That certainly is a wonderful truth, isn't it?
Let's bow together and allow the Spirit of God
to work in our hearts afresh to write God's love.
Would you tell the Lord thank you for the ways
in which He has penned and proven His love in
your life in recent days? Give thanks to Him.
Express your love to Him too. The Lord has not
made us to be merely containers of His love.
He wants us to be channels of His love. Whom
is it that God would love through you? Who's
on your heart today? Would you pray and ask God
to use you? To touch that person to touch that
family to minister to that situation with his
love His love is to be shared Our father from
whom every family and heaven and earth derives
its name. We pray that you would grant according
to the riches of your glory that we might be
strengthened with power through your spirit in
the inner man. Do this so that Christ may dwell
in our hearts through faith. And so that we,
being rooted and grounded in love, may be able
to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and length and height and depth, and
to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that we may be filled up to all the fullness
of God. Amen. Would you open your Bible please
and turn to the fifth chapter of the book of
Daniel with me as we think today regarding the
handwriting on the wall. That expression, the
handwriting's on the wall, is synonymous today
with something that is foreboding and inevitable.
The stock value of a company collapses. The handwriting
is on the wall. The stockholders are in trouble.
The grades are already pinned in the book of
the professor. The handwriting is on the wall
for the student. There aren't enough votes to
get the bill on through Congress. The handwriting
is on the wall for that piece of legislation.
This cliche, the handwriting is on the wall,
finds its origin in our text today, Daniel chapter
5. It refers to the fixed and final state of
a matter, the end of an issue, the certain results.
It means that there is no more chance. It's all
over. The event in this chapter of the book of
Daniel occurred in 539 BC, more than five centuries
before our Lord was born in Bethlehem. It came
at the end of the once grand and glorious empire
of Babylon. Daniel had lived through 65 years
of the history of this nation. You recall if
you've been with us in our study of Daniel on
previous Sunday evenings that Daniel was carried
to Babylon as a captive from Jerusalem in 605
BC when Nebuchadnezzar first invade in Palestine.
And not only Daniel was taken, but others were
taken prisoner as well. The best and the brightest
of the Jewish young men were taken off captive,
exiled to Babylon, there to become servants of
the sovereign there. At the same time, Nebuchadnezzar
also carried off certain vessels of gold and
silver from the temple in Jerusalem. Two years
after he arrived in Babylon, Daniel, by this
time a teenager about 17 years of age, was called
into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar that he might
interpret a dream that Nebuchadnezzar had regarding
a large statue made of various metals of descending
worth from gold in the head all the way down
to clay and iron in the feet and toes of the
statue. Nebuchadnezzar wanted to know from his
wise men what the dream was and what the interpretation
of it was. Well the wise men were in a heap of
trouble because they had no way of knowing what
Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed though they could
make an educated guess as to the interpretation
and Nebuchadnezzar knew that of course. So he
wanted the content of the dream before he would
listen to the interpretation of it. Well, Daniel
was God's man on the spot. He came into the court
of Nebuchadnezzar and there gave to him the dream
and the interpretation. An interpretation that
really reaches right down to our day today. And
then it was just shortly after that, well actually
35 years later, that Daniel was again called
into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar. Because
Nebuchadnezzar had had a vision this time of
a tree. It was a large tree that had been cut
down, but which retained its roots. There was
a stump there that was left. And Daniel was asked
to give the meaning of this, and he did. God
had given Nebuchadnezzar this dream. The tree
was Nebuchadnezzar himself. He was going to be
cut down, but not entirely removed. God would
cut him down to size, as it were, humble him,
and then he would recognize the true God, the
God of the Jews. When Nebuchadnezzar let a year
pass, and then one day was out walking on his
veranda, his terrace, and looked over the city
of Babylon, which he had helped to build and
rebuild. And he said, is this not great Babylon
that I have built for my majesty and glory? And
at that moment, God struck him. with a mental
disorder, a derangement in his thinking. He imagined
himself to be an animal. And so his servants
put him out to pasture. And for seven years he
lived like a wild animal. It took upon himself
a strange appearance as a neglected human being.
And then God gave him back his sanity. Nebuchadnezzar
recognized the true God and gave glory to him
and some of the language in Daniel chapter 4
suggests that Nebuchadnezzar became a true believer
in the God that Daniel worshipped. Nebuchadnezzar
died shortly after that experience in 562 BC.
After he died, there were several kings who came
to reign, but through intrigue, murder, and assassination,
their reigns did not last long nor amount to
much. Until 556 BC, a stronger man came to power.
His name was Nabonidus. Now Nabonidus had a son.
whose name was Belshazzar. We did not know this
until more recent years. Daniel 5 talks about
this Belshazzar, but liberal critics of the Bible
have said there was no man in history by that
name. But archaeologists have dug up proof that
in fact, Nabonidus' son was Belshazzar. And Nabonidus
was a rather unusual ruler. He did not enjoy
living in the palace in Babylon, the capital
city. He much preferred a retreat that he built
in Arabia, or he liked to be out leading his
armies, but he didn't like to live in Babylon.
And so most of his 17 years that he was the king,
he was gone from the city. But somebody had to
be there to take charge. So he appointed his
son, Belshazzar, as co -regent, as the number
two man in the kingdom. And if somebody had a
decision that had to be made, he was, for all
practical purposes, the king of Babylon. Now
it was that first year of Belshazzar's power
as co -regent that Daniel himself had a vision.
We studied this in chapter 7. It was a vision
that Daniel had of four rather weird beasts.
And we saw as we worked our way through that
chapter that again the interpretation reaches
all the way down past our day into the future.
There's historical aspect to it and there is
prophetic aspect to it from where we live today.
At that time of course it was all future. And
then three years after that vision, Daniel had
another vision given to him by God. This one
had to do with a ram, a goat, and a little horn,
chapter 8. We studied that together. And once
more we saw that while most of that chapter was
historical for our day, we look back upon the
fulfillment of it. There are certain aspects
of it that are yet future that have not been
fulfilled and which we anticipate to come to
pass. That was in 553 BC. Now chronologically,
we come to chapter 5 of Daniel. because now is
the end of Belshazzar's reign. A little bit of
historical background is important before we
look at this chapter because you need to understand
that while Babylon was the greatest power at
this point, there was a rising power on the horizon.
The Medes and the Persians had joined together
in an alliance. And their leader Cyrus was growing
in power and was beginning to challenge Babylon.
In fact, he brought his armies toward Babylon
and Nabonidus, Belshazzar's father, led the armies
out to battle against Cyrus and the Persians,
but was overcome. And he began to flee and he
fled southward past Babylon. leaving the city
of Babylon, his capital city, exposed to the
advancing Persian armies coming from the north.
And so as we come to this occasion, which happened
on October 12, 539, when we come to this occasion,
the city of Babylon has been surrounded by the
Persian armies. It is a city under siege. And
so it may seem strange to you what is said here.
that Belshazzar the King held a great feast for
a thousand of his nobles. One of the things we're
going to see in this chapter, which we see throughout
the book of Daniel, is that God is sovereign.
The history of the nations is determined by his
purposes. He raises up a nation and a people.
And when his purpose has been accomplished, he
puts them down and raises another up. And that
is not only true of ancient nations, it is still
true in the 1990s, that God is sovereign over
the nations of the world. As we look at this
chapter, it easily falls into three divisions.
The first one is the indiscretion of the king,
verses one through four. Belshazzar called a
feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he was
drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.
Customarily, he was probably seated upon a platform
so that every one of the banquet hall could see
him and as he would drink or as he would eat
they would follow his example. When Belshazzar
tasted the wine, and the phrase there indicates
that he was more than tasting, I mean he was
getting into it, he was drunk by this point.
He gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels
which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out
of the temple which was in Jerusalem. Just need
to insert this point that the word father can
be used a number of different ways in the language
of the Old Testament. And it does not mean his
immediate father in this context, but it means
his ancestor. Actually it would be his grandfather.
And so when you see father here or you see son
referring to Belshazzar in relation to Nebuchadnezzar,
it's not exactly father -son, it's grandfather
-grandson. Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken
out of the temple these gold and silver vessels.
And so now Belshazzar orders them to be brought
in order that the king and his nobles, his wives,
and his concubines might drink from them. Then
they brought the gold vessels that had been taken
out of the temple, the house of God, which is
in Jerusalem. And the king, his nobles, his wives,
his concubines drank from them. They drank the
wine and praised the gods of gold and silver,
of bronze, iron, wood, and stone." Does this
seem like a rather foolish thing to you, that
Belshazzar would call a feast on a night like
this, when his city is surrounded by an enemy
army? Perhaps he did it in order to raise the
morale of his people. Maybe these thousand nobles
needed a boost at this point. That's possible.
And so he called a feast so that they might see
him relaxed and not worried about the armies
outside. It may be also that he called the feast
to celebrate the security of the city. Now, it
was a false sense of security he had, but he
did feel confident that the city would not fall.
Now, why was that? Well, Babylon was a city of
some 3 ,000 acres in size. And around the city
were walls. In fact, double walls. Two walls
standing parallel around the whole city. 15 miles
of two walls. walls that were 85 feet thick,
and walls that were up to 350 feet high, as tall
as a 35 -story building. At a hundred spots around
the city on the wall there were towers from which
the soldiers of Belshazzar could shoot arrows,
pour oil, etc. down upon the enemy. that might
be trying to scale the walls or come to the city.
This was an impregnable city. Inside the walls
they had enough provision to last 20 years of
siege. No one would have to go outside the gate
of the city of Babylon to find food for 20 years,
enough food for everybody, for two decades. How
long can an army out there sustain itself? Not
only that they had all the water they needed
because the city the river called Euphrates Float
right through the heart of the city under the
walls through the city and so they had all the
water they needed So you see Belshazzar had a
great sense that his city could never fall therefore
He called a feast and it's clear that this drunken
feast Soon turned into an orgy as the women were
brought in And in the midst of all this debauchery,
Belshazzar had an idea. He wanted to do something
that would really raise the morale of this pagan
group of nobles. He decided to defy the God of
Israel. And so he ordered that those vessels
that had been taken by grandpa 65 years before
this from the temple in Jerusalem should be brought
into the banquet hall. Now up to this point,
they had likely been kept in a temple where they
were preserved. But Belshazzar wants them brought
so that they can use these sacred vessels for
drinking their wine and for offering out libation
offerings, drink offerings, at the feet of their
idols of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood
and stone. So that's the situation. We have a
king here who is acting indiscreetly in his drunkenness.
He is thoughtless in his debauchery. He is defiant
in his attitude against the true God. That brings
us to the next section of the chapter, which
is the intervention of God. The party is interrupted
by a supernatural act. It says suddenly, The
fingers of a man's hand emerged, and began writing
opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the
wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the
back of the hand that did the writing, and the
king's face grew pale, and his thoughts alarmed
him, and his hip joints went slack, and his knees
began knocking together." There's the source
of another picture of fright that sometimes is
used. I mean, this man went to pieces as the
sovereign god now announces his verdict upon
the kingdom of Babylon. The language here suggests
that the hand came through the wall backwards.
There was no arm attached to it, just a hand.
And in the hand was a writing instrument of some
sort, and the hand began to write words upon
the plaster wall of the banquet hall. It is interesting
that archaeologists in digging around this ancient
city of Babylon have uncovered the king's palace,
and in that palace they have found the remains
of a banquet hall that was 55 feet wide and 169
feet long, well able to take care of the crowd
of a thousand nobles. And not only that, but
there is proof that the walls of this banquet
hall were made of plaster, not just ordinary
stone. And so it is very likely that the archaeologists
have uncovered the very room where this event
took place on that night in 539 BC. And as the
hand wrote, absolute terror filled the heart
of Belshazzar. He was a religious man, you recall,
many gods. And his heart is now filled with terror
as he recognizes that there is some supernatural
force that has entered into his room. It is interesting
that God chose to write right over the lampstand,
the place in the room that would be best lighted.
And scholars who have studied these things tell
us that likely that lampstand was beside where
Belshazzar was. He would be in the best lighted
part of this banquet hall. And so the picture
that comes to mind is of a hand that comes out
of a wall right behind Belshazzar and begins
to write over his head. And the king called aloud
to bring in his advisors, the conjurers, the
Chaldeans, the diviners. These are the wise men
of Babylon. And he promised them reward. a robe
of purple, a gold necklace, and the third place
in the kingdom. If anyone can tell him what these
words are and what they mean. Now you understand
why he promised the third place in the kingdom
because of what we said before regarding the
arrangement between his father and himself. So
he was offering the highest place that he could
offer to the one who could interpret these words.
The writing remained visible for a period of
time so that everyone who wished to could examine
the words. The wise men came in. They looked
at the words. They could not even decipher what
the words were, let alone tell the meaning of
them. Now, it's wondered why they were unable
to read the words. Well, it may be that God used
a script of lettering that they did not recognize.
We don't really know why they could not read.
That's not been determined. But they could not
even read the words that were up there. Some
have thought perhaps they too were a part of
this drunken brawl outside the room. And they
were too intoxicated to do the work that they
were asked to do in reading the words. But their
inability even increased the alarm in Belshazzar.
He recognized that the wisest men of his realm
were unable to read the words and his face became
paler and his nobles even more perplexed. That
brings us then to the third portion of the chapter,
the interpretation of Daniel. You will notice
that he is summoned by the king at the suggestion
of the queen, it says in verse 10. Most likely
this is not Belshazzar's wife, the queen. where
she was probably in this room. It describes his
wives being in there earlier. The word queen
here can also mean queen mother, which would
mean that this would be the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar.
Now the queen mother came into the room hearing
all of the racket and she said, O King, live
forever. Do not let your thoughts alarm you or
your face be pale. There is a man in your kingdom
who can tell you what this is all about. The
language she uses here indicates that at least
she knew about Daniel from her father, Nebuchadnezzar.
Because in chapter 4, some of the same wording
used by her father of Daniel is now used by her
as she speaks to Belshazzar. And she describes
the greatness of this man. And she says, let
Daniel now be summoned and he will declare the
interpretation, verse 12. You will notice, by
the way, that she calls him Daniel first and
then says, whom the king, that's her father,
named Belteshazzar. You notice there the similarity
between Belshazzar and Belteshazzar? The names
are almost identical. They both mean God will
protect. By God it means Bel, or Marduk, their
deity in Babylon. Bel will protect the king,
is what Belshazzar means. And Bel will protect,
is what Belteshazzar means. But she prefers to
call him Daniel. Now the word Daniel has the
name of the true God in it. Daniel. Elohim. El,
E -L on the end of it. Therefore some commentator
suggests to us that this woman really understood
the God of Daniel. And she understood that he,
Daniel, was a prophet of the true God and she
herself may have been a convert to the God whom
her father it seems, had come to worship at the
end of his life, the God of Israel. But she says,
Daniel will tell you the meaning of these words.
So he is brought in and the king says, are you
that Daniel who is the one, one of the exiles
from Judah? Now I've heard about you, that a
spirit of the gods is in you, that illumination,
insight, extraordinary wisdom have been found
in you. He recounts the failure of his wise men,
but he says in verse 16, I personally have heard
about you, that you are able to give interpretations
and solve difficult problems. Now, if you're
able to read the inscription and make its interpretation
known to me, you will get my reward, what I offer
to the others. And so, Belshazzar offers to him
the very highest prize that he could offer in
the land. Daniel's character is revealed in verse
17 as he refuses the reward. Isn't it marvelous
that after 65 years living in this pagan, godless
culture, Daniel is still a man who refuses to
be motivated by what motivates the pagans. He
stands above them. He stands apart from them
as a man of God. Oh, that's the kind of people
God wants today in our pagan culture, who over
the years of even close association and working
with people who don't know God, refuse to accept
the same kinds of motivations of the world, who
stand above and apart from all of that as his
men, his women, in the midst of paganism. Daniel's
message in verse 18, beginning in verse 18, begins
with an historic illustration. He points back
to Nebuchadnezzar. He says, O King, the Most
High God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory,
and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar, your father. And
because of the grandeur which he bestowed on
him, all the peoples, nations, men of every language,
feared and trembled before him. Whomever he wished
he killed, whomever he wished he spared alive,
whomever he wished he elevated, whomever he wished
he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up
and his spirit became so proud that he behaved
arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne,
his glory was taken away from him. He was also
driven away from mankind, his heart was made
like that of beasts, and his dwelling place was
with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to
eat like cattle and his body was drenched with
the dew of heaven. What probably happened to
Nebuchadnezzar as he experienced this mental
disorder, this insanity, was that his servants,
in order to keep this knowledge from the rest
of the kingdom, put him into a royal preserve
or a park where they kept animals for the king's
enjoyment. And they kept him there privately,
letting no one know what was happening to Nebuchadnezzar
over these seven years. But now, that had been,
by the way, a royal family secret. And now, in
the midst of everybody, Daniel exposes it. He
says, here's what happened to your grandfather,
until he recognized that the Most High God is
ruler over the realm of mankind, and he sets
it. He sets over it whomever he wishes, pointing
to the sovereignty of God. And yet you, his son,
Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even
though you knew all of this. The rest of the
nobles didn't, but Belshazzar knew. The message
that we see here in this historic illustration
is that God hates pride. God will deal with defiance.
He will humble those who exalt themselves before
him. He will bring them into judgment. And so
Daniel now very boldly lays before the king God's
indictment of him. In the first place he says
in verse 22, you have sinned against knowledge,
Belshazzar. You knew what happened to your grandfather.
You knew what God does to the proud. You knew
how He judges the defiant. You see, it is one
thing to sin in ignorance. It is another thing
to sin against knowledge. And that's what Belshazzar
had done. That was the first indictment. Next
he says, you have exalted yourself against the
Lord of Heaven. by bringing in the vessels and
abusing them. You have blasphemed God, Belshazzar.
Endicament number two. And then number three,
he says, in the middle of the verse, you have
praised the gods of silver and gold and so on
which do not see, hear, or understand. But the
God in whose hand are your life, breath, and
your ways, you have not glorified. Point number
three, you have worshiped idols and not the true
God. They have poured out their drink offerings
in their drunkenness to these false gods who
cannot see or hear or understand anything. And
not only that, the very God who gives to Belshazzar
his life breath, who enables him to walk in his
ways, Belshazzar has lifted his fist to and defied.
And therefore we have the indication that Belshazzar's
time is up. Verse 24, then the hand was sent
from him and this inscription was written out.
And so we come now to the prophetic interpretation.
Verses 25 to 28. Now this is the inscription
that was written out. Taqil yufarsin. Those are
the words. Obviously the first one is repeated.
Then there are two other words. This is the interpretation
of the message, says Daniel. Many. What does
that mean? Well, it is a word in the Aramaic
that means numbered. One, two, three, four, five,
six. Numbered. Counted out. And here's the meaning
of it. God has numbered your kingdom and put
an end to it. God has measured out your reign,
Belshazzar, the time's up. Tekil. That is another
Aramaic word that means to be weighed or to be
found light in the balance. In those days they
would weigh things in scales. in a balanced scale
and the measurement weight would be put on one
side and the item to be weighed on the other
side to see if it was worthy. And what is happening
is that God has put Belshazzar and his reign
into the scale. He's been found light. He's not
worthy in character, in his morality, to carry
on as the king. He says, you have been weighed
on the scales and found deficient. Perez, that
is a singular form of the plural form that is
used in the earlier statement. The you is a connective,
like a conjunction, and. And the end of the word,
S -I -N, is the plural form of the word. Daniel
chooses to make it singular. He says, Peres.
Now here again is an Aramaic word. It is a word
that means to divide or to break into something.
And so he says, your kingdom has been divided
and given over to the Medes and Persians. And
so that is the message. The handwriting on the
wall is, you're finished, Belshazzar. And so
is this empire that you rule over. It says in
verse 29 that Belshazzar gave orders and they
closed Daniel with purple, put a necklace of
gold around his neck, issued a proclamation concerning
him that he now had authority as the third ruler
in the kingdom. And so he got what he didn't
really care for anyway, which he had earlier
refused. Why did Belshazzar give him this stuff?
Well, it may have been that Belshazzar was mocking
Daniel. That's possible. It may have been that
all of this was kind of like a joke. When he
heard what the writing was and what it meant,
Belshazzar responded by chuckling. This could
never be. Bring the robe and put it on this man.
Put the necklace around his neck. Let's issue
a proclamation regarding him. He is now the third
ruler in the kingdom. That's possible to understand
it that way. Whatever reason he had, the fact
is it wasn't worth a whole lot. For he was the
third ruler in Babylon for but a few hours. Because
that same night, it says, Belshazzar, the Chaldean
king, was slain. And so Darius the Mede received
the kingdom at about the age of 62. We'll talk
about him next week. On this night, according
to secular historians, October 12th, 539 BC,
the Persian army figured out a way to get through
the walls of the city of Babylon. They couldn't
go over the walls. They couldn't go through the
walls. Therefore, they engineered a diversion
of the Euphrates River and caused the river to
be diverted into a lake bed so that the river
level dropped. And the Persian soldiers were
then easily able to wade into the river and under
the wall of the city of Babylon entering the
city. And when they got in there, according to
Herodotus and Xenophon, two of the Greek historians,
they found out that the whole city was involved
in this feast. Everybody was making merry. There
was nobody defending the place. And they say
that there was not a person who was killed in
defending the city of Babylon. The Persian army
simply entered in, eventually got to this hall
where the party was going on, and there they
killed the king and took over the city, as it
were, without an arrow being fired. From this
chapter we learn some important lessons that
we want to observe. The first one is simply this,
that when God's moment of judgment arrives, nothing
can provide escape. Belshazzar's moment had come.
The handwriting was on the wall and there was
nothing that could provide deliverance for this
man. He was damned. He was doomed. at this point.
When God's moment of judgment comes, it's final.
You may not know the name of Robert Ingersoll.
A few days ago I was in a bookstore where I was
looking at the used religious section and I came
across one of his writings, a collection of a
number of the lectures that he gave. Robert Ingersoll
was an atheist. A man who was devoutly anti -Christian,
anti -God, and who traveled all over the country
giving lectures and debating Christian leaders
of his day trying to dissuade people from their
faith. He was the Madeleine Murray O 'Hare of
his generation. There were times, as has Madeleine
Murray, when he challenged God and he said, now
if there is a God, Let him strike me dead right
now because of what I'm saying." Nothing happened.
He said, see, there is no God. And his blasphemy
continued for years and years until the moment
of God's judgment came. You see, God is patient
with sinners. God is long -suffering, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. God does not respond to the silly
defiance of a man like Robert Ingersoll. God
is not impetuous. God is patient. But, there
comes a moment when the handwriting is on the
wall. And Ingersoll died. And he met the God
whom he defied and was judged. I was looking
recently in a Life magazine, a collection of
pictures from Life from the last 50 years, a
fascinating book. Among the pictures was one
that was taken, I think, back in the 50s, covertly
in the mausoleum in Moscow of Lenin and Stalin
in their death repose. As you know their bodies
have been preserved and are on display there
in the mausoleum because they are the heroes
of what is now a collapsing revolution. But here
were two men likewise who defied God and got
away with it for decades until the moment of
God's judgment came and then there was no escape.
And it's not only true of atheists, it's not
only true of communists, it's true of capitalists.
A few weeks ago, Malcolm Forbes, one of the wealthiest
men in the world, a man who last year invited
the rich, the wealthy, the famous from all over
the world to come to a 70th birthday party and
flew them there in Concord jets, died suddenly.
My point is that when the moment of judgment
arrives, there's nothing that can deliver one
out of the hands of God. So how wise to make
peace with God while you can. Behold, today is
the day of salvation. Seek the Lord while He
may be found. Call upon Him while He is nearer,
says the prophet. If today you are one who is
outside of Jesus Christ, You are not a Christian.
Maybe like Ingersoll of old, you lifted your
fist in God's face in defiance. Or like very
sincere religious people today, that defiance
and rebellion against God is inside. It's not
exterior, it's interior problem. You know you're
not a Christian. Today's your opportunity. Do
not delay. For when the moment of God's judgment
arrives, there's none that can deliver you. There's
another lesson that we must look at before we
close, and that is it is possible, it is possible
to be a Daniel in the midst of a pagan culture.
It is possible to be a man or a woman of integrity
and of purity in the midst of godliness. It doesn't
happen automatically. How foolish are the parents
who say, well, I'm going to raise my kids and
someday let them make their own decision as to
what they want to believe, if they want to believe.
How damnable that is to parenting. Daniel had
been raised, obviously, by godly parents, so
that by the time he was a teenager, when he was
jerked away from family, from home, from culture,
and taken hundreds of miles away, never to see
parents, home, or culture again, and to be raised
in the midst of a pagan place, Daniel was able
to stand alone. He did so as a teenager at about
15 years of age. And now we see him at 80, standing
before the king. giving him the truth of God.
It is possible in 1990 to be a Daniel. It doesn't
happen automatically. We parents have part to
play in that and the way we nurture our children
in the things of God. But it's also up to us
to look after our own personal spiritual development.
To develop in ourselves the courage to take the
unpopular path. To commit ourselves to lay everything
on the line for God. To consecrate our all to
Him, to Him alone. Oh, that we might respond
to what the chorus writer penned when he said,
dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare
to have a purpose firm and dare to make it known.
What our culture today needs is a population
of Daniels. You see, we are living not only in
a pagan culture, we are living in a culture that
is likewise under the judgment of God. And if
you look carefully, you can see the enemy outside
the walls. While our civilization is partying,
and we think we cannot collapse, but I tell you
in one night, as this ancient empire collapsed,
so can we. Oh, to be Daniels. Oh, to be men and
women of God who are committed to Him, whatever
the cost, who will not buy into the spoils of
the world system. Who, when the culture comes
and says, we'll give you a purple robe, we'll
put nice ornaments on you, we'll put you in a
position of power. Men and women who say, I will
not settle for that. I will be God's person.
That's what we need today are Daniels. Who will
represent God faithfully, even when the handwriting
is on the wall.