Such a powerful book!
Last year I did a deep dive into Daniel, so I'll be handling this book a little different. I'll be moving a little faster and capturing the significant items that I remember from the study. The study was a Precepts study from the Kay Arthur ministry.
Intro
Starting with the Intro from the Ryrie Study Bible and my own learning:
Daniel:
- name means: God is my judge
- prophet and statesmen for heathen Kings of Babylon and then Persia.
- born in Judah to the aristocracy, clearly steeped in the Word, as he was able to cling to it, chapter and verse, in Babylon when the pressure was on
- taken captive at around 15 years of age and forced marched to Babylon, made a eunuch to serve Nebuchadnezzar
- claims himself as the author
- was given a place of prominence
- acknowledged by Jesus as a prophet
- He did not occupy an official office of the prophet for God, so this is categorized in the Hebrew bible as "Writings" not "Prophets".
Background:
- Some believe this book was written much later because the prophesies were so detailed and accurate. (If they were wrong, then he wouldn't be a prophet. That doesn't make sense.) They also identify Greek and Aramaic words that they believe Daniel wouldn't know.
- He served under a Persian king; Greeks served in Assyrian armies 100 years before Daniel and in Babylonian armies. As for Aramaic, it was the imperial language of the near east—as English is used around the world today.
- Also, there are claims that Danial was wrong in some of his writings, but those are being proved with new archeology and research, such as the discovery of Darius the Mede, and the identity of Belshazzar.
- The writings of Daniel cover his era, but project forward to the rule of the gentiles from Greece to the Second coming of Christ. The first 6 chapters cover Daniel's personal experiences; the last 6 cover the prophesies for the future and the explanation of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman kingdoms. [Spoiler alert, we're all still in the Roman kingdom.]
Chapter 1
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god. Daniel 1:1–2
So we are back to the final gasp of life of the kingdom of Judah—II Kings, II Chronicles, and Jeremiah. Judah still thinks it can swim with the big fish, but know they'll need alliances with the big fish to survive. We're down to the final 5 kings of Judah. Jehoiakim, sadly, is the eldest son of good king Josiah. What a fast fall in quality. He spend excessive amounts of money on palaces and his own edification while his people suffered to pay the tributes owed to Egypt and Babylon. He also, famously, tried to destroy all of the writings of Jeremiah. Quite the gem.
Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar—sent by God—besieges Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar prevails and his men plunder Jerusalem, including holy items from God's Temple and children of Judah's aristocracy.
I thought Daniel would go fast, but I love this book so much, I now see this might be much more detailed than I expected. We'll see. But today, I got through the Intro and 2 real verses. Yikes! 🙂
In verse 3, we learn that the young, strong, smart noble sons of Judah were taken and likely castrated, although that's inferred. They are identified based on who were the very best and set aside to serve the king; but first, they would need to be educated and indoctrinated in the ways and religions and culture of Babylon.
One last note for trying to make sense of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar was really only a military leader, or a co-regent at best. His Dad was king when Judah was flaming out and Nebuchadnezzar came in for the military victory. He is referred to as King because he was king for most of Daniel's captivity. However, he only became king when Daniel and his friends went in to training. Nebuchadnezzar's first full year was their second year of training. His second year was their third and final year of training. This will matter in the timeline to come.
Verse 4 describes who the king was looking for, thereby giving us a solid profile of Daniel and his three friends:
... youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. Daniel 1:4
That's quite a profile.
Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego. Daniel 1:6–7
Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah
I'm including these quote verse to honor the Hebrew names of Daniel's friend. Their Babylonian names seem to be what has stuck in the zeitgeist, but it's their Hebrew names were should try to remember—not the name forced on them by their captures. The Babylonian names are all nods to Babylonian's heathen gods. Their original names all had the name of the real God in them, making it doubly offensive.
The main story of Chapter 1 is the food issue and miracle. These top recruits would be fed from the king's table. Which sounds great, but it meant eating food and wine that had been dedicated to the Babylonian gods. It was a concession that should lead to a committed transformation into a good Babylonian citizen. Daniel and his friends knew this and wanted to avoid the king's food.
The way Daniel went about obeying and honoring God was to directly approach the leaders above him and politely request an exemption. By God's grace, this commander had compassion on him; but also knew his own neck was on the line for disobeying the king. Nest Daniel went to his direct supervisor with a test—let us try to just eat vegetables and water and you will see that we will look as strong as everyone else. The overseer agreed and after 10 days their appearance was even better than everyone else. So the boys were able to just eat vegetables and water and thrived.
MIRACLE from proper obedience.
I love how I started this post explaining how fats I was going to go through Daniel. 🙂 I guess I have a lot more to say than I thought. I did really enjoy this study.
Back to the chapter, starting in verse 17.
As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. Daniel 1:17
All four of these young men became wise and learned. We think of that about Daniel, but it was all four. In addition, Daniel could interpret visions and dreams. The day came at the end of their training when they were presented to Nebuchadnezzar. None of the other young men were as impressive as these four Hebrew boys, so the king chose them for his personal service. Once in his service, they also outshone the magicians and conjurers on the king's staff. So they excelled about all of those they were trained with and then excelled above those already serving the king with the dark arts.
In verse 21 we learn that Daniel serves through the first year of Cyrus's reign. That means he was one of the first captives and survived to see the end of Babylonian reign. With lots of exciting things to come...
He came from a good family and was created and gifted by God with a very special assignment. He would suffer much, but see amazing things that would shine a light on the future for us all. If he had not been taken captive when he was, he may have been slain by the Babylonians in the third and final seize. Being there from the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's reign probably also gave them an in with him they couldn't have earned later. A case of God's perfect timing all around. Such a fascinating life.
Amen.