Book of Daniel: His-Story

Part 1

Tim Moore: Daniel is the shortest of the major prophets with only 12 chapters. Interestingly, it was originally composed in two different languages. The first chapter was written in Hebrew, chapters two three, seven were written in Aramaic, and chapters eight through 12 switched back to Hebrew. We know that Jews in Daniel’s Day could read both Aramaic and Hebrew, just as they could in Jesus’ day. But Daniel clearly wanted Gentile readers to be able to understand the middle of his book, because so many of the prophecies in that section pertained to them. We also know that Daniel was a student of Bible prophecy himself.

Nathan Jones: That’s right! Daniel understood from his reading of Jeremiah that the exile would last 70 years, which is why he penned a long prayer of contrition and repentance on behalf of his people in chapter nine, which we’ll talk more about that in the weeks to come. But it’s obvious that over the course of his life, Daniel and the other Jewish exiles living and serving in Babylon and Persia impacted those societies. The Magi from the East who came seeking the newborn King of the Jews were wise men who believed the Jewish prophecies surrounding the expected Messiah. Daniel’s life and faithfulness obviously impacted his contemporary world and resonates down through the centuries to Gentiles who sought to worship Christ. His book continues to offer insight to those who seek to understand the promise of Jesus’ Second Coming.

Tim Moore: Wow, that’s a lot to pack into 12 chapters. We’ll get to all of those topics. But first, let’s look at the events of Daniel’s life as he records his experience being carted off into exile. I’ll start with a startling observation and one that Daniel recorded in the second verse of his opening chapter. Having described the timing of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, Daniel straightforwardly says “The Lord gave Jehoiakim, King of Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand, along with some of the vessels of the House of God.” The matter of fact, presentation of the fall of Judah into the hands of the Babylonians avoids the dramatic and horrifying details Jeremiah recorded. It simply explains how Daniel and other sons of Israel came to be taken into exile. Daniel did not bemoan his fate, instead, he recognized Judah and Israel’s downfall as being in accordance with the righteous will of God.

Boy, Nathan, that’s a mouthful. In accordance with the righteous will of God, that’s how I want my life to be ordered. But obviously, we have much to learn from this son of Israel who was carted off into exile.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, we have to understand why they were sent off in the exile. Back in Deuteronomy, God promised the Jewish people if they obeyed Him, He would shower His blessings upon them, and they’d grow as a nation. But if they rejected Him continually and repeatedly and ignored the prophets, they’d be sent into exile. And this is what we’ve got, we’ve got King Nebuchadnezzar, he’s the new king of Babylon. His name means Nabu has protected my inheritance. False god Nabu. But God used a pagan king to come down and in three different exiles, 605, 597 and 586 B.C., he kept taking the noblemen out of Jerusalem and bringing them up into Babylon and then training them to become courtiers, so to speak. And Daniel was one of them. And so, in this exile, he and his friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego, who they’d be known to be called, were taken. And so, we’ve got these young Jewish men, Daniel himself was only 16 years old, his friends were probably teenagers as well. They’re dragged out of their homes. They’re carted, a four-month journey up to Babylon, and then they’re forced to live in this terribly pagan environment. And one thing that kicks off chapter one is that they’re asked, okay, you need to eat the king’s choice food, which wasn’t kosher.

Tim Moore: And they refused to do so. I’m going to back up for just a second because you just made an outstanding point. It was the sins of their fathers and forefathers that finally caused God to say enough, and He put Israel and Judah into exile. I would argue that Daniel didn’t commit those sins. In other words, he was an innocent bystander within the sins of his nation. We’re going to make the point throughout this series that Daniel was a righteous man. There is no record of any character flaw that is recorded in his extensive biography here. And yet he too, was swept into exile. And Daniel didn’t, as I said, bemoan that fate. He accepted the will of God for his nation, and he made the best of his circumstances. And yet, as you point out, when he got to Babylon, along with the other choice young men, they refused to be defiled. In other words, they would not eat the pagan food that had been sacrificed to idols because they knew that would be an affront to their holy God. And so, they said, “Let it be that we can just eat vegetables.” And of course, the Babylonians thought, well, you’ll not be in any good shape after a handful of days. You’ll waste away. And they said, “Test us, and you will see.” And sure enough, their faithfulness to God was proven to be acceptable because they were in better shape than all the others.

Nathan Jones: Oh, yeah. Daniel’s contemporary Ezekiel the prophet who was taken away in another exile. Ezekiel 14:14, 20, 28:3, says how righteous and wise Daniel was. And even Jesus called him a prophet in Matthew 24:15. So we’re not talking about an archetype here, though he was a godly man he was still a man. He was still a person. And he was still a teenager. And here he’s got all this pressure from all these foreign oppressors to force him to become a courtier for a pagan king. And so what does he do? His very first challenge is he’s going to do kind of a hunger strike. And it’s interesting, his choice, we’ll just eat vegetables and drink water. And the head of the eunuchs said, “Okay, we’ll do that, but, you know it’s my head if this isn’t right.” And it’s interesting that God made him so healthy that by the time they were done their training, they were brought before Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar was like, wow, these guys are ten times smarter, better, good looking, healthier than all the others. And then which probably started Daniel having enemies, Nebuchadnezzar said, “Okay, put all of them, the rest of them on that diet, too.” So all the wise men became vegetarians.

Tim Moore: Well, you know, it’s interesting, in verse nine of chapter one, it says, “That God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials.” The same thing we could argue had happened in the life of Joseph. Joseph, who was carted off into exile, who was rejected by his brothers, still found favor, even in the eyes of the pagans that he was sent to live among. And so, we are now finding ourselves living in the midst of a pagan society. But if we are true and faithful to the living God, then He will see to it that we find favor in whatever setting we’re put.

Nathan Jones: That’s an excellent point, and I think that is the point, is that Daniel could have just gone along with the flow and he just could have eaten the food and just. But he made a stand for kosher diets, of all things he wouldn’t give up is kosher eating. And yet because he took that stand of righteousness, the Lord blessed him. And what an example as you said exemplar earlier, is that that we can look at Daniel even in the small things, it’s important not to defile our true and faithful religion.

Tim Moore: Well, we obviously are going to turn to another episode in Daniel’s life, and that is when this king, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. And so, we’ll unpack a little bit of that dream. But I think it’s fascinating to point out right up front that this pagan king is the one that the Lord reveals a vision of the future in the form of a dream. Now, he couldn’t interpret the dream on his own. As a matter of fact, he demanded that his conjurers and magicians and great wise men tell him what the dream was, and they couldn’t even tell him, let alone properly interpret it. But sometimes it is important to realize that God can work miracles even through those who are not followers of His. But it takes a true follower of God Almighty, a faithful person, to interpret and bring to light the truth that God is revealing.

Nathan Jones: Isn’t it interesting that Daniel is put in with the group of people who they are cultists. I mean, we’re talking about these are your hardcore diviners, demon worshipers. You know, the king, Nebuchadnezzar, depended on all this occultism to try to give him guidance for the future. So now you’ve got the righteous Daniel, who believes in Yahweh, God, and he’s forced all his coworkers are snake handlers and they’re diviners and all that. Yet he stands apart because Nebuchadnezzar knew that a lot of them, because Satan doesn’t know the future, they couldn’t tell the future. So, he says, I’m going to ask you not only to interpret my dream, but tell me what it is, and otherwise I’ll kill you all. That’s the type of guy, I tell you Daniel stands out in the book of Daniel, but Nebuchadnezzar is a very funny character. He’s like your Teddy Roosevelt or your Donald Trump of today, you could tell that personality. And yet Daniel was able to pray to God, it wasn’t from him, Nebuchadnezzar, it’s not from me, the interpretation of the dream is from God. And so, in this peer pressure, we see another exemplar type reaction is that Daniel gave all the credit to God.

Tim Moore: Yes, he did. Now, you just made another point, Nathan, you’re on a roll today because we didn’t talk about this in advance, but you made the point that that Babylon was steeped in occultism. And we see that coming to full fruition in the Book of Revelation when it talks about the religion of the end times will be mystery Babylon, it will have Babylonian aspects. And so even today, when churches and even whole denominations go astray, oftentimes it’s because they begin to blend in elements of what originated in Babylon with a false ideology, a false theology, and following after occultism and really worshiping false gods. And so, we see it right here in Daniel. Regarding Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, you all are saying, well, tell us about the dream.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, tell us.

Tim Moore: Well, obviously, he has a vision of a mighty statue and it’s a very impressive statue in its own right. Tell us a little bit more about the statue.

Nathan Jones: Well, the statue is a dream of successive empires with Nebuchadnezzar being the head of gold.

Tim Moore: Now, don’t interpret it yet. Just tell us about the statue. So the head of gold.

Nathan Jones: Okay, the head of gold, had the chest and arms of silver, then had a belly and thighs of bronze. Then it had legs of iron. But as you got to the feet, the iron was mixed in the clay and it was very brittle. And then Daniel saw a stone, which he said was not cut out by human hands, come hurdling out of the sky and hit this statue and explode it, and then the stone grew and filled the earth.

Tim Moore: So, from the perspective of this pagan king, to see this mighty statue would have been awe inspiring. He would have thought, hey, that’s a statue worthy of a guy like me. And Daniel actually feeds his ego. That’s what he did. Daniel feeds his ego in the sense of recognizing you are the head of gold. And then we can pick up with the rest of the interpretation.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, it’s important because we’ll see this in two other chapters as different visions, but tell the same thing is that, hey, Babylon is going to end, a new empire is going to rise up. It’s not as strong as gold it’s silver, it’s the Medo-Persian Empire. It’s going to have two branches, Medes and the Persians, that will be replaced by eventually the Greek Empire, led by Alexander the Great, and that will be replaced by Rome, the Roman Empire, until it gets to the end times, and then it will be a mixture of strength and weakness. Now, it’s important to know that when Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and basically ended Jewish reign over their own nation, it was the start of the times of the Gentiles. So what we’re seeing, this statue is a representation of the times of the Gentiles, from Nebuchadnezzar and to the return of Jesus Christ at the end of the Tribulation, is that statue.

Tim Moore: Wow! You know, it’s so powerful. I think even Nebuchadnezzar was amazed at Daniel’s ability to tell him what the dream was when all of the other native wise guys could not. And then to also interpret the dream. And so Nebuchadnezzar accepted that and acknowledged Daniel’s visionary capabilities and so elevated him to a prominent role. But it seemed like Nebuchadnezzar really couldn’t remember.

Nathan Jones: It went to his head.

Tim Moore: Yeah, it went to his head.

Nathan Jones: He had a big ego.

Tim Moore: And he quickly forgot about the God of Daniel, along with his buddies. Now, you mentioned their Babylonian names, but we have the account of three amigos, I like to say, who were carted off into exile alongside Daniel. Daniel, of course, was given a new name by the Babylonians that was Belteshazzar, and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, were given the names that most of us remember Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. Or shake the bed, make the bed, into bed we go.

Nathan Jones: There you go, or Rack, Shack and Bennie from Veggie Tales.

Tim Moore: There you go from Veggie Tales. But Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah stand as three more exemplars who the Lord used to teach Nebuchadnezzar, and by extension, all of us yet another lesson in faithfulness.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, it’s a shame because they tried to not only remove their Jewish culture, but they tried to remove their Jewish God because you had Daniel, whose name God has judged, and then they named him Belteshazzar after the god, little god Baal, or Bel, and so you’ve got all this paganism. So part of the paganism is something you see in the Roman Empire when you had to have Caesar worship. So Nebuchadnezzar looks at the statue and he says, hey, I’m the head of gold, you know this God, he believed in many gods, but this Yahweh God says, hey, I’m ruler of the Earth. So he makes a nine story statue of himself.

Tim Moore: In gold.

Nathan Jones: In gold. You can’t imagine how expensive this thing must have been. And he calls all his leaders and all his religious people together. He has the musicians play, and he says, once you hear the musicians play, you got to bow down. So you’re forced to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. So you have the three Jewish friends who are here abstaining from all the evil around them. They work with evil people. They’re surrounded by evil people. There are guards who will kill them. And what do they do? You can’t hide in the back. When everybody bowed, those three remained standing. They knew it was an instant death and not a good death, it was a death being thrown in the fiery furnace.

Tim Moore: Yeah, you know, the audacity of a king to make a statue like that. But that it speaks to the human character. I’ve watched so many people enter politics initially humble and determined to do the right thing, but the more they are fed of an ego maniac kind of mentality, the greater and greater their ego grows to the point that that I can see this happening. And for this king, who was the ruler of an entire empire, I can see that being in the human nature. It goes against the grain for someone to defer the praise of others instead of letting it resonate in the dark places of our heart. And Nebuchadnezzar was glad to have that kind of worship.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, I mean, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And Nebuchadnezzar was absolutely corrupt. I mean, he was a vicious warlord, too.

Tim Moore: Yes he was.

Nathan Jones: So he was you didn’t want to tick this guy off, he was extremely dangerous. But then, so the fire is so hot, they throw the three into the furnace and the guards burst into flames because it’s so hot. And Nebuchadnezzar looks in the fire and he sees not three men, but a fourth one. And he says he appears as the son of God. And who is that?

Tim Moore: That, we think that is a pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. And it’s fascinating. Who sees this pre-incarnate Jesus? Nebuchadnezzar. Once again, God revealing to a pagan king, not just the statue, but in this case, the Son of God himself. And yet, Nathan, we all point to the conclusion, the wonderful dramatic event of the three guys coming back out of the furnace, they were rescued and saved. But I think the telling statement they make before being thrown into the furnace is why they are such exemplars to us today, because they did not expect necessarily that they would be delivered.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, how would they know?

Tim Moore: They had no idea. So what was their testimony of faith that makes them such great examples to us today?

Nathan Jones: Yeah, because they told the king, the leader, the ruling with all this danger around them and said, I’m sorry, King, we can’t do this. We can only bow down to one God. And what’s interesting, where Nebuchadnezzar starts the story, forcing people to worship him, you get to the end of the story verse 29, he says, “Therefore, I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that says anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego.” And then, of course, torn limb from limb and all that.

Tim Moore: So but they also said he can rescue us, but even if he does not, we will be faithful to Him.

Nathan Jones: And that’s a huge prayer because many people pray, Lord, deliver me from sickness, deliver me from evil, deliver me. And God doesn’t always do it because He has His purposes, and sometimes He does. So what a testimony of faith for us to know that we can live our lives knowing that yes, God sometimes answers prayer the way we want to, and sometimes He lets us go through things to strengthen us. And sometimes it’s time to die and be with Him, how much better, right?

Tim Moore: And you know what? Regardless of whether God answers the prayers that we utter in the way that we want, or the way that He chooses, we have to say regardless, we will stand on the Word of God and we will trust in God. Well, obviously, Nebuchadnezzar learned this great lesson, and yet again, he seems to forget so very quickly.

Nathan Jones: Chapter four, yes.

Tim Moore: So chapter four what happens?

Nathan Jones: Well, Nebuchadnezzar is given another dream, which Daniel interprets. It’s a giant tree that covers the land and all the animals find peace, shelter, and food under it. But then all of a sudden an angel chops it and binds the stump. And this really perplexes Daniel because he knows it’s a prophecy against Nebuchadnezzar himself. And there’s almost a not a worry about himself, but he grieves Nebuchadnezzar like a friend. So you can see that Nebuchadnezzar, though, still a polytheist, had moved to appreciate Daniel’s God and appreciate Daniel, and I think they had kind of a friendship going here. And Daniel didn’t want this to befall him, but he said, “Hey, your pride, if you step out and take all this glory for yourself and don’t give Yahweh the credit He deserves, you’re going to be turned into basically an animal for seven times,” which is believed seven years.

Tim Moore: And obviously that comes to pass. I agree with you, Daniel had a soft place in his heart for Nebuchadnezzar. I daresay Nebuchadnezzar had gained a respect, not only for Daniel, but for Daniel’s God. But just because he respected Daniel’s God doesn’t mean he was a faithful follower of Daniel’s God. Many people in our world today, I daresay, respect us as Christians, some do not, and some respect God for being who He is, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are followers of God. So we have to be very clear, if you will be saved, you must put your trust and faith in the Lord God Almighty and not just respect Him as God. Satan respects God for His authority, but He still is not obedient.

Nathan Jones: Although there’s hope in verse 37, because after he’s turned into a wild beast for seven years, his hair grows long, his claws go long. He’s insane. When he looks up to the heavens and repents, the Lord forgives him. And you read verse 37, “Now, I Nebuchadnezzar, because all the chapter four is Nebuchadnezzar first person, “praise, exalt and honor the King of Heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He’s able to humble those who walk in pride.” Whether that means he became a monotheist and only believed in Yahweh God, or he put Yahweh in the pantheon of gods, he admitted that he worshiped God. And so my hope, Tim, is that when we get to heaven Nebuchadnezzar will be there.

Tim Moore: I do, too. I think we’ll only know when we get to Heaven. Perhaps he will be like Pharaoh, depicted by the folks in the Ten Commandments, Yul Brynner, “Your God is God.” He came to recognize who God was. But then we turn to chapter five and there’s a new king on the scene, a young man who is very arrogant and not nearly, and he doesn’t have the gravitas of Nebuchadnezzar.

Nathan Jones: Well, Nebuchadnezzar was the power that held Babylon together. But by the time you get to his grandson, he’s your typical, if I could say, Hunter Biden like character. He’s a party man, so his whole empire is falling apart. The Medo-Persian army has surrounded their capital. Now their capital was considered impregnable at the time. So he decides to throw a party like, ha ha, you know, we’re partying in here. But he orders the sacred items from the Temple that had been looted by Nebuchadnezzar to be brought out and used as party drinks. And all of a sudden he sees this hand appear out of nowhere and writes on the wall, “You’ve been weighed in the scales and found wanting,” is the interpretation. So they had who knows what happened to Daniel? He wasn’t in charge anymore. So some, oh yeah, there was this Daniel guy, let’s bring him up. They bring him up, he interprets it and he says, “Hey, tonight, that’s it, your kingdom’s gone.”

Tim Moore: And today we actually have the phrase handwriting on the wall, still, as part of our vernacular. I dare say many people who have heard that phrase or maybe even used it do not know the original context of it was the hand of God writing on the wall, a decree of judgment against a pagan king. And that judgment came to pass that very night. And so when we hear the word handwriting on the wall, I hope you think of Belshazzar and Daniel and the providence of God that was proven in the life of this pagan king.

Nathan Jones: And you being a Colonel, you probably find this militarily interesting, is how they conquered Babylon. Well, Babylon had the river running through the center of it. So all they did was divert the river and walk right through the dry riverbed, and they conquered the city that night.

Tim Moore: Certainly did.

Nathan Jones: So it’s interesting how the pagan world believes it’s safe and God can’t get them, but God always has a way.

Tim Moore: God always has a way. This brings us to the last king that we’re going to be introduced to in chapter six, that being Darius. And one of the fascinating facts is Darius was not a king in his own right. He was really kind of a vassal king under the authority of Cyrus. Cyrus called himself the king of kings, and he had sub kings, if you will. Darius was one of those who obviously was trying to administrate and adhere to the policies dictated by Cyrus. So already the powers moved from Babylon to Medo-Persians, Cyrus being in Persia. So Daniel comes under yet another empire. But Darius recognizes Daniel’s intelligence, Daniel’s vision, and really does not want to be offensive to Daniel. But people conspire to do away with this Jewish troubler.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, his own coworkers. You know, Daniel was put in charge over all the magicians and all, they hated his guts. He brought results, they did not. So they tried to find a way to destroy Daniel using his own faith, and they made a decree that, well, you could only worship Darius, at a certain time and place. Well, Daniel still went up three times a day and prayed. And so by their own law, because the Persians were an absolute, they were subject to their own law, they threw Daniel in the lion’s den. And now we got this friendship between Darius and Daniel because Darius was up all night worried, my friend Daniel. My friend Daniel. He goes the next morning, he opens up the big cave and looks in, and there’s Daniel sitting with the lions. He’s not eaten. And again, praise to Yahweh God for defending His own people.

Tim Moore: He certainly is. As a matter of fact, this pagan vassal king does just that. He praises the living God. And yet we could agree that Daniel had no expectation that if he was thrown into the lion’s den, he would survive the night. And yet he was willing to be bold. As a matter of fact, as you look at the occasion of Daniel’s prayer, he opened the windows. In other words, he didn’t hide the fact that he was going to violate the decree. He was bold. He didn’t try to be in your face, but he didn’t hide his allegiance to the true and living God.

Nathan Jones: And at 86, that’s pretty impressive. But Daniel got to see the end of the exile. But he didn’t get to return to Jerusalem.

Tim Moore: Well, we’re going to talk much more about how Daniel didn’t always understand. But I would just want to draw down the bottom line of Daniel’s life, that this man accepted the fate that he and his friends had endured as being the will of God. And they determined to serve God even in a pagan land, and by being faithful to the living God, they were a conduit of blessing, even in their day and age, and certainly stretching forward all the way to today. Daniel is a great blessing to me every time I read it.

Closing

Tim Moore: You know, it is impossible to ignore the implications of Daniel’s personal experience to our own world today. Daniel and other faithful Jews lived in a pagan land and served a series of pagan kings.

Nathan Jones: But instead of holding hunger strikes and attempting to undermine the society that had carted them off into exile, they served faithfully. Daniel was repeatedly elevated to positions of great trust and authority.

Tim Moore: In that regard he was a living example of the blessing Jeremiah advocated in chapter 29 when he recorded, “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the Lord God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon…seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to Yahweh on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.”

Nathan Jones: Well, I guess that makes him a worthy exemplar, as you like to say.

Tim Moore: Certainly.

Nathan Jones: Well, folks, we don’t know how long the Lord will tarry before he breaks from the heavens to call us home. But while we wait, he’s told us what to do: share the gospel, making disciples in every tribe, tongue and nation.

Tim Moore: What we can say with absolute confidence is that the world will grow darker. Even here in America, while we are not dispensers of doom and gloom, the Word of God indicates that this nation will be like all the others that will come against Israel and against the Lord’s anointed Jesus Christ. The slow but inevitable decline we are witnessing does not dissuade us from serving as ambassadors of light and truth. If anything, it should spur us on to even greater devotion to our soon coming king.

Nathan Jones: And if you want to gain even more insight on the Book of Daniel, we don’t know of a better resource than Todd Hampton’s Non-Prophet’s Guide. Not only is it inspired and inspiring, it is actually fun to read. For only $20, we’ll be glad to ship you a copy. Just call the number you see on the screen or visit our online store.

Tim Moore: Today, we focused on the narrative portion of Daniel. It has much to inform our Christian walk and to encourage us here and now. Next week, we will turn to the prophecies in Daniel that have come to pass with such precision that scoffers doubted they could have been written and advanced. You won’t want to miss that episode that demonstrates the omniscience of our Lord. There is a God in Heaven who reveals mysteries. He revealed them to the prophet Daniel, and in the fullness of time He revealed them in the person of Jesus Christ. We’ll look forward to seeing you again next week. Until then, in the name of the living God who endures forever, whose kingdom will not be destroyed. And whose dominion will last forever, who delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. Godspeed.

End of Program