The
Book of Daniel
by
Jack Van Impe
Beginning
this week we want to do a study on the book of Daniel. We will divide the study
into two
major
parts; Part I: A History of the Times...And the Set-up for Coming Attractions;
and Part II: Events
Prophesied...Prophecies
Fulfilled. These two parts will be broken down and delved into in detail.
Wanted:
Healthy, Good-Looking Lads
Daniel
1:1, 2
In
the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of
And
the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of
house
of God: which he carried into the
brought
the vessels into the treasure house of his god.
Swords
flashed wildly between the nations of
between
the two superpowers were visible proof that each was determined to seize full
control of
their
part of the world. Any observer then, or historian today, knew that a decisive
battle could not be
far
off, a conflict in which the ultimate victor would once and for all put his
opponent to flight. And
that’s
exactly what happened.
The
time was early summer in the year 605 B.C. The great army of
Nebuchadnezzar,
then crown prince, attacked the Egyptian forces in a place called
Babylonian
city on the
Egyptians,
who were forced to return to their country to lick their wounds and ponder the
weakness of
a
failed battle strategy that had brought them to their knees. With unparalleled
world dominance, the
Babylonians
now had free reign to step into the unguarded
605
B.C. they had wrestled control of the city of
Upon
the death of Nebuchadnezzar’s father, Nabopolassar, a short time after the
massive Babylonian
victory,
Nebuchadnezzar rushed home to be crowned king of
taken
from the holy temple in
sort
of in-your-face mockery to the Holy One, a Babylonian slap in the face of the
Jewish people, their
traditions,
and their most high God.
An
But
the man who would be king did not return with merely gold, silver, and temple
utensils. Among his
inventory
of rich booty were also human treasures, young, fit sons of
beloved
homeland and brought to
resemblance
to their beliefs. But those were the rules of war; Lose the battle, do what your
captor
says.
Among the choicest of Jewish young men in this group now being transported to
teenager
whose name was Daniel.
Daniel
1:3-7
And
the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring
certain
of the children of
Children
in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and
cunning
in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to
stand
in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of
the
Chaldeans.
And
the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine
which
he
drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand
before
the king.
Now
among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah:
Unto
whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of
Belteshazzar;
and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to
Azariah,
of Abed-nego.
Wise
Beyond His Years
Daniel
now found himself a captive in a strange land, learning the language of the
Chaldeans, the
elite,
privileged class of
of
a conquered people, forced to think no longer like a Jew, but like a Babylonian,
with the clear
demand
that he give his full allegiance to Babylonian gods. This was Daniel’s
greatest challenge.
But
in ways that even Daniel could not have understood, he was more than adequately
prepared for
his
new life. Of royal descent, Daniel had already been trained for palace service,
even at his young
age.
He was not overwhelmed by the pomp and circumstance, nor by the tough courses he
and his
friends
had to take in astronomy, natural history, mythology, or astrology. Gilded
thrones didn’t overly
impress
him either, he’d seen it all before.
Nebuchadnezzar
simply did not know what he had on his hands: Daniel might have looked like just
another
strong, able Jewish boy on the outside, but the king couldn’t discern who
Daniel really was on
the
inside, a man of God, loyal and faithful to his Creator. So unswerving was
Daniel’s righteousness
that
even in the polluted atmosphere of heathen
to
God, something we’ll observe again and again as our story unfolds.
The
Times of the Gentiles
Now
here’s a point that I want to make early on because it will be critical to
remember it as together
we
travel on this amazing, prophetic road of Final Mysteries Unsealed, Daniel is distinctly the prophet
of
the “times of the Gentiles.” This is significant because the “times of the
Gentiles” continues on
through
the termination of Gentile world rule.
Daniel
is not only the prophet of the Gentiles, but he’s also a prophet to his own
people, the Jews.
When
Nebuchadnezzar brought the vessels unto the treasure house of his god, this was
the beginning
of
“the times of the Gentiles,” which continues until the time when Messiah
returns. You may
remember
that Jesus said in Luke 21:24,
“And
they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be lead away captive into
all
nations;
and
Gentiles
be
fulfilled” (emphasis
mine).
This
will be a recurring theme for us throughout the book. In modern English, this is
what Jesus was
saying:
in
586 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar took
From
that time onward,
preceding
Christ’s return to set up His glorious thousand-year kingdom upon earth. The
exception
occurred
during the miraculous victory the Jewish army experienced as they captured
during
the Six-Day War, fought June 5-10, 1967. After this military conquest, the Holy
City of Jerusalem
was
in Jewish hands for the first time in 2,553 years.
The
victory in 1967 began the countdown to Messiah’s coming to rule and reign at
Psalm
2:6 and Matthew 5:35). Here’s why. Just before Christ appears upon the
establish
His glorious kingdom, all Gentile nations will gather together at the
then
march to the
Gentiles
temporarily retake the city.
But
their victory is short-lived, because then Christ appears and destroys the
Gentile armies, bringing
the
“times of the Gentiles” to its horrendous conclusion. Christ will then reign
from
capital
of the world, for a thousand years (see Revelation 16:16; Joel 3:2; and
Zechariah 14:2-16).
Now
here’s the clincher. The Gentiles cannot march against
battle
if the Jews do not control the city. The Jews must be in possession of the
attack.
This is why the Six-Day War of 1967 was so prophetically significant, it
prepared the way for
the
battle of Armageddon and Christ’s return. In a sense, I’m giving you the end
of the story first, but I
think
it’s important for you to understand this as we see the enormous impact that
the Book of Daniel
has
on the outcome of history.
A
Young Man of Influence
Whether
the heathen king Nebuchadnezzar knew it or not, young Daniel, probably no more
than
seventeen
years old at the time of his capture, was a teenager beyond reproach. No evil
motives are
ever
attributed to Daniel in Scripture. Daniel had great influence on his three
friends Hananiah,
Mishael,
and Azariah. His moral rectitude rubbed off on them, and they, too, began to
demonstrate
the
purity that God desires for everyone, young or old. With wisdom well beyond his
years, Daniel
had
become a mentor to his three friends.
The
Scripture tells us in Daniel 1:4 that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were
already intelligent
fellows,
but mere knowledge is a far cry from a mature understanding of how to apply that
learning
where
it truly counts. But because of Daniel’s daily influence, the Hebrew boys
demonstrated much
more
than the accumulation of facts; they knew how to rely on God and to use those
facts because
the
Spirit of almighty God was upon them. They were also fulfilling a prophecy
written in Isaiah 39:7,
which
revealed that the offspring of the royal family of
where
they would hold high offices in the palace of the king. And this is exactly what
was happening.
Can’t
Have Those Jewish Names, Boys
But
Nebuchadnezzar had a problem. He had Jewish boys, with Jewish names, in a
Babylonian palace,
and
he figured he’d better do something about it, especially since their very
names shouted out
their
allegiance to their God. The name Daniel means “God is judge.” When someone
would call for
Hananiah,
that person would be shouting “Jehovah is gracious.” Mishael’s name asked
the provocative
question,
“Who is what God is?” And Azariah’s name was a constant reminder of
God’s mercy,
meaning
“Jehovah has helped.”
Nebuchadnezzar
couldn’t allow these names to be echoed in his great hall, so he changed their
names
to Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar was the master
of the
quick
fix. His kingly logic was, if he changed the name, he would change the person.
What the king
did
not realize, however, was that you can change a person’s name as many times as
you want, but
you
will not necessarily change that person’s heart. So the name changes were
purely cosmetic, and
I’ve
got a feeling that when the boys were in their quarters, in the privacy of their
conversation, they
still
called each other Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
These
brilliant young Jews loved their God and, as we’ll look at in more detail
later, boldly proclaimed
His
presence in their lives three times a day in prayer with the windows wide open.
They didn’t care
who
heard them pray. They didn’t care who saw them with their heads lifted to
heaven. They loved
their
God, and they would honor Him at all costs. They remained respectful to the
king, but they had a
greater
God to serve. In one of the great “passive resistance” protests in history,
they agreed to
remain
unwavering in their beliefs, even if it meant taking certain life-threatening
risks.
Daniel
1:8-16
But
Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion
of the king’s
meat,
nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the
eunuchs
that
he might not defile himself
Now
God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the
eunuchs.
And
the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath
appointed
your
meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the
children
which
are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king.
Then
said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel,
Hananiah,
Mishael,
and Azariah,
Prove
thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and
water to
drink.
Then
let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the
children
that
eat of the portion of the king’s meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy
servants.
So
he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.
And
at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh
than all the
children
which did eat the portion of the king’s meat.
Thus
Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink;
and gave
them
pulse.
An
Unlikely Training Food
The
first challenge was what to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Imagine the
incredible feasts
available
to Daniel and his friends. Delicacies galore. Meat, fowl, wine, and fruit served
in gold and
silver
vessels. The king’s best. Who would have refused that kind of life-style?
Well, for starters, four
young
men with the names Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They
determined in
their
hearts they would not eat the rich, fatty, high-cholesterol foods from the
king’s table.
But
there was another reason they refused to defile their bodies: The king’s food
had already been
offered
to the Babylonian god Marduk, and to eat the king’s food would be to break the
second commandment.
They
knew what Exodus 20:4-5 said:
Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is
in
heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Thou
shalt
not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a
jealous God,
visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them
that
hate me.
But
this conviction created a problem. These four boys were in training, and
Nebuchadnezzar and his
trainers
were in charge. They were under strict orders to follow Babylonian rules, not
Jewish rules.
Nothing
kosher here. But-and this is why I hope young people are reading this book,
because this in
so
many ways is a young person’s book Daniel still found favor with the prince of
the eunuchs. Character
is
what counts. Sticking to your guns when everyone else says to do something that
dishonors
God
is what wins the day.
Now
it was Melzar, the eunuch in charge, who had the problem. His job and his life
were on the line.
He
had a specific assignment-to make his charges obey the rules, follow the
instructions, color between
the
lines, do what they were told, and eat the king’s food like the other Jewish
boys. What
could
be so bad about that! “Come on, guys, please,” I can almost hear him say.
“I like this job, and I
really
don’t need to get into any trouble with the head eunuch.” I’m sure that
Daniel and his buddies
listened
to their eunuch friend with hearts of compassion for the predicament he was in,
but they still
remained
faithful to God’s agenda for their lives.
Acting
Like Gentlemen
Now
here’s a part I love. Rather than giving Melzar a tongue-lashing, Old
Testament lecture on the
evils
of giving good food to bad gods like Marduk, Daniel did something much more
effective: He
provided
an alternative. He presented the eunuch an option by suggesting, “Let’s just
check this other
idea
out, and see what happens.” Daniel came up with a “ten day plan.” And what
was the essence of
this
plan?
To
eat only pulse, another word for beans. Beans. Not meat, fish, exotic game from
the forest, rich
desserts,
wine flowing by the flagons-but beans . . . and water. I can just see Melzar’s
face turn
ghostly
white as he gently touches the side of his neck, wondering how long it will
remain attached to
the
rest of his head. “Beans! Surely you jest. We have beef, and you want
beans?”
Daniel
and his friends confirmed their resolve, and the diet plan was approved. While
the rest of
Jewish
captives were being wined and dined in the palace dining hall, Daniel and his
three friends ate
beans,
and amazingly were growing stronger and healthier in mind and body day by day.
They trusted
their
God to make them healthy and strong. They remained obedient to God when all the
odds were
stacked
against them. And when the ten day experiment came to an end, we read that
“their
countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did
eat the
portion
of the king’s meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the
wine that
they
should drink; and gave them pulse” (vv. 15-16).
And
the palace scoreboard read:
Daniel-1
King-O
Daniel
1:17 - 21
As
for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and
wisdom: and
Daniel
had understanding in all visions and dreams.
Now
at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the
prince of the
eunuchs
brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.
And
the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel,
Hananiah,
Mishael,
and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.
And
in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he
found them ten
times
better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.
And
Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.
There
must be something about the power of beans. But for ten days? I think that’s
about the only
diet
I haven’t heard about in all the hype and hoopla of today’s weight
management programs. Of
course,
the beans and water didn’t make the difference, the food was simply the
vehicle of faithfulness
that
God used to prove that He was God, and that there was no other.
Now
that the experiment was over, Daniel and his friends began to focus on more
serious businesssuch
as
praying to God to help them develop their gifts of wisdom, ability to discern
truth from error,
and
the skill to differentiate between true dreams and false dreams. This was a lot
for young shoulders
to
bear, but God was faithful to his four righteous servants, and He gave them more
wisdom and
knowledge
than they ever could have imagined.
The
Best of the
We
can safely assume that Daniel and his compatriots did not dine at the king’s
table for the entire
three
years of their training. Yet, when the king took one look at Daniel and his
friends, he realized
there
were no others in his realm who were as healthy or insightful as these four
Hebrew boys. They
had
proved by their faithfulness to God-while maintaining an attitude of courtesy
and respect for their
foreign
ruler that God had sent them to the king’s palace, and that they were
committed to serving
their
God. The king quickly picked up on this, and we read that:
“in
all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he
found them ten
times
better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm”
(1:20).
The
Message for Today
What
is the special word from God for us here? I believe God would have us understand
that our
heavenly
Father wants us to be faithful, regardless of our circumstances. What if Daniel
and his
friends
had chosen to compromise their ideals in that foreign environment? What if they
had decided
it
made no difference to put on rolls of fat from the king’s bounty, to play
around with foreign gods, to
engage
themselves with sensuous women, and to allow their active minds to accept the
ungodly
mind-set
of Babylonian life? If they’d taken the easy way out, they would have been
ineffective servants.
Just
four more captives doing their time.
And
the king would never have honored them by saying, “I would trade ten of my
best magicians and
astrologers
for one of these men because they have some supernatural power.” Ten times
better!
What
a recommendation. What enviable job security. And what a God-given opportunity
for Daniel
and
his friends to begin to influence a king and the affairs of an entire kingdom at
the highest level. All
this
was taking place because four young, God-fearing men were filled with the Spirit
of God and
were
determined to follow His commands.
As
we move from one exciting page of the Book of Daniel to the next, we’ll notice
that the expression,
“The
spirit of the gods” will appear often. As believers, we know there is only one
Spirit, the blessed
Holy
Spirit. And when our Savior returns, a theme we’ll investigate as we go
along-there will be only
one
power. The Nebuchadnezzar’s of the world will have had their day. The once
powerful, high, and
mighty
will take a backseat to the Divine Redeemer who will come for His own. At that
day there will
be
only one power, one driving force, and one Spirit. That’s why we are reminded
in Ephesians 5:18
to
“be
filled with the Spirit.”
The literal Greek reads, “Be being filled with the spirit.” It’s a
continuous
process.
The
kind of filling that will energize you and me, just as it provided the power for Daniel to remain
faithful
to God during his time of trials in a foreign land. And just as Daniel stood
boldly and confidently
before
King Nebuchadnezzar so we have received the mandate to demonstrate the boldness
of
Acts 1:8: “But
ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall
be
witnesses
unto me both in
of
the earth.”
In
Daniel’s day, the wisdom of the world, which was Nebuchadnezzar’s world was
put to shame by
the
wisdom of God manifested in the lives of four committed young men. That same
wisdom must be
exhibited
in our day, a time in history when a movement against the one true God is
picking up speed
and
will march us to the end of the age. Daniel is not just a prophet from history,
and his book is not
just
another book. It is our must-read guide to show us where we are heading, and the
Book of Daniel
will
take us to a fuller understanding of the latter days and the great mysteries
unsealed, beginning
with
Nebuchadnezzar’s amazing dream of a statue and Daniel’s fearless
interpretation.
A
King Dreams... A King Is Confused
DANIEL
2:1-13
And
in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed
dreams,
wherewith
his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.
Then
the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the
sorcerers, and the
Chaldeans,
for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
And
the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to
know the
dream.
Then
spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, 0 king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream,
and
we will show the interpretation.
The
king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will
not make
known
unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces,
and your
houses
shall be made a dunghill.
But
if ye show the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me
gifts and rewards
and
great honour: therefore show me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.
They
answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will
show the
interpretation
of it.
The
king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because
ye see the
thing
is gone from me.
But
if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you:
for ye have
prepared
lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore
tell
me
the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof
The
Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth
that can
show
the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked
such things at any
magician,
or astrologer, or Chaldean.
And
it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can
show it before the
king,
except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.
For
this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the
wise men
of
And
the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel
and his
fellows
to be slain.
Perhaps
at some time in your life you’ve had a dream that was so unnerving and
perplexing that it
kept
you from sleeping through the rest of the night. You tried to figure out what it
might mean and
may
have even asked others to help you with an interpretation that made sense. If
this has happened
to
you and me, we know it’s happened to people throughout history.
In
the year 603 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream so bizarre that he marshaled
his wisest
men
to his chambers to give him a reasonable interpretation. Not only did the crafty
king want an
interpretation
of the dream he could understand, but he went one step further: He demanded a
recital
of
the dream itself. Unreasonable? Of course. But Nebuchadnezzar was the king, and
just as the
gorilla
sleeps anywhere it likes in the jungle, so the king could make up his own rules
which he did
with
an impish look in his eye, I’m sure.
Nervous
Coughs and Furtive Looks
Did
the king really forget the content of his dream? I doubt it. I think this was
Nebuchadnezzar’s way
to
test the wisdom and alleged supernatural powers of his magicians, astrologers,
and sorcerers.
Heavy
has been the head that has worn the crown throughout history, and
Nebuchadnezzar’s crown
must
have weighed a ton. Kings come and go; their enemies are forever nipping at
their heels. What
if
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream were to portend evil for his realm? Superstitious as he
was, he demanded
an
interpretation.
But
there was a risk that one of the palace sorcerers might give the king
information he didn’t want to
hear.
So what does a wizard do? Equivocate? Beat around the bush? Try to buy some
time? After all,
the
wrong information would produce disastrous results for the wizards, like being
cut to pieces and
having
their houses made into a dunghill. But if they could state the dream and give
Nebuchadnezzar
an
interpretation he could live with, then all manner of blessings would fall on
the necromancers. So
the
stage was set.
I
can almost hear the nervous coughs and see the furtive looks as one magician
after the other would
say
something like, “0 King, that’s a marvelous idea, our telling you your dream
not that it will be easy.
Say,
would you mind running that dream by your servants just one more time, and then
I’m sure we’ll
be
able to come up with just the right interpretation.”
Paranoia
Abounds
The
king didn’t bite. He knew he had his magicians and wise men trapped, and he
accused them of
stalling.
Finally, probably with perspiration pouring from their brows, the wizards and
astrologers came
flat
out with the truth, saying that such an assignment was impossible certainly too
great a job for the
wisest
person in the realm, and one that could only be accomplished in cooperation with
the godswhose
“dwelling
is not with flesh”.
An interesting comment from savants who were supposed to be
able
to predict the future and come up with detailed and accurate answers to life’s
most perplexing
problems.
Yet, when push came to shove, they figured hearkening to the gods might not be
such a
bad
idea after all.
But
the king didn’t buy their delay and became furious. In a fit of rage he
demanded that all the wise
men
of
secular
and religious history. When frustration mounts in the palace, scapegoats are
found, and these
innocents
are often summarily done away with. It happened when a paranoid King Herod,
intent on
finding
an alleged usurper to his throne, put out a decree to kill all Jewish baby boys
in the land.
We
saw it with Hitler who, in his cruel attempt to create his Third Reich, killed
six million Jews, burned
all
books that threatened his reign, and more than decimated all non Aryans under
his control. We
saw
it again just a few years ago, in the mid to late 1960s, when an equally
paranoid Chairman Mao
threw
all of
that
was only an official excuse to kill and maim millions of dissidents, destroy any
semblance of
ancient
tradition that flew in the face of his hybrid communism, and put
history.
Will tyrants ever learn?
Now,
the net was thrown wide throughout the
wisdom
to their knees and ultimately to their collective death. Although it appears
that Daniel and his
friends
were not in this shouting session with the king, they were, in fact, to be
included in the king’s
order.
The great irony of the king’s manifesto as it related to Daniel was that once
again God was
setting
the stage for a display of His sovereignty over the affairs of men. Meanwhile,
the hunt was on.
Then
Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king’s
guard, which
was
gone forth to slay the wise men of
He
answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, Why is the decree so hasty
from the king?
Then
Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.
Then
Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he
would show
the
king the interpretation.
Then
Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah, his
companions:
That
they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that
Daniel and his
fellows
should not perish with the rest of the wise men of
Then
was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the
God of
heaven.
Daniel
answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and
might
are
his:
And
he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings:
he giveth
wisdom
unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
He
revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and
the light
dwelleth
with him.
I
thank thee, and praise thee, 0 thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom
and might,
and
hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made
known
unto
us the king’s matter.
Therefore
Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men
of
before
the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation.
Daniel’s
Strategy
We’ve
now begun to see the sterling character of Daniel. Though still young, he was
wise beyond his
years;
though relatively inexperienced in the affairs of life, he demonstrated how God
can use a
servant
who gives his absolute loyalty to the Father. Now, it was again Daniel’s turn
to settle uncontrollable
waters.
Here’s where we as believers need to take careful note of Daniel’s spiritual
strategy.
·
First, he asked for time, always a good idea when we are trying to come up with
a solution to
one
of life’s challenges.
·
Second, he was bold enough to say that he would fulfill the king’s demand,
that is, he promised
to
do what the other wise men could not. Daniel knew that with God on his side he
was
not
stepping out on a partially sawed off limb. He knew his heavenly Father would
give him the
insight
required at the time he would need it.
·
Third and how often we fail to do this, Daniel went back to his quarters and
held an impromptu
prayer
meeting/counseling session with his companions Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Proverbs
15:22 reminds us, “Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude
of
counsellors they are established.” Daniel knew the importance of feedback from his companions-
an
awareness that runs throughout the entire book.
Daniel’s
“Model Prayer”
Now
I want you to pay special attention to Daniel’s prayer, just one of the many
prayers of this great
man
of God we will discover in the pages of this amazing prophecy. Remember, Daniel
already believed
that
God would give him the answer he’d need when he would soon stand before the
king.
He’d
already conferred with his friends and received their counsel. But Daniel knew
that unless he
prayed
earnestly to his God for divine insight and wisdom, he would never be prepared
for his daunting
assignment
with a paranoid king.
For
years, I’ve felt this prayer of Daniel should be a model for our own time with
God, a prayer that
moves
me anew as I read it again, perhaps for the thousandth time. Daniel blesses God
for His
wisdom.
He acknowledges that earthly kings are just that, as common as dirt, and that
God alone
sets
up rulers and brings them crashing down from their man-made thrones. He
recognizes that only
His
God, not Marduk, or any other Babylonian idol gives wisdom to the wise and has
the necessary
resources
to bring light to that which is shrouded in darkness.
Then,
in a final burst of praise, Daniel thanks God for the wisdom and might He’s
given to His servant.
Daniel
thanks God, giving no credit to himself, for the answers he now has to King
Nebuchadnezzar’s
dream. Can’t you just hear Daniel’s prayer build with confidence as he moves
toward
his final crescendo-his glorious amen to his God?
Ready
to Meet the King
Daniel
has done his homework. He’s been patient. He’s prayed. Now he’s ready with
an exuberance
and
confidence that can only come to a believer in the one true God. Only after this
serious, preaudience
preparation
does Daniel finally say to Arioch, “All right, now’s the time. I’m ready
to enter
the
presence of the king . . . and by the way, make sure that the king spares the
lives of the wise men
of
is
now used by God to shape the destiny of an entire kingdom.
The
apostle Paul, hundreds of years later, would say to another young man, Timothy,
“Let
no man
despise
thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in
charity, in
spirit,
in faith, in purity”
(1 Timothy 4:12). In God’s eyes, age has little significance when it comes to
being
a wise servant. Just as He did then, all God demands from His people is
obedience. This spirit
would
be the hallmark of the man Daniel to the end of his days.
Daniel
2:25 - 30
Then
Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I
have found a
man
of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.
The
king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to
make
known
unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?
Daniel
answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath
demanded
cannot
the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the sooth sayers, show unto the
king;
But
there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the King
Nebuchadnezzar
what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon
thy
bed, are these;
As
for thee, 0 king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what Should come
to pass
hereafter:
and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.
But
as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more
than any
living,
but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and
that thou
mightest
know the thoughts of thy heart.
Glory
to God Alone
Daniel
now had the king’s attention. He also continued to remind the king that the
wisdom he was
sharing
was from the one true God and not from his own knowledge. What integrity! Daniel
could
have
made this a public relations spectacular for himself by taking all the credit,
comparing himself to
the
other wise men (who failed to speak the dream or interpret it), saying, “Hey,
King, look at me. I’m
the
man. You can always count on me for the answers to your tough questions.”
But
that is not the Daniel of this book. He took no glory for himself, but instead
insisted that only God
in
heaven could do what the king had requested. I can almost see King
Nebuchadnezzar’s mouth
begin
to drop as Daniel set him up.
Nebuchadnezzar
was probably saying something like, “Come on, Daniel, enough of this ‘My
God’
stuff.
What’s my dream? More importantly, what does it mean? And why are you making
me wait?”
But
Daniel was not to be rushed. He was in control of this particular discussion
and, once again, the
king
was compelled to wait for the time when this young Jew would come forth with his
secrets, which
he
finally shared when he said:
Daniel
2: 31 - 35
Thou,
0 king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was
excellent,
stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
This
image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly
and his thighs of
brass,
His
legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Thou
sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon
his feet
that
were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Then
was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces
together, and
became
like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away,
that no
place
was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain,
and
filled
the whole earth.
I
imagine the king was startled, and dumbfounded, probably exclaiming something
like, “I can’t believe
this,
Daniel. You’re a genius! You’ve done what my most seasoned astrologers and
magicians
could
not do. You’re amazing. . . and you’re still so young!”
Daniel
just stood there and listened politely, continuing to assert that God gave him
the dream. He
probably
reminded the king of what he’d already told him, “But there is a God in heaven that
revealeth
secrets” (2:28). Wouldn’t
you like to have seen Nebuchadnezzar’s face as Daniel spoke the
dream
one scene at a time? The king’s heart rate must have increased as Daniel
talked about an
image
so large and brilliant that it was virtually impossible to look at for any
length of time. His blood
pressure
must have climbed as Daniel described the statue from head to foot, the head of
gold;
breast
and arms of silver; belly and thighs of brass; legs of iron; and feet and toes
of an unstable
mixture
of iron and clay.
The
Dream Interpreted
Then,
thundering from a distance came a stone cut out without hands, that is, not of
human origincrashing
into
the statue with such meteoric force that it dissolved the image into chaff,
blowing away
any
semblance of the statue. Where the image had stood, this is what had to give
King
Nebuchadnezzar
pause the stone, now a large mountain, “filled the whole earth” (2:35).
If
you were a superstitious Babylonian king constantly looking over your shoulder
at the slightest
movement
of your enemies, or wondering if inside the palace intrigue might one day do you
in, what
would
you think if you had a dream like this? Without waiting for the king’s
response, or perhaps
because
Nebuchadnezzar was too dumbfounded to respond, Daniel proceeded with the
interpretation
of
his dream.
Daniel
2: 36 - 45
This
is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
Thou,
0 king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom,
power, and
strength,
and glory.
And
wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of
the heaven
hath
he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this
head of
gold.
And
after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third
kingdom of brass,
which
shall bear rule over all the earth.
And
the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in Pieces
and
subdueth
all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and
bruise.
And
whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of
iron, the kingdom
shall
be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength o the iron, foras much as
thou sawest
the
iron mixed with miry clay.
And
as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom
shall be partly
strong,
and partly broken.
And
whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle Themselves with
the
seed
of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with
clay.
And
in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall
never be
destroyed:
and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces
and
consume
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Forasmuch
as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and
that
it
brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the
great God bath
made
known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain,
and the
interpretation
thereof sure.
Not
So Fast, O King
Daniel
was anything but timid, for God had removed any spirit of fear from his heart as
he stood eyeto-
eye
with Nebuchadnezzar, giving him the message from God. Nebuchadnezzar undoubtedly
saw
himself
as a self-made king, powerful, in control, able to make heads roll at a snap of
his finger. Yet
Daniel
says, “Wait a minute, King. Not so fast. You are only where you are because my
God has
given
you dominion, power, and glory. Yes, you’re a mighty and powerful king, but
your reign simply
cannot
last.” Daniel consistently gives God the credit in the preface of all his
prayers and speeches.
The
king would probably rather not have to sit there and listen to these extended
preambles, but this
was
young Daniel’s moment. And Nebuchadnezzar would have to be patient.
Daniel’s
description of Babylon’s place in world history is fully in sync with other
historical references.
Babylon
was the greatest power of the day. It had always been a superlative empire, with
its great
beauty,
economic position as a center of commerce, and fabled hanging gardens, one of
the exquisite
wonders
of the ancient world. But even all these accomplishments, Daniel would argue,
were not
Nebuchadnezzar’s
doing-but God’s.
Although
Nebuchadnezzar was the “gold head” in his dream, the inference was that he
would not be
in
charge of his kingdom in perpetuity: Daniel’s message was that God was in
control, and that his
heavenly
Father would have the final say as to who would and who would not occupy all
earthly
thrones-including
Nebuchadnezzar’s.
Kingdoms
Come... Kingdoms Go
Marduk,
Babylon’s chief god, was also called the “god of gold” something that
surely did not escape
the
king’s notice. In fact, the precious metal gold was almost synonymous with the
nation of Babylon.
There
was gold everywhere, in the ornate palaces, the worship places, and the
ubiquitous shrines.
Even
the walls were overlaid with what was then the most precious substance in
existence. Now King
Nebuchadnezzar
was told that all this gold would one day be swept away by a second kingdom, the
kingdom
of Medo-Persia.
This
later became a historic fact when the two disparate cultures, the Medes and the
Persians, united
in
550 B.C. under one king to form a great world power. This was the “silver”
part of the statue and a
proper
representation of the Medo-Persian empire since the Medes and Persians based
their partnership
on
the power of money collected through an elaborate system of taxation.
Nebuchadnezzar must
have
been relieved to hear Daniel prophesy that this “silver” kingdom would be
inferior to his own,
probably
because as a partnership nation,
Medo-Persia
did not have the political and military unity of Babylon. But despite this
weakness,
Medo-Persia
would one day break the “head of gold.” Because God’s Word speaks only the
truth, we
should
not be surprised to note that Daniel’s prophecy became reality when Medo-Persia
brought
Babylon
to its knees in military defeat in 539 B.C.
But
what about the third kingdom, the belly and thighs of brass? The element bronze
later became a
characterization
of the Greek empire, primarily because the Greeks used it extensively as the
material
for
their weapons of war. Daniel foresaw that Greece would one day “bear rule over
all the earth”
(2:3
9). History shows that Greece did dominate the world of its day. The kingdom of
Alexander the
Great
encompassed much more of the known world than Babylon or Medo-Persia ever did.
Again, a
prophecy
of Daniel was fulfilled in world history.
The
Renewal of the Roman Empire
Imagine
how Nebuchadnezzar must have reacted to the news from this young prophet. His
was
probably
a mixture of fear and disbelief. But we must also note that Daniel wasn’t
finished yet, and
the
king did not interrupt Daniel’s interpretation.
After
the world-dominating empire of bronze another empire would arise, a fourth
kingdom composed
of
two legs of iron. This kingdom would be Rome with its “two legs”
representing the expansive empires
of
the Western Roman Empire, headquartered in Rome, and the Eastern Roman Empire,
with
the
cosmopolitan city of Constantinople as its capital. This empire also would fall.
The great historian
Edward
Gibbon powerfully describes it in his work entitled The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire.
However,
just before Christ returns, this empire will revive as the iron mixed with clay
begins to wiggle
in
the form of ten toes.
Only
God could have given Daniel the wisdom to know what is now becoming reality for
us who live in
the
beginning days of the twenty-first century. According to Daniel, the final
revival of the Roman
Empire
would be comprised of a confederation of ten nations, which would finally lead
to a new world
order
encompassing the globe. Why would they come together? For monetary and military
security
and
strength-something we’re already seeing as the European Union moves ahead with
such plans
at
break-neck speed. Thus, Nebuchadnezzar’s image with ten toes pictured the
revival and conclusion
of
the Roman Empire.
Note
the gradual deterioration of the metals in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: from gold
to silver to bronze
to
iron to clay, a clear demonstration that as history marches on, men and their
cultures become
increasingly
corrupt. Tregelles is a scholar who has called attention to the decreasing
“specific gravity”
of
each of these metals: For example, the specific gravity of gold is 19; silver,
11; brass, 8.5; cast
iron,
7.8; mixture of iron and clay, 1.93.
The
world in which you and I live, the world of the fourth and revived fifth kingdom
as prophesied by
Daniel,
is going to get worse up to the moment that the great stone breaks the feet of
the image. That
stone
is Jesus Christ, who becomes a mountain and fills the entire earth.
“And
in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall
never
be
destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break
in pieces and
consume
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (2:44).
The
Ten Toes Begin to Wiggle
The
entire end-time message is predicted here in the Book of Daniel thousands of
years, in some
instances,
before the actual historical events occurred, just as Rabbi Shvili in 1935
suggested in his
book,
Reckonings
of Redemption.
How
could Daniel know this? Because God, historically, has chosen
to
reveal His secrets through spirit-anointed prophets.
Let’s
bring Daniel’s prophecy even closer to home. There was a long interval between
the time when
Rome’s
power began to wane and fall, around 476 A.D. and the year 1947 when the “ten
toes” of the
statue
began to wiggle. First of all, Benelux met in that year, Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Luxembourg,
creating
the first three members of the confederation. In 1957, three additional nations
met
with
the countries of Benelux, Italy, France, and Germany, for a total of six,
ratified by the Treaty of
Rome.
Little
by little, in our daily newspapers, we see a revival of the Roman Empire just as
Daniel predicted.
In
1973, England, Ireland, and Denmark joined the confederation, making it a total
of nine
members.
Then, on New Year’s Day, 1981, Greece became number ten. The time that Daniel
prophesied
is
here. We are living in the latter days, and Jesus is coming soon.
Jesus
Is Our Rock
One
of the most profound messages of these verses is that you and I don’t have to
worry about
straightening
out our world. We have almighty God, Adonai, who is in charge of the affairs of
earth.
Jesus
is the rock, that stone, on which the true church is built. You’ll remember in
Matthew that Jesus
asked
the apostle Peter, “Whom
do men say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son
of
God.” And Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church” (see 16:13-18). Christ was that rock (1
Corinthians
10:4).
Yes,
the rock in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream that eventually engulfs the entire world, a
rock that will hit
the
feet, not the head, Babylon; not the chest and arms of silver, the Medes and the
Persians; not the
stomach
and thighs of brass, Greece; not the legs of iron, Rome. They went out of
existence. Instead,
the
rock strikes that group that revives at the time of the end, the ten toes, the
restored Roman
Empire.
Thus, on January 1, 1981, when Greece became number ten, pictured by the ten
toes on the
image,
we were given the clearest signal yet that we were headed toward the end times
and would
soon
be ushered into an environment that would be ready for the return of Christ as
King of Kings
and
Lord of Lords.
God’s
Sovereignty
We
can therefore reasonably conclude that the dream of Daniel chapter two reveals
that the Kingdom
of
God will soon be established in connection with the second coming of our Savior.
Daniel 2:44
states,
and I repeat this for the sake of emphasis,
“And
in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall
never
be
destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break
in pieces and
consume
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”
It’s
all starting to happen. Just as the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream contained
metals that degraded
as
they descended from gold to iron and clay, so will the world in which you and I
live become
increasingly
apostate and the more our society at large will be governed by outright
militarism as its
only
vehicle to control the violence that is present and that is yet to come.
What
was the actual purpose of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream? To show God’s sovereign
rule over the
affairs
of men, leading to the future Gentile world domination and its ultimate
destruction, to be replaced
by
a Kingdom and a King who would reign forever on earth (Matthew 6:10).
One
of the reasons the Book of Daniel is so important is that it provides us with a
complete scenario
for
the end times. And it all begins to wind down with the current revival of the
Roman Empire, which I
believe
is the present-day European Union. After this episode is completed, there is no
more. This will
be
the last empire, and it will continue into the latter days, with the Antichrist
as the primary figure
taking
over the resurrected Roman Empire (Revelation 17:10). He will be a dictator of
world proportions
and
will rule the world of his day just as King Nebuchadnezzar ruled his world as
leader of
Babylon.
But
for those of us who know the whole story, we need not fear the perilous times
yet to come because
“the
stone [which] was cut out of the mountain without hands” (2:45) is none other
than the
person
of Jesus Christ, God’s anointed, our Savior, the Rock of our salvation. When
He returns to
gather
His own, God will establish His Kingdom which will prevail in our world, and for
a thousand
years
all beings on earth will be tremendously blessed under the personal reign of the
Lord Jesus
Christ.
Daniel
2: 46 - 49
Then
the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded
that
they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.
The
king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of
gods, and a
Lord
of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.
Then
the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him
ruler
over
the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men
of
Babylon.
Then
Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over
the
affairs
of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.
Daniel’s
God Is Greatest!
Nebuchadnezzar’s
subjects often fell on their faces before their leader, but for the king to
subject
himself
to such a humble posture meant that Daniel had indeed gotten through to him. It
also appeared
that
Nebuchadnezzar may have been making some spiritual progress, revealed by his act
of
contrition,
admitting that Daniel’s God was the greatest god of all. The king made good on
his promise
that
he would reward the wise one who met the demands of speaking and interpreting
his dream,
and
Daniel was subsequently exalted throughout the realm.
But
Daniel, always a man of integrity, did not forget his friends, and requested
that the king give them
key
positions as well. His wish was granted. Daniel continued to be a person of
great influence in the
king’s
court by being allowed to sit in the gate of the king, a position of judge, the
equivalent of a
Supreme
Court justice and confidant of the king. Yet Daniel never compromised his
standards in that
foreign
land.
Through
it all, Daniel remained faithful to his God, continuing to speak the truth
fearlessly, always
serving
notice to Nebuchadnezzar that God alone, not earthly kings, has the real power.
God does
not
tremble at the sight of monarchs. If anything, He laughs at their rebellion, and
in Psalm 2:1-4-a
passage
that pictures the battle of Armageddon we read:
“Why
do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
set
themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his
anointed,
saying,
Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that
sitteth in
the
heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.”
But
kings will be kings. Seemingly a victim of short-term memory, Nebuchadnezzar
goes on yet
another
rampage. During his recurring paranoia he commands that his servants turn up the
heat in
the
palace furnace seven times hotter. It’s a futile attempt to destroy three
Hebrew teenagers, surely
one
of the most fascinating and familiar stories in all the Bible, and a dramatic
preview of the real
wrath
that is yet to come during the Tribulation hour, another mystery which we will
see unsealed.
DANIEL
3:1-7
Nebuchadnezzar
the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and
the
breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province
of Babylon.
Then
Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and
the
captains,
the judges, the treasures, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of
the provinces,
to
come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
Then
the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the
sheriffs, and all
the
rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image
that
Nebuchadnezzar
the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar
had
set up.
Then
an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages,
That
at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery,
dulcimer, and
all
kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar
the king
hath
set up.
And
whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the
midst of a
burning
fiery furnace.
Therefore
at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
sackbut,
psaltery,
dulcimer, and all kinds of music, all the people, the nations, and the languages
fell
down
and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
We
said earlier that kings will be kings, and Nebuchadnezzar was no exception. One
moment Daniel
had
Nebuchadnezzar’s undivided attention, almost persuading him of the’ ultimate
power of the one,
true
God; the next minute, the king was again egocentric and self-promoting,
forgetting Daniel’s
prophecy
and its implications. Perhaps the king was simply denying his mighty Babylonian
kingdom
would
ever really collapse, especially at the hands of the Medo-Persian empire.
A
Preview of 666
Imagine
the sight of a golden image of Nebuchadnezzar that was ninety feet high (sixty
cubits) and
nine
feet wide (six cubits in all, a cubit being approximately eighteen inches),
erected on the plain of
Dura.
While the ‘golden image may simply have appeared to be little more than a
massive statue, it
actually
holds great prophetic meaning and is yet another end-time mystery about to be
unsealed.
For
example, the numbers 66 come together here: the number of man (sixty cubits
high) and six
cubits
wide, resembling the number of the Antichrist in Revelation 13:16-18 (six
cubits). This gives us
a
reference to the time when the Antichrist comes into power and his false prophet
sets up an image
of
his likeness in the temple. Revelation 13:15 says,
“And
he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the
beast should
both
speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should
be
killed.”
Faucet’s
Bible Dictionary Encyclopedia reports that the archaeologist Opert once journeyed to
present
day Iraq, the area of biblical Babylon, and excavated what most evangelical
scholars believe
is
the pedestal on which Nebuchadnezzar’s great image had been placed proving
this biblical event
really
happened! Some believe the gold statue may have been built to honor
Nebuchadnezzar’s
deceased
father, Nabopolassar. Others suggest it was erected to appease Bel or Marduk,
the revered
pagan
gods of Babylon. More likely, the image was a representation of the king
himself.
Nebuchadnezzar
had a flair for publicity, and he knew where to position the gigantic statue so
that no
one
could miss seeing it. While Babylon was a skyscraper city of its day, the plain
of Dura was a huge
mound
of earth, about six miles southeast of Babylon, probably a walled area that
Nebuchadnezzar
could
have easily used as a focal point to stage an event of this enormity.
Anything
constructed in that area would be seen for miles around. Its strategic position
allowed for
thousands
of people to descend on the area at once, thus giving the king a venue for a
mass rally
where
loyal supporters could bow and pay their homage to the king. This seemed to be a
carefully
planned
“photo op” for Nebuchadnezzar and an event which all the chief officers of
the land were
commanded
to attend, including Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.
Fail
to Bow... Pay the Price
Here
we catch a glimpse of Nebuchadnezzar’s political acumen and get a dramatic
preview of the
activities
of the Antichrist to come. The king knew he had to keep certain conquered
peoples under
his
thumb at all times, and what better vehicle than native religion to promote the
power of the state?
Nebuchadnezzar
knew that whatever officials saw that day on the plain of Dura, they would take
back
to
those captives under their jurisdiction.
Apparently
Daniel was somewhere else in the realm on business for the king, since he was
not
present
at the unveiling of the golden image. In fact, Daniel is not even mentioned in
this chapter. For
the
first time in our story, his three friends are on their own. But because Daniel
had exerted such
great
moral and spiritual influence on his companions, compromise with foreign gods
was out of the
question.
However,
these three faithful Hebrews would pay a terrible price for not bowing to the
image. King
Nebuchadnezzar
would try to have them killed, picturing an approaching day when the Antichrist
carries
out the same penalty on those who refuse to bow to his image and reject his
mark, 666. At
first
reading this passage simply appears to be a provocative piece of biblical
history. Closer observation,
however,
tells us that this story speaks to where you and I are today, and where we are
quickly
headed.
For
instance, during the Tribulation hour, the Antichrist will make an image of
himself (Revelation
13:15),
and anyone who will not worship that image will be killed, even as those who
refused to bow
to
the image of Nebuchadnezzar were threatened with destruction in a furnace of
fire. The only difference
between
the two events is magnitude. The Tribulation hour will be a time when fire
engulfs the
earth.
Revelation 8:7 says,
“And
the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”
Revelation
9:18 tells us:
“By
these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and
by the
brimstone.”
Accompanying
all this mayhem will be the Antichrist, who says, “If you don’t worship me
and my
image,
you’re going to die.” Revelation 20:4 says,
“And
I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I
saw
the
souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of
God, and
which
had not worshipped the beast, neither his image.”
Matthew
25:31-46, however, declares that there will be multitudes who will survive the
seven-year
period
without taking the number. I’m not sure how, but they will persevere, just as
the three Hebrew
children
ultimately survived their trial by fire.
Nebuchadnezzar,
Picture of the Antichrist
So
the statue on the plain of Dura was more than just an image of a king. It
graphically represented
the
king’s continued rebellion against God, just as the Antichrist will become the
definition of rebellion
against
the Almighty. The image also indicated that the king was egocentric, offering
his image to the
people
as a symbol of self-deification. Again, there are Antichrist implications
(Daniel 11:36).
Politically,
Nebuchadnezzar needed a strong, unifying force to continue to bring together the
disparate
tribes
and nations that fell to the power of Babylon. In short, Nebuchadnezzar’s
purpose was to
institute
a totalitarian regime, and this was one way to galvanize the people’s
attention and allegiance.
What
better description can we find in Scripture of the political prowess of the
Antichrist to
come!
Not
surprisingly, when the word went out that this was “bow down” time, the
officials, governors, and
whoever
else had managed to get to Dura that day paid obeisance to the king right on
cue. Imagine
the
scene. Nebuchadnezzar was so fully in control of this grand event that he even
had it choreographed.
When
the conductor of this desert orchestra of cornets, flutes, harps, sackbuts
(stringed
instruments),
psalteries, and dulcimers lowered his baton, it was time to fall to one’s
knees. And that’s
what
the masses did: They looked at the great statue, and they fell down to worship.
Why not? To
remain
standing in defiance of the king’s order would mean certain death in a fiery
furnace.
Three
Young Men Who Refused to Compromise
No
exceptions to the king’s rule would be tolerated. Now, once again, Daniel’s
three friends had to
make
a decision. They knew the Scriptures, and I’m sure their minds were racing to
the first two
commandments
of Moses they’d memorized years before from the Book of Exodus:
“Thou
shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image, or any
likeness
of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water
under
the earth”
(Exodus 20:3-4).
For
these three Hebrew children that was all they needed to remember. It was no
longer a dilemma.
They
had always obeyed the law of God. Daniel served under six kings and always
honored themeven
when
their point of view differed with some of his own opinions. But on the question
of allegiance
to
the God of Israel, Daniel never compromised.
Early
on, his three Hebrew friends had also refused to compromise. Rather than worry
about incurring
the
wrath of an earthly king, their greater concern was that they not subject
themselves to the
wrath
of their living God. Now, once again, even as they had earlier refused to eat
the rich food from
the
king’s table, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to sacrifice their
respect for God’s law
on
a pagan altar.
Wherefore
at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews.
They
spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever.
Thou
O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the
cornet, flute, harp,
sackbut,
psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the
golden image.
And
whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of
a burning fiery
furnace.
There
are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon,
Shadrach,
Meshach,
and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee, they serve not thy
gods, nor
worship
the golden image which thou hast set up.
The
people who bowed to the ruling powers had a problem with our three Hebrew
friends Shadrach,
Meshach,
and Abednego. Jealousy and a large dose of anti-Semitism were factors in their
dislike of
these
foreigners who had been given lofty positions by the king. Undoubtedly, some of
these threatened
Chaldeans
snitched on Daniel’s companions, and before long, word of the Hebrews’
insubordination
was
passed on to the king. Their charge: rebellion against the king and the law of
the land.
And
what better proof of the allegation than the fact that the young men had
remained standing
before
the image while Nebuchadnezzar’s minions lay flat on their faces in worship.
Get the furnace
ready
for three young Hebrews.
Then
Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded them to bring Shadrach, Meshach,
and
Abednego.
Then they brought these men before the king.
Nebuchadnezzar
spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not
ye
serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now
if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
sack but, psaltery,
and
dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I
have made; well: but
if
ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery
furnace; and who is
that
God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are
not
careful
to answer thee in this matter.
If
it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery
furnace, and he will
deliver
us out of thine hand, O king.
But
if not, be it know unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor
worship the golden image
which
thou hast set up.
Spiritual
Fortitude
Mission
accomplished. When Nebuchadnezzar heard of the acts of the rebellious young
Jews, he
flew
into one of his typical rages, demanding that these alleged traitors be brought
before him. But to
his
credit, and perhaps the first crack in Nebuchadnezzar’s becoming more
compliant, he asked
Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego if they’d really done this dastardly deed, perhaps
secretly hoping
the
report was not true.
King
Nebuchadnezzar didn’t take the Chaldean’s word at face value. He left the
door open for
Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego to take the trip out to the plain of Dura again and make
amends
for
their unpatriotic actions, or lack of action. All they would have to do would be
drop to their knees
when
the desert orchestra struck up its opening number once again.
I
can almost hear Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego saying, “0 king, we really
don’t want to go out
there
to Dura again. Because even if we did, we would not bow to the great gold
statue. It’s not that
we
don’t respect you, it’s just that you are not God, and we bow only to
God.” Spiritual guts! That’s
the
best phrase I can think of. Intestinal fortitude and courage born of spiritual
integrity, all of which
translated
into a resounding, “No, king, we just can’t do that.” And with their final
refusal, they told the
king
they were prepared to be led into the fiery furnace.
We
Christians today need to appreciate the resolute spirit of these young men: They
were not arrogant
before
the king. The Hebrews did not equivocate or evade the issue. They spoke their
minds as
children
of God. How many times have we kept our allegiance to Jesus under wraps, saying,
along
with
Peter, “I never knew the man!”? Not so for these young men. They spoke the
truth without fear,
knowing
what would happen if the king refused to change his mind.
These
three young Hebrews were prepared to abide by the rules, even if it meant
suffering as a
consequence.
Only God knows how many millions of other faithful followers throughout history
have
gone
to their own “fiery furnaces” or “lions’ dens” for their faith,
including the torture and persecution
that
continues to exist throughout our world today for all modern-day Shadrachs,
Meshachs, and
Abed-negos.
The
die was now cast. The young Hebrews admitted that they were guilty as charged.
They felt no
need
to justify their position because they knew God would protect and defend them.
But note one of
the
most amazing verses in this entire passage: But if not, be it known unto thee, 0
king, that we will
not
serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (3:18).
Imagine the maturity
and
faith of three young men who could say, “King, even if our God does not
deliver us from your fiery
furnace,
we still will not serve your gods or worship your desert statue. We just will
not do it!”
Just
One More Miracle, God
They
knew their God was a God of miracles, and I’m confident that their minds
quickly raced back to
how
Moses had led the children of Israel through the Red Sea, and how tens of
thousands of the
children
of Israel walked through on dry ground, without one of them dying. If God could
do that kind
of
miracle then, why not another miracle now!
Later,
the apostle Paul would write in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain.”
That
was the courageous spirit of the three Hebrew teenagers. Each time I read this
passage, I’m
overwhelmed
at the bold faith of Daniel’s friends. It’s my earnest prayer that you and I
would trust our
God
enough to be just as faithful were we to find ourselves in a similar situation.
Then
was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against
Shadrach,
Meshach,
and Abed-nego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the
furnace
one
seven times more than it was wont to be heated.
And
he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach,
and
Abednego,
and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
Just
like a chameleon, Nebuchadnezzar changed his tune from the earlier conciliatory
“let’s give them
one
more chance” to his usual uncontrollable rage as he sent the three Hebrew men
to their death in
the
furnace, now heated seven times hotter than usual.
The
king had perhaps expected that the determined, Hebrews would strike a deal.
After all, what’s a
little
thing like bowing down to an image if the only alternative is burning to a crisp
in a furnace? But
the
king was wrong. Again: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were in no mood for
deal-making.
I’m
sure those who were eavesdropping on this tense palace discussion also may have
expected
some
form of compromise to emerge, but there would be no compromise when it came to
things of
the
living God.
Here
was a king before whom the nations trembled, and to whom rulers of the known
world willingly
gave
homage.. . and now three young Jewish upstarts had the audacity to just say no!
The king
probably
wanted to save their lives from destruction, but he’d painted himself into a
political corner
with
his incontrovertible decree, a manifesto that was as immutable as any law of the
Medes or the
Persians.
The king found himself with no choice but to heat up the furnace.
More
Than Just a Bible Story
Again,
this is more than biblical history. This is a dramatic picture of Jewish people
and Gentile converts.
The
Bible reminds us that millions will be saved during the Tribulation hour.
Revelation 7:14
says,
“These
are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and
made them
white
in the blood of the Lamb.”
They
will be going through the seven years of Tribulation, which the body of Christ,
the Church,
escapes
via the Rapture (Revelation 4:1). On the other hand, 144,000 Jewish evangelists
will proclaim
the
message of the coming Kingdom, and millions of Jewish and Gentile converts will
somehow
survive,
though rejecting the mark of the beast.
So
just as Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace be made seven times hotter for the
three Hebrew
children,
so the seven-year period of Tribulation will be a hot, volatile period in which
millions of God’s
newly
born-again children will be placed in the fire of an anti-God atmosphere. But I
repeat, multitudes
of
Jews and Christians will somehow miraculously survive, though rejecting the mark
of the
beast
(Daniel 12:1; Matthew 25:31-34).
Daniel
3:21 - 23
Then
these men were bound in their coats; their hosen, and their hats, and their
other garments,
and
were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace
Therefore
because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the
flame
of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And
these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst
of
the
fiery furnace.
Think
of the hottest steel plant furnace you have ever seen. Now imagine the
temperature as seven
times
hotter, an increase of 700 percent. Anger often displays itself in
overstatements, and
Nebuchadnezzar
was furious. A small fire would have sufficed. Heating the furnace twice as hot
would
have roasted these rebellious spirits, killing them ever so slowly. But true to
his volatile nature,
Nebuchadnezzar
was determined to incinerate them, attempting to show the world that he was in
charge.
. . and that no God of Israel would be a match for his prowess. This would be
one more
graphic
display of a king’s power-and a prediction of the earthly power of the
Antichrist to come.
Can
you feel the heat? But think also of this: Fire not only purifies gold, but it
also gets rid of the
dross,
the flaws and the alien material that cling to the precious metal. That’s why
gold is so valuable.
It’s
pure. Unadulterated. Free of foreign matter. It was the same that day when the
three Hebrew
children
were shoved into the furnace. The dross, the “mighty” men of the kingdom
commissioned by
the
king to do the terrible deed, were destroyed the moment they opened the fiery
furnace door, while
Daniel’s
friends, wearing highly flammable clothing and bound head to foot, found
themselves in for
further
purification of their lives.
Daniel
3: 24 - 27
Then
Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said
unto
his
counselors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They
answered and
said
unto the king, True O king.
He
answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire,
and they have
no
hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
Then
Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake,
and
said,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth,
and
come
hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the
fire.
And
the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counselors, being
gathered together,
saw
these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their
head
singed,
neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.
The
Fourth Man in the Fire
Nebuchadnezzar
didn’t retreat to his private quarters to wait for an official report on the
demise of the
three
Hebrew children later in the day. He sat there in rapt attention, eagerly
watching what his decree
would
do to anyone who refused to bow to his image. The king was not prepared for what
he
was
about to encounter. Scripture says that he jumped up, astonished at what he saw.
As
he did, he asked his high officials what was certainly a logical question:
“Didn’t we just put three
men
into the furnace? Why then do I see four men, all unhurt? Are my eyes playing
tricks on me?
And
look. . . no one is bound. Didn’t I see you tying them up? Then, why aren’t
they on fire? This
makes
no sense. They’re still walking around as if nothing happened. But what’s
really got me confused
is
that fourth man. Who is he? How did he get in there?”
Perhaps
the most telling comment of all comes from the mouth of the king when he says,
“the form of
the
fourth is like the Son of God” (3:25).
A more
accurate translation of what the king said would be
“like
a son of the gods.” The Babylonians believed that their gods had progeny, so
Nebuchadnezzar
was
commenting on what he thought was a supernatural being in the fire, the fourth
man, a son of
one
of the Babylonian deities. Still unwilling to admit that the one true God might
be involved in this
miracle,
the king continues to credit pagan deities for this bewildering turn of events.
The
King on a Losing Streak
Braving
the intense heat, and now bewildered, Nebuchadnezzar approaches the furnace door
and
personally
calls for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to come out, addressing them as
“servants of
the
most high God.” Has the king come a step closer to believing in this God of
the Hebrews? How
many
miracles, or dream interpretations, will it take for this stubborn king to see
the light? It does
appear
that Nebuchadnezzar is becoming somewhat impressed with the power of the God of
Israelthe
God,
he realizes, who has now overruled his decree, leaving these Jewish boys
unscathed.
At
this moment he must also be rethinking Daniel’s prophecy, the dream of the
statue that would be
pulverized
by a rock and encompass the whole earth. The scoreboard in the furnace room now
reads:
Three
Hebrew Children-1 - King-0
The
king is on a losing streak. He does not know that the fourth person in the fire
is the pre-incarnate
Son
of God, Jesus Christ. He does not know that Jesus has existed from all eternity,
”from everlasting”
(Micah
5:2)-and that He is “the mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6).
Jesus
Will Never Leave Us
Jesus
Christ is the “Son” from all eternity. So, therefore, it really is no
surprise that He should appear
as
a protector of the three Hebrew children during their ordeal. Christ existed
before He came to
earth.
He truly is from everlasting. He is God, the second member of the Trinity. But
how did He
appear
in the fiery furnace, one asks? By a Christophany, an appearance of Jesus Christ
occurring in
the
Old Testament.
And
now we see Him, this time in the fiery furnace with three men who’d been
faithful to their God.
What
is the message for you and me in this passage? Simply this: Whatever our trials
may be, Jesus
is
always in our midst, administering comfort to us in our greatest hour of need.
Hebrews 13:5 states:
“I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” That’s the message for you and me. We don’t have to go
through
our fiery furnaces alone. Jesus says, “I’ll go through them with you.”
Daniel
3:28 - 30
Then
Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego,
who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and
have
changed
the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor
worship any
god,
except their own God.
Therefore
I make a decree, That every people, nations, and language, which speak any thing
amiss
against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and
their
houses
shall be made a dunghill, because there is not other God that can deliver after
this
sort.
Then
the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.
Here,
again, God blesses those who are faithful to Him. The king has little choice but
to praise God
for
delivering Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He now admits that an angel, which
can also be
translated
“deity”, was sent to deliver them from the furnace. Now King Nebuchadnezzar
switches
gears
again, this time decreeing that anyone who speaks against the great God of
Israel shall be cut
to
pieces, and their houses made into dunghills, a threat, you’ll remember,
reserved earlier for the
wise
men and magicians who could not interpret his dream.
The
Flaming Flame Will Not Be Quenched
Again,
this is more than just a story. The deeper meaning of this passage, and of this
entire chapter,
is
this: During the Tribulation period the false prophet will set up an image of
the Antichrist and make
people
bow to it. If they do not worship the image, they will be put to death. During
that same Tribulation
period
the entire world will become a fiery furnace. Psalm 97:3 says, “A
fire goeth before him.”
Ezekiel
20:47 reads, “The flaming flame shall not be quenched.” Zephaniah 1:18 tells
us, “The
whole
land
shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy.” Malachi 4:1 reads, “The
day cometh that shall burn
as
an oven.”
The
Great Tribulation is going to be a horrendous time for earth’s inhabitants.
But remember . . the
three
Hebrew children went through their fiery trial unscathed. Their clothes were
left intact, and not
even
a hair on their heads was singed. There was no smell of fire or smoke on their
bodies, all a
dramatic
picture of the remnant of Jews who are going to be spared during the Tribulation
hour as
well
as millions of newly converted Christians. God always has, and always will, have
a way of protecting
His
own. There is a terrible time coming. Jeremiah 30:7 says,
“Alas!
for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s
trouble; but he
shall
be saved out of it.”
That’s
the good news. In Daniel 12:1 we also read:
“There
shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to
that
same
time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be
found written
in
the book.”
Yes,
this will be a time of great difficulty for the Jews. But there are also two
great statements of
encouragement:
“they
shall be saved out of it”
and “thy
people shall be delivered.” Jesus said in
Matthew
24:22,
“And
except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for
the
elect’s
sake those days shall be shortened.”
This
is a key verse because of the word elect. Some Christians believe the Church will be compelled
to
endure the Tribulation hour because the elect are present. But it’s important to determine
which
group
of “elect” God has in mind. The elect group mentioned here is that group
meeting on the Sabbath
day,
in synagogues, and fleeing from Judea to the mountains of Petra. This cannot be
a reference
to
Christians, but rather to the Jewish elect, referred to in Isaiah 42:1, 45:4,
65:9, and 65:22.
Yahweh
is
speaking here about His wife Israel. They are going to be spared the wrath of
the Tribulation
period,
and this is what the Hebrew children represent and, essentially, what the entire
chapter
portrays.
Now,
as we move on to chapter four of the Book of Daniel, will we continue to
encounter a hostile,
volatile
King Nebuchadnezzar? Or will we begin to see some permanent changes in his
attitude
toward
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to the one whom he now admits to be
the
true
God? I think you’ll be amazed, not only at how the drama unfolds, but how
chapter four takes us
another
step closer to the further unsealing of final end-time mysteries.
DANIEL
4:1-3
Nebuchadnezzar
the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth;
Peace
be multiplied unto you.
I
thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought
toward me.
How
great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom,
and
his dominion is from generation to generation.
After
the events in this chapter occurred, an apparently docile King Nebuchadnezzar
issued a proclamation
declaring
he had finally learned his lesson: that indeed the most high God was in control
of a
realm
greater than his own, a Kingdom that will last eternally, dominating earthly
powers for generations
to
come. This decree was written by the king himself, his regal attempt to tell an
entire nation of
the
great God he had now come to honor and respect.
Nebuchadnezzar’s
Dream
I
Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace:
I
saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions
of my head
troubled
me.
Therefore
made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they
might
make
known unto me the interpretation of the dream.
Then
came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers: and
I told the
dream
before them; but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof.
But
at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to
the name
of
my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the
dream, saying,
0
Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the
holy gods is in thee,
and
no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and
the interpretation
thereof
Thus
were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst
of the earth,
and
the height thereof was great.
The
tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the
sight thereof
to
the end of all the earth:
The
leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for
all: the beasts of
the
field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs
thereof and all
flesh
was fed of it.
I
saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy
one came down
from
heaven;
He
cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake
off his leaves,
and
scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his
branches:
Nevertheless
leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass,
in the
tender
grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his
portion be with
the
beasts in the grass of the earth:
Let
his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him;
and let seven
times
pass over him.
This
matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy
ones: to the
intent
that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and
giveth it to
whomsoever
he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.
This
dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now thou, O Belteshazzar, declare the
interpretation
thereof
forasmuch as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known unto
me
the interpretation: but thou art able; for the spirit of the holy gods is in
thee.
We
have now arrived at the latter half of the king’s reign, and some twenty-three
years have passed
between
chapters three and four. Nebuchadnezzar has been a successful warrior abroad for
most of
his
career, and he is now spending the remainder of his life in relative ease at his
palace in Babylon.
Chapter
four could probably be called Nebuchadnezzar’s spiritual biography. But just
as leopards are
not
known for changing their spots, so the king remained a proud man and would later
have to pay
the
price for forcing his subjects to worship his great gold image on the plain of
Dura a generation
earlier.
The score would soon be evened, as we shall see as the drama of this chapter
unfolds.
Daniel-Consistent
in Courage
Once
again, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that caused him great anxiety. By now, he
seemed
convinced
that the old guard of magicians, astrologers, and wise men would not have the
necessary
skills
to interpret his latest dream, so he brought in a new group of seers, “all the
wise men of
Babylon,”
not just those from the palace. This time, he didn’t play games by asking them
to tell him
his
dream and give him the interpretation. He told them the dream immediately.
Still, even the wisest
in
the realm were at a complete loss for an interpretation.
I’ve
always wondered why he didn’t bring Daniel in immediately instead of going
through the frustration
of
working with supposed wise men who never seemed to be able to deliver.
Eventually, Daniel
(Belteshazzar)
was brought before the king, taken away momentarily from his busy life as judge
and
prime
minister of the realm. Nebuchadnezzar now knew that only a supernatural being
could interpret
his
latest anxiety-ridden dream, and he seemed confident that Daniel was the man to
give him the
answers
he needed.
Trees
= Power
As
described in the passage above, the king’s latest dream was about a luxuriant
tree of great height,
with
branches heavy with enough fruit to sustain the lives of many. But then a holy
“watcher” descended
from
heaven and commanded that the tree be cut down, leaving only a stump in the
ground.
To
a king who was already paranoid about losing his kingdom, this dream was one
more in a painful
series
that indicated neither time nor the God of the Hebrews was on his side. Let’s
look at this dream
and
its various components as they relate both to biblical symbolism and to final
end-time mysteries.
Throughout
the Word of God, trees represent kingdoms and powers. Two examples:
The
cedar tree usually refers to the nation of Lebanon (1 Kings 4:33) and
The
fig tree speaks of Israel (Joel 1:7; Hosea 9:10; Matthew 24:32).
Nebuchadnezzar
did not know it at the time, but the great tree that reached to heaven
represented
him
and his vast empire. Babylon was a powerful tree, a mighty kingdom that had
refused to bow its
head
to anything but a lifeless Marduk and the other Babylonian gods. But it was an
abusive power,
filled
with the pride of an arrogant king who had crafted a golden image and made his
subjects bow to
it.
Because of the king’s arrogance, God would cut the tree representing
Nebuchadnezzar’s great
power
to the ground, but enough would remain (the stump) to indicate that it was still
alive enough to
undergo
seven years of testing, a graphic picture of the seven-year Tribulation hour, a
time we are
rapidly
approaching.
Twenty-One
Judgments
During
those seven years of trouble, according to the dream, the king would be stricken
down. He
crawled
about on his hands and knees, disheveled, a mad monarch forced to eat grass as
an animal.
His
hair probably grew to where it touched his back. His fingernails were like bird
claws.
There
was a time when skeptics argued that such a situation was not plausible. Raymond
Harrison
recited
a personal experience with a modern case similar to that of Nebuchadnezzar,
which he observed
in
a British mental institution in 1946. He found a man who was mentally deranged,
had claws
like
a bird, with matted hair hanging all the way to his feet. Furthermore, the
man’s diet was grass,
which
he ate while crawling on all fours. The disease was given a name: Boanthropy, or
Zoanthropy.
Medical
records prove this malady does, in fact, exist, and is the same disease, or the
equivalent,
that
Nebuchadnezzar experienced in his dream and life. This state of mental
derangement would last
for
seven years, representing the duration of the Tribulation, that terrible time on
earth when millions
who
insist on honoring a false god will go through judgments destined to inundate
the world.
How
many judgments will there be during these perilous days? Twenty-one! Each of
them is listed in
Revelation
chapters six to eighteen.
Here
are just a few: Revelation 6:2 says the Antichrist appears on a white horse;
verses 4 to 8 tell us
there
will be three other riders. The red horse depicts peace being removed from the
earth with the
cataclysmic
judgments of war annihilating one-third of the world’s inhabitants; verse 5
says the rider
on
a black horse causes mass starvation; and verse 8 gives us the dramatic picture
of a rider on a
pale
horse that causes myriads of diseases, eliminating another one-fourth of the
human race; in
verse
9, we see yet another judgment, where millions are slaughtered for honoring the
name of God
and
for declaring their allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ; verse 12 speaks of the
judgments in the
heavens:
“And
I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great
earthquake; and
the
sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.”
The
judgment described in Revelation 8:1 is so terrible that it unleashes the other
fourteen judgments,
causing
an unusual silence in heaven for about the space of half an hour.
The
angels, knowing what is coming, are so stunned as they contemplate the future
that there is a
holy
hush in the presence of God. This day is rapidly approaching, and the Book of
Daniel is the
prophecy
through which these end-time mysteries are now being unsealed. In chapter two,
we saw
the
future kingdoms clearly delineated, and now we know that most of Daniel’s
prophecy has already
happened.
There is only one part of the prophecy yet to come: the stone smashing the feet
of the
image-
Christ’s glorious return to establish His millennial reign for one thousand
years upon the earth
(Revelation
20:4).
This
is all going to take place soon. But before it does, there will be the
Tribulation period, pictured by
the
example of a mentally deranged, animal-like king, who crawls on the ground
eating grass for
seven
years. Once again, a desperate king turns to his foreign friend and counselor
for the interpretation
of
his dream. And again, what Daniel is about to tell the king is not good news.
But Daniel remains
courageous,
refusing to dodge the issue. God has given Daniel the interpretation, and he is
prepared
to speak the mind of God freely before King Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel’s
Response to the Dream
Then
Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonied for one hour, and his thoughts
troubled
him. The king spake, and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream, or the
interpretation
thereof,
trouble thee. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream be to them that
hate
thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies.
Even
though Daniel had been given divine truth directly from God, it still was not
easy for him to
express
those thoughts to the king. He stood there astonished, virtually unable to speak
for one hour.
Then
we see a small crack in the king’s pride as Nebuchadnezzar becomes
compassionate toward
Daniel,
telling him not to let the dream or its interpretation get him down. The king
seems to be stiffening
his
upper lip; since he’s been in a similar situation before with Daniel, he’s
probably gearing
himself
up to hear an interpretation that may not be favorable.
Essentially
Daniel says, “O, king, I’ve got bad news for you.” It’s always difficult
to bring bad tidings to
a
friend or a colleague, and Daniel, a trusted servant of the king, must have felt
great pain in his own
heart.
Yet, he remained courageous and spoke the Word of God, even though it was a
terrible confirmation
of
what God would do.
Speaking
the Truth in Love
Comfortable
or not, it is always the role of the believer to speak the truth in love. Just
as a doctor is
obliged
to cut out a cancer if he is to fulfill his role of worthy physician, so we are
compelled to speak
the
truth of God’s Word with compassion. God says that we must warn people of the
wrath to come,
or
their blood will be on our hands. It’s the same message Paul communicated to
young Timothy in 2
Timothy
4:2:
“Preach
the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
longsuffering
and doctrine.”
This
is what Daniel did once again. The prophet of God was not afraid. He had been
given a message
from
God, and he would deliver it. Daniel was prepared to stand firm in his
convictions. Even in
a
direct one-on-one situation with the king, Daniel did not hesitate to say,
“Thus saith the Lord.”
Daniel’s
Interpretation of the King’s Dream
The
tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the
heaven,
and the sight thereof to all the earth;
Whose
leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under
which the
beasts
of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their
habitation:
It
is thou, O King, that art grown and become strong; for thy greatness is grown,
and reacheth
unto
heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.
And
whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and
saying,
Hew
the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the
earth, even
with
a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet
with the dew of
heaven,
and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven time pass over
him.
This
is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is
come upon
my
lord the king.
That
they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the
field. And
they
shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of
heaven,
and
seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in
the kingdom of
men,
and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
And
whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall
be sure
unto
thee, after that thou shalt have know that the heavens do rule.
Wherefore,
O king, let my counsel be acceptable into thee, and break off thy sins by
righteousness,
and
thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy
tranquility.
The
first piece of discomforting news for Nebuchadnezzar was that he was, in fact,
the tree. It was a
big,
strong, sturdy tree, providing food and sustenance for all, seemingly
invincible. But Daniel’s
message
was that this power could not last forever, a recurring theme, and one you’d
think would
now
be settling deep into the king’s heart. As the tree in the dream,
Nebuchadnezzar would literally
be
“cut down to size,” with only a stump remaining: alive but ineffective. He
would one day be revived,
but
only after a terrible mental sickness had afflicted him.
Here
I must submit that God is not only a God of irony, but also one of considerable
humor. You’ll
recall
the passage where Nebuchadnezzar determined to make his great image all gold
because he
believed
that nobody was ever going to defeat him. When he made that decision, he
essentially was
saying
to Daniel, “Look Daniel, I really don’t care what you told me about all that
gold, silver, bronze,
and
clay . . . my statue is going to be all gold. Period!”
So
what does God do as He gives Daniel the interpretation of the tree dream? He
says, “By the way,
King,
I want you to notice something about this tree- which is you. There are a couple
of things on the
bottom
you need to know about, like a little band of brass and iron!” I have a
feeling this irony was not
lost
on the king as he probably said to himself, “Come on, not that brass and iron
stuff again!” God
was
saying, through Daniel, “King, the secret I’ve revealed to Daniel, which you
accepted at the time,
is
going to happen; whether you like it or not, the ‘ brass and iron’ are still
major players in your ultimate
demise.”
The
“Watchers” Among Us-Today!
And
who was telling the king about his future? The “ watcher” and the “holy
one”, angels, sent to do
the
bidding of their Father. These watchers see all and tell all to God. They are
all around. They
protect
you, and they protect me. You’ll remember when Jesus was on earth He said, “Thinkest
thou
that
I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more than twelve
legions of
angels?”
(Matthew 26:53).A legion in the Roman army consisted of a group totaling seven
thousand
soldiers.
Hence, twelve times seven thousand, or eighty-four thousand angels, would appear
instantaneously
at
the word of Jesus Christ if He requested help.
These
were angels who would come from the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2).
That’s so far into
space
it’s mind-boggling. However, here’s an attempt to describe the third heaven
and the distance
God’s
elect angels travel, coming from that location to earth. The atmosphere,
troposphere, stratosphere,
mesosphere,
ionosphere, and exosphere are all part of the first heaven and reach upwards
into
the first six hundred miles of space. The second heaven begins at that point and
is so astronomical
that
it’s practically impossible to comprehend.
Recently
astronomers discovered a new quasar some fourteen hundred billion light years
from earth.
How
far is that, you ask? Well, light travels at the rate of 186,000 miles per
second. This produces a
total
of six trillion miles annually and is called a light year. Thus, the second
heaven extends upwards
into
space some fourteen hundred billion times six trillion miles. Beyond that is the
third heaven, the
heaven
of heavens, God’s throne. It’s from this seemingly immeasurable distance
that these “watchers”
and
“holy ones” brought Nebuchadnezzar his message of doom in the dream.
When
we read a detailed history of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, we see how proud the
king was of his
great
accomplishments, among them a nation he had fashioned into a peaceful shelter
and granary
for
all, full of nutritional abundance. Because of his superb administrative
abilities, no one in Babylon
would
go hungry. Now that great tree of plenty would be destroyed.., and there, again,
was this annoying
little
band of brass and iron.
Here’s
an interesting footnote of history. Nebuchadnezzar often took his military
campaigns into the
great
forests and woods of Lebanon and had become infatuated by the great cedars
there. We also
read
that the king so loved the cedars of Lebanon that he cut many of them down with
his own
hands.
Now that which the king loved would be cut to a mere stump in the ground,
meaning that he
would
soon be removed from office and forced to live away from the palace as a
mentally incompetent
vagabond,
scratching the earth for food as an animal. How long would he be forced to live
like
this?
Until he acknowledged that the true God in heaven was sovereign ruler over the
kingdoms of
earth.
An
Invitation Is Extended
As
any good preacher would do after a powerful sermon or illustration, Daniel gave
his friend the king
an
opportunity to repent of his evil ways. Up to that time, Nebuchadnezzar had been
immensely cruel
to
thousands of his subjects, especially during his massive building campaigns
(Habakkuk 2:11-13).
So,
Daniel did not flinch on his interpretation of the dream. There would be no
promise that the king
would
escape from the wrath to come. But Daniel did indicate that perhaps, just maybe,
almighty God
might
extend the king’s era of tranquility if he would repent of his terrible acts
of oppression, engage
in
acts of righteousness, and demonstrate a greater degree of mercy to the poor in
Babylon.
The
Realization of the Dream
Daniel
4:28 - 33
All
this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.
At
the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.
The
king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house
of the kingdom
by
the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?
While
the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, 0
king
Nebuchadnezzar,
to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.
And
they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the
field: they
shall
make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou
know
that
the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
The
same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from
men,
and
did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his
hairs were
grown
like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.
It’s
now a year later, and God has been patient with Nebuchadnezzar. Despite his
earlier bent toward
believing
in the God of the Hebrews, the king remained stubborn, pretending he was an
earthly ruler
who
would reign forever. Even as he hoped that his friend Daniel would be wrong, the
prophecy
began
to be fulfilled. At the tragic moment when the king finds himself on the verge
of a mental
breakdown,
he begins to engage in a sort of lonely soliloquy about his exploits as ruler of
Babylon.
He
was probably strolling on the roof of his palace as he spoke, grounds that
covered a six-mile area,
surveying
his great city and all that he had done to make it one of the ancient wonders.
His royal
chest
filled with pride as he boasted of accomplishments never done by others.
Yes,
he had done some amazing things and was undoubtedly the greatest kingdom builder
in ancient
times.
He had built two enormous temples and seventeen ornate religious shrines. His
Hanging
Gardens
of Babylon were without equal, something the Greeks later declared one of the
Seven
Wonders
of the World. He had constructed the famous Ishtar Gate, magnificent with its
carved bulls
and
four-legged dragons etched in high relief. With the assistance of hand-picked
engineers, he had
designed
and created amazingly intricate hydraulic systems that carried water
effortlessly up from the
Euphrates
River to his gardens high above the city-gardens that housed some of the most
exotic
plants
and trees of his day.
But
as he reveled in his kingly accomplishments, the voice from heaven finally came,
even as Daniel
had
prophesied one year earlier. It was finally over. Payday had arrived. At that
moment, the king
realized
even the best laid plans of kings and men are as dust. The mills of God may
grind slowly, but
they
grind exceedingly fine.
Surely
and firmly judgment falls when people refuse to glorify God by taking full
credit for their worldly
accomplishments.
Again, this is the scenario of the seven-year Tribulation period, a time in
history
when
the greatest sin will be committed by another king, the infamous Antichrist, who
will magnify
himself
above God (Daniel 11:36). God despises and judges such arrogance. That’s why
Proverbs
16:18
declares, “Pride
goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”
The
Message of a Frog
As
I was preparing this chapter I reminded my wife, Rexella, of a little story that
speaks straight to this
issue
of pride. Once there was a little frog sitting on the ground. He watched
forlornly as he saw the
great
birds of the sky flying overhead. Oh. if I could only fly like the eagles I would be extremely
happy,
he
thought. Well, one day, two of the eagles were on the ground. The frog
approached them,
saying,
“Say, I wonder if you two fellows would do me a favor. I’ve got this long
stick, and if you’d just
put
it in your beaks, I could hang on to it, and we could fly through space
together. I’ve always wanted
to
fly.”
The
eagles agreed to the strange request, and slowly they lifted the frog from the
comfort of his lily
pad,
up into the unfamiliar but exhilarating sky above, the frog hanging on to the
stick for dear life.
Before
long, the other frogs turned their heads skyward and in disbelief, unable to see
the stick, saw
their
little green friend ascending farther and farther into space. His friends on the
ground began to
praise
this stunt saying, “What genius thought of doing this?” The frog’s ego at
this point got the best
of
him when he shouted, “I-I-I did.” By doing so he lost his biting grip on the
stick and plunged to earth
in
a humiliating landing.
My
friend, we can do absolutely nothing on our own, no more than that frog could
fly without some
help
from his friends. All we do and have are gifts from God. So the next time you
are tempted to say,
“I
did it all on my own,” I hope you’ll remember the story of the frog, and
that you’ll then quickly recall
the
pride of Nebuchadnezzar, a man who had accomplished great feats to make a name
for himself
but
who, in the process, refused to give God the credit. As a result, he paid the
price. He fell, even as
Satan
did, through pride (I Timothy 3:6).
Nebuchadnezzar’s
Response to the Message of the “Watcher”
Daniel
4: 34 - 37
And
at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and
mine
understanding
returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him
that
liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is
from generation
to
generation:
And
all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according
to his will in
the
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his
hand, or
say
unto him,
What
doest thou?
At
the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine
honour
and
brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and
I was
established
in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar
praise
and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways
judgment:
and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
His
reason now restored after his period of derangement, King Nebuchadnezzar
swallowed his pride
and
raised his humbled eyes toward heaven. After his terrible experience as a mad
monarch scratching
out
an existence as an animal, now he was finally willing to honor the true King of
heaven. He
recognized
that all God’s works were true and that those who live out their days in pride
will be
humbled
beyond recognition.
What
brought Nebuchadnezzar to this realization? It wasn’t a miracle. When he saw
the Hebrew
children
in the fiery furnace without a hair singed or a piece of clothing carrying the
smell of smoke,
and
the fourth man in the furnace with them, and their walking out unscathed, that
didn’t make him a
believer.
In Nebuchadnezzar’s case, it took the sickness of a deranged mind to bring him
to his
senses,
and what a conversion experience he had. The truth we have seen again and again
in this
chapter
is highlighted in Paul’s writing to the church at Rome:
“But
God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the
heart that
form
of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17).
The
message? There is hope for all.
In
1 Corinthians 6:9-10, we read,
“Know
ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not
deceived:
neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves
with
mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall
inherit
the kingdom of God.”
But
praise God, the apostle doesn’t stop there. In verse 11 Paul continues,
“And
such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified in
the
name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
The
good news is always followed by even better news, that none of us needs to be
what we once
were.
There is hope for us all, just as there was hope and an opportunity for
restitution for King
Nebuchadnezzar.
Yes, he paid a great price for his transgressions, just as you and I will always
pay a
heavy
toll when we turn our backs on the foundational principles that God has
ordained. True repentance
means
turning “about face” and heading in God’s direction. When we do this, we
no longer will
want
to do the evil we once did. Now, after all the fighting, kicking, and screaming
Nebuchadnezzar
did
to distance himself from the one true God, he finally realized that he was the
problem, and that
his
own sinful pride was the issue.
It
took crawling around as an animal for seven years to make him realize that he
needed to square
himself
away with the true God. Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion changed him from the
inside out. Yes,
it’s
a great, historically accurate story. But the deeper, underlying message of
Nebuchadnezzar’s
narrative,
and his dream, is that this is all simply a precursor of the shattering events
yet to come:
seven
years of Tribulation where unbridled humans will set themselves up as New Age
gods, living
unholy,
prideful lives and worshipping seducing spirits, even when the obvious
handwriting of warning
begins
to appear on the wall, the intriguing story and subject of chapter five.
Don’t
Look Now, but There’s Something on Your Wall
DANIEL
5:1 - 4
Belshazzar
the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before
the
thousand.
Belshazzar,
whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels
which
his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem;
that the
king,
and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
Then
they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house
of God
which
was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines,
drank in
them.
They
drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of
wood, and of
stone.
Another
title for this chapter could be “The World’s Wildest Party,” hosted by
playboy millionaire
Belshazzar,
grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, and number two in command in Babylon. It was a
drunken
orgy
where the women were in abundance and the wine flowed like water, a graphic
example of “Eat,
drink,
and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” With one small correction: They would not
die tomorrow;
they
would be attacked, defeated, and murdered that very night by stealthy troops
already assembled
deep
beneath the city.
Before
we slip into the celebration to see what was really going on, let’s look at
the man Belshazzar.
Who
was he? What were his credentials? It’s important to note that for many years,
liberal interpreters
of
Holy Writ pleaded their case that there was no such person at all. Scholar
Ferdinand Hitzack,
in
1850, said that no one by the name of Belshazzar had ever existed, and therefore
the Book of
Daniel
was a farce.
However,
just four years later, J. G. Taylor was on an archeological dig in southern Iraq
where he dug
up
artifacts that contained sixty lines of cuneiform, a system of writing used for
a number of ancient
Near
Eastern languages from c. 3000 B.C. until the first century A.D. Primarily a
Mesopotamian
system,
cuneiform was inscribed on clay, stone, metal, and other hard materials. This
was a key
discovery
for Taylor and the Christian world, because one of those sixty lines of
cuneiform prayed for
the
health of Nabonidus, and his son Belshazzar.
In
1924, Sidney Smith did some excavating of his own in the region and he, too,
unearthed an artifact
that
stated Nabonidus gave the kingship to his son Belshazzar. Again, liberal Bible
scholars do not
have
a position at all. In fact, those who wish to appear foolish need only to
suggest that the Bible
has
errors in content, history, or personnel. The answers may not be immediately
observable, but the
truth
will always emerge, even as it did in the case of Belshazzar, whom some say was
a phantom.
Nabonidus
was a great military warrior, always away on a mission to add territory and
subjects to his
mighty
Babylon, and always returning with the booty and spoils of the conquered. In his
absence,
Babylon
was left in the control of his son, Belshazzar. And when the cat’s away, we
know what the
mice
do: They play and play and play, as if there were no tomorrow.
And
that’s where we pick up our story, and perhaps the wildest party ever held in
Babylon. This was
no
little soiree in a small drawing room with a few guests. The hall for the
festivities was enormous-
176
feet long and 56
feet
wide. Some of the dinners held in that room had as many as ten thousand
guests,
with the largest banquet in history having an invitation list of 69,800 people.
That’s a lot of
folks,
and I’m sure that much of the celebration had to be celebrated outdoors. This
is the enormous
physical
environment of chapter five. Big party. Big spenders. Big orgy. Big trouble!
The
problems started when young Belshazzar made the mistake of using the holy
vessels that his
grandfather
Nebuchadnezzar stole from the temple in Jerusalem. As far as we know,
Nebuchadnezzar
committed no sacrilege with these hallowed temple vessels, to his credit. But
Belshazzar?
He could not have cared less. He wanted to drink, and he didn’t care into what
kind of
cup
his servants poured the brew. Imagine the scene: Young Belshazzar is in charge
of the affairs of
state,
but tonight he figures it’s time to have a party. He goes over the guest list,
and probably says,
“Well,
with Dad out of the country on another campaign, this is my night to howl.”
And
howl he did, starting by desecrating the Jewish temple vessels-goblets that told
the story of
God’s
redemption through blood. Hebrews 9:22 says, “Without shedding of blood is no remission [of
sins].”
The Jews also believed that blood makes an atonement for sins (Leviticus 17:11).
These were
holy
utensils, not everyday cups and saucers. But Belshazzar ordered them to be
filled with booze of
all
descriptions, much to the delight of his pagan friends who drank, laughed, and
danced the night
away.
But no party lasts forever, and this one would be especially short-lived.
Belshazzar would pay
dearly
for his sacrilege.
Booze
was about to become a problem for the young ruler. Have you noticed in the age
in which you
and
I live, that liquor is no less a problem? More than half of all our automobile
accidents are alcoholrelated.
Booze
has destroyed more families than anyone can imagine. Drinking has ruined
careers,
crippled
relationships, and left otherwise sane people mentally incompetent. The warnings
about
alcohol
have been in the Bible for thousands of years, and I think it’s important to
quote a few verses
to
indicate what God thinks about the issue.
What
God Says about Strong Drink
Proverbs
20:1 says,
“Wine
is a mocker strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not
wise.”
Proverbs
23:29 reads,
“Who
hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath
wounds
without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they
that
go
to seek mixed wine.”
That’s
why Proverbs 31 commands:
“Look
not on the wine when it is red.”
Juice
was called wine. The writer of Proverbs said that when the wine turns red and
ferments, don’t
look
at it!
It’s
also the message of Proverbs 23:20,
“Be
not among wine bibbers [drinkers].”
Habakkuk
2:15 says,
“Woe
unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and
makest him
drunken
also.”
The
judgment of God is upon those who drink, upon those who get drunk, and equally,
upon those
who
serve strong drink to others to get them intoxicated. First Corinthians 6:9-10
and Galatians 5:19-
21
state that no drunkard can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he repents of this
sin and turns to
God.
Well,
with that fusillade of verses on what God thinks about wine and strong drink, we
note that
Belshazzar
was not only inebriated as he sat there on his elevated platform, surrounded by
his many
concubines
who encouraged all-night drinking bouts with the guests, but he also added
sacrilege to
indignity
by drinking his kingly brew out of precious vessels of redemption, goblets and
temple-ware
that
represented eternal salvation. To top it off, he and his guests “drank
wine, and praised the gods
of
gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone” (Daniel 5:4).During this orgy, God
was
watching
the scene from the portals of heaven, and He was not pleased.
The
Handwriting on the Wall
Daniel
5:5 - 9
In
the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the
candlestick
upon
the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the
hand that
wrote.
Then
the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the
joints of
his
loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
The
king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the
soothsayers. And the
king
spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing,
and show
me
the interpretation thereof shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of
gold about his
neck,
and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
Then
came in all the king’s wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make
known to
the
king the interpretation thereof.
Then
was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him,
and his
lords
were astonied.
What
would you have done if you’d come to the king’s palace for a night of
revelry and debauchery
and
all of a sudden God crashed your party? I have a feeling that most of the guests
were so blitzed
that
they may have thought they were seeing things. Some probably thought, “This is
cool.., look. . . a
hand
writing on the wall. This Belshazzar guy really knows how to promote magical
entertainment.
Wow,
we didn’t know we were going to have a night of illusions to accompany the
wine.”
But
Belshazzar had not arranged this particular distraction, and, apparently, he had
enough of his wits
about
him to call the party to an unceremonious halt as the disembodied hand appeared
and began
writing
a message on the plaster wall. The message was clearly written, a warning of the
judgment to
come
because of the desecration of the temple utensils designed to honor Yahweh,
the God of
heaven.
The
King James version says that “his knees smote one against another” (5:6). That means
Belshazzar
was so scared that his knees were knocking. The party was now history, and
Belshazzar
probably
wasn’t the only one who wished it had ended an hour earlier. The passage says
he was
pale.
I imagine that you and I would have turned a strong shade of white also.
So
once again, the wise men were summoned. This time, not to interpret a dream, but
to attempt to
analyze
this disembodied hand writing on the wall. I imagine the sorcerers and magicians
may have
said
among themselves, “Belshazzar’s drunk again and is only hallucinating.”
However, as the soothsayers
entered
the dining hall, they were stumped because the handwritten message was inscribed
indelibly
on the wall. Furthermore, they didn’t know how to interpret what they were
seeing. That’s
when
panic set in, that is, until the queen mother, the wife of Nebuchadnezzar
stepped forward and
reminded
Belshazzar about a man named Daniel in the kingdom who was pretty good at
figuring out
this
sort of thing.
The
Queen Mother Remembers Daniel
Daniel
5:10 - 12
Now
the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords, came into the
banquet
house:
and the queen spake and said, O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts
trouble thee,
nor
let thy countenance be changed:
There
is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days
of thy
father
light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in
him;
whom
the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of
the
magicians,
astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;
Forasmuch
as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of
dreams,
and
showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same
Daniel,
whom
the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will show the
interpretation.
The
queen mother is basically saying, “You’d better listen to Daniel because
your grandfather really
lifted
him up, respected him, and used him on more than one occasion to handle
situations like this.”
She
knew that Daniel had “the spirit of the holy gods” in and upon him and
because of it had the
answers.
Daniel was around seventeen years old when he was first brought to Babylon from
Jerusalem,
and
now he was approaching his mid-eighties.
During
this entire time in captivity he kept the power of the Holy Spirit on him, and
the queen mother
knew
it. How did Daniel keep this power upon him during his years of service in
Babylon? By spending
time
in God’s precious Book. Daniel knew the Scriptures, and remained profoundly
touched by
God’s
Word in the pagan land to which he had been brought so many years earlier.
Later, Peter
would
write in 1 Peter 2:2,
“As
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby.”
That
was Daniel’s secret then, and it is the source of our strength today as we
move swiftly to the end
of
the age and to the final unsealing of the end-time mysteries. Daniel lived on
his knees before God,
and
when one lives like that-from teenage years to becoming a senior citizen, that
person will be such
a
Spirit-filled being that even the enemies of God will sit up and take notice.
Daniel understood the
secret
of life, and therefore, whenever called on to speak God’s truth to a perverse
generation of
Babylonians,
he was ready with a fitting, and correct, word from God. Is Daniel your model
today?
Daniel
Comes before Belshazzar
Daniel
5:13 - 16
Then
was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spake and said unto Daniel,
Art thou
that
Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my
father brought
out
of Jewry?
I
have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light
and understanding
and
excellent wisdom is found in thee.
And
now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they
should read
this
writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof but they could not
show the
interpretation
of the thing:
And
I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts:
now if
thou
canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof thou
shalt be
clothed
with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third
ruler in the
kingdom.
By
now, I’m sure the party had come to a screeching halt, and I would think more
than a few of the
guests
had sobered up rather quickly. Who wouldn’t, a disembodied hand writing on a
plaster wall
has
that effect on party animals. They probably called him killjoy Daniel. But this
senior citizen was
just
as sharp and alert as the day he was spirited away from Jerusalem to Babylon
with the other
Jewish
captives. He knew who he was and Whose he was. He could not have cared less
about the
king’s
offer of a purple robe and a gold chain. What value were such temporal rewards
to him?
As
modern Christians, it seems that we often get confused on this issue. We all
like to be rewarded
for
the good things we do, often asking, How much am I going to get for doing this?
Who’s going to
notice
me if I do this good deed? But
this is not the way of Christ. Hebrews 13:5 says,
“Let
your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye
have:
for
he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
This
is the spirit we must maintain during this end-time hour, but it is not the
present spirit of
Christendom.
If one were to study any Bible concordance on adultery, fornication, or
licentiousness,
and
then look up the word covetousness,
he would
discover that immorality and materialism run neck
and
neck. They are that close in God’s sight. God hates the sin of loving money
and an obsession
with
material possessions as much as He hates the sin of immorality.
Daniel
Admonishes the Young Ruler
Daniel
5:17 - 24
Then
Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself and give
thy rewards
to
another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the
interpretation.
O
thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and
majesty, and
glory,
and honour:
And
for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled
and feared
before
him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would
he
set up; and whom he would he put down.
But
when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed
from his
kingly
throne, and they took his glory from him: And he was driven from the sons of
men; and
his
heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they
fed him with
grass
like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the
most high
God
ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.
And
thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest
all this;
But
hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the
vessels of his
house
before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk
wine in
them;
and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and
stone,
which
see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose
are all
thy
ways, hast thou not glorified:
Then
was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.
Now,
after waiting for Belshazzar to stop talking, probably babbling out of sheer
nervousness, Daniel
begins
to speak. I can see him in my mind’s eye: strong, erect, courageous, with all
of Belshazzar’s
guests
wondering what on earth is happening. This was supposed to be a fun evening at
the palace.
But
instead, it had become “sermon time,” and Daniel took advantage of his
captive audience by
talking
about his relationship with Belshazzar’s grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar. He was
giving
Belshazzar
a refresher course in the life of the former king. He pulled no punches. There
was no
revisionist
history here. Daniel told it like it was, and his poignant message was:
“Nebuchadnezzar
genuinely learned his lesson when one day he called on the only true God for
mercy.
But you, young man, have not yet gotten up to speed, and you’re going to pay
big time for
throwing
this wild orgy and for desecrating the sacred utensils set apart for temple
worship.” This was
the
sermon to an unhumbled heart, addressed to a man who was drinking out of
God-honoring vessels
to
gods that could neither see nor hear. That’s what idolatry was all about then,
and that’s what
worshipping
other gods is about today.
God
Versus the gods
King
David said in Psalm 115:4-8,
“Their
idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they
speak
not:
eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have
they, but
they
smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk
not: neither
speak
they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every
one
that
trusteth in them.”
Daniel
is saying the same thing to Belshazzar: “Look, it’s just a piece of wood
covered with some
metal.
You made it with your hands. It can’t see, hear, talk, move. . . and yet you
worship it. Won’t you
learn
from the example of your grandfather Nebuchadnezzar? He paid a terrible price,
eating grass
like
an animal and wandering around insane. But even after knowing this story, you
still remain
unconvinced
of God’s power. Because of your unbelief, you took the vessels from God’s
house and
made
a mockery of the utensils representing redemption.”
Shame
on You, Belshazzar!
I’d
call that an earful, and Belshazzar had little choice but to sit there and
listen patiently to Daniel’s
lecture.
But the prophet wasn’t finished with his scolding. He concluded by saying that
the young
ruler,
too, would pay a dreadful price for his wicked, reprehensible deeds, because God
promises to
bring
every work into judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
Daniel
Interprets the Handwriting
Daniel
5:25 - 28
And
this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
This
is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and
finished it.
TEKEL;
Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
PERES;
Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
Take
another snapshot of the occasion. The party revelers have slowed down. No more
dancing or
drinking
at the moment. The orchestra has played its last tune, and the cavernous hall is
now silent
as
Belshazzar and his guests wait for Daniel’s interpretation of the words
written on the wall by a
disembodied
hand, words which in Aramaic appeared as Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.
The
reason for repeating the word Mene,”your days are numbered” is that the
Medes and the Persians
were,
at that very moment, waiting to make their move into the city to subdue it, so
there was a
Mene
for each
one, one for the Medes, and one for the Persians. They were already assembling
beneath
the city walls, gathering for the attack, just as God predicted the event on a
plaster wall for
all
at the party to see.
Then
Daniel turned to the word Tekel meaning “you are weighed in the balances, and
are found
wanting.”
Belshazzar was lacking in everything: in morals, in integrity, and in the fear
of God. He had
done
nothing to honor or glorify the one true God. Here, God engages in the kind of
irony He so often
has
used in the Book of Daniel by changing the word Upharsin to Peres just a few vowels away from
the
word Persia. He said that not only will the kingdom of Belshazzar be divided,
but right at this
moment,
one of those enemies, Persia, was but a spear’s throw away.
While
the foolish young ruler and his irreverent guests had been drinking themselves
into oblivion,
the
“predicted ones” were almost in the hall, weapons poised to murder the brash
young ruler.
Belshazzar’s
Response
Daniel
5:29 - 31
Then
commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of
gold
about
his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third
ruler in
the
kingdom.
In
that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
And
Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.
It
was a Babylonian Pearl Harbor. A sneak attack. Just as American soldiers would
be ill-prepared on
that
fateful day in Honolulu on December 7, 1941, so great a devastation was about to
come to
Babylon.
How the two great armies made their way into the city is a military stratagem
worthy of
explanation.
Here’s
how the Medes and Persians won the day. Babylon was built on the Euphrates
River, with a
huge
wall-like fort surrounding it. It was so formidable that no one could scale it.
To ensure even
greater
security, the moats around the walls were filled with water, so enemies would
have to swim
across
and through those deep waters if they were to have any chance at approaching the
city wall.
With
these precautions firmly in place, the Babylonians lived with a strong sense of
security. But they
didn’t
count on the military cunning of the Medes and the Persians under their rulers,
Darius and
Cyrus.
The two enemies of Babylon put their heads together and figured out a way to
enter and
capture
the city.
First,
they blocked off the flow of the Euphrates River until the water around the city
dried up. They
then
waited until the moat was dry, stepped into it, dug a trench under the wall, and
in full battle gear
marched
through the underground canals into the city while Belshazzar’s orgy was in
full swing. It
was
an enormous military success. That night only moments after the handwriting had
appeared on
the
plaster wall the troops entered the hall and killed Belshazzar.
This
story has given rise to some compelling verse by an unknown poet who has
written:
Babylon
Pause
in this desert! Here, men say, of old
Belshazzar
reigned, and drank from cups of gold
Here,
to his hideous idols, bowed the slave,
And
here - God struck him dead!
Where
lies his grave?
’Tis
lost! - His brazen gates? His soaring towers?
From
whose dark tops men watch the starry hours?
All
to the dust gone down! The desert bare
Scarce
yields an echo when we question “Where?”
The
lonely herdsman seeks in vain the spot;
And
the black wandering Arab knows it not.
No
brick, no fragment, lingers now, to tell
Where
Babylon (mighty city!) rose and fell
O
city, vast and old!
Where,
where is thy grandeur fled?
The
stream that around thee rolled
Still
rolls in its ancient bed!
But
where, oh where art thou gone?
O
Babylon! O Babylon!
The
giant, when he dies,
Still
leaveth his bones behind,
To
shrink in the winter skies,
And
whiten beneath the wind!
But
where, oh where are thou gone?
O
Babylon! O Babylon!
Tho
liv’st - for thy name still glows
A
light in the desert skies;
As
the fame of the hero grows
Thrice
trebled because he died!
But
where, oh where art thou gone?
O
Babylon! O Babylon!
Before
the attack, Daniel was rewarded with his promised clothes of scarlet and gold
jewelry, but
Belshazzar
had little time to enjoy the presentation. God’s judgment on the wickedness of
the young
ruler
was swift and complete, and Darius the Mede took the kingdom at sixty-two years
of age. It was
the
end of an era as Daniel had prophesied years before to Belshazzar’s
grandfather.
But
our story is not yet half told. There is still more excitement and palace
intrigue to come as we see
a
devilish plot developing to destroy Daniel, even as he continues to pray
fearlessly at his open
window
to the God of the Hebrews. Daniel, courageous under any Babylonian
administration, remained
brave
and in full compliance with the laws of his God, even when it meant being thrown
unjustly
into a den of hungry lions. This kind of spiritual courage eventually led him to
the ultimate in
prosperity,
the engaging subject of chapter six.
Preferred
above Princes__But not without Lions
Daniel
6:1 - 3
It
pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which
should be
over
the whole kingdom;
And
over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first; that the princes might
give accounts
unto
them, and the king should have no damage.
Then
this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent
spirit
was
in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.
Recently,
I was telling a friend that I was going to do a major exposition on the Book of
Daniel, and he
said,
“Oh, that’s about Daniel in the lion’s den.” I replied, “Yes, but
there’s much more to the book
than
that.” It appears that just about everyone knows this story. Unfortunately,
for many, that’s all they
know
about this mysterious book that provides information on multiplied end-time
events that only
now,
in our generation, are being unsealed something we’ll investigate in greater
depth when analyzing
chapters
seven through twelve.
But
we’re getting a bit ahead of our story. First, some background. Daniel had now
served under six
administrations
as a faithful, wise, competent counselor all the more remarkable since he was a
Jew,
a
member of that reluctant group of captives brought from Jerusalem to Babylon,
and one who never
really
fit into this foreign culture. Daniel was a survivor because God gave him the
strength and the
courage
to stand up for his faith. And now, in chapter six, we’re going to see that
strength tested once
again.
For
anyone to serve six political administrations is a tremendous feat. That’s one
of many reasons I
admire
Dr. Billy Graham and the enormous respect he has earned as counselor and friend
to so
many
United States presidents. That’s a long, impressive history of relationships
with our nation’s top
leaders.
It was also a long time for Daniel.
For
this man of God it had all started with the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who
ultimately lost his kingdom
when
Babylon was handed over to the Medes and the Persians that fateful night when
Beishazzar
was preoccupied with wine, women, and song. Then the handwriting began to appear
on
the
wall and the Medo-Persian conquest occurred as the new leaders immediately
executed three
thousand
political prisoners, including all of Babylon’s princes and presidents.
However,
as you’ll recall, at the last moment of his life, Belshazzar made Daniel the
third in command.
Imagine
this scenario if you were Darius or Cyrus, leaders of the Medes and the
Persians: You
conquer
a nation, rape and pillage virtually everyone and everything in sight, you kill
all the country’s
key
leaders yet despite your best efforts at assuming complete control, there is
still this person,
Daniel,
who is number three in the kingdom and who seemingly can’t be eliminated. Why
wasn’t he
killed
with the others? Why was Daniel, of all people, left to survive and to become a
nuisance to the
new
administration?
The
only answer I can give is that God always sets up those He wants elevated. God
had a plan for
Daniel’s
life, and now even the new kings Darius and Cyrus find themselves appreciating
Daniel and
his
administrative abilities, so much so that they make him a president in their
kingdom. So, Daniel
was
one of the three appointed heads of state, at eighty-five years of age.
Daniel
6:4 - 9
Then
the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the
kingdom;
but
they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither
was
there
any error or fault found in him.
Then
said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we
find it
against
him concerning the law of his God
Then
these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto
him,
King
Darius, live forever,
All
the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counselors,
and the
captains,
have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree,
that
whosoever
shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, o king, he
shall
be
cast into the den of lions.
Now,
O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed,
according to
the
law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.
Wherefore
king Darius signed the writing and the decree.
In
actions that demonstrated the depth of their anti-Semitism, the Gentile
administrators compelled to
work
with Daniel were determined to find a way to put this man down once and for all.
How could they
tolerate
the presence of a Jew in such a high position one greater than their own? That
was the rub.
So
they pulled Daniel’s file. I can just see them scouring the official records
looking for just one act of
impropriety,
for some minute administrative error.
Perhaps
they’d find that some unaccounted for, under-the-table money had changed
hands. Perhaps
Daniel
had been derelict in his duties earlier on, but no one had caught the mistake.
They searched
to
the point of exhaustion, only to end their quest unsuccessfully. As much as they
hated to admit it,
Daniel
was apparently as good as everyone said he was.
The
only thing they could find wrong with him was that he served God. What a
marvelous indictment,
and
would it not be wonderful if our detractors were to say the same thing about you
and me? But it
will
only be said about us as we remain people of the Book who live on our knees in
devoted worship
to
our heavenly Father. It’s what Luke says as he reminds us of the words of
Jesus,
“And
he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not
to faint”
(Luke
18:1).
That’s
our choice: We can either pray or faint. It’s either one or the other, and
Daniel never stopped
praying.
Because of this, his fellow administrators figured they’d finally discovered
the smoking gun
they
were looking for, and that’s when their treachery began. Today we might call
it “bootlicking”
cozying
up to someone from whom we might want a favor or some special arrangement. This
is what
Daniel’s
“friends” did by going to Darius with their newly hatched scheme to catch
Daniel in the act of
praying.
It’s important to realize that it was not just a few who plotted against
Daniel.
Remember,
there were 120 princes and three presidents, the first of whom was Daniel. That
means
there
were 122 government servants under the Medes and the Persians who had turned
against
Daniel.
The vote was 122 to 1. How could any politician survive those odds? And it all
started with a
vile,
dirty little sin called jealousy. You might say, Well, I don’t go out and get
drunk; I don’t commit
adultery;
I don’t steal; I have never murdered a person... but if your heart is filled
with envy, that notso-
small
sin will remove you from the presence of God eternally unless repentance occurs.
Galatians
5:19-21
reads,
“Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness,
lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies,
Envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before,
as
I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom
of
God.”
God’s
Word is constantly reminding us to check out our hearts, and find out if we are
envious of the
position,
wealth, or appearance of others. Daniel didn’t compare himself with the Smiths
and the
Joneses
of his day, and neither should we. Daniel had higher goals, and his message to
us is that if
we
are to truly know God, we, too, must have goals and objectives that reflect our
love for the Savior.
Meanwhile,
Daniel’s enemies got their way as they pushed through a decree that promised a
den
filled
with lions for those who worshipped any god other than the king. What a
fool-proof idea.
Finally,
they would get this Jew who had been elevated to such a lofty position of
leadership. Yes, a
den
of lions. That would surely do it. Not even a praying Daniel could extricate
himself from those
hungry
beasts. Something else: They reminded the king that when a decree is signed, it
is an irrevocable
law
of the Medes and the Persians. The king knew this, but because of the pressure
of virtually
his
entire administrative staff, he complied with their wishes, signing the document
on the spot.
Daniel
6:10 - 15
Now
when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his
windows
being
open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a
day,
and
prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.
Then
these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his
God.
Then
thy came near and spake before the king concerning the king’s decree; Hast
thou not
signed
a decree, that every man that shall ask a petition of and God or man within
thirty days,
save
of thee O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said,
The thing
is
true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.
Then
answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, which is of the children of
captivity
of
Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, not the decree that thou hast signed, but
maketh his
petition
three times a day.
Then
the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set
his
heart
on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored till the going down of the sun to
deliver him.
Then
these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that
the law
of
the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king
establisheth may be
changed.
These
verses are a mini-treatise of what true friendship is all about, even though it
may seem to be
expressed
in a context we might not expect. Here is a powerful king, Darius, who has
signed a decree
under
considerable duress, now only to be made aware that his friend, counselor, and
confidant,
Daniel,
has been “caught in the act” of praying to the God of the Hebrews. I’ve
seen some Christians
“scratch
their eyebrows” as they bowed their heads and intoned a quick prayer in a
restaurant, hoping
that
no one would see them praying before eating their food. Not Daniel. No secretive
scratching of
Jewish
eyebrows for this saint of God.
Daniel
knew the decree had been signed, and that his life was on the line. Yet, he
continued to pray
three
times a day, as was the Jewish custom, and not just pray, but pray before an
open window! He
wanted
everyone to know what he was doing and to whom he gave his allegiance as he
bowed his
head
humbly toward Jerusalem, not toward, the headquarters of the Medes and the
Persians.
Matthew
10:32-33 reminds us that,
“Whosoever
therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father
which
is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny
before my
Father
which is in heaven.”
It
was true in Daniel’s day, and it is true in ours. God doesn’t put much stock
in would-be believers
who
quietly “scratch their eyebrows” for fear of being caught in the act of
praying.
Later,
Jesus added,
“Whosoever
therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation;
of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his
Father
with the holy angels”
(Mark 8:38).
While
the first six chapters of Daniel are more historical and devotional, do not
forget that the essential
content
of Daniel seen more graphically in the last six chapters is about the return of
Messiah, the
coming
again of Christ, a moment in time when Jesus will remind us that if we have been
ashamed of
Him,
He will be ashamed of us. It cuts both ways.
The
crown hangs forever heavy on the head of any ruler, and this night the head of
Darius was heavy
indeed.
He realized he’d been tricked by his own staff just so they could get their
man. The problem
was
that their man was also Darius’s man but for completely different reasons.
Darius loved Daniel. It
didn’t
matter that Daniel was a Jew in exile, that he was well up in years, or that he
continued to
worship
the God of Father Abraham. Daniel was his friend, and Darius loved him.
But
now his friend was about to be thrown into a den of lions and it was all his
fault. Love, real love,
seeks
to overrule even the strictest, most binding decree. But, in this case, not even
Darius’s friendship
with
Daniel would be enough to save the day or the man. He had signed the
proclamation. He
had
bowed to the pressure of putting himself in a position to be worshipped. Now, he
would pay the
consequence
by losing his dear friend.
That
evening, the kingly head tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Darius wished he
could undo his
terrible
decree, but it was a law that could not be altered. An eighty-five-year-old
saint and friend was
about
to be devoured by hungry lions, and that’s all Darius could think about
throughout the long,
painful
night.
Daniel
6:16 - 18
Then
the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions.
Now
the
king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God who thou servest continually, he will
deliver
thee.
And
a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it
with his
own
signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed
concerning
Daniel.
Then
the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting, neither were
instruments of
music
brought before him; and sleep went from him.
Darius
found himself between a rock and a hard place. He had to do the deed, and Daniel
was
brought
to what all assumed would be his imminent death. But note what the king said in
verse 16,
“Thy
God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.” What a vote of confidence for Daniel.
Darius
was rooting for his friend Daniel and was praying that his God would see him
through the
disastrous
ordeal. But would it be enough to spare Daniel the pain and physical destruction
of his
body?
Many
people have asked me, “Why did Darius use a lion’s den when the fiery
furnace was still in
existence?”
This is because the Babylonians the former rulers made it their practice to use
a furnace
as
the primary vehicle to execute dissidents and enemies, as they’d attempted to
do with the three
Hebrew
children. But now, under a new administration the Medes and the Persians this
was not the
appropriate
means of execution. Here’s the reason.
The
Medes and the Persians gave their allegiance to a religion called
Zoroastrianism, and they worshipped
the
fire god, Atar. For them to use fire to execute their enemies would be to
desecrate their
teachings,
putting them on the verge of religious sacrilege. Their alternative to fire was
a large den of
ravenously
hungry lions, not the cage of sleepy beasts we might see lying about when we
visit the
lion
section of a local zoo. This lion’s den was an immense square cavern carved
out of the ground to
about
the size of a large home. In the middle of the cavern was a partition with
doors.
From
above, the workers could manipulate the doors to make them open and close. When
they
wanted
to clean the den, they would jump down on the one side in safety because the
lions were held
back
by the partition. When they wanted to throw raw meat or their screaming enemies
to the hungry
beasts,
they would do just the opposite. Now, it was Daniel’s turn to be lowered to
the floor of the
cavern
below. The lions were hungry, pawing at the partition, ready to eat whatever
would be placed
on
the other side of the door. We can only surmise what was in Daniel’s mind as
he waited for the
panel
to open.
With
the stone on the den now firmly in place sealed by the king and then again by
his officials the
drama
was ready to unfold. Apparently Darius did not choose to see what he feared
might be the
inevitable.
Instead, he returned to his palace where he spent yet another sleepless night.
The usual
dancing
girls, animated orchestra, rich foods, and night of revelry were canceled.
Instead, Darius
fasted
praying, in his own way, for the God of the Hebrews to put His cloak of
protection around his
friend.
I’m
OK, O King.
Daniel
6:19 - 23
Then
the king arose very early in the morning, and went in hast unto the den of
lions.
And
when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel; and the
king
spake
and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou
servest
continually,
able to deliver thee from the lions?
Then
said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever.
My
God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouth, that they have not
hurt me:
foreasmuch
as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I
done
no hurt.
Then
was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel
up
out
of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was
found upon
him,
because he believed in his God.
Perhaps
you’ve had a loved one who was sent to the hospital emergency ward. You prayed
all night
for
his or her recovery. But you’ve received no word. All night you wondered,
worried, and prayed for
the
one you loved. Then, early the next morning, you jumped into your car and rushed
to the hospital
to
check on the person for whom you cared so much.
Well,
that’s how Darius must have felt when he rose from his bed at the breaking of
dawn the next
morning.
He didn’t stay around for his usual bath or breakfast, or to be waited on by
his servants. He
had
only one objective: to go to the lion’s den and check on the condition of his
friend. I can almost
feel
his heavy breathing as he made the trek from his sleeping chamber to the large
cavern where the
lions
were kept. Would Daniel be alive? Or would there only be a few scraps of bones?
When
he arrived at the den, his voice cracked and trembled as he cried out, “Daniel,
O Daniel, servant
of
the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee
from the lions?”
The
time between the king’s cry and Daniel’s response must have seemed like an
eternity to Darius.
Then,
the king heard what he wanted to hear, what any friend wants to hear about a
friend in trouble
that
he was all right. The score was:
Daniel-1
Lions-0
It’s
no accident that the writer of the Book of Hebrews would later write about this
victorious deliverance
when
he stated: “Who
through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises,
stopped
the mouths of lions”
(Hebrews 11:33). God had indeed paralyzed the mouths of what
may
have been as many as two hundred hungry lions, and Daniel’s life was spared.
Picture the
scene:
A king and his friend are reunited, as Daniel is pulled back up through the
opening in the
cavern.
The prayers of both men were heard as God again venerated Daniel’s loyalty,
faith, and
allegiance.
Keep
the Lions Handy - and Hungry
Daniel
6:24
And
the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and
they
cast
them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions
had the
mastery
of them, and brake their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the
den.
The
wheels of justice moved swiftly that day as the king commanded that all 120
princes, two presidents,
and
their families be rounded up and brought to the cavern. The law of the Medes and
Persians
stated
that whatever punishment was meted out to a leader, his family would also
experience.
So
if we consider an average family of the day to be four persons, there could have
been as many as
five
hundred individuals dropped through the ceiling into the lion’s den, where the
beasts thwarted
from
having a good meal the night before, ripped their prey to shreds. Some, in fact,
were killed midair
since
the verse says,
“the
lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they
came at the
bottom
of the den”
(6:24).
No
more would Darius be subjected to their jealousy and rage. The punishment
they’d designed for
Daniel
was now their own undoing. By also killing his leaders’ families, the king had
eliminated the
possibility
of reprisals, and even potential assassination attempts on himself.
These
were not toothless lions as some have suggested. They were the same beasts that
had simply
skipped
a meal to be used to destroy the jealousy-filled conspirators against God’s
prophet. The
message
of this passage? Be careful not to attack the prophets of God, God’s duly
ordained ministers.
Psalm
105:15 says,
“Touch
not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”
It
is your duty and mine to obey God, and to give honor and respect to those who
declare the word of
truth.
Some of today’s “lions” waiting to devour God’s servants may not be of
the four legged variety,
but
they, too, will surely pay the price if they demonstrate by their actions that
they are failing to live in
obedience
to God’s warning about His servants.
A
New Proclamation Is Issued
Daniel
6:25 - 28
Then
king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the
earth;
Peace
be multiplied unto you.
I
make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before
the God
of
Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that
which shall not
be
destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.
He
delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in
earth, who
hath
delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.
So
this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the
Persian.
Zoroaster
and Atar, the god of fire, could not do the job. The lions couldn’t do what
the enemy had set
them
up to do.
Treachery
born of avarice had not won the day. It was the living God who again stepped in
and reminded
the
Gentile establishment that enough was enough. I’ve always wondered why Darius
did not
fall
on his knees and get converted right there on the spot. Perhaps he did, and we
just do not have
the
written account. But I have a sneaking suspicion that as he made his decree for
all his subjects to
serve
Daniel’s God, in his heart he may have said, “My beloved Daniel, I want your
God. I want a God
in
my life who can paralyze the mouths of two hundred hungry lions. I want a God to
do what
Zoroaster
and Atar cannot do. I want a God who is faithful and true, and not subject to
human whim.
Have
you ever been there? Where all your best laid plans, investments, manipulation
of people and
events
have simply not given you what you really wanted from life? I’m sure we’ve
all had those
experiences.
That’s why we must remember that there comes a time when only the Holy Spirit
can do
the
job. Jesus said, in John 6:44,
“No
man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.”
This
is one of the key messages of this chapter. You see, this is more than simply a
story about
Daniel
in a den of hungry lions. It’s a narrative of God’s enormous power, great
love, compassionate
mercy,
overwhelming friendship, and the timeless reality that He will always have the
last word in
every
situation lions present or not. These first six chapters are prologue to the
great prophecies yet
to
come simply reminders that earthly kingdoms will always come and go, but the
kingdom of God is
an
eternal one, the warm-up message for what we will now begin to analyze in
chapters seven
through
twelve, the prophetic portion of the Book of Daniel.
Note
to the reader: As we prepare our hearts to hear the message of God in chapters
seven through
twelve,
it’s important to remember that Daniel often spoke of visions and dreams that
he encountered
later
in his life. Some he received prior to the events of chapters five and six; at
least one was received
later.
Daniel
7:1-14
In
the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of
his head
upon
his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.
Daniel
spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the
heaven
strove
upon the great sea.
And
four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
The
first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof
were plucked,
and
it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a
man’s heart
was
given to it.
And
behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one
side, and it
had
three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto
it, Arise, devour
much
flesh.
After
this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it
four wings of a
fowl;
the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
After
this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and
terrible, and strong
exceedingly;
and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the
residue
with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it;
and it had
ten
horns.
I
considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn,
before
whom
there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in
this horn
were
eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
I
beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose
garment was
white
as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the
fiery flame,
and
his wheels as burning fire.
A
fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands
ministered unto
him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and
the
books
were opened.
I
beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I
beheld even till
the
beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.
As
concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their
lives were
prolonged
for a season and time.
I
saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the
clouds of
heaven,
and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
And
there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people,
nations, and
languages,
should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away,
and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
We
are now going to move away from the historical material that we encountered in
chapters one
through
six and plunge into the exciting depths of Daniel’s prophetic material,
starting in chapter
seven.
Daniel’s end-time dream in this chapter consisted of symbols of real events to
come mysteries
we
are now able to unravel. In many ways, chapters two and seven of the Book of
Daniel are similar
in
that they portray the most comprehensive pictures of history to its conclusion.
Chapter
two depicted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream concerning the great statue with a head of
gold down
to its feet and toes of iron mixed with clay a prediction of how the Babylonian empire would