Day 256 (Daniel 1-3) - Year 8

Tara-Leigh Cobble (0:01)

Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

The major prophet 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 spanned the entire 70-year period of Babylonian captivity, and he was one of the people deported. He handled his circumstances well though, really well. He was a man of prayer, faith, courage, and integrity. 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 apocalypse. 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 in to Chapter 1 Around the time Daniel is 16 and getting his camel's license, King Nebi 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. Nebi wants the gold star captives to be trained up in Babylon's best schools and fed like kings, literally. This isn't a generous move on Nebi'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 fatter 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 overseers 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, Meshach and Abednego. And Daniel becomes Belteshazzar. We'll keep calling him Daniel though, especially because there's also a Belteshazzar later in this book.

In chapter two, King Nebbe 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 Nebbe 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 Nebbe, 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 and its meaning. It's a dream of a big statue made of different substances, each substance representing a different kingdom. Nebbe 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.