Bible Backgrounds with Meredith
The Book of Daniel (part 1)
Even though the book of Daniel is in the Old Testament and written in approximately 536 B.C It has been called the Prelude to Revelations.
Daniel was taken into captivity as a teen and he writes not only about what happens but also future events that are still to take place. It is assumed that Daniel had been around 90 years old when he penned this book. As you read through Daniel you will see God’s divine providence because of Daniel’s obedience, as well the consequences given by God for disobedience by others.
Even though Daniel is only twelve chapters, I don’t recommend reading it in one sitting. I also recommend having a journal nearby to write down all the details of Daniel’s dreams and the dreams he interrupts. You may have grown up with the story of Daniel and the Lions Den or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but did you know they had given names from their home country of Judah? There are a lot of details to take in, so read Daniel in short segments.
Daniel starts when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon went to Jerusalem via Palestine to capture Judah. In verse two, here is one of the nuggets of God keeping His promise for disobedience.
And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God.
Deuteronomy 28 and 30 clearly laid out the rules, the rewards for obedience and the punishment for disobedience.
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
The chapter goes on for the next twelve verses of blessings for obedience. Starting in verse fifteen though,
However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
The next fifty four verses put in black and white what will happen if you are disobedient.
Chapter thirty of Deuteronomy talks about when all these blessings and curses had come on them and they take them to heart, they and their children return to the Lord and obey Him with all their heart and souls according to everything they had been commanded, then the Lord would restore them.
This is why I say take the book of Daniel slow, this was just from the first two verses.
Still in chapter one verse six you see that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were chosen based upon the king’s orders to find 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. They were also assigned daily food and wine from the king’s table and were trained for three years. Daniel asked if he could refrain from the king’s food so as to not defile himself, but instead eat vegetables. The chief official allowed (only because the Lord had intervened and caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel) for ten days and then compared the four young men to the rest of the group.
It’s not that there was necessarily a problem with the king’s food, but as an Isrealite there may have been meat offered to idols and or meat forbidden by the Law of Moses. Seeing there were no unclean vegetables, the young men chose to go with a vegetarian diet. This is also where we get the “Daniel Fast” from.
You also may be asking who is Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah? Their new names were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and Daniel was given the name of Belteshazzar.
By the time their training was over they entered the king’s service and in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. (vs 20)
Now on to chapter two. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. He calls before him all the astrologers, magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers. He wants them to interpret the dream but the catch is, he won’t tell them what the dream was about. Nebuchadnezzar even says that if they can’t tell him what it means he will cut them into pieces and turn their homes into rubble. (vs 5)
Because they all said no human could do what he had asked, the king made a decree to execute all the wise men. As the order was being carried out Daniel, speaking with wisdom and tact, asked why the harsh punishment? Daniel then went before the king asking for time to interpret the dream.
Being given a reprieve, Daniel went back to his home, and urged his three friends to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning the mystery. That night God answered Daniel in a vision, and the first thing Daniel did was praise God. What I call the “praise prayer” can be found in verses 20-23.
The rest of chapter two starts with Daniel explaining that no man can interpret the dream, but the God of heaven can reveal mysteries. Then he proceeds to tell Nebuchadnezzar what the dream was and its meaning. Nebuchadnezzar then falls before Daniel, and said, “surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kinds and a revealer of mysteries.” Because God gave Daniel the vision, now he has been made ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all the wise men. Daniel requested that Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon while Danile remained at the royal court. (vs 48-49)
Just that quick chapter three starts with Nebuchadnezzar making an image of gold and set it for all to see. He then summoned all the officials to its dedication. Loudly the king proclaimed that when you heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music you must fall down and worship the image of gold. The music was played and as you can guess, there were three that did not bow. Some of the astrologers went to the king and tattled. Furious he summoned Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego to be brought before him. Questioned as to why they would not bow and given the punishment, their response was, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it and He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Nebuchadnezzar, furious, ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter. The three were tied up and thrown into the blazing furnace. It was so hot that the flames killed the guards that threw them in.
Now if you know the story nothing happened to Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego. And actually a fourth person was in the fire with them, the preincarnate Christ. King Nebuchadnezzar called for them to come out and made a decree that no one was allowed to say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego. If they did, they would be cut to pieces and their homes turned to rubble.
Chapter four starts with King Nebuchadnezzar having a dream, Belteshazzar, (Daniel) is called in to interpret it. Even with a warning as to what’s going to happen the king says while on the roof of the royal palace, “is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”
God, true to His word, immediately fulfilled what He told would happen. By the end of the chapter, once again Nebuchadnezzar was praising the Most High. I find verse 37 as a warning to all who feel they have everything because of their own hands.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
The one thing that I want to bring attention to as we close out chapter four is that many are like Nebuchadneszzar. We watch God over and over provide miraculously and we may even profess that He is God, but that doesn’t alway equate to possession of a personal relationship with Him.
It has been sixty-six years since chapter one and chapter five starts with a new king, by the name of Belshazzar. Again by verse two the king has done something he shouldn’t have and has offended God. Verse two also tells us that Nubuchadnezzar was Belshazaar’s father even though his father was actually Nabonidus. This word in Hebrew means father, but is only used nine times and each time it means ancestor.
During this banquet that the king was putting on he had summoned for the gold and silver goblets that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem. As they drank from them, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking. (vs 5-6)
Just like Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar calls for the enchanters, astrologers and diviners. They could not tell him what it said. The Queen, hearing the voices, went to the banquet hall. We know that she would not have been his wife because in verse two it told us that his wives and concubines were with him. So this Queen would have been a queen-mother. Her respect for Daniel is evident from her language. It appears that her position she held was one of influence, for it appears that her advice was accepted.
Daniel is called in, but before he tells Belshazzar what the writing on the wall says, he starts in with a history lesson of the man Belshazzar keeps referring to as his father and what God did to him until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on hear and sets over them anyone he wishes. Read carefully verses 18- 24.
Daniel finishes with,
“Therefore he (God) sent the hand that wrote the inscription.
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
That night, Belshazzar was killed.
Chapter six you see we have a new king, Darius the Mede. It is believed that Daniel is now approximately eighty years old and working with those who did not believe in his God. Even through all this, he distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. The others were jealous and knew Daniel wouldn’t do anything to violate God’s law, so they went to the king to set a trap. Once again the decree had to do with worshiping the king. Daniel learned of the decree and what did he do?
…he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
Because of the disregard to the decree he was brought before King Darius, and even though Darius did everything he could to try and save Daniel, Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den.
Darius’s last words were, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!”
The stone was placed at the mouth of the den. The king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed. It is recorded that Darius returned to the palace, spent the night without eating nor entertainment and he didn’t sleep. At first light, he hurried to the lions’ den,
“has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?”
Daniels response:
“My God sent His angel and he shut the mouths of the lions”.
The phrase of His angel is only used twice in the old testament and both times it is in Daniel. Many will say it was a preincarnate Christ.
As you finish chapter six you will see that those who came up with the plan to trap Daniel were then thrown into the lion’s den along with their wives and children. Their fate was not so lucky, as God did not shut the mouths of the lions. This was actually a Persian custom. The punishment was transferred to those who had conspired against the king by provoking him into an unjust action. This also happened in the book of Esther.
You will also see that a decree was issued that in every part of Daius’s kingdom people must fear and revere the God of Daniel.
We are not done with the reign of Darius but chapter seven backtracks and chronologically it comes before chapter five. The first six chapters of Daniel present history; the last six chapters are visions relating mainly to the future, hence the prelude to Revelation.
Because chapters seven through twelve are intense chapters we want to look at those separately. I hope you enjoyed this overview on the first part of Daniel and you have enjoyed reading it with a new perspective.
