"Daniel Chapter 5"

Between Sundays Podcast: We're back again. We are. I love that introduction, dude. Pretty good. Yeah, we can play that twice next time. No kidding. Well, what a week last week, What a blessing that truly was. I feel like the past few episodes we've come on, we've always, we've said, what a week. We've had a good couple of weeks, man. Last week was... Last week in particular, ⁓ you know, we had the... Wednesday night service, the Thursday night service, the Friday night service. I'll tell you when, ⁓ Saturday felt weird. Yeah. Not being, not being at church. It's felt weird the past few evenings. ⁓ it feels like forever since Sunday. Yeah. Yep. Cause in Sunday morning we were there right or dark and early. That was long morning. That was a long. you know, sunrise and you did an amazing job preaching that and then breakfast and Sunday school and then the service there at 11. Which was. One of the best sermons I've ever heard you preach. So the Lord was definitely behind us. gotta tell you, was taking Caleb Brown back and we'll walk down. I was like, well, he said, I felt like I needed to get saved. It was, it was that good, man. It was, that's all God. I mean, was the, I don't even want to, it's confrontational, but confrontational on a. spiritual just basis being confronted with the absolutely and are you doing what what the Lord has has laid out for you? Are you following his commandments? Are you living a life that is pleasing to the Lord? Yeah. Well, in this Sunday is going to be more I'm doing something totally different than I normally do. And you know, I prefer and believe in expositional preaching, but and we'll be preaching a topical sermon and it's more of a devotional and a strengthened thing that the Lord's laid on my heart and events that have happened in the last 24 hours affirm that that's the direction I was supposed to be going in. But, ⁓ brother Teddy will be able to say he didn't have to wear his steel toed boots come this Sunday. But yeah, that's a, know, so we got to get our fingers ready. Yeah. anybody that's from the church that listens, boy, we just thank you for the work and the effort and the prayers and the attentiveness. And I mean, I heard it from multiple people are like, do this every night. And I about could too. Like that was just something special about that when you're gathered together like that. And, you know, thought we were going to be doing whiteboard preaching or teaching, but it just turned in full blown gospel preaching. I, know, I was Thursday night. I was supposed to just what about 15, 20 minutes, 45 minutes. You sat down, you went, I'm sorry. But, um, you know, Sunday morning that was, and I told you this, that's the most comfortable I've felt in the pulpit. As far as preparation goes, which all pastors prepare different ways, but as a new pastor, I'll just give kind of an insight and I'm sure Zach can speak on this. But as a new pastor, it's hard to figure out what works for you and to fully let go and let the Lord use you and truly speak through you. But Thursday night, thought to me, it just felt like something was missing. was really really once again, ⁓ felt handcuffed to my notes and you looked at me and you said, just stay in the text, just stay in the text to the scripture. And that's what I did Sunday morning and I had notes, but I didn't really look at them that much. Well, and that's not something that just comes from a wealth of experience for me. ⁓ if you are listening to this and you're a a pastor, a younger pastor or even a Sunday school teacher, Sunday school teacher, or just a Bible student. There is an amazing book that some parts, if you're not in a teaching position, won't necessarily apply to you, but it'll, it'll add some context to some things, but it's called feed the flock by David cloud. And, ⁓ that's one of those that I'm going to end up putting on repeat. in reading over and over and over again because there's no way I got everything through the first run through. I mean, it is what an amazing little hundred and sixty hundred and seventy pages of helping to teach you how to like it helped me with tonight of getting ready for the the eighth chapter of the book, The Revelation and I noticed things that I didn't notice before I read that book. Like I've noticed repeated phrases, but then I sat there and went, okay, this keeps coming up over and over and over and over again. And I started circling them and I started writing it down and then it went, ⁓ now I see where this is going. And I may, I may have missed that if I hadn't done that. Yeah. It's a, it's a great book by David, David ⁓ cloud. W David W cloud. Yeah. David Dewey. You want to bet? No, don't want to bet. Anyways, David Cloud. It's a good book, but yeah, if, if, and that's one thing, even, even like Zach said, if you're, even if you're just trying to, and you want to get into the word more and you're trying to get more out of your, out of your scripture reading as we all should, just let it wash over you. And you're like, what does that mean? And the great visual that he says is, is about what Spurgeon did. ⁓ and he said Spurgeon would basically fill a bathtub mentally with, with the scripture and bathing and just lay down in it and just, and you remember when we were driving through Winston Salem, I said, cause we bought, I bought the copy and States for You ended up buying the other one. Yeah. When we were going to the King James research conference. And I was like, start reading right here. Cause I'd sat down in the chair in there while you were still looking at it. And it was like four pages of intro to just Luke 16 talking about the rich man and Lazarus. And then you go, you're reading it. He now let's get into the details. You now let's get it. Okay. Yeah. Now. Okay. Now. get into the details that deep into it but I mean I have learned you can never over read a verse and no think that you're like if you're not getting anything out of out of the reading and and and all of it and like I said when I open up this Bible now first thing I do is pray yep yep and and through reading it yeah doing it what you know because there's been plenty of times and I'm sure there'll be plenty of times in the future I go what Does that mean, but either way, man, it was just, it was a blessing of a week. ⁓ a blessing of a, of an Easter. And I know that, ⁓ when I was sitting up there helping to do the camera, I counted, you know, I mean, had, we had 30 people. Wow. We had 30 people and people like, Ooh, 30 good job. Doesn't matter if there's one or two. Praise the Lord for that. the Lord's, you know, we're in there doing the Lord's work. That's all that matters. But yeah, we, had 30 people on Sunday. Yeah. We're not going to just cancel a service on Sunday night. Cause there's only 300 in attendance. Exactly. There you go. That's for you, Hunter. Yeah. Exactly what that is. So I've been thinking when we've been going through Daniel, I'm like, where do we go next? I've started reading back through Exodus and then I love the book of Genesis and just doing way more in-depth Bible studies, but as I was preparing for my sermon, I came across something that I knew just a little bit about, I'd been told about, ⁓ but I want to go over before we get into Daniel 5, one of the most complicated and, dare I say, just wild chapters that you'll read in all of scripture. It is one of those where... When I first read it, I was like, why is this in here? Why is that there? Why is this? It's, in here for a reason. And what people refer to that as is kind of like a parenthetical chapter because. Because if, yeah, if you're looking at the flow of the chapter, it's just kind of there. Well, cause if you're in Genesis 37, you see Joseph go up to Dothan and goes to meet his brothers. And that's when they have the, the. they conspire to kill him. And then Ruben steps up and says, we don't need to kill him. And then the Ishmaelites come by and Judah is the one who says, why should we have his blood on our hands when we can get a price for it? you know, they pull him up out of the pit and they sell him. And then they take the coat of many colors, which is Honestly, we're some people's knowledge of Joseph ends Yeah, and that's sad. I that's what Most people know I mean think about Sunday school. That's what you do and I think that's what tends to happen ⁓ especially nowadays is like Joseph and his coat of many colors Jonah and the the whale but the fish yeah David and Goliath Daniel lines Daniel the lines then the walls of Jericho and you get those and then you think you've got a grasp on it and then we end up, and I'm not saying that one's more important than the other, if we're going to get our doctrine, we must go to Romans to Philemon, but a lot of people today just camp in the New Testament. They camp in the Gospels. They camp in the Epistles. because they'll say, I don't understand the geography. The names are hard to pronounce. We're in the New Testament. It is lot. can be overwhelming for sure. But I'll say what a blessing you miss. because Paul did not tell Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.16 that the new Scriptures that are written are inspired, but it's all inspired. And I love what Hunter says, and I've used it from the pulpit a couple of times now, it's a hymn book. It's a H-I-M book, and Jesus is throughout it all, we can't contextually understand the things that take place in the New Testament without the things that take place in the Old Testament and how much... knowledge that can be gained of who God is and what God's redemptive plan is. And just our eyes open more and more. ⁓ I mean, I've camped in, ⁓ the books of first and second Kings for a while. read the book of Ruth. I've been in first and second Samuel. Like I said, I'm going back through Exodus. I've been through Joshua. I know you, you can't for a while in Leviticus, didn't you? It's very hard. It's like when people, you know, do the read the Bible in a year when the instructions are given for the feast or the instructions are given to build the tabernacle or you get to like Genesis chapter five and Genesis chapter 10 with the genealogies and the lineages. It's like, ⁓ this is a slog. I'm going to just speed through this, you know, but you miss a lot. Kind of like how Enoch was the seventh from Adam and how that lines up in eschatology, and you can take the feasts that are listed in Leviticus 23 and see the course of human history within them. I mean, it's amazing once you can get into those things. ⁓ But as I was preparing for this sermon Sunday, I'm reading about Joseph, and I knew chapter 39 was where he is... tempted by Potiphar's wife when he's there. And I said, okay, I need to go back and look when he first gets sold and went 37 and then 38 pops up. And contextually speaking, it does not match. If anything you would think it would go from the end of 37 and ⁓ Genesis 37 verse 36, right into Genesis 39 one. ⁓ So why is this in here? Well, once I reread it, I went, ⁓ my goodness. And there's a lot to unpack, and this is a very difficult chapter. This is one that you're not going to hear preached very much or taught, especially in mixed company. So ⁓ none of this is irreverent, and none of this is vile in the manner because it is in Scripture. But some of this is, you know, intended for more mature people to be able to understand and comprehend. what all is taking place here. would say it can get, and this is a loaded word, but it could get for scripture, could get somewhat graphic. The details within it. So what 38 is in the heading in my Bible says parentheses, and then it has a colon and it says the shame of Judah. And you're like, why, why would this be here? One, why would any of this be written? But then why is this here? So As I read through it and as I prayed through it, I'm like, man, I got to teach this as difficult as this may be. But if we're going to abide by acts 2027 of the whole council of God, he meant for this to be in here. He meant for these 30 verses in Genesis 38 to be in. So I'm for the sake of time, so we can get to Daniel five. I'm only going to read certain points of it. I'm not going to read all 30 verses and I'm going to give a little contextual piece. So. The end of 37 is, Jacob is extremely grieved. And I have to go back right now because I'll relisten to our episode last week. I was punching myself in the head. said, Abraham blessed Jacob and Nisong. I meant to say Isaac and that bothered me. But after them conspiring to kill Joseph and then sell Joseph and then they take his garments and they dip it in the the goat's blood and they bring it back to Jacob and they say, look, he's dead. Verse 35, it says, and all his sons and his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. You think about how grieve someone is when they're like, don't even talk to me. Don't even say anything to me. I'm refusing any type of comfort or consolation that you could be giving me. Well, I mean, you see the verse before he ran his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned. Yeah, exactly. And the end of this verse is, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, for I will go down into the grave unto my son morning. Thus his father went for him. How do you comfort that? There's nothing else in this world that's going to bring me any peace and any comfort. I will go to my grave morning. This son in whom I love the baby of the family. So then right after that, it talks about. The Midianites have sold Joseph to Egypt on the Potiphar. Then it says chapter 38 verse one, and it came to pass that time that Judah went down from his brethren. So first thing we have to look at, why does Judah leave out? He's been with his other brothers. Is he grieved? Well, it doesn't appear that way. Is he ashamed of what he's done? Some of the actions he's getting ready to do doesn't show that there's any shame within him. Or is he tired of hearing dad whine? Yeah. Is he like, I got to separate my, I got to get out of here. Y'all are a drag. This is, this is bringing me down. And where does he go? So it says he went down from his brother and turned into a certain a dolamite whose name was Hera. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite. So This Canaanite's name was Shua, and he takes his daughter and he has three sons. Now, this is before the Law of Moses, but there's one thing specifically that God is keeping his people from, and that is getting into this pagan, ⁓ evil, wicked Canaanite culture to not be intermingled with him. Now, some of the listeners that may... may not know the context of this chapter, we know Judah is being good. Because Jesus is the line of the tribe of Judah. Judah in Genesis 49 is Jacob is dying, blesses Judah with the kingship. And Judah is the more faithful nation after the death of Solomon with the split with Rehoboam and Jeroboam. Israel gets conquered in 722 BC by the Assyrians. Judah goes into exile underneath Babylon, but there's the promise of restoration and you can read through Isaiah and Jeremiah and see those things being brought to them. So Judah seems like an upstanding guy. Now we already have contextual things like going back into chapter 37 and verse 26. And Judah said unto his brethren, what profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come. Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother in our flesh. Now that seems nice. And his brother, his brother and we're content. But the start of the sentence was not he's our brother and he's our flesh. The start of the sentence was let's not kill him. Let's sell him. We make some money off this. Yeah. Why? Why get rid of this asset that we have exactly when we can. profit from it. So Judah goes down into Canaan. He's yoking up. He has a Canaanite wife, something that God would not deem as correct, that God would not look good upon. And him and his wife have three sons. The first one is Ur, the second one is Onan, and then the third one is Shelah, okay? And what ends up happening, as the customary practice was in that culture, that the father found for his son a wife. Now you got to think about this. He left his brethren. He's been gone for a little bit. Like there's been some time spent down here because now he has at least two sons, as you'll see in the scripture, that are of marrying age, that are of age to be able to conceive children. So he has been down in Canaan. Well, mean, living amongst them for a while at the beginning. mean, we know and it came to pass at the time in scripture that could mean five years. could mean 50 years. Exactly. Now, if you look in the context of the narrative of Joseph, which I believe these two are running parallel, we can't be really any more than 20 years based off of what takes place with Joseph down in Egypt. But what ends up happening is verse seven says an error. Judah's firstborn was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord slew him. Well, at the end of the day, we can speculate what he did, what he was doing, but we can see that he did wrong in the eyes of God and God slew him. There God's completely justified in doing that when he killed us for touching the Ark, when he killed Nadeab and Abah for playing with strange fire, when he quit killed Ananias. and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Ghost there before Peter in Acts 5. God's justified for doing those things. So what Judah does is he goes to Onan and he says, you need to go to your brother's wife and you need to conceive a child. That way your brother has children that continue on. Now this was customary for that. That's the practice because now Tamar, who is Er's wife, she will be without anything. Like she has, she, she must have a husband to be able to have any type of stability, security, fill in the blank. ⁓ this is where it gets kind of graphic. And verse nine, it says, and Onan knew that the seed should not be his. So he knows I've ⁓ married Tamar and If we have a child, it's for my brother or it's not mine. And it came to pass when he went in unto his brother's wife, he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. I'm not going into detail there. I think it's pretty clear what took place. And what we see that Onan did was he wanted the pleasure without the responsibility. ⁓ geez, does that not sound like our society today? He was supposed to go in and conceive and made it to where the male and the female didn't match up. Yep. And just got the thing that so many people do on the weekends or whenever. he did was abuse this poor woman. Yeah. He said, I want the pleasure from these things, but I don't want the responsibility. He initiated the action, but didn't complete the action of carrying on a seed for his brother. And verse 10, in the thing which he did despise the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. So if you want to try to connect the dots here, it kind of seems like there's ⁓ a consistent theme. There is a lot of sexual immorality that's taking place in Genesis 38. So one could estimate that maybe Ur was involved in some of the same type of things that were taking place. Uh, maybe it was some type of sexual immorality because Ohnan was killed in the same way. Now I don't know how they were killed. I don't know if they fail and broke their neck. I don't know if they got cancer. don't know. just know that. Err was quote wicked in the side of the Lord and the Lord slew him. And then we see a couple of verses later how Ohnan was slew because of what he did was seen as wicked. Yeah. This displays Lord. So And what Judah is about to do can really kind of, we can kind of line that up. So what ends up happening here is Judah tells Tamar, until Shelah is old enough to be able to marry you and help you conceive, you go on back to your father and we'll wait for him to get older. Now that's not customary practice. He was supposed to take her in. So he ships her on off. this poor woman is going through it. no children, got no, the only thing she had was in-laws and a powerful father-in-law. And he said, no, you go on back. We're going to, when it's time to use you, basically, pretty much we're going to call on you, which is what she's went through this entire time. for people that don't know the emphasis, this story you say, How are you speaking about Judah that way? But then speaking about this Canaanite woman in that way, we'll get, we'll, we're going to land the plane here in a minute. So during this time, ⁓ Judah's daughter ends up dying and he's in mourning. So he's going up to Tim math to ⁓ have his sheep shared ⁓ and being consoled by here. ⁓ Dula might. And on their way, he sees this prostitute, this harlot on the side of the road. Now with the Canaanite culture, serving the fertility goddesses and it being overly sexualized, that was actually a temple practice, which is one of the things, Will, that is amazing that people will try to... ⁓ move the mark of what God has commanded in Leviticus 18 22 to say, well, those were temple practices because it's doing the wicked that was in the land of Canaan. It was just one of many wicked things. Yeah, that's just picking, picking the sin that serves you best. Exactly. So he comes up to this prostitute and he doesn't say anything to her, but in verse 16, and he turned on to her by the way and said, go to, pray thee. Let me come in under thee. Now you'll see in parentheses, it says for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law. So what Tamar did was she took off her widow garments, put a veil over her face, which signified that she was a harlot. Wrapped herself and sat in an open place. So she went to sit and here's the thing. What did she know about her father-in-law that this would work? What has she seen? She already knows the nature of her and Onan. So what has she seen to know that if I dress up like a harlot and sit by the roadside, my father-in-law will come over to me. Yeah. She, and, it's not what, you know, the thing is it's not like this took one time, two times, three times, four times of her doing it. very first time the very, all she had to do was be in the way. Yep. And as soon as he saw either now, remember he's going to be comforted due to the loss of his daughter and he's heading up to 10 math and he's heading up to 10 math and he sees her and she says, what will that give me that thou mayest come in unto me? And he doesn't have anything on him. So he says, I'll give you a goat from the flock. I'll give you, I'll give you a kid and She says, will you give me a pledge to, I can make sure that this what you're going to do. Well, here's what he hands over. Will he gives his signet, which is his identification. would be like you handing over your social security card or your, your ID to somebody as a down payment. know, that signet was used to, and we'll see it later on in Daniel, Daniel six. Yeah. We'll see that the signet was basically, it was everything. Because it was a ring at that point. Here, he has it on a cord around his neck. You know what else passage of scripture talks about placing a signet on? What? Luke 15 with the lost son. comes and puts the ring back on. He puts it back in and says, you're back in with me. Is that not amazing? Yeah. And then he gives his staff, which is his sign of authority. So he's giving a down payment to partake in actions with this harlot, not knowing that it's his daughter-in-law. Cygnet, bracelets, and thy staff. So he goes in and she conceives. Now she goes back home, she takes off the veil, she takes off the wrap, she puts her widow clothes back on. Well, Judah doesn't go to pay with the goat. He sends Herah, the Adulamite, to go pay. in verse 20 it says, Judah sent the kid. by the hand of his friend, the Adulima, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand, but he found her not. Basically, go get my identity back. Here's my payment for the thing that I did. Go and pay this. And you take care of it for me. Verse 21. Then he asked the men of the place, saying, where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside? And they said there was no harlot in this place. And he returned to Judah and said, I could not find her. And also the men of the place said that there was no harlot in this place. Now listen to Judah's response in verse 23. Judah said, let her take it to her, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this kid and thou hast not found her. Judah is more worried about what other people are going to say. Yeah. He's worried about the shame. It's what's going to come upon him by others. than that of what he's done in the eyes of God. Now, relate this to Genesis 39 when Joseph is down in Egypt with Potiphar's wife, and he says, I'm not going to sin in the eyes of the Lord. Now, here's the thing, Will. Nobody would find out if Joseph gave in to the advances of Potiphar's wife when she said, lay with me. Nobody's going to find that out. But he said, I'm not going to sin in eyes of Lord. Judah Has sinned in the eyes of the Lord and everyone's telling him, don't worry about it, dude. It's a harlot. It's a harlot. And she wasn't even there to take the pain. You're good. Yeah. Even though she's got all of your identity. Yeah. Now we'll get to the main lessons of this, this story here in a minute. So then he hears that Tamar is with child and it infuriates him. He says, let her be burned. Three months after. Take her and burn her for what she's done. Now here's the key. Verse 25. When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law saying by the man whose these are, I am with child. And she said, discern, I pray thee. Who's are these the signet and bracelets and staff? I can just see Mike drop. That's all I could see. Jaw drop being like, who was it? Did it go ahead? Show me who did it. Cause you're about to be burnt. And then all of a sudden there's your identification. There's your staff. There's your staff. There's your bracelet. Here's, here's your identity. Here's your symbol of authority. They're yours because you're the one you're the one. In verse 26, and Judah acknowledged them and said, She hath been more righteous than I, because that I gave her not She-La, my son. See, he came of age, it's like Judah's almost forgot about her. Judah's almost pushed it on the back burner. He's let it go. So think about the time that is taken. She's out of sight, out of mind. don't even... Exactly. Even if I don't call for her, that's one less mouth I have. That's one less one less thing I gotta worry about and and if they get together and then they have a child That's more responsibility. There's more to go more. So she's out of sight. She's out of mind. Yeah And at the end of verse 26 it says and he knew her again no more There's redemption there because Judah realizes what sin he's done. He declares how much more righteous she's been than him and he's like, you know, that's the thing with sin some people will be like Well, I've done it once. I might as well do it again. I used to think that way. I seriously did. would be like, I'd be like, well, first time I did it didn't kill me. Might as well go again. Yeah. It's so then there's an amazing piece at the end of this story where there's two sons that are, that are birth, ⁓ Zara and for Rez. Now when for Rez comes out, he's coming out first. So the, the, the midwife that's taking care. of Tamar places a scarlet thread on his hand saying, came out first. Verse 29, and it came to pass as he drew back his hand that behold, his brother came out. So he, he, he's birthed, pulls his hand back and then his brother comes out and how hast thou broken forth this breach be upon thee? Therefore his name was for as. And afterward came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand, and his name was Zara. You notice the one that was born twice was wrapped with a scarlet thread. The scarlet thread being significance of Jesus's blood that Rahab hung from her window. He was literally born twice. The second born, the one that was born twice, was the one that came. Now, you may be saying, Zach, Will, why are you talking about this? What's the importance of this? The importance of this is, is realize God struck two men down that had Abraham's blood running through them that were descendants of Judah, but God took special care of a Canaanite girl. Understand that the wickedness that was here within Judah, how could we ever believe that that is the tribe in which our Lord and Savior would come from? Why would it not be Joseph? Why would it not be the one who had his heart fixed on the Lord that would not commit those sins? Because God's about redemption. It's a redemption story. What it is, is it points to the grace, mercy, and love of God that this is the one that is chosen to be. Now, Judah, I believe at the end of this, not that I believe, I think it's what it says, is he repented of his actions and then later on when they get down to Egypt during the time of the famine, he volunteers himself to be a slave to save Benjamin. And then he gets the blessing from Jacob in chapter 49. God does not look at the ones of what they've done. He looks at the ones that get underneath His will, that get underneath the blood, that get underneath what His ultimate plan is. Because at the end of the day, if you're sitting here saying, He should have chosen Joseph and should have rejected Judah for the wickedness that He had done, why wouldn't God just reject us for the wickedness that we had done. We're no different. What's the point of us even having salvation? Exactly. He redeems those that are undeserving. Now, here's the key. The one who would be deserving is the one who took the punishment. So Jesus is the only one that is perfect and worth exonerating and worth, you know, exalting and glorifying. And he took the punishment, the undeserving took the punishment, just like Joseph. Funny enough, in chapter 37, Joseph is sold by his brethren for pieces of silver. But then here's the undeserving one that gets the redemption of God. Well, Joseph is the type of Jesus and Judah right here is the type of us. We don't deserve it, yet we get brought in through grace, mercy and love. And the one who didn't deserve it gets it all poured out on him. Now here's the last piece that I picked up from this passage that I think really, really stuck out. Sin will always look worse when it's on someone else. Our eyes will judge sin so much more severely when it's not in our own house. Notice when Judah learns that Tamar is pregnant, burner right now. Yeah, no questions. No questions. But Judah can go and have these two wicked sons. that are struck down and slain by the Lord, he can go and be walking down the road and jump in with his harlot, he can give away his identity. Do know how many people have given away their testimony and their identity as a child of God just for a moment of pleasure? I'm not saying you lose your salvation, but your identity as a child of the King can be forfeited for a few moments of pleasure. Sin is fun for a season. You can do a lot of damage to your testimony for a second of pleasure and it will take the rest of your life sometimes to build that back. And you're not going to lose your salvation, but you may not be the witness that you were called to be. So, Sam always looks worse when it's on other people. He's ready to burn her, but look at what he's doing behind the scenes. And I think that part of the redemption and to show us We've got more in common with Judah than we do with Joseph. I think in Tamar, it seems like she went around it the wrong way. Right. But the Lord blessed her with two sons. And look what she's written into. Go to Matthew chapter one and read she's written into the genealogy of Jesus. Yeah. Because of the line of Judah, because of the redemption, because of the grace. You want to talk about Well, this story seems kind of dirty. The only reason it seems dirty is because it's holding up to a mirror to how we are. And that's why we should be so thankful for the grace of God. I think that, yeah, the only reason it sounds dirty is because my name is not in here. People want to read 39 and be like, ⁓ I can relate with that one. Cause Joseph didn't fall for the advances of Potiphar's wife and he suffered the persecution and he He fixed his heart upon the Lord and the Lord was with him. It said it twice. I don't like to think of myself as Judah. Guys were more like Judah than anything. But it's beautiful because of the redemption that comes from it. ⁓ so that's a challenging passage of scripture, but I think is extremely important one because it's in the Bible, but two, that's such a sign of redemption. And if you ever find something where you're reading and you go, why is that there? You may need to dig a little deeper because look at what you would have. Look what you would have passed. I like, well, same thing if you skip the genealogies. Same thing if you skip the descriptions of things like to know what type of skins were on the outside of the tabernacle to know it took the boards from underneath and then the silver and everything. Well, I know Solomon built the temple. Yeah. But did you know it took him? seven years to do so. know, finding those little details because God has written this book and it's all written. It's all written for us to be able to read and understand, but it's not all written to us. ⁓ So I think that's a beautiful passage of Scripture as... and here's the thing... Some people may say in this shows where we are in a society, I would never read that in church. There's some things you got to talk about there. That's going to be what we would like. What you said earlier, that loaded term of being graphic. We got no problem watching it on TV. Yeah. Yeah. We got no problem with, we won't say any of this in, you know, in a sanctuary. Yeah. But when it's the word of God, But we got no problem paying $20 to go watch a movie that does the same, like worse. that, but I mean, even not even pay and even walking out and we're still sitting in the church parking lot and we start scrolling. Exactly. And we see stuff like this and it pops up because it's, it's over saturated in our society. Someone gives it a lock. You're like, really? Yep. Yeah. Come on now. So, I mean, there's a lot that we can learn from that and a lot that we can relate with that and just to see the grace of God. I don't, if you surface level read that, you'd be like, how is there any grace of God within there? That is just wow. Yeah. You're like, what is that about? God's killing people. People are doing perverse actions. There's harlots. There's, uh, deception. Yeah. Deception on a crazy scale. Well, guys, if you want to disqualify somebody for deception, ⁓ David's out. Jacob's out. His name is sir planter. Like he's, he was the master. Abraham's out. Abraham, go ahead. And what you would do is if, you mark it out because of deception, ⁓ Take a red marker and go ahead and just start making X's all the way through Hebrews chapter 11 Exactly, that's what's because here's the thing we're not supposed to look at Judah as our example We're not supposed to look at Joseph as our example Our eyes needs to be fixed on Christ as our example in our guidance through this world because he's the only true Redeemer and everything that's in here that the people that that seem like they're the Redeemer All they are is typologies pointing to him and what you could miss if you just bypass something because you're like, I want to read the Joseph narrative. I want to read through the story of Joseph. I want to see how that happened. I'm familiar with those. We'll get familiar with things honestly in scripture that can make that belly bitter. Yeah. It's sweet to my mouth to see Joseph stand there and go, Nope, my heart, the Lord's with me. I'm not going to sin in his eyes. This can make you belly bitter. And the reason it can do it is because. It can show faults. It can say, I can point my finger at that sin over yonder, but what happens when it's turned to you? And are you willing to sell your identity for just a quick moment of pleasure? And then the redemption and the grace of God of how he takes care of people. So that's what I want to start with. Well, that's like I said, but you know, and I didn't even, I had never really. read this chapter and I get here and it's actually like, open up your Bible. It's a Genesis thirty. Do me a favor. Read Genesis thirty-eight because that's what I want to start the show with and mind blown. Mind blown. But yeah, I mean, I think that's we get we get so caught up on on the stuff we like to read. in scripture. then I think people that have been in church their whole lives, they're like, well, I don't need to read that. I don't need to go over that. Think about Jonah in the four short chapters of the book of Jonah that he doesn't want to go to Nineveh. we'll take the lesson from that. We'll say, God wants something to be done. It's going to be done. Whether that means He closes the door, opens the door, or you get swallowed by a fish. But you can see the intense of the heart of Jonah and why he wasn't wanting to go. He wanted to see fireworks. He wanted Sodom and Gomorrah to happen because when the king of Nineveh steps off the throne, takes off his royal garments and puts on sackcloth and begins to mourn and repent, what does, what does Jonah do? He gets mad. Yeah, he's upset. He goes off up on the top of the hill by himself and he's Pouting. Yeah, he's mad. He can't see the judgment. It's like, and how many times can we relate with that to be like our flesh goes? Yeah. You going to get what's coming to you when at the same time we should be Lord, forgive them. Lord, help them. I mean, praying when Jesus said, pray for your enemies. That's what I It doesn't mean consent to their actions. It doesn't mean link up with them in their actions. It means I'm marking and avoiding them. I'm being ecclesiastically or biblically separated from the wickedness in which they do. may despise the actions of that person, but I need to pray for them because it's not just their sin that's going to hell. It's them that's going. Nobody, nobody needs to go there, but there's people that you would at the drop of a hat be like, I ain't praying for them. Yeah. Don't, don't lie to yourself. ⁓ Cause I can tell you right now there's been people in my life where it's like, really don't want to pray for that person. God help them. God save them. ⁓ that, mean, we can all be like Jonah in those times, but yeah, get deeper, understand. Like, I mean, even the story and we'll get to Daniel. I'm sorry. No, we're fine. Even the story of David and Goliath like. You know, when Samuel comes to anointing after Saul's lost his anointing and Eliab standing there and he's like, King material, but look at the one that's out there on the battlefield being like, no place for a kid. Get out of here. Go away. Go. And it's, it's, it's, it's his brother, the one that, that's so like, you, you can know that David cook life unless you're ESV and then Al Haynan did, sorry. Literally a different story. ⁓ By the way, we may lose viewers right here before you get into Daniel 5, but I have to ask you something. Please do. Okay. This came to me the other night and I wanted to text you, but it was too late. The Bible translation issue. Just another, just a little, another nugget for those of you that, that see what we've been saying to know the bullet in your gun. For those of you that may disagree with us, but you keep listening. It's another question. you. It's another question for you. If we have to update the Bible to make it easier to read, but then we have to go and look at the Greek and Hebrew. So you're telling me we're going to put it in the English translation, make it easier to read, but then you have to go read the two archaic languages. Now time out. One of the things that you were just trusting them to be able to interpret it. Do you actually read Greek and Hebrew or you trust in the English translation of what the scholars have said there? Do you actually know what a Vah is? Do you know what a yod is? Do you know the Greek alphabet? Do you know that Hebrew is written right to left and how to read it and how to write it what it all looks like? Do you know what coin a Greek is? Do know the difference between that and miniscule? Do you know, uh, the difference between unseals and miniscule? What coin a Greek is, what Neo-Hellenic Hellenistic Greek is. Do you know the spacings of it? Do, are you able to read Greek? If not, you know what you're doing? You're relying on some scholar to interpret it for you. So don't give me the, have to go back to the Greek and Hebrew because you're still just relying on men to do it. Because unless you know ancient Greek and Hebrew, you have to rely on. can write the text grammar. I can write the name of God in Hebrew. Cause I've practiced it. Cause that one day I was like, dude, like I down that rabbit hole of things. So I can write that. That's the extent of it. I can't. So unless you can, like you cannot give the argument that you have to go back to the Greek and Hebrew because all you're relying on is a scholar's English interpretation of that unless you can read it yourself. It just came to me and I was like, well, that yeah, there's kind of like that circular read. We have to go back to Greek and Hebrew. Okay. Well, does it say? Well, the commentary right here. No, no, no, no, no, no, Don't give me the English. Don't give me what that scholar had said. It you, you translated. want you to go and take synodicus and look at the unseals that are written. And I want you to read that for me with no verses with, with no, ⁓ well drop keys were in that a can of spats, can of worms for another day. But well, that's a straw man argument because it puts you in a corner. if you can't read Greek and Hebrew, you know, the only thing that you're doing is you're relying on somebody else's English interpretation of it. So in fact, that argument is invalid. Either it's invalid or our argument of the King James trusting in the King James translators is valid. Exactly. Just because listen, just because you go on Bible hub in blue letter Bible and there's the Hebrew and Greek, but then there's the English below it does not. doesn't mean you can read it just because you have a Strong's concordance. Oh dude, that does not mean that you can. I love my Strong's. If it wasn't for you, I would be lost sometimes, but that doesn't mean that I can read that in Greek. go, cause you know what I got to do? I got to look at the English pronunciation and then I got to look at the pronunciation key of how it divides it up to be able to pronounce that. have to use the Strong's that you can click. So where it says it says it to you. Redback Strong's G four 72. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So no, you're not searching the Hebrew. No, you're not searching the Greek. I just, had to say that. Um, cause that just came to me the other night I was like, you know, I've never heard that argument before. because it doesn't work. Because you're not reading Greek and Hebrew. No, you're reading an English translation that somebody did from that Greek and Hebrew. Well, that's it. We're done with this show. Okay, we'll get back into it. So, well, Daniel chapter five. Yeah, I've never heard that though. I seriously in all my studies, that's never clicked with me but I was just sitting here the other night and I went, wait a minute. That's so simple. Why haven't I asked that question before? But yeah, there's anyways, Daniel chapter five. So if you want to tune back in, hit play, guess, whatever. Daniel, we do appreciate those four subscribers that we had that just left. Yeah. Come on back if you want, but least you know where we stand. I you you was some exposition before I dropped that. That's all right. That's all right. So we are at Daniel chapter five. We're still working our way through the book of Daniel. ⁓ And this is the chapter where everything starts to change as far as for the Babylonians. This is a big change and I thank so much Clarence Larkin for describing this because I didn't think about it this way. looking through his ⁓ book on Daniel, it's basically commentary. Yeah. And you start chapter five with Genesis 10. And I'm like, what are you? ⁓ because Nimrod and then settling in Shinar and the Tower of Babel and the beginning of Babylon. And then Will, after he goes through his commentary of Daniel chapter 5, where does he take us to? Revelation 17, 18, and 19 with the follow Bible on it. like he pulled it. And that's what the Bible does. Yeah, it pulls it all together. So you have to know where it started with. verse 8 in Genesis 10, and Cush begat Nimrod, he began to be a mighty one on the earth, he was a mighty hunter before the Lord, wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. Before the Lord was against, up against, God said go, be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth, which is funny because it's the same thing he says to Adam, so. ⁓ So then we'll do an episode on that. So then the people say, lest we be scattered, I don't want to go. We're just going to settle in Shinar. And we're going to build not a tower that we think of as like a skyscraper. It's a pyramid. It's a pyramid. It's a temple. It's a ziggurat. Jinx. So that's what this is where. And Adrian Rogers said it one time, man, and I've never forgot it. was during his line in the lamb series of revelation. And he said, Babylon, the cradle and the grave of pagan religion. How many times have you heard me say that? Like false religion. Babylon is the cradle and the grave for it. Yeah, literally the cradle is where it began and that's where it will end. That's where all of it will. That's where the Lord will speak and it will be done with. Because we read through this chapter in Daniel 5 and people go, well, Babylon's done. Here come the Medes and the Persians. No. Technically, the kingdom that Nebuchadnezzar rolled over in the gardens and all these things. Yeah, that ceased. But it's the practices, the debauchery. It's the spiritual interpretation of it. When you read about the whore of Babylon in Revelation 17 committing fornication with the kings of the earth. That doesn't mean that this harlot commits fornication in the same way that Judah did with Tamar. That's spiritual fornication. And we've got to be careful about how much spiritual fornication that we're committing. I'm sorry, I need to let you go. You're good, man. I'm good. I just thought that was important to give the context. Like, if you want to read Daniel 5, you want to the book of Daniel. through the first five chapters, see how it begins and ends. Go back to Genesis and go to Revelation. better get two Bibles at least and open up one in Revelation and open up one in Daniel. Yeah, and then have it marked in Genesis to go back. Okay, you need to read the Tower of Babel before you read the Daniel account of Babylon. So we have, like I said, Daniel chapter five. So earlier in Daniel chapter four, we have Nebuchadnezzar and that's when he's got all of his visions and he's doing all of his stuff and basically Daniel comes up to him and ⁓ says you know Daniel was astonished for an hour and his thoughts troubled him and Daniel chapter four was was written by Nebuchadnezzar ⁓ we have all that and then we get the, ⁓ the sickness and, ⁓ people say at the end ⁓ ⁓ accepted the Lord that that I think we handled that pretty good of like the reasons why, but there, there is at the end, ⁓ he does give some kind of praise to the God of Daniel, but puts him at the top of his list. Jesus, I know Paul, I know, but who are you? So we start at Daniel chapter five. And so there is a lot of time that is passed from Daniel chapter four to Daniel chapter five. It's sixty three years. Daniel was in his 20s when Nebuchadnezzar had his visions and now Daniel is eighty eighty eight. Yeah. So, I mean, it's sixty years it's passed by. So the beginning of chapter five, have Bell Schaizer, the king, ⁓ and it's talking about how he's basically just living that, king life ⁓ and he's getting ready to have ⁓ one of the crazy big feasts that they have just partying and. guys what they were this, this was not just a big dinner for people drink a little bit. This was orgies. Yes. Everywhere, you know, in the hallways drinking, eating. mean, just debauchery. you ever seen the 10 commandments? Yes. Do you know when Moses is still up there and, is it, was it named? He's not in the Bible. It's, ⁓ Robinson's character, ⁓ naming I think is who it is. ⁓ That's a G version of what was going on. Yeah. And you see them down there when they're, Aaron is molding the gold over top of the cab, take that and ramp it up of what they were doing. Yeah. So it starts off and so they're getting, they're having one of their parties drinking wine. so, ⁓ And ⁓ Belshazzar commands them to the golden and silver vessels ⁓ that his Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem. ⁓ And so they do is they bring in all these gold and silver vessels, the ones that were in the temple that were used ceremonially, that were ⁓ used just by the priests that were so holy they were if debauchery wasn't enough just add blasphemy on top exactly and so they're basically partying and drinking and using all those you know what makes this part better party better than just debauchery desecration yeah let's just really tip god off yeah yeah ⁓ and so they do all that and at the very in verse four it says they drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone. So you've got drunken and pagan rituals and just, I mean, using these sacred vessels from the temple, praising those different gods that don't even exist. But hold on a minute. What do you notice about the gods that they're worshipping in verse four? They are all. The the material. besides well, would I don't know. Yeah, they're all the materials that were. Depicted in the statute. Yeah, from from that first dream. You think about how far that culture has gone. We thought reading chapter three that Nebuchadnezzar erecting a gold statue was wrong. Now they're worshipping the gods of the statue that was in the dream. and I just you know I've got right here in my Bible I said if if Nebuchadnezzar had a such a profound, if the Lord had such a profound impact on Nebuchadnezzar, why was that not passed down? There is no fruit from that because if this is one generation, two generations, so it's, it's his son, it's Nebuchadnezzar's son and his grandson. So we're two generations out. Yeah. Why is there no fear of the Lord passed down? Here's a, here's another thing. Spoiler alert for later in the passage. He don't even know who Daniel is. No, they have no idea who Daniel is. And so we're going through all that. And then all of a sudden. We have it's described as four fingers or, you know, a hand. We have verse five in the same hour came forth four fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick. upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw part of the hand that wrote. Please read verse six. Yes. It's my favorite of this whole thing. Verse six. Then the king's countenance was changed. Got sobered up real quick. And his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosened and his knees smoked against one another. Smoked against one another. They were smacking. He was scared. His knees were shaken. They were, they smoked his knees, smoked against one another. That's how scared he was with what he saw. Because every other time we've, we've seen smoked. It causes death. That's forceful. So yeah, like you said, they have, he has sobered up very quickly because he's starting to litter. And this is where we get the phrase that I was writing on the wall. The writing's on the wall. writing's on the wall. Ain't it funny how culture gets everything from God? ⁓ because culture was created by God. So all of a sudden he's scared to death. Scared to death. And so what does he do? For one, yeah, just like Zach said, he doesn't even know Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar, he would have called Daniel. Well, maybe, because we see when he the vision and for he, but, then he didn't have to be reminded of Daniel. Yeah. True. Cause Nebuchadnezzar did give me the soothsayers, give me the magicians, give me the Cal deans, give me all these people. And then it was like, I know I'll call Daniel. Yeah. Daniel's the one which is so sad because that's normally what people do. Give me the drugs, give me the sex, give me the alcohol, give me all these things. Oh wait, I'm at the end of my road. Let me pray. So it says the king cried aloud. What does he do? He asked for the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the soothsayers, and the king spake. And he said, bring me all the wise men of Babylon. ⁓ Now think about that when he cried aloud. You know what I can envision? Tambourines banging, drums going, everybody just, and all of a sudden you hear, stop! Yeah. Like ⁓ a decree to be like. Especially the king saying they're going to stop the king. And can you imagine like the roar that has taken place? And then all of a sudden just. I mean, what a damper on the party. I know I hate that for him. Yeah. Well, he needed jelly rolls. Jesus. Cause he had kept the party going. You better cut that. That wasn't good. Nope. And he says, basically whoever can, can read this writing, show me the interpretation. Then here's what I'm going to do. I'm going I'm going to clothe them in Scarlet. I'm going to have a chain of gold put around his neck and he's going to be the third ruler in the kingdom. You say third. Why third? Exactly. Because his father and him. So how many times do you have to read that to get me too? How many times do we have to read that to get that? ⁓ quite a bit because you know what I've heard, because you don't, you don't realize he's third till you get down to verse 10. Exactly. And originally what I thought was, okay, well, Nebuchadnezzar was his dad because now he's going to put him next in line because he was next. But that wouldn't make sense because there were other rulers in Babylon. Like those are the little details when you add, like when you're reading through scripture and then you read it again, just don't go through and be like, I don't understand that, but I want to keep going because I want to get to the, I want to see what the writing on the wall was. Go, go back. It's there for a reason, Well, I mean, you also think too, he's worried. I mean, talk about scared his, his knees smoked together, but this is a guy I'm sure that loves his power. ⁓ yeah. at what it's getting him. And he's so worried about, says, if you tell me what that writing says and explain that to me, got it. You look at you are third in line. The differences between Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is handed over from Jehoicum. The first group of those Babylonian or the, ⁓ the Judean exiles from Babylon. Yeah. And look what he does. He's like, I'm going to teach them. I'm going to feed them. We're going to immerse them and assimilate them into our society. This to me is like the Prince that, you can tell that he's rolling with his father because it's like, daddy's not there. He can do what he's all. So let's throw a party. Yeah. And there's never been any. any, you know. Can you think of the word? We don't have any ramifications for his actions. Nobody's dare going to say anything to him. No one holds him accountable for any night. He he just does. All print pretty much. Yeah. So all that happened and of course brings a wise man and surprise, surprise. No one knows what's going on. No one can read it. Um, and I think verse nine, I think he had a little bit of hope. Yeah. And then the King, um, they'll show. greatly troubled and his countenance was changed in him and his lords were astonished." They're sitting there going, Lord, we don't know what this means. So did he get angry with them now? Did he get scared to the point where his knees have smote against one another? He brings them in and he goes, okay, they're going to get it. And when they can't get it, is it like another wave of terror that comes over him? Is he angry with him? But I do love verse 10. Now the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house ⁓ and basically ⁓ out. Yeah, they everything going like they're not partying anymore. That sounds like ⁓ she's basically coming in and being What is going on? it says by words of the king and his Lord. So I would guarantee that the Lord's, you know, the people underneath the king, the prince are running around just panicking. The the shouts of jubilation of immersing in the sin have turned into terror. And you could probably hear him if he's troubled yelling at them and screaming. And she's probably sitting there going, what? This is not us reading in the scripture. It's us going, what is going on? on over there. or what now? What? Yeah. Yeah. What now? What now? Yeah, this kid, what are we going to do with him? so, ⁓ words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house and the queen spake and said, ⁓ king live forever. So, there's a there's that. Yeah. Of course, that that term of endearment. not thy thoughts trouble thee nor let thy countenance be changed. There is a man in thy kingdom in whom the spirit of the holy gods ⁓ and the days of thy father, light and understanding and wisdom... like the wisdom of the gods was found in him whom the king nebuchadnezzar thy father the king i say thy father made master of the magician astrologers chaldeans and soothsayers what does that mean she's saying hey you big dummy ⁓ there's a guy named daniel and he was the master of what we found he had so much wisdom And the days of the father light and understanding and wisdom. And when he says light, means it was in and she's describing it as in lighting illumination of what took place. And for anybody that says, no, see right there, that's his son. So let me ask you a question. Yeah. When Jesus speaks and says your father, Abraham to the Jews that are there, is he speaking to Isaac or is he speaking to Ishmael? No, it's a generational genealogical term that was used in that culture. When I was five and I sang Father Abraham in church, did I say, no, my father's not Dean Thompson, it's Abraham? No, it's the same thing. But see, those are context things that you have to understand. are. verse 12. for as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding interpreting of dreams and showing of hard sentences and dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel whom the king named Belteshazzar. Still referring to him by that name. Now let Daniel be called and he will show the interpretation. You know what the man of God who knows what the word of God will do? He'll show you the meaning of hard sentences and he'll dissolve doubts. That's what God's Spirit dwelling with people living by the word of God will do. People will say, well, this is confusing. Well, I don't understand it. This is, you know, what's a hard sentence? Genesis 38. That's a hard, that's a hard 30 verses to go through. But, but God will show the way and true wisdom. is with him. And so due to time, we'll just. So, ⁓ of course, the king said, all right, well, grandma probably knows what she's talking about. Or mom, then Daniel was brought before the king and the king looked at him and said, aren't thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king, my father brought out of jewelry. I know. Look at, here's something. Look at verse 16. I've heard of thee. Yeah, I've heard of thee. You just did. I've been to church. Yeah, exactly. I've read my Bible. I've prayed before. I know all this God stuff. I've heard of that Jesus guy. I'm with you. I know all, I know what you're talking about. I've heard the gospel. that side note there. Well, no, it's true. And he's, basically fluffing up Daniel right here. And cause he's wanting to get what he's wanting to get. Like, I'm scared. You, you're the one who somebody that I trust in has told me that I can understand what this is. I'm all for you. The same thing. Yep. And at the end of verse 16, he says, look, you know, you're going to be clothed in Scarlet. You're going to have a chain of gold around your neck. And you're going to be the third ruler in the kingdom. I love verse 17 right here. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, let thy gifts be to thyself and give thy rewards to another. Yet I will read the writing unto the king and make known him the interpretation. would be like 1867 being paid in Confederate bonds. Yeah. Listen, that's, that's useless. All these treasures that you have in your, in your kingdom that you're speaking of, they're about to be useless. Give it to somebody else. Cause this doesn't rolling over a third of this kingdom means nothing. Cause there's about to be no kingdom. And you got to remember this is the first, I would say this is probably the first time in over 60 years that Daniel has been back in the kingdom. Probably. Well, he's close enough to where they went and got him. didn't take too long. But you got to think too, but he didn't know who he was. know what people may think of that some 88 year old dude, knows his life's about over. He don't need all that stuff. No, that's not what Daniel's saying. One, I don't need this because I don't need the rule. Look where I've already been here. Look where it's got me now. I trust in God. the I mean, that's going to that's going to be the whole point of Daniel chapter six in the lines then. don't need these things even older. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So next few verses, Daniel just basically ⁓ is telling, telling the king, you know, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar, that father, a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor. Gave him all these things. But when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne. about you too, son. And they took his glory from him. So basically. The same thing that happened over time to Nebuchadnezzar pretty much getting right happened to you brother. His kingdom got taken from him for seven years. You're about to lose it and your life in one night. You know, that's kind of a lesson to those people. Be like, life's short, I better party it up. It only takes one. It takes one time. So let's just jump down to in the heading on in my Bible right here says the days of the kingdom are numbered. And that starts at verse 25. And this is the writing and that was written, A Parson This is the interpretation of the thing. Many God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Takell thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. Paul's right there. So we got to think of an old school and if, and if you're one of the younger guys that listens, you might not even know what a balance is, but ⁓ basically when everything has been laid out, the weight and the sum of everything that you have to offer compared to something else you're lacking. Yeah. You are missing. You don't have it. The scales, the scale has tipped out of your favor. Yep. It's done. And then we have verse 28, Perez. verse 28, Perez, my kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians and clarification there. That is the singular. We're up top. was the plural. like he wasn't saying he wasn't giving him false information there. 29 then commanded Belsha Belshazer and they clothe Daniel with the scarlet They still did it guys. still put the scarlet on and they still put the chain on him and they still proclaimed him to be the third ruler in the kingdom. And in that night when Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldean was the king of Chaldean slain and Darius the mead took the kingdom being about three score and two years old. And that's I love it because there's no explanations. It's going. They still gave him. the things that Daniel said, just keep it, because it's done. I can imagine his face when they start putting it on him like, and he's like, okay. But do you notice something? It reminds me of kind of like a, this is horrible example, shouldn't say this, but like a old spoof type thing. We're like somebody you could see like an audience sitting there and somebody getting up and declaring destruction. And the people are just so stupid that they're like, yeah. ⁓ yeah. No, no. Yeah. Cause like, says, no, your kingdom's done. You've been weighed and you're, you're wanting, you've been measured. You're wanting everything's in. they're like, well, now we know. Yeah. Let's going. Like, least we know the answer. ⁓ Okay. And not hating the warning at all. Yeah. And the start of verse 30 and all of verse 30, I just love it. It just says, in that night, in that night, so we believe the Bible, don't we? Yeah. In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans slain. So he didn't even make it through the night. No. And so. The Medes and Persians had been camped outside of the gates. This is so interesting. Had been camped outside of the gates for months now. But there was so much partying and so much going on that they had ended up diverting the river, the water that ran into the kingdom. The Euphrates. The Euphrates. They ended up diverting that and basically, now you got to think about how much time this took. So this shows how distracted and just party. mean, just clueless. Well, guys, when you're living your life, how much time passes and God warned Cain that that sin was crouching at the door. Well, I didn't see this coming. because you chose not to see it. Yeah, you're just, you're, you've out doing all the things of life. And then all of a sudden when devastation or, or a time of, of trial comes, you're not prepared. You're, we're, bell shazzer in those moments. We're drinking and partying and doing all the things that bring. You know, the sinful season of, of joy. then when it's right outside, mean, in the very midst of having this quote unquote great time at all crumbles. Yeah. But so they basically to get in the kingdom, they dried out the river bed. They diverted the Euphrates and basically walked. walked through the gates, walked through the walls of the city on dry ground. Yeah. Where the water was coming in at. And it was, if that's not such a just blatant example of not paying attention, not having a care in the world, not having your eyes fixed on the things you should have it fixed on. Not having your eyes, not keeping your guard up. not constantly being in scripture, praying constantly, doing the things that will help us to keep that armor of God on. before you know it, you're going to be in trouble. Not to mention, that's not the last time the Euphrates is going to dry up and there's going to be destruction. Revelation chapter nine. But yeah, that's Daniel chapter five. The rotting's on the wall and It just shows the fall of a kingdom. And I think it truly shows and it answers the question about was Nebuchadnezzar saved or not. Because I think it shows right there that he had no fruit. He didn't pass anything on. He didn't make a priority. relationship with God. Well, and two, like verse 23, it's a long verse, but Daniel condemns every bit of the actions that they're doing, saying you're taking the holy vessels, you're using it with the concubines and all these people, you're praising these other gods, and he's giving the warning sign right there. And I think so many people in today's day and age, they're like, yeah, hell's eternal, heaven's glorious, all these things. How do I get through the situation I'm in right now? You know, I'm in, I'm in a storm. I'm in a storm. How do I get through this storm? Well, it's, it's about a whole, yeah, that's, that's great. You know, Christian life, like I said, hell, hell's, hell's hot. Heaven's glorious. What about me right now? What I was saying? Yes. And a lot of times we don't want, I've always thought this way. if you don't want to know the sickness and you don't want to know the prescription, just stay away from the doctor. Yeah. ⁓ You could sit there ⁓ and. You know, your head in the ⁓ and then whenever stuff happens, ⁓ it's, just, have so many opportunities to people with sin. And yet we get right there at it. And I'm so guilty of it. We get right there at it. And then we back off. We get scared. We're like, what if they, what if I offend somebody? What if I make someone upset? Do you think Daniel cared in that moment if he was going to offend him? I hope you do spiritually. Exactly. I would rather offend somebody than then they go to hell. don't, I don't want to be cruel about it, but I need to be informative and they'd be like, no, like this wrong. So do I miss anything? I mean, we could spend forever just in that one chapter, but. Time is running nigh. But yeah, so that's Daniel chapter five. What a, you know, that's the writing on the wall. If we're a life where the first time we get scared or the first time we get upset is when we do see the writing on the wall, then you better check yourself. You better start putting in priority the things of the Lord. Well, don't get to your weighed and measured and found wanting to understand the power of God. Well, because then it's too late. Because your knee will bow and your tongue will confess this side or the other. You do it willingly and come receiving. Come repenting and receiving. Come confess Him now. Be immersed into His kingdom. Come accept Him now. Or you'll do it... after you've prayed for rocks to cave in and fall on you. Yep. And it's too late at that point. God is long suffering and God is very gracious, but there's a day when His grace runs out. Not that He has expanded all of it that He has to give, but the time in which His grace. Because of all this grace that we have available to us, as vast and as countless and loving is all that grace is. The only reason that we have all of that grace from the Lord is because there will be judgment just as equal. I like to think of God as love, and God as peace, and God as mercy. He is all of those in its purest form, but He's also a pure version of wrath and a pure version of judgment, and you better understand and have a grasp on both of them. Yep. Well, Zach, I'll press out here. All right. Dearly Father, come for you today and just so thankful for this beautiful spring day that we have. ⁓ Just so thankful to hear the birds chirp and just to see your glory and that it indeed is not hidden and it never has been. ⁓ Dear Lord, I'm so thankful for once again the opportunity to to record another episode. don't know how many of these we've done. We've done in the 30s, but every single time I'm able to gather with my brother in Christ here with Zach and just dive into your word and just talk about you and stress the importance of living the life that you call us to live. It's a blessing and I'm so thankful for that. Dear Lord, please be with everybody listening and everyone who's not listening. We know that Easter has just occurred and we know that some people might have a new perspective on Calvary and I pray that that never goes dull ⁓ because we need a new perspective on Calvary. Everybody does. So dear Lord, please be with us. Keep us safe. We love you and we will give you all the praise, honor, and glory. In your name I pray. Amen. Amen. I do want to say if you went to church with your family members on Easter Sunday, crazy enough, there will be another service this Sunday. There's, there's going to be another, know, there's going to be one tonight. And I don't know when we're going to get this posted, but it is Wednesday. Yeah. I mean, there's ample opportunities. It's not just Christmas and Easter. Yeah. We do gather more than two days a year. And we would love to see you. Love to see you. Amen to that. Well, we love everybody and ⁓ thanks for listening. God bless.