Daniel Part One Series

Daniel: Introduction (1)

Text: Daniel 1:1-4

Well we’ve made it to 2026. That’s going to take me a while to get used to. I’m still trying to process 2020… and now we’re six years past that. Just kidding… but seriously though, we are in a new year, and we’re going to start working our way through another Book of the Bible, and after much prayer and consideration, I’ve settled on the Book of Daniel. I think… and I hope and pray, that as we go through this, you will be blessed, and equipped by the Spirit of God through the Word of God, and it will help us in this new year.

So just a few months from now we’ll be right in the middle of the Mid-Term elections. Just thinking about that kind of turns my stomach to be honest with you. Because we now know, for certain about all the fraud and mess with voting machines, and criminal activity… to my knowledge, there have been no arrests or convictions. The Dominion voting machines were bought by someone else… so that will be interesting.

And all the political pundits and talking heads in the media, and arm-chair political quarterbacks will be doing what they do. Stress levels will rise, and people will get so caught up in all, and through it all - God is on His throne. So much of what we see take place in the world around us is the result of things taking place in the spiritual realm… Those things that happen in our world are the outworkings of hearts that have either been converted to Jesus Christ, or they’re the outworkings of hearts and minds that are in darkness.

The heart of the human problem is the problem with the human heart. And until the modern Church gets that, and goes out and blankets the nation with the Gospel, then those politicians you vote for – at best, are going to be in a constant battle to try to get things done.

And I think that’s why this Book of Daniel is such a relevant book for us today. Because in Daniel we not only see the outworkings of the heart… we see the outworkings of hearts that are evil and wicked, but also the outworkings of hearts that are full of faith and trust in God. But we also see that the battle that takes place in our physical world is also being fought in the spiritual world. And as we look through it, what this Book does is help us stand strong in our faith in a world that seems to have gone off the rails.

So, while you’re turning to Daniel, let me just set the stage for you. This book takes place in a place called Babylon. And Babylon is not a good place by any means or measure. It’s wicked, it’s evil, it’s corrupt. It’s controlled by demons and Satan. But what’s interesting is that if you were to ask the common citizen of Babylon, they would’ve told you that it was great being a citizen of Babylon. They would’ve told you, “Of course it’s great living here. Our empire is the strongest in the world. Our economy is booming. We have plenty to eat, and can live however we want as long as we obey the king and his commands. You know… bow down to his statue, and don’t disrupt the system. Life is pretty good.”

That’s what they would’ve told you… but that’s because the citizens of Babylon were all lost. They were demon worshipers. They were ok with child sacrifice, and temple prostitutes, and the kings rules, as long as they themselves got to keep on living in sin, and being wicked too.

And so, Babylon is a wicked place. It was a real kingdom, but the Bible also uses it to describe for us a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom of spiritual darkness & evil.

Babylon is mentioned in the Book of Revelation, and it’s used as representation of the fallen world and world system. The kingdom of darkness that is opposed to God, and all that God wants to do, and all that God stands for.

And the Biblical teaching is that the spirit that is behind Babylon – which is the devil… is at work in all the world systems, and nations, and institutions, and organizations. It’s the place where false religions develop, it’s the place where abortion is prominent… they’re involved in human trafficking and slavery, and drugs, and just about every evil thing you can think of. And this spiritual wickedness is working night and day, without rest, to twist its way into every single sphere of human life and thought.

We see it in all the sodomites you see on TV these days, to taking the sign of God’s covenant promise – the rainbow, and twisting it to say that it represents a perverse lifestyle, to the lies of evolution, and critical theory and critical race theory, and on and on, and on it goes. It’s in politics, it’s in education, it’s in organizations, in religions.