July 20, 2025 • 55 mins
In this verse by verse account of Daniel chapter 6, Jacob Glass walks us through Daniel’s rise as a trusted official, sparking jealousy, leading rivals to trick King Darius into banning prayer. Defiant, Daniel prays to God and is thrown into the lions’ den, only to be miraculously saved, proving God’s power and prompting Darius to honor Him.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Living, have it whoschool dot com? How's it going? Everybody?
My name is Jacob Glass and welcome back to another
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that's code eschatology at living heritage dot info. All right,
so hopefully you guys can see the slide show. So,
(01:33):
just like Daniel Chapter five, Daniel chapter six has kind
of sent me down a rabbit hole. In the meantime,
me and my wife actually had another beautiful little daughter,
so I've also kind of been delayed with getting this
out as well. So without further ado, let's get into
Daniel chapter six. Okay, Verses one through five. It seemed
(01:58):
good to Darius to appoint one hundred and twenty sat
raps over the kingdom, that they would be in charge
of the whole kingdom, and over them three commissioners, of
whom Daniel was one. That these sat raps might be
accountable to them, and that the king might not suffer loss.
Then this Daniel began to distinguish himself among the commissioners
in the sat raps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit
(02:21):
and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom.
Then the commissioners and the sat Raps began trying to
find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to
the government affairs, but they could find no ground of
accusation or evidence of corruption inasmuch as he was faithful
and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him.
(02:41):
Then these men said, we will not find any ground
of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against
him with regard to the law of his God. All right,
so we start off with Daris the Meds. So if
you guys haven't seen the videos I did on Daniel
Checkter five, specifically the video with doctor Stephen d Anderson
(03:04):
where we kind of detail who was this Darius the Mead,
So a little bit of a spoiler here. I think
he's SiGe Czari's the second So I'm going to kind
of assume that moving forward. Like I said in the
previous video, if you have seen chapter one, I think
I falsely identified him as Gabrias, and I clear all
(03:24):
that up through my Daniel Chapter five videos. So if
you had not seen that, please go back and watch it.
So Darius sets up one hundred and twenty Satraps and
three commissioners said Daniel was one, and he was actually
going to be placed over all of the commissioners and
the satraps. So Daniel was a faithful servant unto Darius,
(03:47):
just like he was onto Belshazzar and Nebukonezer. And the
commissioners and the satraps that were trying to trap him
couldn't find anything where Daniel had messed up, where negligence
was shown, or where he was being unfaithful to Darius,
or mishandling his money or whatever he had put him
(04:10):
in charge of. And instead of still pursuing that or
still trying to come up with false accusations in regards
to the government, they said, you know, we can go
after him in regards to the law of God. So
wherein Daniel's piety and worship can it come head to
(04:30):
head with our median in Persian law. So it continues.
Then these commissioners and sat raps came by agreement to
the king and spoke to him as follows. King Darius
lived forever. All the commissioners the kingdom, the prefects, and
the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted
together that the king should establish a statute and enforce
(04:53):
an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any God
or man besides you, O King, for thirty days, shall
be cast into the lion's den. Now, O King established
the injunction and signed the document so that it may
not be changed according to the law of the Meds
and the Persians, which may not be revoked. Therefore, King
(05:14):
Darius signed the document that is the injunction. Okay, So
clearly all the sat Raps commissioners come and conspire against Daniel,
and Darius was dealing. So the big thing I think
that why this worked. So you have the idea that
(05:36):
they came and it said all of us have decided
together that you should do this King. So number one,
I think they falsely presented it to Darius that everybody
was in agreement. Clearly Daniel was not in agreement with this.
He was left out. So it was them lying to
Darius to kind of present this, yeah, everybody agrees, when
(05:58):
that wasn't the case. But the other thing that kind
of probably made it appealing to Darius is that Darius,
being sig Csari, is the second who is king of
the Meads, is now ruling over the Babylonians. Specifically, that's
who we're dealing with here. So he is now ruler
over a new people, and what better way could he
(06:18):
kind of gain respect and control than to put in
something like this an injunction that would show the allegiance
of the people to the new king. So I think
it was definitely something that seemed appealing to him to
kind of establish himself as the new ruler of the Babylonians.
The last thing you see here is that, and you'll
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see it moving forward, is that they petition this idea
that the law of the Meads and the Persians cannot
be revoked. And I think you can kind of see
this further in the Book of Esther when you deal
with the decree of Cyrus the Great. So when they
go back to Jerusalem, eventually they start to rebuild the temple,
(07:01):
people conspire against them, just similar here and Daniel. They
conspire against those rebuilding the temple, and they go to
the king saying, these guys just want to rise up
in power and throw off your rule. So what Darius
and art et Xerxes end up doing is they look
back and they find Cyrus's decree. At that point they
(07:23):
allow the rebuilding of the Temple, and I think a
lot of it is probably because this whole idea that
if a decree or an injunction is put in place,
it cannot be revoked, And it actually worked in the
favor of those rebuilding the temple when they went back
and realized, oh well, Cyrus's decree to rebuild the temple
can't be revoked, so we have to let them build.
(07:48):
Continuing on now, when Daniel knew that the document was signed,
he entered his house. Now in his roof chamber, he
had windows open towards Jerusalem, and he continued to kneeling
on his knees three times a day, praying and getting
thanks before his God, and as he had done, sorry,
as he had been doing previously. Then these men came
(08:09):
by agreement and found Daniel making petition and supplication before
his God. Then they approached and spoke before the king
about the king's injunction. Did you not sign an injunction
that any man who makes petition to any God or
man besides you, O King, for thirty days is to
be cast into the lions den? The king replied, the
statement is true according to the law of the Needs
(08:30):
and the Persians, which may not be revoked. Then they
answered and spoke before the King. Daniel, who is one
of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you,
o King, or to the injunction that you signed, but
he keeps making his petition three times a day. So
this is this is actually where I found most of
my study was revolving was this idea of Daniel and
(08:54):
his petition and how he kind of partook in this.
So first of all, we started off with the fact
that Daniel knew that the injunction was signed, and he
still chose to keep his custom and pray three times
a day. Not only did he pray three times a day,
he wasn't hiding it. He on his roof chamber, opened
(09:16):
up his windows towards Jerusalem, and he continued to kneel
and pray. So this discussion is really hard, I think
in terms of piety versus survival of the people of God,
because we see Daniel doing something that for sure is dangerous,
(09:38):
is going to put his life at risk. But the
problem becomes is do we then take this as a
principle as to how all Christians should act in these moments.
But the problem is is you start to see things
like rayhab the idea that instead of telling the truth
to the men who were looking for the spies, she
(09:59):
chose to lie in order that they would survive and
be able to carry out their mission. You can look
at churches who potentially hide underground when an injunction comes
in that they cannot meet in the public square, they
do an underground church. So it's really complicated to say,
you know, there are moments when God has desired that
(10:22):
people like Daniel instead of hiding and praying, right, he
didn't go into his room and close the curtains and
hide and keep it secret and say, you know what,
this injunctions only for thirty days, So I'll just hide
for thirty days and then once the thirty days are up,
I'll continue opening my window. Now, Daniel chose to continue
(10:42):
his custom and pray exactly how he had been doing.
So do we as Christians do that when the government
tells us to not do something that would involve piety?
Or do we take the move and say it's only
thirty days, can hide out for now, continue our worship services,
(11:03):
and once the thirty days are up we can go out.
About that's really hard, and I really cannot tell you
that I have an answer there, because I do find
that in scripture we see examples of both. Like I said,
you see Daniel act one way, and God intended that
Daniel would act that way, and he was blessed for
acting that way, and God used it to show the
power and the sovereignty of God over kings and their
(11:26):
corrupt injunctions that they put in. But then you also
see Rehab, and Rehab is praised for doing what she
did and hiding the spies and not choosing to choose
her her piety and the sense of telling the truth
over hiding the spies. And you could also, again, like
(11:47):
I said, make the case of was it the right
thing for the early church to not be out in
drawing attention to themselves, but they kind of kept underground
in order that the church would survive and the Gospel
would go full. I'm going to say that that's going
to be praying for prudence in the moment. I don't
(12:08):
know that I have an answer for that, and I'm
sorry sorry that I can't help you guys there. And
maybe you guys have a better answer to that and
put it in the comments, and maybe you can help
me on that. But the things that I really dug
into here were really small things. On the surface you
wouldn't probably think of, but they were things that I
wanted to learn more about. So Number one, why was
(12:35):
Daniel opening his windows towards Jerusalem? And why was he
praying three times a day? On the surface. If you're
not familiar with this, you're like, man, that kind of
sounds kind of Islamic, right, the fact that they would
pray at certain times face towards Mecca and things like that,
it seemed very similar. So I'm like, well, where does
this come from? Is there any biblical grounds or is
(12:57):
it just what Daniel chose to do because that's what
he wanted we do. So the idea of towards Jerusalem
actually comes from Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the
Temple in First Kings eight forty four through fifty. It's
also echoed in Second Chronicles six thirty four through forty two.
So let's go ahead and look at Kings. So that's
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what it says. This is Solomon speaking, when your people
go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way
you shall send them, and they pray to the Lord
toward the city which you have chosen, in the house
which I have built for your name, then hear in
heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
When they sin against you, For there is no man
(13:41):
who does not sin, and you are angry with them,
and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take
them away captive, to the land of the enemy, far
off or near. If they take thought in the land
where they have been taken captive and repent and makes
supplication to you in the land of those who have
taken them captive, saying we have sinned, and we have
committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly. If they return to
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you with all their heart and all their soul and
the land of their enemies who have taken them captive,
and pray to you toward their land which you have
given to their fathers, the city which you have chosen,
and the house which I have built for your name,
then hear their prayer and their supplication in Heaven your
dwelling place, and maintain their cause. And forgive your people
who have sinned against you and all their transgressions which
(14:27):
they have transgressed against you, to make them objects of compassion.
Before you who have sorry, before those who have taken
them captive, that they may have compassion on them, for
they are your people and your inheritance, which you have
brought forth from Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace,
that your eyes may be opened to their supplication of
(14:49):
your servant and to the supplication of your people Israel.
To listen to them whenever they call to you, for
you have separated them from all the peoples of the
earth as your inheritance, as you through Moses, your servant,
when you brought our fathers forth from Egypt, O, Lord God.
And when Solomon had finished praying this entire prayer and
supplication to the Lord, he arose from before the altar
(15:10):
of the Lord, from kneeling on his hands, sorry, from
kneeling on his knees, with his hands spread toward Heaven.
So I believe that this is exactly what Daniel was doing.
So Daniel was taken, if you remember from chapter one,
he's taken from Jerusalem as a young man of a
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noble family from the tribe of Judah. Daniel was most
likely familiar, obviously with the scriptures, familiar with the temple liturgy,
and familiar with this prayer of Solomon. So Solomon says
it exactly what is going on here in Babylon when
they sin, when they're carried off as captives to a
(15:53):
far off land. If they were to turn and look
towards Jerusalem, look towards the Temple, and they would pray,
and they would RepA Lord remember them and forgive them,
and heal them. All of these things is exactly what
I believe Daniel was doing is three times a day.
Is that he's making supplication before the Lord in remembrance
(16:14):
of Solomon's prayer that he made. So I thought that
was pretty neat. So in regards to the three times
a day, I probably actually spent most of my time
focusing on this three times a day passage. It really
led me to understand the daily temple liturgy, the times
of sacrifices, the times of prayer. And you can see
(16:36):
it in a lot of places. Right You see it
in the original laying down of the temple liturgy, even
back to the Tabernacle. In Exodus twenty nine, you see
it echoed in prayer talking about prayer roughly around the
same times. In Psalm fifty five, you also see in
Psalm one O two and it led me to read
(16:57):
this book. It was called Jesus in the Mystery of
the to me Sacrifice by a gentleman named Michael E. Hunt.
He is Catholic, so you got to watch out for
all the mass references. But if you can get through
the mass references, the book was actually really really good
in terms of detailing what happened during the daily temple liturgy,
specifically the to Mead sacrifice. So the to Mead Sacrifice
(17:19):
was one continual burnt offering sacrifices that was really the
heart of all temple worship because it was daily. This
burnt offering was to be maintained throughout all the day
and all the night. They were never allowed to let
the fire go out on this altar. So what they
(17:39):
would do is they would in the morning so they
would be woken up what was called the cockrow, which
was roughly three am, and that's when the priests would
wake up. They would start firing the ovens and things
like that to prepare because not only did you have
obviously the sacrificial lambs, but you had bread offerings and
wine offerings. They would actually make the wafers and things
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there at the temple. So they would start their day
roughly at three am, and then at six am they
would lead so it's the beginning of the Jewish day.
So the Jewish day was twelve hours, from six am
to six am or six am to six pm, so
you would have this beginning at three am they would
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start their morning, and at six am, what they would
do is they would lead out what was called the
first to meet lamb. They would lead him to the altar.
At six am, they would look at him, make sure
he was unblemished. He would deem him as innocent, and
then at the third hour, which was nine am, they
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would sacrifice this first lamb, and then at the sixth hour,
which was noon or twelve pm, they would bring the
second lamb out, and then at the ninth hour, which
was three pm, they would sacrifice the second of land.
So this was the normal daily temple liturgy in terms
of the to mead sacrifice specifically. So what was interesting
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is that you find that, let's go to Psalm fifty five.
Psalm fifty five, it says, as for me, I shall
call upon the name of the Lord, and he will
save me evening morning and at noon I will complain
and murmur, and he will hear my voice. So you
see prayers also at evening and morning and noon. So
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for example, morning would be the third hour nine am,
the sixth hour would be noon, and nine hour, which
is three pm, is what they started considering evening, so
three pm was evening for them. So you see it
marking up with these same hours that were significant in
the to Mead sacrifice. So right now we have Daniel
(19:55):
praying three times a day. It doesn't tell us exactly
what hours. You have a call on the psalms to
pray morning, evening, at noon, and then you have these
sacrifices that were going on at these times. So let's
look at Exodus twenty nine of the very first handing
down of this to Meet sacrifice liturgy. So it says, now,
this is what you shall offer on the altar, two
one year old lambs each day continuously. The one lamb
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you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb
you shall offer at twilight, which essentially just means evening.
And there shall be a tenth of an eph off
of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hen
of beaten oil and a fourth of a hen of
wine for a drink offering with one lamb. The other
lamb you shall offer at twilight, and you shall offer
with it the same grain offering and the same drink
(20:40):
offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, and
an offering by fire to the Lord. It shall be
a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway
of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I
will meet with you to speak to you there. So
this was the beginning, right, and it set up this
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temple liturgy that continued on all the way throughout obviously
the destruction of the Second Temple. It is again something
that I think that what Daniel's doing is that he's
organizing his prayers towards Jerusalem, like we said in reference
to the Prayer of Solomon, but he's also continuing in
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the temple liturgy that he would have been familiar with.
Daniel grew up in Jerusalem, he was a part of
the noble and royal family, part of Judas that he
was familiar with this whole worship service, and his prayers
were lining up exactly with the times of temple worship
(21:49):
and Temple sacrifices. I put in a quote from the
Michael he Hunt book Jesus in the Mystery of the
Tmead Sacrifice, and he says, the morning to Mead was
led out to the altar at dawn and offered for
a sacrifice at the third hour, which was nine am,
at which time trumpets were blown, signaling the beginning of
the morning liturgical services. So he goes to write that
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at this point, right at the sacrifice of the first
lamb and the trumpet's being blown, that's actually when they
would open the gates to the temple and let everybody
in to begin their liturgical services. So you would have
the priests, whether it was having worship prayer in between
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the two sacrifices, actually between the nine am sacrifice and
the three PM sacrifices, actually when you could bring your
sent offerings, your guilt offerings, all of those things were
to be done between the two to meet lamb sacrifices.
He goes on to say the second lamb was brought
to the altar at noon and sacrifice when the afternoon
worship service began. About the ninth hour is three pm.
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And they also say that it usually kind of wrapped
up around the eleventh hour, which was five PM. So
if you can see this chart over here, what I'm
about to show you, which was the greatest connection that
I think I made out of this chapter, which was
not the point of Daniel for me or the point
of the story really, but it was really eye opening
(23:20):
for me. I guess I didn't realize how much Jesus
fulfilled the to mead sacrifice and the whole daily temple liturgy.
So this chart actually is showing Jesus's crucifixion over against
the daily to mead sacrifice. So let's go back real quick.
(23:43):
So in Mark, you see Jesus's crucifixion lining up exactly
with these same hours. So you see Jesus when he
tells Peter, he says, before the cock crows, you will
deny me three times. So I've always thought that, because
(24:06):
some translations will translate that before the rooster crows, I
always thought that that meant there was a real rooster,
and that a real rooster crowed, and Peter recognized that
what I didn't realize. Just like we said the Jews
had twelve hours a day, they actually had twelve hours
of night that were broken into segments called the night watches.
(24:27):
Jesus actually mentions this other places in Mark where he
says whether it is evening or midnight, or when the
rooster crows. I can't think of the fourth one, but
he mentions all four of these watches. So the third one,
the third one which marked three am, which was the
(24:48):
beginning of morning, was called the cock crow. So they
would blow a trumpet between the start of one and sorry,
the end of one and the start of the next.
So what Jesus actually seems to have said to Peter
is that before this trumpet blast signaling what we call
the cockrow in the beginning of dawn in morning, you're
(25:11):
going to deny me three times. So in Jesus's crucifixion
we have that going on the beginning of the cockrow,
while he's just been hounded by the priests. Then he's
brought before Pilot. Of what John says is according to
Roman time, the sixth hour, so that would have been
six a m. So at six am, Jesus was brought
(25:35):
before Pilot, which is exactly the same time that the
first lamb was brought before the priests, and both Pilot
and the priest deem the lamb innocent right, So Pilot
says that Jesus was innocent. He didn't want to condemn him.
And then you have in Mark, let's go there. Mark
fifteen says it was the third hour when they crucified him.
(26:02):
The inscription of the charges against him read the King
of the Jews. They crucified two robbers with him, one
on his right and one on his left, and the
scriptures scripture was fulfilled, which says, and he was numbered
with the transgressors. Those passing by, hurling by, were hurling
abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, ha, you
who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it
(26:24):
in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross.
In the same way, the chief priests, also along with
the scribes, were mocking him among themselves, saying he saved others,
he cannot save himself. Let this Christ, the King of Israel,
now come down from the cross, so that way may
we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with
him were also insulting him. It says. When the sixth
(26:44):
hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the
ninth hour. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with
a loud voice. I'm not even going to try to
say it. I think it's Eli eli lama sabakhthanai, which
translated my God, my God, why have you forsaken me.
When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, behold,
(27:06):
he is calling for Elijah. Some ran and filled a
sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and
gave him to drink, saying, let us see whether Elijah
will come and take him down. Jesus uttered a loud
cry and breathed his last, and a veil of the
temple was torn into from top to bottom. When the centurion,
who was standing right in front of him, saw the
way he had breathed his last, he said, truly, this
(27:28):
man was the son of God. So what Mark says
is that Jesus is put on the cross at the
third hour, that's exactly when the first lamb sacrificed. At
the sixth hour, he says that darkness fell over the land.
That would be the noon hour when the second lamb
is let out. And then at the ninth hour, Mark
(27:51):
says that Jesus died. That's exactly when the second lamb
was sacrificed. So Jesus's crucifixion day, from the start of
the cockrow to his ninth hour death is a perfect
playing out of the to mead sacrifice. It is completely fulfilled.
So it's pretty amazing that you have all of these
(28:13):
sacrifices from the beginning of the laying out at the
tabernacle to the carry off in exile when they can't
make sacrifices, Daniel's keeping the prayer at the same time,
and then Jesus is sacrificed all at the same time.
It's this one giant temple liturgy playing out throughout all
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of time. It's beautiful. It's amazing, and I thought that
was like the most amazing thing when I'm reading through Daniel,
something that people might think is so small and insignificant.
You know, oh, Daniel's playing praying three times a day,
but he's praying during the same times that the temple
sacrifices were to be done, and Jesus dies at the
same time as the temple sacrifices in worship were to
(28:54):
be done. It's amazing. I also through in pre in Cornelius,
even after obviously the sacrifice and Christ's death, they were
still keeping prayer roughly at those same times. So let's
go to Acts three and Acts ten. So Acts three,
Verse one says, now Peter and John were going up
(29:15):
to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. Okay,
so we have Peter and John still continuing in that
liturgical way. You see it in Acts ten to three
about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw
a vision of an Angel of God who had just
come in and said to him Cornelius. And then we
see in ten nine on the next day, as they
(29:38):
were on their way approaching the city, Peter went up
on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. So
we have prayer at the ninth hour and prayer at
the sixth hour. So it's still continued on even after
Christ's sacrifice, which I thought was pretty cool and the
last thing I wanted to throw in here for this
just kind of showing how serious the Jewish people valued
(30:02):
the tomeed sacrifice in the temple liturgy. I actually looked
at the inter dutero canonical time. So this is when
POMPEII was coming against Jerusalem. So it says by Josephus. Now,
when POMPEII had pitched his camp at Jericho, where the
palm tree grows in the balsam, which is an ointment
(30:24):
of all the most precious, which upon any incision made
in the wood with sharp stone, distills outbinds like a juice.
He marched in the morning to Jerusalem. Hereupon Aristobolus repented
of what he was doing and came to Pompeii and
promised to give him money and receive him into Jerusalem,
(30:45):
and desire that he would leave off the war and
do what he pleased peaceably. So POMPEII, upon his entreaty,
forgave him and sent Gabinius and soldiers with him to
receive money in the city. Yet was no part of
this performed, but came back being both excluded out of
the city and receiving none of the money that he
was promised, because Aristobolus's soldiers would not premit the agreements
(31:09):
to be executed. At this Pompey was very angry, and
Aristobolus was put into prison and came himself to the city,
which was strong on every side, excepting the north, which
was not so well fortified, for there was a broad
and deep ditch that encompassed the city, and included within
it the temple, which was itself encompassed about with a
(31:31):
very strong stone wall, it says, and anyone may hints learn,
so I kind of jumped ahead, and anyone may hints
learn how very great piety was exercised toward God and
the observance of his laws. Since the priests were not
at all hindered from their sacred ministrations by their fear
(31:54):
during this siege, but did still twice a day in
the morning, in about the ninth hour, offered their sacrifices
on the altar. Nor did they omit those sacrifices if
any melancholy accident happened by the stones that were thrown
among them. For although the city was taken on the
third month, on the day of the Fast upon the
(32:14):
one hundred seventy ninth Olympiad, when Kaius Antonius and Marcus
Tullius Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero were consoles, and the enemy
then fell upon them and cut the throats of those
that were in the temple, Yet could not those that
offered the sacrifice be compelled to run away, neither by
(32:35):
the fear that they were in of their own lives,
nor by the number that were already slain, as thinking
it better to suffer whatever come, sorry, whatever came upon
them at their very altars, than to omit anything that
their law required of them. And that this is not
a mere brag or any inconium to manifest a degree
(32:56):
of our piety that was false, but it but is
the real truth. I appealed to those that have written
of the acts of Pompeii, and among them Strabo and Nicholas,
and besides these two Titus Livius, the writer of the
Roman history, who bears witness to this thing. So there's
a few things here. Josephus talks about the morning and
(33:20):
evening sacrifice, even talks about the ninth hour. But what
he's saying is that the Jews took the to mean
sacrifice so seriously that when Pompey took the city, they
didn't stop doing their temple duties and the sacrifices. They
thought it was better that they continued to do it
and give their lives than to simply just run away.
(33:40):
So the idea of this to med sacrifice, and how
how much it permeated the culture was huge. I mean,
it was the essence of their worship. So again, when
we go back to Daniel, I want to keep bringing
this back. Daniel knew this, not this story right here,
(34:02):
but Daniel knew the seriousness and the piety of keeping
this to meed sacrifice. So it makes sense as to
why he was so pious to again not only open
his windows towards Jerusalem, but he would make sure that
he's praying and keeping in the daily temple worship around
the same times that they would have been doing in
Jerusalem if they were still there. So I thought that
(34:23):
was really amazing to see all of these connections in
this giant liturgy throughout all the time in the church.
So let's continue in Daniel. Sorry that took so long.
I hope that you guys found it as interesting as
I did. So it says then as soon as the
king heard the statement, he was deeply distressed and set
his mind on delivering Daniel, and even until sunset he
kept exerting himself to rescue him. Then these men came
(34:46):
by agreement to the king and said to the King, recognize,
O King, that it is the law of the Meds
and the Persians that no injunction or statute with the
king which the king establishes may be changed. Then the
King gave orders, and Daniel was brought in and cast
into the line. The King spoke and said, to Daniel,
your God, whom you constantly serve, will himself deliver you.
(35:06):
And a stone is brought and laid over the mouth
of the den, and the King sealed it with his
own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles,
so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel.
And the King went off to his palace and spent
the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought before him.
In his sleep fled from him. So we obviously have
(35:28):
Darius seeking to save Daniel, but he can. So really
what Darius ends up doing is entrusting Daniel to his God.
This is I think something clearly that was known about
Daniel through not only Nebekinezzar and Belshazzar. But I'm assuming
Darius must have known this. We saw earlier that he
(35:48):
appointed Daniel as one of the three commissioners and was
about to put him over the whole kingdom because of
all the extraordinary things that he had done. So he
was already doing them. For Darius. He probably put him
in there in the first place, because when he took over,
he probably heard of what Daniel had done among spelshiz
Are and done amongst Snipechanizert. So he's beckoning that and
(36:13):
hoping that Daniel's God will deliver him again. So I
think this is again very similar to Pilot in Darius.
There's kind of a connection here between Daniel and Christ
being brought before the king or the pro counsul right
(36:36):
and being innocent and having really no ability to kind
of do anything other than condemn him, even though they
were very reluctant to right. Pilot didn't want to condemn Christ.
He knew Christ was innocent, but he did it because
he was keeping peace amongst the people and the Jews
(36:56):
were requiring it according to their law, and the same
with Darius and Daniel. Right, Darius didn't want to punish Daniel.
He was trapped, he was fooled, he was angry, but
he couldn't do anything else. So ultimately, obviously Daniel's thrown
into the den and a stone is rolled over the opening.
So again there's a connection I think to Christ here
(37:19):
in the imagery Obviously, I don't know that you should
go too far in these connections, but I do think
that there is blatant imagery in Daniel, just like the
pilot and Darius. You have both of them being thrown
into a hole in the ground, essentially in a stone
being rolled over it. It seems that their fate was final,
(37:42):
that Christ was dead, and that Daniel was as good
as dead. A stone is rolled over, it's sealed, it
won't be moved. Instead of being sealed in christ tomb case,
you had guards sealing the entrance, right, But as we see,
both are delivered. It says not not only was daniel
(38:02):
sentence sealed by Darius, but it was confirmed by all
the nobles. So it wasn't just Darius who did it,
but every single noble marked it as well. Right, they
are guilty for this, this atrocity. Darius is so distraught
that he's brought to fasting. So I don't know how
(38:26):
common fasting was in a lot of other cultures and whatnot.
I'm sure it played a part in ritualistic observance and whatnot.
But he's also a king, right, Like he's a king
that has all these things. It says he put off
all entertainment, put off all these things that you would
(38:47):
have thought could make a person happy. But none of
this glorious kingdom that Darius had was enough to ease
his mind. And all he could do was, you know,
sit and wait until he get to the caves with
what we see. So it says. Then the king arose
(39:08):
at dawn at the break of day, and went in
haste to the lions den. When he had come near
to the den to Daniel, he cried out with a
troubled voice. The King spoke and said to Daniel, Daniel,
servant of Living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve,
been able to deliver you from the lions. Then Daniel
spoke to the King, O King, live forever, Mike, God
sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth. They have
(39:29):
not harmed me in as much as I was found
innocent before him, and also towards you, O King, I
have committed no crime. Then the King was very pleased
and gave orders for Daniel to be taken up out
of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of
the den, and no injury whatever was found on him.
Because he had trusted in his God and the King
gave orders, and they brought those men who had maliciously
(39:50):
accused Daniel, and they cast them, their children, and their
wives into the lions den. They had not reached the
bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and
crushed all their bones. So, like we were just talking about,
Darius is not able to sleep. He's fasting. First moment
he gets he rushes to the cave and he's in
(40:12):
hope that God had delivered Daniel. And what I thought
was really interesting is that Daniel doesn't resent Darius. So
when he calls out to him, the first thing Daniel
says is O King live forever. He shows him honor.
I don't know if he knew that Darius was innocent
(40:33):
in the matter, or it was just that just as
us Christians right, even though we are under tyrannical governments,
governments that we don't agree with, there's never I think,
a case to not give honor where honor is due.
Now does that mean we can't stand up against things
(40:54):
that are wrong. Absolutely not. Of course we should stand
up against things that are wrong. But you don't just
give dishonor for no reason. I don't think you should
make the decision to do anything that wouldn't honor God
in the situation. Right, God has called us to recognize
that He has put these rulers over us, even if
(41:17):
we don't like them. It is by God's hand, in
God's hand alone, that they are there. So we are
to show honor to them as king. But it does
not mean that we can't petition the king. It doesn't
mean that we can't disobey in the sense of when
rules are contrary to the law of God, just as
(41:41):
Daniel did. Right, Daniel disobeyed the injunction because it would
have been disobeying God right, but Daniel also accepted his punishment,
and Daniel also gave the king honor that was due
to him. So I think it's a good example of
(42:03):
how a Christian should act in these situations. That we
shouldn't add sin on our part to the situation. Just
because the king is sinning does not give us a
license to go on in sin. So I thought that
was really interesting. He also says that his God had
sent his angel and shut the mouth of lions, so
there's always going to be kind of I guess maybe
(42:25):
a debate whether this was an angel in the sense
of an angelic being or if this was Christ or
a christophany. This idea that was Christ himself in there
as just the same conversation of was Christ in the
fiery furnace with Shadrack Mishak and a indigo. That is
something that I'm not going to take a firm stance on.
(42:46):
I don't know that I have have an opinion in
the sense of I don't know that it changes the
idea of the passage because whether it was I put
hankle home angel, sorry for the typeo there, whether it
was an angel or whether it was Christ himself, the
(43:06):
fact is that it was God who was there with him.
Either God through his angel or God through Christ was
there with him. And it says it shut the mouth
of the lions. And I thought this was interesting because
Psalm twenty two, when talking about Christ, right twenty two
is a huge Messianic psalm. And one of the things
(43:29):
it says is save me from the lion's mouth and
from the horns of the wild oxen. You answer me,
so this is again imagery. Just as Daniel was saved
from the lion's mouth, Christ is saved from the lion's mouth.
So it is so similar, how or so amazing how
(43:51):
much similarities there are between the story of Daniel and
the story of Christ. He goes to say, I was
found innocent before him and also towards you, o, King,
I have committed no crime. So Daniel is saying the
reason he was delivered is because he was innocent that God.
He trusted God for his safety and for his deliverance,
(44:14):
and God had deemed him innocent, and that's why he
is now out of this den So he wasn't only
innocent before God, but he also did nothing wrong towards
the king, and that's why at the beginning of the
chapter you see that no negligence could be found. Right,
Daniel was a wonderful servant to the king. He wanted
nothing but the best for the king. And again, if
(44:35):
you want to see similarities between Daniel and Christ, that's
another one. Why was Christ out of the tomb right
because God had found him innocent and accepted his sacrifice
that death could not hold him. And it's a very
similar imagery found here in Daniel. Then you have the
(44:55):
false accusers being punished. So Darius goes to take not
only the man and the men, but their families, their wives,
and their children's And this is I think a really
good point to make in terms of the federal headship idea.
You also see it in the Old Testament also with Aiken.
(45:16):
I think I'm saying that correct, the idea that not
only was he punished, but the families were as well.
Now we can make the case, right, is that right
or is that wrong? I don't think that's the point
of this right now. But the big point is that
God demands that the false accusers are punished in the
(45:36):
very way that they accused those who were innocent. We
can see that in Deuteronomy. So it says in Deuteronomy nineteen,
verses eighteen through twenty one, the judges shall investigate thoroughly,
And if the witness is a false witness, and he
has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to
him just as he intended to do to his brother.
(45:57):
Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. The
rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again
do such an evil thing among you. Thus you shall
not show pity life for life, eye for eye, tooth
for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot. So
that's exactly what Darius actually did to those who had
falsely accused Daniel. So I do think it was a
(46:19):
god honoring thing to punish them for their wickedness. And
then you have the statement that the wicked's bones were crushed. Again,
when you look at similarities, is that Daniel's bones were
not crushed, just as christ bones were not crushed, but
(46:41):
in the same sense as the false accusers and the
wicked's bones will be crushed. That's the same with the wicked.
At the end of all things, is that Christ's bones
weren't crushed, but the Wicked's bones will eventually be crushed
as well. So again that carryover in the imagery between
or Daniel in Christ is amazing. So continuing on, then,
(47:05):
Darius the King wrote to all the peoples, nations, and
men of every language who were living in the land,
may your peace abound. I make a decree that in
all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to fear
and tremble before the God of Daniel. For he is
the living God and enduring forever. His kingdom is one
which will not be destroyed, and his dominion will be forever.
(47:25):
He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders in
heaven and on earth. Who has also delivered Daniel from
the power of the lions. So this Daniel enjoyed success
in the reign of Darius and in the reign of
Cyrus the Persian. So this really makes you question, you know,
(47:46):
was Darius saved? Right? We already kind of went through
that discussion with nebukin Nezer, and I would really take
the position that I think nebucon Nezzer was saved. Given
the way in which he spoke of God after he
was it does seem that he was praising the God
of Heaven himself. Darius's definitely could be the same way,
(48:08):
but it's not as clear. I think as an Ebuchonezzer,
he does recognize God's sovereignty overall things. He recognizes the
fact that the kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his
dominion will never end. In that he actually makes a
decree that everybody in his domain, in his dominion, must
(48:29):
fear and tremble before God. Now, some could debate, right,
some could debate that doesn't mean he's requiring that they
worship him alone. Right. Maybe that's just in addition to
kind of how the Greeks were with all of their gods.
Maybe it's the same way with the Needs. Maybe they're saying,
in addition to all your Median gods, right, you also
(48:52):
have to serve the God of Daniel. And that definitely
could be true. But what is about it, nonetheless, whether
he was actually saved or not, is he says something
so unbelievably true, right, And that has been spoke about
from the beginning of the Book of Daniel and Daniel
two talking about the kingdom that would come and destroy
(49:14):
all the other kingdoms, including the Median kingdom, which Darius
as a part of it, talks about that God's going
to set up his kingdom that will last forever and
that its dominion will have no end. And he is
just echoing that, because the whole theme of the Book
of the Daniels is constantly pushed forth, almost in every
(49:36):
single chapter, is that the kingdoms of this earth and
the kings of this earth are put there by God,
and ultimately the only one who truly has sovereignty is
God himself, and that he actually, in his kingdom, is
the only kingdom that is going to endure forever. All
the other kingdoms are just clay in his hand, he
(49:57):
can and move them in whatever direction and he wants
because God is in control and he has set his
king on Zion, which is Christ. Right. So the last
thing that I wanted to touch on here again diving
into the Darius identity, is that for those of people,
(50:19):
those of you out there, I guess that would say
that Darius is just another name for Cyrus, is that
it doesn't really fit with this last verse of Daniel
because they are mentioned as distinctly different characters. So let's
go back again. So this Daniel enjoyed success in the
reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian,
(50:41):
so they are distinguishing them, excuse me, as two separate characters.
So with all that being said, me here real quick,
Daniel chapter six. Right. So Daniel chapter six is honest,
pretty straightforward. I don't think that there is a lot
(51:04):
of things that we had to deal with in terms
of prophecy. There wasn't really anything that takes a lot
of time to figure out. There's not really much debate
over Daniel chapter six, but there was a lot of
little nuggets there, a lot of little things that I
didn't see with years of reading that and years of
(51:25):
knowing that story, I never would have thought in a
million years to to look at the idea of why
was Daniel praying three times a day? Why was he
opening his window towards Jerusalem so seeing those scriptures, seeing
how Solomon had prayed that when they were in exile,
if they were to look back, make God forgive them.
That's exactly what Daniel's doing. To see that the three
(51:48):
times a day were in reference to points in the
Temple liturgy revolving to need sacrifice, and that Daniel would
have known that by being a young man growing up
in that culture, and he's just keeping his normal daily
prayer during those times. The fact that Christ was sacrificed
during those times and tried during those same times, that
(52:09):
Peter and John and Cornelius were praying during those same times,
it's that it's amazing, right. I think that imagery is
awesome to see In little passages like this, we also see, obviously,
the conversation of how should we Christians act in the
face of persecution, in the face of difficult situations, and
(52:36):
how we can potentially use prudence to make a decision
right should we continue to openly worship in this way
or is this a moment where we hold back in
in hopes that the Gospel will go forth in the church.
And again, like I said earlier, I don't I can't
(52:58):
give you a straightforward answer on that, because I think
biblically we have examples of both. And then also, the
amazing thing in Daniel six is it is filled with
imageries of Christ. Right, It's filled with an innocent man
being condemned, thrown to the lions, delivered by his God,
the wicked being destroyed, so on like so on, right, Like,
(53:22):
there's so much imagery in Daniel six that that it's
a really beautiful passage, not just a kid's story of
Oh Daniel and this lion. Look how cute these lions are.
They were he was in their petnam and playing games
with them. Like obviously that's not the point Daniel should
have He should have perished, right, being thrown in there,
but God delivered him. And it is a story of
(53:50):
the sovereignty of God above all things, a sovereignty of
God over kings, over wicked men who conspire against the righteous.
So that's it. So we can be looked forward to
looking forward to Daniel chapter seven. So this is going
to be a huge one, So a little teaser here.
In about a week and a half or so, I
(54:12):
am going to be interviewing Jay Rodgers. So he has
written a few commentaries on the Book of Daniel, so
if you have not read those, go get them. They
are amazing. He also has someone audible if you're a
person who likes to listen to those. So I'm going
to interview him over Daniel chapter seven. I'm also going
to probably have my own Daniel chapter seven videos, so
(54:34):
that's what the future holds. Please be patient with me
because Daniel chapter seven is littered with hard prophecy, so
I want to take my time on it. I want
to try to exposit it the best and most careful
way possible and just give you guys the best video
I can. Other things I would like to say is
(54:57):
go and get yourself a formerly Patriarch cigar. They're still
under that title, soon to be Steadfast Cigars, so go
ahead and go get you on. They are an amazing company.
Go check them out. Love you guys, So that's it.
Hope to see you guys soon.
Speaker 2 (55:14):
God bless you need you at my ride and the
lord to my lord, command for all theaity. Then I
will man looking linkefood, go for your day
Living, have it whoschool dot com? How's it going? Everybody?
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that's code eschatology at living heritage dot info. All right,
so hopefully you guys can see the slide show. So,
(01:33):
just like Daniel Chapter five, Daniel chapter six has kind
of sent me down a rabbit hole. In the meantime,
me and my wife actually had another beautiful little daughter,
so I've also kind of been delayed with getting this
out as well. So without further ado, let's get into
Daniel chapter six. Okay, Verses one through five. It seemed
(01:58):
good to Darius to appoint one hundred and twenty sat
raps over the kingdom, that they would be in charge
of the whole kingdom, and over them three commissioners, of
whom Daniel was one. That these sat raps might be
accountable to them, and that the king might not suffer loss.
Then this Daniel began to distinguish himself among the commissioners
in the sat raps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit
(02:21):
and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom.
Then the commissioners and the sat Raps began trying to
find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to
the government affairs, but they could find no ground of
accusation or evidence of corruption inasmuch as he was faithful
and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him.
(02:41):
Then these men said, we will not find any ground
of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against
him with regard to the law of his God. All right,
so we start off with Daris the Meds. So if
you guys haven't seen the videos I did on Daniel
Checkter five, specifically the video with doctor Stephen d Anderson
(03:04):
where we kind of detail who was this Darius the Mead,
So a little bit of a spoiler here. I think
he's SiGe Czari's the second So I'm going to kind
of assume that moving forward. Like I said in the
previous video, if you have seen chapter one, I think
I falsely identified him as Gabrias, and I clear all
(03:24):
that up through my Daniel Chapter five videos. So if
you had not seen that, please go back and watch it.
So Darius sets up one hundred and twenty Satraps and
three commissioners said Daniel was one, and he was actually
going to be placed over all of the commissioners and
the satraps. So Daniel was a faithful servant unto Darius,
(03:47):
just like he was onto Belshazzar and Nebukonezer. And the
commissioners and the satraps that were trying to trap him
couldn't find anything where Daniel had messed up, where negligence
was shown, or where he was being unfaithful to Darius,
or mishandling his money or whatever he had put him
(04:10):
in charge of. And instead of still pursuing that or
still trying to come up with false accusations in regards
to the government, they said, you know, we can go
after him in regards to the law of God. So
wherein Daniel's piety and worship can it come head to
(04:30):
head with our median in Persian law. So it continues.
Then these commissioners and sat raps came by agreement to
the king and spoke to him as follows. King Darius
lived forever. All the commissioners the kingdom, the prefects, and
the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted
together that the king should establish a statute and enforce
(04:53):
an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any God
or man besides you, O King, for thirty days, shall
be cast into the lion's den. Now, O King established
the injunction and signed the document so that it may
not be changed according to the law of the Meds
and the Persians, which may not be revoked. Therefore, King
(05:14):
Darius signed the document that is the injunction. Okay, So
clearly all the sat Raps commissioners come and conspire against Daniel,
and Darius was dealing. So the big thing I think
that why this worked. So you have the idea that
(05:36):
they came and it said all of us have decided
together that you should do this King. So number one,
I think they falsely presented it to Darius that everybody
was in agreement. Clearly Daniel was not in agreement with this.
He was left out. So it was them lying to
Darius to kind of present this, yeah, everybody agrees, when
(05:58):
that wasn't the case. But the other thing that kind
of probably made it appealing to Darius is that Darius,
being sig Csari, is the second who is king of
the Meads, is now ruling over the Babylonians. Specifically, that's
who we're dealing with here. So he is now ruler
over a new people, and what better way could he
(06:18):
kind of gain respect and control than to put in
something like this an injunction that would show the allegiance
of the people to the new king. So I think
it was definitely something that seemed appealing to him to
kind of establish himself as the new ruler of the Babylonians.
The last thing you see here is that, and you'll
(06:40):
see it moving forward, is that they petition this idea
that the law of the Meads and the Persians cannot
be revoked. And I think you can kind of see
this further in the Book of Esther when you deal
with the decree of Cyrus the Great. So when they
go back to Jerusalem, eventually they start to rebuild the temple,
(07:01):
people conspire against them, just similar here and Daniel. They
conspire against those rebuilding the temple, and they go to
the king saying, these guys just want to rise up
in power and throw off your rule. So what Darius
and art et Xerxes end up doing is they look
back and they find Cyrus's decree. At that point they
(07:23):
allow the rebuilding of the Temple, and I think a
lot of it is probably because this whole idea that
if a decree or an injunction is put in place,
it cannot be revoked, And it actually worked in the
favor of those rebuilding the temple when they went back
and realized, oh well, Cyrus's decree to rebuild the temple
can't be revoked, so we have to let them build.
(07:48):
Continuing on now, when Daniel knew that the document was signed,
he entered his house. Now in his roof chamber, he
had windows open towards Jerusalem, and he continued to kneeling
on his knees three times a day, praying and getting
thanks before his God, and as he had done, sorry,
as he had been doing previously. Then these men came
(08:09):
by agreement and found Daniel making petition and supplication before
his God. Then they approached and spoke before the king
about the king's injunction. Did you not sign an injunction
that any man who makes petition to any God or
man besides you, O King, for thirty days is to
be cast into the lions den? The king replied, the
statement is true according to the law of the Needs
(08:30):
and the Persians, which may not be revoked. Then they
answered and spoke before the King. Daniel, who is one
of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you,
o King, or to the injunction that you signed, but
he keeps making his petition three times a day. So
this is this is actually where I found most of
my study was revolving was this idea of Daniel and
(08:54):
his petition and how he kind of partook in this.
So first of all, we started off with the fact
that Daniel knew that the injunction was signed, and he
still chose to keep his custom and pray three times
a day. Not only did he pray three times a day,
he wasn't hiding it. He on his roof chamber, opened
(09:16):
up his windows towards Jerusalem, and he continued to kneel
and pray. So this discussion is really hard, I think
in terms of piety versus survival of the people of God,
because we see Daniel doing something that for sure is dangerous,
(09:38):
is going to put his life at risk. But the
problem becomes is do we then take this as a
principle as to how all Christians should act in these moments.
But the problem is is you start to see things
like rayhab the idea that instead of telling the truth
to the men who were looking for the spies, she
(09:59):
chose to lie in order that they would survive and
be able to carry out their mission. You can look
at churches who potentially hide underground when an injunction comes
in that they cannot meet in the public square, they
do an underground church. So it's really complicated to say,
you know, there are moments when God has desired that
(10:22):
people like Daniel instead of hiding and praying, right, he
didn't go into his room and close the curtains and
hide and keep it secret and say, you know what,
this injunctions only for thirty days, So I'll just hide
for thirty days and then once the thirty days are up,
I'll continue opening my window. Now, Daniel chose to continue
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his custom and pray exactly how he had been doing.
So do we as Christians do that when the government
tells us to not do something that would involve piety?
Or do we take the move and say it's only
thirty days, can hide out for now, continue our worship services,
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and once the thirty days are up we can go out.
About that's really hard, and I really cannot tell you
that I have an answer there, because I do find
that in scripture we see examples of both. Like I said,
you see Daniel act one way, and God intended that
Daniel would act that way, and he was blessed for
acting that way, and God used it to show the
power and the sovereignty of God over kings and their
(11:26):
corrupt injunctions that they put in. But then you also
see Rehab, and Rehab is praised for doing what she
did and hiding the spies and not choosing to choose
her her piety and the sense of telling the truth
over hiding the spies. And you could also, again, like
(11:47):
I said, make the case of was it the right
thing for the early church to not be out in
drawing attention to themselves, but they kind of kept underground
in order that the church would survive and the Gospel
would go full. I'm going to say that that's going
to be praying for prudence in the moment. I don't
(12:08):
know that I have an answer for that, and I'm
sorry sorry that I can't help you guys there. And
maybe you guys have a better answer to that and
put it in the comments, and maybe you can help
me on that. But the things that I really dug
into here were really small things. On the surface you
wouldn't probably think of, but they were things that I
wanted to learn more about. So Number one, why was
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Daniel opening his windows towards Jerusalem? And why was he
praying three times a day? On the surface. If you're
not familiar with this, you're like, man, that kind of
sounds kind of Islamic, right, the fact that they would
pray at certain times face towards Mecca and things like that,
it seemed very similar. So I'm like, well, where does
this come from? Is there any biblical grounds or is
(12:57):
it just what Daniel chose to do because that's what
he wanted we do. So the idea of towards Jerusalem
actually comes from Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the
Temple in First Kings eight forty four through fifty. It's
also echoed in Second Chronicles six thirty four through forty two.
So let's go ahead and look at Kings. So that's
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what it says. This is Solomon speaking, when your people
go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way
you shall send them, and they pray to the Lord
toward the city which you have chosen, in the house
which I have built for your name, then hear in
heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
When they sin against you, For there is no man
(13:41):
who does not sin, and you are angry with them,
and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take
them away captive, to the land of the enemy, far
off or near. If they take thought in the land
where they have been taken captive and repent and makes
supplication to you in the land of those who have
taken them captive, saying we have sinned, and we have
committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly. If they return to
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you with all their heart and all their soul and
the land of their enemies who have taken them captive,
and pray to you toward their land which you have
given to their fathers, the city which you have chosen,
and the house which I have built for your name,
then hear their prayer and their supplication in Heaven your
dwelling place, and maintain their cause. And forgive your people
who have sinned against you and all their transgressions which
(14:27):
they have transgressed against you, to make them objects of compassion.
Before you who have sorry, before those who have taken
them captive, that they may have compassion on them, for
they are your people and your inheritance, which you have
brought forth from Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace,
that your eyes may be opened to their supplication of
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your servant and to the supplication of your people Israel.
To listen to them whenever they call to you, for
you have separated them from all the peoples of the
earth as your inheritance, as you through Moses, your servant,
when you brought our fathers forth from Egypt, O, Lord God.
And when Solomon had finished praying this entire prayer and
supplication to the Lord, he arose from before the altar
(15:10):
of the Lord, from kneeling on his hands, sorry, from
kneeling on his knees, with his hands spread toward Heaven.
So I believe that this is exactly what Daniel was doing.
So Daniel was taken, if you remember from chapter one,
he's taken from Jerusalem as a young man of a
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noble family from the tribe of Judah. Daniel was most
likely familiar, obviously with the scriptures, familiar with the temple liturgy,
and familiar with this prayer of Solomon. So Solomon says
it exactly what is going on here in Babylon when
they sin, when they're carried off as captives to a
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far off land. If they were to turn and look
towards Jerusalem, look towards the Temple, and they would pray,
and they would RepA Lord remember them and forgive them,
and heal them. All of these things is exactly what
I believe Daniel was doing is three times a day.
Is that he's making supplication before the Lord in remembrance
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of Solomon's prayer that he made. So I thought that
was pretty neat. So in regards to the three times
a day, I probably actually spent most of my time
focusing on this three times a day passage. It really
led me to understand the daily temple liturgy, the times
of sacrifices, the times of prayer. And you can see
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it in a lot of places. Right You see it
in the original laying down of the temple liturgy, even
back to the Tabernacle. In Exodus twenty nine, you see
it echoed in prayer talking about prayer roughly around the
same times. In Psalm fifty five, you also see in
Psalm one O two and it led me to read
(16:57):
this book. It was called Jesus in the Mystery of
the to me Sacrifice by a gentleman named Michael E. Hunt.
He is Catholic, so you got to watch out for
all the mass references. But if you can get through
the mass references, the book was actually really really good
in terms of detailing what happened during the daily temple liturgy,
specifically the to Mead sacrifice. So the to Mead Sacrifice
(17:19):
was one continual burnt offering sacrifices that was really the
heart of all temple worship because it was daily. This
burnt offering was to be maintained throughout all the day
and all the night. They were never allowed to let
the fire go out on this altar. So what they
(17:39):
would do is they would in the morning so they
would be woken up what was called the cockrow, which
was roughly three am, and that's when the priests would
wake up. They would start firing the ovens and things
like that to prepare because not only did you have
obviously the sacrificial lambs, but you had bread offerings and
wine offerings. They would actually make the wafers and things
(18:03):
there at the temple. So they would start their day
roughly at three am, and then at six am they
would lead so it's the beginning of the Jewish day.
So the Jewish day was twelve hours, from six am
to six am or six am to six pm, so
you would have this beginning at three am they would
(18:27):
start their morning, and at six am, what they would
do is they would lead out what was called the
first to meet lamb. They would lead him to the altar.
At six am, they would look at him, make sure
he was unblemished. He would deem him as innocent, and
then at the third hour, which was nine am, they
(18:48):
would sacrifice this first lamb, and then at the sixth hour,
which was noon or twelve pm, they would bring the
second lamb out, and then at the ninth hour, which
was three pm, they would sacrifice the second of land.
So this was the normal daily temple liturgy in terms
of the to mead sacrifice specifically. So what was interesting
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is that you find that, let's go to Psalm fifty five.
Psalm fifty five, it says, as for me, I shall
call upon the name of the Lord, and he will
save me evening morning and at noon I will complain
and murmur, and he will hear my voice. So you
see prayers also at evening and morning and noon. So
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for example, morning would be the third hour nine am,
the sixth hour would be noon, and nine hour, which
is three pm, is what they started considering evening, so
three pm was evening for them. So you see it
marking up with these same hours that were significant in
the to Mead sacrifice. So right now we have Daniel
(19:55):
praying three times a day. It doesn't tell us exactly
what hours. You have a call on the psalms to
pray morning, evening, at noon, and then you have these
sacrifices that were going on at these times. So let's
look at Exodus twenty nine of the very first handing
down of this to Meet sacrifice liturgy. So it says, now,
this is what you shall offer on the altar, two
one year old lambs each day continuously. The one lamb
(20:18):
you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb
you shall offer at twilight, which essentially just means evening.
And there shall be a tenth of an eph off
of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hen
of beaten oil and a fourth of a hen of
wine for a drink offering with one lamb. The other
lamb you shall offer at twilight, and you shall offer
with it the same grain offering and the same drink
(20:40):
offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, and
an offering by fire to the Lord. It shall be
a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway
of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I
will meet with you to speak to you there. So
this was the beginning, right, and it set up this
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temple liturgy that continued on all the way throughout obviously
the destruction of the Second Temple. It is again something
that I think that what Daniel's doing is that he's
organizing his prayers towards Jerusalem, like we said in reference
to the Prayer of Solomon, but he's also continuing in
(21:28):
the temple liturgy that he would have been familiar with.
Daniel grew up in Jerusalem, he was a part of
the noble and royal family, part of Judas that he
was familiar with this whole worship service, and his prayers
were lining up exactly with the times of temple worship
(21:49):
and Temple sacrifices. I put in a quote from the
Michael he Hunt book Jesus in the Mystery of the
Tmead Sacrifice, and he says, the morning to Mead was
led out to the altar at dawn and offered for
a sacrifice at the third hour, which was nine am,
at which time trumpets were blown, signaling the beginning of
the morning liturgical services. So he goes to write that
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at this point, right at the sacrifice of the first
lamb and the trumpet's being blown, that's actually when they
would open the gates to the temple and let everybody
in to begin their liturgical services. So you would have
the priests, whether it was having worship prayer in between
(22:34):
the two sacrifices, actually between the nine am sacrifice and
the three PM sacrifices, actually when you could bring your
sent offerings, your guilt offerings, all of those things were
to be done between the two to meet lamb sacrifices.
He goes on to say the second lamb was brought
to the altar at noon and sacrifice when the afternoon
worship service began. About the ninth hour is three pm.
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And they also say that it usually kind of wrapped
up around the eleventh hour, which was five PM. So
if you can see this chart over here, what I'm
about to show you, which was the greatest connection that
I think I made out of this chapter, which was
not the point of Daniel for me or the point
of the story really, but it was really eye opening
(23:20):
for me. I guess I didn't realize how much Jesus
fulfilled the to mead sacrifice and the whole daily temple liturgy.
So this chart actually is showing Jesus's crucifixion over against
the daily to mead sacrifice. So let's go back real quick.
(23:43):
So in Mark, you see Jesus's crucifixion lining up exactly
with these same hours. So you see Jesus when he
tells Peter, he says, before the cock crows, you will
deny me three times. So I've always thought that, because
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some translations will translate that before the rooster crows, I
always thought that that meant there was a real rooster,
and that a real rooster crowed, and Peter recognized that
what I didn't realize. Just like we said the Jews
had twelve hours a day, they actually had twelve hours
of night that were broken into segments called the night watches.
(24:27):
Jesus actually mentions this other places in Mark where he
says whether it is evening or midnight, or when the
rooster crows. I can't think of the fourth one, but
he mentions all four of these watches. So the third one,
the third one which marked three am, which was the
(24:48):
beginning of morning, was called the cock crow. So they
would blow a trumpet between the start of one and sorry,
the end of one and the start of the next.
So what Jesus actually seems to have said to Peter
is that before this trumpet blast signaling what we call
the cockrow in the beginning of dawn in morning, you're
(25:11):
going to deny me three times. So in Jesus's crucifixion
we have that going on the beginning of the cockrow,
while he's just been hounded by the priests. Then he's
brought before Pilot. Of what John says is according to
Roman time, the sixth hour, so that would have been
six a m. So at six am, Jesus was brought
(25:35):
before Pilot, which is exactly the same time that the
first lamb was brought before the priests, and both Pilot
and the priest deem the lamb innocent right, So Pilot
says that Jesus was innocent. He didn't want to condemn him.
And then you have in Mark, let's go there. Mark
fifteen says it was the third hour when they crucified him.
(26:02):
The inscription of the charges against him read the King
of the Jews. They crucified two robbers with him, one
on his right and one on his left, and the
scriptures scripture was fulfilled, which says, and he was numbered
with the transgressors. Those passing by, hurling by, were hurling
abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, ha, you
who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it
(26:24):
in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross.
In the same way, the chief priests, also along with
the scribes, were mocking him among themselves, saying he saved others,
he cannot save himself. Let this Christ, the King of Israel,
now come down from the cross, so that way may
we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with
him were also insulting him. It says. When the sixth
(26:44):
hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the
ninth hour. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with
a loud voice. I'm not even going to try to
say it. I think it's Eli eli lama sabakhthanai, which
translated my God, my God, why have you forsaken me.
When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, behold,
(27:06):
he is calling for Elijah. Some ran and filled a
sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and
gave him to drink, saying, let us see whether Elijah
will come and take him down. Jesus uttered a loud
cry and breathed his last, and a veil of the
temple was torn into from top to bottom. When the centurion,
who was standing right in front of him, saw the
way he had breathed his last, he said, truly, this
(27:28):
man was the son of God. So what Mark says
is that Jesus is put on the cross at the
third hour, that's exactly when the first lamb sacrificed. At
the sixth hour, he says that darkness fell over the land.
That would be the noon hour when the second lamb
is let out. And then at the ninth hour, Mark
(27:51):
says that Jesus died. That's exactly when the second lamb
was sacrificed. So Jesus's crucifixion day, from the start of
the cockrow to his ninth hour death is a perfect
playing out of the to mead sacrifice. It is completely fulfilled.
So it's pretty amazing that you have all of these
(28:13):
sacrifices from the beginning of the laying out at the
tabernacle to the carry off in exile when they can't
make sacrifices, Daniel's keeping the prayer at the same time,
and then Jesus is sacrificed all at the same time.
It's this one giant temple liturgy playing out throughout all
(28:33):
of time. It's beautiful. It's amazing, and I thought that
was like the most amazing thing when I'm reading through Daniel,
something that people might think is so small and insignificant.
You know, oh, Daniel's playing praying three times a day,
but he's praying during the same times that the temple
sacrifices were to be done, and Jesus dies at the
same time as the temple sacrifices in worship were to
(28:54):
be done. It's amazing. I also through in pre in Cornelius,
even after obviously the sacrifice and Christ's death, they were
still keeping prayer roughly at those same times. So let's
go to Acts three and Acts ten. So Acts three,
Verse one says, now Peter and John were going up
(29:15):
to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. Okay,
so we have Peter and John still continuing in that
liturgical way. You see it in Acts ten to three
about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw
a vision of an Angel of God who had just
come in and said to him Cornelius. And then we
see in ten nine on the next day, as they
(29:38):
were on their way approaching the city, Peter went up
on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. So
we have prayer at the ninth hour and prayer at
the sixth hour. So it's still continued on even after
Christ's sacrifice, which I thought was pretty cool and the
last thing I wanted to throw in here for this
just kind of showing how serious the Jewish people valued
(30:02):
the tomeed sacrifice in the temple liturgy. I actually looked
at the inter dutero canonical time. So this is when
POMPEII was coming against Jerusalem. So it says by Josephus. Now,
when POMPEII had pitched his camp at Jericho, where the
palm tree grows in the balsam, which is an ointment
(30:24):
of all the most precious, which upon any incision made
in the wood with sharp stone, distills outbinds like a juice.
He marched in the morning to Jerusalem. Hereupon Aristobolus repented
of what he was doing and came to Pompeii and
promised to give him money and receive him into Jerusalem,
(30:45):
and desire that he would leave off the war and
do what he pleased peaceably. So POMPEII, upon his entreaty,
forgave him and sent Gabinius and soldiers with him to
receive money in the city. Yet was no part of
this performed, but came back being both excluded out of
the city and receiving none of the money that he
was promised, because Aristobolus's soldiers would not premit the agreements
(31:09):
to be executed. At this Pompey was very angry, and
Aristobolus was put into prison and came himself to the city,
which was strong on every side, excepting the north, which
was not so well fortified, for there was a broad
and deep ditch that encompassed the city, and included within
it the temple, which was itself encompassed about with a
(31:31):
very strong stone wall, it says, and anyone may hints learn,
so I kind of jumped ahead, and anyone may hints
learn how very great piety was exercised toward God and
the observance of his laws. Since the priests were not
at all hindered from their sacred ministrations by their fear
(31:54):
during this siege, but did still twice a day in
the morning, in about the ninth hour, offered their sacrifices
on the altar. Nor did they omit those sacrifices if
any melancholy accident happened by the stones that were thrown
among them. For although the city was taken on the
third month, on the day of the Fast upon the
(32:14):
one hundred seventy ninth Olympiad, when Kaius Antonius and Marcus
Tullius Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero were consoles, and the enemy
then fell upon them and cut the throats of those
that were in the temple, Yet could not those that
offered the sacrifice be compelled to run away, neither by
(32:35):
the fear that they were in of their own lives,
nor by the number that were already slain, as thinking
it better to suffer whatever come, sorry, whatever came upon
them at their very altars, than to omit anything that
their law required of them. And that this is not
a mere brag or any inconium to manifest a degree
(32:56):
of our piety that was false, but it but is
the real truth. I appealed to those that have written
of the acts of Pompeii, and among them Strabo and Nicholas,
and besides these two Titus Livius, the writer of the
Roman history, who bears witness to this thing. So there's
a few things here. Josephus talks about the morning and
(33:20):
evening sacrifice, even talks about the ninth hour. But what
he's saying is that the Jews took the to mean
sacrifice so seriously that when Pompey took the city, they
didn't stop doing their temple duties and the sacrifices. They
thought it was better that they continued to do it
and give their lives than to simply just run away.
(33:40):
So the idea of this to med sacrifice, and how
how much it permeated the culture was huge. I mean,
it was the essence of their worship. So again, when
we go back to Daniel, I want to keep bringing
this back. Daniel knew this, not this story right here,
(34:02):
but Daniel knew the seriousness and the piety of keeping
this to meed sacrifice. So it makes sense as to
why he was so pious to again not only open
his windows towards Jerusalem, but he would make sure that
he's praying and keeping in the daily temple worship around
the same times that they would have been doing in
Jerusalem if they were still there. So I thought that
(34:23):
was really amazing to see all of these connections in
this giant liturgy throughout all the time in the church.
So let's continue in Daniel. Sorry that took so long.
I hope that you guys found it as interesting as
I did. So it says then as soon as the
king heard the statement, he was deeply distressed and set
his mind on delivering Daniel, and even until sunset he
kept exerting himself to rescue him. Then these men came
(34:46):
by agreement to the king and said to the King, recognize,
O King, that it is the law of the Meds
and the Persians that no injunction or statute with the
king which the king establishes may be changed. Then the
King gave orders, and Daniel was brought in and cast
into the line. The King spoke and said, to Daniel,
your God, whom you constantly serve, will himself deliver you.
(35:06):
And a stone is brought and laid over the mouth
of the den, and the King sealed it with his
own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles,
so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel.
And the King went off to his palace and spent
the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought before him.
In his sleep fled from him. So we obviously have
(35:28):
Darius seeking to save Daniel, but he can. So really
what Darius ends up doing is entrusting Daniel to his God.
This is I think something clearly that was known about
Daniel through not only Nebekinezzar and Belshazzar. But I'm assuming
Darius must have known this. We saw earlier that he
(35:48):
appointed Daniel as one of the three commissioners and was
about to put him over the whole kingdom because of
all the extraordinary things that he had done. So he
was already doing them. For Darius. He probably put him
in there in the first place, because when he took over,
he probably heard of what Daniel had done among spelshiz
Are and done amongst Snipechanizert. So he's beckoning that and
(36:13):
hoping that Daniel's God will deliver him again. So I
think this is again very similar to Pilot in Darius.
There's kind of a connection here between Daniel and Christ
being brought before the king or the pro counsul right
(36:36):
and being innocent and having really no ability to kind
of do anything other than condemn him, even though they
were very reluctant to right. Pilot didn't want to condemn Christ.
He knew Christ was innocent, but he did it because
he was keeping peace amongst the people and the Jews
(36:56):
were requiring it according to their law, and the same
with Darius and Daniel. Right, Darius didn't want to punish Daniel.
He was trapped, he was fooled, he was angry, but
he couldn't do anything else. So ultimately, obviously Daniel's thrown
into the den and a stone is rolled over the opening.
So again there's a connection I think to Christ here
(37:19):
in the imagery Obviously, I don't know that you should
go too far in these connections, but I do think
that there is blatant imagery in Daniel, just like the
pilot and Darius. You have both of them being thrown
into a hole in the ground, essentially in a stone
being rolled over it. It seems that their fate was final,
(37:42):
that Christ was dead, and that Daniel was as good
as dead. A stone is rolled over, it's sealed, it
won't be moved. Instead of being sealed in christ tomb case,
you had guards sealing the entrance, right, But as we see,
both are delivered. It says not not only was daniel
(38:02):
sentence sealed by Darius, but it was confirmed by all
the nobles. So it wasn't just Darius who did it,
but every single noble marked it as well. Right, they
are guilty for this, this atrocity. Darius is so distraught
that he's brought to fasting. So I don't know how
(38:26):
common fasting was in a lot of other cultures and whatnot.
I'm sure it played a part in ritualistic observance and whatnot.
But he's also a king, right, Like he's a king
that has all these things. It says he put off
all entertainment, put off all these things that you would
(38:47):
have thought could make a person happy. But none of
this glorious kingdom that Darius had was enough to ease
his mind. And all he could do was, you know,
sit and wait until he get to the caves with
what we see. So it says. Then the king arose
(39:08):
at dawn at the break of day, and went in
haste to the lions den. When he had come near
to the den to Daniel, he cried out with a
troubled voice. The King spoke and said to Daniel, Daniel,
servant of Living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve,
been able to deliver you from the lions. Then Daniel
spoke to the King, O King, live forever, Mike, God
sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth. They have
(39:29):
not harmed me in as much as I was found
innocent before him, and also towards you, O King, I
have committed no crime. Then the King was very pleased
and gave orders for Daniel to be taken up out
of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of
the den, and no injury whatever was found on him.
Because he had trusted in his God and the King
gave orders, and they brought those men who had maliciously
(39:50):
accused Daniel, and they cast them, their children, and their
wives into the lions den. They had not reached the
bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and
crushed all their bones. So, like we were just talking about,
Darius is not able to sleep. He's fasting. First moment
he gets he rushes to the cave and he's in
(40:12):
hope that God had delivered Daniel. And what I thought
was really interesting is that Daniel doesn't resent Darius. So
when he calls out to him, the first thing Daniel
says is O King live forever. He shows him honor.
I don't know if he knew that Darius was innocent
(40:33):
in the matter, or it was just that just as
us Christians right, even though we are under tyrannical governments,
governments that we don't agree with, there's never I think,
a case to not give honor where honor is due.
Now does that mean we can't stand up against things
(40:54):
that are wrong. Absolutely not. Of course we should stand
up against things that are wrong. But you don't just
give dishonor for no reason. I don't think you should
make the decision to do anything that wouldn't honor God
in the situation. Right, God has called us to recognize
that He has put these rulers over us, even if
(41:17):
we don't like them. It is by God's hand, in
God's hand alone, that they are there. So we are
to show honor to them as king. But it does
not mean that we can't petition the king. It doesn't
mean that we can't disobey in the sense of when
rules are contrary to the law of God, just as
(41:41):
Daniel did. Right, Daniel disobeyed the injunction because it would
have been disobeying God right, but Daniel also accepted his punishment,
and Daniel also gave the king honor that was due
to him. So I think it's a good example of
(42:03):
how a Christian should act in these situations. That we
shouldn't add sin on our part to the situation. Just
because the king is sinning does not give us a
license to go on in sin. So I thought that
was really interesting. He also says that his God had
sent his angel and shut the mouth of lions, so
there's always going to be kind of I guess maybe
(42:25):
a debate whether this was an angel in the sense
of an angelic being or if this was Christ or
a christophany. This idea that was Christ himself in there
as just the same conversation of was Christ in the
fiery furnace with Shadrack Mishak and a indigo. That is
something that I'm not going to take a firm stance on.
(42:46):
I don't know that I have have an opinion in
the sense of I don't know that it changes the
idea of the passage because whether it was I put
hankle home angel, sorry for the typeo there, whether it
was an angel or whether it was Christ himself, the
(43:06):
fact is that it was God who was there with him.
Either God through his angel or God through Christ was
there with him. And it says it shut the mouth
of the lions. And I thought this was interesting because
Psalm twenty two, when talking about Christ, right twenty two
is a huge Messianic psalm. And one of the things
(43:29):
it says is save me from the lion's mouth and
from the horns of the wild oxen. You answer me,
so this is again imagery. Just as Daniel was saved
from the lion's mouth, Christ is saved from the lion's mouth.
So it is so similar, how or so amazing how
(43:51):
much similarities there are between the story of Daniel and
the story of Christ. He goes to say, I was
found innocent before him and also towards you, o, King,
I have committed no crime. So Daniel is saying the
reason he was delivered is because he was innocent that God.
He trusted God for his safety and for his deliverance,
(44:14):
and God had deemed him innocent, and that's why he
is now out of this den So he wasn't only
innocent before God, but he also did nothing wrong towards
the king, and that's why at the beginning of the
chapter you see that no negligence could be found. Right,
Daniel was a wonderful servant to the king. He wanted
nothing but the best for the king. And again, if
(44:35):
you want to see similarities between Daniel and Christ, that's
another one. Why was Christ out of the tomb right
because God had found him innocent and accepted his sacrifice
that death could not hold him. And it's a very
similar imagery found here in Daniel. Then you have the
(44:55):
false accusers being punished. So Darius goes to take not
only the man and the men, but their families, their wives,
and their children's And this is I think a really
good point to make in terms of the federal headship idea.
You also see it in the Old Testament also with Aiken.
(45:16):
I think I'm saying that correct, the idea that not
only was he punished, but the families were as well.
Now we can make the case, right, is that right
or is that wrong? I don't think that's the point
of this right now. But the big point is that
God demands that the false accusers are punished in the
(45:36):
very way that they accused those who were innocent. We
can see that in Deuteronomy. So it says in Deuteronomy nineteen,
verses eighteen through twenty one, the judges shall investigate thoroughly,
And if the witness is a false witness, and he
has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to
him just as he intended to do to his brother.
(45:57):
Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. The
rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again
do such an evil thing among you. Thus you shall
not show pity life for life, eye for eye, tooth
for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot. So
that's exactly what Darius actually did to those who had
falsely accused Daniel. So I do think it was a
(46:19):
god honoring thing to punish them for their wickedness. And
then you have the statement that the wicked's bones were crushed. Again,
when you look at similarities, is that Daniel's bones were
not crushed, just as christ bones were not crushed, but
(46:41):
in the same sense as the false accusers and the
wicked's bones will be crushed. That's the same with the wicked.
At the end of all things, is that Christ's bones
weren't crushed, but the Wicked's bones will eventually be crushed
as well. So again that carryover in the imagery between
or Daniel in Christ is amazing. So continuing on, then,
(47:05):
Darius the King wrote to all the peoples, nations, and
men of every language who were living in the land,
may your peace abound. I make a decree that in
all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to fear
and tremble before the God of Daniel. For he is
the living God and enduring forever. His kingdom is one
which will not be destroyed, and his dominion will be forever.
(47:25):
He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders in
heaven and on earth. Who has also delivered Daniel from
the power of the lions. So this Daniel enjoyed success
in the reign of Darius and in the reign of
Cyrus the Persian. So this really makes you question, you know,
(47:46):
was Darius saved? Right? We already kind of went through
that discussion with nebukin Nezer, and I would really take
the position that I think nebucon Nezzer was saved. Given
the way in which he spoke of God after he
was it does seem that he was praising the God
of Heaven himself. Darius's definitely could be the same way,
(48:08):
but it's not as clear. I think as an Ebuchonezzer,
he does recognize God's sovereignty overall things. He recognizes the
fact that the kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his
dominion will never end. In that he actually makes a
decree that everybody in his domain, in his dominion, must
(48:29):
fear and tremble before God. Now, some could debate, right,
some could debate that doesn't mean he's requiring that they
worship him alone. Right. Maybe that's just in addition to
kind of how the Greeks were with all of their gods.
Maybe it's the same way with the Needs. Maybe they're saying,
in addition to all your Median gods, right, you also
(48:52):
have to serve the God of Daniel. And that definitely
could be true. But what is about it, nonetheless, whether
he was actually saved or not, is he says something
so unbelievably true, right, And that has been spoke about
from the beginning of the Book of Daniel and Daniel
two talking about the kingdom that would come and destroy
(49:14):
all the other kingdoms, including the Median kingdom, which Darius
as a part of it, talks about that God's going
to set up his kingdom that will last forever and
that its dominion will have no end. And he is
just echoing that, because the whole theme of the Book
of the Daniels is constantly pushed forth, almost in every
(49:36):
single chapter, is that the kingdoms of this earth and
the kings of this earth are put there by God,
and ultimately the only one who truly has sovereignty is
God himself, and that he actually, in his kingdom, is
the only kingdom that is going to endure forever. All
the other kingdoms are just clay in his hand, he
(49:57):
can and move them in whatever direction and he wants
because God is in control and he has set his
king on Zion, which is Christ. Right. So the last
thing that I wanted to touch on here again diving
into the Darius identity, is that for those of people,
(50:19):
those of you out there, I guess that would say
that Darius is just another name for Cyrus, is that
it doesn't really fit with this last verse of Daniel
because they are mentioned as distinctly different characters. So let's
go back again. So this Daniel enjoyed success in the
reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian,
(50:41):
so they are distinguishing them, excuse me, as two separate characters.
So with all that being said, me here real quick,
Daniel chapter six. Right. So Daniel chapter six is honest,
pretty straightforward. I don't think that there is a lot
(51:04):
of things that we had to deal with in terms
of prophecy. There wasn't really anything that takes a lot
of time to figure out. There's not really much debate
over Daniel chapter six, but there was a lot of
little nuggets there, a lot of little things that I
didn't see with years of reading that and years of
(51:25):
knowing that story, I never would have thought in a
million years to to look at the idea of why
was Daniel praying three times a day? Why was he
opening his window towards Jerusalem so seeing those scriptures, seeing
how Solomon had prayed that when they were in exile,
if they were to look back, make God forgive them.
That's exactly what Daniel's doing. To see that the three
(51:48):
times a day were in reference to points in the
Temple liturgy revolving to need sacrifice, and that Daniel would
have known that by being a young man growing up
in that culture, and he's just keeping his normal daily
prayer during those times. The fact that Christ was sacrificed
during those times and tried during those same times, that
(52:09):
Peter and John and Cornelius were praying during those same times,
it's that it's amazing, right. I think that imagery is
awesome to see In little passages like this, we also see, obviously,
the conversation of how should we Christians act in the
face of persecution, in the face of difficult situations, and
(52:36):
how we can potentially use prudence to make a decision
right should we continue to openly worship in this way
or is this a moment where we hold back in
in hopes that the Gospel will go forth in the church.
And again, like I said earlier, I don't I can't
(52:58):
give you a straightforward answer on that, because I think
biblically we have examples of both. And then also, the
amazing thing in Daniel six is it is filled with
imageries of Christ. Right, It's filled with an innocent man
being condemned, thrown to the lions, delivered by his God,
the wicked being destroyed, so on like so on, right, Like,
(53:22):
there's so much imagery in Daniel six that that it's
a really beautiful passage, not just a kid's story of
Oh Daniel and this lion. Look how cute these lions are.
They were he was in their petnam and playing games
with them. Like obviously that's not the point Daniel should
have He should have perished, right, being thrown in there,
but God delivered him. And it is a story of
(53:50):
the sovereignty of God above all things, a sovereignty of
God over kings, over wicked men who conspire against the righteous.
So that's it. So we can be looked forward to
looking forward to Daniel chapter seven. So this is going
to be a huge one, So a little teaser here.
In about a week and a half or so, I
(54:12):
am going to be interviewing Jay Rodgers. So he has
written a few commentaries on the Book of Daniel, so
if you have not read those, go get them. They
are amazing. He also has someone audible if you're a
person who likes to listen to those. So I'm going
to interview him over Daniel chapter seven. I'm also going
to probably have my own Daniel chapter seven videos, so
(54:34):
that's what the future holds. Please be patient with me
because Daniel chapter seven is littered with hard prophecy, so
I want to take my time on it. I want
to try to exposit it the best and most careful
way possible and just give you guys the best video
I can. Other things I would like to say is
(54:57):
go and get yourself a formerly Patriarch cigar. They're still
under that title, soon to be Steadfast Cigars, so go
ahead and go get you on. They are an amazing company.
Go check them out. Love you guys, So that's it.
Hope to see you guys soon.
Speaker 2 (55:14):
God bless you need you at my ride and the
lord to my lord, command for all theaity. Then I
will man looking linkefood, go for your day
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