The Bible Recap - Day 256 (Daniel 1-3)

Episode Date: September 13, 2021

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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible recap. The major profit Daniel lived through some of the most well-known Old Testament stories and wrote some of the most perplexing Old Testament prophecies. Before we talk about his book, let's talk about him as a person. Daniel's life and ministry span the entire 70-year period of Babylonian captivity, and he was one of the people deported. He handled his circumstance as well, though, really well. He was a man of prayer, faith, courage, and integrity. And Ezekiel, another major prophet who lived during the same time period, had only good things to say about him.

As for his book, the first half is filled with the stories we know and love, and it's referred to as hope literature. The back half of the book is filled with apocalyptic prophecies, so this is sometimes referred to as the apocalypse of the Old Testament. What does that word mean, anyway? The Greek word apocalypsis is where we get our English word revelation. So the book of Revelation in the New Testament is actually named apocalyps. We associate that word with destruction and war, but its original meaning is quite different. It means to reveal or to unveil things previously unknown, hence revelation. And that's exactly what Daniel is doing in these apocalyptic prophecies.

He reveals to us what God has revealed to him about God's plan for the future. A lot of what God reveals to him is revealed in dreams and visions. Let's jump into chapter 1. Around the time Daniel is 16 and getting his camel's license, King Nebby and the Babylonians destroy his hometown of Jerusalem. They take a bunch of things from the temple before they flatten it, and they also take lots of people captive, Daniel and three of his friends included. They're deported from Jerusalem to Babylon, nearly a thousand miles away. That's roughly the distance between Nashville and Montreal.

Nebby wants the gold star captives to be trained up in Babylon's best schools and fed-light kings, literally. This isn't a generous move on Nebby's part, though. It's how captors make their captives loyal to them. It's indoctrination, and its goal is Stockholm syndrome. Then after the captives are sufficiently indoctrinated, they send them back to their homelands so they can win other people over to their side. For Daniel, the hard part about being force-fed like a king

is that the king does not keep kosher, meaning he doesn't eat according to the Jewish dietary laws God commanded, but why would he? So Daniel puts his negotiating skills to work with his overseers, and promises that he and his three friends won't lose weight if they avoid wine and meat, and in fact, they don't. They get that are in flesh from their vegan diet, though I'm guessing that's not the goal of most people who do the Daniel fast. Since they didn't lose weight, Daniel's overseers agree to let him and his friends be vegans.

God does a lot of giving in chapter one. He gives Daniel's overseer's compassion. He gives Daniel and his three friends skill and wisdom, and he also gives Daniel a gift for interpreting dreams and visions. So of course, King Nebi loves Daniel. It might be like discovering you've deported Mr. Rogers. In fact, he loves all the guys, and their overseer takes away their names that point to

Yahweh, and assigns them new names that seem to point to the Babylonian gods instead. They become Shadrach, Mishach, and Abednego. And Daniel becomes Belta Shazar. We'll keep calling him Daniel though, especially because there's also a Bel Shazar later in this book. In Chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar has a nightmare. It's so bad that he calls a staff meeting about it and says, I don't just want you to tell me the interpretation, I want you to tell me the dream itself. And anyone who can't will lose their job because you have to be alive to have a job and you won't be.

But no one's omniscient and there's no such thing as HR yet. So nebby orders that all the wise men, the whole priestly class, including Daniel and his friends, be dismembered, even though some of them weren't even there. Daniel's like, hold the phone, you need a dream explained? Put me on your calendar. I'm your guy." Then he and his friends beg God for mercy because Daniel knows that only God can do what's required, and Daniel's life is at stake literally. God answers his prayer with a yes and Daniel erupts in praise and gratitude. When he goes in front of Nebi, he's the picture of humble confidence. He says,

what you've asked for is impossible for any human, but God can do it and he has. Then Daniel explains the dream in its meaning. It's a dream of a big statue made of different substances, each substance representing a different kingdom. Nebi and Babylon are the gold head, then there are some other kingdoms in the statue's body that are decreasing in value,

but increasing in strength from head to foot. The feet are a mixture of clay and iron, which represents a divided kingdom. Then, when the two-feet kingdom is the ruling power, the statue is smashed by a big rock, which almost certainly represents Jesus. Then, God establishes his eternal kingdom on earth. Daniel nails the interpretation and the king is blown away.

He bows to Daniel and gives him presence and a promotion, but Nebi ultimately pays tribute to Yahweh as the one true God. Daniel has such favor with the king that he even gets his three friends' promotions, too, and the wise men aren't dismembered either. Array, everyone wins. But then, in chapter 3, Nebby sets up a 90-foot gold statue.

He really takes that dream and runs with it, like God said on the gold head, so let's do this. Whether this statue is of Nebby himself or of a Babylonian God or of something else, the connection is clear. He's making an idol of his own identity. He's so prideful that he misses the entire point of the dream, which is, your kingdoms are temporary, and God is sovereign over them all. He orders everyone to worship his statue, even inviting foreign dignitaries to join them. But Daniels' three pals are like, that's definitely not kosher. Despite the fact that Nebby promises a fiery death to anyone who doesn't bow down to his statue, they resist. Some people tattle on Shadrach Mishak

and Abednego, and Nebby's furious, but he gives him another chance. They say, that's going to be a no for me, dog, and we know you're going to try to kill us for it, but we have a hunch we're going to survive because we know what God is capable of. Regardless of what God chooses to do, we will worship Him and only Him. This is another example of confident humility. There's zero entitlement in their statement.

They're not demanding anything from God. In response, Nebi is so offended, maybe because he just gave them promotions, that he says to turn up the fire as high as it will go for them. Sometimes when we obey, things get worse. And in fact, the fire is so hot that the people who are responsible for tying them up and putting them into it are burned alive. And they go, and they should die on the spot, but somehow they're up and walking around in the fire, unbound. And they brought a plus one. Some people, like King Nebi, believe this was an angel.

Others believe it was a Christophony, that God the Sun was the one in the fire with them. Nebi is shocked, obviously, so he orders them out. When they come out, unbound, they don't even smell like smoke. And if you've ever sat by a campfire you know that's a miracle. Speaking of which, the only thing the fire did to them was set them free from the things that bound them. This reminds me of what we read in Isaiah 43-2. It says, When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

After all this, nebby not only repents, but commands everyone else to repent and worship Yahweh too. My God shot was in Daniel's prayer of praise in 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 3, after God gives him the dream and the interpretation. He lists out a bunch of things God is sovereign over, wisdom, strength, timing, authorities, knowledge, understanding, giftings, revelation, and sight. And in just three chapters, we've seen God display His sovereignty in all of those areas. I'm going to read through the list one more time. See if you can think of some ways you've seen Him display His total authority and control over these things in your life.

And maybe for you, it wasn't a life or death situation, but maybe it was. Or maybe it was just when you were having a hard day and needed to be reminded of his love. Here's the list again. Wisdom, strength, timing, authorities, knowledge, understanding, giftings, revelation, and sight. As Daniel said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever. And as I say, he's where the joy is. Do you want to see Scripture come alive in 3D?

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