather than your books. And when they were renamed, they couldn't say, well, you know, we prefer our Hebrew names. All they could do is obey the king. But on the matter of diet, perhaps there could be some wiggle room. And Daniel's intention was to remain pure. And now I'm reading verses eight through 16. Read along with me. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my Lord the king who has appointed your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king." So Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, please test your servants for 10 days and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined before you and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delicacies. And as you see fit, so deal with your servants. So he consented with them in this matter and tested them 10 days. And at the end of 10 days, their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies. Thus the steward took away their portion of the delicacies and the wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables. To Daniel, to eat the non-kosher food offered to idols was to defile himself. And here we can learn an important lesson from Daniel. When we set out to avoid defilement, when we set out to please God, we will have the help of God. as Daniel did. It would have been easy, I think, for Daniel to say, well, there's not really much I can do about the food. It's ordered by the king. It's not my call. I think I think I pray just better cooperate with the king's diet. And that is presumably exactly what the vast majority of persons brought into captivity from Jerusalem did. But this ruddy 15-year-old boy was determined to avoid defilement. So he approached Ashpenaz, the chief of the eunuchs, whose name we saw back in verse 3, and he made a request not to eat the king's food. Now this was Daniel's first request, which was made to Ashpenaz. And God had given Daniel favor in the eyes of Ashpenaz. And little wonder Daniel was an intelligent young man, but he was respectful as well. But Ashpenaz's fondness for Daniel was not enough to overcome his fear of Nebuchadnezzar. In this case, it was fear over fondness. I fear my lord the king who has appointed your food and drink, for why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king. I'd like to help you, Daniel, but I can't." And Ashpenaz probably had good reason to fear the king. The Babylonians were cruel people, Nebuchadnezzar would not have had a second thought about executing someone who disobeyed him. There was always more people seeking the influential positions in the kingdom. He would have been easy to replace. And now again, it would have made sense for Daniel to give in at this point. Well, I made a worthy effort of it, I think. I even talked to Ashpenaz at somewhat at my own risk. It looks like it must be God's will for me to submit to the king's diet. But see, Daniel had purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king's delicacies. And I wonder how many of us have given up too easily when it comes to refusing to defile ourselves. We gave in, it seems to me, to sin in easier situations than Daniel was in. Daniel was determined to keep himself pure. He could not give up, so he came up with a alternate plan. Daniel said to the steward, verse 11, whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, please test your servants for 10 days and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined before you and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delicacies. And as you see fit, so deal with your servants. So he consented to them in this matter and tested them for 10 days. Now Daniel's plan involved an inferior of Ashpenaz. Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had said over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel, in this case, chose not to approach Ashpenaz again after Ashpenaz had said no. But if he came with the exact same request to the steward, The steward would consult with Ashpenaz and get the same answer. And in the process, Ashpenaz would probably be irritated that Daniel tried to go an end around him. Daniel had to change the equation. He set up a 10-day experiment. 10 days is insignificant in three years of training. 10 days is just under 1% of three years. Probably 10 days of vegetables and water wouldn't devastate the health of the four boys. At least that's the thinking of the steward. But neither, in reality, would 10 days make a huge difference on the positive side. Not from a dietary point of view. The point here was that God could cause these four young men to thrive in 10 days. That's what Daniel was counting on. It wasn't about the food. It was about Daniel's desire to remain pure and God honoring Daniel's aspiration to remain pure. You can imagine the conversation between the steward and Ashpenaz. The steward says, The young man, Daniel, asked me if it was okay to eat vegetables. Yeah, I know. He already asked me about it. Well, I was wondering if we could, maybe we could give a nod to Daniel. He's a nice young man, you know. You know, what would happen if we set up a little experiment? You know, maybe 10 days. Let them eat the food that they want to eat for 10 days. And then after 10 days, we can examine them. And I assume that they won't be any better. Maybe they would be worse. But 10 days, you know, not going to be a big deal in the long run. And so the experiment is set up. So it was agreed. And the question was, how would God respond? In verses 15 and 16, at the end of 10 days, their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies. Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables. In this case, the diet was not to lose weight, but actually to gain weight. We would think that eating vegetables and water would tend toward losing weight, not gaining weight. But it wasn't about the food. It was about God's undertaking for Daniel and his friends. And after 10 days, they looked healthier and more bright. They were fuller in appearance than all the other young men, whoever they may have been. Probably to the great surprise of the steward in Ashpenaz. But the steward upheld his end of the bargain, and for Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Abednego, it was vegetables and water from then on. And so they were not defiled by the king's food. That the four young men looked better after 10 days was a miracle, and that's the real story, but Daniel had a part to play in the story. And his part to play in the story was the initiative and the creativity. That he applied. To the situation and from which the idea of the 10 day experiment was born. What has God called? You and me to do. Lead a Bible study. It's going to take initiative and creativity. To be a witness at your workplace, that will take initiative and creativity. To influence your grandchildren, it will take initiative and creativity. To be able to give more for missions, again, initiative and creativity. Daniel didn't give up easily, and I fear that I have. at times given up easily when I ought to have applied more initiative and more creativity. Maybe you have too. Daniel's example shows us that initiative and creativity are blessed by God when we are striving for that which is right. All right. I'm going to read along with me now the last section of Daniel, starting in verse 17. As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now, at the end of days, when the king had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. Then the king interviewed them, and among them, among them all, none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore, they served before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm. Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus. Now, Daniel and his friends were being prepared for service. We read that back in verse four, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had the ability to serve in the king's palace. That was the purpose of the three years of training, that they would be prepared for service in the palace. What do we know about the preparation for service that Daniel and his friends were given? Well, back in verse four, they were gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand. That term, quick to understand, carries a connotation of science with it. In fact, a good handful of translations translated this, understanding science. And at the end of verse four, we read, whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. Daniel and his friends were going to be linguists. They had the advantage of being fluent in Hebrew, and that could come in handy if Nebuchadnezzar needed to have dealings with people who were Hebrew speaking. They were also to learn the Babylonian literature, probably history as well as arts and science. They were to be well read in the literature of the Chaldeans. Now, sometimes Chaldeans refers to a person's descent. They descended from a certain line, but also the term Chaldean carried the connotation of a practitioner of mysterious arts or an astrologist. Not to be confused with astronomy. Astronomy is the science that studies everything outside the Earth's orbit. Astrology is a pseudoscience, using supposedly the positions of heavenly objects in order to explain or predict human behavior. The culture of ancient Babylon, we could say, was superstitious. Just look at verse 20. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in his realm. And those words, magicians and astrologists, show that the king leaned on enchanters and horoscopists and conjurers in order to make his decisions, to guide his decisions. And so Daniel and these three friends, they learned science, they learned linguistics and history and literature and some of the mysterious arts like astrology. And they fared very well in the mastery of their training, being 10 times better than all the magicians and the astrologers who were in the realm. Why? Because Ashpenaz was clever and he'd been able to choose four geniuses? No. Verse 17 tells us why. As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill and all literature and wisdom. and Daniel had understanding and all visions and dreams which is going to come into play significantly in the book of Daniel. God rules the affairs of mankind all the time when his control is evident and when it's not evident. The preparation for service appeared to come from Nebuchadnezzar but behind the scenes Daniel and his friends were given knowledge and skill by God. So we have to discern between the preparation of Nebuchadnezzar and the preparation of God. Now in verses 17 through 19, when the four Hebrew men were tested by Nebuchadnezzar, Ashpenaz and his steward undoubtedly were quite proud. Well, clearly our program of education is worked quite wonderfully, and this matter of giving them vegetables and water has been a splendid success. They couldn't see the hand of God behind the scenes preparing Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego for high positions in the Babylonian and Persian empires that they were soon to occupy. One more behind-the-scenes note this morning. How do you suppose Daniel knew about the dietary laws of the Old Testament? He knew about them because he had faithful parents or perhaps teachers who had taught him. They followed the command of Deuteronomy 6. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Because of faithful parents, Daniel was prepared with the knowledge of scripture even though he was in a foreign land. The only scripture Daniel knew was that which was in his heart and mind. Those of you who have influence in the lives of young people take note. As the day may come when a Christian influence in a lives of young people, maybe only what exists in their heart and mind as a result of faithful teachers. But that will be enough. When God gives them the skill and knowledge that they need to thrive in a godless generation. God always has a remnant And Daniel and his three friends were part of that remnant. That kept the faith alive and kept hope in the messianic line alive. Even during a godless time in history, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the. Lives of Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We ask, Father, that we would be faithful like them. And we ask, Father, that you would be raising up men and women in this culture today, Father, who are determined not to defile themselves with the evils of the culture. And we pray to you, you would help us to be faithful to raising up training people father so that. If culture continues to deteriorate and become more and more secular. That there will be those who stand strong for God and for his kingdom. We ask you to be with us as we continue to worship this morning. We pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.