In this week’s episode, we unravel the complex relationship between biblical prophecies and historical events, with a critical focus on Daniel Chapters 9 and Jeremiah’s vivid predictions. We explore Isaac Newton’s perspective on ancient history and biblical prophecy, delving into his assertion that God’s Word remains a reliable historic document. This exploration is enriched with discussions on the Dead Sea Scrolls, offering substantive evidence of biblical accuracy. Listen and discover how faith, history, and prophecy converge.
Greetings to the brightest audience in the country, and welcome to Bob and Yart Live. Today, we’re getting into a study of the Book of Daniel done by my father and predecessor, Bob and Yart. And if you want, you do not want to miss this. If you want to get all of Bob and Yart’s Bible studies for just $10, you can get that at nyart.shop that has all of these Daniel studies. You do not want to miss those. But today, we’re getting into this study of Daniel, So exciting. Hey, if you can’t afford that $10, email us, service at kgov.com, and we will find a way to get you those Bible studies. Hey, this is Daniel, Bob Enyart’s study of Daniel. So exciting. I’ll see you on the other end.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re up to Daniel chapter 9, Daniel 9. the first verse, “…in the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.” Now, the Chaldeans, they’re basically Babylonians, and we think of southern Iraq, and that gets us to the right region. Remember what we said back in that some of the kings mentioned in the Bible, there is great certainty and relative agreement, even with secular historians, who they were. And with other kings, there’s more of an uncertainty as to their identity. And that is true with this Darius, and even with this statement that he is the son of Ahasuerus. Now, remember that we said that there were two Nebuchadnezzars in history, and because this Nebuchadnezzar is in the Bible, he is the most well-known. To historians, he’s Nebuchadnezzar II. The first lived about 500 years before him. But the world often remembers history the way it was recorded by the Hebrew prophets because the Bible is God’s word. It’s the best seller in history worldwide. And so I’ll give you an example. The word Pharaoh, the whole world refers to the kings of Egypt as Pharaoh. although the Egyptian language doesn’t have the word Pharaoh in it. It’s not an Egyptian word. It’s a Hebrew word. Moses used that word Pharaoh for the king of Egypt. Therefore, the whole world says Pharaoh when they’re referring to the ancient kings of Egypt. Well, similarly with Nebuchadnezzar, the king that we’ll run into this evening in Jeremiah when we jump over there. And earlier in this book, the world knows of Nebuchadnezzar, but he’s actually who the historians would call Nebuchadnezzar II. And in Daniel’s book, Daniel speaks of Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar. And secular historians know that Nebuchadnezzar had a son. They more often call him Balthazar, but they also call him Belshazzar. So the world is… through the work of historians and archaeologists, they are increasingly finding out on their own that the Bible is accurate. And this has happened not dozens of times or hundreds of times, but literally with thousands of discoveries. The king in the book of Esther is named Ahasuerus. He’s also known to the secular world as Xerxes, but he’s a Persian. So here there’s an Ahasuerus who’s a Mede. And interestingly, that other Ahasuerus from the king in the book of Esther, his father was Darius I. So here Daniel writes not of Persians but of Medes, and these kings are not father and son but son and father. So it’s difficult to take secular history and figure out who these kings are, although quite often we can do that with great certainty. Someday we’ll be able to ask Daniel himself. who exactly he was referring to here, and he’ll probably say, I was referring to Darius, the son of Ahasuerus. Didn’t you read it? I think he’s already been asked by no less a mind than Isaac Newton himself. Isaac Newton was the greatest scientist who ever lived, and if you recall in the study, we’ve mentioned one of his books, which he titled The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, Amend it. And in that book, he argued, in fact, Isaac Newton wrote more about the Bible, theology, and biblical history than he did about physics and astronomy. I mean, this was his topic, the Bible. And in it, he wrote this. He wrote, “…any suggestion that the human past extended back further than 6,000 years is a vain and foolish speculation.” So Isaac Newton believed the history of the world is recorded in God’s Word as inspired by the Holy Spirit, and he even would criticize secular historians who would say that the dynasties in Egypt go back for centuries earlier than what the Bible would acknowledge as possible. And Isaac Newton would make fun of ancient history Egyptologists and say, what did they think? The pharaohs were sitting on the throne before the world was created? That’s not possible. So secular ancient history is recorded imperfectly and God’s word has been shown to be reliable in a thousand discoveries by anthropologists and genetic scientists, historians, and archaeologists, and also in all of Isaac Newton’s research. So here also, we will one day find out, no doubt, exactly who Daniel is referring to. So let’s continue in verse 2. In the first year of his reign, of Darius’s reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books… the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. So for this, of course, we have to go over to Jeremiah in chapter 25 to remind ourselves about the 70 years of Babylonian captivity that Jeremiah prophesied of. So we’ll be over there in Jeremiah for maybe as long as 10 minutes. So you don’t have to keep a finger here in chapter 9 unless you have plenty of them to spare. So let’s turn over to Jeremiah chapter 25, and we’re going to look at three passages in Jeremiah. The first two are where God reveals to Jeremiah that there will be a 70-year captivity in Babylon. And the third comes from earlier in the book, and it might surprise some of you to hear the way God describes his thoughts about what will happen, about whether or not Israel will repent in a given circumstance, and then what actually happens. So let’s begin. Jeremiah 25, verse 1, the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, remember Israel had a northern Israel, southern Israel. The southern part of the country was basically two and a half tribes. Northern Israel was ten tribes, and they had effectively a civil war, not unlike America with a north and a south and a civil war. They had different kings that we’ll run into here in the text in Jeremiah. They’d have a king in the north, the king of Israel and the king of Judah. So when we read Judah, it doesn’t typically mean the one of the 12 tribes Judah, but it typically means southern Israel. and northern Israel had been carried off by the Assyrians. And so if you think, it could get complicated because history is complicated and it’s long before our time, but if you think of Babylon as southern Iraq and Assyria as northern Iraq, Two different kingdoms. And then Israel is southern and northern. Southern Israel is Judah. Northern Israel is the ten tribes. Well, Assyria in the north carried away the ten tribes. And they were so rebellious and wicked and sinning against God that the Bible records not one word of them returning to the land. They did not return to the land. Southern Israel… was carried away by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon, and many of them did return. And there was a remnant that returned, and from that remnant, God reconstituted even the priesthood and the 24 orders of the priesthood. And if you remember, Abijah was the eighth order, and John the Baptist’s father was in the order of Abijah. So all that, God… took his plans for Israel from before the exile, and when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were carried away from Judah to Babylon, you might think that all God’s prophecies now are not going to be able to come to pass because the nation is decimated, but God reconstituted the nation. And he brought to pass the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, as we know. So this is a prophecy concerning the people of Judah in southern Israel in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, which is the king in southern Israel, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Ammon, king of Judah, even to this day, This is the 23rd year in which the word of the Lord has come to me. So Jeremiah has been prophesying. He’s been an honorable man living before God, a trusted prophet for 23 years, for a good part of his life. And I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. And the Lord has sent to you all his servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. There are many Christians who have been taught that everything that happens is decreed by God, predetermined. And when we read passages like this, we should be able to see how unreasonable that is because God is commanding, he’s pleading, he’s urging people to obey him so that he can bless them. And he says, no matter what I do, no matter what I say, you don’t obey me, and so I can’t bless you, so now I have to punish you. So that is the heart of God, that he wants them to obey, just as Jeremiah was hoping the people would respond. They said, repent. Now every one of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, and I will not harm you. Yet you have not listened to me, says the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment, a hissing and perpetual desolations.” Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” Then it will come to pass when 70 years are completed. And this is the 70 year period that Daniel is wondering about over in Daniel chapter nine. Then it will come to pass when 70 years are completed. that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, and I will make it a perpetual desolation. So I will bring on that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all the nations.” for many nations and great kings shall be served by them also. And I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands. Now, if you’re using your fingers, well, actually, we’re done here in chapter 25, but you can turn just four chapters further into the book of Jeremiah. chapter 29, where God says more about this prophecy. So we’ll look at that also before returning to Daniel, because we are about 2,500 years, roughly speaking, into the future. And so when Daniel says, hey, Jeremiah spoke of this time, and I want to… I want to ask God, what did God mean by this? So this is what Daniel is reading. Daniel is reading the writings of Jeremiah. Now, there are many skeptics who will tell us, well, the Bible’s unreliable because it’s an ancient book, and ancient books were handed down from scribe to scribe, And we go centuries, even a thousand years, without having a manuscript. And what are the chances that it’s going to be accurate? It’s not going to be accurate. That’s what they say. Well, enter the Dead Sea Scrolls. See, if you are a Christian and you trust the Lord and you have found by faith many infallible proofs that this is God’s Word, you’ve learned to trust it. But there are atheists, secular people, skeptics who don’t yet believe this is God’s Word, and so we show them the Dead Sea Scrolls. And that is such a powerful testimony because they were written by a Jewish cult that lived around the area of the Dead Sea. Our church has gone to Israel on three occasions. We created a DVD called The Bible Tour of Israel, and you could see the caves in which they lived and they worked. They built homes also in the desert, and they would create scrolls And they would copy huge portions of the Hebrew scriptures and then hide them in the caves and hide them partly because from the Romans also. Well, the Essenes were wiped out as a cult. They no longer existed after the first century. So when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, this was an enormous archaeological site. find because in one step it brought us back 2,000 years and we could read major portions of Jeremiah almost the entire book of Isaiah many portions of scripture and when we compare it to today’s Hebrew Bibles we’re reading in the English so there’s one translation it’s not telephone it’s not going from one language to another to another it’s going from Hebrew to English and although the book of Daniel is written in Hebrew and Aramaic. We’ve talked about that at some length. So there’s one translation step, not five or ten or more. There’s one, and the Dead Sea Scrolls told us, they demonstrated, that when Jesus stood in the synagogue and he read from the prophet Isaiah, he was reading identical text that we read today if you study Hebrew or when we read it in our English translations. What Jesus was quoting, we can read with tremendous accuracy. So praise God for that. Now, we’re also going to consider the question, as we look in Jeremiah, the question of the future. And, of course, many things in Christian theology are debated and cause controversy. One is the question of the future. Is the future settled? or is it open? That’s currently the biggest topic that is being published by Christian publishers in theology books, is on whether or not the future is settled or open. At Denver Bible Church, we teach that the future is open, and the primary reason for that is because God is free, God has a will, He’s eternally creative, and He has new thoughts, and He could… write a new song and design a new flower if he wants to. And he will be eternally creative. So to say that the future is settled is also to say that God will never think another new thought. He’ll never design a new thing because he’s exhausted his creative ability. We don’t believe that. We don’t believe the Bible teaches that. So then when God speaks of things that are going to happen in the future, what does that mean if the future is open and not settled? So we’ll get into that also in our next two passages. So, Jeremiah 29, verse 1. Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive. to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. This happened after Jeconiah the king… the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah in Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem, carried away to Babylon. The letter was sent by the hand of Elasa, the son of Shaphan, and Gamaria, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, saying… So that’s quite a setup for a letter… saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon. So God is saying, this didn’t happen by accident. I would have protected you, but because you hate me, because you reject me, I have withdrawn my hand of protection from you. And so I have caused you to be carried away to Babylon. And he’s telling them, build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters. See, in chapter 25, God said, I’m going to take away from you the voice of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the bride. And so as they were reading that and remembering what Jeremiah had prophesied, they could have gotten the wrong idea that God is saying, when you’re in Babylon, don’t get married. God didn’t mean that. What he meant was there’s not going to be the joy that you should have in the promised land. That’s what he meant by that. But so now he wants them to be clear that they’re going to be there for 70 years, and when they leave Babylon, those who have the courage to go back to the promised land, he doesn’t want their numbers to be utterly decimated. He wants them to continue to grow and multiply. So he says, build houses, plant gardens, eat their fruit, take wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands so that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be increased there and not diminished. Verse 7, and seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive. And pray to the Lord for it, for in its peace you will have peace. So sometimes we pray for peace in America, even though we recognize that America is in rebellion against God, yet our children live here, our grandchildren, our churches. So does America deserve God’s judgment? Yes, it does. But God is a merciful God. And so just like God said to the Israelites in Babylon, pray for the peace of your country, we could still pray for the peace of America. Although, does it deserve peace? Does it deserve prosperity? No, not when you turn your back on God. Verse 8 says, For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you. Notice prophets often deceive the people. There were many false prophets. Many of the kings were evil. Even kings who God chose were evil. Priests who God chose and named turned against him. So that is the history in the scriptures, the sacred history that the chosen people often rejected God, the Lord who chose them. who are in your midst, do not let them deceive you, nor listen to your dreams, which you have caused to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. For thus says the Lord, after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord. thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. If God was decreeing that they would be evil, then his thoughts toward them would be evil, not good. But he did not decree that they would sin and rebel. He pleads with them to obey. Verse 12 says, Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. So God says, you will call upon me, you will seek me, and you will find me. And of all but a certainty, at the very least, there will be a remnant who will be faithful to seek God. But what if they did not seek him? What then? Because here’s a prophecy that you will seek me and you’ll be found by me, but what if they didn’t seek him? Well, this actually has happened repeatedly in the scriptures. We’ve talked about this in some of the previous chapters in Daniel because there are prophecies of what’s going to happen with a series of four kingdoms. And so when we look at those, we see a tremendous fulfillment right on target. But then about the time of the New Testament, we wonder, well, what happened there? Because the things didn’t continue as we would expect. Later in this chapter, we’ll see that there’s a prophecy that after 483 years from a given date, the Messiah would be crucified. And then there would be seven years, which we believe is the tribulation, and that will usher in God’s kingdom on earth. But the tribulation did not happen 2,000 years ago. In fact, there were many things that Jesus said. He said that you will not have time to get through the villages of Israel before I return. That was a surprise when Christians read that because he has not returned in 2,000 years. He said in three of the Gospels that there are some of you standing here today who will not see death until the Son of Man returns with power in his kingdom. And yet now they’re all dead. And there were many prophecies. Jesus said, this generation shall not pass until all these things take place. And yet the generation passed. Jesus said of John, the disciple, he said, what if I will that he remain alive until I return? But then, of course, John eventually died, probably in Ephesus. So the Lord said so many things that caused the twelve to believe that he was going to return very soon. And that’s why, with the Holy Spirit’s concurrence, the early Christians sold their homes and they sold their lands. And they put all the money into ministry because they believed Jesus was coming back soon. and that some of them would be killed in the great tribulation, but some of them might survive to see his return. That’s what he said. Well, none of that happened. So what do we do as Christians? Do we doubt God’s word? We should not doubt God’s word. Well, what do we do? Well, we could doubt Greek philosophy. We could doubt Plato and Aristotle and
SPEAKER 01 :
Stop the tape. Stop the tape. Hey, we are out of time here on KLTT Radio. If you want the entire thing, you can find it in two different ways. One, you can go to kgov.com, click on the store, and purchase the Daniel Bible Study, which is a little bit expensive. I’ll be honest. It’s a little bit expensive. Or for way cheaper, you can go to enyart.shop and get all of Bob Enyart’s Bible Studies for just $10. You do not want to miss that. $10. What a steal. If that’s too expensive for you, reach out service at kgov.com and we will find a way to get that to you. No charge. We want to be a blessing to you. Again, nyart.shop. That’s E-N-Y-A-R-T dot S-H-O-P. Hey, may God bless you guys.
