Daniel

Daniel 1 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Daniel 1

Daniel's Training in Babylon

1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim

king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon

came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord

delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand,

along with some of the articles from the temple

of G-d. These he carried off to the temple of his

god in Babylonia [a] and put in the treasure

house of his god.

3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his

court officials, to bring in some of the

Israelites from the royal family and the

nobility- 4 young men without any physical

defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind

of learning, well informed, quick to understand,

and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He

was to teach them the language and literature of

the Babylonians. [b] 5 The king assigned them a

daily amount of food and wine from the king's

table. They were to be trained for three years,

and after that they were to enter the king's

service.

6 Among these were some from Judah: Daniel,

Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.


The question comes to mind, What does the book of

Daniel have to do with Jesus? Good question.


Everyone is familiar with the story of 'Daniel in

the Lion's Den', and the take away usually goes

something like, God saved Daniel from being eaten

by the lions because Daniel was a good man,

innocent of the charges made against him. And

the other well known story in this book is the

story of the three hebrew in the fiery furnace.

By their own words, they were conscientious to

obey the Lord, rather than men. That's where we

find Jesus, eh, in the 'fiery furnace'. It's

known as a 'theophany', a physical appearance of

the Lord, and was one prelude to the 'incarnation',

the birth of Jesus.


Another theme in the book of Daniel, is to

recognize the sovereignty of G-d. When Daniel

wrote, you have to recall that he, and his fellow

hebrew, were under the rule of a kingdom whose

capitol was in Babylon. They call it the

babylonian captivity. To the believing hebrew,

it was a hopeless period in their history. The

temple, the appointed place for the legitimate

ceremonial worship of G-d, could only be in

Jerusalem, and the Babylonians had destroyed the

first great temple structure that was built by

King Solomon, when they conquered the hebrew

nation. In all of this, it would seem that there

was little hope of a future for the hebrew

nation, in spite of the historic prophecys that

had been recorded since the time of Moses,

beginning with the selection of Abraham. Daniel

is not the only one that writes on this theme.

It's all through the major prophetic books of

hebrew scripture. The ancient hebrew prophets

continuously reminded the people that there was

no end to the rule of the throne of David.

Problem was, and remains to be, that it just

doesn't seem to fit our own flawed human ideas

about what this 'kingdom of G-d' is supposed to

look like. In Daniel's time, there was no reason

to hope that there would ever be another hebrew

nation. The world was totally dominated by pagan

kingdoms, and the temple, the physical focus

point of the ceremonial worship that Moses had

instituted, was gone. There was no temple.

There was no nation. The people were enslaved by

a pagan ruler. Game over. But we know now, that

the temple was rebuilt, and the hebrew returned

to Jerusalem all in good time. And that was also

carried out with the cooperation of the ruling

pagan kingdom, all according to the plan of G-d.

Daniel, as did the other prophets, saw that G-d

rules from heaven over all of the activities

of men and nations.


As I see it, one of the most important lessons to

take away from the book of Daniel is the emphasis

that no matter what political system or ruler

appears to dominate the world stage, the script

has been written and is directed by G-d. Our

problem, and it's a problem that Daniel seems to

have no concern for, is that we just don't like

the way the script is written, if we are paying

any attention at all.


I mean, have a look around. Read the newspaper

or stare at the TV a while. Is there any

awareness of the soveriegnty of G-d in all of

current events? Not that I can tell. But as is

illustrated in the book of Daniel, the big

picture is far too complex for man to wrap his

mind around. You may not like what's going on, I

know I'd prefer more favorable personal

circumstances, but the fact is that there is a

story unfolding here, and it is provided in

schematic form in the pages or scripture. The

palette is far too subtle for the imagination of

men, so we, like the hebrew in Daniel's day, are

required to take it on faith. The best we can

hope for is to gain some form of illumination

from scripture. Heaven knows that we have little

to gain from the likes of say.... Fox news. And

I'm not too sure that TBN gets it right very

often. ( At least they're looking in the right

direction. )


So, in the days ahead, the Jesus Bus will attempt

to traverse the book of Daniel, in the hope that

we can come to recognize the sovereignty of

Heaven in the world of men.