Daniel in the Lion's Den
‘April 3, 2009
In our blog we will be writing about the book of Daniel from my prospective and the thoughts of James Montgomery Boice. This is a book for our times. We live in a secular and materialistic time as was Daniel. In Daniel we have a stirring and helpful example of one who not only lived through such times and survived them but who actually triumphed in them and excelled in public life to the Glory of God.
Five things to look at as we study Daniel.
1. Daniel was a godly man sent to live in ungodly Babylon at a time when God’s blessings upon the Jewish nation seemed to have been withdrawn or postponed. This means that his position was much like that of believers trying to live in secular society today.
2. The Babylon of Daniel’s day was a type of all kingdoms that do not acknowledge God or think they can dispense with him. This is an apt description of most of the world in our time, including so-called “Christian” America.
3. Daniel (and his three friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) was under tremendous pressure to conform. That is, his religion was tolerated, even respected, as long as he did not allow it to intrude into public life or “rock the ship” of state. That is our situation also. We can practice our religion so long as it is not in the schools, at work, or in any public place. We have to keep it “on the reservation.”
4. The world seem to be winning. Nebuchadnezzar (and after him Belshazzar) reigned. Nebuchadnezzar (and after him Belshazzar) reigned. Nebuchadnezzar believed himself to be above having to answer to anybody.
5. Nevertheless, in spite of these things God told Daniel that it is he, God, who is in control of history and that his purposes are being accomplished, even in the overthrow and captivity of his people. Moreover, in the end God will establish a kingdom that will endure forever. The destiny of the people of God is wrapped up in the eternal kingdom.
In times like we are living in now it is important to understand the Sovereignty of God. His purposes are being accomplished even in these times so I say to you be not discouraged, but know your God. More later
Dr. A.C. Clayton
prophesy
April 6, 2009
The nineteenth-century scholar and churchman E. B. Pusey had it right when he wrote, “The book of Daniel is especially fitted to be a battleground between faith and unbelief. It admits of no half-way measures. It is either divine or an imposture”.
What is the value of Daniel apart from its having become a battleground between and unbelief? The large portion of the book is given to prophesy is one measure of its value –as well as its main reason for having become a battleground. But it is not the whole basis for the books place in cannon.
A Tale of Two Cities
Da 9:24
Seventy weeks; of this most interesting prophecy the following is a summary view.
1. The weeks should be understood as weeks of years, making four hundred and ninety years.
2. This period is divided by the angel into three parts, seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and one week.
3. As the angel reckons by weeks of seven years each, we are not to seek in the fulfilment for any more exact sub-divisions of time.
Da 9:24
24. Seventy weeks–namely, of years; literally, “Seventy sevens”; seventy heptads or hebdomads; four hundred ninety years; expressed in a form of “concealed definiteness” [HENGSTENBERG], a usual way with the prophets. The Babylonian captivity is a turning point in the history of the kingdom of God. It terminated the free Old Testament theocracy. Up to that time Israel, though oppressed at times, was; as a rule, free. From the Babylonian captivity the theocracy never recovered its full freedom down to its entire suspension by Rome; and this period of Israel’s subjection to the Gentiles is to continue till the millennium (“>Re 20:1-15), when Israel shall be restored as head of the New Testament theocracy, which will embrace the whole earth. The free theocracy ceased in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, and the fourth of Jehoiakim; the year of the world 3338, the point at which the seventy years of the captivity begin. Heretofore Israel had a right, if subjugated by a foreign king, to shake off the yoke (Jg 4:1-5:31; 2Ki 18:7) as an unlawful one, at the first opportunity. But the prophets (Jer 27:9-11) declared it to be God’s will that they should submit to Babylon. Hence every effort of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah to rebel was vain. The period of the world times, and of Israel’s depression, from the Babylonian captivity to the millennium, though abounding more in afflictions (for example, the two destructions of Jerusalem, Antiochus’ persecution, and those which Christians suffered), contains all that was good in the preceding ones, summed up in Christ, but in a way visible only to the eye of faith. Since He came as a servant, He chose for His appearing the period darkest of all as to His people’s temporal state. Always fresh persecutors have been rising, whose end is destruction, and so it shall be with the last enemy, Antichrist. As the Davidic epoch is the point of the covenant-people’s highest glory, so the captivity is that of their lowest humiliation. Accordingly, the people’s sufferings are reflected in the picture of the suffering Messiah. He is no longer represented as the theocratic King, the Antitype of David, but as the Servant of God and Son of man; at the same time the cross being the way to glory (compare Da 9:1-27; 2:34-35; 12:7). In the second and seventh chapters, Christ’s first coming is not noticed, for Daniel’s object was to prophesy to his nation as to the whole period from the destruction to the re-establishment of Israel; but this ninth chapter minutely predicts Christ’s first coming, and its effects on the covenant people. The seventy weeks date thirteen years before the
On May 2, 2009, we will be participating in the San Diego County CERT Day event. On this day, San Diego County OES with great support from the All State Insurance Company would like every County CERT member to promote the CERT program and the idea of being prepared to help yourself and your neighbors.
¶ In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision
By waqy of historical bacjkground it is helpful to jknow that NEBUCHADNEZZAR ATTACKJED the southern Jewish kingdom of JKudah three times, beginning in 605 b.C. a little more than a hundred years after the northern ingdom of Isreal had fallen to the Assyrians.
The second invasion occurred in 5907 b.c. when Jehoiakjim, son of the King of JKudah mentioned in Daniel 1: 1-2 was compelled to surrender JKerusalem and go into captivity with mnmy of the jkEWISH leaders, including the royal family, the commander4saa of the army, craftsmen, and even some of the priests likje Ezekjiel. The third invasion was tghe one we remember most. It tookj place in 586 nv when JKerusalem was completely destroyed and the people of the land were deported to Babylon. JKeremiah was in JKerusalem at the time of this final destruction of the city.
Since Daniel begins by relating the events of the book to the deliverance of King JKehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands it must have been through the first of these three invasions that Daniel and his friends Hannaniah were taken to JKerusalem to Babylon to be trained for Nebuchadnezzar’s service.
April 20, 2009
The chief characteristic of Babylon in Nebuchadnezzar’s time was what we would call its radical secular humanism. Why does Boice says this? Because of a statement Nebuchadezzar makes later on in Daniel, in the fourth chapter: “
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