Walk With Me

Stop Calling Him Abednego; He Probably Hates That

• JJ

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Hello, everybody, and 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. So good to have another episode and have another day to talk about God's Word. So glad to have each and every one of you here today. Um, and I'm I'm just so thankful for all of you who are liking and sharing and spreading this podcast around. See the listeners going up. I really do appreciate it. It's not for my glory, it's only for God's glory. So I really thank each and every one of you in this time. And now I understand the subject of the podcast is what a lot of people are interested in. This end times thing, but we're gonna take our time and go through it step by step because we don't want to miss it. All right. And I know I'm kind of getting right into it without all the preamble, but I do want to make sure I shout out our sponsors, true bars and lyricists, uh, for helping us with the intro and the outro. He's gonna be we're gonna be changing that soon. So if you get on and you see the uh if you see the the uh intro, the bump is what they call it in you know, in these podcast terms, radio show terms. If you see that there's a change, don't think you downloaded the wrong podcast. It's the same one, but I'll let you know before we change it, just to let you know that that's coming. Thank you. Uh quick shout out to uh exquisite creations that are doing our some of our Tumblr merch, and we're gonna have T-shirts soon. And and big shout out to Iron Gate Ministry and Straight Arrow Ministries. Uh it's gonna be nonprofit organizations that we're setting up. Straight Arrow is going to be we're gonna be doing a podcast very soon, very, very, very soon, y'all. So um keep track of that. And then when I buy podcasts in that sense, we would probably be going video, we're setting everything up now. I can't wait for it. It's gonna be a great thing. Uh, it's gonna be focused on marriage and living a married life according to the Bible, and it's not, you know, and and I don't want to get too far off into that because I find myself getting ahead of myself, but it's not about oh, you have to do this three times a day and everything's stoic and stale and and this, it's about how to live in today's world using the Bible. So we're going to launch that off, me and my brother and our wives. So you'll you'll get to meet all of us and face to face. So uh this may still stay uh audio format, depends on iHeartRadio and everything like that. So, but I love each and every one of you just to kind of give you a heads up of what's coming down the pipe. Um, now we do have some podcast rules, and if this is your first time, I welcome you. But we do have some rules here. One rule is there's no stupid questions. Now, I'm not talking about people who want to just ask questions just to debate things. If you if you really have something that's always been bothering you, and and maybe it was a uh something that sort of didn't fit right, or your uh there was a contradiction that you saw, or or you thought you saw, or anything like that. If you're really trying to learn about the word of God, go ahead and send us an email with that question. Now, if it's like a simple question, or I can say, hey, look at this scripture here, I'll just send that question back to you, or send the answer back to you um with the appropriate scriptures. Um, but if it's something that's gonna be long and drawn out, then well, where it's basically too much to type, then I'll just make an episode of it. And if I do make an episode of it, um just put your name, or when you send the question in, just put your name in the subject line so I know to address you, or it could just be a general question. And the fun fact is that this entire series is based on one person's question that when you try to answer it in simple terms, you end up leaving so much out. So there is no such thing as a stupid question. Um, and when we go through these uh episodes, the second rule this is the second rule. The second rule is if I I'm gonna give you a scripture, it's gonna be for time's sake. Um then what we do as far as study is we want to read a verse or two above or a verse or two below, or preferably the whole chapter, because context of everything is key. We have learned recently in our in our lives that you can take a sentence out of and and clip it out of context and make it say something that it never meant to say. So, uh, and so it's very important that you keep everything in context, especially when it comes to the word of God, because God does not issue idle words, he's not like me, he doesn't prattle on. He said what he's got to say and he moves on, right? So, that being said, let's get into today's episode of uh we're calling it the end time Bible study, right? Now, granted, if this is your first episode, this is episode three, and a lot of people are talking about end times, end times, end times, end times, end times, and you have all these people with these wonderful titles Dr. Deacon Apostle Bishop Um Jackalope um Thompson, and and I don't know if there's a person named Thompson, it doesn't matter, but it I'm saying that um we have people who are always professing this is the end time and that's beyond the Christ, and this and then that's in the and we have to be very careful of this because before we would just laugh these people off. Oh, you guys are kooks because Jesus said no man knows the day of the hour, so we would just laugh them off as kooks. But now, and and I'm really kind of distraught over the fact that people literally a couple months ago sold everything they had, quit their jobs, walked out and was like, Yep, because the raptor's coming tomorrow, gave away their kids, did all kinds of things, and because they because somebody said Jesus was coming tomorrow and you're gonna go to heaven, whether they were or not, that's not at discussion here. Um Jesus is coming tomorrow, and they've literally destroyed their lives, and now find themselves trying to rebuild it, and they're they're not like 19, they're like 50, 60 years old. So um that's where this whole the inspiration for this series, this season of body Bible study comes from, this walk with me season. Season, I guess we're gonna call it season six. Um, but either way, we're gonna call it this series, all right? The series of the end time series. And if you listen to the first two episodes, or if you haven't, I would I would kind of ask you to go back and listen to the last two episodes because what I'm gonna say may sound confusing if you don't, because it's all one big Bible study, all right. We were talking about Daniel and what's in the name. Uh, that was our last, that's where we left off. And I was finding myself having a hard time not getting into this episode because if you can't really mention Daniel in the beginning of Daniel without mentioning the quote, three Hebrew boys. I say quote because we all like we all know them by a particular set of names that was not their names. I'll say that again. We all know them by their these names that was not their names. We call them, we sing about them, we we write about them, we talk about them, but we call them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those were not their names. But but JJ, I saw it in the scripture, and my preacher talked about it, and my pastor talked about it, and my choir sang about it, and I learned about it in Sunday school. But no, those were not their names, their names were Hananiah, Meshiah, and Azariah. Well, but JJ, where do you get that from? It's right in the right in the Bible. But we called them by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but those names were their Babylonian given names. Because the first thing Nebuchadnezzar tried to do was erase the whole idea of God from the Hebrew Israelite society, and this was in direct fulfillment of another prophecy. Now I told you I'm gonna bring it back to prophecy. So Isaiah 39 and 7 says, And thy sons that shall issue from thee, in other words, the skills that you have that you shall beget, they shall take away, and they shall become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. This is Isaiah 39 and 7. This is four. This he's talking to Hezekiah, who was dead when this happened. So we have to really study the names because in though in that time, names meant something. It's not like today we just name a kid something because we like the way a world, a word sounds. Trust me, I know girls' name uh Charm. I I don't understand, but that's neither here nor there. But in in biblical times, names meant something significant, which is why Nebuchadnezzar recognized this. And Nebuchadnezzar, first thing he did was change everyone's name, especially if they were going to be eunuchs in the inner court. For instance, we called Daniel Daniel because that's what his name was, and God named Daniel. God is my judge, right? That's what Daniel means. God, Dan, E, my, God, my judge, God is my judge. But Nebuchadnezzar changed the name to Belteshazzar. What does that mean? Uh Bel Fareth or Bel or Baal. This is all variations of the same thing when in the Babylonian system. Ananiah means beloved of God, but that was changed to Shadrach, illuminated of the sun god. If you don't believe me, look it up. The Babylonians had that kind of belief system, and that's why they call it that. And when you are, but you know what? Let me not get ahead of myself. Meshael was that was his original Hebrew name, which is Who Is As God, was changed to Meshach or Meshach, who is like Venus. But Venus is not a god, Venus is a planet, and Venus is an idol goddess, and Azariah, which means in the Hebrew, the Lord is my help, was changed to Abednego, the servant of Nego. Abed, the servant of Nego, Abednego. So the problem is, is that when Ashpenaz, who is the uh the master of the eunuchs, the leader of the eunuchs, who Nebuchadnezzar um put in place, when he changed those, when he issued those names, he did not succeed in changing those names. We allowed that. We allowed that because that I don't I I'm gonna call it the Babylonianization of the church, and and I just made that term up, and I know, but we sing about it, just like we said earlier. My pastor preached about it, my pastor preached these entire sermons on a ben the go. And and it sounds good in the song, and it it sounds great, but it's not biblically accurate. They tried to do it, but remember these three young men, and these were not old guys, we we call them Hebrew boys, these were young men, and they did not embrace the Babylonian uh the Babylonian culture, they didn't embrace the Babylonian religion, which is why you talk about it all the time, these boys ended up in the fire, in the furnace fire, fire that was so hot and got heated seven times hotter, and it killed the men who threw them in the fire. Those days the name of those boys was Ananiah, Michelle, and Azariah. And they were ready to die for their faith, and they were ready to stay loyal to God, and because of their loyalty to God, is what really saved them from that horrible death that they were going to have. Now, when we talk about the historical um section of Daniel, because there is a section of Daniel that is historical, and then there's a section that is prophetical. Now, I feel like we should cover the historical section of Daniel because I don't want anyone to come away thinking I'm saying that the entire book is prophecy. But yes, the book of Daniel does um couple with the book of Revelation. We're gonna go, we're gonna go through that. Just hang on tight, buckle up, and let's take the walk. Alright, so now two incidents in the book of Daniel are reported that that sort of shows how God's power uh will deliver you. And when we recognize his power, it's gonna be just um described and recognized by these four people. The three Hebrew young men, Ananiah, Ishiah, and Ezariah, they verbalized everything. They they said it, they they said it and they kept saying it, and they you couldn't tell them not to say it. Our God in Daniel 3:17, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O King. That sounds a little bit insurrectionary, which kind of tells us that you can do a thing as long as you don't cross God, and that's all I'm gonna say there. I'm gonna move on because that's not the subject of this podcast. And Darius had had kind of voiced his hope. He voiced his hope. He was like, hey man, listen, man. Um, I hope the the God you serve delivers you. When he told he told that to Daniel, this is the new king, this is after Nebuchadnezzar. This is now King Darius in Daniel 6 and 16 saying, I hope the God I serve. Now I put in the I hope part that the God thy serve continually, he will deliver thee. That's Daniel 6 and 16. This is literally the Babylonian king that issues the order to kill Daniel by telling Daniel that the God that he serves is going to issue a deliverance from the law that Darius is judging him for. You see where I'm going with this? So the stories of God delivering people, like the pre-Hebrew boys and Daniel, it's well known. And we got to study all of these accounts. And it's not just a great Sunday school lesson, it's a life lesson. Now, to go into the fiery furnace, because I just saw someone text me, what about the fiery furnace? Okay, so Daniel 3. Now, this is the story of these three Hebrew boys who are not Shadrach, Beshach, and Abednego. Now, being faithful, they had obeyed uh the law of the land. If they had obeyed that law of the land, they would have afflicted the law of God. Now, who would you rather deal with? A horrible death or a horrible eternity? This is this is kind of a choice between bad and worse, but you have to have faith that no matter what happens, I'm gonna stick to the law of eternity. The law of God. And Nebuchadnezzar was this Nebuchadnezzar had some problems. Like he wasn't satisfied with having great political power. Like he didn't he didn't want to just be the king of the country or king of conquered nations, he wanted to control religion. And I want you to kind of clip that onto your head. Not only did he want to control the people, he also wanted to control religion. And he wanted to make himself an object of worship. See where I'm going with this? So he built himself this um, well, he had someone build this big old statue, and it had to be about 90 feet high, I think, in today's measurement. Maybe nine foot wide, because any other um measurements kind of look crazy. He put it outside the walls of Babylon. And if you're traveling, if you're going by the city, I mean going by Babylon, you'd be able to see this gold shining thing from a mile away, from miles away. Now, and it was simply a continuation of this Babylonianization, that's this word that I'm making up. Like, which is literally a system of belief that kind of started at the Tower of Babel under Nimrod. Remember, this was this kind of shows you how far back these uh prophecies go. Now, keep in mind here, by Nebuchadnezzar doing this, uh he was trying to establish this thing that Nimrod started at the Tower of Babylon. And this Babylonianization word that I'm making up, but we'll perspective by the end of this episode, doesn't it? Um, began with the tower and will end with an image. Now, for that, I want you to read Revelation 13 and see how this ties together. And just like that, the prophecy that Daniel deals with in the times of the Gentiles also will begin and end with an image. Now we're starting to kind of touch on how these two books are related. Now, Nebuchadnezzar had this thing, and he ordered everybody big, small, popular, unpopular, rich, poor, politically powerful, politically weak, um, to assemble for the dedication of this image. It doesn't matter who you were, you were under his rule, you as you gathered together for the dedication of this image. And at the sound of their music, whatever this theme song was gonna be, that's for the sake of Gegel's saying, it was the shaft theme song. Now, um, whenever you heard this new music come on that you've never heard before, you needed to bow and worship the idol. Here's where Hananiah, Azariah, and Josheel come into uh into play because they refused to bow. And when they were brought before the king, they didn't compromise. Now that has to be very strong because a lot of times when we're confronting our things, we want to seek a compromise. The Bible does not allow for that sometimes. There are things that you can allow compromise, but when it comes to worshiping God and worshiping, there are a lot of things the Bible does not allow compromise on. Now, the threat of death, to the point they were they were threatened with death, and they were willing to die. And we talked about it before. The enemies that threw them into the fire, they died. The the chains that they had were burned off, and then Nebuchadnezzar said something very, very, very, very odd. He said, In that fire is a fourth man that is looks like the son of God. Now, how would Nebuchadnezzar know what the son of God looks like? So that was the fourth big miracle that actually showed up, the third miracle that showed up because Jesus was walking with them. And we call that um Theophany, which is a sort of a um a revelation of God that showed up when these boys decided they were not going to comprehend. Now, am I telling each and every one of you, let me just pause here for station identification. Am I telling each and every one of you to go get thrown into a fiery furnace? That's between you and God. But I would recommend that we, us, me too, develop that unshakable faith because it will be tried, friends. It will be tried, walkers, it will be tried. And we have to be, and Paul said in the New Testament, you've not resisted unto blood. That doesn't mean go out and grab a weapon and start killing people who ain't coming to church. That's not what that means. That means standing beside the law of God to your own detriment. And Jesus sort of backs this up when he said those who seek to save their life will lose it. So um so this the by this is not just a one-off theme, this is kind of a theme that's woven throughout the entire Bible. Now, we all go through what we call fiery trials. Matter of fact, 1 Peter uh 4 and 2 says, Beloved, it's not strange concerning this fiery trial, which is the trial. As if you know, some strange thing, like, oh my god, I'm the only one going through these things. But if we keep true to our faith, we'll see more of the things, spectacular deliverances that these three Hebrew boys did. And before you interrupt me and say, But JJ, what's going on in Nigeria? I listen, I am not God. I don't profess to know all of them, but what I do know is that if you lose your life because of Jesus, you will gain it in heaven. And that's all I can say of it because that's what the Bible says. Do I think it's great? Absolutely not. So, in other words, do I think it's great that that you know 100,000 Christians have died um in Nigeria over the last year? Absolutely not. But we are we are told, we are we are commanded not to forsake our faith um because of worldly pressure, and even if that means laying down this life, which is going to end someday anyway, for and trade it for an incorruptible crown, then it was it just seems like it's a better option. It's like trading, it's it's like trading a paper boat for a steel one. It's impossible to kind of compare the two. Um and we will, we will, and as these things, as time goes on, as we get closer and closer to the end, it will get worse, folks. When I when I well maybe not say worse, it will become more intense. The trials will become harder, and we will talk about that. Um but the time as Jesus said, the time is not yet, the end is not yet. So as far as as dark as this order turned, remember that we're talking about this because three Hebrew children, three Hebrew men, three Hebrew boys stood up and was delivered. Why didn't God deliver them? Why don't you pray about that and ask God why he didn't deliver the children? It is the point of the man wants to die, and after that, the judge. So, I mean, at some point we have to understand that God thinks on an entirely different realm than we think. And we have to trust him, not trust ourselves, because again, it doesn't matter what we do, it doesn't matter how far we run, it doesn't matter how many standards we let go, how many things we think we're gonna get away with. At some point, at some point, this this life that we have comes to an end. And we have to be ready to meet God when and where that happens. So let's get ready now, and let's get our faith strong now. And the only way we're gonna do that, and the only way we're gonna do that is making sure that we are following the word of God and praying. And if you if if you're trying to figure out where to start, if you don't have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, then if you haven't repentance of your sins, you have been baptized in Jesus' name. That's where to start. That is always the starting point. Well, why you say that? Because where they started doing that is where the church started in Acts chapter 2. They repent it, baptized in Jesus' name, they got the holy. And only after that, if we start in another fuck another episode, only after that would they would they call off the church. So that's where you start. Repentance. You gotta repent of oh god, everything I I stole a piece of candy in third grade. No, no, no. Is this your first repentance? Oh God, forgive me. I'm sorry. I I want to live better. I want to I want to be, I just want to go to heaven. Whatever your heart tells you to do, everybody's repentance is gonna be a little bit different. So none of this repeat after me stuff. So repent of your sins and repent of the way you live and change your life, which will happen, and then get baptized in Jesus' name, get those sins paid for, and then get the baptism of the Holy Ghost. We're speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance. That's all biblical. And if you if you want to go back, we we have episodes about that too. So I love each and every one of you. We will continue this podcast next week. I hope to have y'all here. Love each and every one of you. We're going to be getting into the history of the Lion's Den and how that uh ties into prophetical uh interpretation. So it I know this is kind of a slow sort of foundational walk that we're doing, but pretty soon, and there's a there's a purpose to all of this. There's a purpose to all of it. Um, because I don't want to have to go deep into something and then try to backfill because then it gets very confusing. All right. I love each and every one of you. I see y'all on the next next episode. God bless you. Don't forget, uh, like and share, and thank you for doing so. God bless y'all. Bye bye.