1. Lesson One of the Book of Daniel, Introduction to the Book of Daniel

I first taught these lessons 25 years ago in December 1992, but like all Bible truths they are worth repeating.

Our main reference will be the first eighteen verses of the first chapter of the Gospel of John. 

And from this chapter we will learn of

A) The Word and Deity (1)

B) The Word and Creation (2,3)

C) The Word and Life (4,5,9)

D) The Word and the World (10)

E) The Word and Men (11-13)

F) The Word Incarnate (14)

G) The Word Revealing (16-18)

We are told at the beginning of this chapter in John of this important truth:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

So, from this we can conclude in the beginning can mean any beginning.

Therefore, there was no beginning, not any beginning at all, at which the Word was not there.

The Word in this verse is from the Greek word LOGOS.

And LOGOS implies the intelligence behind the idea, and the transmittable expression of it.

LOGUS is the all-pervasive mind which rules and gives meaning to all things.

The Apostle John's logos is the thinker, the omniscient genius behind the created universe, it is on-going not past, not present, not future.

The name, I AM helps to explain it, for logos transcends time.

LOGOS belongs to a realm where time does not matter for LOGOS belongs to eternity.

Because we are made in the image of God we are in reality nothing but word.

Thought and speech are one for thought is inward speaking and speech is audible thinking. Both result in word.

Christ is the inward and expressed thought of the eternal mind. 

He is the brightness of his Father's glory; He is the express image of His Father’s person. 

For this truth is stated in Heb. 1:2 which reads, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.

Our world is totally word centered defined by written documents, verbal instructions, and now electronic blips which are translated into words. 

We cannot do anything without word. 

As created beings we are simply expressions of God's word, we are extensions of his Word.

We have intelligence behind an idea, we have the idea, and we can express the idea.

We know from experience that unbelievers are confined to the realm of time and their senses.

But Believers move into the realm of eternity as we are created in Christ Jesus. 

We are conformed to His image. 

Our nature is to be Christlike, which is Wordlike, which is Wisdomlike.

The Old Testament prepares us for this term, "The Word"

In Genesis 1 God is seen to create by the Word, "Let there be!" 

In Genesis 3:8 The Word is spoken to our first parents Adam and Eve in the Garden in this way, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden

The Word called Abraham in Gen. 12:1, Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country,

In the book of Psalms, the Word appears in a personal form.  The Word of the Lord is tried.  He is a buckler to all who trust in him.

The idea of the Wisdom of God is found in the Old Testament.

In Christ the Word of God and the Wisdom of God are united as is given in:

Col. 2:9 which reads, For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.  And ye are complete in him.

Now in the first verse of John 1 we are given the unaltering fusion of the Word and Deity.

For we are told: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.                   

In J. B. Phillips New Testament it reads this way:  At the beginning God expressed himself.  That personal expression, that word was with God.

The Greek word LOGUS is "word in action"

The word of God in the Old Testament denotes God in action, in creation, revelation, and deliverance.

Genesis, the book of beginnings is full of the action of LOGUS. God said...and it was so

Psalm 33:6, By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made -

Psalm 107:20, He sent forth his word, and healed them and delivered them from destruction

And this wonderful truth in Isaiah 55:11, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

And so this verse applied to the Generals of WW II who sent word to invade France for that word did not return unto them void but accomplished that which they pleased for the Generals were made in the image of God.

When the universe was created, when anything was made the Word was already there.

"the Word was with God and the Word was God!"

The word triplet "Word of God" may give us an easier way to understand the un-separate-ness of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

And this concept is easily seen in God’s children, you, the ideal you, the new creation you which God makes is that you and your word are one. 

Your word if expressed in truth is you and you are your word.  There is no difference.

The word of a parent to a child if obeyed is honoring to God as it verifies the power of the word.

It establishes the word as powerful and is Godlike.

The word disobeyed is not honoring to God's word since it tends toward lowering the word in authority.

God speaks, and it is done!

The parent speaks, and it also should be done!

The parent that does not command obedience does not honor the very nature of God.

The expression, "He is a man of his word!", "She is a woman of her word!" is pounded out to us in God’s word

Proverbs 15:26, The words of a man's mouth are as deep water.

Proverbs 18:4, The words of the pure are pleasant words.

Proverbs 22:17, Bow down thine ear, hear the words of the wise.

Proverbs 10:12, The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious. 

So, God's word expresses the nature of God - it is always completely true to his nature. 

There is no shadow of turning. 

There is no inconsistency. 

There is complete unity. 

God and His word are One. 

No division, no crack, no weakness, no fault, no argument.

We are made in the image of God, and therefore as new creations of God we are being conformed to the image of Christ, which means we are being conformed to the Word.

As God and His word are one, so too we and our word are to be one.

Our second connection regards the The Word and Creation given in verses 2 and 3

The same was in the beginning with God! All things were made by him: and without him was not anything made that was made. 

Now there is no wiggle room in these verses as to what is made for not one thing was made without God.

All things - the universe, the elements, the system of laws, all living things, all of God's angels, the heavenly beings, heaven, hell, good and evil, all things.

In a human sense all things on earth made by human hands were made by the agency of the human word and without the human word nothing made by humans was made.

The human word precedes all manufacture.

We cannot create, but by using the basic elements and tools provided by God in his creation we can fashion and form things-but all that human activity, is preceded by man's word. 

We are truly made in the image of God.

Before God created by his word, there was nothing that is now except God himself.

God is spirit, there were no elements, no system of laws, no living things, no angels, no heavenly beings, no heaven, no hell, only that which is eternal was before the beginning.

The universe in its entirety owes its origin to God through the agency of the LOGOS or the Christ

God is the Creator; The Word is his agent. 

This is clearly the thought of Proverbs 8:22-31 where Wisdom speaks: 

 ²² The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. ²³ I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. ²⁴ When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. ²⁵ Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: ²⁶ While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. ²⁷ When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: ²⁸ When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: ²⁹ When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: ³⁰ Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; ³¹ Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.

This passage tells us that wisdom precedes all the Lord's creation and because of this of course, precedes the life of man on earth.

This passage tells us that before the worlds were framed wisdom was there to frame the worlds.

The worlds came into being not of themselves but of another.

This passage begins by telling us that the LORD, here meaning Jehovah, which means self-existent One, possessed wisdom in the beginning of his way, before the works of old.

John the Apostle makes it plain that the Word of which he speaks is also the Wisdom described in Psalms and Proverbs of Old Testament times and that this word became flesh in Jesus.

Our third connection is The Word and Life, verses 4,5,9

vs 4, In him was life and the life was the light of men.

And in Acts 17:28, For in him we live, and move and have our being.

And in John 17:3, This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 

This word LIFE occurs 36 times as a noun in this Gospel, 11 are in conjunction with the word eternal.

Life is a principle of God, it has as its source and full embodiment the LOGOS or word.

It is self-existent in the Creator but not in the creature.

Reading Verses 21, and 24 of John 5

For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

The Word imparts life to men and women, and there is no indication here that the Word imparts life to any other part of His creation.

Animals do not hear His word, trees cannot believe.

So the Life is the light of men.

Life in creation is the loudest voice of God which calls out to men that God is.

Life says that this is the finger of God.

Every cell every membrane, every complex molecule, every stand of DNA declares, The hand that made us is divine!

The word then is that light which illuminates, both by natural illumination of reason which is given to the human mind and the spiritual illumination which is given at and after the new birth.

Without this light man cannot see or understand truth.

vs 5, And the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.

The light shineth by conscience, by prophecy, by vision, by angels, by revelation, with the ultimate light, by the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.