Day 256 – Reading – Daniel 1 – 3.

Read Today’s Scriptures.  What do you see in Daniel that is new?

Daniel.

The book of Daniel covers the life of the prophet, from a teenager to an old man, and bridges the entire 70 years of captivity.  Daniel was taken captive from Jerusalem (along with his three friends) in Nebuchadnezzar’s first deportation. (Ezekiel went in the second.) (Ezekiel calls Daniel both righteous and wise.)  He was a prophet of God through two world empires. (Babylon, Medo-Persia) 

God, through Daniel, revealed to kings the meaning of their visions and dreams, even showing world powers way beyond their years.  What Revelation is to the New Testament, Daniel is to the Old Testament.

Daniel 1.

Daniel is taken to Babylon (the land of Shinar) along with “SOME of the vessels of the Temple.” (Do you remember King Hezekiah showing off all the treasures of the Temple to emissaries from Babylon, in Isaiah 39:1-6?  Nebuchadnezzar will take all of them in his second siege, and will even melt the precious metal from the Temple to take away in the final siege.)  These golden vessels were placed in the temple treasury of the Babylonian god, Bel, or Marduk. 

Next, Nebuchadnezzar designated some young men of the royal and noble Jewish families to be trained to work in his courts. He sent the chief of the eunuchs** to train them in the wisdom and learning of Babylon, deportment in royal ways, informed of the literature and language of the Chaldeans. They must also be without blemish, handsome, and healthy looking.

Among the ones chosen were Daniel and his three friends.  The chief of the eunuchs** was tasked to train them for three years. First, he changed their Jewish names to Babylonian ones.

**Does this mean Daniel and the others were made eunuchs?

Daniel resolved to keep himself from being defiled by pagan foods.  He requested of the chief of the eunuch to be able to eat only Kosher food. The man gave him (and his friends) ten days.  At the end, they were more healthy-looking than all the others, so he allowed them to continue with that diet.

God also gave them extra learning and skill in literature and wisdom.  And Daniel had special understanding of all visions and dreams.   (He reminds me of Joseph, in Genesis.)

At then end of the 3-year training, they all were brought before Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel and his friends were shown to be the “top of the class.,” better even than the older court magicians and enchanters!

(God honors those who honor Him!)

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Daniel 2.

Then came a test.  King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. (No, not like Martin Luther King Jr.)  It bothered him terribly.  He called all  his magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers to TELL him his dream and then INTERPRET his dream.

Of course none of those imposters could tell the King what he dreamed.  They were used to HIM telling THEM the dream, and they’d make up an interpretation.  

1. Wise men: We can’t tell you YOUR dream, O King.  Tell it to us and we’ll tell you what it means.
2. King Neb.:  NO!  You must tell me my dream, or…or… or you are imposters!!  And if so, you are dead men!
3. Wise men: But, we can’t!
4. King Neb.:  GRRRRRRR!!  LET ALL THE WISE MEN OF BABYLON BE DESTROYED!!

Wise men, Daniel and his friends, heard the decree to kill all of them. He went to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, and inquired with prudence and discretion what the hoop-la was about.  After he was told, Daniel requested an appointment with the King, that HE might show the King HIS dream.

THEN, Daniel (wise man that he was) asked his three friends to pray with him all night that God would show him the mystery of the king’s dream.   

AND THE MYSTERY WAS REVEALED TO DANIEL IN A VISION.

Next morning, Daniel went to King Nebuchadnezzar and calmly told him the dream and the interpretation, after first telling the pagan king that it was the JEWISH GOD who’d revealed it to him.

• You saw a great image and it was scary.
• From top to bottom, it was made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and iron mixed with clay.
• A stone struck the image on its feet and broke them to pieces, then the whole thing fell and the wind carried it all away.
• The stone became an unstoppable Kingdom forever.

Yes, cried the king. That’s right.  What does it mean?

And Daniel prophetically told him of the coming world empires after Babylon, represented by the golden head:  silver chest and arms = Medo-Persian, bronze middle and thighs = Greece, iron legs = Rome, and mixed iron and clay = revived Rome. And the stone?   Christ destroying the fourth empire and establishing the Millennian. 

King Nebuchadnezzar was so impressed by Daniel’s God telling the future.  And he gave Daniel gifts and made him ruler over the whole province, and became chief prefect over all the king’s men.  He also placed Daniel’s three friends in high places.

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Daniel 3.

Perhaps the king got so enamored with himself as the “head of gold,” that he had a huge 90-foot golden statue made in his likeness.  Not just the head, but the whole thing was gold.  He had a dedication party where he invited everybody who was somebody to it.  When the music began to play, they all would fall down and worship the image.

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?  Um, no. As obedient Jews, they would not worship the king’s golden statue.  (Their ancestors had worshiped a few golden calves, and see what happened. Other idols in Jerusalem had caused the fall of that great city and the ruin of the magnificent Temple of God!  Bow to a golden statue?  NO WAY!)

• The jealous ministers tattled on them.
• Nebuchadnezzar gave them a second chance, and started up the music.
• The three stood firm shaking their heads.
• Then the infuriated king threw the miscreants into the blazing, hot furnace.  So there!
• But wait. 
• The three walked around in the furnace as if it were a Yogurt Land.  Their ropes were gone.  And… a fourth person was with them looking very much like “the Son of God.”

Nebuchadnezzar ordered them out, and quizzed them.  After all not a thread or hair was scorched, and they didn’t even smell of smoke.

“Our faithful God kept us.”

Now it was the king to stand in awe. “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has delivered his servants, who trusted Him and disobeyed the king’s command, and yielded up their lives rather than worship him. 

So King Nebuchadnezzar made a NEW law than anyone who speaks against their God, would be killed and their houses ruined.   And once again, the three were promoted.