12:13 Class



12:13 Teaching Notes – May 3, 2015

AGENDA

• Attendance

o Name tags -- One parent volunteer per grade/gender

o If you don’t have a name tag, please register at table

• Small Talk

o If you could be the best in the whole world at just one thing, what would it be?

• Welcome!

o First time guests?

o Ask their name, grade, and school – pick from candy jar

• Class Rules

o Briefly review slide

o Remind students about use of phones

• New City Catechism

o Introduce Question 17

o Q: What is idolatry?

o A: Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security.

▪ Example: Son’s application to college

• Administrative Announcements

o Bible Bowl 3 – Daniel, May 31

o Who brought their Bibles and Binders?

▪ CLS Girls/Boys – Grade 8

• Face 2 Face: Postponed

• Offering / Prayer

o Get two boys and two girls to collect offering

o Lead students in prayer for the offering and class

HOW TO READ AND UNDERSTAND THE PROPHETS: DANIEL (I)

• SLIDE: TITLE SLIDE

o I have loved going thru Pilgrim’s Progress with you this year – what a great story!

o But there’s an even greater story – and God himself is the author

o The Bible

o The is the greatest story ever told, written in 66 different books over the course of hundreds and hundreds of years

o Twice this year we have paused our series in Pilgrim’s Progress to study one specific book of the Bible and to learn more about the Bible in general

o Do you remember which books we’ve studied?

▪ 1 Samuel

▪ Acts

o Today we’re going to begin a new series on a fascinating book of the Bible called Daniel

• SLIDE: TEN TYPES OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

o As we first learned back in the fall, there are ten distinct types of biblical literature – ten different types of writing contained in this one book

o Can you remember what they are?

▪ Class feedback

o Show list on big screen

o The Book of Daniel is not a Gospel, or a parable, or a law…it’s one of the prophets

o 16 of the 66 books of the Bible are prophets

• SLIDE: FACTS ABOUT THE PROPHETS

o The 16 different books of prophecy are divided into two categories

o 4 Major Prophets

▪ Called “Major” simply because they are longer books

▪ Isaiah – 66 chapters

▪ Jeremiah – 52 chapters

▪ Ezekiel – 48 chapters

▪ Daniel – 12 chapters (shortest of the major prophets)

o 12 Minor Prophets

▪ Why are they called this? Because they are short!

▪ Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malach (last book of the Old Testament)

o All of these books were written within a 300-year period between 760 BC and 460 BC

▪ Why all these prophecies during this relatively brief time?

• Extreme amount of political and military activity – nations trying to conquer other nations

• God’s people were extremely unfaithful to him and to his covenant – God had to speak to them a lot!

• Like a 2-year old who needs many corrections a day

o Format: Collections of individual prophecies

▪ Not a historical account like 1 Samuel or Book of Acts

▪ These are collections of different visions, different prophecies, all put together in one book.

▪ One chapter doesn’t necessarily flow into the next.

• SLIDE: BIG WORDS, IMPORTANT WORDS

o We’ve learned these words already this year…

o I’m going to show you the definition and you tell me what the word is

▪ “The science and art of biblical interpretation”

• Hermeneutics

▪ “Using hermeneutics to reach a correct understanding of Scripture”

• Exegesis

o As we will be learning throughout the month, there are certain hermeneutical rules we need to follow when trying to understand this part of Scripture, the Prophets

• SLIDE: DANIEL – THE BOOK

o Author: Daniel

o Historical context: Exile in Babylon

▪ God had warned his people from the time they left Egypt that if they rebelled against him and worshiped other gods, he would discipline them by uprooting them from the Promised Land and scattering them among the nations

▪ Starting around 740 BC, God began doing that – first with the northern kingdom of Israel, then eventually with the southern kingdom of Judah

▪ The Babylonian army conquered Jerusalem in 605 BC. Daniel and many other Jews were taken away as prisoners of war to Babylon, hundreds of miles to the north.

▪ In 586 BC the Babylonians destroyed the Temple and totally wiped out the city of Jerusalem.

▪ Daniel is writing as a prisoner of war who has had to adapt to a new city, a new language, a new culture, and everything that goes with it

o Written in two languages: Hebrew, Aramaic

▪ The first chapters and last chapters are written in Hebrew, the language of the Jews

▪ The middle chapters are written in Aramaic, the international language of that time

• Daniel wrote certain chapters in this language so that people from other nations could read and understand this part of the book, which speaks about God’s sovereign plan for the nations

o Written in two parts

▪ Chapters 1-6: Some of the most famous stories in the Bible – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace; Daniel in the Lion’s Den. These chapters will inspire us in our faith!

▪ Chapters 7-12: Visions of God’s power in the end times. Strange things, symbolic scenes – a lot like the Book of Revelation.

▪ Big idea of the book of Daniel:

• God is sovereign over history and empires. His kingdom will endure forever!

• SLIDE: DANIEL – THE MAN

o Hebrew royalty; taken captive as youth in 605 BC

▪ Member of the royal family – brightest and best, cream of the crop

▪ Daniel 1:4 – “youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace…”

o Hebrew name: Belteshazzar

o Gifts: Understanding mysteries, interpreting dreams

▪ He is able to do things that nobody else in the kingdom can do

▪ Not by his own power, but God’s

o Character: Courageous, courteous, man of prayer

▪ Would rather die than betray his God

▪ Serves foreign kings humbly and faithfully

▪ When he needs help, he knows where to turn – he turns to God in prayer

• 3-week prayer in Daniel 10

o God’s ambassador to heathen rulers

▪ Instead of speaking to his fellow Jews, as most of the other prophets were called to do, Daniel was appointed by God to speak primarily to foreign rulers, the most powerful men on the planet at that time

▪ “God placed Daniel at the heathen court in order that he might declare to successive monarchs that the kingdoms of this world are temporal and fleeting but that the kingdom of God shall endure forever.” (Bible commentator E.J. Young, p. 18)

• GAME BREAK: TRIVIAL PURSUIT

o Art & Culture questions (are you as smart as Daniel and his friends?)

o Answers

▪ Poncho

▪ Lowly

▪ Ear

▪ Laura, Mary, Carrie, and Grace

• SLIDE: SERVANT AND SEER OF CHANGING KINGS

o When new presidents are elected in our country, they bring into office a brand new set of advisors and Cabinet leaders

▪ New Secretary of State

▪ New Secretary of Transportation, etc.

▪ What if there was one advisor who was so sharp, so influential, that each new president – Republican or Democrat – kept him on staff?

▪ That’s Daniel!

o Nebuchadnezzar II – the Great

▪ When Daniel interpreted his dream:

• “Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.” (2:28)

o Belshazzar (co-ruler with Nebuchadnezzar II)

o Darius the Mede

▪ Overthrew Belshazzar

▪ Structured his kingdom this way

• 120 governors called “satraps”

• Three presidents to oversee all the satraps

o Daniel was one of these

o He was the most distinguished, “because an excellent spirit was in him” (6:3)

o Cyrus the Persian

▪ “So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.” (6:28)

• SLIDE: THE KING’S DREAM

o Read Daniel 2:1-19, 25-35

o Head (Gold)

▪ Babylon

o Chest/Arms (Silver)

▪ Medes/Persians

o Waist (Bronze)

▪ Greece

o Legs and Feet (Iron/Clay)

▪ Rome

o Stone cut out by no human hand

▪ King Jesus!

• SLIDE: A VISION OF FOUR BEASTS

o Read Daniel 7:1-8

▪ Lion with wings of an eagle (Babylon)

▪ Bear with three ribs in its teeth (Medes and Persians)

▪ Leopard with four heads and four wings (Greece)

▪ Terrifying beast with iron teeth and ten horns (Rome)

o As we will learn next week, all of these great beasts and the kingdoms they represent will end…and a greater King arises, one whose dominion shall never be taken away

• SLIDE: A VISION OF A RAM AND A GOAT

o Read Daniel 8:1-8

▪ Ram: Kings of Medes and Persians

▪ Goat: King of Greece (Alexander the Great)

o Throughout his own life, and in his prophetic visions, Daniel witnessed the rise and fall of powerful empires

o But despite their great power, despite their conquests, despite the terror they strike in the hearts of other peoples and nations, each of these empires eventually falls

o But remember that stone that struck the statue? That stone cut out without human hands that grew into a mountain that filled the whole earth?

o That king – that kingdom – will never end!

• SLIDE: KING OVER ALL

o “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belongs wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings…” (Daniel 2:20-21)

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