Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Female): 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: We're going to turn to Daniel chapter six, and I'm going to read this chapter. Today I hope to cover at least half of this chapter, and we can look to the next meeting together where we are going to finish this chapter. Let's see if we can just read this chapter first of all. Daniel chapter six, and I begin with verse one.

"It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom. And over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was one, that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no loss. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

Then said these men, 'We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.' Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king and said thus unto him, 'King Darius, live forever. All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counselors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.' Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree."

I want to just for one minute hold your finger here and just to read one verse in the New Testament. Put your finger here or put a marker here and turn to the book of Peter, 1 Peter chapter five. One verse from the New Testament, 1 Peter chapter five, and I'm reading verse eight. "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour."

Today we are going to begin with the sixth chapter in the book of Daniel. If you remember, I want to remind you that this particular chapter, chapter six, does not follow a proper chronological order according to the history. Because in chapter six we find ourselves, if you notice the last verse of chapter six, "This Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian."

In other words, by the time that we get to chapter six, we have already passed historically the Babylonian kingdom. Because after Babylon came the Medes and the Persians. But once we're going to get to chapter seven and once we're going to get to chapter eight, we'll discover that we are back into the Babylonian kingdom.

And so when you think about chronological order, chapter six is really not in its proper place here historically. And yet morally, by the wisdom of God, God had placed chapter six in this location. After chapter five, now we know that by the end of chapter five the Babylonian kingdom had ended. As you remember, in verses thirty and thirty-one of chapter five, "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain." This is Babylon. And immediately following him here, "Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about sixty-two years of age."

And so what really we see here is that yes, the Babylonian kingdom had been taken by the Medes and the Persians, but later on when we're going to get to chapter seven and chapter eight, we're always going to be back even before chapter five. We're going to be back into the Babylonian captivity and the visions that Daniel had received concerning those four kingdoms: Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Grecia, and ultimately the Roman.

Anyway, let's continue. We're going to go by verse by verse and we're going to look at this particular chapter. Now let's just remember one thing, that when the Babylonian, when Babylon fell to the Medo-Persian, Babylon now was taken and placed under the Medes and the Persians. Now Babylon became part of the Medo-Persian kingdom.

Babylon continued as a city, or as a nation, but they were no longer a supreme nation. Now the Medes and the Persian became the one that took over. So the next kingdom that becomes the kingdom that reign and rule over this world now are the Medes and the Persian. So Darius right now, this particular man by the name of Darius, now we often some say that this is really not a name of an individual but it is a title that was given unto this particular individual, which is going to be the king or the vice king under Cyrus the Persian.

Notice it says that Darius the Mede in verse thirty-one of chapter five took the kingdom and he was about sixty-two years old. Apparently this particular name for Darius or in Hebrew or in Aramaic, Daryavesh, is really a title of the kings of the Medes. Apparently the name of this particular individual was really Gubaru. He was next to the captain who actually took over the city of Babylon, and he later on became that particular king over the vice king over Medo-Persian kingdom.

And so now notice what happened. Look how the kingdom had been divided. First of all, the position of Daniel under Darius the king, verses one to three. Notice it says here, "It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 princes, which should be over the whole kingdom. And over those, he put three presidents of whom Daniel was one."

And then it says that the princes might give account unto them, and the king should have no loss or no damage. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and the princes because an excellent spirit was with him. And the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Notice first of all to see in those verses how interesting is the position that Daniel had been placed in the kingdom of the Medes and the Persian.

In verse one we find out that Darius, he set 120 princes over the whole realm of his kingdom. So he's setting 120, perhaps a prince over a part of his kingdom, the kingdom divided into 120 sections if you will, and he has 120 princes that they would be over the whole realm of his kingdom.

And then what he does in verse two, over those particular 120, he selected three individuals who we call them, it calls them and over these three presidents of whom Daniel was one. So there are 120 princes. They are responsible over the realm of his kingdom. They give an account to three presidents.

And why is it? It says here in verse two at the end, they give an account unto those three presidents, notice, "that the king should have no damage or no loss." You see the king wanted to make sure that there is no disorder, that everything is going to be in an ordinary fashion, and that the taxes will be paid and everything's going to be, there will be no loss for the king and for the kingdom. Well, 120 princes, three presidents, giving an account to Darius, and ultimately he is a vice king under King Cyrus, the king of the Persian.

Let me remind you that in chapter two, when we were looking at the image, the Medo-Persian kingdom were represented by the chest and the two hands. Later on when we're going to get to chapter seven, you will notice that the Medes and the Persian were represented by a bear that leaning sideway. One side was higher than the other. You will see that when we're going to get to chapter seven.

And so while Darius was a king, he was really under the ultimately the higher king, the more powerful nation, which is the Persian, and so Darius was really a vice king under the Persian, which we know Cyrus, Koresh the Persian. And so 120 princes, giving an account to three presidents, giving an account to Darius, who is ultimately under King Cyrus. 120, three, one, and one. You can see how the kingdom had been set.

And the reason for that, according to verse two, is that the king will not lose anything. The king will not have any damage, as it says in verse two, or in other word, any loss. He wanted to have that everything's going to be in order and there will be no loss for him. But now notice what we find out in verse three. In verse three Daniel was really preferred above all even those other two. Daniel was preferred above them.

Notice in verse three of chapter six, "Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and the princes," and listen to the reason for that. The reason for that is because an excellent spirit was with him and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Now this is to me tells me a lot about Daniel. Everywhere this man gone, somehow even as a Jew, as a Hebrew, that was in a sense like captive that had been brought out of Jerusalem, Judea, into Babylon, now under the Medo-Persian kingdom, even as this particular individual was just a foreigner.

Can you imagine? The king now want to set him over the whole realm. He want to position him above the 120, and perhaps to set another person instead of him, which will be the third one as a president, and he was going to be above everyone else. Now can you imagine that, what would that do to all the presidents and the princes around about him? They would look at this particular Daniel and they would say, "Who is this guy that he's being placed in such a favored place?"

And I don't know about you, because you and I have a sinful and a failing nature, perhaps envy and jealousy is creep in very quickly when they see that particular person receive such a favored and high position. But one thing we do learn for this verse, it says here that an excellent spirit was in that man.

What does that mean, an excellent spirit? To me, and I believe if we look at it from other passages in scripture, there was something attractive about this man. An excellent spirit, in other word, his moral life, his attitude, his manner of behavior, his conduct, his humility. Anybody who want to have a person that he or she can entrust them with some responsibility will be glad to have a person such as this, if they are wise.

Even if he was a Jewish man, a foreigner coming from another country, he's not part of these wise men of Babylon if you will, he is not elaborate like the other, he is strange, he's different, he worship a different God altogether. But an excellent spirit was found in this man.

If you just go back one chapter, chapter five, notice what we read there in chapter five. Chapter five and verse twelve. Remember in chapter five, when we read in verses eleven and twelve, where the queen came in in the time of Belshazzar, this wicked king, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. We read in verse eleven, "There is a man in thy kingdom."

Notice verse twelve, "Forasmuch as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding of interpreting of dreams and showing of hard sentences and dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation."

According to chapter five, when he was already under the kingdom of the Babylonian kingdom at the last time, at the last portion of the last minutes if you will of the kingdom of Babylon, the mother of this Belshazzar told him there is a man that has an excellent spirit is found in him.

Time went by and now he is under the kingdom of the Medo-Persian. Darius could see that it was evident, it was evident in the life of this particular individual by the name of Daniel. Now I wonder, just as a PS about you and I as believers. You and I are children of God, we have the Lord Jesus as our Lord and our Savior, and I wonder when people are looking at us and speaking with us and hearing us and as we speak with them, I wonder what their thoughts about us when they leave us. What they think about after they spend some time with us?

I wonder if they can say, "Listen, this brother, this sister, I found something unique and attractive about this particular individual." Or I wonder they say, "Ah, this person is an obnoxious, I can't even stand a ten-foot pole you will never get me closer to this particular individual." You know, it's serious.

Sometimes people tell us, "You call yourself a Christian, you call yourself a believer, a child of God." Now we are to be different, no doubt, but we also have to be like the salt that the Lord Jesus said, the salt of the earth, the light, in other word, like something attractive that the others outside us might say, "Listen, I might not believe in the God of this individual, I do not believe in their Jesus or Yeshua the Messiah, but there is something unique that this person have and I would like to find out what is it."

That's what happening. Daniel was an ordinary man, but somehow wherever he has gone, and you know another man was very similar to him, his name was Joseph, another Jewish man. Joseph, wherever he has gone, he had seemed to be making out of nothing gold for everyone, wherever he have gone.

They took him to Egypt, they sold him to Potiphar. Potiphar had been blessed because of him and entrusted to him his house and everything. His wife lied and sought to find an occasion against Joseph. When he sought to do the right thing, he found himself in jail and even in jail he end up to be successful. Why? You know why? There is something happening to an individual that is in touch with God. There is no doubt.

There is a change in what 2 Corinthians said, chapter three, that we change from glory to glory as we looking unto Yeshua, unto the Lord Jesus. There got to be a change. There got to be a change. It got to affect other individuals. It cannot be I'm a Christian and there's no change in the life of the believer. There is a problem. There got to be an effect. Now it cannot be a fleshly effect, it cannot be something that we do by our own merit, by human merit. It's got to be a work of the spirit of God working in our hearts, mellowing us and changing us and molding us to be more like the Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Anyway, back to our chapter. In the first three verses we find out that the position that Daniel was under Darius the king, he sought to put him above not only the princes but even the presidents because an excellent spirit was found in him. Now in verse four to verse nine, there was a conspiracy against Daniel by the officials.

There was a conspiracy against Daniel by the officials. Notice first of all in verse four, the presidents and the princes and their jealousy. Listen to that. It says in verse four, "Then the presidents and the princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him."

You know, I mean, just think about how interesting it is they were trying, first of all, you can see what happened. What happened? Again, they look at Daniel and they say, "Wait a minute. He is coming from Judea. He is merely one of those captives. Oh, yeah, he is coming from another land, he is worshipping a strange God. This person becoming our superior? Is he going to be placed above us, above me?"

And you know what I believe? It was their loss because even if he was coming from another place, if he is a man like Daniel, an honest, genuine man, I would want him at any time to be over me because I know he will treat me right. But no, jealousy and envy brings about conspiracy. Oh, and you notice what all of a sudden, when it's come to hatred and enmity, everybody gather together. They have one common goal.

You know, they they probably didn't have, they were not so satisfying with each other during the time that they received responsibility. But when it's come to conspiracy against the right man, the man of God, all of a sudden everybody has one mind. And so we find out in verse four, "the presidents and the princes" gather together and they sought to find occasion against Daniel. And notice where did they want to find it? They want against Daniel concerning the kingdom.

"You know, we would look, we would look to see how was he treating people. We would find out to see if he was honest in his dealing. We would try to find out if he was maybe giving some favoritism to his family or friends or whatever. We'll find some occasion to find some fault in Daniel." I know if some people going to try to find occasion to find in me, they're going to find plenty. And I'm sure, beloved, if they will seek to find occasion with you, I'm sure they will find some as well.

But the Bible tell us because Daniel is a picture also of the Messiah, of the Lord Jesus the Messiah. And we find out that Daniel, they couldn't find any occasion or fault against him. They couldn't find it. And it says here, notice, it says the reason, "forasmuch," verse four, "forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or error or fault found in him." I just want for one minute, more than one minute, to elaborate on the thought faithful, the thought the word faithful. I want you to turn to the Gospel of Luke for a minute. Put your finger here, turn to Gospel of Luke chapter twelve.

Luke chapter twelve. Yeshua, Jesus, the Lord Jesus the Messiah said many years ago when he was here on earth in chapter twelve, speaking with Peter about faithful servants. Peter was speaking to him in verse forty-one, and Peter, Luke 12 verse 41, "Peter said unto him," Peter was speaking to the Lord and he said unto him, "Lord, do you speak this parable unto us or even unto all?"

And remember, he in verse thirty-one, he says, "seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you" and so on. And he's thinking about the faithful servant in verse thirty-seven. He says, "Blessed are those servants" and so on. But just go down in verse forty-two. Listen what the Lord is saying. "And the Lord said, 'Who then is a faithful and a wise servant, whom his lord shall make him ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find him so doing. Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he have.'"

You know what we learn here from this chapter and from this passage verse forty-one to forty-four is that the Lord Yeshua, God is really expecting from us simply to be faithful. I remember last night after I finished to I finished the meeting, we finished the meeting, the Yom Kippur Day of Atonement meeting in Toronto in our outreach Holy Scriptures and Israel Bible Fellowship.

Guest (Female): 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 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM and Saturdays at 1:00 PM 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.