 I'm going to read verses one and two and I'm going to give you an introduction that's going to take a few minutes so you're going to want to kind of relax because I'm going to have to develop some of the context of the book of Daniel so you'll have some of the historical references as to what's going on as this book opens up. And so I took some time to do a lot of cross references to develop my introduction and then what we'll do is we'll go into our study. We will be looking at the first chapter and so it's going to be a little bit of a challenge for me to do that simply because I'm giving you a lot of introduction and so let's read verses one and two and give you that introduction and then we'll move into our study. The book of Daniel chapter one beginning at verse one reading verses one and two. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it and the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God which he carried into the land of Shiner to the house of his God and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. So we begin our study here in the book of Daniel by first looking at a prophecy by another prophet a prophet by the name of Jeremiah. You see after King Solomon died Israel was divided into two. You had the northern tribes called Israel and you had the southern tribes called Judah and so it had been divided upon his death and so the prophet Jeremiah had prophesied concerning a judgment and a 70 year captivity. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied in the year 627 to 580 BC and in Jeremiah 25 verses 10 and 11 God said I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness the voice of the bridegroom the voice of the bride the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp and this whole land shall be desolation and an astonishment and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years and so God brought judgment and the reason he did so is because Israel had disregarded his law God had warned Israel that to ignore his law was to result in judgment in second chronicles chapter 7 verses 19 and 25 he had said if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you and go and serve other gods and worship them then I will uproot them from my land which I have given them and this house which I have sanctified for my name I will cast out of my sight and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples and as for this house which is exalted everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house and so in spite of God's warnings as his come and they ignored him they did what they desired they practiced idolatry and idolatry was that which earmarked the false religions of the pagans and so in Jeremiah once again in chapter 2 verse 11 a question was asked has the nation ever changed its God yet they are not gods at all but my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols and so the nation of Israel moved into idolatry and not only did they become idolaters but they disregarded his command to observe what is called the sabbatical year in the viticus 25 verses 3 and 4 it says for six years so your fields for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops but in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath rest a sabbath to the Lord do not so your fields or prune your vineyards well by the time of Daniel Israel had neglected this sabbatical year for 490 years and that was what resulted in the judgment of 70 years and it was 70 years of captivity in the ancient nation of Babylon Jeremiah 29 verses 10 through 14 says for thus says the Lord after 70 years are completed at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word toward you and cause you to return to this place for I know the thoughts that I think towards you says the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart I will be found by you says the Lord I will bring you back from your captivity I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I've driven you says the Lord and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captives so because of their idolatry and rejection of sabbatical law the seven they were to rest the land every six years for a full year it was called the Sabbath rest for the land they hadn't done that for 490 years by the time of Daniel what happens is God says I'm going to give you 70 years so the land will have its rest and so that's why they had 70 years of captivity and so the book of Daniel covers the 70 a period of Babylonian captivity starting in 605 and and going to 538 or 536 BC so it begins with the reign of Nebuchadnezzar but we're going to see that it concludes with another king by the name of Darius now a little more information history records that Babylon became a world power by overthrowing a Syria in 612 BC after overthrowing Nineveh Babylon became master of the Middle East defeating the Egyptian armies in 605 BC and invaded Israel and sacked Jerusalem now Babylon actually invaded Israel on three separate occasions the first was 605 but Babylon did it again in 597 as well as 586 BC so there were a series of of invasions and all and Daniel was taken captive and deported to Babylon in the first invasion here's something for you we're going to see this in detail in just a few moments that when Daniel was taken captive it is estimated that Daniel was anywhere from 14 to 16 years of age so let that sink in your head because we're going to see something in a moment and I want to show it to you as we look at this in just a moment Daniel was part of what is called the nobility of Israel and he and his friends that will be introduced to in chapter one we're part of what was the first group taken and so in Babylon we'll see that he held a high government position but first and foremost we're going to see in the book of Daniel that Daniel was a prophet and so as such he spoke for God and Daniel also was the one who wrote the book of Daniel now there are questions of who wrote Daniel but various times he's identified as the author you'll see that in chapter 7 8 9 10 and chapter 12 so the book of Daniel was written by Daniel and as a book it's divided into two parts chapters one through six are what are called the historical parts in chapter 7 through 12 we'll see our prophetic and then one more thing chapter 1 is written in Hebrew but from chapter 2 verse 4 into chapter 7 verse 28 it's written in the language called Aramaic Aramaic was the common language of Daniel's day it was the commercial language the way English is the commercial language in the world today many people spoke Aramaic yep as you go through it though you're gonna you know I'll I may note this but there are Greek words that are found chapter 3 has a Greek word describing musical instruments and there are some words that are Persian but the words are used because what is written is really relating to Gentiles it returns to Hebrew in chapter 8 because it speaks of Israel in relation to Gentiles and so in verses 1 and 2 it begins in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim the king of the king of Judah Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem be seated and the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God which he carried into the land of Shiner to the house of his God he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God now I pointed out that Israel was judged because she ignored God's laws and because she was idolatrous but there's another reason why God allowed this pagan king to overthrow Jerusalem I I felt that it would be important and necessary to add this you see in the days of another king by the name of Hezekiah Babylon had sent ambassadors to see him in Jerusalem and at that time Babylon was not a world power as of yet so God used this as an opportunity to reveal what was in the heart of this king Hezekiah and so in second Chronicles chapter 32 verse 31 it says regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land God withdrew from him in order to test him that he might know all that was in his heart Hezekiah was moved with pride and what he did is he showed all his treasures to these Babylonians and it says in second Kings 2013 Hezekiah was attentive to them showed them all the house of his treasures the silver and gold the spices precious ointment all his armory all that was found among his treasures there was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them and because of this Isaiah was sent to Hezekiah the prophet Isaiah was sent to Hezekiah he asked him what have they seen and Hezekiah replied he showed them everything in second Kings 2016 through 18 Isaiah said to Hezekiah hear the word of the Lord behold the days are coming when all that is in your house and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon nothing shall be left says the Lord they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you whom you will be get and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon so that prophecy was given Hezekiah's only response to that was it's a good thing it's not going to happen in my days it's a sweet man and so the judgment began to take place in 605 so again along with idolatry and a failure to observe sabbatical years in this pride it all resulted in judgment Jeremiah 34 21 and 22 I will give Zedekiah king a Judah and his princes into the hand of their enemies into the hand of those who seek their life and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army which has gone back from you behold I will command says the Lord and cause them to return to the city they will fight against it and take it burn it with fire and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabited God said they're going to remain in Babylon for 70 years but after 70 years he said I will punish your captors Jeremiah 25 12 you will come to pass when 70 years are completed that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation the land of the Chaldeans further iniquity says the Lord and I will make it a perpetual desolation well Babylon which is modern Iraq descended upon Israel and fulfilled that prophecy again second chronicles 36 18 through 21 all the articles from the house of God great and small treasures of the house of the Lord treasure the king and his leaders all these he took to Babylon then they burned the house of God broke down the wall of Jerusalem burned all its palaces with fire destroyed all its precious possessions and those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land enjoyed her Sabbaths as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years and so there's your introduction let's move into our study verse 3 the king instructed Ashfinaz I don't know why he's called Ashfinaz if he was called Joe or Bill that would have been easier to pronounce but the king instructed Ashfinaz the master of his eunuchs to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles young men in whom there was no blemish but good-looking gifted in all wisdom possessing knowledge quick to understand who had ability to serve in the king's palace and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans Ashfinaz is what is called the master of the king's eunuchs now when you see the word eunuch in scripture very often it speaks of a male who has been castrated but there are other times that the word eunuch is speaking of a court officer and so we don't know for sure whether or not these people were actually castrated or simply that's just a title that they used but the children of Israel that are being spoken of were of the nobility they were part of what is called the royal families so when it says in verse 3 some of the children of Israel it also says some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles and so the ones that are taken in the very first captivity are the nobility and so these people were part of the royal families that the reason they're referred to as children of Israel is simply to reveal that they're Jewish now why would the king command that the young men be brought to Babylon well these young men were hostages and they could be used by the king for any purposes he desired you see as long as they were in his court they would serve as reminders to the king he and others would see them as emblems of his power because he's the one who took him captive when they're looking at these people these nobility these good looking and all these people here they were obviously incredible young men these were men who were probably around and we'll be seeing that with the the ones we'll be looking at in detail in a moment but as I mentioned these were the younger people and they would have been 15 to 20 years of age now part of the reason they would take the younger ones is because they would be able to give the longest service and and this is where we're going to begin looking at some things that are very practical they would have been the ones easiest to influence the younger people the 14 15 16 18 19 then as it's true now the younger people would have been easier for a king and we'll see this in a moment to bring under his under his rule they would have been easier to be influenced and so look at as he's drawn these people look at look at the qualifications I want you to see this because he speaks of them as young men but he goes on to say there's no blemish they're good looking they're gifted in wisdom possessing knowledge quick to understand they have the ability to serve in the king's palace whom they might teach the language and literature of the caldians and so they had no blemish that means that they were very handsome there was no exterior physical blemish it even gives a connotation that they were morally upright so they had character they were good looking they were the kind of of young men that you would look at and you would say what a handsome young man they were very attractive to look at it says they were gifted in all wisdom that speaks of them being superior in understanding they were perceptive they were skilled it says they possessed knowledge that means that they had already been trained they had educational experience when they were taking captive when it says they were quick to understand that means that they're they're able to be taught easily they're bright they're sharp-minded they're quick learners that these are the qualities any employer looks for you know because this is what you want to have working for you but even so you want these people even more so when they're serving a king and so the qualities are being revealed to us and he taught them notice this he taught them the language and the literature of the caldians now a lot of this stuff is basic things that i'm just going to give to you at the beginning and i don't have to repeat later on if you remain for the rest of the studies he taught them the language and the literature of the caldians now you see the word caldian you also see the land of shinar you see the word babelon and so in many ways the land of shinar is the land of babelon caldian can be also used to refer to a babelonian and so what you have here is you have have various ways of of of describing and telling us who these people are but you see the word caldian can speak of babelon but it also speaks of the religious sect called the magi and that's going to be something you'll see in in uh you know in a short time so that they were the people who were were learning um the wisdom of the magi where have you heard the term magi from the magi were the individuals that we see in the gospel of luke who are coming to see the new boring king the magi were the astrologers of babelon of caldia they were the religious elite they were the people who represented the religion to the people and what is taking place here is the king is attempted to train their minds to think as babelonians what he was doing is taking the young good-looking educated discerning he's taken those who would have been gifted leaders and he's brainwashing them that's what he's doing he's going to bring them into the thinking of the caldians so what he does is he uses language and religion to reprogram them he's using the general education as well as the specific training of the caldians because he wants to make them into babelonians i was thinking about that when you think of it this way and obviously this this was written 600 years before christ and all but it still has some transferable kinds of things that we in the 21st century can understand very practically we need to understand a few things about this to see how it continues to work even to this day because what he was doing is using general education as well as specific training to brainwash them you see the basic elements of education would not necessarily have been violating their faith the general elements of education don't necessarily wipe away religious faith very few people have ever claimed to become an agnostic or an atheist because they learned to read it uh not so much reading right they learned to uh to do mathematics you know when i when i saw that two plus two equals four i stopped believing in god no people don't do that you know that's really not what takes place so general education doesn't necessarily wipe away religious faith what would be more damaging was the mixing of their religion and education the environment and cultural indoctrination would have been more challenging you see the atmosphere of caldian culture unless resisted would have molded them into pagans just you're 14 you're 15 you'll see this in more detail in a moment you've been brought under this particular rule they're giving to you language you're learning a different language and they're also influencing you with their religion you're 14 15 16 years old and the atmosphere of the culture and this is a magnificent empire is overwhelming so what happens in verse verse five it says the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank and three years of training for them so that they so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king he gave them a free ride with full tuition is what he did what he did is he was doing everything he could to rebuild them into Babylonians he wanted to destroy their national identity he wanted to make them forget the Jewish culture and religion he wanted to teach them the language and the literature of the caldians in order that he might convert them remember these are young boys they're over 900 miles away from home they're alone possibly orphaned they're from a once proud nation that has been humbled and what he's doing is he's giving to them a new culture he's giving them different food he's giving them a different manner of dress he's introducing them to new new customs and he's giving to them an introduction to his religion not only that he also gives him a new language now here's something to remember language has been called the transmitter of ethical moral and religious values that's what language does language isn't like the color of our eyes it's not our like our complexion it's not like our hair color we don't inherit language from our parents we acquire it we acquire it and we acquire it in the culture that we're part of and as we do so when we're learning the language and this is really a subtle thing when we're learning language we're also learning culture and when that happens we begin to develop what we consider to be reality our reality is introduced to us not simply by the things around us but by the words that are used to describe it and when you take somebody and you give them a new language you're also introducing to them a new way of thinking and a new identity and you through language very often you can and you're going to see this in just a moment you can actually change somebody by the way you speak the words you use you can very subtly begin to change somebody and to becoming somebody different that is happening even now it is an old thing it is an ancient way to brainwash a culture it happens all the time all you have to do is keep using a certain word to describe a certain behavior and even if 50 years earlier the word that you're using meant something else you can give that word a new meaning and when you give it a new meaning you're going to give to that person a new reality and that's one of the reasons why you don't see people taking people in my age and saying we have to take you and train you up in school no i've already spent my time in school so they don't care about old people like me those who want to reprogram care about the youth they want to get the child they want to get the kid when he's two or three or four or five because at that point that child is learning reality and so if i can program them with certain ideas that i tell them is true no matter what their parents say they're going to come and argue with their parents after two or three years of the brainwashing we see that taking place in our educational system god bless and thank god for the christian teachers who don't do that but there are many people who do and that's why some of you may if you have a kid in seventh or eighth grade you may be seeing that you may have a five-year-old who comes and says you know Thanksgiving is a great thing daddy oh really why well because the pilgrims came and and they had Thanksgiving with uh with the Indians and Native Americans and and they they ate food together and they shared things together and but you've got a 10-year-old sitting there saying oh really because they've been taught something about American history so they may say well what is this trail of tears i've heard about and what they do is they come instead of the place of where you as a kid might have learned the good things that had taken place later on they're being introduced to the bad things and sometimes the bad things will overrule their innocent belief in what was at one time regarded as a good thing that's happening right now i could go into this that's not my intent but i want to i do because it is it don't don't prompt me don't encourage don't encourage me please don't do that because we see that taking place right now we see that taking place right now when you have somebody who is saying okay i'll say a little bit it's on my mind but this is i'm just trying to make a point what they were doing with these these young people is still being done today when you when you stop wanting to use the word mother and just start talking about someone who birthed a child and it's no longer you're using the word mother form but just the birth birthing agent if you will you're changing your culture you're changing it from what used to be a blessing this is a mother and not only that i saw something today perhaps some of you did were an individual couple apparently married the woman had a became transgender she became she became the man and the man became the woman and the one who's referring to herself now as the man gave birth to their baby and then you see the man who calls himself the mother trying to nurse the baby on his male breast in any way um and then he says i have to supplement with a formula because i'm not producing milk and and i'm not mocking them i'm really not it can appear that i am i'm trying to find words to say that are charitable but at the same time that's what we're dealing with right now because you don't supplement because supplement simply means you add to something that already was there he doesn't have breast milk because he's a man and we used to say there's a greek word duh you know but listen my saying this is hate speech now yeah it's hate speech i'm not compassionate and it's depending on the way you're responding to what i'm saying that helps you to gauge if you've been brainwashed that helps you to oh i'm offended really you're a good Babylonian because that's how they did it this isn't new this isn't new how do i take a generation don't worry about the older ones we don't need them go after the young ones go after the babies go after the children give them reading material in preschool have stories read by uh drag queens and normalize this so that they see this is just what life is and then people aren't shocked upset when in fact our children's minds lives and faith being undermined or destroyed so by the time they go into college and there's a lot of studies that reveal that the overwhelming majority of professors in public universities are are um anti-religion extremely liberal and uh it would be really it's really not even an argument that that i could lose on that because that's what's taking place and some of you who have sent your children to college and they come back with these odd ideas you said where'd you get that from where did you well my professor was saying and dad you're just stupid because now the be honest with you when i went to college as a young man i went to college came home are you with my father because obviously dad was an eighth grader in his education what do you know i'm going to college now i know things you don't know it's it's the pride of youth it's the inexperience in life it's all of those things that are fostered and you can be turned in a way you didn't even know you were being turned and that was being done 600 years before christ and it's still being done and that's what's taking place here you see once again language by teaching them the literature the language those things that's how you change what they consider as reality and then he's immersing them in the religious beliefs of Babylon so what he's trying to do through his surrogates is he's trying to cause him to forget the god of israel he wants them to become Babylonians notice in verse five how it speaks of their delicacies the vintage wine their educational scholarships they got the three year full ride they're young they're impressionable they're at his mercy this is the greatest king on the face of the earth they're in a city of incredible power and beauty there were the hanging gardens of Babylon the hanging gardens of Babylon are one of the seven wonders of what is called the ancient world there were numerous temples there were parks there were armaments there are so much that they're seeing Babylon itself was about 14 miles square it had great outer walls that were 87 feet thick it had 350 foot high uh walls with a hundred great bronze gates in the walls it had an inner and outer wall a water moat between the walls that made it secure you could have four chariots running abreast or you could have a parade on its top and they had towers reaching another 100 feet that were on top of that wall so imagine what a teenage boy was thinking when he saw all of that this is amazing look at the size of this wall look how wide it is look how high it is look at those towers look at the gardens look at this powerful majestic king look at the wines and the delicacies and and this is like this is like I can't even imagine it it would be like living with the with the multi-billionaire who has so much you walk into the garage and he's got 10 Ferraris and Lamborghinis and you name it and you say boy you've got 10 cars he goes yeah in this garage how many other garages do you have well I've got 14 garages you're kidding me yeah well why don't you come on over I've got some some wine I got some good food let's talk about it and you're 14 you're 15 what do you think's going on to be invited to be part of something that like that's enormous in in its temptation that's what he's being they're being invited to now verse six from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel Hananiah Michelle and Azariah to them the the chief of the Unix gave names he gave Daniel the name Balthashezar to Hananiah Shadrach to Michelle Meshach to Azariah Abednego so Daniel what does Daniel mean what does the name translate to the one the name Daniel uh it speaks about God is my judge that's what the name Daniel speaks of you see all of the names that he gave to them that they originally had were names that had meanings and so what he was doing is it was changing their names to uh to different kinds of names when he uh when he named uh Hananiah a new name the new name he gave him was Shadrach it speaks of being the under the command of the moon god Akku the name Michelle was changed to Michelle who is what Akku is the moon god and then Azariah was changed to Abednego which means the servant of Nebo he changed the names that had given praise and honor to the god of Israel and he gave them Babylonian names and uh the reason he did that is so that these new names would would give credit to the Babylonian gods who gave them victory over Israel but again they were converting there he was trying to convert them and he gave them Babylonian names obviously your name is your identity to take away your name is to strip you of your self identity think about that for a moment to to lose your name is for a moment to lose who you are does that make sense it's true and let me illustrate it very quickly I wasn't going to but I'm going to it'll just take a moment because I understand what that means to have a name and then it to be taken from you you lose your identity I was in uh in Mexico many years ago I was in a village actually a city one time was a village Geretaro it's in the north some of you are familiar with that city it's a beautiful city it's where my grandparents came from on the Rosales site so my grandmother and my grandfather were from this village the city called Geretaro so I had an opportunity to go and to speak at a pastor's conference and so it was very moving to me because my grandfather died when my mother was pregnant with me and I knew my grandmother but I never got to know my grandfather and so for me to be in the city that my grandfather and grandmother came from for me was very special it really was so even when I shared with the people I said I'm in the city and that way my grandfather was from I got emotional for a moment I didn't expect it it kind of came upon me I said I'm in my my grandfather's city I said my grandfather was a was an orphan so was my grandmother and so I kept well afterwards there's a pastor who's also a historian he walks up to me and he says uh David and I said yeah he goes did you say your grandfather was an orphan I said yes my grandfather was an orphan he said that means your last name isn't Rosales and I looked at him I was stunned I said what he says your name's not Rosales and what makes you say that he says because during that day with your grandfather as an orphan he would have been adopted by the village priest the village priest gave the orphans his name so your last name is not your grandfather's last name and I I actually reeled I mean all these years that's what so I came home and I went to my father I said dad I said your name's not Rosales and my dad says I don't care I'm still alive aren't I that was my dad I'm I'm all crushed he said I don't care I'm alive that was my dad but I said don't you don't understand I said I don't know who I am I don't know who I am so we have an aunt her name is Mary my aunt Mary is the family historian and my aunt says no what happened is your grandfather's father had an affair with a woman in town and your great grandfather was a doctor and what he did is he gave the child up the woman gave the child up for adoption my grandfather but his father adopted his own son so she said no that's your last name that is your last name no why did I tell you that I don't I just felt like it because your name is your identity and to remove your name is to cause you to not know who you are so to take names that had biblical meanings that actually were praises to God God is my judge for example Daniel and to change it to Babylonian was to try and steal from them their faith and identity and so I better hurry huh the sons of Judah are mentioned but only four are highlighted and that may be because the other sons of Judah gave into the temptation I'll say this quickly Ezra records how the Persian king Cyrus permitted those who wanted to return to go home to Israel the 70-year captivity was concluded and these people were released so at that time in 538 BC only around 50,000 returned to Israel that's found in Ezra chapter 2 the rest of the captives had become comfortable now why didn't these people Daniel Hananiah, Michelle and Azariah why didn't they succumb to the temptation to compromise the first clue is found in their names the name Daniel is God is my judge the name Hananiah means Jehovah is gracious the name Michelle is is uh is who is he that is God Azariah is Jehovah has helped they were trained by godly parents they laid a strong foundation in their lives even to the selection of their names you see even in the time of Ezra going unbelief their parents trained them in the ways of God Judah had sunken idolatry and disobedience but the parents had not and so they raised their children in the knowledge and nurture of God Daniel was spiritually perceptive which we already saw in verse four but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the things that the king was offering him because Daniel was aware that the meat was not kosher and neither was the wine and these were foods that had been offered to idols so when he's offering them these foods in this drink Daniel verse eight purposed that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel I fear my lord the king who has appointed your food and drink for why should he see your face is looking worse than the young men who are your age you would endanger my head before the king and so Daniel saw this as a as a test of his faithfulness to God because he knew the Babylonian food had been offered to idols they would be first offered to the devils and then they would consume it and he said I will not compromise so he acted on what he discerned he was aware of the way satan tempts he refuses the food and he refuses the wine because he knew that satan would use those kinds of traps to get him to compromise and fall now it says in verse nine that God brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs well he was a pleasant young man he was liked by the official and he was principled he wasn't antagonistic he wasn't confrontational he was obviously compassionate because when it says in verse 10 the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel I fear my lord the king who has appointed your food and drink why should he see your face is looking worse than the young men who are your age then you would endanger my head before the king Daniel verse 11 said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had said over Daniel Hannah and I and Michelle and Azariah please let your servants for 10 days test your servants for 10 days and let them give us vegetables to eat water to drink then let our appearance be examined before you and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delicacies and as you see fit so deal with your servants listen I want to give to you a compromise Daniel did not get upset Daniel didn't push up or argue with him or get because a lot of people do that today when an official tells them do this or don't do that the first thing they do is they get angry Daniel didn't do that why because they had compassion because he knew that if he actually didn't look good because again remember the they were young men without blemish good looking if they began to look like they were becoming thin and and not cared for the the eunuch would lose his head he knew that the man could die and that's why he showed compassion to him and didn't push him he said let me just test it let us just eat vegetables and so that's what he does so Daniel in verse 11 through 13 Daniel speaks to the one who's been given immediate charge of caring for him he spoke to the chief now he speaks to the lower official he asks for a 10 day test which is a sufficient time to judge without real danger to anyone they live on vegetables and they drink water now he didn't do this alone i want to point that out he wasn't alone he had a group of believers supporting him in the book of Hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 and 25 says let us consider one another in order to stir up loving good works not forsaken the assembly and of ourselves together as the manner of somebody's ording one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching he wasn't alone ranger he wasn't out there doing his own thing trying to please god without without having fellowship with others of the same heart and mind this is somebody who had relationships and these other young men that uh Hannah and i michelle and asra they are people that he is here's with they're encouraging one another holding one another up and so together they make a determination that they're going to do something that pleases god and not compromised by eating of the food that has been offered to idols and so in verse 14 he consented with them in this matter tested them 10 days and at the end of 10 days their features appeared better and fatter and flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies in the wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables so they looked good they looked fine they looked healthy and so that's how it happened they they did what was right before the lord and they were able to have their their their request without and they were helped to not compromise and so in verse 17 as for these four young men god gave them knowledge and skill and all the literature and wisdom and daniel had understanding and all visions and dreams they didn't simply memorize and repeat what they were taught by god's grace god gave them discernment into what they were actually learning and they weren't seduced by the things that were said see the scripture tells us in first Thessalonians 521 to prove all things and hold fast that which is good if somebody is in college and your professor is saying to you certain things there's nothing wrong with learning what he is saying but the right thing to do is once you've learned the things he's saying in other words you have an understanding of it and where he's going with it then that gives you opportunity to find answers so that you can share with him or her the professor why you differ with those things why you don't agree and no you don't have to be a thd or a phd or a master to do that you know when i was kid you know i was i went in the art i i'll say this quickly because i'm watching the time i really don't say anything quickly i'm just lying to you but the only books i really read for years were comic books from the time i was 15 i was drinking time i was 16 i was doing drugs when i turned 20 i started reading again started reading books but i was unsaved i got saved when i got saved i began to try and learn i started reading various books i actually read books i have the book in one hand this is the truth and on the table in front of me i had a dictionary so when i would find a word i didn't understand i would open up the dictionary and i started expanding my vocabulary that's how i began to learn in the army to do that and so after a couple of years my mind that had been messed up by smoking as much pot as i did and all god had begun to heal it my memory began to be restored to me and i went to college when i went to college i still didn't know anything of course i'm freshman i just in college i just barely graduated from high school but i made it my goal to try and learn and so i went for a year to biola but for the next two years i went to other colleges to secular college but i was at that time learning to teach the bible and so i'd be in a secular college i went to cal state fullerton i went to cal poly Pomona when i went to school i would sit in the class i would listen to the teacher and then later on i'd have a conversation on occasion with the professor i didn't make big issues in the class i didn't want to argue with him or her i wanted to tell him what god could do in their life i was a young believer a young man i remember one woman she had two earned a a masters and two earned doctorates she was my english professor what do i know i can barely write a sentence let alone discuss these kinds of things with this english professor i told a friend of mine i said you know i want to tell her about jesus but she's so she's a literature professor she's an english professor my friend says to me you know what david dollars to donate she's never read the bible i said she's got two phd's and a masters please dollars to donate she's never read the bible talk to her so i did the next day i still remember this i walked out of class with her and i said you know what you said today reminded me of something i read in the book of job she said the book of job i said yeah i've never read that book she said gotcha gotcha i have and so you share so so what you do is you you learn you hear what they're saying not to own it as your own but to find the holes in the argument so that you can present the light and the truth of the gospel that's what you do you learn to communicate it's it's there's nothing wrong with me knowing what somebody believes i ought to because that shows respect for that person you're not going to be very effective trying to win someone to faith in christ if you don't respect that person if that person thinks that you're just trying to win a spiritual scalp they're not going to talk to you but when you really do care about them and you want to know what they believe and then you're not just waiting to lunge on them and then you share because they will eventually ask you well what do you think and then you have a chance to share this is well you know i'm a christian and this is and i i did that long before i was pastor in a church i did that in in college because i went to seven universities not that i graduated but i went and i learned a whole lot of things by going to school i really did a whole lot of things and i learned to respect people even if i disagree with them which i think america needs to remember and relearn because we get mad and we don't even deal with the argument we're too mad and emotional about it we need to hear what they're saying well so these people they did their three years they got their education but daniel not only had all of that but he had understanding and visions and dreams he had a special grace that god gave to him that went beyond that and so daniel was given the ability to interpret dreams as we're going to see that later on he was given the ability to discern a true dream from god from simply a dream and so he's gifted by god's grace and then finally at the end of the days when the king said that they should be brought in the chief of the unix brought them in before nebuchadnezzar the king interviewed them and among them all none was found like daniel hannah naya michel and asirah therefore they served before the king and in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm after the personal interview he sees they're not only amazing they're superior they pass the interview they're placed in high positions of influence and daniel continued serving and what's interesting is it says this daniel continued serving until the first year of king cirrus is another way of saying that he served with longevity for many years even after babelan fell and we'll see this under king cirrus and so the last thought that i want to close with is when you have a solid rock foundation you will be secure in psalm 119 verse 99 this is a scripture the lord gave me a long time ago i have more understanding than all my teachers for your testimonies are my meditation so when you go to school or when you're having a conversation with somebody who who believes something maybe are well versed in it if you spend time in the word of god and you begin to listen to what they're saying and you seek the lord for answers for the things that are being said you will be surprised at how you'll have an answer for the questions that they ask i had a homosexual teacher at cal poly nice guy nice guy homosexual teacher who taught marriage and family that's what he taught marriage and family we were assigned the responsibility of writing a paper on the role of a husband so i gave a bible study i wrote out of Ephesians these are the things a husband does this is how it works these are the ways god has said to do it and gave him a bible study at the end of the uh i turned it in i got my paper back and he put a notation on the top i have never heard this before i'll never forget that i have never heard this before and so after class he and and so after class he and i took a walk and walked towards his car and i visited with him and i shared the gospel of jesus christ with him where do you get these things from from the bible from the book of Ephesians chapter five from first peter and these are the things that i've learned he was a professor he had an open mind he wanted to hear where i got this from and i shared with him just for opportunities don't be belligerent don't be pushy don't be argumentative be loving be understanding you know we believe that god has given us light but they're still in the darkness and you don't get mad at a blind person who can't see he's blind and spiritually why get upset with someone who is spiritually blind they can't see but they do see the way i treat them they do hear the way i speak to them so love them give them the truth pray for them and maybe god will open doors for you to be able to share why because you want to win a scalp but no because god loves them and god wants them to go to heaven and we love them too and we want them to go to heaven we don't want them to perish we want them to know jesus so it's not some ego thing at all it's love and that's what you exercise when you minister father we ask that you would work in us and lord i thank you for this book that we're going to travel through i asked lord that we might that we might learn things in the book to help us to live for you now and so father we're living in a time of compromise is very easy where believers are more than willing to drink of the king's wine and eat of the king's delicacies because that's the high life i i believe lord that you want to raise up a generation of daniels that you want the young men and young women to have a spirit that is so strong in love with you that they will not compromise so father i pray especially for those who are coming up for the younger ones lord that that they would have a spiritual spine willing to stand up be counted even if they look ridiculous or feel it when they share and so jesus i just asked for for those who are listening to this study right now and those will hear it later that some of the things that were said lord that were encouragements that those things would set a fire in their heart to love you and serve you and so before we close if there's anybody here who needs to get right with the lord and you know it right now i want to pray for you before i close and if you need to get right with jesus and you sense that and you know that and you need prayer would you raise your hand and let me pray for you right where you're at just raise your hand father you see these hands you know the reason why they're being raised to you lord in jesus name i ask that you would reach down and touch each person whose heart is opening to you right now lord that you would do a work in them strengthen them in areas lord that perhaps they need forgiveness that they'll receive from you as they confess and that your holy spirit would now just fill them may they have a hunger for you that they haven't had in a long time or perhaps ever ever have had and lord glorify yourself in them as their hearts are opening to you fill it with your presence we receive from you and lord we thank you and we bless you thank you you can put your hands down jesus i ask that you would keep moving in all of us to your glory in your name amen