Holy Scriptures and Israel

Narrator: Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: Let's turn to Daniel, the first chapter, Daniel Chapter 1. Then we continue on. We will try to see if we can finish this first chapter today. Daniel Chapter 1, just please follow me in the reading, Daniel Chapter 1, verse 8 and on.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Wherefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.

And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, "I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your food and your drink. For why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? Then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king." Then said Daniel unto Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, "Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink.

Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's food. And as thou seest, deal with thy servants." So he consented to them in this matter and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days, their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's food.

Thus Melzar took away the portion of their food and the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse, vegetables. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king communed with them, and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the king.

And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. And Daniel continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus, or in Hebrew, Koresh, King Koresh, King Cyrus.

We are still in Chapter 1, and we hope that we can finish Chapter 1 tonight. If you remember, the first chapter of Daniel is really a chapter of introduction. It's a chapter that introduces these men, these young boys. It brings before us the real reason why Israel, why the Jewish people, are finding themselves in Babylon. We have looked at it two weeks ago and we find that there are twofold reasons: number one, idolatry; number two, they haven't kept the yearly Sabbaths that the Jewish people were called to keep.

Every seventh year, to keep the land to rest. 490 years were not kept. For every year the Sabbath was not kept, Israel, the Jewish people, find themselves in Babylon. I have given you so far by way of introduction the divisions of this book. I just want to remind you that verses 1 to 7 is the historical background.

In the historical background, we find out in verses 1 and 2 the deportation, how the Jewish people have been deported to Babylon. Secondly, from verses 3 to 7, we find out the special selection of these Jewish boys to be selected in a special way in order that they will serve the king of Babylon. I have given you last time 10 pressure points where these Jewish boys have been under.

I just want to add one or two points before we are going to move to verse 8 and on. When a child is growing up, whether he is a teenager, a child can get influenced very quickly. They often say, "You give us children and we're going to influence them to be molded and shaped to whatever we want." This is exactly what happened in the history of the human race.

If you take children and you influence them and you fix them into a certain mold, once they grow up, they start to behave in accordance with what they have learned when they were young, when they were youth. Their teachers can leave so much impact upon them because when they are young, when they're in their teens, they can get influenced in a tremendous way by teachers, universities, and colleges.

Notice how much impact they have on the children, even on the children of Christians or believers. What we find out in these verses 3 to 7 is that they have sought to have Daniel and his friends placed into a mold that they can shape them in such a way that these Jewish boys will totally forget all their culture and background and be tremendously influenced by the Babylonian culture.

In those verses 3 to 7, I want you to notice the three areas where they sought to influence those Jewish boys. First of all, in verse 4, they wanted to influence them by heathen learning and language. Notice that in verse 4, Nebuchadnezzar said to his master of the eunuchs, "You're going to get children in whom there is no blemish, well-favored, skillful in wisdom and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such that had ability in them to stand in the king's palace."

Now notice what he said at the end in verse 4: "And whom they might teach," notice the word for teach, "the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans." That's the first thing. The word here for learning is the Hebrew word for book. The same word that is found in Chapter 9. The word for book means *sefer*, meaning learning.

"You take these Hebrew Jewish boys," he's saying to this master of the eunuchs, "and you drill them with the learning of the Chaldeans." It's such a real fact that what we read and what we take into our mind becomes part of our life. What we watch on television or whatever we occupy our minds with becomes a real part of our mental occupation and expression.

The impression that fills up our minds every day is what will come out in the character of our life. Nebuchadnezzar is saying to the master of the eunuchs in verses 3 and 4, "I want you to take those Jewish boys, and not only the Jewish boys, because there were other boys that came from other countries, but I want you to literally have them soaked with material that has to do with the Chaldeans' teaching and the language."

He wanted them to be so soaked in it that they would totally forget what they have learned at home and the language they have spoken in the past. He wanted them to be so embedded with the Chaldeans' language and Chaldeans' books and learning. It is so true, even for us today as believers in Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, that what we feed our minds is what we act on.

The devil wants our minds to be filled with garbage. The more we feed our minds, the more we become like that and then we act like that, even as believers in the Lord Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah. I have just watched on the internet an email that was produced in Israel. It is unfortunate that the Palestinian children are being fed hatred towards the Jewish people.

When they are young, they're being taught in school concerning the Jewish people and how to consume them because they are taking over the country. When they grow up, no wonder there is hatred existing today towards the Jewish people by the Palestinians. I'm not saying everyone, but that is something that we see.

Train the children when they are young; when they grow up, they are going to continue in that way unless God comes in and does a change in their lives. That's what they say to them, that they might teach them the learning, the book and the tongues of the Chaldeans. You drill them and you teach them so when they grow up, they will be so saturated with the Chaldeans' learning that they can be leaders in Babylon.

They will forget completely their heritage, their culture, and what they have learned in a different book, the Bible, in Hebrew the Tanakh, the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. Turn with me to Deuteronomy Chapter 6 for a second. We are speaking about children. Notice the same words are found in Deuteronomy Chapter 6.

Deuteronomy Chapter 6, verse 4, God says to Israel, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And thou shalt love," verse 5, "the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as a frontlet between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thy house and on thy gates."

It is amazing what God said to Israel when Israel were entering into the land. He says to the Jewish people, "*Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad*. Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." He says you should love your God, but not only you should love your God, you should meditate and read the word found in His Book, and you should teach them to your children.

Why you teach them to your children? Because when they grow up, they're going to have to make a decision. It was King Solomon who said, "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth." That's the point. It doesn't mean that all the children are going to follow the Lord when they grow up. They're going to have to make that decision. Nevertheless, to influence and to teach them the writing, the Book of God's Word, it is the most important.

Nebuchadnezzar said, "You take these Jewish boys, and you teach them the Chaldeans' book so they will be saturated with it and forget the Book of books, which is the Torah, the Tanakh, the Bible." When God said to Israel you should teach them to your children diligently, He says you should talk about them in every situation to be saturated with the Word of God.

I am telling you the truth for each and every one of us personally, if we're going to be able to walk in spiritual strength for the Lord Yeshua the Messiah in this day, we need to read the Bible and we need to be saturated by the Word of God. We need to be so saturated with the Word of God that it will influence our thinking.

Go back to Daniel. Not only this, Nebuchadnezzar knew very well that if he's going to influence these people to be serving him in the palace, he's going to teach them heathen wisdom and heathen learning and heathen language. But notice what in verse 5 he says, "I'm going to do something else in addition to that. I'm going to give them heathen food to eat, food that had been offered to idols."

Notice verse 5: "And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's food, and of the wine that he drank, so nourishing them for three years, at the end thereof they might stand before the king." It is common knowledge from historical fact that when the Babylonian kings were given food to eat, it was initially offered to idols, to their gods.

By taking or partaking of the food that had been offered to idols and giving them after to these Jewish boys, what happened? You become a partaker of the idol worship that the king of Babylon was worshipping. This is exactly what he wanted for them.

I want you again to understand when God had given to Israel as a separated nation, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were still under the Law of God's commandment. Even if they were punished with the nation and have gone to Babylon, they were still under the covenant of God that He had given to them specifically when it comes to certain foods that they were supposed to eat and not to eat.

God said to them in Leviticus Chapter 17, there was certain food that they were not supposed to eat, like pig or certain food that they do not chew the cud and do not have a split hoof. The split hoof suggests separation. The chewing of the cud suggests meditation. There's a spiritual reason for that as well.

Yet if these Hebrew boys would take and partake of this food, they would definitely be identifying with the worship of idols, the false gods of the Babylonians. Not only was he going to get them saturated with material that had to do with Babylonian learning and teach them a language that they had never learned, but in addition to that, he was going to feed them with the food that had been offered to his gods.

The third thing that they have done is in verse 6 and 7. He had given them different names. Let me read you verse 6 and 7: "Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names. He gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, and unto Hananiah, Shadrach, and unto Mishael, Meshach, and unto Azariah, Abednego."

What happened here, beloved, is a complete conformation to the Babylonian lifestyle, the language, learning, and even the Babylonian name. Let me give you the four Hebrew names and their meaning. I'm going to give you the four Babylonian names and their meanings. I'll give it to you this evening.

Daniel simply means God is my judge. Every time you call Daniel, what you really say is, "God is my judge." Hananiah, his name means Jehovah is gracious. *Hanan Yah* is two Hebrew words. *Yah* stands for Jehovah. *Hanan* means gracious or merciful. Jehovah is gracious.

Mishael is again, notice just like Daniel, the last two letters are *El*. Mishael means who is what God is? Azariah, or Azaryah, whom Jehovah helps. In other words, Jehovah is helping, a helper. Notice that two of them have the name of *El*, God, and two of them have the name of Jehovah, *Yah*. Daniel, Hanani-yah, Mishael, Azar-yah.

They said if we're going to conform them to become like us, we are not only going to have them in learning to be fully filled with the learning of the Babylonians, we are going to have their mouths filled with the language of the Babylonians and have their insides filled with the food offered to idols, but also whenever we're going to call them, we will have them forget the name of their God, and we're going to give them a name that has to do with the gods that we worship.

To Daniel, from "God is my judge," they gave him the name Belteshazzar, which is really "may Baal protect his life." To Hananiah, they gave him the name Shadrach, which means "command of Aku," one of their gods. Meshach from "who is what God is?" to "who is what Aku is?" and Azariah, which means "whom Jehovah helps," was changed to Abednego, which means "the servant of Nego." Some suggest it is "servant of Nebo," one of the gods that the Babylonians did worship.

These young children were influenced by heathen wisdom and learning, heathen foods and drink, and heathen names. That's exactly what happened. You and I, as believers today, just like Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, are called to not allow the influence of the world to creep into our minds and our thought patterns, because we are no match for the world and its influence and for Satan and his influence.

Turn to one verse for an application. While we are studying Daniel, I want to read Romans Chapter 12 and verses 1 and 2, and I think it is the same thing what Moses would have said and the leaders of Israel would say to Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael when they had been taken to Babylon.

Romans 12 verses 1 and 2: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

Those Jewish boys could say very well, just like you and I can say very well, "We are away from home. Our Temple has been destroyed. Our people lost. Our mom and dad do not know where we are. What's the use of maintaining what God told us since anyway we are away from home? Why don't we become like the Babylonians? Why don't we learn their language, learn their books, change our names, eat their food, drink their wine, offer to their gods and be like them because we anyway lost the battle? We are already in Babylon."

That's exactly what Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to do, and that's exactly what the devil wanted them to do. That's what the flesh who is weak, the world and its influence, and Satan and its desires want. This book and this man by the name of Daniel and those three friends are so special because of the fact that they have trusted in God in the midst of the chaos that they have been under.

They still trusted God. That's what makes believers so special in a time of pressure, when they still cling to the truth of the Word of God, no matter what. How often we lack spiritual strength when we deviate and start to say, "What's the use?"

Narrator: You have been listening to the Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levytam. Gideon teaches God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry, write to Holy Scriptures and Israel, Box 1411, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, L0S 1J0, or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com.

You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 1 p.m. at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program, visit holyscripturesandisrael.com. God bless you, Shalom, Shalom.