A. Daniel is a forerunner not only to his generation but also to our generation at the

generations where God is revealing Himself as the Judge for His people and

against rebellion and wickedness. The book records the times from the first exile

of the Jews in 605 BC until the third year of Cyrus in 536/7 BC.

B. The end of the age is an awesome time and terrifying time to be alive. It is a

explosion of the maturity of two worlds colliding. Matthew 13 tells us of a

generation in which the wheat and the tares will grow up and mature together. It

is a transitional generation.

going to mature together.’ They are going to reach a climax unto the day when

the angels harvest them and separate them out, the godly from the ungodly. We

are living in one of those transitional generations when God reveals Himself to

the people of God in an abundant measure.

our job to understand when a new season is breaking out upon us like the sons of

Issachar who knew the signs of the times and how to prepare the people of God

stories of Daniel are as important as the visions and prophecies themselves. The

narrative helps train the people of God on how to prepare for and live in the

transition.

1. Transitional Generations are ones in which God reveals Himself in a new

way. These are generations where there is a radical shift in how God

2. These are generations which witness the power and activity of God on a

regular basis. These generations were to escort the people of God into a

new season of redemptive history. They usually contain both God’s

3. They are times where the people of God are required to respond in a

greater measure to the revelation that God is releasing in their midst.

Example of Jesus’ command to the rich young ruler.

the transitions. These generations/transitions also come suddenly.

1. Noah.

2. Moses.

3. David.

4. Elijah and Elisha.

5. The Prophets associated with the exile of northern Israel (722BC) and

southern Israel (586BC).

6. John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostles.

7. The generation in which the Lord returns. Paul in 1 Cor. 15:51 describes

all be changed."

F. It is important to note that Daniel begins in transition and that he ascribes the

cause of the transition to the sovereignty of God. God initiates the transitions.

God brings Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem. Three times in Jeremiah God call

Nebuchadnezzar, "My servant." God gives Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar’s

hand and initiates the exile of Daniel and of Israel.

A. Its 605 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, the general of the Babylonian army, he is swiftly

taking over the ancient world.

Jehoiakim, is a puppet for the Pharaoh. With Assyrian power diminishing Egypt

is now dominating the ancient world when a young general, Nebuchadnezzar, like

a lion, is ready to pounce on his prey.

C. Nebuchadnezzar sweeps through Carchemish in 605 B.C., routings the Egyptian

army. Tradition holds that not one Egyptian soldier made it back to Egypt, not

one. Nebuchadnezzar chased them down all the way until he killed every soldier.

This Babylonian History general was hungry for conquest. The Bible calls this

army a fierce people. The prophet Joel describes this army well.

D. After he destroys the Egyptian army, Nebuchadnezzar comes to Jerusalem. He

besieges it but not like in 586 B.C. where he surrounded it and built up walls and

starved them out. He approached the city, threatened to destroy it, like he had the

Egyptian army, and made them pay tribute. Jerusalem acquiesces, and

Nebuchadnezzar removes the king that was the puppet for Pharaoh and he

requests two things. He wants young, gifted, good looking talented men; boys.

He wants them for his court and gathers 12-16 year olds from the royal family and

from the noble class who were good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, and quick to

understand. Persian court etiquette held that at the age of 14 young men began

their training. Second, he demands valuable articles from the Temple.

Temple. While marching back to Babylon, Nabopolassar, his father and emperor,

dies leaving young Nebuchadnezzar the throne.

F. The Land of Shinar

1. Gen. 10-11

2. Gen. 14

3. Isaiah 14

4. Zechariah 5:5-11

5. Rev. 17

G. Was Daniel a eunuch? Some debate is around the topic of whether the Hebrew

word used in 1:3 is only applied to eunuchs or can it be applied to a broader

times daily facing Jerusalem as he had from his childhood. Daniel had been

raised in a godly atmosphere of prayer and biblical instruction that enabled him to

endure in the day of calamity. Can you imagine what would happen to your

foreign gods?

Word of the Lord from Habakkuk at the Evangelism Conference.

2. Dream of Hitler and the coming Youth Movement.

delicacies. The battle ground that Daniel chooses is food. Dan. 1:17 tells us that

he studied all the literature and wisdom of the day, including other religions and

their ceremonies, yet Daniel chooses food to be the battleground. Daniel

remembers the prophecy of Moses concerning their future and what would lead

them to be exiled in Deut 32. Food is a key issue at the end of the age.

Overeating and self-indulgence will leave many in a spiritual state of dullness and

leanness. This over-fed and under nourished position will leave many totally

unprepared for the trial that is coming upon the whole earth.

1. Deut 32:15-18 "But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew

thick, You are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, And

scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16 They provoked Him to

jealousy with foreign gods; With abominations they provoked Him to

anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not

know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear. 18 Of the

Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, And have forgotten the God who

fathered you. NKJV

and God sent leanness into their soul. The Bible continually points to

Israel’s downfall as them growing fat on the abundance of food and

forgetting about their God who supplied it.

counsel, 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in

4. Ps 78:17-18 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most

High in the wilderness. 18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking

meat for their lust.

5. 1 Cor 10:1-11 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that

all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were

baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual

food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that

spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with

most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in

the wilderness. 6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent

that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. 7 And do not

become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat

down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." 8 Nor let us commit sexual

immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand

fell; 9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were

destroyed by serpents; 10 nor complain, as some of them also complained,

and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now all these things happened to

them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom

the ends of the ages have come.

6. In Matthew 6 Jesus lays out the three escorts into spiritual growth and

a. This is the way that God made our frames. Your body and soul are

connected. You cannot separate your spirit, soul, and body. Humans

are physical beings forever. We are not trying to escape our bodies.

In fact, we are looking forward to the day when we will receive

resurrected bodies. I know that whenever I over eat and over indulge,

my spirit grows dim and dull. My spiritual sharpness is diminished.

b. My first experience of extended fasting and the realization that

physical hunger and desire/craving were separate realities.

C. How can he participate in the very delicacies of the kingdom which has invaded

the holy land and will eventually destroy it? Daniel will not join with a wicked

ruler in the eating of delicacies while that ruler is seeking to destroy the very

people and land which he loves.

1. Eph 2:2-3 in which you once walked according to the course of this world,

according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works

in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted

ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of

the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. NKJV

2. 1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under

the sway of the wicked one. NKJV

3. 1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone

loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in

the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life --

is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away,

and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. NKJV

D. God supernaturally enables Daniel and his three friends to appear fatter than the

rest. This is a supernatural event. Water and Vegetables naturally make one

thinner in appearance. Not so, in this case. Supernaturally God enables their

appearance to be fatter and more healthy than the others.

E. He sustains his heart with the comfort of three others -- iron sharpening iron.

A. God rewards their faithfulness and diligence with revelation and knowledge, skill

to understand all literature and wisdom, and Daniel receives understanding in all

visions and dreams. God rewards their consecration with the ability to perceive.

B. The rarest commodity of all is the understanding of the day in which one lives. It

knowing what God was doing in a specific generation.

C. King Nebuchadnezzar finds them ten times better than any other wise counselor,

magician, or astrologer.

3) Prayer Around a Specific Issue

4) Divine Revelation Given

to expand his capacity for further revelation (Dan. 9:23, 10:10, 10:19).