July 25, 2025 • 31 mins
"Have you ever tried to understand Daniel's role in God's larger plan? Today’s episode examines how Daniel’s story connects to Hezekiah, Babylonian stargazers, and the Magi — showing Scripture as one unified, Christ-centered narrative across centuries."
Pastor Teddy, a.k.a Fred Kenney, Jr., explores the fascinating historical context surrounding the Book of Daniel, connecting biblical events spanning hundreds of years through the mysterious Babylonian stargazers who became aware of divine signs in the heavens. This is an exciting further look into what will be the backdrop to Plays On Word's latest play, 'DAN' set for release soon.
• Historical overview of the Babylonian Empire's rise to power in 605 BC
• Exploration of King Hezekiah's miraculous healing and the sun moving backward as a sign
• Connection between Babylonian envoys who visited Hezekiah and the Magi who later sought Jesus
• Daniel's capture as a young nobleman in the first wave of Babylonian captives
• Description of Babylon's impressive architecture and cultural impact on the young captives
• Timeline of Jerusalem's three sieges (605 BC, 598 BC, and 586 BC)
• Biblical interconnections showing how Scripture points to Christ throughout history
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. ~ Numbers 6: 24-26
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lord, you know You're now listening to Play For.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Word Radio.
It's the best.
We'll see you next week.
(00:38):
You're the only name.
You're the only name.
You're the only name.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we
discuss, analyze, work and playon the Word of God.
Thank you for joining us onthis excursion.
Today let's join Pastor Teddy,also known as Fred David Kenny
Jr, the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he does a deep dive
into the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Amen, amen.
Well, thank you, josh Taylorand Katie Kenny for that
introduction.
Oh yeah, that welcome and thatgreeting out of the way.
I hope you guys enjoyed thereading of the book of Daniel
from the first person as ifDaniel was telling the story
himself.
We know he wrote the book.
There is criticism fromscholarship that tries to say
(02:00):
nah, man, he didn't write thatbook, he couldn't have written
that book.
The prophecies are too accurate.
It is true that the book ofDaniel contains the most
accurate, detailed propheciesthan that.
(02:27):
But as far as the detail in theprophecies from the book of
Daniel, they are different fromthe rest of Scripture in their
level of detail.
So we'll get into thosechapters with the prophetic
stuff.
We'll get into that a littlebit later, but for the most part
, just you know, we'll get intothat a little bit later, but for
(02:53):
the most part, the book ofDaniel itself speaks with great
detail about the empires thatwould come on the scene,
particularly the empire that wasalready on the scene, the
Babylonian Empire, and then theMedo-Persian Empire, both of
which Daniel basically straddledor was involved, highly
involved in.
And then after that, after theMedo-Persian Empire, you had the
(03:18):
Greek Empire, the Hellenists,led by Alexander the Great.
And then and all these guys arespoken of by Daniel, just for
an anchor for those that mightnot be biblically astute or in
depth in their understanding ofScripture the first empire that
(03:44):
is dealt with is the BabylonianEmpire, and officially, the
Babylonian Empire threw off theyoke of the Assyrian Empire.
The Assyrian Empire basicallystarted crumbling and the
Babylonians, the Syrian Empire,basically started crumbling and
the Babylonians, andNebuchadnezzar's dad was leading
(04:06):
the Babylonians, the Chaldeans,and leading them.
And Nebuchadnezzar officiallytook over in 605 or 606 BC and
he was on a campaign in theMiddle East when his dad died.
(04:28):
So on his way back he went upagainst Jerusalem, and that was
in 605 BC, and that's when hesnatched up in the first wave.
There were three waves ofcaptives being taken.
The first wave happened in 605BC and, remember, it kind of
(04:51):
goes in reverse as time movesalong the timeline.
It goes in reverse to year zeroand then it starts going
forward our period of time.
So 6005 is when he grabbedDaniel as a young, young boy or
teenager, very young man, partof the noble family, the
(05:14):
nobility of the kingdom of Judah.
You know, if I actually backedup though and go back maybe a
hundred some years.
There's some change.
There is King Hezekiah of Judahand he was extremely sick.
(05:35):
He was not doing well.
Put it this way, he was goingto die.
He was at the point of death.
You could see this story inIsaiah, chapter 38.
He was like sick and Isaiah theprophet came to him and
basically told him said yo, man,you need to take care of all
your house, man, everything,like take care of all your bills
, everything, man, cause you,you are about to check out of
(05:56):
here.
You're not going to recover it.
And Hezekiah, he, he was sobummed out he turned his face to
the wall and prayed to the Lordand said oh Lord, please
remember how I walked before youin faithfulness and with a
whole heart.
I've done what's good in yoursight.
And it's true he did.
Hezekiah was alive.
What a character.
(06:16):
He reinstated the Passover,everything.
So he was a pretty good qualityking for Judah.
And here he was sick.
He pleaded with the Lord.
He wanted the Lord to rememberwhat he had done.
And so the word of the Lordcame back to Isaiah the prophet.
(06:42):
He said go to Hezekiah and tellhim I've heard your prayer,
look at that.
I've seen your tears and and,uh, I'm going to add 15 years to
your life.
So he did.
He added 15 years to his lifeand, um, he, the Assyrian empire
, was on the world stage at thetime.
(07:04):
They were gnarly, they werepretty mean to the people they
would capture.
They transplanted people fromtheir homelands to different
lands and they would line theroad with spikes with people's
skulls on them as a deterrent tolet people know don't even
(07:25):
think about revolting against us, or this is what's going to
happen to you.
So yeah, god tells Hezekiah,I'm going to deliver you and
this city out of the hand of theking of Assyria.
So in the story, the way Isaiahtells the story in Isaiah,
chapter 38, he just basicallysays this in verse 7.
(07:50):
He says this will be the signto you from the Lord that the
Lord will do this thing he haspromised.
Behold, I'll make the shadowcast by the sun going down on
the sundial.
I'll make it go back 10 steps.
So the sun turned back on thesundial, 10 steps, by which it
had declined.
Now there's a parallel versionof this story that happens in
(08:15):
the book of 2 Kings.
It's a parallel version andit's the same story, except we
get a little more informationhere.
In verse 8 of 2 Kings, chapter20, hezekiah said to Isaiah.
He said well, what's going tobe the sign that the Lord will
heal me and that I shall go upto the house of the Lord on the
(08:39):
third day?
Isn't that interesting?
Isn't that interesting?
On the third day?
Yeah, isn't that interesting?
Isn't that interesting On thethird day?
Yeah, isn't that amazing?
If you back up in there inchapter 20 of 2 Kings, back up
to verse 5, when Isaiah, afterhe left he's walking away after
he first gave Hezekiah the badnews he's leaving and the word
(09:01):
of the Lord came to him.
We get a little more detail inthe book of 2 Kings.
It says the word of the Lordcame to him and said turn back
and say and this is the word ofthe Lord to Isaiah.
And he came to Isaiah and saidgo back and say to Hezekiah, the
leader of my people.
Thus says the Lord, the God ofDavid, your father, I have heard
(09:22):
your prayer, I have seen yourtears.
Behold, I will heal you On thethird day.
You shall go up to the house ofthe Lord and I will add 15
years to your life.
I will deliver you in this cityout of the hand of the king of
Assyria, and I will defend thiscity for my own sake and for my
(09:44):
servant Davidsyria.
And I will defend this city formy own sake and for my servant
David's sake.
And Isaiah said bring a cake offigs and let them take it.
Lay it on the boil that he mayrecover.
So it's interesting he also usesmedicine, the figs.
For those of you that want tosay, oh, I'm just going to trust
the Lord for this, to heal thismigraine, well, sometimes the
Lord's saying utilize someMotrin or use something man
(10:08):
Medicine.
He could have healed him, butyet he had him.
Bring some figs to lay on theboil that he may recover.
That's one of the verses that'sused to say hey, sometimes we
do need to use medicine.
Who made the figs?
God made them.
So verse 8,.
Then Hezekiah says to him butwe do need to use medicine.
Who made the figs?
God made them.
So verse 8,.
And then Hezekiah says to himbut what's going to be the sign
(10:30):
that I'm going to be healed andI'm going to go up to the temple
on the third day?
You can't get beyond that, manfor a second.
The third day, I mean on thethird day, that does point to
Christ.
It doesn't say after three days, it's on the third day, on the
third day, and that's whenChrist rose.
On the third day.
Yeah, a lot of things happen onthe third day.
(10:53):
You go back to our Genesis Joeplay.
Throughout it, the Genesis Joeplay, we emphasize the fact that
three days later, on the thirdday, is when Joseph goes to his
brothers and after he had himlocked up for three days and on
the third day he goes to themand says to them do this and
(11:14):
you'll live, for I fear God.
And he he lets them go butkeeps Simeon with him in in
prison.
And they go back and get in andthey get Benjamin.
And you know the whole, therest of the story.
If you don't know the rest ofthe story, you need to come
check out the Genesis Joe playor go read Genesis chapter 37
through 50 and you'll see whatI'm talking about.
But yeah, this is a lot of funhere that he's mentioning we get
(11:37):
a little tiny foreshadowing ofChrist, the resurrection of
Christ.
You don't want to read too muchinto it, but you can't escape
it, man, it's just out there,it's right there in front of you
on the third day You're goingto go up to the house of the
Lord and the Lord added 15 yearsof life to Hezekiah.
Yeah, and it was unfortunately.
(11:59):
After this event, hezekiah hasa and his name is Manasseh and
he would reign in Judah for 45,horrible, terrible, long years.
The church tradition is thatManasseh had the prophet Isaiah.
He's the one that's talkedabout in Hebrews, chapter 11,
(12:21):
where it talks about in the Hallof Faith chapter of the Bible,
where it lists those greatpeople of faith and,
interestingly enough, all wentthrough it, every single one of
them.
Well, there's one particular inthere where it talks about they
were sawn in two.
You know, they went around insheepskins and goatskins and
they lived in holes in groundand they were sawn in two.
(12:43):
Basically, the world was notworthy of them.
Well, that sawn in two that'sbelieved to be referencing what
happened to the prophet Isaiahunder the orders of Hezekiah's
son, manasseh.
This is after Hezekiah was dead, but manasseh was not feeling
the prophet isaiah who servedhis dad and he, according to
(13:05):
tradition, had him saw, sawn intwo man.
And wait, get this.
It's not like he went to homedepot and got a power saw.
They used a wooden saw.
Man, oh, come on a wooden, awooden saw.
What are you chopping down witha wood saw?
How much work can you get downwith a wood saw?
How much work can you get donewith a wooden saw?
Maybe a lot, I don't know.
I've never had a wooden saw.
(13:26):
All my saws are from Home Depot, are made out of metal, and the
tradition is that Isaiah waspraying quietly as he was being
sawn in two by the evil Manasseh.
Yeah, pretty grim.
Okay, pastor, what does thishave to do with Daniel?
Okay, I'm getting to it.
I'm getting to it.
I'm getting to it.
Now.
The Babylonians were what youcould call stargazers.
(13:50):
They looked to the skies andthey were like what is going on
here, man?
Because the sun went back onthe sundial, it went in reverse
and somehow they noticed it hadsomething to do with to the west
of them, from Babylon.
They knew.
They were like wait a second,something ain't right here.
(14:13):
What's going on over there?
Let's observe this.
And they observed it and,interestingly enough, they sent
envoys.
They were like you need to gofind out what's going on, what
just happened over there, thatdirection.
And in verse 12 of second Kings, chapter 20,.
It says at that time, merodachBaladan, the son of Baladan,
king of king of Babylon.
Now, keep in mind, this is ahundred, some years before
(14:36):
Daniel, before the book ofDaniel.
So Hezekiah, hezekiah reigned,manasseh took over.
So, Hezekiah died, I want to saylike 687, somewhere around
there BC Hezekiah.
He was reigning like 716-ish to687.
(14:56):
So in that period of time, andDaniel was taken in 605 BC as a
young kid and so easily ahundred years before this stuff
went, you know, before the firstattack by Nebuchadnezzar, this
whole thing went down withHezekiah.
(15:16):
And now listen to this Hezekiahand the Babylonian envoys right
, the um, the Babylonians, theChaldeans that saw this, that
were the stargazers like wait aminute, man, let's go find out
what's going on over there.
So they did, and they sentthese guys and envoys were sent
letters with a present to theking from the Babylonian king.
(15:36):
They were not, they were notthe power on the scene at the
time.
Keep in mind they, the Assyrianempire was the one that had
their foot on everybody's necks.
They were based out of Nineveh,okay, so the Assyrians, that's
a different empire, but you hada band of people that gathered
together different groups.
The Chaldeans were one of them.
(15:59):
They ended up being the leadersand they were from Babylon in
that area.
And it says Hezekiah welcomedthem.
Oh, and then it gets worse.
Look at this.
And then he showed them all histreasure, his silver, his gold,
all the spices, the preciousoil.
He showed them his armory,everything that was in his
(16:25):
storehouses.
There was not one thing in allhis realm.
It says that Hezekiah did notshow them.
Now you might say, ah, he'sjust whatever, he's just being a
, he's being a good host, that'sall, okay.
Well, in retrospect, lookingback, it probably wasn't the
smartest thing for him to dobecause, even though they came
(16:47):
in what seemed to be peace andtrying to find out what's going
on, a hundred years later, theBabylonians were going to
besiege Jerusalem.
They would not be coming inpeace.
Nebuchadnezzar did not come inpeace.
They would not be coming inpeace.
Nebuchadnezzar did not come inpeace.
In fact, he took captives outof there and then took articles
of gold on three differentoccasions, and on the last one
(17:09):
is when he completely destroyedthe temple and the city and
everything else.
Jeremiah records all that forus.
And it's interesting becausethese Babylonian stargazers okay
, they noticed what happenedwith the sun going back a bunch
of steps.
I can guarantee none of youhave seen that, unless you have
(17:30):
flown across country and eventhen the sun doesn't really go
you're the one who's moving.
Okay, so when you go acrosscountry and you leave from New
Jersey and go to California.
Okay, wow, it looks like thesun went back.
It didn't, but in the case ofthese guys, it did go backwards
and for some reason, theyrecognized the origin of it or
(17:52):
what was going on.
Now, how did all this play out?
I cannot wait to get to glory,because that's part of the DVD I
want to see.
I'm really looking forward toseeing some of these things that
we hear about, like Joshua withthe sun standing still.
Wait, what?
Come on, man, that's somebetter than sci-fi stuff right
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there.
How did that happen?
How did that go down?
What did it look like?
The scripture tells us that ithappened, so I believe it.
I'm not in disbelief, I'm justin incredible anticipation on
seeing the breakdown of it.
I want to see how this went outand how everybody reacted.
(18:35):
Well, it's interesting thatthese Babylonians saw that and
they sent envoys.
Does that remind you ofanything?
People?
Does that remind you ofanything else?
Let me give you a hint.
We have a play that well, itdoesn't really deal with that
aspect, but the story that theplay is based on does.
(18:56):
Okay, let me make this a littlebit clearer, because you're
like this madman, I don't knowwhat he's talking about.
Well, from Daniel's position, ifyou go back a hundred years,
you have Hezekiah and Isaiah andthe Babylonians coming to see
why did the sun go backwards?
What's going on here?
(19:17):
And from Daniel's position, ifyou go into the future, 400,
some years, 500 years, actually,yeah, 500.
And well, it depends on whereyou mark Daniel from, but let's
just say 605, 605.
605 years, it's actuallytechnically let me think on the
fly here it's not 605.
It's like 601 or 599, 590, 596,somewhere around there.
(19:46):
Okay, you go forward to the timeof Jesus' birth and guess who
comes from the east looking at astar?
The Magi.
Guess where they were from?
Yeah, I see light bulbs goingoff.
Now, that's right, the wise menin the Christmas story, the
(20:12):
ones that were.
They were like stargazers,astrologers, and they understood
signs and times and theyunderstood things that the
average person does notunderstand.
And they came seeking he whowas to be born king of the Jews.
Guess who was put in charge ofthe wise men at a very young age
(20:33):
?
Daniel, yes, the prophet,daniel, yes.
So the magi that we read aboutand we see are the three wise
men in our Christmas story.
They go back to the Babylon.
Yeah, similarly, these guys,these envoys that came to
Hezekiah, were possibly part ofthat crew, or maybe an early
(20:55):
version of those type of guys.
Either way, daniel's smack dabin the middle of this whole
situation and so I just wantedto back up and go.
You know, go.
The Babylonians were aware, nodoubt there was probably legends
that grew up, man, you got tosee man, hezekiah's fortune man.
They got gold and the templeand everything.
(21:16):
He showed them everything.
And so Isaiah was sent to KingHezekiah after these guys saw
everything, after theBabylonians saw everything, and
then Isaiah said to Hezekiahlisten, man, this is the word of
the Lord to you.
Look, the days are coming wheneverything in your house and
that everything your fathershave stored up to this day,
everything he basically justshowed them, it's going to be
(21:37):
carried off to Babylon.
Now, check that out.
That's a prophecy right therein the book of 2 Kings, also in
Isaiah, chapter 39 of Isaiah,the parallel version.
But he basically says you knoweverything, everything you have
basically shown these guys,nothing's going to be left.
Everything you've stored up tothis day, and even some of your
(22:02):
own sons who will come from you,whom you will father shall be
taken away and they shall beeunuchs in the palace of the
king of Babylon.
And then Hezekiah said ah, theword that you have spoken is
good.
Listen to what he thinks tohimself.
For he thought to himself atleast there's going to be peace
and security in my days.
(22:23):
I'll kick the can down the road, I'll let them deal with it,
but at least, thank God, I'mgoing to have peace, all right.
So the takeaway, first of all,don't show everybody your stuff,
man, your wealth.
Don't show them everything.
That's one of them.
The other is well, there's abunch of takeaways and I don't
want it to make it seem likethis is the only takeaways.
You let me know what you takeaway from this section.
(22:46):
This is important to know beforewe get into the book of Daniel.
All this stuff, it's importantbackground.
People that have not connectedto dots are like oh, wow, man, I
don't realize.
The entire Bible is a story,one story that flows through and
(23:07):
is tied together, and it is allabout Christ.
Okay, first and foremost, he isthe Word of God and it is about
Him.
And it is all about Christ.
Okay, first and foremost, he isthe word of God and it is about
him.
Cut it anywhere and it bleeds,christ, okay.
But this connection, theseconnections here are extremely
important, extremely importantand it's important to know we
have a little bit betterbackground here.
Hezekiah, manasseh, isaiah, alltied to it, all tied to Daniel
(23:31):
and tied to Christ.
Daniel will be a young man, avery young boy, teenager, taken
as a young man, and in chapterone we see how he is brought to
Babylon.
And man, it must have been aculture shock for him when he
got over the ridge and saw thecity of Babylon.
It must have been incrediblewhen he saw that, what the city
(23:54):
looked like coming over the hill, there From far away, did he
see it off in the distance andgo?
Oh, my goodness, here he'staken captive.
He's taken away from his family, taken to a land where he
doesn't know the language, andhe's taken with a group of
people, his friends Hanani,mishael and Azariahariah, nobles
, part of the nobility you know.
A few weeks before they, theywere probably playing video
(24:17):
games, hanging out, thinking man, oh, it's gonna be, isn't this
cool being part of the, theroyal family, and now they're
being taken away.
One of the tactics, which is anancient tactic that kings would
employ would be listen.
They would take the youth andtake family members and take
(24:37):
them captive back to their land.
That greatly reduces the chanceof a counterattack or a
retribution type of attack.
And the Assyrians would also,as I said earlier, they would
also.
They transplant people.
So if you're, you live in thestate of New Jersey and then you
get transplanted I don't knowwhere.
So let's say, you gettransplanted to North Carolina.
(24:58):
Takes you a little while to getyour footing.
You don't know what's going on.
You don't know the culture.
Is that much, even if you speakthe same language?
You don't know where everythingis located.
You don't know when somebodysays bless your heart, it's
really an insult.
There's a lot of things.
So Daniel found himself as ayoung man, in his formative
(25:22):
years, in a foreign land androlling up to that city.
I can just imagine what wasthat like I know, I think about
the time when I first, as ayoung kid, went to New York City
with my dad and I was like whatLook?
That's when the Twin Towersstood.
So that was one of the firstbuildings that I saw.
I was like, oh man, look atthat.
(25:46):
We were driving to my dad'sLincoln Mark 4, 1974 or 5, I
think it was a Lincoln Mark 4.
I know that Sweet Power,leather seats, yeah, power
windows that was a big thingback then.
Yep, anyway, yeah, rolling up toNew York and then we went
through Lincoln Tunnel and Iremember looking at the
(26:13):
buildings, going what is goingon here?
Going through this dingy, weird, yellow, dirty tunnel ish, and
then coming out and this is the70s.
So you gotta just keep that inmind.
This is the 70s.
So I don't think squeegeeismwas at its height then, but
there were squeegee guys and newyork was was definitely um,
it's almost come back to what itwas in the 70s, in many ways
(26:35):
Like San Francisco.
You think of San Franciscoright now, many of you.
As soon as I said San Francisco, you went oh, yeah, yeah,
because it's a dump.
Now it's a great, beautifulcity but it's been turned into
like some kind of fourth worlddungeon.
Well, new York was that in the70s, crime was completely out of
control.
Anyway, no need for the historylesson there.
(26:57):
Just some of you might listening, might not know, might not
realize, but anyway, we when Iremember getting there and it
was, it was a culture shock.
I was amazed at thearchitecture.
The empire state building blewmy mind, absolutely blew my mind
.
I whoa, look how big that thingis.
And the Twin Towers blew mymind when we were driving up the
(27:17):
turnpike to it.
So I'm sure Daniel had asimilar experience.
Not that Babylon had tallbuildings, but they did have
tall and big, very large walls.
It was like an interstate goingaround the whole city Big, very
large walls.
It was like an interstate goingaround the whole city and
apparently four chariots couldturn, make a U-turn on the wall.
(27:38):
That's incredible.
Yeah, the wall was extremelythick and it was high.
They did have Ugarits andpyramid type stuff built for
their pagan worship, but it wasa hustling, bustling city.
Many people lived there and itwas really jumping.
And then Nebuchadnezzar, at thestart of his reign, that kind of
(27:59):
kicked off when he came back tobecome the official king
because he was the general ofthe army but his dad was the one
who was wrong, but his dad diedand so he came back and that
really kicked off his reign andofficially kicked off the
Babylonian empire.
Because Nebuchadnezzar was abad man.
He was I mean, I say thatMuhammad Ali-ish, I'm a bad man.
(28:21):
Yeah, he was the real deal whenit came to military battles and
things like that.
You can read about this.
Anyway, that coincides withDaniel being taken and the start
of the book of Daniel, and then, and that was basically 605.
And then Daniel's elevated,pretty quickly, elevated to a
high position, and the Lord isthe one who orchestrates this.
(28:44):
So then you move down thetimeline a little bit to the
year 598.
And Nebuchadnezzar basicallycomes back and that's when the
prophet Ezekiel is taken.
Keep in mind, jeremiah is stillin Judah the whole time.
This whole time.
Jeremiah was a young man at thetime of Josiah, who died in 609
(29:07):
BC.
So four years before daniel wastaken, king josiah died and he
died basically because he washard-headed and the egyptian
king at the time, pharaohpharaoh got killed him, told him
stay out of it, and he didn'tanyway.
That's in the bible, you canread about it.
Um, but ezekiel was taken in598.
(29:29):
And then, in the year 586 slash587, nebuchadnezzar finally had
enough.
That was the final, finalrevolt, and that's when he
destroyed the temple andcompletely demolished everything
, and everything was in ruins.
And it wasn't until 70 yearslater and this is a matter of
(29:51):
debate, the 70 years, because 70years from 605 and the first
take from the first is when theBabylonian Empire was taken over
by the Medes and Persians, andthat's also in the book of
Daniel.
Daniel's book spans this wholeperiod, but much more can be
said about this.
You know what and we're runningout of time because I hear the
(30:11):
music.
So we, you know what we'regoing to continue on this, this
rundown of the book of daniel,and and all this.
But until until next time, whatwe're going to do, we're going
to continue.
Then we're going to get into it.
Look at the text and maybe youguys can help me make sure that
we're good to go with our Danplay, as we are working on that
(30:34):
and I'm working on it on the airwith you right now.
So until next week.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you
.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
you peace.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
This program was made possible by the Plays on Word
family of supporters.
To find out more, check out ourwebsite at playsonwordorg.
Lord, you know You're now listening to Play For.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Word Radio.
It's the best.
We'll see you next week.
(00:38):
You're the only name.
You're the only name.
You're the only name.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we
discuss, analyze, work and playon the Word of God.
Thank you for joining us onthis excursion.
Today let's join Pastor Teddy,also known as Fred David Kenny
Jr, the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he does a deep dive
into the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Amen, amen.
Well, thank you, josh Taylorand Katie Kenny for that
introduction.
Oh yeah, that welcome and thatgreeting out of the way.
I hope you guys enjoyed thereading of the book of Daniel
from the first person as ifDaniel was telling the story
himself.
We know he wrote the book.
There is criticism fromscholarship that tries to say
(02:00):
nah, man, he didn't write thatbook, he couldn't have written
that book.
The prophecies are too accurate.
It is true that the book ofDaniel contains the most
accurate, detailed propheciesthan that.
(02:27):
But as far as the detail in theprophecies from the book of
Daniel, they are different fromthe rest of Scripture in their
level of detail.
So we'll get into thosechapters with the prophetic
stuff.
We'll get into that a littlebit later, but for the most part
, just you know, we'll get intothat a little bit later, but for
(02:53):
the most part, the book ofDaniel itself speaks with great
detail about the empires thatwould come on the scene,
particularly the empire that wasalready on the scene, the
Babylonian Empire, and then theMedo-Persian Empire, both of
which Daniel basically straddledor was involved, highly
involved in.
And then after that, after theMedo-Persian Empire, you had the
(03:18):
Greek Empire, the Hellenists,led by Alexander the Great.
And then and all these guys arespoken of by Daniel, just for
an anchor for those that mightnot be biblically astute or in
depth in their understanding ofScripture the first empire that
(03:44):
is dealt with is the BabylonianEmpire, and officially, the
Babylonian Empire threw off theyoke of the Assyrian Empire.
The Assyrian Empire basicallystarted crumbling and the
Babylonians, the Syrian Empire,basically started crumbling and
the Babylonians, andNebuchadnezzar's dad was leading
(04:06):
the Babylonians, the Chaldeans,and leading them.
And Nebuchadnezzar officiallytook over in 605 or 606 BC and
he was on a campaign in theMiddle East when his dad died.
(04:28):
So on his way back he went upagainst Jerusalem, and that was
in 605 BC, and that's when hesnatched up in the first wave.
There were three waves ofcaptives being taken.
The first wave happened in 605BC and, remember, it kind of
(04:51):
goes in reverse as time movesalong the timeline.
It goes in reverse to year zeroand then it starts going
forward our period of time.
So 6005 is when he grabbedDaniel as a young, young boy or
teenager, very young man, partof the noble family, the
(05:14):
nobility of the kingdom of Judah.
You know, if I actually backedup though and go back maybe a
hundred some years.
There's some change.
There is King Hezekiah of Judahand he was extremely sick.
(05:35):
He was not doing well.
Put it this way, he was goingto die.
He was at the point of death.
You could see this story inIsaiah, chapter 38.
He was like sick and Isaiah theprophet came to him and
basically told him said yo, man,you need to take care of all
your house, man, everything,like take care of all your bills
, everything, man, cause you,you are about to check out of
(05:56):
here.
You're not going to recover it.
And Hezekiah, he, he was sobummed out he turned his face to
the wall and prayed to the Lordand said oh Lord, please
remember how I walked before youin faithfulness and with a
whole heart.
I've done what's good in yoursight.
And it's true he did.
Hezekiah was alive.
What a character.
(06:16):
He reinstated the Passover,everything.
So he was a pretty good qualityking for Judah.
And here he was sick.
He pleaded with the Lord.
He wanted the Lord to rememberwhat he had done.
And so the word of the Lordcame back to Isaiah the prophet.
(06:42):
He said go to Hezekiah and tellhim I've heard your prayer,
look at that.
I've seen your tears and and,uh, I'm going to add 15 years to
your life.
So he did.
He added 15 years to his lifeand, um, he, the Assyrian empire
, was on the world stage at thetime.
(07:04):
They were gnarly, they werepretty mean to the people they
would capture.
They transplanted people fromtheir homelands to different
lands and they would line theroad with spikes with people's
skulls on them as a deterrent tolet people know don't even
(07:25):
think about revolting against us, or this is what's going to
happen to you.
So yeah, god tells Hezekiah,I'm going to deliver you and
this city out of the hand of theking of Assyria.
So in the story, the way Isaiahtells the story in Isaiah,
chapter 38, he just basicallysays this in verse 7.
(07:50):
He says this will be the signto you from the Lord that the
Lord will do this thing he haspromised.
Behold, I'll make the shadowcast by the sun going down on
the sundial.
I'll make it go back 10 steps.
So the sun turned back on thesundial, 10 steps, by which it
had declined.
Now there's a parallel versionof this story that happens in
(08:15):
the book of 2 Kings.
It's a parallel version andit's the same story, except we
get a little more informationhere.
In verse 8 of 2 Kings, chapter20, hezekiah said to Isaiah.
He said well, what's going tobe the sign that the Lord will
heal me and that I shall go upto the house of the Lord on the
(08:39):
third day?
Isn't that interesting?
Isn't that interesting?
On the third day?
Yeah, isn't that interesting?
Isn't that interesting On thethird day?
Yeah, isn't that amazing?
If you back up in there inchapter 20 of 2 Kings, back up
to verse 5, when Isaiah, afterhe left he's walking away after
he first gave Hezekiah the badnews he's leaving and the word
(09:01):
of the Lord came to him.
We get a little more detail inthe book of 2 Kings.
It says the word of the Lordcame to him and said turn back
and say and this is the word ofthe Lord to Isaiah.
And he came to Isaiah and saidgo back and say to Hezekiah, the
leader of my people.
Thus says the Lord, the God ofDavid, your father, I have heard
(09:22):
your prayer, I have seen yourtears.
Behold, I will heal you On thethird day.
You shall go up to the house ofthe Lord and I will add 15
years to your life.
I will deliver you in this cityout of the hand of the king of
Assyria, and I will defend thiscity for my own sake and for my
(09:44):
servant Davidsyria.
And I will defend this city formy own sake and for my servant
David's sake.
And Isaiah said bring a cake offigs and let them take it.
Lay it on the boil that he mayrecover.
So it's interesting he also usesmedicine, the figs.
For those of you that want tosay, oh, I'm just going to trust
the Lord for this, to heal thismigraine, well, sometimes the
Lord's saying utilize someMotrin or use something man
(10:08):
Medicine.
He could have healed him, butyet he had him.
Bring some figs to lay on theboil that he may recover.
That's one of the verses that'sused to say hey, sometimes we
do need to use medicine.
Who made the figs?
God made them.
So verse 8,.
Then Hezekiah says to him butwe do need to use medicine.
Who made the figs?
God made them.
So verse 8,.
And then Hezekiah says to himbut what's going to be the sign
(10:30):
that I'm going to be healed andI'm going to go up to the temple
on the third day?
You can't get beyond that, manfor a second.
The third day, I mean on thethird day, that does point to
Christ.
It doesn't say after three days, it's on the third day, on the
third day, and that's whenChrist rose.
On the third day.
Yeah, a lot of things happen onthe third day.
(10:53):
You go back to our Genesis Joeplay.
Throughout it, the Genesis Joeplay, we emphasize the fact that
three days later, on the thirdday, is when Joseph goes to his
brothers and after he had himlocked up for three days and on
the third day he goes to themand says to them do this and
(11:14):
you'll live, for I fear God.
And he he lets them go butkeeps Simeon with him in in
prison.
And they go back and get in andthey get Benjamin.
And you know the whole, therest of the story.
If you don't know the rest ofthe story, you need to come
check out the Genesis Joe playor go read Genesis chapter 37
through 50 and you'll see whatI'm talking about.
But yeah, this is a lot of funhere that he's mentioning we get
(11:37):
a little tiny foreshadowing ofChrist, the resurrection of
Christ.
You don't want to read too muchinto it, but you can't escape
it, man, it's just out there,it's right there in front of you
on the third day You're goingto go up to the house of the
Lord and the Lord added 15 yearsof life to Hezekiah.
Yeah, and it was unfortunately.
(11:59):
After this event, hezekiah hasa and his name is Manasseh and
he would reign in Judah for 45,horrible, terrible, long years.
The church tradition is thatManasseh had the prophet Isaiah.
He's the one that's talkedabout in Hebrews, chapter 11,
(12:21):
where it talks about in the Hallof Faith chapter of the Bible,
where it lists those greatpeople of faith and,
interestingly enough, all wentthrough it, every single one of
them.
Well, there's one particular inthere where it talks about they
were sawn in two.
You know, they went around insheepskins and goatskins and
they lived in holes in groundand they were sawn in two.
(12:43):
Basically, the world was notworthy of them.
Well, that sawn in two that'sbelieved to be referencing what
happened to the prophet Isaiahunder the orders of Hezekiah's
son, manasseh.
This is after Hezekiah was dead, but manasseh was not feeling
the prophet isaiah who servedhis dad and he, according to
(13:05):
tradition, had him saw, sawn intwo man.
And wait, get this.
It's not like he went to homedepot and got a power saw.
They used a wooden saw.
Man, oh, come on a wooden, awooden saw.
What are you chopping down witha wood saw?
How much work can you get downwith a wood saw?
How much work can you get donewith a wooden saw?
Maybe a lot, I don't know.
I've never had a wooden saw.
(13:26):
All my saws are from Home Depot, are made out of metal, and the
tradition is that Isaiah waspraying quietly as he was being
sawn in two by the evil Manasseh.
Yeah, pretty grim.
Okay, pastor, what does thishave to do with Daniel?
Okay, I'm getting to it.
I'm getting to it.
I'm getting to it.
Now.
The Babylonians were what youcould call stargazers.
(13:50):
They looked to the skies andthey were like what is going on
here, man?
Because the sun went back onthe sundial, it went in reverse
and somehow they noticed it hadsomething to do with to the west
of them, from Babylon.
They knew.
They were like wait a second,something ain't right here.
(14:13):
What's going on over there?
Let's observe this.
And they observed it and,interestingly enough, they sent
envoys.
They were like you need to gofind out what's going on, what
just happened over there, thatdirection.
And in verse 12 of second Kings, chapter 20,.
It says at that time, merodachBaladan, the son of Baladan,
king of king of Babylon.
Now, keep in mind, this is ahundred, some years before
(14:36):
Daniel, before the book ofDaniel.
So Hezekiah, hezekiah reigned,manasseh took over.
So, Hezekiah died, I want to saylike 687, somewhere around
there BC Hezekiah.
He was reigning like 716-ish to687.
(14:56):
So in that period of time, andDaniel was taken in 605 BC as a
young kid and so easily ahundred years before this stuff
went, you know, before the firstattack by Nebuchadnezzar, this
whole thing went down withHezekiah.
(15:16):
And now listen to this Hezekiahand the Babylonian envoys right
, the um, the Babylonians, theChaldeans that saw this, that
were the stargazers like wait aminute, man, let's go find out
what's going on over there.
So they did, and they sentthese guys and envoys were sent
letters with a present to theking from the Babylonian king.
(15:36):
They were not, they were notthe power on the scene at the
time.
Keep in mind they, the Assyrianempire was the one that had
their foot on everybody's necks.
They were based out of Nineveh,okay, so the Assyrians, that's
a different empire, but you hada band of people that gathered
together different groups.
The Chaldeans were one of them.
(15:59):
They ended up being the leadersand they were from Babylon in
that area.
And it says Hezekiah welcomedthem.
Oh, and then it gets worse.
Look at this.
And then he showed them all histreasure, his silver, his gold,
all the spices, the preciousoil.
He showed them his armory,everything that was in his
(16:25):
storehouses.
There was not one thing in allhis realm.
It says that Hezekiah did notshow them.
Now you might say, ah, he'sjust whatever, he's just being a
, he's being a good host, that'sall, okay.
Well, in retrospect, lookingback, it probably wasn't the
smartest thing for him to dobecause, even though they came
(16:47):
in what seemed to be peace andtrying to find out what's going
on, a hundred years later, theBabylonians were going to
besiege Jerusalem.
They would not be coming inpeace.
Nebuchadnezzar did not come inpeace.
They would not be coming inpeace.
Nebuchadnezzar did not come inpeace.
In fact, he took captives outof there and then took articles
of gold on three differentoccasions, and on the last one
(17:09):
is when he completely destroyedthe temple and the city and
everything else.
Jeremiah records all that forus.
And it's interesting becausethese Babylonian stargazers okay
, they noticed what happenedwith the sun going back a bunch
of steps.
I can guarantee none of youhave seen that, unless you have
(17:30):
flown across country and eventhen the sun doesn't really go
you're the one who's moving.
Okay, so when you go acrosscountry and you leave from New
Jersey and go to California.
Okay, wow, it looks like thesun went back.
It didn't, but in the case ofthese guys, it did go backwards
and for some reason, theyrecognized the origin of it or
(17:52):
what was going on.
Now, how did all this play out?
I cannot wait to get to glory,because that's part of the DVD I
want to see.
I'm really looking forward toseeing some of these things that
we hear about, like Joshua withthe sun standing still.
Wait, what?
Come on, man, that's somebetter than sci-fi stuff right
(18:13):
there.
How did that happen?
How did that go down?
What did it look like?
The scripture tells us that ithappened, so I believe it.
I'm not in disbelief, I'm justin incredible anticipation on
seeing the breakdown of it.
I want to see how this went outand how everybody reacted.
(18:35):
Well, it's interesting thatthese Babylonians saw that and
they sent envoys.
Does that remind you ofanything?
People?
Does that remind you ofanything else?
Let me give you a hint.
We have a play that well, itdoesn't really deal with that
aspect, but the story that theplay is based on does.
(18:56):
Okay, let me make this a littlebit clearer, because you're
like this madman, I don't knowwhat he's talking about.
Well, from Daniel's position, ifyou go back a hundred years,
you have Hezekiah and Isaiah andthe Babylonians coming to see
why did the sun go backwards?
What's going on here?
(19:17):
And from Daniel's position, ifyou go into the future, 400,
some years, 500 years, actually,yeah, 500.
And well, it depends on whereyou mark Daniel from, but let's
just say 605, 605.
605 years, it's actuallytechnically let me think on the
fly here it's not 605.
It's like 601 or 599, 590, 596,somewhere around there.
(19:46):
Okay, you go forward to the timeof Jesus' birth and guess who
comes from the east looking at astar?
The Magi.
Guess where they were from?
Yeah, I see light bulbs goingoff.
Now, that's right, the wise menin the Christmas story, the
(20:12):
ones that were.
They were like stargazers,astrologers, and they understood
signs and times and theyunderstood things that the
average person does notunderstand.
And they came seeking he whowas to be born king of the Jews.
Guess who was put in charge ofthe wise men at a very young age
(20:33):
?
Daniel, yes, the prophet,daniel, yes.
So the magi that we read aboutand we see are the three wise
men in our Christmas story.
They go back to the Babylon.
Yeah, similarly, these guys,these envoys that came to
Hezekiah, were possibly part ofthat crew, or maybe an early
(20:55):
version of those type of guys.
Either way, daniel's smack dabin the middle of this whole
situation and so I just wantedto back up and go.
You know, go.
The Babylonians were aware, nodoubt there was probably legends
that grew up, man, you got tosee man, hezekiah's fortune man.
They got gold and the templeand everything.
(21:16):
He showed them everything.
And so Isaiah was sent to KingHezekiah after these guys saw
everything, after theBabylonians saw everything, and
then Isaiah said to Hezekiahlisten, man, this is the word of
the Lord to you.
Look, the days are coming wheneverything in your house and
that everything your fathershave stored up to this day,
everything he basically justshowed them, it's going to be
(21:37):
carried off to Babylon.
Now, check that out.
That's a prophecy right therein the book of 2 Kings, also in
Isaiah, chapter 39 of Isaiah,the parallel version.
But he basically says you knoweverything, everything you have
basically shown these guys,nothing's going to be left.
Everything you've stored up tothis day, and even some of your
(22:02):
own sons who will come from you,whom you will father shall be
taken away and they shall beeunuchs in the palace of the
king of Babylon.
And then Hezekiah said ah, theword that you have spoken is
good.
Listen to what he thinks tohimself.
For he thought to himself atleast there's going to be peace
and security in my days.
(22:23):
I'll kick the can down the road, I'll let them deal with it,
but at least, thank God, I'mgoing to have peace, all right.
So the takeaway, first of all,don't show everybody your stuff,
man, your wealth.
Don't show them everything.
That's one of them.
The other is well, there's abunch of takeaways and I don't
want it to make it seem likethis is the only takeaways.
You let me know what you takeaway from this section.
(22:46):
This is important to know beforewe get into the book of Daniel.
All this stuff, it's importantbackground.
People that have not connectedto dots are like oh, wow, man, I
don't realize.
The entire Bible is a story,one story that flows through and
(23:07):
is tied together, and it is allabout Christ.
Okay, first and foremost, he isthe Word of God and it is about
Him.
And it is all about Christ.
Okay, first and foremost, he isthe word of God and it is about
him.
Cut it anywhere and it bleeds,christ, okay.
But this connection, theseconnections here are extremely
important, extremely importantand it's important to know we
have a little bit betterbackground here.
Hezekiah, manasseh, isaiah, alltied to it, all tied to Daniel
(23:31):
and tied to Christ.
Daniel will be a young man, avery young boy, teenager, taken
as a young man, and in chapterone we see how he is brought to
Babylon.
And man, it must have been aculture shock for him when he
got over the ridge and saw thecity of Babylon.
It must have been incrediblewhen he saw that, what the city
(23:54):
looked like coming over the hill, there From far away, did he
see it off in the distance andgo?
Oh, my goodness, here he'staken captive.
He's taken away from his family, taken to a land where he
doesn't know the language, andhe's taken with a group of
people, his friends Hanani,mishael and Azariahariah, nobles
, part of the nobility you know.
A few weeks before they, theywere probably playing video
(24:17):
games, hanging out, thinking man, oh, it's gonna be, isn't this
cool being part of the, theroyal family, and now they're
being taken away.
One of the tactics, which is anancient tactic that kings would
employ would be listen.
They would take the youth andtake family members and take
(24:37):
them captive back to their land.
That greatly reduces the chanceof a counterattack or a
retribution type of attack.
And the Assyrians would also,as I said earlier, they would
also.
They transplant people.
So if you're, you live in thestate of New Jersey and then you
get transplanted I don't knowwhere.
So let's say, you gettransplanted to North Carolina.
(24:58):
Takes you a little while to getyour footing.
You don't know what's going on.
You don't know the culture.
Is that much, even if you speakthe same language?
You don't know where everythingis located.
You don't know when somebodysays bless your heart, it's
really an insult.
There's a lot of things.
So Daniel found himself as ayoung man, in his formative
(25:22):
years, in a foreign land androlling up to that city.
I can just imagine what wasthat like I know, I think about
the time when I first, as ayoung kid, went to New York City
with my dad and I was like whatLook?
That's when the Twin Towersstood.
So that was one of the firstbuildings that I saw.
I was like, oh man, look atthat.
(25:46):
We were driving to my dad'sLincoln Mark 4, 1974 or 5, I
think it was a Lincoln Mark 4.
I know that Sweet Power,leather seats, yeah, power
windows that was a big thingback then.
Yep, anyway, yeah, rolling up toNew York and then we went
through Lincoln Tunnel and Iremember looking at the
(26:13):
buildings, going what is goingon here?
Going through this dingy, weird, yellow, dirty tunnel ish, and
then coming out and this is the70s.
So you gotta just keep that inmind.
This is the 70s.
So I don't think squeegeeismwas at its height then, but
there were squeegee guys and newyork was was definitely um,
it's almost come back to what itwas in the 70s, in many ways
(26:35):
Like San Francisco.
You think of San Franciscoright now, many of you.
As soon as I said San Francisco, you went oh, yeah, yeah,
because it's a dump.
Now it's a great, beautifulcity but it's been turned into
like some kind of fourth worlddungeon.
Well, new York was that in the70s, crime was completely out of
control.
Anyway, no need for the historylesson there.
(26:57):
Just some of you might listening, might not know, might not
realize, but anyway, we when Iremember getting there and it
was, it was a culture shock.
I was amazed at thearchitecture.
The empire state building blewmy mind, absolutely blew my mind
.
I whoa, look how big that thingis.
And the Twin Towers blew mymind when we were driving up the
(27:17):
turnpike to it.
So I'm sure Daniel had asimilar experience.
Not that Babylon had tallbuildings, but they did have
tall and big, very large walls.
It was like an interstate goingaround the whole city Big, very
large walls.
It was like an interstate goingaround the whole city and
apparently four chariots couldturn, make a U-turn on the wall.
(27:38):
That's incredible.
Yeah, the wall was extremelythick and it was high.
They did have Ugarits andpyramid type stuff built for
their pagan worship, but it wasa hustling, bustling city.
Many people lived there and itwas really jumping.
And then Nebuchadnezzar, at thestart of his reign, that kind of
(27:59):
kicked off when he came back tobecome the official king
because he was the general ofthe army but his dad was the one
who was wrong, but his dad diedand so he came back and that
really kicked off his reign andofficially kicked off the
Babylonian empire.
Because Nebuchadnezzar was abad man.
He was I mean, I say thatMuhammad Ali-ish, I'm a bad man.
(28:21):
Yeah, he was the real deal whenit came to military battles and
things like that.
You can read about this.
Anyway, that coincides withDaniel being taken and the start
of the book of Daniel, and then, and that was basically 605.
And then Daniel's elevated,pretty quickly, elevated to a
high position, and the Lord isthe one who orchestrates this.
(28:44):
So then you move down thetimeline a little bit to the
year 598.
And Nebuchadnezzar basicallycomes back and that's when the
prophet Ezekiel is taken.
Keep in mind, jeremiah is stillin Judah the whole time.
This whole time.
Jeremiah was a young man at thetime of Josiah, who died in 609
(29:07):
BC.
So four years before daniel wastaken, king josiah died and he
died basically because he washard-headed and the egyptian
king at the time, pharaohpharaoh got killed him, told him
stay out of it, and he didn'tanyway.
That's in the bible, you canread about it.
Um, but ezekiel was taken in598.
(29:29):
And then, in the year 586 slash587, nebuchadnezzar finally had
enough.
That was the final, finalrevolt, and that's when he
destroyed the temple andcompletely demolished everything
, and everything was in ruins.
And it wasn't until 70 yearslater and this is a matter of
(29:51):
debate, the 70 years, because 70years from 605 and the first
take from the first is when theBabylonian Empire was taken over
by the Medes and Persians, andthat's also in the book of
Daniel.
Daniel's book spans this wholeperiod, but much more can be
said about this.
You know what and we're runningout of time because I hear the
(30:11):
music.
So we, you know what we'regoing to continue on this, this
rundown of the book of daniel,and and all this.
But until until next time, whatwe're going to do, we're going
to continue.
Then we're going to get into it.
Look at the text and maybe youguys can help me make sure that
we're good to go with our Danplay, as we are working on that
(30:34):
and I'm working on it on the airwith you right now.
So until next week.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you
.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
you peace.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
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