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PAGE 1
Copse Road
10th August 2005
The Assessment
The Assessment
A Bible Study in Daniel 1-6: Copse Road 10 August 2005

I would love to be confident enough in Bible Study to announce a single
bible study in Daniel\u2019s Visions. I\u2019m not, and I\u2019m sorry if you are
disappointed; instead I propose a study in the assessment strategies used
by God as shown in these opening \u2013 these easy chapters \u2013 in Daniel.

Of course it will be a flying visit \u2013 a brief helicopter circuit of chapters that
were probably more popular when we were at Sunday school than since.
This is the season of tests and examinations \u2013 so here\u2019s a short paper on
God testing his four candidates in Daniel 1-4 and 6.
So that leaves us with FIVE ASSESSMENTS

The four exiles are selected for royal service but refuse the diet of privilege
Daniel (and his friends) are subjected to the tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s
unreasonable dream challenge
The three friends are subjected to the fiery furnace
Daniel is tested by the content of God\u2019s Word as he must deliver it
Daniel is in the lion\u2019s den.

INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 5

God constantly subjects the world and its people to a process of
assessment \u2013 and a striking example of this is in the story from Chapter 5
of Belshazzar\u2019s feast.

The tyrant having used the sacred vessels from the temple at his feast
sees a finger writing a message of judgement on the conquest frieze on his
wall:

5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. 6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.

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Copse Road
10th August 2005
25 \u201cThis is the inscription that was written:
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN
26 \u201cThis is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
27Te ke l: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
28Pe re s: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.\u201d
Weighed in the balances and found wanting \u2013 so familiar it has entered our
language as a universal metaphor.

It illustrates the principle that is enshrined in each of these early chapters
in Daniel \u2013 God is constantly assessing our lives. Sometimes he uses
specific tests to do it.

The range and variety of those experiences is our study subject tonight.
OUTLINE
Chapter 1
Tested by diet
DISTINCT
Chapter 2
Tested by tyranny
PRAYERFUL
Chapter 3
Tested by fire
NOT ALONE
Chapter 4
Tested by the Word
FAITHFUL
Chapter 5
Tested by God
The hand ***
Chapter 6
Tested by lions
MY GOD IS ABLE
Chapter one : tested by diet \u2013
be
distinct
The opening chapter tells us how the cream of Jewish society was brought
to Babylon to serve the regime, and that amongst these were some from
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Copse Road
10th August 2005
Judah : Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Three of them ever since
known by their adoptive names \u2013 but Daniel always by his Hebrew name.

Daniel (v8) was concerned about defilement caused by the foreign diet.
His plan to avoid that diet was unpopular with the guard in charge of them
\u2013 but Daniel asked him to give it a test:

11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,12 \u201cPlease test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.\u201d14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished

than any of the young men who ate the royal food.16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

So, at the very beginning of the book the tone is set for a confrontation
with the Babylonian authorities.
I hope that the four men liked their vegetarian diet \u2013 because from that
point on they were restricted to it!
The RESULT of the stand taken by Daniel was God\u2019s blessing :
17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all
kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and
dreams of all kinds.
The CONCLUSION of the matter was recognition and responsibility:
18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them in, the chief official

presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.19 The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king\u2019s service.20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.

We need to note the polite but firm way in which their distinctive lifestyle was preserved. They did not refuse their new names even though those names contained references to foreign deities \u2013 but they stood firm in the matter of diet. They needed to be DISTINCT.

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