Paragraph # 3 Study # 1
September 11, 2022
Broadlands, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
Thesis: God's "promise" fulfilled.
Introduction: In our studies thus far we have seen the crucial setting of Daniel's record in history; a setting of Divine "promise", Divine "discipline", and Divine "inspiration". For our study this evening, we are going to see how God
demonstrated the validity to His "promise".
- I. The Basis For The Demonstration: The Link Between Justification By Faith And The Choice Made By "The Just".
- A. In Habakkuk 2:4b there is a record of a divine promise made to a certain "type" of person.
- 1. The setting is two years before the events of Daniel 1:1-2.
- 2. The promise is that those who are "justified by faith" would "live" in the face of the arrival of the Babylonians.
- 3. There is an "issue" here: the nature of "faith".
- a. The "promise" is addressed to those "justified by faith".
- b. The immediate response of those "justified by faith" (Habakkuk 3:16-19).
- c. The link between the "faith" that has led to "justification" and the down-line choices made that challenge that faith.
- 1) Habakkuk, himself, revealed what happens when "the just" are given a "follow-up-promise".
- 2) Paul also reinforced this "what happens" issue in his quote in Romans 11:4 of 1 Kings 19:18.
- a) This text argues strongly that God's "justification by faith" has a down-line, residual, impact: those "kept by God for Himself" do not "bow the knee to Baal or kiss him".
- b) This declaration is somewhat problematic because many conflate the refusal to bow to Baal into a refusal to "sin"; a conflation that cannot stand the test of Scripture.
- i. Many are the "sins" of "justified saints".
- ii. The sin involved in God's declaration is one: direct apostasy from the worship of Yahweh to the worship of Baal (and, by extension, any other "god").
- 3) Luke's record of Peter's three-fold denial of Jesus includes Jesus' "...I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not..." strongly implying that there is a significant distinction between "sins" (which are always a "failure of faith" to some degree) and "apostasy" (which is the absolute "failure of faith"): this supports the concept of God's preservation of His "saints" from "bowing the knee to Baal".
- 4) John's record in The Book of The Revelation Of Jesus Christ also has this primary distinction as it regards "the mark of the beast" in Revelation 14:11 and 20:4.
- B. Thus, we conclude that Daniel's decision to refuse to "defile himself" with the king's "demon worship" (1 Corinthians 10:20-21) was God's "preservational action" on Daniel's behalf by His working in Daniel's heart/mind/choices (Ephesians 3:20; Colossians 1:29; and Philippians 2:13) to establish Daniel's fidelity.
- II. The Details Of The Validity Of God's "Promise".
- A. Daniel 1:9 tells us that "God" (The "Elohim" that was Daniel's Judge) granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials.
- 1. The following verses record this man's refusal of Daniel's request.
- 2. But they also record the fact that "the man" whom "the commander of the officials" had commissioned to carry out the king's edict was the one to whom Daniel turned next.
- a. This man knew of the attitude of "the commander" toward Daniel.
- b. This man also was willing to be that "commander's" "plausible deniability" before the King if something went wrong.
- B. Daniel 1:17-21 tells us what God also did on behalf of His "just ones".
- 1. God gave those men "knowledge and intelligence in every (form of Babylonian) literature and wisdom ... and ... Daniel even understood all visions and dreams".
- 2. God's "gifting" made these men "ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers in all his [the King's] realm".
