Colin Badger - Class 4: Thou Shalt Stand in They Lot at the End of Thy Days

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   This is Silver Star Bible School, 1987, August the 13th, session number three. Our speaker is Brother Colin Badger. His general theme is the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And the title of this class is Thou Shalt Stand in Thy Lot at the End of the Days. Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. We come now to our final study in this particular theme, dealing with the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous man, Daniel.

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   We'd like to just pick up some connections from the conclusion of our study yesterday. We spent a great deal of time yesterday looking at the hope and the object of Daniel's prayers. Not only in the realization of the restoration of Israel and their return from Babylon to the city of Jerusalem and the reestablishment of that land, but we also saw that one of the primary objectives of his faith was to be part of the faithful.

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   And if he had not formally fully grasped the importance of the resurrection hope, he did both by vision and by personal experience come to more keenly appreciate that vision which was set before him in prospect and partly through his own participation in a kind of resurrection process, not once but twice from Daniel 8 and Daniel 10.

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   We can see then that Daniel both saw and in a more limited fashion experienced the realization of the object of his hope through that resurrection process. I'd like to look at a passage, first of all, by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians, which complements what the Almighty was doing for Daniel in both giving him a vision of the future glory, not only of the land, but the future glory of the saints personally, as well as helping Daniel to partially experience that resurrection in his own participation.

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   For in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we have both of those elements brought together in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 8, and as you read these words by the Apostle, think of one who experienced many of the trials and persecutions that were experienced by Daniel and his friends for the same reason in a world that was just as hostile.

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   Verse 8, Paul expresses the thought, We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body.

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   Now, we just pause there, brothers and sisters. Here is another brother, another faithful man like Daniel, who experienced trouble on every side. Distress was his common lot, who had tasted perplexity and persecution, casting down, but never fully destroyed. His faith was not crushed. And as he lived day by day, what happened by way of affliction to his own temporal body was understood by him to be but an identification more keenly with the suffering servant in the master.

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   He interpreted his trials through that perspective. He could rejoice, therefore, in his trials and difficulties, as he says elsewhere in Corinthians, in that in his weakness, God's power and strength was made known. And in himself, there was a life that was revealed. There was an eternal principle that was being worked out within him.

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   What he meant and understood by that is obvious. In verse 7, he had explained it previously. He says, For we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. What was that power in his earthen vessel? It wasn't something that was nebulous.

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    We go back to verse 2. We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

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    The gospel, the good news, the truth, the light, was a power. In verse 6, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When we think of Daniel in the furnace, walking about as he was with those friends, withstanding the heat of persecution and trial, and yet every one of them aglow from within by what they knew and believed and had faith in, as they did so, they were in the company of one who was like the Son of Man.

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    And like all angelic type figures, there was a glory, no doubt, associated with their companion. There was the eternal glory. There was one who could withstand the heat of trial and persecution and risen above it. Let me come down a little further to this section in the epistle. Verse 12. He continues, So then death worketh in us, but life in you, we having the same spirit of faith.

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    According as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he, now notice how the resurrection is drawn in, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might be through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

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    For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more excellent and eternal weight of glory. While we look not on the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

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    For the things which are seen are temporal, for the things which are not seen are eternal. Think of Daniel and his friends in Babylon, where they were surrounded with a people and a religion that was based on the temporal and the external. Daniel, that which flattered man's vanity and gave him a temporal assurance.

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    But Daniel, by being given, as we saw yesterday, the vision of the resurrection and the future glory, had before him, what Paul says here, a looking forward to those things which are not now seen. He had the hope of the glory of resurrection, as verse 14 says, for Paul, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus.

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    He saw a vision of future glory intending to assure Daniel that he too would be raised. And thus in chapter 12, as Phil read for us, we actually find the saints being raised. And at the end of Daniel chapter 12, he is told to have faith and trust and patience, for he will stand in his lot at the end of the days.

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    Daniel chapter 12, therefore, doesn't contain the prayer, but it is the object of Daniel's prayers. It is the substance of his hope that he looked forward to. And with his now former experience personally of a resurrection process, Daniel chapter 12 took on special meaning as those assurances in future patience was exhorted to him.

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    You see, the apostle Paul understands this truth. He knows that he will suffer persecution, distress, and difficulties, but he will not despair. He knows that he can withstand this with God's help because this power that was Paul's in this earthen vessel and frame of Paul's body was the glorious gospel, the good news, the hope.

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    And it was that which shone brightly within Paul and gave him the strength to withstand the trials and the tribulations so that though his outward man may perish, the inward man was renewed day by day. Do you know what that shows and tells all of us? That although we look forward to a future resurrection as Daniel was shown in the picture of that glorious, glorified individual before him, as Daniel experienced in himself a resurrection process, so do we.

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    Insofar as the word is working within our members and bringing forth the fruit of the spirit and renewing us from within, there is but a small taste of the renewal process. We see within us not a process of immortalization, but a process of a new creature being formed. We see a new life giving its full scope day by day.

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    We see an image and an impression of the limited of our master. So though we look forward to the future resurrection and pray for it, day by day we see the power of God's word working within us and we see change. We go, says Paul, from faith to faith. We grow up into him, says Paul, in his epistles to Colossae and to the Ephesians.

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    That growth, that change, that development, that small mirror of the master's image is a renewal process. It is the beginning of a resurrection that will be culminated fully when we are freed from that which is temporal. So, verse 18, is surely in the spirit of what Daniel was shown to encourage him in his prayers and in his hope.

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    Daniel did not look at things which were seen, be it Nebuchadnezzar's image, the glitter or the glory of Babylon, but he perceived things which were not seen. Jerusalem was not yet in her glory. Jerusalem was stripped and laid bare. But, in his mind's eye, through faith, Daniel could see that which was not seen.

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    He knew the future realization of those hopes in Jerusalem. And as he was shown in Daniel chapter 12, it wasn't yet apparent that the saints and he, Daniel, would realize that future glory. But, Daniel could see that which was not seen. Look again at Daniel chapter 12. How clearly the book ends on that note which we spent so much time yesterday to appreciate by vision and by personal experience.

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    How much more meaningful now was this assurance to Daniel in chapter 12, verse 10? For it includes not only Daniel, but those who were of like precious faith.

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    Daniel is told in verse 10, many shall be purified and made white and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. And then verse 13, the closing note of the book of Daniel. But go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

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    Daniel, you will rest. And what had Daniel previously experienced twice? Remind ourselves of those words. Daniel had said, yet I heard the voice of his words, and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face. Daniel, the end will be a long ways off.

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    Thou shalt rest, but you will stand in thy lot at the end of the days. We need to have that assurance as we stressed yesterday. But we need to realize that in the meantime, despite the fact that we look forward to a future glorification, there now, presently, is a renewal from within. We must have this power in our earthen vessels.

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    The glory is not to ours, but it is to God. There must be, as Paul says, day by day, a resurrection process, the crucifixion of the flesh with its affections and its lusts, that the new man might arise and might be nurtured and strengthened, both in Daniel's experience, both in temporary ways ours as well.

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    The future vision and the working of that renewal from within that will ultimately be realized in the resurrection of 1 Corinthians 15. I'd like to return now to the earlier part of Daniel, touching on the various parts in Daniel that establish this doctrine not only of resurrection, not only resurrection of the nation and resurrection of the saints in particular, but expands that vision to a doctrine which we know and understand as God's manifestation, which is much broader in its scope than only the resurrection of a nation and the resurrection of individual bodies.

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    Let's remind ourselves of something we looked at in Daniel 2, verse 11, earlier in the week. The ironic admission by the Babylonians in verse 11, and it is a rare thing that the king requires and there is none other that can show it before the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh.

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    But, slip over to chapter 5, a passage we haven't yet looked at, and see how the opposite in fact is true of the God of Israel and it's relevant to Daniel's own experience. except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh, contrasted now with chapter 5, verse 11. There is a man in thy kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods and the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods.

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    In Daniel, in flesh, they perceived that there was a spirit from the gods in their own limited understanding. Truth of the matter was, of course, wasn't gods plural, but gods singular, the god. The limitation is admitted concerning the Babylonian theology, but here it is admitted now that in this man in flesh there is a God dwelling, whoever he might be.

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    That perception is a touchstone in the book of Daniel. For it is in Daniel as we saw yesterday through the resurrection process, vision, and experience that there was a hope and a promise of God dwelling in flesh. But it broadens out into a larger picture. The principle of God manifestation. The object of hope, the reason for faith, and the understanding of all that God is about.

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    Let's just pursue this a little further in the area of scripture. 1 Kings chapter 8. We'll come back to Daniel immediately, but I'd like you to notice these words of Solomon in 1 Kings chapter 8.

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    What is said of Daniel in chapter 5 that we just noticed is an answer to the question, the rhetorical question of Solomon in his prayer at the dedication of the temple. 1 Kings chapter 8, at a time when Solomon's attention was drawn to the dwelling place of God in the temple. Verse 26 of 1 Kings 8.

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    And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified which thou speakest unto thy servant David my father. but, will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have builded. Will God indeed dwell on the earth?

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    The answer is given for us, isn't it, in many times and in many places in scripture. scripture. The end of the book of Ezekiel, the very last verse of the last chapter, names the place Yahweh Shema for the Lord is there on the earth. Will he tabernacle on the earth? Yes, he will.

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    First and most glorious in his son and then finally in a multitude as we are assured elsewhere in scripture. scripture. So, that revelation to Daniel against the impotency of the Babylonian gods is part of the picture that blossoms out into his vision of the resurrection. But as we've said, it goes broader than that, doesn't it?

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    Daniel chapter 7 now, in the ancient of days prophecy, the doctrine is now expanded into clearer detail. Daniel chapter 7. I know we're all concerned at times as to the identification of the ancient of days versus who the son of man is. For the time being, I'd just like to extract the basic truths that are here as they relate to those passages we've just looked at in Daniel.

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    For in verse 9, it's a theme of God manifestation. That's clear and easy to see. Daniel 7, verse 9, I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. Then, as he looks, verse 13, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven and he comes to the ancient of days.

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    And to the son of man who comes with clouds, there is given dominion and glory, power, everlasting might. And, of course, as we continue through this chapter, we see that the ancient of days, verse 22, comes to the earth. Verse 22, until the ancient of days came and judgment was given to the saints of the most high.

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    Notice, they're the ones that receive it. And the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. God revealing himself, not only in Daniel, not only in Messiah, as the next chapter or two will show, the one who is to be cut off, but God will manifest himself and dwell on the earth in a multitude.

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    Will God dwell on the earth? Asked Solomon. Yes, he will. The Babylonian gods were nothing. They were dead. And thus, perhaps you've noticed that frequently in the book of Daniel, the God of Israel is called the living God. Have you noticed how many times that occurs in your studies in this past week or so?

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    The living God, a very important expression. Time and again, that is repeated. For it is a living God that dwells on earth. It is a living God that is a force that will tabernacle with flesh, with men. It is not a dead hope. It is not one who cannot tabernacle with mankind, but rather one who will live in mankind and finally regenerate them completely.

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    Daniel chapter 8. Think carefully of what you've just looked at briefly in the ancient of days prophecy and see now the tremendous point to Daniel personally. Daniel 8 verse 17. So he came near where I stood and when he came I was afraid and fell upon my face. But he said unto me, understand, O son of man, for at the time of the end shall be the vision.

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    O son of man. Chapter 8 following from chapter 7. one experience falling right upon another. What had been said in Daniel 7 and 13? I saw in the night visions and behold one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven. And now Daniel is addressed by that very title. He is called the son of man.

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    Not that he is in total that son of man in chapter 7. But whoever that son of man is, we know who he is, individually and corporately as a group. It's appropriate to use that same expression of the man Daniel. When? At the time of the end, when he stands in his lot, when he's been resurrected, glorified, he is identified in his own experience fully with the vision of Daniel chapter 7.

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    So significantly, Daniel is called by that term subsequent to the ancient of days prophecy and vision. God assuring Daniel that he is part of that vision in a certain way. He will be incorporated into that great principle of God manifesting and revealing himself on the earth. Now turn to Revelation chapter 1. For the theme is sustained right to the last book of the Bible.

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    Stephen is going to be analyzing this chapter in greater detail. I would just like to pick up the threads that we're bringing from the book of Daniel and just relate those here to Revelation chapter 1.

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    For we see here something that reminds us of the ancient of days vision. How so? Well, look at verse 13. Your margin will alert you to all these connections for it brings us into Daniel chapter 10, Daniel chapter 7, and partly Ezekiel. Verse 13, thinking of the ancient of days prophecy, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clove with a garment down to the foot, gird about the paps with a golden girdle.

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    His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire. And when he speaks in verse 15, remember the angel we met in Daniel 10, who was that one man, that man of one, but when he opened his mouth, it sounded like the voice of many waters.

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    man, this too occurs here. For in verse 15, his feet is like undefined brass, Ezekiel, and if they burned in a furnace, and his voice is the sound of many waters. The language is descriptive of that man of one that Daniel saw in chapter 10. But it's also drawing from the ancient of days prophecy because, in verse 13, it's one like the son of man that is shown here.

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    But it's also incorporating the ancient of days. For, in verse 14, the description of his hair and his white like his wool, like hair, which is very white, white as snow, is also drawing, as we've said, from that description of the ancient of days. Incorporated into this son of man vision then, who looks like one, but whose voice has many waters in its sound, is a corporate picture, drawing from many places in Daniel's prophecy, showing the full climax of what Daniel was shown.

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    But more than that, brothers and sisters, as this wonderful theme of God manifesting himself through many individuals as well as his son, just go back to verses 4 and 5 of Revelation 1. John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come.

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    You see how the father here is pictured, which is, which was, which is to come. God the beginning and the end. But in saying that he is and that he was and that he is to come, it shows that he's infinite. the eternal spirit, Brother Thomas used that expression. The eternal spirit, which was, which is, and which is to come.

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    How appropriate therefore to call him and to appropriate to him the ancient of days. He was, he is, he will be. He has no beginning and he has no end. Thus in verse 8, I am the alpha, the beginning before any other, and omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come, the almighty.

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    And yet, as we examine carefully these terms, we discover something rather interesting. Going back to verse 4, looking now a little more carefully, the doctrine is the same as that described to Daniel. Grace be unto you, and peace from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits, defined at the last verse as being the angels, from the seven spirits, now the King James says, which are before his throne.

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    In fact, in the Greek, the verb is singular. The seven spirits, which is before his throne. And commentators have said that John was using sloppy grammar. He wasn't using sloppy grammar, singular. They can't understand why the verb estin, E-S-T-I-N, singular, is being used to carry forward a plural subject. It's ungrammatical, but it's highly spiritual.

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    The seven spirits, corporate, are described as though they're one body, or part of one body, and thus a singular verb is used. Not only that, brothers and sisters, and this gets even more exciting as we see the links with the Old Testament, in saying, if we go down further, in saying that he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, he is drawing from two prophecies in Isaiah, Isaiah 44 and Isaiah 41.

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    I'd like you just to take a look at those. Isaiah 44, verse 6, Isaiah 44, verse 6. Here's one of the sources for the quotation in Revelation 1, remembering how heavily it draws upon Daniel directly, as your margin shows. Now, in Isaiah 44, verse 6, we read, Thus saith Yahweh, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts, I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no God.

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    Thus saith Yahweh, King of Israel, and His Redeemer, that's the Redeemer of Israel, Yahweh of hosts, a great army, implied by that second expression, in conjunction with kingship, and in conjunction with Him also being a Redeemer or a Savior. Here is the King and the saving character of the Father, King and Priest, as it were, and He is described as the first and the last.

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    But now go to chapter 41. Isaiah chapter 41 verse 4. Verse 4. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning, I, Yahweh, the first and with the last, and the Hebrew word for last is plural.

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    I, Yahweh, the first and with the last ones, it means in Hebrew. Thus, here, in the Old Testament source, for the language used in Revelation chapter 1, is a curious hint of the Father being the first and the last, singular, but He is also the first and the last ones, plural. His intention to be revealed in many others at the last.

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    That takes on special significance when we talk about the last days, the latter days, those days when Daniel will stand in his lot and be amongst those who are the last ones in whom the Father will dwell. How magnificent are these ties from Old and New Testament. What Daniel saw, you see, was a doctrine being expressed more clearly than it had previously in Scripture.

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    And is it any surprise that we find more reference to angels in Daniel's prophecy than in any other book of the Old Testament? Why? Because it's a book that is advancing scriptural knowledge. It is making a great step forward in revealing these principles of God manifesting himself, not only in Daniel, not only to the nation of Israel, but to a multitude and finally to fill the whole earth with his glory.

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    So the picture we saw yesterday about resurrection and a changed body is only one part of a much larger picture and principle, all of which is developed throughout the book of Daniel against the admission of the impotency found in Babylon. Their gods who could not dwell in flesh are now shown to tabernacle, or rather God is now shown to tabernacle in contrast in the earth and in individuals.

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    I'd like to go back to the book of Daniel and now I'd like you to turn brothers and sisters to your notes. There is an additional perspective which relates to this glorified hope of the future. It helps also to add to this picture for which Daniel prayed and to which he was given assurance of its realization.

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    revelation. The notes were drawn up not specifically for this Bible school but for a study we were doing on Peter. And we confess like Brother Stephen we were struck by the number of links Peter's epistles have with the book of Daniel. Now on page two about the middle of the page.

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    We have a paragraph that begins temporarily. We'd like to just lift some points from that paragraph and we'll direct your attention to other sections as we go along. In that paragraph we draw your attention brothers and sisters to several passages in Daniel which speak of the promotion of Daniel and his friends in the court of the king because of their faithfulness.

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    Stephen the other day if you remember brought out that when Babylon capitulated Belshazzar was slain that night. There were only previously two other rulers Daniel and of course Nabonidus king's son. We know that it was a fact that Nabonidus was not dwelling in Babylon at that time. Stephen showed that really meant significantly that Daniel was left in his elevated position over Babylon as one who would have dominion figuratively of that city.

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    But a cameo of something greater in the future. But besides that in the book of Daniel these promotions are interesting. Each one of them in Daniel 3, Daniel chapter 2, and Daniel chapter 1 are promotions showing that they are rewards for faithful service. And not only faithful service to the Babylonians, but faithful service to Yahweh.

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    Have you noticed that each one of those promotions to a higher rank was on the basis of the three of them being faithful to God, not faithful to Babylon? Babylon. Although it's the Babylonians who promote them each time, their promotion is on the basis of the assistance that Daniel has given them in the revealing of visions.

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    Or the promotions are on the basis of the miracles that have been wrought through them in being saved against the lions of the fiery furnace. Not one of those promotions is for service in Babylon. Babylon. And thus, in fact, God is using these Gentile powers and through them he is elevating his sons and his daughters to a position of higher rank on the basis of faithful service, not to Babylon, but to God.

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    So really it is a kind of enacted parable in some ways. The one that is most curious, I believe, for our purposes, is in Daniel chapter 1 and verse 19. Now, let's just turn there. Perhaps you have your notes on your lap, but let's look at the Bible.

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    And notice the force of this expression that comes, we believe, significantly as part of the introduction to the book of Daniel. This is fascinating. here in the introduction of the book, as the drama begins, the first act of faithfulness is rewarded. According to verse 19, and the king communed with them, and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

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    Therefore, they stood before the king. Last note in the introduction to the book of Daniel. Faithfulness is rewarded by being elevated and standing before the king. Now, how does the book of Daniel end? Go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

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    Before whom? Before the king. The promise at the end of Daniel is a compliment to the beginning of the book of Daniel. You stand as a result of your faithfulness, Daniel, and your friends before the king. And at the end of Daniel, Daniel is seen and promised to stand before the king in resurrected glory.

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    How significantly those two thoughts bridge the whole book of Daniel, the end and the beginning, complementing each other. Faithful service promotes us to a rank in the kingdom that is elevated and privileged as a result of faithful service. And we stand before the king. promotion.

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    Elsewhere, we can see other cases of that promotion. But it helps us once again to fit this in to what we saw yesterday. Daniel, by experience as well as by vision, is promised that there will be a reward for faithful service. He has explained or given information about the principles of God's manifestation.

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    He constantly meets angels in his experience. And in these angels, he sees language being attributed to them that's later attributed to him, O son of man. And as his understanding of this principle of God manifestation broadens out, he sees it applying not only to himself but to many others. Thus, there is such great appropriateness in Revelation chapter 1 drawing from such a source in Daniel.

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    I'd like you to look at 1 Peter. For, as Stephen has already suggested to us, there are many interesting links from this epistle or from these epistles, penned as they were from Babylon, two people who were in exile and suffering persecution, who were told that they would face a fiery furnace and that their persecutors would be described as roaring lions.

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    all those links in Peter's epistle, therefore, make the first of Peter, chapter 2, highly appropriate as we take a look at this exhortation. first of Peter, chapter 2. Here in this chapter, there is mention of persecution and difficulties. But, look at verse 20. chapter 3. Here in this chapter, it's For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently?

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    But if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. The anticipation, therefore, is clearly in the epistle of one of difficulties and problems. Now, over to chapter 5 and see how the promotions experienced by Daniel are very interesting as a parallel to this kind of language for those who withstand such trials mentioned in chapter 2.

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    Verse 6 of 1 Peter 5. Here's the point, isn't it? Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Not as Daniel's friends were asked to humble themselves before the great image, but rather to humble themselves instead before the true God. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt or raise up or promote you in due time.

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    It's the language of being promoted and elevated. Thus, you see, that to another group of people, under similar circumstances, facing the fiery furnace of trial and these lions that roared about in their environment, challenging their faith, there is the positive promise that if they humbled themselves below God's almighty hand, in due time, he would promote them.

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    He would raise them up and elevate them. That they might be obviously kings and priests. You see how similar circumstances generate the same kind of exhortation in scripture. And as we sample elsewhere in the book of Peter, just notice the following links. Back to your notes, if you wouldn't mind. page two at the bottom.

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    See the correlation between these two similar themes. Bottom of page two of your notes, we have given you about three or four passages in Daniel that describe Daniel's character and that of his friends when they're cross-examined by their persecutors. page two at the bottom. First, a quote from Daniel 3, and this helps perhaps to get through these just a little quicker.

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    Wherefore, at that time, certain Chaldees came near and accused the Jews, namely Daniel and his friends. But then, in chapter 6, then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel. Chapter 6 again, verse 5. 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.

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    They couldn't find a flaw in Daniel's character, so they sought to find scruple with his beliefs. Now, to the top of page three. To another group of persecuted people, in similar circumstances, look what Peter warns. In 1 Peter 3 and 16, he warns of those that will speak evil of you and falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

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    The exhortation that they have to do well and suffer for it. And then, interestingly, in 2 Peter chapter 2, look at this parallel. By reason of whom, not you, but the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. They couldn't find a flaw in Daniel. They knew, therefore, they had to pick fault with him concerning the law of his God.

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    We, too, will experience the same. But, what is the exhortation for faithful in such circumstances? Well, look at the parallels again between Peter and Daniel. In Peter's epistle, in the middle of page 3, he speaks of the master as a lamb without blemish and without spot. He exhorts them to be holy in all manner of conversation.

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    He says that they must be diligent, that they might be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. But look what's said of Daniel. Daniel, chapter 1, verse 4, and his friends. They were children in whom was no blemish. Look what the result was when they scrutinized Daniel's character and that of his friends.

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    Daniel 6, verse 4. But they could find none occasion nor fault. Chapter 6, and verse 22. Daniel can plead, innocency was found in me. In a world that is hostile and looking for faults and for inconsistencies, it behoves us, brothers and sisters, to be found as Daniel and his friends were found. If we wish our prayers to be answered, if we wish to come through the trial of fire successfully and defeat the roaring lions, the weaknesses of our own nature, in us there must be found innocency and sincerity.

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    In us, like Daniel, there must not be found fault. As we proceed just a little further, go over to page 7, if you will, of the notes. Now towards the back. And notice, in the middle of that page, where the quotations are given, how many quotations stress the importance of knowledge and understanding in Daniel?

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    Let's quickly survey them as their catalog there for us. Starting at the bottom, I have a reason for that. Daniel 2 and 21. He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding.

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    Then above it, none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. Daniel chapter 10. Did set thine heart to understand. Daniel 9. Know therefore and understand. What's the antidote to the ignorance of the Gentile world? How do you help equip Presidelfians to resist the temptations of the trials set before us?

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    Fundamental to that, apart from the exercise of prayer, the assurance of the great vision before us as an incentive, of practical worth is the exhortation to develop knowledge and understanding that we might be wise. So is it any surprise, brothers and sisters, that at the end of page 7 there, you find Peter's readers being given the same exhortation.

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     Look how many times Peter stresses wisdom and knowledge. Desire the sincere milk of the word. Dwell with them according to knowledge. Speaking of those outside, for this they are willingly ignorant of. They understand not. He speaks of the ignorance of foolish men. In contrast, is the wisdom and the knowledge and the understanding that settles us in our faith.

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     And then finally, on the back of our notes, the last page. Over and above all of these incentives and these assurances of help, what do we find? In Daniel chapter 9 and Daniel chapter 10 and Daniel chapter 6, only as a way of examples, we find the role of the angels in the lives of the saints.

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     The book of Daniel has more references, as we've said, to angels than any other book of the Old Testament. Enforcing the principle of God manifestation, reinforcing that picture of the vision of the future glory, but also, practically, an assurance that as Daniel prayed, the angel came swiftly in answer to his prayer. The angels superintended in Daniel the events of the nations.

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     One angel comes from Medo-Persia. Another speaks and oversees the scene in Daniel's case. Angels converse about the saints. The angels are real. They're working in our lives and in the nations. What a great assurance in trial. And so, as you go down in Peter's epistles, it's not surprising that you find mention of angels a number of times in Peter's epistle.

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     The angels desire to look into those things, says Peter to his readers, telling them that the angels are there, overshadowing the saints and encouraging them. Finally, let us turn to a passage in Peter, which we believe brings us full circle as we consider this glorious theme of prayer, the incentives of prayer, and finally, the great answers that come from prayer, ultimately in the future, but now in the lives of the saints.

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     Let us read this. Let us read this. In Peter's epistle, 1 Peter 5. Language appropriate to Peter's readers, but ever so appropriate to those who see these exhortations in Daniel's experience. Verse 7 of 1 Peter 5. Casting all your care upon him. For, brothers and sisters, he careth for you. Not just others.

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     He careth for you. Be sober. Be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom? Resist. Steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Amen.