October 17, 2025 • 26 mins
Something is shifting, and most of us can feel it. Not in a clickbait way, but in that quiet, spiritual sense that history is turning a page. We wanted to meet that feeling with more than noise, so we opened the book of Daniel—because if you want a clear read on Revelation and the end times, you start where the patterns begin.
We walk through Daniel’s backstory, not as trivia but as the frame for prophecy. From Hezekiah’s fateful display to Babylon’s siege, delayed judgment arrives right on time, and Daniel steps into exile with a name that means “God is my judge.” We talk about how empires try to rename us—Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego—and why identity pressure is usually the first move against faith. Those renamed boys hold their ground, not with bravado but with practiced conviction: prayer rhythms, moral clarity, and a refusal to trade worship for favor. Their courage in the furnace and Daniel’s night in the lions’ den become case studies in how God preserves people who won’t bow.
Along the way, we make the case that Daniel is the key that unlocks Revelation’s symbols, timelines, and themes. Fulfilled prophecies in Daniel don’t just predict; they train us to trust. We explore how separation and holiness restore spiritual power in a noisy age, why context is the antidote to sensational end-times claims, and how the church can be fully present in culture without absorbing its idols. If you’ve ever wondered how to navigate last-days talk without panic or cynicism, this conversation gives you a grounded path: read widely, pray deeply, and let Scripture interpret Scripture.
If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves Bible study, and leave a quick review so more people can find it. Got a question you want us to tackle next? Email walkwithmebiblestudy@gmail.com—and if you want us to use your name, put it in the subject line.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to today's episode ofWalk With Me.
I am your host, JJ.
It's so good to have each andevery one of you here.
Thank you for liking and sharingthis podcast.
And thank you for the follow-upquestions that you're giving me,
that you're sending me.
I really do enjoy them.
Thank you for liking and sharingand telling people about this
podcast.
(00:20):
And uh, if you have questions,just make sure to general
reminder, send them to me orwalk with me bible study at
gmail.
When I get questions that are uhepisode worthy, and by by that I
mean it takes a long time toanswer the question.
I will interrupt whatever studywe have to be doing to answer
(00:41):
that question for you.
Otherwise, I'll just send youwhatever concise question that
you're asking.
That answer will come to youback in the email.
However, if you want your nameto be mentioned in the podcast,
put your uh name in the subjectline so that I know that you
want your question answered.
Well, and also thank you for oursponsors, true bars and lyrices
(01:04):
and exquisite creations.
Thank you for straight arrowministries and iron gate
ministries.
Thank you all so much.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Love each and every one of you.
And we're going to jump right inbecause we have a lot of ground
to cover.
If uh if you this is our secondepisode of our end-time prophecy
(01:26):
series, and like I mentioned inthe other episode, we are coming
to into a time where people sortof know, we sort of know deep
down in our spirit thatsomething's up, things are just
moving in a very um weird way,in a not weird, um, it's sort of
(01:46):
moving in a way that is uh notnormal, and so it's lending to
people knowing that we werecoming into the last days, and I
know we've heard that sinceJesus walked the earth, we're in
the last days, but something isup, and and something is is is
so uh drawing and driving to usthat we might tend to start
(02:10):
falling for scams like the biguh rapture scam that happened
last month.
So um please understand this iswhere this entire podcast came
from.
Uh, we want to be aware and wewant to be ready, right?
So, in order to do that, we aregoing to start studying about uh
(02:32):
you know the end times andrevelation and prophecies and
all those good things that a lotof preachers, a lot of pastors
don't want to touch.
And the reason why they don'twant to touch it is because some
of it's scary, no, a lot of it'sscary, um, and some of it is is
confusing, and we have and someof us are not able to read it in
(02:54):
the way that it was meant to beuh read.
Um, so just buckle up.
This is episode two, and we'regonna get right into it.
And but I do have to talk aboutthe one rule of this podcast
because of the constraints oftime.
I may only give you one or twoscriptures, but we are when you
(03:15):
um go through this podcast, Iwould like you to pause this
podcast and read a verse or twoabove the scripture that I'm
giving you, a verse or two uhbelow the scripture that we
give, uh, but preferably thewhole chapter.
The Bible is not a buffet.
I don't like okra.
(03:35):
So, that being said, I cannottake bits and pieces of the
Bible that I like, like Jesussaved the little children, and
leave out the part where youhave to repent of your sin, and
you have to get the holy.
I can't leave out those partsthat I don't like.
You have to live a holy life.
I can't leave those parts out,can't leave out the
(03:56):
uncomfortable parts.
I gotta eat it all.
So um that's why context is key.
A verse or two above, excuse me,a verse or two below, but
preferably the whole chapter.
Now, we were talking about, andthis was probably new to a lot
of people, just judged by someof the comments that I got, um,
(04:17):
that Revelation and Daniel haveto go hand in hand when talking
about the end time or theprophecy.
Any any prophecy, really, butwe're focusing more on the end
time prophecies, and you have togo and you have to read Daniel,
and you have to read Danielalong with Revelation to make it
make sense.
(04:38):
You know, we have this thing onsocial media now, is make it
make sense.
The only way you're gonna makeit make sense is to do it the
right way.
The Bible talks about rightlydividing the word, and this is
how this is.
So, let's talk about Danielbecause Daniel did come before
Revelation.
So, who is Daniel?
Now, the meaning of Daniel, andremember now, if um, if you
(05:00):
follow this podcast for anylength of time, there's nothing
in this Bible that issuperfluous, there's nothing
that um just happened out ofhappenstance.
Name even names mean things,okay.
So the very name of Danielbrings us to uh a position where
we recognize a huge eternaltruth, and this eternal truth is
(05:26):
that God will judge all sins.
As a matter of fact, Dan meansto judge, like Dan, the tribe of
Israel.
You see that again, is to judge,and L means Daniel.
So if you take Dan Yell, thenit's God judge, or God is my
judge, or God will judge.
(05:48):
Okay, now here's the theinteresting thing about Daniel.
Daniel lived in a time thathappened because of the judgment
of God against Israel, and Godwas was judging sin.
About a hundred years before,you had Hezekiah, uh, who was
(06:08):
the king of Judah.
Remember, if if you and I don'twant to get off in the weeds
here, Israel and Judah hadsplit, and Hezekiah was king and
was the king of Judah, and hehad shown um the holy vessels of
God to the Babylonians, whichwas a bad idea.
(06:29):
And we read that there was ajudgment that was spoken by the
prophet Isaiah.
Behold, the days come that allthat is in thy house shall be
carried into Babylon, saith theLord, and thy sons they shall
take away, they shall be eunuchin the palace of the king of
Babylon.
Now, this is gonna you're gonnaread this in 2 Kings 20, 17 and
(06:53):
18.
2 Kings 20, chapter 20, verse 17and 18.
This literally happened inDaniel 1 and 3.
So it so Daniel literally startsoff fulfilling prophecy, and
even though God had delayedjudgment for a hundred years,
that prophecy still came topass.
(07:14):
And this is where we are now.
God has delayed judgment, andGod is delaying judgment right
now, but everything of theprophecy will come to pass.
So we look at Daniel, and he'she was known for um his piety,
his wisdom, and how he was soconnected with God, and and is a
(07:36):
lot of people talk about Daniel,and matter of fact, some of my
favorite scriptures are found inthe book of Daniel, and Ezekiel
even mentioned Daniel threetimes and joined his name to
connect him to like Job andNoah.
Jesus mentioned Daniel by nameand and sort of looked at him as
uh a prophet, a huge prophet,because he knew who Daniel was.
(08:00):
And Daniel was also a tribe ofJudah.
Now, this is considered to benoble blood because the tribe of
Judah was considered to be thepraise tribe.
Now, and and because of that, Ibelieve, and I'm gonna go back
and check this out, but I'mgonna believe that he could
probably trace some of hisbloodline back to King Day.
(08:23):
Now, Israel went through aperiod of time and where they
were dealing with thePhilistines and they finally got
finished dealing with thePhilistines, and but now here
comes Nebuchadnezzar and theBabylonians.
And this the first time thisreally happened was when
Nebuchadnezzar took um tookplace around 600 BC, 606, 605 in
(08:48):
that range.
And then Daniel at this time wasonly 20 years old.
So a lot of times we drawprophets like they're old
white-haired guys with a with awalking staff, and looks like
they've been walking for 60years.
No, no, no.
Daniel was a young guy, and himand his three, his three best
(09:10):
friends, his three companions,were taken captive and carried
off to Babylon.
This was eight about eight yearsbefore they captured Ezekiel.
So just to kind of draw atimeline for it.
And Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel aeunuch, and Isaiah prophesied
that as well, which was uhIsaiah 39 and 7, and it was
(09:32):
placed under command ofAshmenaz, which was the master
of the king's eunuch.
Now, after that period, it waslike a period of training,
Daniel became so powerful in thekingdom that by the age of 90,
he was the head of 120 princes.
He was ruling 120 princes underDarius the Median.
(09:53):
You know, the Medes and thePersians, that story.
Darius the Med took Daniel andpromoted him under their empire.
And he's so he served in thecourts of like Babylon and the
Medes and the Persians for about72, 73 years.
Um, and he was living untilCyrus allowed him to return to
(10:13):
Jerusalem.
So he lived through the entire70 years of captivity.
And um, but the thing is, Ithink when I just I just
misspoke, I think his ageprevented him from returning to
Jerusalem because he died inthis mid-90s.
So Daniel was a was kind of acontemporary with Jeremiah,
(10:36):
Habakkuk, Ezekiel, and Obadiah.
These were these were the bigprophets, right?
But even though Daniel had allof these things going for him,
it was really his character, hischaracter that caused Daniel to
be remembered.
The conditions, the environmentthat Israel was in under
(10:59):
Babylon, under the Babylonianrule, was so hard, was very
hard, was very uh adverse, itwas it was antagonistic, and
they it was because everybodyknew that Israel served the one
true God, but they were alwaysputting their pagans in
(11:19):
competition with God, and thatkind of left Israel in a bad
place, especially underNebuchadnezzar, because
Nebuchadnezzar was a very hardking.
I won't go so far as to call himevil, because there were some
things that that Nebuchadnezzardid that sort of redeemed him,
even though he never fullyconverted to um I'm gonna say
(11:42):
Judaism.
I'm just gonna say that as a asa shortcut word, right?
But Daniel was greatly beloved,he was intelligent, he looked
good, apparently, and he waswell built.
Now, how do I know this?
Because in Daniel 1 and 4, umNebuchadnezzar said, I want all
(12:03):
the good-looking boys in mycourt, I want all the
good-looking root of Israelunder my under my unit plan.
I want the best of the bestaround the kingship.
So Daniel had to be smart, hehad to be intelligent, he had to
be handsome, he had to be built,he had to be, he wasn't just
(12:24):
some old slouch.
And and I'm gonna stop righthere, and this is kind of a
conviction to me that um justbecause I serve God does not
mean that I have to be a slouch.
Okay, I'm gonna move on becauseI'm really under conviction with
that.
I have to move on.
But the biggest thing aboutDaniel was that he was he was
(12:44):
well favored, he was had noblemishes, he didn't have any
skin things, but the biggestthing about that is he was
morally pure and upright.
He had strong convictions, hehad a firm purpose, he was a man
of prayer, he didn't change hisprayer life, even though he was
had even though he was tossedinto a den of lions, he didn't
change anything.
(13:05):
This is the Daniel you got, andthis is the Daniel's gonna get
because God told Daniel to dothis thing.
Now, how do you you know what Ifor that I would say I recommend
going to read uh uh Hebrews 11and focus around 32, 33, 34.
So Hebrews 11, 32 to 34, right?
(13:28):
Now, because of this, Danielreceived a lot of revelations.
He interpreted dreams, heinterpreted visions, he
literally became like God'sspokesperson, he became like
God's press secretary.
Um and for the prophecies andeverything concerning the
future, he was able to live along time, and when he lived to
(13:52):
his 90s, he was he was stillalmost in peak physical
condition, and he was the objectof God's preservation when they
took Ossaman to the lion.
He was exalted, he was promoted.
He he literally was promoted intwo kingdoms that was already
oppressing his people.
So don't get this in his headthat Daniel felt like he was
(14:16):
some victim.
But one thing that Daniel alwayskept up with is that there was a
necessary separation between thechildren of Israel and the
Babylonian and the Mese andPersian Empire.
(14:39):
And you know, this is sort ofkind of echoes back to what we
are going through today.
For instance, in today's world,um there are very few voices
that teach against beingconformed to the world, doing
what the world does.
Holiness preaching is not verypopular.
(15:02):
Um power of God, though, comeswith dedication and separation
from the world.
That's how you get a lot ofrevelation, and that's how you
learn um how God really speaksto you.
Now, this um separation dealthat Daniel was on was his first
great test, and he refused tocompromise that conviction.
(15:25):
And if Daniel had done that, weprobably would have a lot
different outcome, not only toDaniel's life, but to what we
know.
Now, Daniel 1 does talk about alot of things about as far as
eating and stuff like that, butthe church is called to
separation today.
(15:46):
For that, I would say check outuh 2 Corinthians 6, 14 to 18.
2 Corinthians 14, uh sorry, 2Corinthians chapter 6, verse 14
to 18.
God honored Daniel because ofthis separation, and for God to
honor the church today, we gottaum follow that same matter of
(16:09):
separation.
See, a lot of people want todiscredit the old testament, but
the old testament was kind oflike the form, like the the type
and shadow, the the guideline ofhow to live in the new testament
church.
No, we do not have to go take abull outside and kill it every
time we mess up.
That's not that's why Jesusdied, so we don't have to do
(16:32):
that.
Jesus said, I came not todestroy the law, but to fulfill
the law.
So, and what he came to fulfillwas the law of sacrifice, but we
still have a guideline of how tolive for God using the stories
and allegories in the OldTestament and the laws of the
Old Testament.
Um, and before you say anythingabout two types of fabric, that
(16:56):
was also part of the law, thelaw of sacrifice.
So stop.
Okay, I get it.
But when when Jesus fulfilledthat law, he filled all those
other sundry laws that had to dowith sacrifice.
Now, what is the importance ofprophecy?
Now we're kind of getting downto where we can actually start
(17:18):
this lesson.
Now, I'm sorry I had to cover alittle bit, but I had to let you
know who Daniel is.
So, what is the importance ofDaniel's prophecy?
This the importance of Danieland how to connect to Revelation
cannot be overstated.
Excuse me.
It's been attacked more than anyother book in the Old Testament,
(17:39):
and just the fact that it's beenattacked this way kind of proves
that it is very importantbecause people like to read
Revelation and attack Revelationtoo, but they have no idea what
to attack, so they attack Danielbecause oh, it's in the Old
Testament, there's all kinds ofstuff they say about it, but the
this these prophecies of Danielare one of the greatest proofs
(18:04):
of the full inspiration of God'sWord.
There are literally detailsabout some of Daniel's
prophecies that were fulfilledin great detail, lots of them.
There's uh, and and when youwatch these things come to pass,
as they come to pass, you'relike, oh wow, I read that in
Daniel.
This is why a lot of people are,and we know what kind of spirits
(18:28):
are driving them.
This is why a lot of people willtell you not to read your Bible.
It's not just Daniel, but I'mfocusing on Daniel because
Daniel goes with Revelation.
But um, Daniel's prophecies werefulfilled in great detail, and
when you watch these things cometo pass, you go, Oh man, I read
that, and why didn't I knowthat?
(18:50):
And why wasn't I ready for that?
That like Daniel even foretoldof Gentile kingdoms that came by
just the way Daniel predictedthem.
So as long as the book of Daniellasts, it will be a very
important book of the Bible, notlike any of the others are less
important, but having Danielaround, having the book of
(19:13):
Daniel around kind of leads usinto a um leads us into a a new
understanding of what prophecyreally means.
So let's go into um some of thethings that Daniel talked about.
Remember when it talked abouthow Daniel had three friends,
(19:33):
Ananiah, Meshael, and Azariah.
You might know them better asShadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
but those three names, Shadrach,Meshach, and Abednego, were all
the Babylonian names that werereassigned.
Just as Daniel's name waschanged to Belteshazzar in the
Babylonian kingdom.
(19:54):
Now, according to the wordsspoken by Isaiah the king
Hezekiah, these were also thedescendants of Hezekiah and were
also made eunuchs.
Isaiah 39 and 7.
And of thy sons that shall issuefrom thee, which thou shalt
beget, shall they take away, andthey shall be eunuchs in the
palace of the king of Babylon.
(20:16):
Now, these four young Israelis,I know people like to call them
Israelites.
Okay, let's call themIsraelites, were handed over to
Ashbanaz.
Now, this is the master, theleader of the eunuchs that we
kind of talked about before, andhe basically Ashonaz had three
years to groom them into beingsufficient members of the king's
(20:37):
court.
So here's what they did.
Um, the first thing they did waschange their name.
Now, I find this to be veryinteresting because I was kind
of talking about this in aprevious sermon.
That first thing that peoplewould try to do is change your
name, change who you are, changehow you are defined.
(20:58):
And I don't want to get off intothat, but that's exactly what
they did.
They changed their names toShadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
and pushed it and pushed it andpushed it.
Even now, us Christians aresinging about Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego instead of Ananiah,Meshah, and Azarai.
Now, we should study these namesbecause of what they mean, such
(21:20):
as Hananiah means beloved of theLord, which is Shad, which was
changed to Shadrach, which wasilluminated by the sun god.
You see why changing those nameswere important?
Meshael, which is who is as God,was changed to Meshach, which is
who is like Venus.
(21:41):
Azariah, the Lord is my help,was changed to Abednego, the
servant of Nego.
Abednego, servant of Nego.
So it's when Aspenaz did notsucceed in changing the faith of
these young men, even though hechanged the name, that there's
(22:02):
that's where the whole frictionbegan to come, and that sort of
led into where we have, and Idon't want to get ahead of
myself, but that's how we endedup in the furnace.
So these three men, includingDaniel, who was named to
Baltheshazzar, which by the way,Daniel, we talked about earlier,
(22:22):
God is my judge.
The name Belteshazzar was iswhom Bel favor.
Now, Bel or Gael or Bal was theBabylonian idol god.
So again, names were importantin the Bible, it wasn't just
made up because they soundedgood.
(22:44):
So in this historical section ofDaniel, um, the the two
incidents that were recorded wasthe recognition of this power
that was expressed by these fourprominent people.
Now, in Daniel 3:17, it says,Our God, whom we serve, was able
(23:04):
to deliver us from this burningfiery furnace, and he will
deliver us out of thine hand, OKing.
Now, this is still in the thirdchapter.
This is not, this is not evenany time into that 70 years.
Now, even Daniel in 616 ended upfinding out that Darius was
(23:27):
hoping that God would deliverhim.
When he said, Thy God, whom thouservice continue continually
will deliver you.
So let's talk about that fieryfurnace.
And we're gonna get into that.
But I now that I'm kind ofinvested in Daniel, we're gonna
talk about Daniel just a littlebit.
We are gonna get the prophecy,it's gonna take us a little
(23:48):
while.
Oh man, I'm almost out of time.
So I'm not gonna go into thatnow because that fiery furnace
part takes a little while.
But the one of the things thatin discrediting um the Bible and
discrediting your walk with Godand discrediting the um the
(24:08):
prophecy is the first thing thatthe world will try to do is
change the name from what Godintended to what they want.
And when they when they cansucceed in doing that, it
changes the meaning ofeverything.
Now, I'm not I'm not gonna askfor a like or a one or a two in
(24:30):
the chat or in the commentsection how many people did not
know the three real three namesof those three Hebrew boys that
we like to sing about.
Because it I was about I wasabout 30 when I figured it out.
That was about 20 years ago, andI didn't have to figure it out,
it was right in the Bible, but Ijust didn't read it.
(24:52):
It's right in the Bible whothese guys were.
We sing about it in our in ourchurches, we sing about
Shadrach, Ishach, and Abak.
So we're literally praisingtheir idol God because that's
what their names were meant todo, was to praise their idol
God.
I I know that's deep, right?
(25:13):
So, but this is where this iswhere reading the Bible and
being in touch with God, so itwill uh will help you understand
why certain things have beendone and why certain things have
to be undone.
That being said, I do not wantto get into another subject
because we are almost out oftime and I feel like I would
rush.
(25:34):
Thank you all so much forjoining this time, joining us
this uh this episode.
Thank you for liking andsharing.
Again, I hope that the audio isbetter.
I'm working on things each weekto kind of improve the audio,
and I hope I'm doing a good job.
Thank you for liking andsharing.
Love each and every one of you.
See y'all in the next episode.
God bless you.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to today's episode ofWalk With Me.
I am your host, JJ.
It's so good to have each andevery one of you here.
Thank you for liking and sharingthis podcast.
And thank you for the follow-upquestions that you're giving me,
that you're sending me.
I really do enjoy them.
Thank you for liking and sharingand telling people about this
podcast.
(00:20):
And uh, if you have questions,just make sure to general
reminder, send them to me orwalk with me bible study at
gmail.
When I get questions that are uhepisode worthy, and by by that I
mean it takes a long time toanswer the question.
I will interrupt whatever studywe have to be doing to answer
(00:41):
that question for you.
Otherwise, I'll just send youwhatever concise question that
you're asking.
That answer will come to youback in the email.
However, if you want your nameto be mentioned in the podcast,
put your uh name in the subjectline so that I know that you
want your question answered.
Well, and also thank you for oursponsors, true bars and lyrices
(01:04):
and exquisite creations.
Thank you for straight arrowministries and iron gate
ministries.
Thank you all so much.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Love each and every one of you.
And we're going to jump right inbecause we have a lot of ground
to cover.
If uh if you this is our secondepisode of our end-time prophecy
(01:26):
series, and like I mentioned inthe other episode, we are coming
to into a time where people sortof know, we sort of know deep
down in our spirit thatsomething's up, things are just
moving in a very um weird way,in a not weird, um, it's sort of
(01:46):
moving in a way that is uh notnormal, and so it's lending to
people knowing that we werecoming into the last days, and I
know we've heard that sinceJesus walked the earth, we're in
the last days, but something isup, and and something is is is
so uh drawing and driving to usthat we might tend to start
(02:10):
falling for scams like the biguh rapture scam that happened
last month.
So um please understand this iswhere this entire podcast came
from.
Uh, we want to be aware and wewant to be ready, right?
So, in order to do that, we aregoing to start studying about uh
(02:32):
you know the end times andrevelation and prophecies and
all those good things that a lotof preachers, a lot of pastors
don't want to touch.
And the reason why they don'twant to touch it is because some
of it's scary, no, a lot of it'sscary, um, and some of it is is
confusing, and we have and someof us are not able to read it in
(02:54):
the way that it was meant to beuh read.
Um, so just buckle up.
This is episode two, and we'regonna get right into it.
And but I do have to talk aboutthe one rule of this podcast
because of the constraints oftime.
I may only give you one or twoscriptures, but we are when you
(03:15):
um go through this podcast, Iwould like you to pause this
podcast and read a verse or twoabove the scripture that I'm
giving you, a verse or two uhbelow the scripture that we
give, uh, but preferably thewhole chapter.
The Bible is not a buffet.
I don't like okra.
(03:35):
So, that being said, I cannottake bits and pieces of the
Bible that I like, like Jesussaved the little children, and
leave out the part where youhave to repent of your sin, and
you have to get the holy.
I can't leave out those partsthat I don't like.
You have to live a holy life.
I can't leave those parts out,can't leave out the
(03:56):
uncomfortable parts.
I gotta eat it all.
So um that's why context is key.
A verse or two above, excuse me,a verse or two below, but
preferably the whole chapter.
Now, we were talking about, andthis was probably new to a lot
of people, just judged by someof the comments that I got, um,
(04:17):
that Revelation and Daniel haveto go hand in hand when talking
about the end time or theprophecy.
Any any prophecy, really, butwe're focusing more on the end
time prophecies, and you have togo and you have to read Daniel,
and you have to read Danielalong with Revelation to make it
make sense.
(04:38):
You know, we have this thing onsocial media now, is make it
make sense.
The only way you're gonna makeit make sense is to do it the
right way.
The Bible talks about rightlydividing the word, and this is
how this is.
So, let's talk about Danielbecause Daniel did come before
Revelation.
So, who is Daniel?
Now, the meaning of Daniel, andremember now, if um, if you
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follow this podcast for anylength of time, there's nothing
in this Bible that issuperfluous, there's nothing
that um just happened out ofhappenstance.
Name even names mean things,okay.
So the very name of Danielbrings us to uh a position where
we recognize a huge eternaltruth, and this eternal truth is
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that God will judge all sins.
As a matter of fact, Dan meansto judge, like Dan, the tribe of
Israel.
You see that again, is to judge,and L means Daniel.
So if you take Dan Yell, thenit's God judge, or God is my
judge, or God will judge.
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Okay, now here's the theinteresting thing about Daniel.
Daniel lived in a time thathappened because of the judgment
of God against Israel, and Godwas was judging sin.
About a hundred years before,you had Hezekiah, uh, who was
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the king of Judah.
Remember, if if you and I don'twant to get off in the weeds
here, Israel and Judah hadsplit, and Hezekiah was king and
was the king of Judah, and hehad shown um the holy vessels of
God to the Babylonians, whichwas a bad idea.
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And we read that there was ajudgment that was spoken by the
prophet Isaiah.
Behold, the days come that allthat is in thy house shall be
carried into Babylon, saith theLord, and thy sons they shall
take away, they shall be eunuchin the palace of the king of
Babylon.
Now, this is gonna you're gonnaread this in 2 Kings 20, 17 and
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18.
2 Kings 20, chapter 20, verse 17and 18.
This literally happened inDaniel 1 and 3.
So it so Daniel literally startsoff fulfilling prophecy, and
even though God had delayedjudgment for a hundred years,
that prophecy still came topass.
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And this is where we are now.
God has delayed judgment, andGod is delaying judgment right
now, but everything of theprophecy will come to pass.
So we look at Daniel, and he'she was known for um his piety,
his wisdom, and how he was soconnected with God, and and is a
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lot of people talk about Daniel,and matter of fact, some of my
favorite scriptures are found inthe book of Daniel, and Ezekiel
even mentioned Daniel threetimes and joined his name to
connect him to like Job andNoah.
Jesus mentioned Daniel by nameand and sort of looked at him as
uh a prophet, a huge prophet,because he knew who Daniel was.
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And Daniel was also a tribe ofJudah.
Now, this is considered to benoble blood because the tribe of
Judah was considered to be thepraise tribe.
Now, and and because of that, Ibelieve, and I'm gonna go back
and check this out, but I'mgonna believe that he could
probably trace some of hisbloodline back to King Day.
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Now, Israel went through aperiod of time and where they
were dealing with thePhilistines and they finally got
finished dealing with thePhilistines, and but now here
comes Nebuchadnezzar and theBabylonians.
And this the first time thisreally happened was when
Nebuchadnezzar took um tookplace around 600 BC, 606, 605 in
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that range.
And then Daniel at this time wasonly 20 years old.
So a lot of times we drawprophets like they're old
white-haired guys with a with awalking staff, and looks like
they've been walking for 60years.
No, no, no.
Daniel was a young guy, and himand his three, his three best
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friends, his three companions,were taken captive and carried
off to Babylon.
This was eight about eight yearsbefore they captured Ezekiel.
So just to kind of draw atimeline for it.
And Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel aeunuch, and Isaiah prophesied
that as well, which was uhIsaiah 39 and 7, and it was
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placed under command ofAshmenaz, which was the master
of the king's eunuch.
Now, after that period, it waslike a period of training,
Daniel became so powerful in thekingdom that by the age of 90,
he was the head of 120 princes.
He was ruling 120 princes underDarius the Median.
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You know, the Medes and thePersians, that story.
Darius the Med took Daniel andpromoted him under their empire.
And he's so he served in thecourts of like Babylon and the
Medes and the Persians for about72, 73 years.
Um, and he was living untilCyrus allowed him to return to
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Jerusalem.
So he lived through the entire70 years of captivity.
And um, but the thing is, Ithink when I just I just
misspoke, I think his ageprevented him from returning to
Jerusalem because he died inthis mid-90s.
So Daniel was a was kind of acontemporary with Jeremiah,
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Habakkuk, Ezekiel, and Obadiah.
These were these were the bigprophets, right?
But even though Daniel had allof these things going for him,
it was really his character, hischaracter that caused Daniel to
be remembered.
The conditions, the environmentthat Israel was in under
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Babylon, under the Babylonianrule, was so hard, was very
hard, was very uh adverse, itwas it was antagonistic, and
they it was because everybodyknew that Israel served the one
true God, but they were alwaysputting their pagans in
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competition with God, and thatkind of left Israel in a bad
place, especially underNebuchadnezzar, because
Nebuchadnezzar was a very hardking.
I won't go so far as to call himevil, because there were some
things that that Nebuchadnezzardid that sort of redeemed him,
even though he never fullyconverted to um I'm gonna say
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Judaism.
I'm just gonna say that as a asa shortcut word, right?
But Daniel was greatly beloved,he was intelligent, he looked
good, apparently, and he waswell built.
Now, how do I know this?
Because in Daniel 1 and 4, umNebuchadnezzar said, I want all
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the good-looking boys in mycourt, I want all the
good-looking root of Israelunder my under my unit plan.
I want the best of the bestaround the kingship.
So Daniel had to be smart, hehad to be intelligent, he had to
be handsome, he had to be built,he had to be, he wasn't just
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some old slouch.
And and I'm gonna stop righthere, and this is kind of a
conviction to me that um justbecause I serve God does not
mean that I have to be a slouch.
Okay, I'm gonna move on becauseI'm really under conviction with
that.
I have to move on.
But the biggest thing aboutDaniel was that he was he was
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well favored, he was had noblemishes, he didn't have any
skin things, but the biggestthing about that is he was
morally pure and upright.
He had strong convictions, hehad a firm purpose, he was a man
of prayer, he didn't change hisprayer life, even though he was
had even though he was tossedinto a den of lions, he didn't
change anything.
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This is the Daniel you got, andthis is the Daniel's gonna get
because God told Daniel to dothis thing.
Now, how do you you know what Ifor that I would say I recommend
going to read uh uh Hebrews 11and focus around 32, 33, 34.
So Hebrews 11, 32 to 34, right?
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Now, because of this, Danielreceived a lot of revelations.
He interpreted dreams, heinterpreted visions, he
literally became like God'sspokesperson, he became like
God's press secretary.
Um and for the prophecies andeverything concerning the
future, he was able to live along time, and when he lived to
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his 90s, he was he was stillalmost in peak physical
condition, and he was the objectof God's preservation when they
took Ossaman to the lion.
He was exalted, he was promoted.
He he literally was promoted intwo kingdoms that was already
oppressing his people.
So don't get this in his headthat Daniel felt like he was
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some victim.
But one thing that Daniel alwayskept up with is that there was a
necessary separation between thechildren of Israel and the
Babylonian and the Mese andPersian Empire.
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And you know, this is sort ofkind of echoes back to what we
are going through today.
For instance, in today's world,um there are very few voices
that teach against beingconformed to the world, doing
what the world does.
Holiness preaching is not verypopular.
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Um power of God, though, comeswith dedication and separation
from the world.
That's how you get a lot ofrevelation, and that's how you
learn um how God really speaksto you.
Now, this um separation dealthat Daniel was on was his first
great test, and he refused tocompromise that conviction.
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And if Daniel had done that, weprobably would have a lot
different outcome, not only toDaniel's life, but to what we
know.
Now, Daniel 1 does talk about alot of things about as far as
eating and stuff like that, butthe church is called to
separation today.
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For that, I would say check outuh 2 Corinthians 6, 14 to 18.
2 Corinthians 14, uh sorry, 2Corinthians chapter 6, verse 14
to 18.
God honored Daniel because ofthis separation, and for God to
honor the church today, we gottaum follow that same matter of
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separation.
See, a lot of people want todiscredit the old testament, but
the old testament was kind oflike the form, like the the type
and shadow, the the guideline ofhow to live in the new testament
church.
No, we do not have to go take abull outside and kill it every
time we mess up.
That's not that's why Jesusdied, so we don't have to do
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that.
Jesus said, I came not todestroy the law, but to fulfill
the law.
So, and what he came to fulfillwas the law of sacrifice, but we
still have a guideline of how tolive for God using the stories
and allegories in the OldTestament and the laws of the
Old Testament.
Um, and before you say anythingabout two types of fabric, that
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was also part of the law, thelaw of sacrifice.
So stop.
Okay, I get it.
But when when Jesus fulfilledthat law, he filled all those
other sundry laws that had to dowith sacrifice.
Now, what is the importance ofprophecy?
Now we're kind of getting downto where we can actually start
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this lesson.
Now, I'm sorry I had to cover alittle bit, but I had to let you
know who Daniel is.
So, what is the importance ofDaniel's prophecy?
This the importance of Danieland how to connect to Revelation
cannot be overstated.
Excuse me.
It's been attacked more than anyother book in the Old Testament,
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and just the fact that it's beenattacked this way kind of proves
that it is very importantbecause people like to read
Revelation and attack Revelationtoo, but they have no idea what
to attack, so they attack Danielbecause oh, it's in the Old
Testament, there's all kinds ofstuff they say about it, but the
this these prophecies of Danielare one of the greatest proofs
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of the full inspiration of God'sWord.
There are literally detailsabout some of Daniel's
prophecies that were fulfilledin great detail, lots of them.
There's uh, and and when youwatch these things come to pass,
as they come to pass, you'relike, oh wow, I read that in
Daniel.
This is why a lot of people are,and we know what kind of spirits
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are driving them.
This is why a lot of people willtell you not to read your Bible.
It's not just Daniel, but I'mfocusing on Daniel because
Daniel goes with Revelation.
But um, Daniel's prophecies werefulfilled in great detail, and
when you watch these things cometo pass, you go, Oh man, I read
that, and why didn't I knowthat?
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And why wasn't I ready for that?
That like Daniel even foretoldof Gentile kingdoms that came by
just the way Daniel predictedthem.
So as long as the book of Daniellasts, it will be a very
important book of the Bible, notlike any of the others are less
important, but having Danielaround, having the book of
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Daniel around kind of leads usinto a um leads us into a a new
understanding of what prophecyreally means.
So let's go into um some of thethings that Daniel talked about.
Remember when it talked abouthow Daniel had three friends,
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Ananiah, Meshael, and Azariah.
You might know them better asShadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
but those three names, Shadrach,Meshach, and Abednego, were all
the Babylonian names that werereassigned.
Just as Daniel's name waschanged to Belteshazzar in the
Babylonian kingdom.
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Now, according to the wordsspoken by Isaiah the king
Hezekiah, these were also thedescendants of Hezekiah and were
also made eunuchs.
Isaiah 39 and 7.
And of thy sons that shall issuefrom thee, which thou shalt
beget, shall they take away, andthey shall be eunuchs in the
palace of the king of Babylon.
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Now, these four young Israelis,I know people like to call them
Israelites.
Okay, let's call themIsraelites, were handed over to
Ashbanaz.
Now, this is the master, theleader of the eunuchs that we
kind of talked about before, andhe basically Ashonaz had three
years to groom them into beingsufficient members of the king's
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court.
So here's what they did.
Um, the first thing they did waschange their name.
Now, I find this to be veryinteresting because I was kind
of talking about this in aprevious sermon.
That first thing that peoplewould try to do is change your
name, change who you are, changehow you are defined.
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And I don't want to get off intothat, but that's exactly what
they did.
They changed their names toShadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
and pushed it and pushed it andpushed it.
Even now, us Christians aresinging about Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego instead of Ananiah,Meshah, and Azarai.
Now, we should study these namesbecause of what they mean, such
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as Hananiah means beloved of theLord, which is Shad, which was
changed to Shadrach, which wasilluminated by the sun god.
You see why changing those nameswere important?
Meshael, which is who is as God,was changed to Meshach, which is
who is like Venus.
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Azariah, the Lord is my help,was changed to Abednego, the
servant of Nego.
Abednego, servant of Nego.
So it's when Aspenaz did notsucceed in changing the faith of
these young men, even though hechanged the name, that there's
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that's where the whole frictionbegan to come, and that sort of
led into where we have, and Idon't want to get ahead of
myself, but that's how we endedup in the furnace.
So these three men, includingDaniel, who was named to
Baltheshazzar, which by the way,Daniel, we talked about earlier,
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God is my judge.
The name Belteshazzar was iswhom Bel favor.
Now, Bel or Gael or Bal was theBabylonian idol god.
So again, names were importantin the Bible, it wasn't just
made up because they soundedgood.
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So in this historical section ofDaniel, um, the the two
incidents that were recorded wasthe recognition of this power
that was expressed by these fourprominent people.
Now, in Daniel 3:17, it says,Our God, whom we serve, was able
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to deliver us from this burningfiery furnace, and he will
deliver us out of thine hand, OKing.
Now, this is still in the thirdchapter.
This is not, this is not evenany time into that 70 years.
Now, even Daniel in 616 ended upfinding out that Darius was
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hoping that God would deliverhim.
When he said, Thy God, whom thouservice continue continually
will deliver you.
So let's talk about that fieryfurnace.
And we're gonna get into that.
But I now that I'm kind ofinvested in Daniel, we're gonna
talk about Daniel just a littlebit.
We are gonna get the prophecy,it's gonna take us a little
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while.
Oh man, I'm almost out of time.
So I'm not gonna go into thatnow because that fiery furnace
part takes a little while.
But the one of the things thatin discrediting um the Bible and
discrediting your walk with Godand discrediting the um the
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prophecy is the first thing thatthe world will try to do is
change the name from what Godintended to what they want.
And when they when they cansucceed in doing that, it
changes the meaning ofeverything.
Now, I'm not I'm not gonna askfor a like or a one or a two in
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the chat or in the commentsection how many people did not
know the three real three namesof those three Hebrew boys that
we like to sing about.
Because it I was about I wasabout 30 when I figured it out.
That was about 20 years ago, andI didn't have to figure it out,
it was right in the Bible, but Ijust didn't read it.
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It's right in the Bible whothese guys were.
We sing about it in our in ourchurches, we sing about
Shadrach, Ishach, and Abak.
So we're literally praisingtheir idol God because that's
what their names were meant todo, was to praise their idol
God.
I I know that's deep, right?
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So, but this is where this iswhere reading the Bible and
being in touch with God, so itwill uh will help you understand
why certain things have beendone and why certain things have
to be undone.
That being said, I do not wantto get into another subject
because we are almost out oftime and I feel like I would
rush.
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Thank you all so much forjoining this time, joining us
this uh this episode.
Thank you for liking andsharing.
Again, I hope that the audio isbetter.
I'm working on things each weekto kind of improve the audio,
and I hope I'm doing a good job.
Thank you for liking andsharing.
Love each and every one of you.
See y'all in the next episode.
God bless you.
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