You can press play and listen to the Podcast | Follow along with the teaching notes below.
NEXT Family,
Happy New Year to all of you. I hope that 2018 was filled with some amazing memories. I believe that God has some amazing things in store for you in 2019 and I am excited to be apart of it with you. Below you will find the #NEXTPODCAST. Take a listen and follow along with the teaching notes.
Also, Register for #NEXT Winter Camp 2019 Today! Click the link to register
https://vintage.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/190905
Teaching Note’s
We are going to dive right into the book of Daniel this morning. We will take it slow and unpack the text. Daniel wrote this book around 606BCE (We will unpack this more)
“In the midst of chaos, hurt, pain, and confusion, God is still sovereign and in control!
V1 During the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign in Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it with his armies.
What do we know? Let’s get a handle on the history of this time period…
During the 3rd year of Jehoiakim’s reign…
He is the second son of King Josiah of Judah.
There are 2 main super powers at this point in history. Babylonians & Egyptians
A lot happened before Jehoiakim become’s King and His dad’s story will tell us.
“Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty one years. He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight and followed the example of his ancestor David. He did not turn aside from doing what was right. During the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young (age 16), Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David. Josiah was a godly king and the most significant reformer of Israel.
I want to highlight this phrase:
he began – the word means to bore into or dig into
to seek – to frequent or tread
At age 16, Josiah began to dig into God, he began a pattern of regularly, frequently, walking with God.
There is not a more clear picture of a man choosing to build a personal encounter with God than this.
This was not normal for for him to do. Most people around him were not honoring the scriptures nor were they having personal intimacy with the Lord. In fact it was a pagan culture filled with idols, child sacrifice, sexual immorality, etc…
So what does he do after he builds intimacy with the Lord?
Josiah begins his reforms…
for the next 10 years, he purifies Israel and tears down all the pagan shrines
He finds the Scriptures and calls Israel back to full obedience to them.
“The Lord’s anger has been poured out against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of the Lord. We have not been doing what this scroll says we must do.”
He leads the people of Israel back into covenant with God.
The king took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in the Lord’s presence.
