SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/28/2023 9:11 AM
PT-12 “Intro to Daniel” (Dan. 1:1-2)
Isaiah said in chapter 6, “Lord,
here am I, send me. Send me to tell this people, send me to preach this people
– to preach to this people.” And he did, spent his life doing it. He said to
the Lord, “How long do You want me to preach?” He said, “You just keep
preaching till the cities be wasted without inhabitants, till the houses are
without man and the land be utterly desolate and the Lord remove men far away
and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” Just keep preaching
till the whole thing crumbles. And the prophets were faithful but the people
never really listened. They never really heard the message. They were so
wrapped up in their sin, so smug in their self-confidence.
I’m thinking of a verse, I think
it’s Isaiah 39, “Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord of
hosts, behold the days come that all that is in thine house and that which thy
fathers have laid up in store unto this day,’” – listen to what Isaiah said 100
years before it happened – “‘shall be carried to Babylon, nothing shall be
left,’ saith the Lord, ‘and of thy sons that shall issue from thee whom thou
shalt beget shall they take away and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the
king of Babylon.’” You mean our best young men, the men of noble birth will be
eunuchs, emasculated for the purposes of the ruler of Babylon?
That prophecy came to pass in the
life of Daniel himself who became that eunuch in the court of Babylon because
the people never heard the prophets. They never learned from history and they
never listened to prophecy. There was a third way, I think, God warned them and
that was in the revival under Josiah. Josiah reigned for 31 years, having given
his heart to God at the age of 15 or 16. He had a father named Amon and a
grandfather Manasseh. The vile Manasseh was followed by Amon who was just as
bad.
But here Amon had this young son
Josiah who at 15 or 16 gave his heart to God and it was almost as if God said,
“You wouldn’t see from history what was going to happen, and you wouldn’t
listen to the prophets preaching a negative message and so I’ll give you one
other alternative. I’ll bring a revival, see if that will change your hearts.”
And so along came Josiah and he had a prophet on each side of him, Zephaniah
and Nahum. And they preached and Josiah prayed and he cleaned up the nation.
And he brought about a great revival.
First of all he said, “Let’s repair
Solomon’s temple.” The temple wasn’t even of concern to anybody anymore. They
had moved completely into idolatry. They were worshiping in the high places,
Baal and the like. Josiah said, “Let’s redo the – the – the temple of Solomon.”
And as they rebuilt it they discovered the law of God lost in the temple. It’s
kind of like liberalism today, where the truth of God is lost in the church.
And when they found the writing of the Word of God in the temple as they
repaired it, they took it out and they read it and it led to a great revival, a
great revival.
And in Josiah’s time they were
having this great revival. And you know what happened? What happened was
Ashurbanipal, who was ruling the Assyrian Empire that was holding this club
over the kingdom of Judah, Ashurbanipal died. And then Nabopolassar who was his
vice-regent down in Babylon swept up and conquered all of Assyria and
slaughtered all the Assyrians and oh, it looked so good. “Boy, just think,
we’re having a revival. And our greatest enemy, Assyria, is having to fight a
civil war against the area of Babylonia and this man is going to conquer the
Assyrians. Boy, we’re in great shape. The Assyrians are getting their deal and
we’re having a revival.” And it all looked so good.
You know what happened? Josiah died
and the revival, like so many revivals, was attached to his personality, and
when he died, the revival ended. It ended. It had no effect on the nation.
Following Josiah were four kings, all evil: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and
Zedekiah, evil, evil, evil, evil. The revival had no effect. Listen. They never
learned from history, and they never listened to prophecy, and they never even
responded in the graciousness of God when He brought a revival. People, that’s
how terminal decadence is. It’s irreversible when it reaches its full fury.
God, help us, because that’s what I
see in America. We haven’t learned from history. We don’t listen to the
prophets and daresay the revival going on today doesn’t seem to be having much
impact on our country. Amazingly, amazingly – I want you to hear this – Assyria
was destroyed by Babylonia. Babylonia then grew to take over that whole part of
the world. Habakkuk says that bitter and hasty nation rose up to take the place
of Assyria.
Why? Habakkuk 1:12.
You want to know why there was a neo-Babylonian Empire? Here it is, God said,
“I have ordained them for judgment and established them for correction.” Now
listen. God allowed the Babylonian Empire to defeat Assyria. You want to hear
something fascinating? The Babylonian Empire came into existence just at the
time of Israel’s captivity and just when Israel – Israel was released to go
back to the land, it went out of existence.
Did you know that the whole
neo-Babylonian Empire only last about a hundred years? Which is exactly the
amount of time from the first captivity of Judah till the final return back to
their land. God simply raised up the whole Babylonian Empire as an instrument
of judgment just as He has raised up the Assyrian Empire as an instrument of judgment
against the Northern Kingdom. That nation came and went in a hundred years. And
during those hundred years it reached the apex, it became literally the monarch
of the world. It was a rod in God’s hand. I don’t think Nebuchadnezzar had any
idea about that. But that’s the truth because God controls history. So, the
people were taken into captivity.
You say, “They must have sinned
terribly for God to bring such a horrible judgment.” Look at Psalm 78 for
a minute. I don’t have time to read the whole Psalm. I think it’s the best
account of captivity that you could possibly read because it approaches it from
the emotions of the people involved. In Psalm 78 – and the Psalms, by the
way, were written at all different periods of Israel’s history, all different
periods of Judah’s history, as well as the life of David. They were written at
all different times to express the emotion of the people and the history of
what was going on from a very personal view, not so much the narrative/academic
view as that very personal involvement.
And here we find the reason God took
the Northern Kingdom captive. And, really, they’re the same reasons God took
the south captive. Verse 10, “They kept not the covenant of God and refused to
walk in His law. They forgot His works and His wonders He had shown them.
Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in
the field of Zoan.
“He divided the sea and caused them
to pass through; He made the waters to stand as an heap. In the daytime He led
them with a cloud and at night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the
wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams
also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. And they sinned
yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. And they
tested God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.”
In other words, it didn’t matter
what He did they were so bent on their sin. Verse 22, “They believed not in God
and trusted not in His salvation. And though He had commanded the clouds from
above and opened the doors of heaven and rained down manna upon them to eat and
given them out of the grain of heaven, man did eat angels’ food” – that’s manna
– “He sent them food to the full, He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens
and by His power He brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them
like dust and feathered fowls like the sand of the sea.” In other words, they
got birds every day to eat. And on and on, the whole chapter just telling all
that God has done.
Verse 41, “Yea they turned back and
tested God and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not His hand nor
the day when He delivered them from the enemy. How He had wrought His signs in
Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan.” And so it goes. So it goes. They
continued to reject. “God,” – when He heard this, verse 59 – “was angry and
greatly abhorred Israel.”
Verse 61, “He delivered His strength
into captivity and His glory” – What is His glory? His people – “into the
enemy’s hand. He gave His people over also to the sword and was angry with His
inheritance. And the fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not
given in marriage. Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no
lamentation. Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep and like a mighty man
who shouted by reason of wine and He smote His enemies in the hinder parts; He
put them to a perpetual reproach.” And there you get into the fact that even
though they had gone into captivity, God woke up and brought them back. Great
Psalm, a great Psalm.
Once again this quotation came from
a Sermon from John MacArthur’s commentary around 48 years ago. It would be best to keep up each in reading
these Spiritual Diaries so that it will make more sense as you read each of
them.
11/28/2023
9:14 AM
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