Walk With Me
Christian discussion of biblical topics, and a dose of daily application. Yes the Bible is still relevant, and we find out more and more each day how relevant it has always been.
Walk With Me
Daniel, what's in a name?
Something is shifting, and most of us can feel it. Not in a clickbait way, but in that quiet, spiritual sense that history is turning a page. We wanted to meet that feeling with more than noise, so we opened the book of Daniel—because if you want a clear read on Revelation and the end times, you start where the patterns begin.
We walk through Daniel’s backstory, not as trivia but as the frame for prophecy. From Hezekiah’s fateful display to Babylon’s siege, delayed judgment arrives right on time, and Daniel steps into exile with a name that means “God is my judge.” We talk about how empires try to rename us—Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego—and why identity pressure is usually the first move against faith. Those renamed boys hold their ground, not with bravado but with practiced conviction: prayer rhythms, moral clarity, and a refusal to trade worship for favor. Their courage in the furnace and Daniel’s night in the lions’ den become case studies in how God preserves people who won’t bow.
Along the way, we make the case that Daniel is the key that unlocks Revelation’s symbols, timelines, and themes. Fulfilled prophecies in Daniel don’t just predict; they train us to trust. We explore how separation and holiness restore spiritual power in a noisy age, why context is the antidote to sensational end-times claims, and how the church can be fully present in culture without absorbing its idols. If you’ve ever wondered how to navigate last-days talk without panic or cynicism, this conversation gives you a grounded path: read widely, pray deeply, and let Scripture interpret Scripture.
If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves Bible study, and leave a quick review so more people can find it. Got a question you want us to tackle next? Email walkwithmebiblestudy@gmail.com—and if you want us to use your name, put it in the subject line.
Hello, everybody. Welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I am your host, JJ. It's so good to have each and every one of you here. Thank you for liking and sharing this podcast. And thank you for the follow-up questions that you're giving me, that you're sending me. I really do enjoy them. Thank you for liking and sharing and telling people about this podcast. And uh, if you have questions, just make sure to general reminder, send them to me or walk with me bible study at gmail. When I get questions that are uh episode worthy, and by by that I mean it takes a long time to answer the question. I will interrupt whatever study we have to be doing to answer that question for you. Otherwise, I'll just send you whatever concise question that you're asking. That answer will come to you back in the email. However, if you want your name to be mentioned in the podcast, put your uh name in the subject line so that I know that you want your question answered. Well, and also thank you for our sponsors, true bars and lyrices and exquisite creations. Thank you for straight arrow ministries and iron gate ministries. Thank you all so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Love each and every one of you. And we're going to jump right in because we have a lot of ground to cover. If uh if you this is our second episode of our end-time prophecy series, and like I mentioned in the other episode, we are coming to into a time where people sort of know, we sort of know deep down in our spirit that something's up, things are just moving in a very um weird way, in a not weird, um, it's sort of moving in a way that is uh not normal, and so it's lending to people knowing that we were coming into the last days, and I know we've heard that since Jesus walked the earth, we're in the last days, but something is up, and and something is is is so uh drawing and driving to us that we might tend to start falling for scams like the big uh rapture scam that happened last month. So um please understand this is where this entire podcast came from. Uh, we want to be aware and we want to be ready, right? So, in order to do that, we are going to start studying about uh you know the end times and revelation and prophecies and all those good things that a lot of preachers, a lot of pastors don't want to touch. And the reason why they don't want to touch it is because some of it's scary, no, a lot of it's scary, um, and some of it is is confusing, and we have and some of us are not able to read it in the way that it was meant to be uh read. Um, so just buckle up. This is episode two, and we're gonna get right into it. And but I do have to talk about the one rule of this podcast because of the constraints of time. I may only give you one or two scriptures, but we are when you um go through this podcast, I would like you to pause this podcast and read a verse or two above the scripture that I'm giving you, a verse or two uh below the scripture that we give, uh, but preferably the whole chapter. The Bible is not a buffet. I don't like okra. So, that being said, I cannot take bits and pieces of the Bible that I like, like Jesus saved the little children, and leave out the part where you have to repent of your sin, and you have to get the holy. I can't leave out those parts that I don't like. You have to live a holy life. I can't leave those parts out, can't leave out the uncomfortable parts. I gotta eat it all. So um that's why context is key. A verse or two above, excuse me, a verse or two below, but preferably the whole chapter. Now, we were talking about, and this was probably new to a lot of people, just judged by some of the comments that I got, um, that Revelation and Daniel have to go hand in hand when talking about the end time or the prophecy. Any any prophecy, really, but we're focusing more on the end time prophecies, and you have to go and you have to read Daniel, and you have to read Daniel along with Revelation to make it make sense. You know, we have this thing on social media now, is make it make sense. The only way you're gonna make it make sense is to do it the right way. The Bible talks about rightly dividing the word, and this is how this is. So, let's talk about Daniel because Daniel did come before Revelation. So, who is Daniel? Now, the meaning of Daniel, and remember now, if um, if you follow this podcast for any length of time, there's nothing in this Bible that is superfluous, there's nothing that um just happened out of happenstance. Name even names mean things, okay. So the very name of Daniel brings us to uh a position where we recognize a huge eternal truth, and this eternal truth is that God will judge all sins. As a matter of fact, Dan means to judge, like Dan, the tribe of Israel. You see that again, is to judge, and L means Daniel. So if you take Dan Yell, then it's God judge, or God is my judge, or God will judge. Okay, now here's the the interesting thing about Daniel. Daniel lived in a time that happened because of the judgment of God against Israel, and God was was judging sin. About a hundred years before, you had Hezekiah, uh, who was the king of Judah. Remember, if if you and I don't want to get off in the weeds here, Israel and Judah had split, and Hezekiah was king and was the king of Judah, and he had shown um the holy vessels of God to the Babylonians, which was a bad idea. And we read that there was a judgment that was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Behold, the days come that all that is in thy house shall be carried into Babylon, saith the Lord, and thy sons they shall take away, they shall be eunuch in the palace of the king of Babylon. Now, this is gonna you're gonna read this in 2 Kings 20, 17 and 18. 2 Kings 20, chapter 20, verse 17 and 18. This literally happened in Daniel 1 and 3. So it so Daniel literally starts off fulfilling prophecy, and even though God had delayed judgment for a hundred years, that prophecy still came to pass. And this is where we are now. God has delayed judgment, and God is delaying judgment right now, but everything of the prophecy will come to pass. So we look at Daniel, and he's he was known for um his piety, his wisdom, and how he was so connected with God, and and is a lot of people talk about Daniel, and matter of fact, some of my favorite scriptures are found in the book of Daniel, and Ezekiel even mentioned Daniel three times and joined his name to connect him to like Job and Noah. Jesus mentioned Daniel by name and and sort of looked at him as uh a prophet, a huge prophet, because he knew who Daniel was. And Daniel was also a tribe of Judah. Now, this is considered to be noble blood because the tribe of Judah was considered to be the praise tribe. Now, and and because of that, I believe, and I'm gonna go back and check this out, but I'm gonna believe that he could probably trace some of his bloodline back to King Day. Now, Israel went through a period of time and where they were dealing with the Philistines and they finally got finished dealing with the Philistines, and but now here comes Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. And this the first time this really happened was when Nebuchadnezzar took um took place around 600 BC, 606, 605 in that range. And then Daniel at this time was only 20 years old. So a lot of times we draw prophets like they're old white-haired guys with a with a walking staff, and looks like they've been walking for 60 years. No, no, no. Daniel was a young guy, and him and his three, his three best friends, his three companions, were taken captive and carried off to Babylon. This was eight about eight years before they captured Ezekiel. So just to kind of draw a timeline for it. And Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel a eunuch, and Isaiah prophesied that as well, which was uh Isaiah 39 and 7, and it was placed under command of Ashmenaz, which was the master of the king's eunuch. Now, after that period, it was like a period of training, Daniel became so powerful in the kingdom that by the age of 90, he was the head of 120 princes. He was ruling 120 princes under Darius the Median. You know, the Medes and the Persians, that story. Darius the Med took Daniel and promoted him under their empire. And he's so he served in the courts of like Babylon and the Medes and the Persians for about 72, 73 years. Um, and he was living until Cyrus allowed him to return to Jerusalem. So he lived through the entire 70 years of captivity. And um, but the thing is, I think when I just I just misspoke, I think his age prevented him from returning to Jerusalem because he died in this mid-90s. So Daniel was a was kind of a contemporary with Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, and Obadiah. These were these were the big prophets, right? But even though Daniel had all of these things going for him, it was really his character, his character that caused Daniel to be remembered. The conditions, the environment that Israel was in under Babylon, under the Babylonian rule, was so hard, was very hard, was very uh adverse, it was it was antagonistic, and they it was because everybody knew that Israel served the one true God, but they were always putting their pagans in competition with God, and that kind of left Israel in a bad place, especially under Nebuchadnezzar, because Nebuchadnezzar was a very hard king. I won't go so far as to call him evil, because there were some things that that Nebuchadnezzar did that sort of redeemed him, even though he never fully converted to um I'm gonna say Judaism. I'm just gonna say that as a as a shortcut word, right? But Daniel was greatly beloved, he was intelligent, he looked good, apparently, and he was well built. Now, how do I know this? Because in Daniel 1 and 4, um Nebuchadnezzar said, I want all the good-looking boys in my court, I want all the good-looking root of Israel under my under my unit plan. I want the best of the best around the kingship. So Daniel had to be smart, he had to be intelligent, he had to be handsome, he had to be built, he had to be, he wasn't just some old slouch. And and I'm gonna stop right here, and this is kind of a conviction to me that um just because I serve God does not mean that I have to be a slouch. Okay, I'm gonna move on because I'm really under conviction with that. I have to move on. But the biggest thing about Daniel was that he was he was well favored, he was had no blemishes, he didn't have any skin things, but the biggest thing about that is he was morally pure and upright. He had strong convictions, he had a firm purpose, he was a man of prayer, he didn't change his prayer life, even though he was had even though he was tossed into a den of lions, he didn't change anything. This is the Daniel you got, and this is the Daniel's gonna get because God told Daniel to do this thing. Now, how do you you know what I for that I would say I recommend going to read uh uh Hebrews 11 and focus around 32, 33, 34. So Hebrews 11, 32 to 34, right? Now, because of this, Daniel received a lot of revelations. He interpreted dreams, he interpreted visions, he literally became like God's spokesperson, he became like God's press secretary. Um and for the prophecies and everything concerning the future, he was able to live a long time, and when he lived to his 90s, he was he was still almost in peak physical condition, and he was the object of God's preservation when they took Ossaman to the lion. He was exalted, he was promoted. He he literally was promoted in two kingdoms that was already oppressing his people. So don't get this in his head that Daniel felt like he was some victim. But one thing that Daniel always kept up with is that there was a necessary separation between the children of Israel and the Babylonian and the Mese and Persian Empire. And you know, this is sort of kind of echoes back to what we are going through today. For instance, in today's world, um there are very few voices that teach against being conformed to the world, doing what the world does. Holiness preaching is not very popular. Um power of God, though, comes with dedication and separation from the world. That's how you get a lot of revelation, and that's how you learn um how God really speaks to you. Now, this um separation deal that Daniel was on was his first great test, and he refused to compromise that conviction. And if Daniel had done that, we probably would have a lot different outcome, not only to Daniel's life, but to what we know. Now, Daniel 1 does talk about a lot of things about as far as eating and stuff like that, but the church is called to separation today. For that, I would say check out uh 2 Corinthians 6, 14 to 18. 2 Corinthians 14, uh sorry, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 14 to 18. God honored Daniel because of this separation, and for God to honor the church today, we gotta um follow that same matter of separation. See, a lot of people want to discredit the old testament, but the old testament was kind of like the form, like the the type and shadow, the the guideline of how to live in the new testament church. No, we do not have to go take a bull outside and kill it every time we mess up. That's not that's why Jesus died, so we don't have to do that. Jesus said, I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. So, and what he came to fulfill was the law of sacrifice, but we still have a guideline of how to live for God using the stories and allegories in the Old Testament and the laws of the Old Testament. Um, and before you say anything about two types of fabric, that was also part of the law, the law of sacrifice. So stop. Okay, I get it. But when when Jesus fulfilled that law, he filled all those other sundry laws that had to do with sacrifice. Now, what is the importance of prophecy? Now we're kind of getting down to where we can actually start this lesson. Now, I'm sorry I had to cover a little bit, but I had to let you know who Daniel is. So, what is the importance of Daniel's prophecy? This the importance of Daniel and how to connect to Revelation cannot be overstated. Excuse me. It's been attacked more than any other book in the Old Testament, and just the fact that it's been attacked this way kind of proves that it is very important because people like to read Revelation and attack Revelation too, but they have no idea what to attack, so they attack Daniel because oh, it's in the Old Testament, there's all kinds of stuff they say about it, but the this these prophecies of Daniel are one of the greatest proofs of the full inspiration of God's Word. There are literally details about some of Daniel's prophecies that were fulfilled in great detail, lots of them. There's uh, and and when you watch these things come to pass, as they come to pass, you're like, oh wow, I read that in Daniel. This is why a lot of people are, and we know what kind of spirits are driving them. This is why a lot of people will tell you not to read your Bible. It's not just Daniel, but I'm focusing on Daniel because Daniel goes with Revelation. But um, Daniel's prophecies were fulfilled in great detail, and when you watch these things come to pass, you go, Oh man, I read that, and why didn't I know that? And why wasn't I ready for that? That like Daniel even foretold of Gentile kingdoms that came by just the way Daniel predicted them. So as long as the book of Daniel lasts, it will be a very important book of the Bible, not like any of the others are less important, but having Daniel around, having the book of Daniel around kind of leads us into a um leads us into a a new understanding of what prophecy really means. So let's go into um some of the things that Daniel talked about. Remember when it talked about how Daniel had three friends, Ananiah, Meshael, and Azariah. You might know them better as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but those three names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were all the Babylonian names that were reassigned. Just as Daniel's name was changed to Belteshazzar in the Babylonian kingdom. Now, according to the words spoken by Isaiah the king Hezekiah, these were also the descendants of Hezekiah and were also made eunuchs. Isaiah 39 and 7. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Now, these four young Israelis, I know people like to call them Israelites. Okay, let's call them Israelites, were handed over to Ashbanaz. Now, this is the master, the leader of the eunuchs that we kind of talked about before, and he basically Ashonaz had three years to groom them into being sufficient members of the king's court. So here's what they did. Um, the first thing they did was change their name. Now, I find this to be very interesting because I was kind of talking about this in a previous sermon. That first thing that people would try to do is change your name, change who you are, change how you are defined. And I don't want to get off into that, but that's exactly what they did. They changed their names to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and pushed it and pushed it and pushed it. Even now, us Christians are singing about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego instead of Ananiah, Meshah, and Azarai. Now, we should study these names because of what they mean, such as Hananiah means beloved of the Lord, which is Shad, which was changed to Shadrach, which was illuminated by the sun god. You see why changing those names were important? Meshael, which is who is as God, was changed to Meshach, which is who is like Venus. Azariah, the Lord is my help, was changed to Abednego, the servant of Nego. Abednego, servant of Nego. So it's when Aspenaz did not succeed in changing the faith of these young men, even though he changed the name, that there's that's where the whole friction began to come, and that sort of led into where we have, and I don't want to get ahead of myself, but that's how we ended up in the furnace. So these three men, including Daniel, who was named to Baltheshazzar, which by the way, Daniel, we talked about earlier, God is my judge. The name Belteshazzar was is whom Bel favor. Now, Bel or Gael or Bal was the Babylonian idol god. So again, names were important in the Bible, it wasn't just made up because they sounded good. So in this historical section of Daniel, um, the the two incidents that were recorded was the recognition of this power that was expressed by these four prominent people. Now, in Daniel 3:17, it says, Our God, whom we serve, was able to deliver us from this burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. Now, this is still in the third chapter. This is not, this is not even any time into that 70 years. Now, even Daniel in 616 ended up finding out that Darius was hoping that God would deliver him. When he said, Thy God, whom thou service continue continually will deliver you. So let's talk about that fiery furnace. And we're gonna get into that. But I now that I'm kind of invested in Daniel, we're gonna talk about Daniel just a little bit. We are gonna get the prophecy, it's gonna take us a little while. Oh man, I'm almost out of time. So I'm not gonna go into that now because that fiery furnace part takes a little while. But the one of the things that in discrediting um the Bible and discrediting your walk with God and discrediting the um the prophecy is the first thing that the world will try to do is change the name from what God intended to what they want. And when they when they can succeed in doing that, it changes the meaning of everything. Now, I'm not I'm not gonna ask for a like or a one or a two in the chat or in the comment section how many people did not know the three real three names of those three Hebrew boys that we like to sing about. Because it I was about I was about 30 when I figured it out. That was about 20 years ago, and I didn't have to figure it out, it was right in the Bible, but I just didn't read it. It's right in the Bible who these guys were. We sing about it in our in our churches, we sing about Shadrach, Ishach, and Abak. So we're literally praising their idol God because that's what their names were meant to do, was to praise their idol God. I I know that's deep, right? So, but this is where this is where reading the Bible and being in touch with God, so it will uh will help you understand why certain things have been done and why certain things have to be undone. That being said, I do not want to get into another subject because we are almost out of time and I feel like I would rush. Thank you all so much for joining this time, joining us this uh this episode. Thank you for liking and sharing. Again, I hope that the audio is better. I'm working on things each week to kind of improve the audio, and I hope I'm doing a good job. Thank you for liking and sharing. Love each and every one of you. See y'all in the next episode. God bless you.