"God's Sovereignty"

Most of you are aware that at the end of February I went out to Frontier School of the Bible and sat through a week long class, doing an exhaustive study through the book of Daniel. I didn’t just go out there to obtain knowledge to keep to myself… I went out there to learn and to be better equipped in order to share this knowledge with all of you.

As we go through this study, I will be mainly using the notes that were provided to myself and all the students that sat through the week of lectures. These notes were prepared by Pastor David Thompson of Texas Corners Bible Church, down in Kalamazoo. I will be using these notes along with my own notes from my weekly studies.

I am not going to have a main passage for you today, because, as is my custom, I will start with some introductory info on the book of Daniel.

Introductory Information:

Daniel is one of the most important books of the Bible and as such, I believe, has received some of the most scrutiny… J. Vernon Mcgee said “The Book of Daniel is a very important one, and it has therefore been the object of special attack by Satan...”

Here’s an interesting fact that Pastor Thompson pointed out in his notes; “Daniel is the only Old Testament Book that Jesus Christ specifically said “Let the reader understand””…

My prayer is, that as we go through this study, God will give us understanding and that through this study, we will all grow closer in our relationship with Him.

Meat:

As I said… The book of Daniel has received some of the most scrutiny.

One of the area’s that has been scrutinized is…

1. When it was Written

… A fella by the name Porphyry, a heretic in the third century A.D. declared that the Book of Daniel was a forgery that was written during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabees. That would place its writing around 170 B.C., almost four hundred years after Daniel died.

The German critics took hold of this hypothesis and these critics, as well as present–day unbelievers, assume the premise that the supernatural does not exist… Which would then imply that, since foreknowledge is supernatural, there can be no foretelling and no prophesying.

There is a problem with this theory… again, J. Vernon Mcgee said “… the very interesting thing is that the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, was translated before the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and it contains the Book of Daniel!”… So it had to be written prior to 170 B.C.

Josephus also records an incident during the time of Alexander the Great which supports the early authorship of Daniel. Alexander the Great went on his world conquering tour around 335 B.C., which we will look at later on this study.

But, Josephus says, When Alexander’s invasion reached the Near East, Jaddua, the high priest, went out to meet him and showed him a copy of the Book of Daniel in which Alexander was clearly mentioned. Alexander was so impressed by this that, instead of destroying Jerusalem, he entered the city peaceably and worshiped at the temple.

So it had to have been written prior to 335 B.C… as well.

So when was it written??

Look at Daniel 1:1 “1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.”

So Daniel’s record starts when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and took some captives hostage. This occured around 605 B.C… Skip ahead to Daniel 10:1 and look at what it says… “1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar. The message was true, but the appointed time was long; and he understood the message, and had understanding of the vision.”

So, Daniel was alive in 605 B.C. when Jehoiakim was King and he is still alive in the third year of the reign of King Cyrus… Historians date that to be 536 B.C… If you are doing the math, that is about 70 years after Nebuchadnezzar took him captive.

Speculating that Daniel was roughly 15-17 years old, in 605 B.C., when he was taken captive… he would be somewhere around 75 years old during the reign of Cyrus. Most believe that Daniel died around 530 B.C… which would put him in his 80’s… which would be plenty of time to complete the writing of this wonderful book.

All that to say this…

I would say it was written during the latter years of his life…

1.1 535 - 530 B.C.

Another area of scrutiny is the authorship of this Book…

I’ll keep this fairly simple… It was…

2. Written by Daniel

The reason that this is scrutinized is because, The book of Daniel never explicitly reveals its author… In some places Daniel is described in third-person narrative (for example)

Daniel 1:8 “8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”

Some would say that “If Daniel wrote this, why didn’t he say “But I in my heart that I would not defile myself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore I requested of the chief of the eunuchs that I might not defile myself.”?… when you read it that way, it sounds a bit conceited doesn’t it?

There are other places where he writes in the form of a first-person reporting a dream (or vision).

Daniel 7:2 “2 Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea.”

I believe the reason that Daniel does this, is to keep the focus off from him and pointing at the works of Almighty God.

V.17 of chapter 1, speaking of Daniel and his 3 buddies… Daniel 1:17

Daniel 1:17 NKJV

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.

So it is not far fetched at all to say that Daniel would use a couple of different literary styles in his writings.

But, there are some that still would say it was written by someone else… So, that leaves us to go to the ultimate authority… Look at Matthew 24…

(Read vv. 15-16)… Emphasize “by Daniel the Prophet” Other translations will say “Through Daniel”…

That is why I would dogmatically say… Daniel wrote this book.

A few things that characterized Daniel’s life… He was…

1.1 Dedicated to God’s Plan

We will see that right away as we get into the first chapter. When the decree was made that everyone had to eat the same things, which included items that Jews were not permitted to eat, Daniel and his 3 friends lived out what they believed and followed God’s plan and not the Kings plan… and guess what?? … God blessed them for it!

Was it a life of easy… absolutely not, but it was a life that was covered with the blessings of God… I pray that we would be as dedicated to God’s plan as Daniel was… and live out what we say we believe… even when we are away from the comforts and restrictions of home… …

Daniel…

1.2 Emphasized Prayer

All throughout this Book we are going to see Daniel kneeling before the Throne of Grace, through prayer.

I wonder if one of Daniel’s prayers was “Lord, reveal Yourself to these sinful people… use me to show them Your Great love”… and then the next day he is throne into the Lions den…

Think about it… with that situation, Daniel surviving the night… God revealed Himself to Darius… and He showed His great love for Daniel by keeping him safe!

Sometimes God answers our prayers in ways that we can never imagine… I hope that we emphasize prayer just like Daniel did.

Daniel was…

1.3 A Prophet

The book of Daniel is not just an autobiography of a godly man, but it is prophetic in the fact that it gives us an outline of God’s future plan.

There are some who question Daniel’s status as a prophet because he is never referred to as one in the Old Testament, such as…

The Prophet Isaiah

Jeremiah the Prophet

Or the Prophet Ezekiel

But again, going back to the ultimate authority… Jesus said in Matthew 24:15 “15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet…

Daniel is a book of critical biblical prophecy… so much so, that some have even labeled the book of Daniel as “The Revelation of the Old Testament”.

Daniel’s predictions (his prophecies) are so precise that the scrutinize-rs say it would have been impossible for him to have written the book before the events occurred… Again, even Alexander the Great was impressed by how accurate it was.

There are prophecies in this book that have already been fulfilled and there are prophecies in this book that have yet to be fulfilled. And we can be sure that just as accurately the one that have been fulfilled came to pass, so will the ones that have to be.

(go to next slide)

3. The Theme of Daniel

There is an encompassing theme that is woven throughout this book from start to finish. It is seen throughout the entire Bible, but it is most vividly seen in the book of Daniel.

3.1 The Sovereignty of God

This is what I have entitled this series through Daniel… it will be our “God’s Sovereignty” series.

When we are talking about the sovereignty of God, we are talking about His absolute right to do all things according to His own will… Sometimes this is referred to as “Divine Sovereignty” which refers to “God’s all-encompassing rule over the entire universe”.

That being said… there is a…

3.2 Theme Verse - 4:17

Daniel 4:17 NKJV

17 ‘This decision is by the decree of the watchers, And the sentence by the word of the holy ones, In order that the living may know That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men.’

It doesn’t matter what the situation is, who is in power, who is not in power, who is loosing their power, who seems to be gaining power… God establishes and disposes people and power to serve His purposes… The accounts that are recorded in this book will emphasize that as we go along…

There are some that hear and talk about the sovereignty of God and use it as an excuse to not do anything… for example… voting in the presidential election. They say “well, God will put in there whom ever He wants whether I vote or not...”… and if that is your mindset, I would encourage you to spend some time in prayer about it.

Time and time again, Israel suffered under terrible leadership because they were consumed by the sin of disobedience… and because of that sin, their disobedience… God allowed terrible rulers to reign over them.

If we as Christians decide that we are not going to let our voice be heard, we are not going to cast our vote, then guess what is guaranteed to happen…?? We will be plagued with awful leadership and it would be our own fault. At that point, God would be giving us over to our own actions… and we could see it as a punishment for our sin of disobedience.

Now, on the flip side of that… If we all get out their and cast our votes based on biblical values and principles… and we still end up with terrible people in leadership… then guess what… we can be assured that it must be part of God’s plan for the world and even though we don’t understand it, we can trust that it must eventually work out for His honor and His glory… because He is the Almighty, Sovereign God!

Pastor Thompson says “God is sovereignly working out His plan in both Gentile and Jewish history and He is moving history to His prophetic conclusions and, as He works out His program at any time, He greatly honors and uses those individuals who remain faithful to Him.”

Very quickly… I want to give you the…

4. Breakdown of the Book

Some books of the Bible have several sections that they can be broken down to. Daniel is pretty simple to break down…

The first half is…

4.1 History - Ch. 1-6

Chapters 1-6 could be viewed as an autobiography of Daniel’s life starting in his teen years when he was led into captivity… and then the latter half would be…

4.2 Prophecy - Ch. 7-12

Chapters 7-12 are the prophecies, concerning the future of Israel, that Daniel left for us. Some of these prophecies have been fulfilled and some still need to be.

One final thing that I want to mention today… and that is…

5. A Life Lesson From Daniel

There are many life lessons that we will see as we go through this study. However, there is one that sticks out above the rest, and even though it sticks out, it is often overlooked… I touched on this at the beginning…

Daniel is an amazing example of a person who lived out what he believed, even in a godless society. A teenager away from home, 99% of the others are indulging in the local pleasures… and yet in his personal, private and public life, he remained faithful God.

Marv Rosenthal once observed that “in the Bible, there are only two major personalities about whom nothing negative is ever said; 1. Joseph and the other is 2. Daniel.

Here’s the lesson that I want you to see…

Daniel proves that…

5.1 “One may be righteous and godly and be mightily used by God in the midst of heathen environments.” - Pastor Dave Thompson

(Repeat)…

Closing:

At an early age, Daniel was taken from his home and raised in a sinful nation. He could have blamed God for these bad things that were happening, he could have walked away from God, he could have followed the majority of the crowd and indulged in the pleasures of this foreign land…

But he never faltered… Daniel and his 3 buddies trusted in the sovereignty of God and because of their faithfulness, God used them in mighty ways to impact a fallen, sinful world.

Here’s the thing my beloved… God has many attributes… one of which is the fact that He is immutable… Meaning, God does not change. So the sovereign God of 605 B.C., is still the same Sovereign God today.

The God that used faithful teenagers back then, can and will use faithful people today, in an even further fallen and sinful world… … and as this world continues to get further and further away from God and His principles… as this world seems to get darker and darker everyday… remember…

(Point back at the screen)

One may be righteous and godly and be mightily used by God in the midst of heathen environments.

It all starts with a relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Prayer:

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