Skip to content Facing Trials with Faith: Daniel's United Prayer - Daniel 2 Apr 30 · 14 min ...more
Facing Trials with Faith: Daniel's United Prayer - Daniel 2
April 30, 2025 · 14 min
Learn from Daniel and his companions how to seek divine guidance and mercy in times of urgency and turmoil.
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The Power of United Prayer 0:11 Good morning. Welcome to Stand on the Word. Thanks for joining this morning. Well, we are in Jerusalem this morning. You see behind me, the sun is coming up and the, the fog is beginning to to burn off here in in0:22 Jerusalem. And this morning, we are in Daniel chapter 2 verse 21. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and0:34 knowledge to those who have understanding. Now before we, look at chapter 2, which I've entitled the power of united prayer, Let's review a couple of historical and theological0:45 aspects of, what we're about to look at. Babylon, we we touched on this last time, but Babylon was situated in the cradle of humanity near the0:57 place that is believed to be the Garden of Eden. Now today, it's an ancient pile of rubble. But at the end of this day, it was the, it was the premier city of the then known world.1:09 Babylon was the place of the Tower of Babel. It was, as we mentioned, it was the place of 1 of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Today, pile of ruins. But these ruins1:20 revealed the source of the weakness, and that was their idolatry, their extravagance, their wicked luxury, which historian and scholars say was unprecedented in the history of the1:32 world. So Babylon, keep this in mind as we read through the book of Daniel. Babylon is a is a is a type. Right? Babylon, as we read elsewhere in scripture, represents1:44 the world system. Now despite its military and its economic greatness, it's gone. It's gone. There's been many mighty kings or kingdoms that have come and gone, but there1:56 is an everlasting kingdom. That is the kingdom of God. It's not gonna go anywhere. It's only gonna grow and get stronger. The chapters in Daniel are not2:08 in chronological order. They are ordered more really kind of thematically. First 6 chapters are historical accounts of Daniel's 70 plus years in Babylon, and then the2:20 second 6 are more prophetic visions. Alright. So for chapters 1 to 4, we have the captivity, the interpretation of dreams and visions. Chapter 7, we have the vision2:32 of the 4 beasts. Chapter 8, we have the vision of the ram and the he goat. Chapter 5, we have Belteshazzar's feast. Chapter 9, the vision of the 7 weeks.2:44 And then chapter 6, we have Daniel in the lion's den. And then chapters 10 through 12, Daniel's prayer and his vision. So those are kind of that's really kind of the chronological order2:56 of these chapters. Now there's some debate over when the events of, chapter 2 took place. It reads in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, but he co reigned3:08 with his father, and he became king either in 6 0 5 or 6 0 4 BC. So most likely, this took place in 6 0 2 BC, 3 years after Daniel, and his3:20 friends had been carried away from Jerusalem, from the city here, into Babylon. So let's look now, verse 1, chapter 2. In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams.3:31 The spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians and the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in, and they stood3:42 before the king. And the king said to them, I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled now that I know the dream. I was troubled to know the dream. Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic,3:54 oh, king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will show you the interpretation. King answered and said to the Chaldeans, the word for me is firm. If you do not make known to me the4:06 dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. And when reading this,4:18 we begin to detect we're gonna see more of this. Nebuchadnezzar may have been suffering from some sort of psychosis where he had these wild mood swings going from 1 extreme4:30 to the other. So here's what happens. No interpretation was provided, and Nebuchadnezzar orders that all the wise men be executed. Verse 13. So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to4:42 be killed, and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. And Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men in4:54 Babylon, and he declared to the king's captain, why is the decree of the king so urgent? Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time5:05 that he might show the interpretation to the king. And Daniel went to his house, and he made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions. And he told them to seek5:17 mercy from the god of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men in Babylon.5:29 Now I could, I could probably spend a week on this 1 chapter because the prophetic chapter has many this prophetic chapter has many applicable truths, but let me just focus on a5:41 few. Right? So there's the problem. You know, our lives are not without problems and challenges. In fact, the advancement of God often comes5:53 through adversity. I mean, if you wanna be used by God and you want to advance his kingdom, you're not gonna do it without facing challenges and adversity. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,6:05 Azariah were all faithful to God. It wasn't like they were doing something wrong. They were faithful to God in a godless culture. Yet we see over and over in this book that they repeatedly6:17 face challenges to their faith and to their very lives. Take note of this. Right? Being a follower of Jesus does not spare you from trouble. In6:29 fact in fact, Jesus warned his disciples of what was to come. In in in John 16 33, he says, I have said these things to you that6:41 you may have peace. In the world, you're gonna have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. Jesus was preparing them for the difficult times ahead, and he said, hey.6:53 Don't worry about it. I've overcome the world. And as we we'll see in the lives of these men, it wasn't like 1 1 and done. It wasn't like, alright. We7:05 have this challenge, and now it's smooth sailing. You know? No. Standing for the truth of scripture as we advance the kingdom of God is a daily journey. This is what7:16 Jesus said. He said, if you wanna follow me right? Remember what he said? He said, you have to deny yourself. Take up your cross daily and follow me. Now if7:28 we're to be successful in this journey that Jesus has called us to, we and we wanna walk in the power and the peace that the lord has also promised us. How do we do that? Well, I think we7:40 see a pattern. Here we see a model. We see an example. So we saw the problem. They're all gonna be executed. So now we see the plea. Look at the power of uniting in prayer7:52 with other believers. With death at the door, the 4 men appealed to god for the revelation that no man could provide. Verse 19. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night,8:04 and Daniel blessed the god of heaven. We neglect the power of prayer. You know, I know we have governments, and and god has established those governments, but8:15 god directs those governments. We're gonna see that in this passage. And how does that happen? I believe that we, as followers of Christ, have been given the authority to appeal to heaven to8:27 direct the affairs of man. The reason we don't see more of it is because we don't practice it. We don't believe it. We don't exercise it. Right? So they they they they made their plea. God answered it.8:39 Then look what's next. How did they respond? They praised him immediately. Even before delivering the dream and its interpretation to the king, they praise god. I mean, think about that. They were facing death. They8:51 could have run out the door immediately with the answer, but they stopped to praise god. We must cultivate hearts of gratitude even in the midst of difficulty because out of it9:03 will come the praise to the lord god and the elevation of his name. Verse 20, Daniel said Daniel Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of god forever and9:15 ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and9:27 hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, oh god, my fathers to the god of my fathers, I give thanks and praise9:38 for you have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we ask of you, for you have made known to us the king's matter. Now here's the9:50 dream and its prophetic meaning. Verse 32. The head of this image was a fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron10:02 and partly of clay. As you look, the stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broken into pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the10:14 silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces and became like chaff. The summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image10:26 became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. The head of gold, the Chaldean monarchy, which as we read in10:37 Jeremiah, would last 70 years. This was the first premier world empire, which would be replaced by the brass and 2 arms of silver representing the Medes and the Persians,10:50 which was then superseded by the belly and thighs of brass representing the monarch, the monarchy of the Greeks founded by, Alexander. Then finally, the legs of feet11:02 and iron. Now the prevalent view is that the leg legs and the feet represent the Roman monarchy, which ended in 10 kingdoms represented by the 1011:13 toes. Now some biblical scholars see these 10 toes as represented today by the various European countries, and there will, and and that that there will be an effort to reunite them. You know, the11:25 European Union, we a lot of people have been watching that, but the numbers don't match up. But there's another view of who the legs and the feet was and will be again. And I I'm gonna touch on that in chapter11:37 7, which is another vision on the same prophetic message. But when we have the stone that was, not cut out by hands, that smashes the pow smashes the powder,11:49 all the rest, that stone is what? It's Jesus, and it represents the kingdom of God. It is overall, Matthew 21 44. And the 1 who falls in the12:01 stone will be broken to pieces, and he and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. Look. It's the word of God. It is being fulfilled. This revelation is being and will be12:12 fulfilled, and take note of this. Okay? Take encouragement. The kingdom of God doesn't matter what it looks like right now. Doesn't matter what might happen tomorrow or next week or next month.12:25 The kingdom of God will prevail over the kingdoms of this world. This is why we can have confidence at the church. When we say church, followers of Jesus Christ on the denomination, but12:36 those who know the lord Jesus Christ, committed their lives to him and are following him in true faith, they're not gonna go away. The church is not going away. The gates of hell the gates of hell, that means the cancel12:48 culture, Hollywood, the media, political establishment will not prevail against the kingdom of god. Father, we thank you for your word. And and, lord, I pray today12:59 that we would take to heart that, lord, we think that following you does not come without problems. As we seek to advance the kingdom of God in obedience to you, lord, it's warfare, and so there's going to be opposition.13:11 But, lord, just as Daniel and his, companions, they they they they prayed. They pleaded with heaven, And, Lord, you gave them the answer, and they overcame.13:24 And you used them, Lord, for your purpose and your plans. Lord, help us to have kingdom eyes to see what you're doing in this day, Lord, and how we can join you in that13:35 work. We thank you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. Thanks for joining me this morning. Until next time. Keep standing on the word.13:48 Today's study comes from the stand on the word bible reading plan available for free at f r c dot o r g slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day, you14:00 can read through the entire Bible in just 2 years. Learn more and request the free reading guide at frc dot org slash bible.In this video 0:00 The Power of United Prayer
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