Introduction to Daniel: Exiled for God's Purposes
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This is quite exciting to be starting on a journey with you all through the book of Daniel. I’m sure the anticipation has led to a variety of thoughts...
“We’re finally going to hear what these guys think about the the rapture, and the antichrist.”
We will dive into these issues as they are presented to us in the text. There is much that will be plain application, but there will also be some trickier passages that, when necessary, we will teach with slightly more of an open hand knowing that there may be more than one valid view within orthodoxy. Meaning, there are a few differing interpretations of the end times, or eschatology, that we believe Christians can hold to, and can still fellowship together in the Gospel. But there are also some interpretations that we believe are wrong, or causing confusion, and we will point those out if necessary.
If you do happen to be a member here and you hear me, or one of the elders teach a perspective that you disagree with, don’t get up and leave. Just make a note and set up a time to sit down and talk with us.
That said, I hope it brings deep comfort to you all that the primary reason for preaching through Daniel is the same reason we preach through any other book, and that is to exalt Jesus and grow in our love for God, and our calling to live for Him. We WILL see Christ in the text, and we will see the beauties of the Gospel, and redemption, and God’s grace as we walk through this together.
So let’s first set the stage.
This is written by Daniel, although that has been disputed for a variety of reasons. One of which is the accuracy of the prophecies. They are so accurate that critics say it must have been written much later than Daniel’s life.
The first 7 chapters are written in the third person style, and then in Chapter 8, 9 and 10, we read, “Then I, Daniel...” and he writes in the first person.
Interestingly enough, Daniel is written in 2 different languages as well.
Chapter 1 begins in Hebrew, then an abrupt switch to the Chaldee, or Chaldean-Aramaic language in chapter 2, which was the common tongue of the Babylonians. It actually switches in v4 of chapter 2. Since most Jews after the restoration from captivity could speak Hebrew, Aramaic, and Chaldean, it’s not hard to believe that Daniel chose to write the introduction of his story in Babylon in his native language, and then shift to a more common tongue for the readers. Because of this some have thought the book of Daniel was a work of 2 authors, one written in Hebrew, and the other in Aramaic, closer to the mid second century BC, rather than Daniel himself in the 6th century BC.
The dead sea scrolls put a wrench in that theory though. Several copies of Daniel, 8 to be exact, were discovered in the Qumran caves in 1948, along with every other OT scroll minus Esther. Additionally there were commentaries on the book of Daniel discovered among the scrolls showing that Daniel was being quoted as prophetic Scripture as early as 25 BC.
One figure who’s reign is described great detail is Antiochus the great, who reigned from 223 to 187 BC. If Daniel was written after these events, in Daniel 11 and 12, then this is not a book of prophecy at all, and is not God’s Word.
Jay Adams, a commentator I’m reading in my Daniel studies, says this… “The fact that Daniel is among the earliest of the Dead Sea Scrolls indicates an even earlier date…if Daniel was written prior to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, then the bias against the authenticity of Daniel is scattered to the winds.” - Jay Adams
Adams also follow sound logic when he said “If the book of Daniel and commentaries on Daniel appeared at Qumran even a few decades after the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, then the book must have existed earlier in order to have been copied and distributed so widely. If a book was being read as Scripture in a remote dessert commune (Qumran), it is evident that it had already had a wide circulation.”
Truth is, People far smarter than me have looked into this. Let’s just say that Daniel, as a piece of literature went through rigorous testing before it was canonized. The specificity of the kings and kingdoms mentioned, and the fulfillment of dozens of prophecies points toward the supernatural, and liberal theologians are always looking to diminish the supernatural. But that’s not reason enough.
Jesus came on the scene in the first century and he spoke these words, Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), Matthew 24:15
Without getting into the interpretation of that text, what it is definitely saying is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one who died on a cross for sinners and rose again said plainly that what was spoken of regarding the Abomination that brings desolation, recorded in Daniel 9:27 and Daniel 12:11 is from none other than Daniel. And who is Daniel, but a prophet of God.
I believe the words of Jesus above all the liberal theologians of any era.
As a matter of reference in time, this is also the time when Aesop was writing his fables, The great Athens Acropolis would be constructed only a couple centuries later, and both Buddha and Confucius would live in the 5th century BC, not long after these prophecies were made in the 6th.
The account begins in verse one, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah.
Beginning in 2 Kings 23:37 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. 2 And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servants the prophets. 3 Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 4 and also for the innocent blood that he had shed.
Resulting in Daniel 1:2 “And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand.”
This is the first of three invasions by Nebuchadnezzar. There will be another 8 years later, and then a final one 10 years after that, and Jerusalem will be completely destroyed.
If the book of Daniel is about anything, it’s about God’s Sovereignty over all things. Nebuchadnezzar is an evil king, a pagan Babylonian who worshipped Nebo, the son of Marduk, wicked Babylonian deities. But God allows him to besiege Judah as a result of their many years of disobedience.
What you need to know is that this is not a knee jerk reaction on God’s part. Hundreds of years earlier, after being completely united under the leadership of Moses and Joshua, and finally entering their promised land, God gave them judges to rule them under his law. That was didn’t work. They continued to rebel. Then God gave Israel what they wanted, a human king, like the other nations had. From Saul, to David, to Solomon Israel continued to fall back to the worship of idols, and struggled with disunity among the tribes as each king was imperfect and sinned. After Solomon’s sin there was a civil war that resulted in the split of Israel into 2 kingdoms, the Northern kingdom, called Israel, and the southern, called Judah.
Sin causes division, exile, and banishment from the good things of God.
God did what he promised. Deuteronomy 28:58-62 “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, 59 then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. 60 And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the LORD will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. 62 Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
During this first besieging he takes some of the temple vessels and put them in the house of his god. It’s like saying, my god is better than your God. Nebuchadnezzar is pompous and prideful, as many earthly kings are, and he thinks his success is due to his own strength, as most earthly kings do, because God is the one who gave the king of Judah into his hand.
Nebuchadnezzar takes some of the temple vessels intended for the worship of the true God, brought them into the temple of a false god to be used for blasphemous worship.
Now that’s bad enough, but we see in the text that then he orders Ashpenaz, the chief eunuch, to bring certain of the captives of Judah into a special group so that after an allotted time they will become useful to the cause of that kingdom.
Look at v3,
So we need to sort of fill in the blanks here with some imagination. What we’re seeing here is abduction of the youths of Judah, the best and the brightest among them. Young men and women taken from their homes and families by the king, and brought back to Babylon, to a foreign and unfamiliar land.
Now, there is a parallel here that we need to see right away. Exile is a consequence of sin. Adam and Eve were banished from the garden because of sin. Outside of a relationship with Christ people are separated and banished from God. Today, Christians live in this temporary state, we are called aliens because we have a home that is not of this world, and a king that rules the universe, yet has allowed us to live in a foreign world, with darkness all around, and a multitude of trials. While we’re here we have decisions to make whether we will worship the god of this age, who is Satan, or the God of Heaven and Earth, Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1 opens this way: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
This will be a trying time for Judah, but God allows us to see the lives of these 4 young men in the midst of opposition so that we might see their resolve and determination to not bow to the world, and that being an exile among strangers does not mean God has left you.
We’re going to see very early on that God is indeed with Daniel. He will be tried, but will remain faithful to God under the pressure of world powers, even remaining humble so as to be used by God to influence those rulers.
But there’s an incredible thing you MUST see in this introduction to Daniel. This book was written by Daniel to be a comfort to Israel in the years of their exile, and to the people of God who would live through the horrors of the intertestamental period. Kingdoms would rise and fall, but there would come a Kingdom and a King 600 years later, that Mountain cut out without hands that would destroy the Kingdoms of man and usher in the new covenant.
Brothers and sisters, the greatest exile was Jesus, who for the joy set before him left the glory of heaven to take on our human condition, to endure the cross that sinners deserved, under the hand of evil rulers, yet an instrument of redemption in the sovereign hands of God.