We want to continue our study through the book of Daniel. And so if you would turn with me to Daniel. Last week I gave you a brief overview of chapter 1. And I want to go back and look in greater detail at chapter 1, which is laying the foundation of what is going to be happening and why things are going the way they are for Daniel and his friends.
Let’s just read again chapter 1 this morning.
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.
2 And 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.
3 And the king spake unto Ashpenaz 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;
4 Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
5 And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.
6 Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:
7 Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.
8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
9 Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.
10 And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king.
11 Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
12 Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.
13 Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king’s meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.
14 So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.
15 And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat.
16 Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.
17 As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
18 Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.
19 And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.
20 And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.
21 And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.
Let’s just pray. Dear Holy Father as we come before you this morning, Lord I pray that you would just speak to us through your word. Help us to understand what’s going on. And help us to not only understand but apply the truth that Daniel, Ananias, Mishael, and Azariah applied to their lives and lived by. And Lord help us to do the same. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As I mentioned last week, events had happened and were happening in the land of Judah.
For 490 years, Judah and Israel had ignored what God said. And now he was taking the land of Judah, the southern kingdom, into captivity. And they were going to remain in the land of Babylon for 70 years.
The 70 year period was to pay for the 70 years of rest that they had not given the land of Israel, the promised land, that God had ordained that they should do.
Every seventh year they were to let the land rest. They were not to seed crops.
They were not to do their normal farming activities. It was to be a year given unto the Lord. Now what was to be acted on by them was faith in God that during the sixth year, He would provide an abundance, a double amount, to their crops to take them through the seventh year, the land of rest.
What it was really doing was acknowledging that God was in control, that God was God, and that they were to worship Him as the true and the living God, the one who had brought them into the land, the one that had given them the land, and the one that had the right to tell them how they should live in the land. They had not done it. 490 years they had not done it.
Now Nebuchadnezzar had come, and there were going to be three invasions. They would come upon Jerusalem. This was not the last invasion, but it’s one where he took, which was the common practice of the Chaldeans, the brightest and the best of the nation that they were conquering, back to the land of Babylon, to train them in the ways of Babylon, to teach them the language of Babylon, that they might gain the beliefs of Babylon and live their lives as Babylonians.
And then they would be the ones that would set the tone for the rest of the captives because they had been the leaders, or those that would be prepared to be the leaders of the nation that he had conquered. I want you to see, though, that in spite of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar’s plans, someone else is in control. In the beginning of the first chapter of Daniel, it reveals this to us.
When you look at it, it says, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. Which was the larger kingdom? Babylon. Which had the greater army? Babylon.
Which had more power and authority and influence on the Middle East at this particular point of history? Babylon. Israel has always been the size of Israel. It was a small nation.
It had an insignificant population when compared to Babylon. Its army was insignificant. But yet Israel is always at the center of conflict.
Why? Because there is something special about the land of Israel, about the city of Jerusalem, and about the promises that God has given to the people that are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Satan hates that which God loves. And that’s why today you have a little tiny state of Israel the size of New Jersey with a population that is less than many large cities in the world.
And yet where is the whole world’s focus? Israel. Same reason it’s here. Now I want you to see in the next verse it tells us who’s in control.
Not Nebuchadnezzar, but God. As you look at this verse it says, And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand. Into whose hand? Nebuchadnezzar’s hand.
Who gave Jehoiakim? Who gave Jerusalem? Who gave Judah? Who gave all of Israel into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar? The Lord. Nebuchadnezzar could have never taken Jerusalem if God wouldn’t have allowed it. Even though his army was greater.
Even though he had a much more sophisticated weaponry. And even though they were a much cruel and much more brutal people. And were much greater warriors.
They could have never ever defeated Judah and Jerusalem. But God gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. For the reason that I relayed earlier.
Because of their lack of faith, their lack of trust, their lack of willingness to serve and worship God. The one who had given them this land. The one who had established their city, his city.
The one who had made his presence known in Solomon’s temple. So God gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. But it’s interesting to note.
Things that happened in Judah prior to these events. At the time of Josiah, which would have been the father of Jehoiakim. Revival had broken out in the land of Judah.
The problem was the people didn’t let go of their idols. And on the surface it appeared that revival had occurred. But in the hearts of the people, many of them held on to their idols and their false gods.
So when Jehoiakim and prior to him, his brother came to power. And they didn’t have a heart for God. And they encouraged the people to do what they wanted to do.
The people immediately began to worship the gods that they loved. Except for those whose hearts had been transformed. Of these were four young men.
Now I want you to see that these weren’t the only four young Jewish sons of rulers and leaders of Israel. Or Judah rather, that were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. To be turned into Chaldeans.
Because when we read about Daniel and his request for not eating of the Chaldean food. It says at the end of this period of ten days, compare our appearance to those like us. Which is referring to the other Jewish young men that came out that didn’t do what Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah had done.
What was different about these four young men? Their names speak of what the difference is. Names have great significance in the Old Testament. You need to understand that.
In our culture, sometimes names have significance. But a lot of times we pick a name simply because we like the name. God placed on parents’ hearts to name their children names if God had a specific purpose for that child.
And you find that throughout Scripture. Samuel was given the name. We know that John the Baptist was given his name by the Lord.
We know that the Lord, when he took on bodily form, he sent an angel before Mary conceived and Jesus was born. And he told her what the name of this child should be. And the significance of Jesus’ names means that salvation is of the Lord.
Well, what do these men’s names mean in Hebrew? Well, it’s interesting. Daniel means God is judge. Whenever you see L, E-L, it’s significant of the fact that it’s a portion of the name of the Lord. And it’s referring to God. Daniel, Dan means judge. God is the judge.
The second, Hananiah. Yahweh or the Lord is precious. If you have a King James Bible, you’ll see that oftentimes if you’re looking in the Old Testament, you’re reading in the Old Testament, you’ll see Lord and all the letters will be capitalized.
When you see LORD and all the letters are capitalized in a King James Bible, what it is referring to is the fact that the name of God that is used there is Yahweh. The powerful name of the Lord.
Hananiah. Whenever you see I-A-H, it’s another derivative of E-L, and it means it’s tied to Yahweh in the Hebrew language. Isaiah, Jeremiah. They all mean they have meanings. There’s something of dealing with the Lord. What does Hananiah mean? It means God is gracious. So you have Daniel. Daniel is God is judge. Hananiah, God is gracious. And then you have Mishael. Who is what God is. Who is what God is. In other words, his name means there is no other like God.
What other is like God? It’s a rhetorical question, if you would, put in a name. And it means there is none other but God. So you have God is judge.
God is gracious. Who is who God is.
Then the third one is Azariah. Azariah means whom Yahweh helps. In other words, Yahweh is there to help and deliver. Now it’s important you understand their Jewish names, because these four men, unlike any of the others that came into captivity with them as young men to be converted into Chaldeans, lived up to their names. God is judge. God is gracious. Who is who God is.
And God will help.
As they stood before the Chaldean eunuch who was in charge of all these young men. And his job was to convert them into Chaldeans.Now I want you to understand something about the Babylonian government and Babylonian belief system and the Babylonian religion. The conflict that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah faced was a conflict you and I face every day. If your kids go to public school, they are in the heart of the conflict. If they go to college, they will have professors that are just like the Chaldeans that want to convert them to a belief system that stands in direct opposition that all God stands for. And the battle is the same. The Chaldean belief system and their gods were not based upon truth.
But they were based upon nature and naturalism. And there was no supernatural authority.
It’s interesting if you look at Babylon. Where did the belief systems of Babylon originate? Where did their gods originate? And where did they spring out of? Prior to Babylon ever being in existence, there was another belief system that was motivated by a man who desired to be the ruler of the world and have all people bow before him. He was to be worshipped as God and his name was Nimrod. The Tower of Babel was built in the very area where Babylon existed. The religious system that Nimrod established was the one whose roots were at the root of the Babylonian belief system. And you look at every false religious system in the world today, it has very similar roots. It’s not by chance that if you go to Mexico, you find ziggurats. If you go to the Middle East, you find ziggurats. If you go to South America, you find ziggurats. If you go to Asia and Europe, you can find ziggurats.
What are ziggurats? They’re structures built very similar to what was involved in the temples of the Babylonian worship. At the heart of the Babylonian worship was a man, Nimrod, who took what Satan laid before Adam and took it to the ultimate extreme. Nimrod believed he did not have to listen to God, he did not have to believe in God because he was God. And the people would worship at his feet. He wanted to establish a one world government, a one world religion, which would really ultimately focus on him, but through him, Satan.
Semiranus, his wife, was worshipped as well, and their son, Temus, was worshipped too. You will find this similar type of worship in pagan worships throughout the world. At the heart of this worship is not a supernatural worship, but it’s a worship that’s based in nature.
It’s interesting, some of the Babylonian gods, Marduk was the prime Babylonian god, the great leader. Ishtar was the goddess of love, fertility, sexuality, and war. There are other various names given that can be traced back to Nimrod.
Bel, Marduk, Ra, Ra is found in the Egyptian gods. Their son, Temus, in Israel, the Canaanite gods. There was Baal, Moloch, in Egypt, Osiris. All a false god system.
When I was in high school, we studied Greek mythology and we studied the Greek gods. It’s really ironic. We didn’t study the Bible, but we studied that which was lies. Let me ask you a thing about the Greek gods. They were just like humans, except they had supernatural power, but they also sinned in supernatural ways.
They had the same flaws as humans, it’s just that they were supposed to be gods. And they were all tied to various aspects of nature. They had the god of the sea, Poseidon. You had the chief god, Zeus. And you can tie these, and there’s a man who put together a book called The Two Babylons, where he ties all of these gods and shows they all go back to the Tower of Babel. And they manifest themselves in Christianity and they begin to do it at the time of Constantine in the Roman Catholic Church.
Many of the things that Rome and Orthodox Church holders uphold are really paganism and tie it back to this. Just to give you one example, the monstrance. If you go to a Roman Catholic service and you would celebrate Mass, they would bring out the wafer and they would place a wafer in the monstrance and they would bring the monstrance out. And the monstrance, if you would look at it, is in the form of the sun god. They also worshipped the wafer and they worshipped the wine as the literal body and blood of Christ. And if you look at many other aspects of the religion, they can be tied back to these things.
This is what Daniel and his friends were facing when they came to Babylon. A false religious system had its roots way back at the Tower of Babel and its design under Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was no different than Nimrod when he began.
Now, we’re going to see as we go through Daniel, there’s a change that happens in his life. But the thing is, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to be ruler of the world and he was the one that was in total control. And as you see here, Nebuchadnezzar was the one who would go out and examine these young men and he would determine what young man received what responsibility. What king do you see do that today? They delegate, not Nebuchadnezzar.
And the thing is, as you look at what’s happening here, remember who’s in control. As we go through this book, remember who’s in control, beginning when Judah was taken into captivity, it wasn’t Nebuchadnezzar, it was God. Now also, as you look at there, there’s some interesting things that he took when he took the young men.
He did not take all the instruments of the temple at this time, because the temple was left standing on this invasion. But he took, it says, some of the instruments of the temple, and he placed these instruments in his God’s temple, in his primary God’s temple, as a sign to all that were in Babylon, I am greater than the God of the Hebrews. The problem is, he wasn’t.
But it’s important to realize there’s a reason that that was put at the beginning of the book, and we need to remember that it’s there. We also look at one of the things that they wanted these four young men, whose names have great significance in Hebrew, to do. That was to begin to identify with Babylon immediately, with what they ate and what they drank, to eat and drink the Babylonian diet and food.
One of the things that’s interesting as you look here, the two things that they refuse to, that are mentioned are the meat and the wine. Keep in mind, wine, as we get to the end of chapter six. Wine plays a significant part in Babylon.
Their diet plays a significant part. It’s interesting as you look at when the church was early and people were wondering, do I need to become a Jew before I become a Christian? And there’s still an issue of that today where people are confused. So they called the church council and the first church council was called in Jerusalem.
And it was determined by the first church council of whom James, brother of Jesus, was the head of that council. And they determined it was not necessary for a Gentile to become a Jew in order to be a Christian. In other words, a Gentile man did not have to be circumcised. They did not have to follow the dietary laws. They did not have to follow the temple worship as far as Passover and all the other temple celebrations. But there were four things that they said they had to do.
All four things deal and are tied and can be tied to pagan worship. Two of them dealt with sexual activity that was illicit and two of them dealt with eating and drinking of blood. They were not to do that as a Christian. Why? That was part of this Babylonian worship service and it’s part of the Babylonian system to this day. And you’re not to identify with it.
You know, it’s not by chance that one of the great things that you see happening in our culture today is, quote, the sexual revolution. A number of years ago, Fargo had the first Gay Lesbian Pride Day parade. And when they had it, Mayor Lindgren was the mayor and they held a meeting at City Hall. And the City Hall auditorium was packed with people who were against this.
At that one, I spoke at that and one of the things I said is, why are we honoring people for their sexual preference? Their value isn’t found in what they do in the bedroom. And I said, what’s going to be next? We’re going to honor pedophilia or bestiality. And guess what? Those things are coming to the surface in our culture today because at the heart of it is paganism and rebellion against God and against all that God has established as real and true.
So today, how many different sexes can you have? The list keeps growing longer and longer, but there’s only two, male and female. He created them. Either a male or a female, and I don’t care how much you mutilate a body, you will never change the X and the Y chromosomes that are in every cell. And every man is an XY and every woman is an XX and they will be till they die. It doesn’t matter what they do to their body, but you see, the Babylonians were part of this worship system. The school that these young men were going to was to change their mind and their perspective and their thinking so that they would no longer think like a believer in the God of the Bible. They would no longer think like a Jewish young man, like a Hebrew.
They would now think like a pagan Chaldean and they could be transformed from one who would trust in the supernatural power of the God who created all things by bringing them and speaking them into being, into one who would become a naturalist who would say that they’re gods. One was in control of this part of nature, one in that, but they just didn’t come out of nothing. Sounds familiar to our belief system today. People say the Bible, well, you can’t believe that. That’s just a bunch of fairy tales. How much of a fairy tale is it to believe that you have nothing and you have a big bang that creates?
Sit down and talk to somebody who’s going to talk to you about the Big Bang Theory and now Hawking’s latest thing before he died, the giant bubble theory. And Hawking, before he died, he said, I know what the Christians are going to say, well, where did the bubble come from? But where did the bubble come from? Where did the elements of the Big Bang come from? It says that God created out of nothing, ex nihilo. By the power of his word, that’s not what Babylon believed.
And they had to recondition the hearts and souls of these young people to believe like a Babylonian. And it’s going to impact. And you’re going to see how that when these young men respond to situations they’re placed in, which seem to be impossible situations, what God has given them for names will be reflected in the actions that they do and they will not cave to the culture that is pressing in around them.
Ken Ham wrote a book about our culture stealing the minds and hearts of our kids. And when did it happen? Because it’s always been believed since I first started hearing talks about it in the late 60s, early 70s, it was going to be a college. And I can guarantee you my college professors did everything in their strength to discourage my belief in Jesus Christ.
If you went to college, I’m sure you had professors that were the same way. They would give you the most ungodly literature, they would give you the most ungodly reasoning and go to biology class and biology class would be filled with evolution as fact. And yet I go to sociology class and we’d be all of these proofs of the fact that man had evolved and that man had evolved from this from this stage to this stage to this stage. And then all of a sudden somebody would find out it was all based on lies. But they never get up in front of the class and say, well, we’ll ask a man that we based and made a whole picture of, which showed his family and all the animals and everything around Nebraska man. Nobody got up in my sociology class after they determined that Nebraska man’s tooth was a pig’s tooth and not a humanoid’s tooth. It was not a human tooth at all, but they based a lie and it was in every sociology book that I had. It was in the basis foundation of much of the psychology classes that I was taught based on lies to transform thinking so that you would believe a system that is nothing but lies and reject the truth. That was the whole Chaldean school system.
How long did it last? About the same as what it takes to get a degree at university today. It was three years. Now, this wasn’t three years of being nine months on and three months off. It wasn’t three years of six months on and six months. This was three solid years of going and studying and learning. But you had four young men and these four young men are willing to stand in the face of pressure that would cause older men to collapse.
But they had names that spoke of their God. God is judge. God is gracious.
Who is God but God and God will help because God exists. We live in a culture today where they want to tell us God doesn’t exist. Even much of what we’re seeing happen politically in our nation today where you’re seeing a lot of things changing.
But yet are they really do people really believe in the power of God to do it? Are they trusting in a president, in a cabinet? Do Christians really have a worldview that is Christian? What was the difference between Daniel and Hananiah and Meshael and Azariah and all the other young Hebrew boys that came from Jerusalem and were taken up to Babylon? The difference was their worldview. Their view was that God was the ultimate authority and control in the world. And when they were taken into captivity they would agree that God allowed Jehoiakim and Jerusalem to fall.
Nebuchadnezzar did not defeat it. That’s a totally different worldview than you would have gotten from the Babylonians. They would have said they had no chance.
But they forgot about the Assyrians that came and attacked Jerusalem during the time of Hezekiah. And Hezekiah cried out to the Lord and cried out for the Lord’s help and the people put on sackcloth and ashes and they worshipped God. And they went out and the army was dead.
An army that they could not defeat. An army that was much greater than them. They had many more men and stronger weapons but they all lay dead.
Not by man’s power but by the power of God. They would have remembered Elisha the prophet when he stood with his servant and his servant was terrified as the Syrians were surrounding them and they’d come and they sent their mercenaries to come and to kill Elisha and Elisha was not afraid. And his servant said, aren’t you afraid? Look out the window.
The Assyrians are there. And Elisha prayed to God and he said, open his eyes that he can see what I know is there. And around and surrounding them were angels with swords.
The Assyrians were not going to get any closer to that house than God allowed them to get. And it ended up that the Assyrian army ran away. When Israel became a nation, people say, well, do you know that there are actually Christians in our world today that don’t think that Israel is there because God put it there? And they think that the church has become Israel.
They are believing the Chaldean lies instead of looking at the power of God. In 1948, during the War of Independence, there is no way Israel should have won that war. No way.
They were surrounded by Arab nations. All the Arab nations came together. As a matter of fact, the Arab nations had told the Arabs that lived in Jerusalem, get out.
We’re attacking Israel. We’re going to kill everybody. That was the message they sent.
The Jews sent to the people, don’t leave, don’t leave. Many of the Arabs did. Some of those are Palestinians today.
During that war, on more than one occasion, there’s no way battle should have been won. Get the book, Sevi, which is the account of how Sevi Kalesher became saved and he served in that war and he saw miracles. Miracles that could only come from a transcendent God who stands above his creation and can break into his creation and do that which is impossible.
He talked about times where there would be totally outnumbered, outmanned with weapons and guns and armory and the Arabs would be coming and all they had to do was keep coming and they would all of a sudden turn and run. If they would have kept coming, it would have been an easy victory. Daniel, Tananiah, Mishael and Azariah knew this God.
They didn’t have to look to things, they didn’t have to look to people, they just looked to God. Why should the head of the man that’s watching over the young men and giving them all their food and making sure they eat it properly and helping prepare them so they can learn the Chaldean way? Why should he take an interest in these four? Of all the Jewish young men, why these four? Because it says that there was this bond that came between these four and him. So they went to him and said, we don’t want to eat the Chaldean food.
And he said, well, it’s not your head that’s going to roll, it’s mine. I’m the one that’s going to be killed when all of a sudden I bring you before Nebuchadnezzar and you look terrible, you’re pale, you’re skinny, you look horrible and all of your classmates from the Chaldean University are going to be strong and look great and you’re going to be there and my head’s going to roll because he’s going to say, why do these look so different? And I’m going to go because I gave them vegetables and water. Why would he listen to them and give it to them anyway? Because God is judge.
God is gracious. God is who God is and God will help. All they had to do is sit around and say each other’s name and they knew the answer.
And the thing is, there’s all kinds of speculation on why they didn’t want to eat and why they didn’t. I believe personally that there was things about it that were dietary against the dietary laws of the Jewish people and they didn’t want to break those. But I think also God placed on their hearts, do not take of this food because I’m going to show something to these people that is much greater than their dietary laws.
And that is that I’ve got and that you will eat things that shouldn’t put weight on you. I mean, today, the great diet is a vegetable and water diet. You want to lose weight, go on that diet.
It’s one of the diets. We got all these diets they’re coming out with because Americans are chubby, chubby, chubby. So I know that you’d normally lose weight if you’re just eating vegetable and water.
But if God can give the whole nation of Israel manna from heaven and all they have to eat is manna from heaven and water, he can do the miraculous. Ever stop to think about that? What was in that manna? It had all the nutrients it needed, it had all the vitamins they needed. It had all everything their bodies needed to function.
Their bodies were like our bodies. They were humans and everything was in that manna. And then God told them what? You need to trust me.
I’m going to send it every morning, except on the Sabbath. I won’t send manna on the Sabbath. But I mean, he did, but he said, don’t collect it.
So he said, I want you to go out and I want you to collect the manna. I want you to just collect enough that you need for that day for your family. Don’t take more.
And then he says, trust me and don’t collect it. If you see manna on the Sabbath, don’t collect it. And he said the day before the Sabbath, I want you to collect twice as much as you normally would collect so that you’ve got that for the Sabbath as well.
But if you collect more than you need any other time, it’s going to be filled with worms. Now, that seems like totally ludicrous. You’ve got over a million people and that’s what you’re going to do for their diet.
Those who followed and obeyed God were fine, but those who disobeyed theirs became filled with worms. That’s the God we serve. He is greater than his creation.
He is not part of his creation. Today, we live in a culture that wants to worship the creator rather than the, I mean, the creation rather than the creator. They are exactly where Paul said that the pagans would be in the last days as they went down this vortex of the spiraling out of control and rebellion and sin.
And it begins when you worship the creature rather than the creator. That’s the Babylonian religion. They worship the creature rather than the creator.
And it began at the Tower of Babel when Nimrod wanted to be worshipped. And it began before that in the Garden of Eden, where Satan came and said to Adam and to Eve, you can be like God. In other words, you can be gods.
And Satan himself thinks he’s a god, but he’s no god at all. Let’s just follow him. Father, I pray that you just speak to us.
Help us to understand the importance of the hour in which we live. Help us to understand, just as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were facing a choice. What is their worldview going to be? Are they going to believe in the God of the Bible? Are they going to believe in the truth? Are they going to believe in the lies of the world and a world system that stands in direct opposition to you? Lord, help us to believe the truth and to have a worldview that’s based upon the truth of your word and upon the depth of your character.