The
book of Daniel contains both history and prophecy. Its twelve chapters divide
comfortably into two halves, six and six. The first six chapters are mainly the
personal history of Daniel and his three contemporaries, Hananiah, Mishael and
Azariah; while the second group of six record those visions that God gave
Daniel setting out events that were, at that time, yet in the future. Daniel’s
name means ‘God is my judge’ and succinctly identifies Daniel as a person who
wished to live under the eye of the God of his fathers. It was also at the
heart of the testimony of the three Hebrews who were his colleagues and
friends. Because of their obedience and willingness to honour God in all places
and under all circumstances, these four were used to bring the knowledge of the
one and only true God to idolatrous
and cruel monarchs.
Israel,
as part of the Fertile Crescent, was always under threat of invasion by larger
nations who wished to control that area of the Middle East. Their security
rested in the Lord.
However, in 605 BC, the Babylonians successfully invaded Israel and began a
series of deportations in which many inhabitants were banished from the land of
their birth and forced into slavery. So we must begin by asking a question. How
did Israel get into such a mess so that the bulk of its population were removed
from their homes and exiled to a foreign land? The answer is to be found in the
Bible. The Chronicler, who records the history of Israel, gives the cause of
the captivity in his writings: “But they mocked the messengers of
God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till
there was no remedy ”
(2 Chron. 36:16). So despite
decades of solemn warnings by Isaiah, Micah, and Jeremiah, Israel’s flagrant
apostasy and immorality brought
about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
From
a human viewpoint, it seemed that the religion of the Hebrews had been
completely discredited. The Lord God of Israel was apparently inferior to the
gods of Assyria and Babylon. When the Babylonians destroyed the Temple, they
claimed that their gods were mightier than the God of Israel. Therefore, it was
essential at that time for Jehovah to display His power in such a way as to
prove He was the One true God and the Sovereign Lord of history. He had to
demonstrate that He had allowed His ancient people to go into captivity, not
through weakness, but rather to maintain His integrity as a holy God. But if
Israel had failed, what instrument could He find to demonstrate His wisdom and
power?
He
looked for a man - and found Daniel
Let
us examine how God took one young Hebrew lad, trained him and used him to
witness to the then most powerful monarch in the world. We will also meet his
three young friends, Hananiah, Mishael
and Azariah.
Babylon and
the Babylonians
In
Old Testament doctrine Babylon represents the world against God. For example,
the king of Babylon is used to typify God’s implacable enemy, Satan. Isaiah’s
prophecy names the Babylonian monarch but uses language that can as easily be
applied to Lucifer, the fallen angel, whose other names are the Devil and
Satan. “For you (the king of Babylon) have said in your heart: ‘I
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will
also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ ” (Isaiah
14:13–14
The father of
the Babylonians was Nimrod. His name comes from a root which means, ‘he rebelled’.
The Targums (the ancient Aramaic writings of the Hebrew people) comment,
“Nimrod began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a
rebel before the Lord” and “from the foundation of the world none was ever
found like Nimrod, powerful in hunting and in
rebellions against the Lord”. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel. It
was a kingdom founded on apostasy from God and supported by tyranny and
oppression. The marks of his kingdom were (i) pride; (ii) unity (in rebellion
against God) and (iii) the use of a false religion to oppose the true worship
of God. At the time of Daniel,
Nebuchadnezzar’s pride and arrogance were evident for he was repairing and restoring Nimrod’s tower of Babel! So if Daniel was to stand for God, he
is going to have to stand in a hostile environment. He will have to stand in a
world that will make it as difficult as possible for him; a world that will try
to make him conform to its customs, habits and views.
A
little background information
Let
us begin about 609 BC. At that time Egypt was in control of the land of Israel,
and Pharaoh Necho put Jehoiakim on the throne as a vassal king. Jehoiakim was a
consistently wicked king. He cut up a scroll of Jeremiah’s sermons and burnt
it. He tried to capture and kill Jeremiah but was thwarted through the
intervention of God and his friends. In the summer of 605 BC, the son of
Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, led his troops against the Egyptians; this was
Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah had already prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar would
prevail, and Judah would serve Babylon for 70 years (Jer.25:1-11; cf.
Hab.1:1-17). So the Egyptian army, led like sacrificial lambs to the slaughter
(Jer.46.10), received wounds that all the balm in Gilead could not heal
(Jer.46.2,11). Jerusalem was besieged and surrendered to the Babylonians.
At
that time, while Nebuchadnezzar was in Jerusalem, his father Nabopolassar died.
Realising the throne was in jeopardy Nebuchadnezzar took his troops the short
route across the Arabian Desert, and was crowned king on 6th September 605
BC, only 23 days after his father had died. When he left Jerusalem in haste, he
deported some prisoners to Babylon, sending them the long way round. Among them
were Daniel and his friends. He also took some sacred vessels and treasures
from the Temple, and he made Jehoiakim swear allegiance to him.
Jehoiakim,
uneasy paying tribute to Babylon, rebelled, and although he was killed by other
enemies within the land, Nebuchadnezzar marched against Judah once more. In 597
BC he again conquered Jerusalem, and took more sacred vessels and treasures,
deporting more of the population. Among those deported this time was a young
priest named Ezekiel.
Five
years later, in 592 BC, Ezekiel, at the age of 30, began to prophesy to the
exiles in Babylon, explaining why God had not only decided that Babylon should
control Judah but had also designated Jerusalem to be destroyed: and why the
Shekinah glory had departed from the Temple. The third military campaign
against Israel which was designed to
quell any further opportunity at rebellion against Babylon rule, took place in
586 BC when Jerusalem was completely destroyed along with its Temple. It was at
that time that the massive deportations,
involving the bulk of the population of Judah, took place.
Nebuchadnezzar’s
successes were not down to his prowess alone but were the work of the Lord of
Hosts. The theme of God’s absolute sovereignty is both implied and demonstrated
through these events. Because it was
God who gave the nation into Babylon’s power, it would be God’s hand that would
snatch them away again, when they were ready to renew their covenant with Him
and play their part in His programme of redemption. God’s purposes for Israel
were to restore them to blessing and
in accordance with His will laid out in the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants.
The defeat and subsequent humiliation
of Judah were part of God’s dealings with them as wayward children. During this
black period in the history of Israel, those of the godly remnant needed to
have faith in God and His purposes. Habakkuk, who had himself questioned God
over His use of the Chaldeans (another name for the Babylonians) as a rod of
discipline, advised the faithful to trust the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
saying: “... the just shall live by his faith”
(Hab. 2:4).
As
we said, the first captivity included Daniel and his three friends.
Nebuchadnezzar followed a policy of conscripting the most intelligent people to
public service, even those of a different ethnic or cultural background.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were incorporated into the government
training programme, the Royal Academy of which Nebuchadnezzar was the Principal.
Babylon, as an instrument of Satan, had a purpose - to negate the witness of
the people of God. Babylon was out to
change them.
First a change
of name
Daniel
(God is my judge) was renamed Belteshazzar (a prince of Bel): Hananiah (Jehovah
has favoured) to Shadrach (Royal Scribe): Mishael (who is what God is) to
Meshach (Guest of a king): and Azariah (Jehovah has helped) to Abednego
(Servant of Nebo).
Secondly a
change of diet
Added
to a change of name was a change in their food.
This change was not just what
they ate; it was also a matter of culture and religion. They were required to
eat those foods that were forbidden under the Law of Moses being either unclean
or previously offered to Babylonian deities. Similarly, they were required to
drink wine which may well have been dedicated as drink libations to idols such
as Marduk, Nebo or Ishtar. Babylon wanted to replace the diet recommended by
Jehovah with a diet honouring Babylonian deities.
 |
| Daniel takes a stand regarding diet |
Among the
Hebrew exiles at that time, it was widely understood that the two main reasons
for the Babylonian captivity were disobedience and idolatry. Obedience of God’s
Word as laid out in the Torah (the Law of Moses) had been neglected, and
worship of the deities introduced by the wives of King Solomon had increased.
Therefore God had activated that part of His Word (namely the Land Covenant)
that dictated that such disobedience and apostasy would lose Israel the tenancy
of Canaan. For Daniel and his companions, eating the Babylonian food constituted disobeying Torah dietary
laws, and becoming unclean by eating foods offered to idols, thus repeating
those sins that had brought the nation under the judgement of God and triggered
the captivity. Daniel wanted to continue to live under the scrutiny of God, as
his name indicates (‘God is my judge’), but how could he refuse the direct
commandment of the king? With great
wisdom, and putting into operation the principle, ‘the
just shall live by faith’, Daniel
offered an alternative. Put us on a
more simple diet of vegetables and water and observe the results. Their trust in
God was rewarded by better health than those who ate the Babylonian diet.
Moreover,
Daniel and his three colleagues continued in their studies and received from
God special intellectual ability, not because of their diet, but because of His
approval of their faith and commitment to His Word.
Here
are four young men who were prepared to (i) discipline their bodies: (ii)
discipline their minds and (iii) discipline their spirits.
Because
they disciplined their bodies, God gave them better health than their diet
warranted. Because they disciplined their minds, God gave them wisdom beyond
their years. Because they disciplined their spirits, God gave them knowledge of
His purposes, His will and His ways. At the end of three years training in the
royal academy, they were examined in respect of their abilities.
Nebuchadnezzar, himself very well educated, was personally responsible for
their oral exams (their finals), and found them “ten
times better” than all the wise men of Babylon.
We
too live in Babylon, that is, a world against God, and Babylon will try to
change us. Try to change our name – make us embarrassed to be called
Christians. Try to change our diet – that is - change our Christian lifestyle,
thus leaving us little time to read the Bible, little time to study the Word,
little time to pray and also make it difficult for us to have fellowship with
other likeminded Christians; even our honesty might be compromised. But for
those who hold fast to good Christian behaviour and habits, and pursue a life
under the banner, ‘the Just shall live by faith’,
then
the God of Daniel will do His part and bless. There is no guarantee that our
health will be improved and our mind quickened but certainly our time will be
more productive.
More
from the example of Daniel next time.
