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The Book of Daniel: Faith, Repentance, and God's Triumphant Kingdom
Daniel 3:8-30
At this time some astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews. They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, may the king live forever. Your majesty has issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace.
But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who pay no attention to you, your majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up. Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, so these men were brought before the king and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold that I have set up?
Now, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the god we serve is able to deliver us from it and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.
Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and his attitude towards them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace.
The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar leapt to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire? They replied, certainly your majesty.
He said, look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed and the fourth looks like a son of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the most high god, come out, come here. So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire and the Sartrets, prefects, governors and royal advisors crowded around them.
They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed. Their robes were not scorched and there was no smell of fire on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, praise be to the god of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who has sent his angel and rescued his servants. They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own god.
Therefore, I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the god of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
This is the word of the lord. Thank you. That was awesome. If it was me, I would have gone for the VeggieTales version and said Rack, Shack and Benny. Which kind of like the VeggieTales abbreviated child's version. That's what I would have done. That's what I would have done.
Can I say I'm grateful to be here with you at Deep Creek and share this time in the word of God with you. As we come to our time in the word, let's pray. Our heavenly lord, we ask you to open up our hearts, our minds, ready to hear and receive the implanted word that is mighty to save. May we rejoice in the tales of Daniel at the court of kings and his vision of the future of God's victory and God's people.
So through the encouragement given through the scriptures, we might have hope. And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Amen.
Introduction to the Book of Daniel
It's great to be with you as you begin your journey into the book of Daniel. And this is a very dense book. There's a lot of great things in this book. But when I think of this book, there's several stories that stand out, particularly chapter seven, but also chapter three.
And when I think of chapter three, I'm always reminded of the movie Dunkirk that came out a few years ago where the British expeditionary force was able to escape after being encircled by the Nazi military forces. And it's quite a very powerful movie about what was a real difficult time. The British army could have been completely destroyed at this point, which would have really set back the war effort at that time.
I've read the story of a telegram that was sent to a British officer in Dunkirk, and he was asked, if we're not able to evacuate you, do you have a plan? And the British officer sent a reply back with just three words, and those three words were, but if not. Somewhat enigmatic, isn't it? It's not kind of what you were expecting. Why would you say, but I mean, but if not, I mean, what does what does that mean?
Faith and Defiance in the Face of Idolatry
Well, it actually helps if you know our story from the book of Daniel. You can see the words there. This is from chapter three. Remember whether they explain the three friends explain what they're not going to worship the king. They say, if our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.
But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up. Those words, but if not, are a statement of defiance. We hope God is going to deliver us. But if he does not in his sovereign choice, we are still not going to capitulate to the idols around us.
And that applies just as much as it did to the three friends as it does to us in our own day with the idolatries that we face. But even beyond that story, there's so many so many things in the book of Daniel that I think you can appreciate and you can you can enjoy. You'll remember, you'll learn from, you'll be edified by, you'll be encouraged by.
You know, I mean, you got the famous scenes, you know, the three friends in the furnace, which we had wonderfully read to us the story of of Daniel in the lion's den, which I mean, who hasn't gone to Sunday school and made a covering and picture of Daniel and the lion's den or explain to your children at the zoo why you cannot just go walk into the lion's den like Daniel. That's a really bad idea.
We see a lot about Israel as well in exile, you know, caught between the in the midst of the Babylonian, the Persian empires. And this is probably the one time where we can explain to our kids the Boney M song by the rivers of Babylon, where we all sat down and there we wept and remembered Zion. It's also a story that's about the antithesis, the difference between faith and idols.
OK, and the idols are things that you worship, things that give your life meaning and you venerate them in such a way that they become miniature gods to you. Now, life's our world is surrounded by idols trying to make us worship them or to worship ourselves rather than God. There is a lot in here about the people of God versus despotic authority.
Those who command that God's people do not worship the Lord God, but worship the idols, worship the political masters and the rules. There's a lot in this book as well on the theme of repentance, particularly get to chapter nine. It really is one of the highlights of scripture to see this this prayer of repentance that Daniel offers on behalf of God's people, appealing to God's glory that he would not allow them to languish and the people are penitent.
That their state of punishment, their state of exile would end and they would be a new exodus, a new deliverance. There is also one of the most amazing and I would say one of the singly most important passages in the entire Old Testament, and that is Daniel seven. OK, now you will find some people doing some very, very strange, peculiar things in Daniel seven, getting out charts and talking about which member of the European Union corresponds to which beast and which American political candidate is the particular horn in question.
All that kind of stuff. But if you if you get beyond a lot of the contemporary prophetical prophetic cray cray as I as I choose the technical term for it, there is some important stuff in Daniel seven because it gives that gives us the vision of the son of man being enthroned. Next to the ancient of days next to Yahweh and the son of man is, as we'll see, is a very enigmatic figure.
OK, it's very much the one like a son, man, very mysterious. But this was a passage that had an incredible amount of importance and significance for the New Testament. I mean, so my phone's talking to me. It really impacted the New Testament and Jesus calls himself the son of man. OK, so Daniel seven is a passage that was really influential in the New Testament.
OK, also the visions in Daniel seven get reworked or redeployed and reutilized in the book of Revelation. So in the same way that the book of Daniel takes up some themes from Jeremiah and uses them to and to encourage and explain things to God's people in the same thing happens in the book of Revelation, where a lot of Daniel, the imagery is used to get metaphor upon metaphor deployed to explain the substance of Christian hope.
And also when you get to chapter 12 of the book of Daniel, it's where you get the only explicit mention of resurrection in the Old Testament. OK, I mean, the Old Testament has a lot about the future hope of God's people, but this is the one explicit mention of the motif or the theme of the resurrection of the dead. So that's that's some of the big themes in the book and why it's very important.
Overview of the Book of Daniel
So let's let's break down each of the chapters very, very briefly. OK, so we could define divide the book of Daniel effectively into two halves chapters one to six. We could call these stories from the courts of the kings, the kings of Babylon and then the kings of Persia. And in the second half, we have visions of God's triumph over pagan kingdom. So you can divide the book basically into those two halves.
When we look at chapter one, we have the story of Daniel and his friends, how they remain faithful and they flourish in Babylon. Now, it's basically the story of how they get elevated to their positions of prominence, how they came to rise now that they're offered some special privileges to eat the food from the king's own table. But because this is not going to be in accordance with the Jewish law about food regulations, they don't want it and they become basically vegetarians.
For example, in verse 17 of chapter one, it says to these four men, God gave them knowledge and understanding and all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kind. That's the kind of the reward of their faithfulness. Now, if you want to know what the application from this chapter is, I'll tell you one thing straight away. It's not the book of the Daniel diet.
OK, there may be a lot of good reasons to embrace the Daniel diet. But the main purpose of the chapter is about being faithful in a hostile context. OK, not God giving you weight loss advice or anything like that. There's some very good weight loss programs around. But don't read Daniel for your dieting tips. That's one thing not to take away.
Then we get chapter two and we get Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And it's kind of interesting because Nebuchadnezzar has a dream about something peculiar, but he can't remember it. And he wants someone to explain it. So he gets all the astrologers and everyone and all the enchanters and all the spiritual people and says, OK, I want you people to tell me what my dream was and to explain it to me.
And they say like, well, tell us what the dream was. No, no, no, no. I'm not letting you off the hook. You tell me what my dream was and then you tell me what it means. And no one can do this. And they do find one person, Daniel, who's a bit like Joseph. Joseph could interpret. So you've got Daniel a bit like a new Joseph. And God gives him all these mysteries to understanding.
And he's able to tell Nebuchadnezzar's dream, tell him what the dream was and what he means. And you've got this tower and the four elements of it represent four different kingdoms. And importantly, it's got feet made of clay and iron. It has the appearance of strength and it's very vulnerability. And then the climax of this dream, there is this stone that that is cut out of a mountain, not made with human hands.
And it strikes the feet of the statue and brings the whole thing down. I mean, let me read to you verse, I think it was at verse forty four and forty five in those times of the kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end. But it will itself endure forever.
This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of the mountain, but not by human hands, a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold. Now, this is a statement that God's kingdom will triumph over the kingdoms of this world. And funny enough, the word for stone in Hebrew is Eben, which is very similar to the Hebrew word for sun, which is Ben.
OK, so you've got a possible play on words between stone and sun. So you could have like a messianic figure here who is the one who destroys the pagan kingdoms, a son of God who rules on God's behalf. In chapter three, as we saw, you've got the story of the three friends who are put into the furnace, Rack, Shack and Benny. And they are put in the furnace by Nebuchadnezzar.
And again, to quote VeggieTales, four people appear and one of them is real shiny. That could well be. It could well could be. I mean, commentators debate this, but it could be an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ. This is often called a Christophany. So not like the incarnation, but an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ, or it could just be a figure like the angel of the Lord.
Chapter four, we get another dream by Nebuchadnezzar, where he's kind of like talking very excessively about his greatness and that God humbles him. And, you know, he ends up, you know, eating grass, gets some sort of peculiar psychological condition. But he's then sort of healed of that or he comes out of it. And at the end of it, he's able to praise and worship the God of Israel.
He says in verses 34 and 35. Oh, yeah, 434 and 35. He says, Yeah, then I praise the most high, I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold him back or say to him, what have you done?
I mean, this is a recurring theme of the book of Daniel, the sovereignty of God over the nations, over the kings of the world. Chapter five. So where am I up to? I think if I. Oh, sorry. Sorry, the thing I have, I can't read with my glasses on, but I can't see. I can't see without them. Okay, I won't go back to that point. Okay, we'll stick to the outline.
Sorry, I had no idea what I was doing. Which is not a good thing to say in a sermon, by the way. Don't say I have no idea what I'm doing and don't end sermons by saying, but then again, what do I know? That's right. Yeah, note that. Yeah, so we've got the. Yeah, so we've got the chapter five, the story of the writing on the wall. This is where you've got it.
Things are changing from the Babylonians to the to the Persians. And he got the last king of Babylon. He's told his time is coming to an end. Then in chapter six, where you get Daniel in the lion's den. This is where kind of similar to chapter two. But now you've got a Persian king on the throne. But once again, Daniel refuses to to worship to the king of the Persians, worship the idols, worship their gods.
And some people conspire against him. Daniel gets put in the den with lions. But then he survived. And this is the proof that God is in on his side. It's on his favor. And then it's the Persian king who then honors the God of the Jews. Moving to the second half of the book. We change from the court tales now into various visions.
Now, these visions certainly are relevant to us. They were very relevant to John and Patmos. When he's trying to interpret the visions he saw on Patmos, he's appealing back to the book of Daniel to try explain it. But it was also very relevant to the people at the time, you know, that the people of Judea and the Persian period. And it helped them understand what God's purposes were when there's this big transition going on between the Babylonians and then the Persians.
And then it would be the Greeks. And eventually it would go on to be the Romans. So chapter seven, like I said, you've got Daniel's got this vision, these four beasts representing the four kingdoms. And people debate which beast is which kingdom. But it seems to be something along the lines of the Medes and the Persians, then the Greeks and then possibly the Romans.
But at the end of it, you know, there's this mysterious figure, one like a son of man. He comes before the ancient of days and he's given dominion, power and authority. Now, this one like a son of man seems to represent God, God's kingship, God's kingdom and God's people. And he and he is said to be given power and authority.
And then in the rest of the chapter, when this is explained, it's it's about God's people reigning with God in the future. OK, so that's not that's a biblical idea. God's plan for humanity is for human creatures to share in his reign, particularly in the climax of the new creation. And Jesus, the exalted son of man, he is already beginning that.
He is God, the father's vice regent. And in his glorified humanity, he's already beginning that state. And we're one day going to be doing that with him, ruling and reigning over the new creation. And I think we have a snapshot of that in Daniel seven. In chapter eight of the book of Daniel, we've got the vision of the ram and the goat. This is against a kind of division between the various empires of the age, which then gives way to the Greek period.
Chapter nine is a very important prayer. I mean, it's an amazing prayer of repentance by Daniel. And I think it is going to easily be one of the most important and significant prayers of the entire Bible. In verse 19 of the chapter, the prayer finishes.
Lord, listen. Lord, forgive. Lord, hear and act for your sake, my God. Do not delay because of your city and your people who bear your name.
Daniel appears to God's promises, to the patriarchy, appeals to God's glory to once more deliver his people. In chapter 10 and 11, you've got this vision of Daniel down by the river where he seems to be shown the division of Alexander the Great's empire into four parts. And then how there's a big conflict between two parts of that former empire, the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria, and how the people of God, Israel is literally caught between the two of them.
And then in chapter 12, we have this vision of the remote future, looking at the resurrection of the dead and the triumph of God over all things. So that's an outline of the entire book in a quick fly by the city of pants. But if I had to bring this down to three main themes, one would have to be, don't worship the bunny. That's got to be a number one theme.
Key Themes in the Book of Daniel
Don't worship the bunny. Now, this only makes sense if you've seen VeggieTales. If you haven't seen VeggieTales, you're probably looking and going, what kind of an idiot is he worshipping a bunny? Do you worship a bunny? I don't worship a bunny. Do you worship a bunny? I'm not talking about just having too many Easter bunnies. Our world is full of idols. You may not know this.
OK, our world is full of idols of everything, of entertainment, of sex, of money, of greed. You name it, the world is full of idols. And people are trying to get you to worship their idols. And in some senses, even to worship yourself, to worship whatever your desires are, whether they're good or whether they're bad. And a lot of it is designed to make you be as selfish as possible, to be more idolatrous as possible.
OK, let me ask you a question. What's the motto of L'Oreal Cosmetics? What's the motto of L'Oreal? Yeah, because you're worth it. You know, I see the L'Oreal ad. I think, yes, I am worth it. I should buy lipstick. Because if I don't buy lipstick, it means I'm worthless. I should get lipstick. OK, everything is designed to make you selfish and greedy.
OK, and greed is the highest form of idolatry. If you don't believe me, ask my boss, Brian Roster. He wrote a book called literally Greed is Idolatry. So everything around us is conditioning us not to worship God, but to be idolaters. OK, and that is to value things over and above God. I mean, it can be anything. It can be family. It can be sport. You can be in Melbourne. I'd say coffee, possibly, but whatever it is.
But don't worship the bunnies of this age. Don't worship the idols of the gay of this age. Don't be seduced by the gods of this age. Remain faithful under fire. The second thing we have to do is the importance of repentance. Now, repentance has got a number of things to it. At one level, it can mean changing your mind about something, a change of mind. But it is showing regret and sorrow about things.
Now, I actually think this is one of the things we need to recover in our culture, the idea of repentance. Now, look, I don't want to go into extended social commentary here, but we do have this thing called cancel culture. So if someone gets a prominent job and it turns out 10 years ago they said something really offensive, stupid, or snarky, like when they're like 17 or something, that there can be this sort of puritanical charge to destroy them, cancel them, that type of thing.
What we need to remember is that there is a place for repentance in the human life. People make mistakes. They say things which are wrong, which they regret. And my concern is we live in a culture that wants purity with no prospect of redemption. And I actually remember hearing a story, a comedian. I mean, he was like one of these very righteous social media warriors for all sorts of causes.
And then he said, one day I got cancelled. And he said something I'll never forget. And it's a very Christian thing. He said, when did we stop rooting for redemption? That people do make a mess of their life. People do make mistakes. But repentance is God's gift to us. That's where we acknowledge we've done wrong before God. We've done wrong before others. And we want to make that good.
You know, I don't want to live in a world where repentance is not possible, because if there's no repentance, that means there's no forgiveness. OK, and we all at some point in our time, in our lives or in whatever relationship within with God and with each other, we're all going to need to ask for forgiveness. Daniel's prayer in chapter nine is one of the best prayers of repentance for God's people corporately that you can ever read.
And thirdly, and finally, this is a book that is about the triumph of God's kingdom. This is something that's relevant in every age, when you face powers and threats of all sorts, spiritual, despotic. I mean, this is obviously going to manifest itself very, very differently in different parts of the world. There's experienced difference for us in Australia compared to, say, Christians in China or northern Nigeria or parts of South America.
This is experienced differently. But if you look at the book of Daniel, kingdoms come and go. Babylonians, Persians, Alexander the Great conquered, you know, the eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East. And yet within a couple of years, his kingdom was split up into four and then into two. And they're all fighting over a little bit of plot of earth in Palestine. Kingdoms come and go.
But even the kings of this world will always bow down before and recognize the authority of the God of creation, the God of Israel, the God who raised Jesus from the dead. Kingdoms come and go. Politicians come and go. But God's kingdom is forever.
Conclusion and Encouragement
Now, if I had to give you some memory verses that you should all be memorizing, I'm just going to give you two. I'm going to just give you two. One, I think, is that but if not passage we saw in the book of Daniel. And the other one, I think, is definitely Daniel 7 verses 13 to 14 about the investiture or maybe the co-enthronement of the son of man.
I mean, if you memorize that Daniel 7 passage, you will remember it. You will hear it. You will echo it when you read so much of the New Testament. And if I can just leave you with a couple of good little tips of books you may want to read. I don't know if you have a book club here or anything or sometimes. Or if you have any like some Bible study tips, a couple of books I'll leave you with.
- How to Read the Book of Daniel by Tremper Longman.
- Another really good commentary, and this is particularly designed for preachers or for people doing serious Bible study by Wendy Whitter in the Story of God Bible Commentary series.
But let me just finish by saying this, okay? You may not find yourself acting as a dream consultant at the court of any king or queen. But you will be expected to worship the idols of this age under threat of punishment at some point. Whether that's in the wider culture, I don't know, on Facebook, social media or in your job. But at that point, remember, but if not.
I don't care if I lose my job. I don't care if I get taxed extra or whatever it is. I'm not worshiping the bunny, okay? Okay, not worship. And the other thing is you may not find yourself receiving visions about nations at war. But whatever nations rage against God, God always triumphs. And let me just leave you with one story on that part.
My aunt had a number of Labradors. One of them was called Nero. Sure, it's always a funny name for a dog. But in the United Kingdom, when I visited, I learned it was actually quite common to name dogs after Roman emperors. It was a bit of a thing. And I always thought it was funny because the Roman emperor Nero put the apostles Peter and Paul to death, didn't they?
I mean, according to tradition, Nero put Paul and Peter to death. Paul was beheaded and Peter, according to tradition, was crucified upside down. And yet 2,000 years later, we call our sons Paul and Peter and we call our dogs Nero. God's kingdom triumphs. On that note, let me pray for us.
Our heavenly Lord, we thank you for what we can get from the book of Daniel. We thank you for this book of wisdom, a book of hope, a book that tells us that you are sovereign over all things and you are with us in the fire, you are with us in the lion's den. And Lord, we pray we will be a people who is faithful, who are penitent and confident that you have triumphed over all things. And we pray this in the name of our King, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
