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June 21 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
5 Plays19 minutes ago
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Today we will begin the book of Daniel, written by Daniel himself, and read Chapter 1. We will talk about some introduction to the book before we begin our reading today. The book of Daniel takes place beginning in the 3rd year of King Jehoiakim's reign, during the time of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, taking the first set of captives from Judah. We will talk about God instructing the people ahead of time to go peacefully so that they would live and pray for things to go well wherever they went, because if things went well for the Babylonians, things would go well for them while THEY were there, too. We will discuss the purpose of the book of Daniel: to be encouragement to believers to be faithful and obedient to God in times of great trouble. In chapter one we will be introduced to Daniel, whose name is changed to Belteshazzar, and his three friends, whose names were changed to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We will immediately see that when the young men are brought to the king's court to be trained in the ways of the Babylonians that God is clearly in charge of everything. When the young men request to not defile their bodies by eating the Babylonian delicacies and be allowed to eat only vegetables and drink water God worked in the heart of the man in charge so that he agreed to allow them ten days to make sure they did not look unhealthy as a result. We are told that God helped them all to learn, know, and understand all kinds of things and that God helped Daniel to understand all kinds of dreams so that at the end of their three years of training the king found that they were the wisest of any of the candidates, and ten times wiser than any of the kings magic men.
In our discussion for daily application we will talk about how our God, who is love, works everything for good. God positioned Daniel and his friends in the king's court. God prepared them to be able to do the good works that He had prepared for them ahead of time to do. In the same way, God prepares US for the good works that He has prepared ahead of time for US to do and He is placing US exactly where we are meant to be so that we will be exactly where we are supposed to be in order to do the good works God prepared for us. These TRUE stories are meant to encourage us to be faithful and obedient to God when things are difficult. Let us be encouraged and be strong in Jesus. God will equip us for everything we are meant to do. We only need to be obedient and faithful to Him to DO the things He has prepared us to do at the times He has placed us, just like Daniel and his friends.
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Transcript
Introduction and Greetings
00:00:03
Speaker
Hi there everyone. Today is June 21st. Happy first day of summer. i hope you have had a fantastic day today, however you are spending it, and that you are enjoying this first day of our new season.
Introduction to the Book of Daniel
00:00:18
Speaker
We are also going to beginning a new book today, I mean in the Bible, as we read through the Day by Day Kids Bible that's been written by Karen Henley. We are going to be beginning the book of Daniel today.
00:00:33
Speaker
So if you have your commitment calendar that you are keeping track of your daily listening, then go ahead and take that out and your sticker or however you're marking it off because you're about to hear the Bible today.
00:00:47
Speaker
Thank you for joining me, whether you are listening along on your favorite podcasting app or whether you are watching along on your favorite video watching like YouTube or Spotify or even on my site.
00:00:59
Speaker
Thank you for watching or listening here with me this year. I hope that you are excited to begin the book of Daniel.
Excitement for Daniel's Story
00:01:06
Speaker
There is a lot of awesome stuff that happens in the book of Daniel.
00:01:11
Speaker
We are going to see God come through for his followers who are keeping themselves holy to God. And ah we we may be familiar with some of the stories of Daniel, who was given the name Belteshazzar and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
00:01:32
Speaker
I know for me, I always think of the VeggieTales version of ah the Daniel stories where they call them chat and Shadrach and Benny.
Historical Context and Obedience
00:01:44
Speaker
I think that's what they call them is Shadrach and Benny. Instead of me, Shadrach and Abednego. But it's ah it's a great book and we are going to really enjoy reading it.
00:01:57
Speaker
I was reading the introduction today ah when I used the Tree of Life And as well fact that the of this book is encourage the believers that they can the Bible.
00:02:08
Speaker
is written by daniel himself because it he refers to himself in the first person and i don't think i remembered that and as well as the fact that the theme of this book is to courage the believers During times of difficulty, it says the purpose of this book is to encourage God's people to be obedient and faithful in times of great difficulty.
00:02:35
Speaker
So who here could use some encouragement to be obedient and faithful to God in times of great difficulty? I know I can always use some of that.
00:02:46
Speaker
So let's buckle up and get started with the book of Daniel. As ah also a little bit of a preface, this starts the first chapter as an introduction and it takes place in the third the year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah.
00:03:04
Speaker
And that is when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem. and besieged it and took captives and started taking items from the worship house, which we read about yesterday.
00:03:19
Speaker
And we are going to pick up from there dealing with ah the three people, the four people actually, who have been taken captive. Now you may remember that one of the reasons that people were taken captive is that God had told the people in Jeremiah that he wanted the people to go into captivity.
00:03:45
Speaker
He did not want them to fight against it. And he specifically told us on one particular day, it was not part of our daily application.
Daniel's Dietary Choice and Its Impact
00:03:55
Speaker
And so that's why I am reminding us of this part of the story here is that God wanted the people to go into captivity willingly and accept their punishment per se.
00:04:11
Speaker
without fighting. And he said that those who did their lives would be spared, but those who fought would die. God wanted his people.
00:04:23
Speaker
It's ah in Jeremiah, I think it's 29 where he tells the people to go and to have families and to pray for peace, pray for Shalom where they were going.
00:04:36
Speaker
Because if things went well in the area where they were, then things would go well for them. So God is telling them that he will actually bless the area that they are going into.
00:04:52
Speaker
So even though they have been exiled, God loves his people and he is still taking care of them. And we read in our book of Jeremiah that this would be like a purification process during this exile.
00:05:08
Speaker
And the people that he would bring back would be people who were seeking after him with all of their hearts. So this is a time that is meant for the people to be turning to God.
00:05:20
Speaker
So we are going to read here in the first chapter of Daniel. We only have one chapter to read today. It's very short.
00:05:29
Speaker
It is entitled, The King's Food. Now Babylon's army had come into Judah before, and they had taken riches from God's worship house, and they had taken some people back to Babylon too.
00:05:44
Speaker
Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon, and he asked to see some of the people from Judah. He wanted to see some young men from the families of Judah's leaders.
00:05:56
Speaker
They had to be good looking. and they had to be good learners. They had to know a lot and they had to be good enough to help the king. ni And the king wanted these young men to learn about Babylon.
00:06:13
Speaker
And in the big Bible, it actually refers to them, he wanted them to learn about Chaldeans because remember the Babylons were Chaldeans. They had to learn the Chaldean language, is what it says in our big Bible.
00:06:27
Speaker
And they had to learn the stories of Babylon too. So the king gave them food and wine from his table. He wanted them to study for three years and then they could be his helpers.
00:06:45
Speaker
So Daniel and three of his friends were in this group of young men. And the man in charge changed their names. The name he gave Daniel was Belteshazzar.
00:06:59
Speaker
And he named Daniel's friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
00:07:06
Speaker
But Daniel chose not to eat the king's food. He chose not to drink the king's wine. He wanted to keep himself right and good.
00:07:18
Speaker
In the Big Bible, it tells us that he did not want to defile himself with the food from the king's court the king's table.
00:07:28
Speaker
The man in charge liked Daniel and his friends, and God had worked in the man's heart. But the man said, I'm afraid of my king. He told me to give you this food, and the other young men will look strong and well, but you won't.
00:07:47
Speaker
And what will happen when the king sees that? The king will kill me. Just try it for 10 days, said Daniel. Give us vegetables to eat and give us water to drink and see how we look after that.
00:08:03
Speaker
And then you can choose which food is right for us. So the man in charge did what Daniel asked. And after 10 days, Daniel and his friends looked stronger. They looked healthier than the other young men, and so they got to eat only vegetables.
Lessons from Daniel's Obedience
00:08:27
Speaker
How would you like that, Pearl, and Jedi, and Forest, and Diamond? Would you like to only eat vegetables?
00:08:38
Speaker
God helped Daniel and his friends learn, and God helped them know and understand all kinds of things. He helped Daniel understand all kinds of dreams.
00:08:53
Speaker
Time passed, and one day the young men were taken to see the king. King Nebuchadnezzar talked with them, and he found that the best ones were Daniel and his friends.
00:09:07
Speaker
So they got to be the king's helpers. And Daniel and his friends were wise. They understood everything the king asked them about. And they were 10 times wiser than all the king's magic men.
00:09:26
Speaker
And that's the end of our very short reading today. Chapter one of Daniel.
00:09:35
Speaker
I want to point out some things for us today. God works everything to good. We have been reading that lesson over and over, and you will find that it is ah ah ah central theme that everything God does is for good.
00:09:55
Speaker
Remember, our God is love. He is good. So everything he does is meant for good. Have we taken the time to think about that?
00:10:08
Speaker
Our God is not in any way bad. So everything he does, he works into good.
00:10:18
Speaker
So he planted Daniel and his three friends there. He told the people to go willingly. And so now Daniel and his three friends have gone into Babylon.
00:10:34
Speaker
And now they have been found to meet the qualifications for what the king is looking for. And so it is not a coincidence that they just happened to have a good opportunity.
00:10:48
Speaker
They were selected by God. And there will be things in our life for which we are selected by God to do as well, because God has prepared ahead of time good works for us to do.
00:11:03
Speaker
So Daniel and his three friends would be doing the good works that God prepared ahead of time for them to do. God helps them to learn.
00:11:15
Speaker
So we are taught that God prepares us for what he wants us to do. And so God prepared Daniel and his three friends to do the jobs that they would need to do and the good works that they would need to do while they were raised into a high position within the king's court.
00:11:40
Speaker
God is working in everybody's lives all the time. and And just like we mentioned previously a couple of days ago about doing the good works that God gave us to do and using our tools that are in our belt of truth.
00:11:58
Speaker
God is working that into their lives the same way he is working it into our lives. And we mentioned Esther. who Esther was taught by her uncle Mordecai, that who knows that it wasn't for such a time as this that she was brought into the position of leadership where she was being made the queen. And we won't read about Esther yet.
00:12:22
Speaker
That's coming soon. But here we see God is doing the exact same thing with Daniel and his three friends. He is putting them into such a position so that they can do what God will have them do.
00:12:39
Speaker
And it says that God helped Daniel and his friends learn. God helped them know and understand all kinds of things. And he helped Daniel understand all kinds of dreams.
00:12:52
Speaker
And when the king brought them in and gave them their final interviews to see who out of all the young men who had been trained for three years, who was found to be the wisest,
00:13:06
Speaker
was the people that God chose, Daniel and his three friends. It says that they were ten times wiser than all the king's supposed magic men.
00:13:21
Speaker
In our Big Bible, it says, He found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers throughout his realm.
00:13:34
Speaker
So God was doing a good work and he was preparing them and he's doing the same thing with us.
Encouragement and Anticipation
00:13:42
Speaker
Notice too that Daniel and his friends did not want to defile themselves.
00:13:46
Speaker
So they were remaining obedient to God. Today, we don't have as Gentiles dietary restrictions, but for Daniel and his three friends, they had dietary restrictions.
00:13:58
Speaker
And in the Big Bible, it refers to the food that they were being given as delicacies. So they weren't being given bad food. They were being given what the Babylonians or Chaldeans considered rich food, specialty food, delicacy food, expensive food.
00:14:18
Speaker
and they did not want to defile themselves with it. Not because they were being snooty, but because they were being obedient to God. They were making God the most important one in their lives.
00:14:35
Speaker
And everything else would come after that. They were modeling the example of putting God first, putting God's kingdom first, because God knew what they needed.
00:14:48
Speaker
And they were healthier by not having eaten those delicacies that were being served to everybody else. And because God was helping them, they were going to be wiser.
00:15:00
Speaker
So that is our ah encouragement in our daily application today. We read in the introduction that the book of Daniel is meant to encourage us to be faithful and obedient to God in times of great trouble.
00:15:17
Speaker
And Daniel and his friends were captives. They were essentially slaves. They had to do what they were told and they didn't have a choice.
00:15:28
Speaker
They had to ask for permission. And it was only because God worked in the heart of their caretaker and because that they were granted this ah request to not defile themselves, to be faithful and obedient.
00:15:47
Speaker
God knows our hearts, and this is what God has been looking for in the people, was for their hearts to be toward him. They weren't looking to follow rules. They were looking to honor and obey God.
00:16:00
Speaker
So in our daily application, in everything that we are doing, we are encouraged to honor and obey God, not because we have to, but because we choose to make God the most important one in our lives.
00:16:14
Speaker
And when we do that, when we make God's kingdom first, when we seek first the kingdom of God, everything else we need, as you see today in Daniel, it will happen.
00:16:27
Speaker
God will take care of his people. Because God loves us and he is preparing us for the good works that he has prepared ahead of time for us to do.
00:16:39
Speaker
Isn't it lovely how everything works together? The Bible is so ah continuous in its story. It is so affirming.
00:16:50
Speaker
God doesn't change. He is showing his love all throughout the Bible. And God is continuing to show his love to his Israelite children who are the apple of his eye.
00:17:04
Speaker
So I hope that you are feeling encouraged. And when you have something difficult, exactly it couldn't have been easy for Daniel to stand up and to ask these things in the face of such difficult times.
00:17:16
Speaker
But he was faithful to God. God made a way. So I hope that you are feeling encouraged that when you may have something difficult, that you remember the story of Daniel and the courage that it took him to want to obey and be faithful to God, no matter what.
00:17:37
Speaker
And know that God will be working good into whatever you have going on that seems difficult at the time. Because just like the king told us, I cannot remember his name. We have so many names and that we've been reading lately, and I'm having trouble remembering the name.
00:17:52
Speaker
ah But the king, I think it was King Hezekiah, ah who was going to die. And god ah God saved him and said he would have 15 more years. And Hezekiah said, it was for my benefit that you took me through this difficult time.
00:18:08
Speaker
May we all remember that as well and give God the glory that it is for our benefit that we are going through in difficult times. They give us times to exercise our muscles of faith and obedience and trust in God so that he will show himself to be faithful and we will be increased in our faithfulness to him.
00:18:29
Speaker
We will learn and be even more faithful and obedient in the future. It is for our benefit that God takes us through difficult times. And God will use this to their benefit as well and for other people's benefit.
00:18:44
Speaker
So I hope you enjoyed today's reading today. i know I did. It's so exciting. We are just beginning this. And we if you're familiar with the book of Daniel, you know that there are many amazing things yet to come.
00:18:57
Speaker
So I will be here again for everybody again tomorrow. And remember, if you don't mind, after you've watched or listened to this ah reading today, to click that light button so we can draw people to God so that they too may be encouraged to be faithful and obedient to God as we spread the word about reading God's word.
00:19:21
Speaker
Have a great rest of your day, everybody.