Part 5 of 11 in Daniel Prophecy Series given at Maraval, Trinidad SDA church.

<p>Part 5 of 11 in Daniel Prophecy Series given at Maraval, Trinidad SDA church.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AudioVerse

Daniel Prophecy Series

Norman McNulty

Daniel 1—Undefiled in Babylon

Daniel 2—A Vision for the Latter Days

Daniel 3 and 4—The Fiery Furnace and the Fall of Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel 5—The Fall of Babylon

Daniel 6—Daniel in the Lion’s Den

Daniel 7—The Judgment

Daniel 8—The Cleansing of the Sanctuary

Daniel 9 and 10—Daniel’s Two Prayers

Daniel 11, Part 1—The Time of the End

Daniel 11, Part 2—The Glorious Land and the Glorious Holy Mountain

Daniel 12—The Wise Shall Understand

It's nice to start a new week here at Marival again.

This is our fifth presentation on the book of Daniel.

And if you're just coming, you're actually still actually coming at a good time because we haven't really gotten into some of the more hardcore prophecies in Daniel 7 and 8 where we get into some of the kingdoms and the prophecies and the dates and the end time applications.

So we still have a lot of good ground to cover.

I also enjoyed listening to the quiz again and also for the music this evening.

So before we start, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this day, for the beginning of a new week.

And I pray that you would be with us in a special way this evening as we go through Daniel chapter 6, may we learn things from the story that will help us to understand you better and of your faithfulness and of the lives that you would have us to be living and please speak through me This is my prayer in the name of Jesus, amen.

So tonight, our topic is based on Daniel chapter 6, and the title of the message is Daniel in the Lion's Den.

Now, how many of you grew up as children hearing the story of Daniel in the lion's den?

I hope that you will see a deeper significance to this story than perhaps you have seen before.

And so we are going to get right into Daniel chapter 6 tonight.

And let's turn to Daniel chapter 6 starting in verse 1.

It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 princes, which should be over the whole kingdom." Now, if you look at the verse just before this, Daniel 5.31, we see Darius the Median was the king of Medo-Persia who helped to lead to the downfall of Belshazzar and the kingdom of Babylon in Daniel chapter 5.

So here in chapter 6, the new empire is setting up its kingdom.

So, Darius is setting up 120 princes which should rule over the whole kingdom.

So, here are the political leaders that are going to reign over the new kingdom of Medo-Persia, 120 princes.

Now verse 2, and over these, 3 presidents.

So you have 120 princes, and then 3 presidents will rule over the 120, so you could probably say that of the 3 presidents, they would have 40 princes each.

And notice this, of these 3 presidents, of whom Daniel was first.

Now this is interesting, usually when a new kingdom or empire takes over, they kill all of the previous political leaders.

Now, do you remember what happened in the feast when Daniel interpreted the handwriting on the wall?

To what position in the empire did Belshazzar promote Daniel to?

And of course, we talked about how Belshazzar and his father, Nabonidus, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, were co-regents or co-kings of Babylon, so Belshazzar couldn't make Daniel any higher than third.

But it's interesting, we come to the new kingdom and not only does Daniel keep his life, he receives a promotion.

He goes from being third in the kingdom to second in the kingdom.

Once again, it pays to be faithful to God.

So Daniel was first of the 3 presidents, that the princes might give account unto them, and the king should have no damage.

Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole realm." So here Daniel, as you have a change in kingdoms, is now preferred so highly by the new king in the new kingdom that Darius is saying, I want to put Daniel over the entire realm of my kingdom.

Daniel must have been an incredible person, was he not?

He made such an impression on the new king that he was placed at the very top of the New Kingdom.

Now notice, Ellen White makes commentary on Daniel's character.

This is Christ's Object Lessons, page 356.

Only by faithfulness in the little things can the soul be trained to act with fidelity under larger responsibilities.

So you may be saying, you know, if I was in a higher position, if I was the first elder, If I was the pastor, if I was the conference president, if I was the president or the prime minister of Trinidad, then I would be more careful in the way that I live my life, but because I'm not any 1 of those titles, I'll just kind of let everything go and if God sees fit to place me in a higher position of responsibility at some point in my life, then I'll pay more attention.

It says, God brought Daniel and his fellows into connection with the great men of Babylon, that these heathen men might become acquainted with the principles of true religion.

In the midst of a nation of idolaters, Daniel was to represent the character of God.

Do you realize that some of you sitting here this evening have the opportunity, or actually I should say all of us here this evening have the opportunity to represent God's character wherever we are.

Whether it's in our family or at work or if we are in higher positions of authority, we have the opportunity to represent God's character.

Now, based on what we see in the life of Daniel, God was able to allow Daniel to be promoted to higher and higher positions because God knew that Daniel could be trusted to represent his character.

How did he become fitted for a position of so great trust and honor?

It was his faithfulness in the little things that gave complexion to his whole life.

Remember, this is the same Daniel who purposed in his heart in chapter 1 that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.

It may have seemed like a small thing, but because Daniel was faithful there, we can see how his life progressed so that as greater challenges came, God was able to use him in a greater manner.

He honored God in the smallest duties and the Lord cooperated with him." So that's a lesson for us, is it not?

You know, when we're cleaning our house, when we're keeping our room neat and clean, those are the little things.

And as we are faithful in the little things, God will bless us with greater responsibilities.

And here we see, now the context of this quote, to be clear, was specifically related to when Babylon was the kingdom of the world, however, the principle applies to when Medo-Persia took over and Daniel became next in line to the king.

You know, Daniel became promoted, Do you think everybody was happy about that?

For as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God." Now, here you have to think about how these other presidents and princes are feeling, the 2 other presidents and the 120 princes.

They most likely, these were the leading politicians of Medo-Persia.

They had worked hard, they had schemed, they had planned, They might have even helped oversee the diverting of the river Euphrates so that the army could enter into Babylon and destroy that city.

And now, instead of 1 of them being next in line to the king, some Hebrew captive who was part of the Babylonian kingdom is next in line." And they're like, what happened?

How could Darius pass us over and put some Hebrew captive in front of us?

And you know, considering that these were pagan men who did not serve God, this would be the natural way to think.

Politicians are always working to step on someone else to get to the top.

It doesn't matter which country you're from, whether it's the United States where I come from, they're already gearing up for the presidential election next year and people are already trying to tear down the current president, or whether it's here in Trinidad and you know all the back and out that goes on with the politicians down here, or whether it's in the United Kingdom or wherever, politicians are always trying to put someone down so they can go higher.

I sure hope that this doesn't happen in God's work.

This kind of behavior should never be found in the work of God.

But here we see you have these presidents and princes, they're trying to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom.

So this is how they initially try to get rid of Daniel.

They say, okay, Every person we've ever met has something wrong with them.

When nobody else is watching, they'll log on to a certain website on the internet and they'll go somewhere that if their spouse was with them or if someone else from church was with them, they would never go to that site.

We are so high up in the kingdom, we'll be able to spy on him and catch him when he does that.

And then we'll be able to turn him into the king and the king will realize this guy isn't so great after all.

Or maybe he isn't really faithful with his bank account.

Maybe he's cheating the way he uses his funds and he's misappropriating the funds that the king has set him over.

He's in charge of so much, he might be slipping some money from the king into his bank account.

Let's see if he's doing something like that.

Maybe he's working to bring the king down so he can take over.

They thought of all sorts of different scenarios and they said, let's track him, let's follow him around, let's see everything that he does, and once we follow him for a certain period of time, we'll be able to catch him in 1 of his habits and we'll be able to turn him in.

Let's just say that you, Let's transport back in time because the kingdom of Medo-Persia, as we studied in Daniel 2, was 539-331 BC.

So let's go back to 539 BC and let's just say that suddenly you become Daniel and you bring with you all of your characteristics, all of your habits, all of the things that you do, and you are second in line next to the king.

And these guys, these presidents and princes, are able to track your life.

How many of you would want to take Daniel's spot at this moment?

They are out to find out something about you that will show that you're not really the person that you claim to be.

Oh yes, you'll come to church, yes you'll smile and be nice, but when nobody else is looking, there's something deep and dark and nasty about you and they're going to catch you in it.

When they tracked Daniel like this, what happened?

They could find none occasion nor fault for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him." If those guys could have found something with Daniel, they would have found it, but they couldn't find it.

Series

Daniel Prophecy Series

Daniel 6—Daniel in the Lion’s Den

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

How to Live Without Compromise

54m

Daniel Prophecy Series

Daniel 5—The Fall of Babylon

58m

Marking the Mind

1h

Prophecies of Hope

07 Heaven Our Final Home

55m

Daniel Prophecy Series

Daniel 12—The Wise Shall Understand

1h 1m

ASI 2011 Plenary Meetings

God’s Remnant Church - Finishing Strong

52m

Three Cosmic Messages: Earth's Final Conflict

05 Mathematical Proof We are Living in the Last Days

56m

The Time of Sealing

54m

A Priest Upon His Throne

50m

Transformed to Stand

1h

All the World Marveled

Unmistakable Signs Of the End

40m

Who Shall Be Able To Stand?

34m

Sound Doctrine