You like tests?
How many of you like tests? Raise your hand.
One? Interesting.
There's always one or two.
You know some people don't like tests. Some people don't perform
well on tests. It doesn't mean they're
they don't have any knowledge. It just means that
they don't do well on tests. There's anxiety built up
which is interesting. I had
a neighbor who was
actually wasn't from this country but now he's
he was a citizen and he was going to take a test
to become a lawyer.
Okay and every time he took
this test he
he failed. He failed twice. The third time you know you're out
and so I got to talking to him
and I happen to remember some things that
I read or listened to and that
you know the test anxiety thing. I've had students that have
have had tests anxiety and so what the key
is for some people is to be quite comfortable
when you get into a test situation. What does that mean?
Well that means
wear something that you like. Wear some clothes that you feel comfortable
in. You might not think about that. Interesting.
And if you're supposed to bring a pencil or a pen
bring that pencil or pen that you enjoy
using. And I was thinking about
what does that make a difference in taking a test?
And get yourself prepared, ready of course.
So you've got the knowledge and get that
get that haircut that you you know you you feel comfortable
in. Not that people are going to judge you by what you look like when you take a
test. They're going to judge you by what you wrote
and how you completed the test. Well
you know it worked for him. It worked for him. Well I'm thinking about some people
that
had a test and the scripture kind of
points out that fact.
If we study a little bit about the children of Israel and if we study about
how they had failed
and how they didn't do what God had asked them to do.
We come up with a number of different kings. The one king that I want to
start with was Jehoiakim. Now was Jehoiakim
a good king or a bad king? I heard bad. Did I hear bad?
Okay he was an evil king. He was an evil king.
And at one time he had
he was they were under the the
domination of Egypt.
Okay they allied with with the Egyptians. Then
then they changed to the Babylonians. Interesting.
But Jehoiakim decided that they would not
pay tax to the Babylonians.
For three years they with withheld the tax.
Now think about that. What would happen to you or me
if we withheld our tax
to our country or your city or whoever's taxing you
for three years. What might happen?
Wouldn't be good would it? It wouldn't be good. And it wasn't good
for Jehoiakim.
Now God gave Jehoiakim king of Judah
into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. That's interesting
for us to know. God gave
them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar because God had judged them
the people of Judah for disobedience and idolatry.
So he had another country come in and take over.
Now that's very interesting. God does use other people uses other nations as well.
Now the Babylon, where's Babylon by the way?
Iraq. There you go. We have somebody that knows very well. It's Iraq.
Now so they besieged the city
okay and a lot of the
a lot of the people were captured. Tens of thousands of Jewish
people were exiled from Judah
to Babylon. And they stayed there for how many years?
This is your test. 70 years about 70 years. It's a long time
isn't it? Now while they were there you know God gave them some information.
He gave them some orders. He says look he says I want you to live
okay you're going to be in exile. I want you to live. I want you to marry.
I want you to build houses. I want you to do the best that you can
but don't let your population decrease.
That could have happened couldn't it? It surely could have.
Well Babylon and Iraq it was about 900 miles
from from Judah. That's a long long trek. I'm sure that probably some of those
people never
you know never did arrive you know
alive. That's interesting. Jerusalem fell after 18 months
okay under this under this besiegement.
And that was in the first temple was destroyed.
So their temple was destroyed and
the Babylonians pillaged the city
and they also took some of the articles of the house of God
and then they put them into their house of their gods
which is interesting. Now Nebuchadnezzar he decided that he instructed
Ashpenaz who is the master of the eunuchs
to bring the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of
the nobles young men whom there was no blemish good looking
okay and smart in wisdom possessing knowledge
and quick to understanding and the ability to serve the king's palace.
That's interesting that he would do that. That shows that he was
pretty smart king I think and so that they might teach these young
people and they caught them so that they're young. They were teenagers
okay that were that were set apart. These were the chosen
okay of the young people that could be a part
of the king's realm. Interesting. Daniel's name
was changed so weren't so weren't the others as
as you know. Daniel's name meant God is my judge.
Daniel's name was changed to Belteshazzar
which means lady protect the king. Interesting.
Now why did they change these names? What were they trying to do
with these people that they took? What were they trying to do to them?
That's right they wanted to erase their identity.
They want him to learn the culture the language
of Babylon. That's what they wanted to do.
Interesting. Would you like to erase your identity?
Sometimes. How many of you would like to run away from home sometimes?
You don't have to raise your hand but yeah there's a few hands. Interesting.
Yeah interesting. Well this was amazing but changing the names.
Now Shadrach or rather Hananiah's name meant the Lord is gracious
and Hananiah's name was changed to Shadrach
and Shadrach means I am fearful of the God. Then we have Mishael which means
who is what God is and Mishael's name was changed to what? Meshach.
Meshach which means I am of little account. Not a very good meaning
with that one. And Azariah's name meant the Lord has
helped me and Azariah's name was changed to
in the third one we know that one what is it? Abednego
which means what? Which means servant of God. That's interesting. That is
interesting. Wow. Well things went along pretty
well. Now Daniel had talked to the person that was in charge of the
eunuchs and he wanted to have a different diet.
He says test us for 10 days. 10 days. How'd you like a 10 day test?
You know I don't like a 10 minute test. Never mind a 10 day test.
But the king Nebuchadnezzar had set out the delicacies
of his table. Can you imagine what that must have been?
I mean it must have looked pretty pretty good. All the meats and all the wines and
the and I'm sure they had you know vegetables and whatever.
And Daniel because of their upbringing I'm sure that there was some
animal meat in there that probably maybe some of it was what
was presented to idols okay. Perhaps that that's one of the
issues that they had. Maybe it was because some of the
some of the meat wasn't processed correctly okay.
Because it may have you know had blood in it and so forth.
So they didn't want that diet. They didn't want that diet.
So he said test me. Now the king's master of the eunuch said you
know I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that.
Because you know the king will have my head if you guys are sick okay.
And if you don't look well okay after the three year period of time
the king gave them three years. They had three years
in order for them to be tested. How well did they know the language
okay. How well did they know the the custom. How well did they know the laws.
How well did they know all about their gods. How well.
After three years they're going to be tested. Well after 10 days
okay the the captain of the eunuchs tested Daniel and his three friends.
Interesting. And what did he find? He found that they
were looking pretty good. They were looking a whole lot better than all the
rest of these young people okay that were chosen to be part of the
king's you know realm. They were they were so much smarter.
Okay they looked better okay. Their countenance was bright.
And so he continued their diet. He continued their diet
which is quite amazing. Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. You remember the dream?
That's an interesting dream isn't it? And it scared him.
He didn't sleep. He was troubled and he decided that what he would do is he
would call the magicians. He would call the astrologers. The
sorcerers. The chaldeans. He would call all of them and ask them
to tell him what his dream was. What it meant. That's interesting. So here we
had gathered all these guys and he says now this is what I want you to
do. I want you to tell me what I dreamt number one. Number two I want you to
tell me what it means. Well they looked at each other and
they said you know they thought in their minds you've got to be out of your
mind. This king has got to be out of his mind. No one has ever ever
asked anybody to tell them what their dream was.
Well Nebuchadnezzar being a smart king knew that if he told them what the dream
was that eventually they would you know they would make they would make
up all kinds of stuff as to what the dream meant and he would
and that would be that's not what he wanted to do. He wanted to test them.
What was it? What was he what were they going to say? They said we cannot do that.
They said only the only the only god could do that okay. I mean this is going
to be a supernatural kind of thing. We can't tell you what you dreamt.
And they thought it was quite unfair. Well Nebuchadnezzar grew
very very angry. He got so angry that he said if you can't tell me what I
dreamt and what it means then I'm going to cut you up into pieces
and we're going to burn your houses down and you're going to be slaughtered.
Now that's that was that was pretty violent wasn't it?
I mean this was just playing on his mind and so Daniel found out and they'd
actually started the Bible said they started to kill. They started to kill
these astrologers and magicians and sorcerers and
chaldeans and Daniel found out about what was going on and
he was going to be killed as well and also his three buddies and so he went to
the king and he says you know he says he says give me some time give me
some time and I'm going to ask my god okay what your
dream meant just give us some time and and and we'll perform for you okay.
So he got together with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and they
they fasted and they prayed and Daniel was given the dream. He was given the
dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had. Not only was he given the dream but he
was given the interpretation of the dream. Interesting. So he
approached the king okay and he said king he says
I know I can tell you what what your dream was and also the meaning
and but it's not because of me it's because
of my god my god has given me all of this information
to share with you. So what was the dream? Well it was an image wasn't it? You
remember the image? And we can hardly imagine that what the image was. So
here's here's the image okay it's now all gold because that
that that's a little bit later but it had an image
an image of uh of this of who yeah that's right the head of
gold and so Daniel said you are the head of gold Babylon is
the head of gold you're the head of gold and then if we go on further the arms
and the chest was made of what what was the next one
silver silver is silver worth more than gold
no it's not does silver weigh as much as gold
no so in all aspects the gold was what the very very best
then we go into the means in the persia the belly and the thighs
were made of bronze and that was Greece that was Greece Greece was going to take
over then after that then the legs and the feet were made of
what iron okay and the toes were made of iron and clay
that's a terrible mixture okay not very strong
and so uh and then there was a stone cut out of a mountain without hands
and that stone did what it hit the statue okay and it ground all of
those elements all those metals and clay and it grounded
into a powder and the wind blew it away wow what a
dream what a dream so Daniel's saying Nebuchadnezzar you are the head of gold
you are the head of gold i mean this is the most
powerful let's talk about a powerful nation but what is going to happen
so god was telling king Nebuchadnezzar what was going to happen
after him after his reign and so sure enough the Medes and the Persians came
in okay and then the Grecians came in after
that and then Rome came in after that interesting but then that uh that stone
that was cut out what did that represent that represents
the kingdom of god that will never be destroyed never be
destroyed interesting isn't it now i think that uh when i look at
this the uh the dream and the image you know we
know we know what the ending is don't we we know the ending is that god's king
is going to be forever it will never be destroyed no matter
which kingdom we happen to be in at the moment
which is very interesting wow well well king Nebuchadnezzar i guess he was
he was feeling he was feeling pretty good all right so what he decided to do
he built an image okay he built an image it was 90 feet tall
can you imagine that that's huge it was about nine feet wide and 90 feet tall
and it was covered with gold covered with gold he was gold he was the head of
gold interesting what did he do he invited all
of his friends right well he invited all of the important
people of the realm okay not the entire citizenship okay but the entire people
okay of his realm he wanted to find out if these guys were loyal to him
okay that's what he was hunting for that's what he was hunting for
and so he made an edict and he says i want everybody to gather around
and you know when the symphony the orchestra plays and it probably was an
orchestra plays he wanted everybody to do what
wanted to bow down to the image the image representing him okay and his
power interesting and so what happened
orchestra played everybody bowed down except for whom
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. How would you have liked to have been
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Or would you have rather been
uh Daniel? I wonder where Daniel was have you ever wondered where Daniel was at
this time? Interesting interesting maybe the king
sent Daniel on a you know a little trip or whatever but
Daniel wasn't there at least we don't we don't read that but
they didn't bow down now how did this king find out that they didn't bow down
well they had some people that told on them
okay because if you have you know hundreds maybe thousands of
people you know how are you going to find out if you know somebody didn't bow
down and so they came to king Nebuchadnezzar he says king
there are three people that didn't bow down
not only didn't they bow down but we know something about them
they don't worship any of your gods okay and we know that and we they didn't bow
down so what did king Nebuchadnezzar do he
said well you bring them to me he said maybe they don't quite understand
what this is all about i'm going to give them a second chance don't you like
second chances oh i like second chances i like second
third fourth fifth and sixth i like chances i really do
so he told him he says look he says do you understand what this is all about if
you don't bow down when the symphony orchestra plays
and worship this golden image okay of me then we're going to throw you into
the what the fiery furnace well what was the fiery
furnace anyways well it was probably
where they probably baked their bricks right sure
and king Nebuchadnezzar was a builder okay he was very very much a builder
and so they had they had their fiery furnace
okay and uh there it was well what what did
Shadrach Meshach and Abednego how did they respond to the king
yeah they said okay you know live forever
but we're not going to bow down to this image and they said
our god will protect us but even if our god doesn't okay
did they know that god was going to protect them in that fiery furnace
no i'm sure that they had hoped that he would but they told the king even if he
does not and we perish into that fiery furnace
we're not going to bow down wow now this made the king even
madder than he was and he ordered the stove the furnace to be what seven
times hotter okay let's get this thing seven times hotter than it normally is
now you have to be careful in a kiln because that's basically what it was a
kiln if you get kilns too hot even the bricks and that it's made of can
actually melt as well but i guess it didn't melt down
interesting so what did he do he ordered
oh well the the orc sister played chadrech meshech and abednego did not
bow down i'm sure this time the king was watching those three men
okay then he ordered them to be bound okay hand and feet and he ordered them
to be thrown into the fiery furnace then he ordered his strongest men okay
his valor okay to tie them up and throw them in now interesting interesting
and what happened to these men that threw them in
they died they died now that tells us something about what
does that tell us something about how
okay that tells us something about how hot that fire was
i wonder how hot a human body can get before it actually dies have you ever
wondered that maybe it's just my mind that tries to
figure those things out that's interesting well
he ordered it to be hotter than than than it
then it should actually be about seven times hotter
got a little heat gun right here got it on the hot the hot space right here
let's see what happens we so we know that his uh
his guards that threw them in they actually burnt up
okay that's interesting and they're getting hotter and hotter and hotter
and they're feeling weaker and weaker and weaker
and then what happens to them what happened to them
they died they died can you imagine can you imagine that
now that is amazing it was really really hot
this is really really serious stuff that they're working with right here
well shad rack me shack and a benigo they were thrown into the fire
happen to have shad rack me shack and a benigo right here
let's check this out that's shad rack
let's put shad rack over here
there's shad rack
good looking boys weren't they they were good looking they didn't have any
blemish okay they were perfect in stature
and health there's me shack guess you always wanted to know what they
look like there's me shack put me shack over here
shad rack me shack and my favorite a benigo
there he is and they were bound head and foot
thrown into the fiery furnace thrown into the fiery furnace
but there was another another one
and this one was was who
was it right and so the fiery furnace
burned them up right there burn them all up
and they were burnt
and as the king looked down into the fiery furnace
he said didn't we throw three men in they did yes yeah we threw three men in
he says but i see four walking in the fire i see four
and the fourth one looks like what the son of god interesting
the fourth one was jesus wasn't it interesting
and then the king told them to well he got a little closer and he called
out he said shad rack me shack and a benigo come out
come out and so they came out was there even smoke smell on their body
was their hair singed at all no but what how they were bond they were
bound all of that was burned off of them that was amazing
it was absolutely amazing it made such an impression on king nebuchadnezzar
that he told all the people there was an edict going out
he says i don't want anyone to say anything
bad about shad rack me shack and a benigo's god
because he is the great god of all gods that was very interesting very very
interesting wow well i'm wondering
we know the end of the story it's in the bible
we know that they didn't burn up they didn't perish
but they had tremendous faith obviously how many times do we stumble
in faith if you and i had been there would we have bowed down
if not we were going to be thrown into the fiery furnace we didn't know you
wouldn't know that they were going to be saved interesting
but we do know the end we do know the end how many times
how many times do we make an excuse for something that we
should stand for how many times does that come up how
many times you know they could have just kind of
kind of bowed down a little bit and fixed their sandal or something
you know they weren't into that you know that wasn't going to happen
it wasn't going to happen at all interesting
you know people are watching us aren't they they really are
the people that told on them the first time that they didn't bow down
they told oh king there's there's three that didn't bow down
king might have not even had any idea that three people did not bow down
but there's people watching people watching you
there's people watching me every day in fact every moment of the day some of
those people maybe belong in your family maybe it's an
extra neighbor maybe it's somebody that you work with they're watching us
how many times do we not bow down and we make excuses
how many times are we not doing what we should do
you know that's the question we know the end from the beginning
we know how this world is going to end we know that the stone that was cut out
with a hand is going to that's jesus's that's
that's a kingdom that will never fail that's god's kingdom
so all these trials that you and i have if we could just see the end from the
beginning maybe maybe they wouldn't be as
severe as we think they they really are we know the end from the beginning and
we know even from history as we look at the progression from
babel and the meads and persians okay and the greece and rome we know
that all of this is true and we can look at that and even the
years and we know we know the kingdoms and and how they fell
we know that rome that rome is just scattered in it and it never
never got to be the power okay to rule the
the entire earth which that's interesting to me
wow you like tests
so yes yeah we like tests how do we know what we know unless we're
tested is god testing you is god testing me
i think every day is a test every day is a test every moment's a test
whether or not we realize it or not somebody's watching
if it's not your neighbor if it's not your family
god's watching he's watching us and he wants us to pass the test and
he'll help us to pass the testimony he helped them he was there with them in
the presence of that fire that's amazing to me that's really
amazing our heavenly father we thank you
that you are god of love that you are our salvation
we thank you that this stone that has been cut out of a mountain
without hands is your kingdom and your kingdom will last forever
and ever lord help us this week to do well in the test the test of life
the test of faith that others can see our strength that we have in you and
you will give us the strength to show them your love we thank you for
jesus and that he came to this earth not to condemn us but to give us
everlasting life and we ask this in his name and for his sake
amen