Verse by verse teaching - Daniel 1:5 "The King's Meat"

And if you will take your Bibles and turn to the book of Daniel chapter 1. Daniel chapter 1. And as always we study verse by verse. And we just began a new study in the book of Daniel and we have made it to verse 5 this morning. So God willing we will be expounding verse 5 in the book of Daniel. The title of the message this morning is "The Kings Meet." The Kings Meet. Do you know why the kingdoms of this world hate Israel so much? Have you noticed how they all hate Israel? They side against Israel. They want to vote against Israel. If anyone votes with Israel they are usually in the minority. The reason the kingdoms of this world hate Israel so much is because they are under the influence of the prince of this world. Jesus calls them the prince of this world. He calls them the god of this world and that's the devil. And the devil hates Jesus. The devil hates the nation of Israel because God promised King David, the first good king of Israel, that Jesus is going to come back and sit on the throne of David to rule this world forever as its rightful king. And until Satan is destroyed, Israel will always have someone seeking to destroy it. Because the devil wants to rule the world instead of Jesus. So the devil counterfeits God's kingdom in an attempt to replace God's kingdom. The devil counterfeits God's kingdom in an attempt to replace God's kingdom. In the book of Daniel we saw in the previous verses, God had a house. That was the temple, right? In Nebuchadnezzar's false, God also had a house. God is a king with people who serve Him. Nebuchadnezzar, the opposing nation, was also a king with people who served Him. God has very high standards for those who stand before Him. Nebuchadnezzar, the opposing kingdom, also had very high standards for those who stood before Him. Looking back from last week, Daniel 1 verse 4 said that Nebuchadnezzar required children in whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, in whom they might teach the learning in the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the first requirement was that they had to have no blemish. You had to be without blemish to stand before King Nebuchadnezzar, and you have to be without blemish to stand before God. That's why the Old Testament offerings had to be, what? Without blemish. Unblemished animals that were offered for blemished people. Now with this in mind, let's move on to verse 5 this morning, and learn about the devil's counterfeit kingdom. The Bible says, "King Nebuchadnezzar took certain of the Israelites," look with me in verse 5, "and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat." Underscore daily provision, an underscore king's meat. It was a common practice for kings to supply their servants with a daily provision of food. It took a lot of food to feed King Solomon's servants, by the way. 1 Kings chapter 4, if you're taking notes, 1 Kings chapter 4 verses 22 and 23 says, "And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour and three score measures of meal, ten fat oxen and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside hearts and roebucks and fallow deer and fatted fowl." So King Nebuchadnezzar had a daily provision for his servants. King Solomon, God's kingdom, also had a daily provision for his servants to eat. Here's a kingdom truth for you this morning. Kings have a daily provision for their servants to eat. Kings have a daily provision for their servants to eat. Now remember the Old Testament history is New Testament reality. Old Testament history is New Testament reality. The book of Daniel wasn't written primarily for them back then, it was written for us today. Kings have a daily provision for their servants to eat. And our king, who is God, who will rule on this earth and the person of Jesus Christ forever one day, our king also has a daily provision for his servants to eat. Matthew chapter 6 verse 9 through 11, Jesus said, "After this manner therefore pray ye, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come." You notice how the kingdom is getting into this now. Thy kingdom come, thy will as king that is, be done in earth as it is in heaven. And now after establishing God's kingdom, look what he says next. "Give us this day our," what? "Our daily bread. As our king, give us our daily provision of the king's meat." Kings have a daily provision for their servants to eat. Jesus was teaching us to petition our Father in heaven for a daily provision of the king's meat. Now I don't know what King Nebuchadnezzar had on the menu. But King Solomon's daily provision consisted of oxen, sheep, hearts, roebucks, fallow deer, and birds which were animals that God deemed as clean and suitable for his people to eat. And so God has a daily provision for his people's consumption and God's provision for our consumption is always clean and suitable for us to feed on. Of course, we know that our daily provision that's clean and suitable for us to feed on is not limited to physical food, don't we? For every biblical earthly truth, there is a greater spiritual reality behind that. And so King Solomon's daily provision, it represented the clean wholesome truth of God that edifies his people that he gives us daily, that daily provision of the king's meat. Do you know what we're doing right now? We are feasting on the king's meat. Right now you open that Bible up and we're sitting here and as I'm teaching God's Word, we are passing out the provision of the king's meat. When you open up the Scriptures and you read your Bible each day, and I hope you do, or you go back and you listen to the Sunday school, as I will do, missing Brother Shepherd Sunday school because I'm teaching, I go back and I listen to his Sunday school, I listen to Brother Doug teaching at the nursing home, and I enjoy my daily provision. And of course I got to study for church so I'm in the Bible every day. That's our daily provision of the king's meat. Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day, O king, our daily bread." But Jesus also made it clear in Matthew chapter 4 verse 4 that, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by," what? "Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Every word that proceeds from God's mouth is the king's meat. God's Word is our daily bread. It's the king's meat for his servants' consumption. Kings give daily portions to their servants so they will have strength to serve them. Well, I couldn't serve God if it wasn't for his Word. I'd have no strength to carry on if it was not for the Word of God. The daily bread of our king supplies grace that is sufficient for our, what? His daily bread. Now day to day brings different things, doesn't it? I saw a little cartoon last night where someone had a long stick and they were trying to open the door to 2025 from a distance because they were a little scared of what's behind that door. And boy, there's some times that you look back over the year and we've gone through a lot of heartaches, you know. You've gone through a lot of trouble in your family and in your life and maybe with your health. But you know what? Jesus said, "The Father, the King, has daily bread for us." And you know what that means? That means God's Word and God's grace is sufficient for whatever comes our way each and every day. The daily bread of our king supplies grace that is sufficient for our daily needs, whatever that day may bring. In my most trying times in life, there's never been a day in my life, and I've gone through some tough times and I know a lot of you have too, but there's never been a day in my life when the kings meet did not supply the grace I needed to comfort me and strengthen me to continue to serve my Lord. I found the kings meet to be all sufficient to meet my daily needs. For the gospel of Jesus Christ assures me that I am forever loved, forever saved, and forever secure in Christ my Lord. The sacrifice of Jesus is the kings meet that we should feed upon every day. John chapter 6 verse 55, the gospel of John chapter 6 verse 55, Jesus said, "For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed." Matthew 26, 26, "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat, this is My body.'" Talking about His body that would be broken for them on the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ is the kings meet for those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. For He who feeds on the one who died for them will be sustained by that food even when it comes their time to die. I love that song, "O Sacred Head Now Wounded." Be near when I am dying, O show Thy cross to me. And for my succor flying, come Lord to set me free. These eyes new faith receiving from Thee shall never move, for he who dies believing, dies safely in Thy love. Daniel said, "King Nebuchadnezzar gave a daily provision of the kings meat." And not only the meat, look back in your text now, in Daniel 1.5, not only the meat but, "and of the wine which he drank." I underscore the word "he." The wine which he drank. Remember Jesus said in John 6 55, "For My flesh is meat indeed, but He went on and said, 'My blood is drink indeed.'" God not only has a daily provision of the kings meat but also the kings wine. When Jesus took the wine at the last Passover meal, Matthew 26 27-28 says, "And He took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, 'Drink ye all of it, for this is My blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins.'" Now notice that King Nebuchadnezzar gave his servants the wine which he himself drank. They didn't drink wine that Nebuchadnezzar didn't drink himself. They both shared and drank the same wine. And it's the same with us and King Jesus. We both share and drink the same wine. On that last Passover night, Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 26 29, He says, "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." So He drank with them before but on this last Passover night, He tells them, "Now you drink, I'm not drinking tonight. I'm not drinking from this point forward with you this cup anymore. Tonight you're going to drink because tonight for you this represents the blood that I'm going to shed for the remission of your sins." Jesus didn't need His blood for the remission of His sins. He had no sins that needed to be remitted. However, Jesus made it clear that in His daily provision, He also drinks of the same cup as His disciples. King Nebuchadnezzar drank of the same cup as his servants. King Jesus drinks of the same cup of his servants. He said, "I will drink this wine new with you in," where? "My Father's kingdom." It's all about the kingdom here folks. Notice how the drink, like the bread, is tied to the kingdom. And now notice next how Jesus said, "I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." Here's a kingdom truth for you. Kings eat what their servants eat. Kings eat what their servants eat. Jesus said He would drink the Passover cup new with us in His Father's kingdom. Now Jesus doesn't need forgiveness. So how does He eat and drink of His own sacrifice with us? Here's the answer. When we drink the cup with Him in His kingdom, we will be drinking what we receive from the blood He shed. When He drinks from the cup with us in His kingdom, He will be drinking what He received from the blood He shed through the sacrifice He made. So through the sacrifice of Christ, we receive a king, He receives a kingdom. You see the commonality there? He cannot receive His kingdom without His sacrifice. Because in Adam we fell. In Adam we were born into the kingdoms of this world. And it's not until the book of the Revelation through the gospel of Jesus Christ on the count of the sacrifice of Christ that the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And then He reigns forever and ever. So apart from the sacrifice, He has no kingdom. Through the blood of Christ, through the new wine that He'll be drinking with us, this is what happens. We receive a king, He receives a kingdom. We receive a groom, He receives a bride. We receive forgiveness, Jesus receives glory. Now notice that King Nebuchadnezzar had ordained time for his servants to eat his meat before they could serve in his presence. They had a certain amount of time that they had to eat the king's meat before they could stand in his presence. Folks, there is no way you can study the Old Testament and the New Testament together and not realize that God wrote the Bible. There is absolutely no way man could have put this together. So Daniel said there is a certain amount of time that the king ordained that his servants had to eat of his meat before they could stand before him. Daniel said, look back in your text now, in Daniel 1.5, "So nourishing them underscore three years." The king was going to nourish them with the king's meat for three years and they could not stand in his presence until that three years was over. If you're taking notes, write down the word separation. You write it down in your notes, you can write it down in the margin of your Bible, but this is all about separation. Through the king's meat Nebuchadnezzar would separate the Israelites from their former kingdom to his kingdom. You see that? Until then they couldn't stand in his presence and serve him as their king. And in the Bible, the number three signifies a time of complete separation. Leviticus chapter 19 verse 23. Look what God told the Israelites, "And when ye shall come into the land," that is when you leave that desert, when you leave the wilderness and you finally make it into the promised land that I'm going to give you. He says, "And when ye shall come into the land and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised." Now we talked about circumcision this morning in the class next door. Circumcision was a token of the salvation that God promised would come through the Savior who would be born from Abraham. And so God told Abraham on the eighth day of a child's birth, "You circumcise that little boy." And seven is the number of completion in the Bible. God created the earth in six days, on the seventh day he rested, and so that seventh day they commemorated a completed work. And so seven becomes a number of completion in the Bible. There are seven days in a week. The eighth day is not the eighth day of the week. It's the beginning of a new week. And so the number eight becomes the number of new beginnings. And so what happened was when a little boy became eight years old, I'm sorry eight days old, when a little boy became eight days old, then that which was born by nature was cut off and put away forever. And that signified what Jesus would do through his death, burial, and resurrection. It's what the Bible calls the circumcision that's not made with hands. And so what happened was on that eighth day, that old natural part of that child was cut off and put away forever signifying a new identity in Jesus Christ. That's why the Bible says if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, just like the forest on that child. All things have become new. And so these numbers mean a lot to us. And he says when you come into the land, then you're going to count the fruit, you're going to consider the fruit of those trees that you plant in this land as uncircumcised. You take trees, you stick them in this ground, this cursed ground, this ground where all these Canaanites have been walking around and sinning and sacrificing their God and all the stuff they do. When you plant trees here, you're going to consider the fruit of those trees as uncircumcised. Unclean, unacceptable, but not forever. That's what he says. Leviticus 19 and 23, "Then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised. Three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you, it shall not be eaten of." When we eat meat from the king, it's circumcised meat. It's not uncircumcised food, it's circumcised food. It's not unclean food, it's clean food. But it was the number three, the three years here, the three complete cycles of that fruit that it was to be considered uncircumcised. But after that three cycle period, now it's circumcised, now it's new, now it's okay to eat. Three shows a complete separation from the old land to the new kingdom that just entered Canaan. Everyone up with me? After three years, they could consider the fruit of those trees properly separated from the land unto the Lord. So after the number three, the uncircumcised, it's considered circumcised. Exodus chapter 3 verse 18. Exodus chapter 3 verse 18, God told Moses, "Thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel unto the king of Egypt." Now at this time they're still in bondage in Egypt. He says, "Now you go to the king of Egypt and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us and now let us go, we beseech thee how many days journey into the wilderness, three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God." They could not sacrifice in the land of Egypt, that's polluted. They could not sacrifice a day's journey out of Egypt. They had to go three days journey out of Egypt and once they were three days, a cycle of three, there was a complete separation from the land they were redeemed from to the Lord who redeemed them. Three becomes a number of complete separation. You see brethren, we are completely separated from this sinful world by partaking of the king's meat. And that king's meat is Jesus. My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. We who are by nature uncircumcised in Adam are circumcised unto God after the cycle of three has passed. This was prophesied here in the book of Daniel. And this was also prophesied in the book of Hosea which we finished studying before. Hosea chapter 6 verse 2. Listen to what the prophet said, "After two days he, that is God, will revive us." We're dead but after two days he will revive us. "In the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight." Three, complete separation. He said there is going to be a revival, there is going to be a deadness, we're going to be dead but in the third day God will raise us up. And we'll live in his sight. We'll live where? Is it still up there? In his sight. After three we will stand before the king alive. After three. This was prophesied again by Christ over and over again in the New Testament. Mark chapter 9 verse 31, "For he taught his disciples and said unto them, The Son of Man is delivered unto the hands of men and they shall kill him. And after that he is killed he shall rise when? The third day." Once again the kings meat separates us completely from the kingdom of our birth into the kingdom of our God. John chapter 6 verse 53 through 54, "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day." And the resurrection that he raises us up with is his resurrection. The Bible says if the spirit of Christ that raised him up from the dead dwells in you then he will also raise you up. He raised us up with the resurrection of Christ from the third day. And that's part of the gospel that we believe. When we believe that Jesus died for our sins, he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, what are we doing? We're feeding on the kings meat. We're eating on that truth of complete separation from the sin we were born to, to the righteousness we're born again in through Jesus Christ. Now why does Jesus raise his people up on the third day? Look back in your text in the book of Daniel 1.5. He raises up on the third day, why? That at the end thereof, at the end of that cycle of three, they might stand before the king. Now this is the devil counterfeiting God's kingdom. The devil in the book of Daniel is counterfeiting God's kingdom by making them have to be people without blemish. By making them have to have three cycles of separation before they can stand before the king. King Nebuchadnezzar fed his servants the kings meat for three years so that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. And when we eat the gospel bread, we partake of the three days and the three nights that Jesus was in that grave. Jesus died for us so when Jesus died we died. When he was buried we were buried. And when he rose on the third day we also rose on the third day. You and I, if you believe in Christ as your savior, if you have your hope in what Jesus did for you, then you share this with me. We were in the grave for three days together. Three days journey separated them from the nation they were born into. In three days journey in that grave separated us from the kingdom of Adam we were born into. Amen. We were in the grave three days that at the end thereof we might stand before our king. The book of Daniel reveals that there are competing kingdoms in this world, each supplying food for their people's consumption. And each separating people from the other king. You eat the gospel, you'll be separated from the land of your nativity, and you'll be qualified to stand before your king in the righteousness of Christ. You eat the message of this fallen world which denies the gospel, you'll also be separated from the king who loves you, the king who died for you. The truth of Christ separates us unto God, the lie of the devil separates us from God. God's word makes us worthy to be with him in heaven, the devil's word makes us worthy to be with him in hell. I thank God for the king's meat folks. I thank God for the richness of the words in the book of Daniel. What an amazing Bible we have, what amazing God we serve, and what amazing food we feed upon. Father we thank you so much for your precious word. I pray all eyes will be upon you this morning. I pray your word will resonate in our hearts as we leave today, and we'll give you all honor and glory for giving us such a wonderful table this morning to eat from. In Jesus' precious name, thank you for dying for us. Thank you for completely separating us, Father, from the sin of Adam, and delivering us into the righteousness of Christ our Lord. In his name we pray.