Daniel 5

New Community Church of Tacoma

Daniel 5

February 4, 2024 • Bo Noonan • Exodus 31:18, Luke 11:20, John 8:3–11, Daniel 5, Exodus 8:19

Bo Noonan teaches through chapter 5 of Daniel in our series Life in Babylon. Seventy years have past between chapters 4 and 5, and here we find the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, throwing a massive party that centers around a boast that the gods of Babylon are greater than the Lord God of the Hebrews. As a result of this boast, God himself writes a message on the wall of the palace that must once again be interpreted by Daniel, who is now in his 80s. The message is one of judgement, yet in that message, we can clearly see the magnificence of God's grace to those who trust him with their lives. Whereas Belshazzar's days were numbered, he was placed in God's scales and found wanting, and his kingdom was about to be divided, Jesus gives us eternal hope, he did away with the scales by taking God's justice upon himself, and he promises to make us whole. This is the good news of Jesus!

Daniel 10-12

March 3, 2024 • Bo Noonan • Daniel 12, Daniel 10, Daniel 11

Bo Noonan finishes up our series Life in Bablyon by teaching through Daniel 10-12. In these verses we have more apocalyptic and prophetic teaching from Daniel. Once again, we need to remember that this type of teaching is full of symbolism, but that symbolism is meant to point us to the final victory of Jesus and not to confusion and fear. As the book of Daniel finishes, we see that even when chaos is all around, God is still working good and working his plan. This perspective helps us: even if most of the chapters of our lives are painful, we have a promise from God that, in the end, it will all make sense because he is both the author and perfecter of our faith.

Daniel 9

February 25, 2024 • Carl Medford • Jeremiah 25:11–12, Jeremiah 29:10–14, Matthew 2:1–12, Daniel 9, Leviticus 25:1–8

Carl Medford teaches through Daniel chapter 9, where we find another set of dreams that Daniel shares with God's people. As we mentioned in our last teaching, these "apocalyptic" or "prophetic" texts are not meant to confuse and cause fear, but rather to help us look to our savior and king, Jesus, and the sovereignty of God, our good Father. May we be encouraged to actively learn to listen and to live a life of faith!

Daniel 7-8

February 18, 2024 • Bo Noonan • Daniel 7, Daniel 8, 2 Thessalonians 2:3–8, 1 John 2:18, Mark 14:61–62

Bo Noonan teaches through Daniel 7 and 8. Here we find the beginning of a large section of what is called "apocalyptic literature", which talks about things that will happen in the future in a way that uses lots of imagery. How we read and interpret this type of scripture is incredibly important. We need to remember that scripture is not meant to lead to confusion and fear, but faith in God's sovereignty. It's also helpful to remember that it was written to particular people at a particular time, so we need to try to read it with the same perspective that it's original hearers would have heard it. Buckle up as we try to bring clarity to what can be a confusing section of scripture and build faith in Jesus, his authority, and his ultimate victory over sin and death!