Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Thursday, October 23, Daniel 1 part 3

Chapter 1: Daniel is faithful to the ONE and ONLY God.

I needed to continue about how amazing Bible Prophecy is! We often see the veracity of God's true prophets shown by current and near-future fulfillment, which establishes our trust that the prophecies spoken about the future will surely occur. We'll see this a lot in Daniel as we travel through the book these next few weeks.

I'm thinking again of that simple little verse ending chapter one: "and Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus. What strikes me about it is that Jeremiah prophesied that the Jews would be return to their land after 70 years of captivity. And, since Cyrus was the one who gave the command (which was 70 years later, by the way), Daniel's ministry ended when the return began.

Do you get this? God placed His men in the leadership roles of the nations that He used to punish Israel's disobedience. Though they broke their covenant and reaped the "terms of agreement" made years ago (Deuteronomy 30:18-20), He remained faithful, keeping a watchful eye over the remnant until the prophecy was fulfilled.

He will keep that prophecy till the end of time. Daniel was from the tribe of Judah. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah, and long ago, Jacob, whom God named Israel, said "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." That was from the very first book given us in the Bible, Genesis 50:10.

Another thing that struck me was that, if you read Jeremiah, you find that during this awful time of imminent destruction, the kings were desperately seeking aid from other kingdoms instead of trusting God. Jeremiah told them that God's judgment was sure, and Babylon was the instrument, so get ready to go there and settle, for they would be there 70 years.

What we found, however, was that they turned to Egypt for aid, which was a complete disaster. It is ironic, when you think about it. God had initially set them free from Egypt centuries ago, and now they wanted to go back to Egypt rather than trust God.

From what I read, Daniel was part of the first wave sent to Babylon. And God's plan was continued there with Daniel's steadfastness to put God above all things. And in doing so, he earned the respect of the king, and, as Joseph in Egypt a long time ago, was an integral part of the world's continuing history. God's plan was going to continue, and through the dreams of this foreign king the great prophecies would be revealed by God's servant.

In chapter one, God's man has been put in place. The dreams begin in chapter 2.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps:

"And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus." (KJV)

Since I've been dwelling on this verse, I thought it might be another good one to memorize from the chapter, if you so desire.

If you want to link the verse number, I use my friend "Nate" as my memory character for verses 21, because N=2, T=1, vowels fillers, so I have Nate as a Persian soldier, holding a calendar that says "Year one of King Cyrus", opening the door for Daniel and saying, "you're free to go." All of them are wearing big bowties, because I use "Tie" to remind me of chapter 1.