December 18, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Hosea 7:1-10:15; Revelation 4:1-5:14

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Daniel 1:1-7

1     In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

     2     The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.

     3     Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles,

     4     youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

     5     The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service.

     6     Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

     7     Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego. NASB95^[1]

The city of Babylon was an incredible place.  If you have time to look it up, do a search on it on the internet or through some concordances, it's well worth your time. 

One of the interesting things about Babylon is that Jeremiah warned that Babylon was going to take over the land.  That was a pretty good indicator that the people were not following the Lord.  When the Nebuchadnezzar took the vessels from the temple, it was a statement that they had no longer followed God, and no longer a people who knew God.

Daniel was an exception; he was one of the remnant that God kept who followed Him.  Look at these first few verses and learn a bit about Daniel.  He was considered the cream of the crop according to verse 4.  Not only was he and his friends considered exceptional, they were considered as worthy of being trained for the king's service.  The King was going to feed them the best of the best, along with giving them the best possible education.  Imagine what a privilege that this was.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary notes an interesting fact on the names of Daniel and his four friends.  Each of them had a name that had God in his name, which indicates that their parents were God-fearing and honored God in their lives.  Daniel meant "God has judged", his name was changed to mean "Lady, protect the king." Hananaih meant "Yahweh has been gracious", his name was changed to mean, "I am fearful (of a god)." Mishael meant "Who is what God is?" his name was changed to mean "I am despised, contemptible, humbled (before my god)." Azariah meant "Yahweh has helped", his name was changed to mean "servant of Nebo".^[2] Nebo was the god of knowledge. In short these men were not only true to their names, when they were renamed, the officials honored them by giving them names similar to their Jewish names in the Babylonian language.  I find that to be very interesting.  Look over their names briefly and think about how applicable that their names were in respect to the judgment that God placed on Israel by moving them into captivity.  Thoughts on this?

Think about the political wisdom that Nebuchadnezzar had.  If he could take some of the Jewish boys, train them to lead the nation, and move them into a position of authority in the kingdom, then imagine the impact that it would have on the rest of the nation of Israel.  This was a brilliant strategy for winning favor from the people. 

Jeremiah 27:6

6     “Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him.

Habakkuk 1:6

6     “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

That fierce and impetuous people

Who march throughout the earth

To seize dwelling places which are not theirs. NASB95^[3]

One last thought on Nebuchadnezzar, he was possibly an unrighteous king.  I say possibly because we will see some interesting developments later in his life where God shows interest in him.  God ordained him as His instrument to bring punishment on His people.  Romans 13 speaks about how that God has ordained authority, even unrighteous government authority.  This is a classic example of that taking place.

I am going to close here, I will try to keep the studies short and not to bore you with details.  If you have any comments to send in, don't hesitate to do so.

Father, build in our lives integrity like Daniel and his friends had.  Let our lives speak and declare where we stand in relation to You.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

December 19-20, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Hosea 11:1-Amos 1:15; Revelation 6:1-8:13

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

I missed the study yesterday, life became very busy, I was registering for the spring semester, and putting out other fires.  The next thing I knew my name had moved up on the list and hi ho, hi ho, off to work I go.  Enough excuses, on with the study.

Daniel 1:8-21

8     But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.

     9     Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials,

     10     and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.”

     11     But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,

     12     “Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

     13     “Then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

     14     So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.

     15     At the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food.

     16     So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.

     17     As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.

     18     Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar.

     19     The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s personal service.

     20     As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm.

     21     And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king. NASB95^[1]

I chose a rather large chunk today because of the content of the chapter.  Daniel chose righteousness rather than compromising his standards.  This was pretty bold considering that he was not a hired hand, he was a slave of the king's.  Most people would have taken the path of least resistance and probably picked at their food discarding what they did not want.  Daniel was honorable though, and chose to approach the commander with his desires. 

Think about the chance that the commander was taking, if David and friends lost weight, he lost his head.  That's pretty serious business, and could possibly be why David faced the issue head on rather than keeping the dietary laws on the sly.  The test was to be for ten days, apparently it lasted for three years, and God honored their integrity. 

Think about that for a moment, did God honor their integrity because they took a step of boldness and requested to have a different diet?  Or was the request of their diet a statement that was consistent with their lifestyles?  I believe that their lives were committed to integrity, and the reason that the commander granted their request was because they demonstrated in their lifestyle that they not only believed what they preached, they lived what they preached.  To back this up, look at the study for yesterday where we looked at the old names and new names of these men.  They lived lives of integrity, all the time, and it impressed people enough to cause them to lay their lives on the line.  Of course though, God prepared his heart beforehand.

Now look at the reward that these men had in their situation.  They excelled way beyond their peers and took the choicest places in the kingdom.  They had the same schooling as their peers, dealt with the same teachers as their peers, and excelled beyond their peers.  Why?  It could be for a number of reasons.  First of all, God is the God of all wisdom, and He was their personal God, they made it a point to make Him a priority in their lives.    Second, these men demonstrated that they were already students of God's word before they were impressed into service.  They may have had a jump on their peers by learning good study habits, and applying them to their new circumstances.  It is a proven fact that people who keep their minds active by continuing to study have lower instances of Alzheimer’s disease and mental disorders late in life. 

Third, diet may have had something to do with it because they were healthier by refusing to eat unclean food and wine.  This probably caused them to sleep better at night, and to function better during the day.  You just do better in school when you feel better. One thing to consider on dietary law is that most of the forbidden foods were unclean because the animals were scavengers, and as such these animals were more likely to carry disease.  God knew about microbiology, and fashioned the dietary laws according to that.  People figured out that if you drank wine with your meal, you felt better, this makes sense because the alcohol in wine would kill a certain percentage of the critters that they were ingesting.  But not as much as Daniel and friends avoided by eating food that was considered as clean.  Also consider that the friends probably did not stop at one cup of wine, intoxication is just too tempting, so several of them probably showed up to school with hangovers. 

The point of the study today is simple, what God directs us to do in our lives doesn't always make sense.  We can't figure out all the reasons why, and can't justify all the directions that God leads us.  What we can do is live our lives according to integrity and according to the conviction that we have gained from the study of Gods word.  In short, we are to practice what we preach. 

Deuteronomy 18:9-13

9     “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.

     10     “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,

     11     or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

     12     “For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.

     13     “You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. NASB95^[2]

Closing the thought today, Daniel entered a school against his wishes that led him in ungodly directions.   He devoted himself to the Lord, and the Lord gave him the proper perspective on things, even to the point of interpreting dreams and excelling far beyond the magicians of the day.  God honored his lifestyle with practical success in an ungodly world.  Even though he had a job that was contrary to God's revealed word, God turned that job around to glorify Him.  Integrity is powerful stuff.

Enough for today, I am always open to your comments, send them in.

Father, as we consider Your Word today, speak to our hearts about integrity.

In Him,

Joe Turner.