Flight DAN01 - Part B

What is interesting to me is that you can answer and Daniel saw the same truths from two different viewpoints. Nebuchadnezzar sought from the human viewpoint Daniel saw from God's view is this that will God saw them divine sent. What are Daniel bit and that is just a bunch of ravenous drawing each other. No beauty at all in the visions and prophecies of Daniel can seem confusing and even a little weird, but as we study them today on connect with Skip Heitzig will see how they give you deeper confidence in God's work with people we want to let you know about a resource that shows you how you can live in the peace of Jesus and free from your worries. Questions to be ambushed by surprise, struggles.

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$35 or more today to help connect more people to the Prince of peace connectwithskip.com/offered to give online securely or call 819 to 1888 tickets into today's message per se, but Daniel purposed in his heart would not defile himself. Delicacies, nor with the wine which rank therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not file himself a three year training course for these captives to pamper them to indulge them to get them thinking man, life is a lot better here in Babylon than it ever was in Jerusalem and then to put the dots together saying what our God did not protect us from the Babylonians and life was bad in Jerusalem. My goodness, it pays to live in the worldly system. This is great. Who would want to go back to Jerusalem.

He could have easily said when Babylon was the Babylonians.

Even if I do return to Judah what happens in Babylon stays in babble. He could have had all sorts of excuses why not indulge who was watching who cares but Daniel wasn't looking for an excuse because Daniel was living with a purpose and when you live with the purpose you're not looking for an excuse, he purposed in his heart he made up internal commitment. You might say Daniel Concord interspace. We have celebrated 50 years after going to the moon.

It's is it's great. I saw the little special.

They did on Apollo 11.

It was moving how we got from this speck of dust in the Milky Way galaxy. That speck of dust.

Amazing.

We can conquer outer space pretty well. Our big problem is we don't do so well with her interspace when it comes to your own life. What's around you. The way to conquer your outer space is the first conquer your interspace to conquer what's inside to purpose something in your heart to live with conviction so that you don't fall in compromise. Chapter 2 is a good illustration of how God can use insomnia in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

Nebuchadnezzar had dreams spirit was so troubled.

The word means agitated or disturbed that his sleep left him the old boy has a case of insomnia. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king and the king said to them I had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream is a great old saying uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. It's great to be king with Tom Petty saying but with that comes a price tag.

All the worries about the kingdom. All the fear of the future. If I conquered this kingdom. I'm in charge who else out there could be stronger than me, waiting to conquer me so he's troubled he's agitated. He's tossing he's turning you and I dream you know that you dream every night and I do know I remember my dreams. Frequently these days.

Maybe it's because it says your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams, but the truth is we all dream and you start dreaming about 90 minutes after you fall asleep when you going to ram and every 90 minutes through the evening you go into another dream that's and when you do I need thereabouts. That's the average span. Each one gets a little longer as you go through the night.

That's why typically remember those right before you wake up the large cells in your brain stem fire spontaneous spontaneously and send the stimuli to the cortex of your brain. That's what causes you to have the memory of the dream you drained all of that happens for everyone. But in this case, God's behind it got us causing the cortical stimulation to occur with just the right images at just the right time and just the right intensity so Nebuchadnezzar calls his men to them and he makes a demand. I said that he had. He had a short hot temper and a short fuse pierces demand. I don't just want to know the interpretation of what I was dreaming I want to know the contents of what I was dreaming you tell me what I dreamed and you tell me what it means now they were writing safe king, tell us what you draft a will and will will tell you what it means what anybody can do that I can make anything up and that's what they were waiting for.

They had no real power.

Anybody can get fortune cookie predictions. It's going to rain tomorrow somewhere in the world or whatever.

Some generic kind of a prescription, but for him it was a good enough he demanded what the contents were as well as interpretation well they couldn't do it so he said great. Here's the deal, and around Yala kill you choppy up and destroy your homes and your families sorry so Daniel hears of it tells the keeper of the guy rounded up all the help tell the king to stop this. I'm to pray and will tell the king the dream and the interpretation he gets his buddies together that night was boys. We need to we need a prayer meeting our heads on the line. This whole event is a real pain in the neck.

Our heads could come off tomorrow so let's try and see if God gives us interpretation. He did. Daniel goes into the king and says king. There is a God in heaven who knows what you dream and in verse 32 of chapter 2, he reveals the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had that night. A huge statue an image that represented for world governing empires who would also not only ruled the world at their time, but have control over the Jewish people.

Verse 32.

He mentions ahead of fine gold that represents Nebuchadnezzar get absolute power. He was the absolute monarchy shared his power with no one. He was the head of gold followed by the chest and arms of silver, which is the Medo Persian Empire. This is all explained by Daniel to the kingdom of time to go through the whole thing gets one empire with two arms Medo Persia the needs and the persons that coalesce to form one followed by the belly and thighs of bronze, which is the Greek empire in the Greek soldiers who aren't even really around yet of any substance would be called the bronze coated Greeks or the brass coated Greeks, then legs of iron. This is the Roman Empire is the longest part of the statue. Rome had the longest rule of any of those world governing empires a thousand years, but like legs. The divide from the trunk. The empire was divided East and West then finally feet partly of iron and partly of clay. Daniel will explain in the interpretation of the dream he just fell in Nebuchadnezzar what he saw will explain down in verse 44 of chapter 2 that those 10 toes are 10 future kings.

Now that verse. Of those 10 coming kings goes along with chapter 7 of Daniel were Daniel sees a beast with 10 horns also shows up in the book of Revelation chapter 17 where we are told the 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings, so Daniel and Revelation interface and agree on that point now because of these passages in Daniel and Revelation for 2000 years scholars have been looking for what they call a revived Roman Empire of sorts.

Keep that in mind as we go on verse 34 you watched continues. You watched Knab while a stone was cut without hands, which struck the image on the feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Nebuchadnezzar was able to dream the future. He is looking into the future all the way through the times of the Gentiles ever heard that term. The phrase times of the Gentiles. It's a it's a phrase used by Jesus. It is a phrase used by scholars to speak about world dominion by non-Jewish leaders.

Gentile leaders, he gets a peek into the times of the Gentiles babbling Medo Persia, Greece, Rome all the way to the second coming of Christ which the stone represents then verse 35. The iron clay bronze, silver, gold were crushed together, came like chaff from the summer threshing floor and the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image came a great mountain and filled the whole earth. By the time we get to chapter 7 Daniel has his own vision. It's the same exact vision, but not not the same vision the same exact meeting with the different vision he doesn't see a statue and for successive kingdoms. He sees wild crazy ravenous beasts but they are then identified afterwards as the kingdoms of babbling Medo Persia, Greece, and then a final empire which we find out is Rome. This is essentially chapter 2 in chapter 7, Daniel a picture of man's rule on the earth and successive empires that will come in contrast to the day of the Lord. I hope you are familiar with that phrase the day of the Lord the day of the Lord is represented by the stone strikes the image decimated grows into a mountain that fills the air hears what is to be interesting. What did Nebuchadnezzar see in his vision and image a statue. An idol battle and was the land of idols. To me is significant that God was speaking to Nebuchadnezzar in the language Nebuchadnezzar could understand. He was used to statues man. He was used to idols.

He was used images. He sees that it was God's this is he sees this poly metallic image in his vision in his dream. I just need to make this note because not to be able to go through chapter 7 in depth again this the Bible from 30,008. But what Nebuchadnezzar sees a statue and what Daniel sees four beasts same truth different visions is vindicated by history. Indeed, after Babel and did calm the Medo Persian Empire. They overcame the Babylonians and rained. After that, the Grecian Empire ruled the world under Alexander the great. After that the world was conquered by Rome and we are waiting a coalition coalition of some group of 10 nations. In the end times. What is interesting to me is that Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel saw the same truth from two different viewpoint, Nebuchadnezzar sought from a human viewpoint. Daniel sought from God's viewpoint, Nebuchadnezzar was impressed with the statute, gold, silver, bronze, iron, strong, God saw them from a divine standpoint or Daniel did and that is just a bunch of ravenous beasts destroying each other, killing each other. No beauty at all and it also. Gold is first silver, a second bronze and then iron the metals decrease in value is the vision continue as time goes on, the metals grow stronger but less valuable. Again, the opposite of what the truth is we we think you know as time progresses we get more gold in a we kinda start out as primitive man iron and clay, and then another generation comes we get stronger than another generation. Finally, were now in the Golden age of technology.

We have a backwards now you're dreaming if you think that the truth is where deadly dating and the real truth is Daniel chapter 7 people are destroying each other well that's chapter 2. 16 years pass after chapter 2 we get to chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar had a very moving time. You acknowledge God for 16 years go by. He is more powerful. He is more prideful. Chapter 3 verse one Nebuchadnezzar, the king made an image of what not gold, silver, bronze and iron budgets, gold whose height was 60 cubits. That's 90 feet its width was six cubits, that's 9 feet.

He set it up in the plane of Dürer in the province of Babel in verse five he said at the time that you hear the sound of the horn flew hardwired and sultry in symphony with all kinds of music you shall fall down and worship the image of gold that can Nebuchadnezzar set up and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. That was the deal for all the Babylonians in that town.

The Babylonian Philharmonic Orchestra was going to play there tuned in as soon as the music symbols go everybody hits the ground and worshiped is either bow or burn. That's the command boy when I read chapter 3, I think you know Nebuchadnezzar was a prideful man because essentially what he saying is next to the silver and bronze and iron.

I'm in a make a statue of all gold as if to say, I'm going to have an eternal long-lasting kingdom, nobody's taken over.

I think chapter 3 is a 16-year-old response to the vision he gets in chapter 2. This is his response of defiance, so to speak well Shadrach me shack and Abednego you know the story from Sunday school. They didn't bow so they were thrown into the furnace to burn. They didn't burn because he sees 1/4 man he says is one like the son of God, it looks like some translations say a son of the gods in the midst of the fiery furnace.

With them protecting them.

I actually believe it was the son of God. I believe it was a theophany of Christophe and he was Christ in a pre-incarnate form some kind of a form appearing there to protect them.

And so they get delivered from that verse 30 to get promoted because of chapter 4 is another interesting dream vision that Nebuchadnezzar gets there's an old saying, let me cut a preview chapter 4 it says you can put a pig in a parlor and it will not change the pay but it will certainly change the parlor right that make sense and it you can dress up a pig put a bowtie in the paper them in a parlor perfume you change the pick still take an act like a pig but you will change that parlor. If you turn them loose in the now in chapter 4. The patent changes you could put Nebuchadnezzar anywhere he doesn't change until now, something radically changes and he writes about it fact. Chapter 4 is mostly written by King Nebuchadnezzar, not Daniel is the only chapter in the Bible, written by a Gentile king, it's his personal testimony. He writes it and it is posted everywhere in the kingdom.

Now this is toward the end of King Nebuchadnezzar's reign. This is this is several years as I said after chapter 3, probably 25 years after chapter 3. So think of a Daniel to than Daniel 316 years after to now 25 years after chapter 3 Daniel is probably in his 50s and Nebuchadnezzar has a dream he has a dream of a tree that grows up fills the earth. You can see it from afar, and all the kingdoms of the world is think of Jack and the beanstalk is so tall it goes from Earth all the way to heaven. And then there's this angelic watcher who, after the tree grows up calls down as is chop down that tree in the tree gets chopped down to a stop in Nebuchadnezzar's trouble and Daniel comes in and Nebuchadnezzar goes I wasn't meaning as well. I got good news and bad news. The good news. I can tell you what the dream means. The bad news is you're the tree was going to get shop now in fact, we might as well call you stumpy right and say that but he said you are that trigger the value king would enter verse 29 of chapter 4 at the end of the 12 months he was walking about the royal palaces of Babylon and the king spoke, saying, is not this the great Babel and that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my Majesty is humanly speaking, he had every reason to boast, as I mentioned, it was a magnificent city. Babylon was called or this Nebuchadnezzar's palace was called the marvel of mankind.

He had hanging gardens to look like a mountain peak because his wife hated Babel and it was flat desert and so he built a mountain in the city that was watered was one of the wonders of the world and that was where he lived. There's a there's a proverb.

Proverbs 6 it says there are six things God hates Scripture, seven are an abomination to God gives you a list of everything he hates you do well to memorize that list. You don't want to ever do any of those things on that list coming of God hates that you want you want to do right. One of the things God hates as a proud look. This man was filled with pride and so the tree gets chopped down verse 31. While the word was still in the king's mouth.

I'm awesome with Babel and a voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you. He was going. I did this I did that and God is saying I'm speaking to you when I'm taken this new Skip with the message from his shoe Bible from 30,000 feet to Skip with a list to share how you can keep these messages coming your way to connect you and others to God's work.

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