The name Daniel means (El) God has judged.
The Book of Daniel is in many ways in a class by itself; and I think by the end of today’s lesson you will come to understand that. This relatively short book of only 12 chapters lies at the crossroads of our faith. It is the bridge from the past to an as-yet unrealized future (even though current indications are that that future is just around the corner if not almost upon us). The Book of Revelation is dependent upon Daniel. Nearly everything that we know (or think we know) about the End Times counts on Daniel. How to make sense of world history since the time of the Babylonian Empire is dependent upon Daniel. Even the inherent trustworthiness of the Bible, and especially of the New Testament, stands upon what we discover in, and about, the Book of Daniel.
Now here’s what the Book of Daniel claims and what is believed the evidence clearly proves:
It was written around 530 – 540 B.C., by Daniel, while he was in Babylon. Several of the prophecies contained in it have already come to pass, precisely as predicted, but there are more to be fulfilled, and we can confidently expect them to happen.
A good way to approach our study of Daniel is to see it in 3 parts:
- Part one is chapter 1 and it is the historical introduction to the book and it is written in Hebrew
- Part two is chapters 2 – 7 and they are written in Aramaic and deal with the gentile nations of the earth, especially as concerns their inherent character, their relation with one another, and their destinies.
- Part three is chapters 8 – 12 written in Hebrew and the subject is Israel. It deals with Israel’s relationship with the gentile world and what God’s plans are for Israel’s future.
Chapter 1 is in Hebrew, chapters 2 -7 are in Aramaic, and chapter 8 to the end returns to Hebrew. The reason for this is that the language of Babylon (where Daniel was captive) was Aramaic. And second and perhaps most important, the passages of Daniel that speak directly to the Hebrews concerning Israel are in Hebrew, while the passages that speak directly to gentiles concerning the gentile kingdoms and nations are written in Aramaic, the gentile language of that era and region.
As the Book of Daniel opens, Judah has already been carried off in exile to Babylonia. And since the Kingdom of Judah basically represented but one tribe, Judah, even though Benjamin as well as some unknown part of Simeon had been largely absorbed into Judah, still it is technically correct to call this people group Jews. The same cannot be said for another part of Israel that had been carried away in a totally separate exile. That part of Israel were not Jews; rather they consisted of 10 Israelite tribes that occupied both the northern part of the Kingdom of Israel (also called the Kingdom of Ephraim), as well as the land on the east side of the Jordan River. That group of 10 tribes had been exiled and scattered all over the vast Assyrian Empire some 120-130 years before Judah’s exile to Babylon. We hear little more about those 10 tribes in the remainder of the bible except to learn that they continued to exist (in exile), and that at some time far into the future (of Daniel) that they would return in mass to the Promised Land and join up with Judah to form one unified nation that would never end.
It helps to understand that Israel was NOT in a condition of having been rejected by God as is often portrayed. Rather they were in a state of suffering from God’s indignation or fury against them. In Christianity we generally have little trouble with the concept of rejecting the sin but accepting the sinner; that is precisely what is happening with Judah in its relationship with Yahweh and now in their exile.
Jeremiah 25:5-15 explains why they were sent into exile.
God says that because Judah infuriated Him due to their sinful wickedness especially as concerns idol worship, He would send Nebuchadnezzar against them to express God’s fury and exact a price. But this was only to be for a predetermined period of time. At the end of that time, God’s fury would be turned away from Judah and instead directed towards Babylon for having been too harsh on His people.
One other thing. Just as the exile of the 10 tribes was indefinite and the exile of Judah was fixed at 70 years, so is it that the exile of the 10 tribes was a thorough scattering over a vast area while the exile of Judah was to be together as a group sent to a common place. Thus, while the sense of community would be broken for the 10 tribes, the sense of community for Judah would remain intact. Daniel (as was Ezekiel) was fully aware of this, and it is reflected in his prophecies.
Daniel was deported from Judah to Babylon in 605 B.C., a consequence of the first attack ordered by Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem. This was in response to King Jehoiakim of Judah breaking his 3-year-old agreement to be a tribute-paying vassal to Babylon. Jerusalem was not badly damaged, although the Temple was looted for a number of its valuable gold and silver ritual vessels. Those items were replaceable; but what was not so easily replaced was the brainpower that was drained from the ruling class and sent to Babylon to serve the Babylonian royal court. Daniel and his cohorts were not made slaves, per se. They indeed were taken against their will, but they were treated with dignity and respect and offered prestigious positions in the Babylonian government. Some of this had to do with the fact that they were Judean nobility and some might have even been part of the royal family, but not so close as to be eligible to rule over Judah.
Chapter 1 gives us an historical overview of Daniel from the time that he and his 3 fellow exiles were first taken to Babylon. Then it tells us about an overt attempt by the Babylonian authorities to strip Daniel and company of their Hebrew identities, giving them new Babylonian identities (assimilating them), by using the 4 elements that make up the identity of a person, especially in those ancient times. Those elements were location, name, civil and religious education, and diet.
Some details:
It seems that when King Nebuchadnezzar first sent his troops against Jerusalem he not only returned home with valuable articles and vessels looted from the holy Temple, but he also commandeered several Jewish youths of unusual aptitude, physical characteristics and aristocratic lineage. He wisely intended on using their intellectual and spiritual gifts for his royal court. They were turned over to some Chaldean tutors to be educated in the ways of the Babylonians, no doubt to learn to read, speak and write their Aramaic language, and to help lead the way in assimilation of the Jewish people. But be aware that the these young Jewish men almost certainly already had a working knowledge of Aramaic since it was the most spoken language of the region and would have been needed for business and political transactions with the outside world, as well as the many residents of Judah who were foreigners. This military expedition spoken of in the 1st verse happened when King Jehoiakim was ruler of Judah, and we first heard of it back in 2nd Kings 24 (2Kings 24:1-4)
Nebuchadnezzar commanded his chief eunuch to select some of Israel’s finest youth, and that they should be seed of the kingdom (meaning the Kingdom of Judah) and nobles for use in the Babylonian palace. Likely Daniel and his 3 associates were some mixture of nobility and royalty but we don’t know which might be which.
It is clear that these Jewish youth who were already given the finest Hebrew education, considered the brightest and most refined of Judah, and were to be very good looking. And this was because they would be serving, and representing, the King of Babylon so they were to look and act the part. And the first thing that would happen is that they would be given over to the Chaldeans (a special district of elite Babylonians) to be educated in the finer nuances of Babylonian history, customs, and language. Nebuchadnezzar was a smart man, and he was going to take advantage of whatever brain-power he could extract from Judah. Further, this would serve to weaken Judah, tear at their social fabric, and hopefully make them less likely to cause trouble.
The intent was to separate them from their heritage, their nation, and their faith. The goal was to have them, in time, think differently than when they had first arrived. And the primary ingredients needed to facilitate this new identity were: location, name, education and diet. And notice that of these 4 ingredients on the path to identity change the one given the most attention in this story was diet. For Daniel this problem he had with eating the king’s food was an issue of proper obedience to the Torah Law about clean and unclean foods. Eating the king’s food would make them ritually unclean. Daniel and his friends were given permission to eat only vegetables and water and not meat that might have been sacrificed to gods and wine. It wasn’t that the vegetables they ate would make them healthier but by God’s grace they fared better than the others for obeying God’s law.
This is a lesson for us all regarding man’s laws vs. God’s laws. There are many laws that are right and good but any that violate God’s laws are to be disobeyed. Adam and Eve certainly learned the consequences of violating God’s one command about eating a particular food in the Garden of Eden.
Chapter two opens sometime later in Nebuchadnezzar’s 2nd year on the throne and involves a dream Nebuchadnezzar had which troubled him so much that he called upon the wise men (magicians, sorcerers, exorcists, and astrologers) who served in his court in Baylon and commanded them to not only interpret the dream but to first describe the dream that he had. For these wise men and for any man, it was an impossible task but Nebuchadnezzar decided to put them to death if they couldn’t tell him his dream and interpret it.
Unfortunately, this command also condemned Daniel and his friends to death, so they asked the man sent by the king to kill them for a little time and then they prayed to God for help and He revealed the dream to Daniel in a nightly vision.
The dream Nebuchadnezzar had was a significant revelation by God of the future history of the kingdoms and empires that were to follow him leading up to the kingdom of God. The dream was of a giant statue of a man which had a golden head, chest and arms of silver, waist and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet that were a mixture of iron and clay. It was further shown that a stone appears which was not made by man who would strike the feet of the statue and break it up into dust. Then the stone would grow to fill the earth.
The Golden head was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and his rule would continue through to his grandson and then end.
The Chest and arms of silver was the empire of the Medes and Persians. This empire would give way to the waist and thighs of bronze which would be the Grecian empire. This would be followed by the legs of iron which would be the Roman empire whose feet of iron and clay would be the latter stages of the Roman empire that splits into two smaller empires which mixes by alliances with other nations which weakens them and those nations will be modeled after the nation of iron. This refers to a mixing of various nations, cultures and societies. It could even mean a mixing of weak nations with strong nations. The stone not cut out by human hands represents Jesus the Messiah who brings the Kingdom of God which is transforming the world to come.
Daniel chapters 7 and 8 tell us of a couple of visions that Daniel had that was parallel to the one that King Nebuchadnezzar had in chapter 2. That is while God used a dream of a human image made up of 4 metals to communicate the future to King Nebuchadnezzar (in chapter 2), later the Lord gave Daniel 2 visions of animals to represent the succession of future gentile empires. Thus we can equate a band of metal with a certain animal. And the Lord even went so far as to tell us in Daniel chapter 8 that the Ram with 2 horns represented Media and Persia, while the shaggy goat represented Greece. So, we have Daniel 2:38 tell us directly that the 1st and current empire was Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, and then Daniel 8:20 tells us that the next empire was Media-Persia, and then Dan.8:21 tells us that the one following was Greece. There is no mention in Daniel of the Roman Empire by name as being the 4th empire, and we have to be honest about that. However history shows us that the next empire to come into existence after Greece was the Roman Empire. It is an unassailable fact of history and the symbolism of the statue with the legs of iron showing a definite division of the empire into two at some point precisely fits what happened with the Roman Empire.
What we know of the 4th empire of iron is that it is the largest, most powerful of them all. It can destroy at will. We also see in the statue image that it is the legs that are made of iron, and as we move down towards the feet and toes the iron doesn’t change to another metal but rather it starts to have clay added to it and so forms a mixture. It is an unstable mixture because iron and clay don’t combine; rather the iron particles merely become suspended in the clay. And further while the 4th empire is divided into two (as symbolized by the legs and feet); it eventually divides even further as symbolized by the 10 toes. However, does 10 toes mean that this empire (Roman or not) will eventually divide into precisely 10 parts governed by 10 kings? Not necessarily. Biblically speaking the number 10 is the number of completeness, but on the other hand it is often used as a round number as opposed to a precise number. Ten could merely be a representative number that indicates that there will be several parts to this empire, each governed mostly independently, as time marches on.
There are two sets of latter days: the 1st latter days is associated with the birth and subsequent crucifixion of Christ, and the 2nd latter days is associated with His future return after living for centuries at the right hand of God in Heaven.