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Day 238: The Fall of Jerusalem
Agape Bible Study
Jeremiah 20 -21
Chapter 20: Jeremiah's Persecution, Fifth Confession, and Lament
The prose section that began in 19:1 continues through 20:6. Yahweh commanded Jeremiah to preach the object lesson of the potter and the clay by breaking a potter's pot in front of the elders, chief-priests and the people gathered at the southern gate that led out of the city of Jerusalem and into the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. Jeremiah told his audience that Yahweh was going to break them and the city of Jerusalem just as Jeremiah broke the potter's pot, never to be mended again (19:1-15). Then, Jeremiah came back into the city and went to the courtyard of Yahweh's Temple to continue the message of destruction for Jerusalem and the Temple (19:14-15). The incident of preaching the oracle associated with the fifth object lesson within the Temple's courts may have led to the ban against Jeremiah entering the sacred Temple. Jeremiah's fifth object lesson and its preaching oracle (19:1-15) has to be dated prior to 605 BC. In the fourth year of the reign of King Jehoiakim, in 605 BC, the Temple hierarchy barred Jeremiah from entering the Temple (36:1, 5).
Jeremiah 20:1-6 ~ Pashhur's Reaction to Jeremiah's Oracle
The Immer family of chief priests is listed among the names of the descendants of Aaron in the genealogical list of priestly families recorded by the scribes of King David (1 Chr 24:14). The priest Pashhur son of Immer has heard Jeremiah giving his oracle in the Temple courtyard. Scripture does not specify which courtyard, but it could have been the inner Courtyard of the Priests and the location of the Altar of sacrifice. If that was the location, Jeremiah was disturbing the daily liturgical worship service and the offering of the twice daily, perpetual whole burnt communal offering of the Tamid sacrifice. The Tamid sacrifice was offered for the atonement and sanctification of the covenant people, and it was the focus of the entire day and the liturgy of worship for the covenant people (Ex 29:38-42; Num 28:3-8). No other sacrificial offering took precedence over the twice daily offering of the Tamid lamb, not even the Sabbath or Passover sacrifices (Num 28:10, 16, 17, 23).
Jeremiah 20:7-13 ~ Jeremiah's Fifth Confession Part I
The poetry in verses 7-18 offer themes connected to the narrative and oracles associated with Pashhur in 19:14-20:6. The passage is also connected to Jeremiah's call and commissioning in Chapter 1. This section consists of Jeremiah's fifth confession in verses 7-18 that is divided into two parts:
- Jeremiah's confession of suffering and praise in verses 7-13.
- Jeremiah's heart-wrenching lament in verses 14-18.
Notice the links between Jeremiah's confession in 20:7-18 and Jeremiah's prophetic call in Chapter 1:
- Jeremiah refers to Yahweh having overpowered him in the prophetic call in 20:7, a reference to when Yahweh did not accept his attempt to refuse his prophetic call based on his youth in 1:7.
- Jeremiah restates Yahweh's promises in 20:11. God promised to be with Jeremiah and not allow enemies to overcome him when he was called to his prophetic ministry in 1:8 and again at his commissioning in 1:19.
- Jeremiah celebrates his rescue in 20:13 as a fulfillment of Yahweh's earlier promises in 1:8 and 1:19.
- Jeremiah refers to his coming out of "the womb" in 20:18 that was mentioned in his prophetic call in 1:5 when Yahweh told him, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you."
The poetry of Jeremiah's fifth confession in verses 7-13 can be compared to a toda/todah psalm. Like other toda (a Hebrew word meaning "thanksgiving") psalms it begins with Jeremiah recounting his suffering at the hands of his enemies, but the psalm ends in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving for Yahweh's protection and his salvation in his time of distress. Some of the most beautiful of the toda psalms are Davidic psalms, most famously Psalm 22, the first verse of which Jesus will quote from the Cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This statement from the cross is misinterpreted as a cry of despair when it is instead a reference to David's hymn of faith and belief in the power of God to overcome evil.
Jeremiah 20:14-18 ~ Jeremiah's Lament (Confession #5 Part II)
The sadness that gripped Jeremiah at the beginning of his confession returns in verses 14-18 where he laments his birth and his prophetic call (see 1:5), as he did in 15:10. His lament is similar to the poetry of Job's lament in Job Chapter 3 that begins, Perish the day on which I was born and the night that told of a boy conceived (Job 3:3). Jeremiah, in his heart-wrenching grief, calls forth a curse on the man who brought the news of his birth to his father, because, if Jeremiah's father could see what has become of his son, his former happiness would dissolve into deepest grief. This lament marks the climax of Jeremiah's spiritual suffering.
Chapter 21: The Response to Jeremiah's Fifth Object Lesson
A review of the historical background: Between 609 BC and 587 BC, many battles occurred between the Egyptians and the Babylonians. The first clashes occurred three years after Babylon destroyed the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh in 612 BC. At that time, Judah was pro-Babylon and the Egyptians were the allies of Babylon's enemy Assyria. The Egyptian army marched north to help the Assyrians defeat the Babylonians in 609 BC. The Egyptians expressed their desire to pass through Judah peacefully, but King Josiah decided to intercept the Egyptians at Megiddo. The Egyptians defeated the army of Judah and Josiah was killed (2 Kng 23:28-30). Afterward, the Egyptians continued north and fought with the Assyrians against the Babylonians at the Battle of Haran where they were defeated.
After the defeat of their Assyrian allies at the Battle of Haran, the Babylonians withdrew and the Egyptians laid claim to all the land west of the Euphrates River, including Judah. Pharaoh Necho deposed Josiah's son, Jehoahaz, and made his brother Jehoiakim Egypt's vassal king of Judah (2 Kng 23:31-35). Having succeeded in subduing other parts of their empire, the Babylonians returned in 605 BC, defeating the last combined force of the Egyptians and Assyrians at the Battle of Carchemish and then crushing the Egyptians at the Battle of Hamath, effectively ridding the region of the Egyptians. After the battle, the Babylonians marched to Jerusalem where they took members of the royal family captive along with members of other leading families, and they made Davidic King Jehoiakim a Babylonian vassal (2 Kng 24:1, 7). King Jehoiakim attempted twice to lead a revolted against the Babylonians, and the second time, in 598 BC, he incurred the wrath of the Babylonians when they invaded Judah and surrounded Jerusalem.
Chapters 21-23: Jeremiah Oracles to the King and the People
After the city surrendered in 598/7 BC, the Babylonians deposed Davidic kings Jehoiakim and his son Jehoiakim (Josiah's son and grandson) and took them into exile. They made Josiah's youngest son, a brother of Jehoiakim named Mattaniah, the king of Judah, changing his name to Zedekiah (2 Kng 24:8-18). They hoped he had learned a lesson from the fate of his kinsmen and would become their obedient vassal. It was a badly founded hope, and for a second time the Babylonians army marched against a rebellious vassal king of Judah and his people, besieging the capital city of Jerusalem in 588 BC. This section is out of the chronological sequence and dates to the last years of Jeremiah's ministry. The "King Oracles" in 21:1-23:8 dates to 588 or 587 BC or the in between period during the prolonged siege:
- Oracle on King Zedekiah and the life of the nation (21:1-10)
- Oracles against the royal house of Davidic kings (21:11-22:9)
- Oracles against various kings of Judah and their royal city (22:10-30)
- Oracle on the future Messianic Davidic king and the life of the nation (23:1-8)
Notice the similarity in the topic of the first of the King Oracles for Zedekiah, Judah's last Davidic king, in 21:1-10 and the last of the King Oracles for the future Messianic Davidic king who will rule eternally in 23:1-8.
Jeremiah 21:1-10 ~ King Zedekiah's Appeal for Yahweh's Help and Yahweh's Answer
With the Babylonians besieging Jerusalem, a desperate King Zedekiah sends envoys to consult the prophet he has disparaged and threatened for the past decade years. Jeremiah gives two oracles that Zedekiah's ministers are to carry back to the king:
- In the first oracle, Yahweh answers King Zedekiah's request for liberation from the Babylonian siege and life for the nation (21:1-10).
- The second oracle concerns a curse-judgment on the royal household (21:11-22:5).
Pashhur son of Malchiah is not the same man as Pashhur son of Immer, the chief of the Temple's Levitical guards who struck Jeremiah and put him in the stocks in chapter 20 (see endnote 1). King Zedekiah has ignored every plea to repent and to turn back to Yahweh and His covenant, and he has denied every prophecy of divine judgment. Finally, he has sent an envoy to Jeremiah to seek Yahweh's protection against Judah's enemy. Unfortunately, it is too late and there is no attempt to offer nation or personal repentance.
Jeremiah 21:11-14 ~ Jeremiah's Oracle to the Davidic Royal Family of Judah
The oracle in verses 11-14 is in three parts:
- The command to execute justice (21:11-12)
- An indictment for royal pride (21:13)
- God's judgment on royal deeds (21:14)
Yahweh is Israel's Divine King, and the human kings are His agents of justice in civil affairs. Israel is a monarchy, but that monarchy is limited by Yahweh's "Rules of the Kings" in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. Jeremiah's poetic oracle to Zedekiah in verses 11-14 is the first of two oracles addressed to not only the king but the entire royal family.
Jeremiah 22:1-5 ~ Oracle for the Kings of Judah and the Duty to Execute Justice
Jeremiah is directed to go from the Temple precinct down to the royal palace that is adjacent to the Temple and to speak God's word to the king. It is understood that this oracle must be spoken at the palace gates, which are mentioned in the directive in verse 2.
2 Listen to the word of Yahweh, king of Judah now occupying the throne of David, you, your officials and your people who go through these gates.
Although this prose section pertains to the entire royal house, the first part of Jeremiah's oracle is addressed directly to the king. Since the gates are those to the royal palace, those passing through will only be member of the royal family or ministers of the king.
Introduction
The Book of Daniel attributes authorship of the book to a Babylonian captive from the Southern Kingdom of Judah named Daniel. In 605 BC, the victorious Babylonians defeated the combined armies of the Assyrians and their Egyptian allies at the Battle of Carchemish. They immediately took possession of the defeated Assyrian Empire, including the vassal state of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Initially, King Jehoiakim submitted to the Babylonians and pledged his loyalty to King Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonians took some vessels from Yahweh's holy Temple as trophies, and to ensure the continued submission of the King of Judah and his people, the Babylonians took some young boys of royal and noble birth as captives back to Babylon to train them in service to the Babylonian Empire (2 Chr 36:5-7; Dan 1:1-4). Among those young captives was a boy named Daniyy'el [in English, Daniel] whose Hebrew name meant "God judges." He became God's prophet in exile to a series of pagan kings. During his 67 years in exile from 605 BC until the third year of the reign of King Cyrus in 537 BC, Daniel received a series of visions promising deliverance and glory to his people and giving the historical countdown to the coming of the Davidic Redeemer-Messiah and His eternal Kingdom. His contemporaries were the prophet Jeremiah, God's representative to the people in Jerusalem and Judah, and Ezekiel, God's representative to the Judahites in exile in Babylon.
- Chapters 1:1-24a and 8-12 are in Hebrew.
- Chapters 2:4b-7:28 are in Aramaic.
- The Prayer of Azariah and the Hymn of the Three Young Men in 3:25-90 are in Greek.
- Chapters 8-12 are in Hebrew.
- Chapters 13:1-14:42 are in Greek.
The first six chapters, written in the third person, record the adventures of the young Daniel. The Prayer of Azariah and the Hymn of the Three Young Men in Chapter 3 only appear in the Greek Septuagint translations.
The second Aramaic section in Chapters 7-12 record a series of divine revelations Daniel received, most of which are in a first-person account. Chapters 13 and 14, written as a third-person account, contain stories that serve as "bookends" to the entire work. Chapter 13 relates a story about Daniel when he was still a boy, and Chapter 14 takes place when Daniel is elderly and serving his last pagan king. They were translated into Greek before the document found its way back to Judah where the two Greek chapters became part of the Book of Daniel as an appendix, and the whole book became part of the Old Testament canon in the time of Jesus.
Historical Background
Yahweh redeemed the children of Jacob-Israel, liberating them from slavery in Egypt and making them a free people. At Mt. Sinai, Yahweh formed a covenant with the children of Israel, making them His personal possession as a holy people and giving them the rank of His firstborn sons among the nations of the earth. Keeping His promise to the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He dispossessed the Canaanites of their land (Gen 15:13-16, 18-21) and used the new generation of the children of the Exodus generation as His instrument of justice. He dispossessed the sinful, child-murdering people of Canaan and settled the Israelites in God's "Promised Land" where they would live as His tenants (Lev 25:23). However, He warned them if they apostatized from His covenant and began to behave like the Canaanites in worshiping idols and adopting sinful practices, He would punish them by driving them out of the land He had gifted to them.
The first six chapters of the Book of Daniel introduce the prophet Daniel and his friends who experience trials and ordeals living in a pagan land. However, their primary allegiance is not to pagan kings but to the God of Israel. The reader receives a view of life for the Judahite exiles in a land that does not practice their beliefs that is not unlike the Christian's experience living in exile in a secular world that is not our true home and does not appreciate Christian beliefs and practices. It is for this reason that the Church reads the experiences of Daniel and his three friends attentively and "realizes that she is truly linked with mankind and its history by the deepest of bonds" (Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 1).
Daniel 1:1-4 ~ Daniel and Other Young Judahites Become Captives of the Babylonians
1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched on Jerusalem and besieged it.
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was responsible for the conquest of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and for the deportation of the Jews to Babylon. He was the most successful of the Neo-Babylonian kings and the first pagan king Daniel served. Daniel interprets two dreams for Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 2:46-49 and 4:1-37), after which the king acknowledges the God of Israel three times (2:46-49; 4:1-3; 4:47).
Jehoiakim (Hebrew = Yehoiakim, "Yahweh raises up") was one of the last of the Davidic kings of Judah who ruled from c. 609/8-598 BC. 609/8 BC was King Jehoiakim's accession year and 608/7 his first year; therefore 606/5 was the third year of his reign as the ancients counted without the concept of a zero place-value. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar marched on Judah after their victory at the Battle of Carchemish in 606/5 BC, and King Jehoiakim became a vassal of the Babylonians. However, Jehoiakim rebelled against his Babylonian overlords three years later (2 Kng 24:1-2). In 598 BC, after putting down a series of other rebellions, Nebuchadnezzar marched against Jehoiakim and besieged Jerusalem, depriving Jehoiakim and his son and co-heir Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) of their throne and their kingdom. He took them, the Queen Mother and thousands of citizens of Judah into Babylonian exile (2 Kng 24:6-16; 2 Chr 36:9-10; Jer 22:20-30), placing King Josiah's remaining son (Jehoiakim's brother and Jehoiachin's uncle), Mattaniah, on the throne as Judah's last Davidic king, renaming him Zedekiah (2 Kng 24:17).
2 The Lord let Jehoiakim king of Judah fall into his power, as well as some of the vessels belonging to the Temple of God. These he took away to Shinar, putting the vessels into the treasury of his own gods. 3 From the Israelites [sons of Israel], the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring a certain number of boys of royal or noble descent [bring the king's seed and of the nobles] ...
Verse 2 returns to the initial subjugation of Judah when Jehoiakim fell into the power of the Babylonians in 605 BC (see Dan 2:1 that takes place in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign in 603 BC). Shinar is the ancient name for Babylon (Gen 10:10; Is 11:11; Zech 5:11). The Babylonians took control of Judah and, as was their practice in dealing with conquered nations according to Babylonian chronicles, took trophies from Judah's most sacred shrine, Yahweh's Jerusalem Temple, back to Babylon to display in their pagan temples. In addition to confiscating religious artifacts and treasures of a conquered people as trophies, it was also a common practice for conquerors to remove certain relatives of the ruling family and the nobility, taking them as hostages to ensure loyalty, as the Babylonians did with the young Judahites.
Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch
The Hebrew word translated "eunuch" denotes a confidant of the king or high ranking palace servant and does not necessarily suggest the man was a castrated eunuch. The chief eunuch may also have been taken captive as a young man and educated to serve the Babylonian king. His similar experience (as well as God's intervention) may account for the special relationship that develops between Daniel and Ashpenaz (verse 9). In his first century AD history of the Jewish people, however, Flavius Josephus records that the Babylonians made some of the young Jewish captives eunuchs (Antiquities of the Jews, 10.10.186). The youths forced to endure castration were probably those chosen to serve as administrators to the royal harem while Daniel and his friends became administrators of the empire.
4 they had to be without any physical defect, of good appearance, versed in every branch of wisdom, well-informed, discerning, suitable for service at the royal court. Ashpenaz was to teach them to speak and write the language of the Chaldaeans.
Taking members of the royal family and the children of nobles' captive was a strategy practiced by other empires like the Egyptians, Hittites, and Assyrians. These hostages not only ensured loyalty from the vassal state but were trained to serve as diplomats and ministers for the ruling nation. "Chaldaeans" is a term that originally designated an Aramaic-speaking people who migrated into Babylonia in the first half of the first millennium BC. They gradually gained ascendancy there and became the ruling Neo-Babylonian class, changing the national language from Akkadian to Aramaic. The boys will be taught to speak and write Aramaic which was the diplomatic language of Mesopotamia and the nations of the Persian Gulf. Akkadian was the former language of the old Assyrian and Babylonian Empires.
Daniel 1:5-7 ~ The Lives of the Young Captives at the Babylonian Court
Important captives like Daniel received their food from the King's table to ensure that they had the best possible diet for the sake of their health. The empire was making an investment in these young captives, and the plan was to educate them for three years to prepare them to enter royal service (verse 5). The three years might be a literal period, or it may be symbolic since the number tree appears so frequently in the book (twenty-five times).(4) In the significance of numbers in Scripture, the number 3 is one of the so-called "perfect numbers" representing perfection, fulfillment, or something important in God's divine plan. The four perfect numbers were 3, 7, 10, and 12. See the document on the "Significance of Numbers in Scripture."
The king place Daniel and three other young captives of royal or noble Judahite bloodlines in the care of the chief eunuch who gave them Babylonian/Akkadian names to signify their new lives as adopted servants of the Babylonian king:
- Daniel ("God judges) became Belteshazzar, a name meaning "(the god) Bel guard his life."
- Hananiah ("Yahweh favors me") became Shadrach (etymology uncertain).
- Mishael ("who is God") became Meshach (etymology uncertain).
- Azariah ("Yahweh has helped") became Abed-Nego, in Hebrew meaning "servant of Nego" which is a pejorative variation of Nebu, a Babylonian god of wisdom. A Hebrew scribe copying the Book of Daniel probably changed the name Abed-Nebu to Abed-Nego, and other copies repeated the change. The name of the god Nebu forms the theophoric prefix in the name of Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 1:8-15 ~ The Young Captives' Test of Faith
Most, if not all, of the food served at the king's royal table came from sacrifices offered in Babylonian temples to false gods and were foods forbidden under the Law of the Sinai Covenant (Lev Chapter 11). Eating food sacrificed to idols or the ritually unclean foods of Gentiles was a violation of the covenant with Yahweh and a defilement that would make the young Judahites ritually unclean; it was a sin akin to apostasy (Hos 9:3; Tob 1:12; Judt 10:5; 12:1; 2 Mac 6:18-7:42). The young men request only vegetables (literally seed-bearing plants) to eat and water to drink. Vegetables were safe from ritual contamination, and it is for this reason that Daniel asks the king's sympathetic chief servant to allow them to have a vegetarian diet with water to drink as a test for ten days. It is interesting to recall that in the Garden Sanctuary of Eden, when humanity was unblemished by sin and in perfect union with the Almighty, God only gave Adam and Eve seed-bearing plants for food (Gen 2:16).
The refusal of wine is less easy to explain. Either the young captives feared the wine produced by pagans was also ritually unclean, or they were acting under a Nazirite vow. The word Nazarite is from the Hebrew word nazir, meaning "set apart as sacred, dedicated, vowed."
Daniel 1:17-20 ~ Yahweh Rewards the Faith of the Captives
After three years of instruction, from c. 605-603 BC (as the ancients' counted) the chief servant presented the young captives to the King for their "final examination." Daniel and his friends were found to be the best of the young captives and promoted to become members of the king's court.
The "ten days" (verse 15) and "ten times better" (verse 20) may be symbolic numbers. In the symbolic use of numbers in Scripture, ten is one of the "perfect numbers" and signifies perfection of divine order (i.e., the Ten Commandments); therefore, suggesting that God oversaw the events surrounding the faithful young Judahites, and He ordained the results of the food test and the final exam by the Babylonian king.
The Babylonians destroyed both Jerusalem and the Temple in 587 BC after the rebellion of Judah's King Zechariah. Centuries earlier, Isaiah prophesied a man, chosen by God and named Cyrus ("shepherd" in Hebrew) would be instrumental in restoring the covenant people to their holy city:
- ...who say to Cyrus, "My shepherd." He will perform my entire will by saying to Jerusalem, "You will be rebuilt, and to the Temple, "You will be refounded" (Is 44:28).
- Thus says Yahweh to his anointed one, to Cyrus whom, he says, I have grasped by his right hand, to make the nations bow before him and to disarm kings, t open gateways before him so that gates be closed no more (Is 45:1).
Chapter 2: Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Composite Statue
The Prophet Daniel received seven prophetic revelations from the late seventh century to the mid-sixth century BC. Four historical empires that succeeded each other and had an impact on the history of God's holy people fulfilled several of Daniel's visions. The Babylonian king's composite statue dream was the first of the prophetic revelations that pertained to the future of the covenant people and the coming of the Redeemer-Messiah who will establish a fifth, everlasting Kingdom.
Daniel 2:1-13 ~ The King Nebuchadnezzar Threatens the Lives of Daniel and His Friends
The text changes from Hebrew to Aramaic in verse 4b, the language of the Babylonians and the language Daniel was trained to speak and write for his service to the Babylonian king. The text continues in a third-person narrative.
Nebuchadnezzar became King of Babylon in August of 605 BC, the same year Daniel and his friends became captives. Since the Babylonians did not count a partial year but only full years of the reign of a king, 605 BC was designated Nebuchadnezzar's "accession year." Therefore, the first year of his reign began in the Babylonian new year in March of 604 BC, and the second year was 603 BC, the year Daniel and his friends were admitted to the king's service after three years of study as the ancients counted from 605 BC to 603 BC.(2)
| The Three Years of Instruction | Nebuchadnezzar's Reign |
| 605 BC: the year the young Jews were captured and began their instruction. | 605 BC: Nebuchadnezzar's accession year. |
| 604 BC: the second year of instruction. | 604 BC: year #1 of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. |
| 603 BC: the third year of instruction. | 603 BC: year #2 of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. |
Keep in mind that in the modern calendar we count down the years until Jesus' birth, and we count forward every year after the birth of Christ in years designated Anno Domini, "the year of the Lord" or AD. The year before Jesus' birth is year 1 BC (before Christ) and the year after Jesus' birth is Anno Domini/AD 1. There is no year 0. The recently popular designation BCE (before common era) remains calculated on the year before the birth of Christ as year 1 BC.
Nebuchadnezzar wanted the learned men of his court to interpret his dream. But he refuses to describe the dream, making the unreasonable demand that they tell him the details of his dream and its meaning as a test of their abilities. When they protest that the king is giving them an impossible test, Nebuchadnezzar accuses them of being frauds and orders the death of all the Babylonian court sages, including Daniel and his friends. The 1st century AD Jewish priest and historian, Flavius Josephus, suggests upon waking up from the series of dreams that Nebuchadnezzar knew he experienced significant dreams but was frustrated because he could not remember the details of the dreams. It was for that reason he required the sages to tell him the details of his dreams (Antiquities of the Jews, 10.10.3 [195]).
Daniel 2:14-18 ~ Daniel Intervenes
When Daniel hears that kings ordered the death of all the wise men in his service, he intervenes by seeking out the chief executioner, Arioch, and requests an explanation concerning the king's order. The Arioch's Aramaic title, rab-tabbahayya, in verse 14 is similar to the Hebrew term rab-tabbahim in 2 Kings 25:8-20 where it is the title of a high-ranking officer in Nebuchadnezzar's army. It is Daniel's desire not only to save himself and his fellow Judahites but the Gentile wise men of Babylon (verse 24). Daniel's willingness to sacrifice himself to save both his Jewish kinsmen and innocent Gentiles from the Babylonian king's temporal judgment prefigures Christ's willingness to offer Himself to save both Jews and Gentiles from God's eternal judgment.
We can only imagine how the poor officer must have felt, caught between carrying out the deaths of innocent men and the wrath of an unreasonable king. After hearing the circumstances of the order, Daniel courageously goes to the king to request postponing the execution until he has had the opportunity to interpret the king's dream. The king would have remembered Daniel as the most impressive of the young men admitted to his court after testing the new candidates for service to the Empire (1:19-20).
Daniel 2:19-26 ~ God Answers Daniel's Prayer
In shifting from the first person singular to the first person plural (I, me, we, us in verse 23), Daniel wishes to include his companions, who had helped him by their prayers to obtain the revelation (see verse 17).
God answered the prayers of Daniel and his friends by revealing the King's dream and its meaning, confirming the power of intercessory prayer. The term "the God of heaven" (verse 19) was a common post-exile title for Yahweh until it fell out of favor among the Jews because it was similar to the Gentile title "lord of heaven" that pagans used for their gods in a later era (e.g., Ezra 1:2; 6:9, 10; 7:12, 21, 23; Neh 1:4, 5; 2:4, 20). The narrative shifts from the third person to the first person with Daniel's prayer.
In response to God's answer to their prayers, Daniel offers Yahweh a prayer of thanksgiving and praise, naming ten attributes of God. Daniel:
- blesses the name of God,
- acknowledges that God alone has true wisdom and power,
- acknowledges that God controls time,
- has power over human rulers,
- gives the gift of wisdom,
- gives the gift of knowledge,
- uncovers what is hidden,
- has the power to reveal mysteries,
- knows the darkest secrets, and
- is the essence of all that is "light."
Daniel 2:27-45 ~ Daniel Interprets the King's Dream
Question: As he bravely begins his presentation to the king, what three points does Daniel make immediately in verses 27-28a?
Answer:
- He reminds the king that the Babylonian sages, soothsayers, magicians, and exorcists failed to reveal the king's dream.
- Claims that his God had the power to reveal the king's dream to Daniel.
- The king's dream concerns events that will take place "in the final days."
These, then, are the dream and the visions that passed through your head as you lay in bed
The "mystery" Daniel refers to in verse 28 is God's divine plan concerning the kingdoms that will rule over the covenant people leading to the advent of the Davidic Redeemer-Messiah and the final age of humanity.
28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries and who has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what is to take place in the final days [in the end of days].
The Aramaic expression "final days/the end of days," corresponds to the Hebrew expression found in Isaiah 2:2; Hosea 3:5 and Daniel 10:14. It is an eschatological (end times) term usually pointing to the end of time as humanity knows it. However, in this case it points to the end of the Age of the Gentiles and the beginning of the Messianic Era that will be the final age of humanity beginning with the founding of the 5th Kingdom.
Then he tells the king that the golden head of the statue represents the kingdom of Babylon that will be succeeded by three other kingdoms represented by different parts of the dream statue. When Daniel says the kingdom that will succeed Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom is "not as great as yours," Daniel may be using flattery to keep the king's attention without offending him. Daniel describes the kingdoms represented by the parts of the statue:
- Kingdom #1 is Babylon the "golden head" (verse 32).
- Kingdom #2 whose "chest and arms are silver" (verse 32).
- Kingdom #3 with "belly and thighs of bronze" (verse 32)
- Kingdom #4 with its legs of iron, its feet part iron, part clay (verse 33).
The bronze kingdom will "rule the whole world" (verse 39) only to be succeeded by a fourth kingdom "that pulverizes and crushes" all the other kingdoms (verse 40).
Most modern Biblical commentators list the four kingdoms as the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, and the Greeks, all ruling powers Daniel was familiar with during his lifetime. Their interpretation of the four kingdoms fails for four reasons:
- The dream revealed a succession of empires that would rule over the covenant people until the final age of man. The Medes never ruled Judah or Judahites.
- The Medes never conquered the Babylonians. The Persians conquered the Medes in 550 BC, becoming the Medo-Persian Empire and were in turn conquered by the Greeks who were later conquered by the Romans.
- These modern scholars completely dismiss the Roman Empire, an empire greater than all the other empires that ruled Daniel's region of the world and the regional ruling Gentile empire at the time Jesus established His everlasting Kingdom of the Church.
- The fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy in the countdown to the coming of the Messiah must include the four succeeding empires of Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans.
| Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Composite Statue Dream (Daniel 2:1-13) | Daniel's Interpretation of the Dream and the Historical Fulfillment (Daniel 2:14-44) |
| 1. Head of fine gold | Babylonian Empire: Daniel told the Babylonian king you are the golden head (Dan 2:38). |
| 2. Chest and arms of silver | Persian Empire: This regional empire was composed of the Medes and the Persians (one empire/chest with two arms). The Persians conquered Babylon in 539 BC. |
| 3. Belly and thighs of bronze | Greek Empire of Alexander the Great: Alexander the Great, began the conquest of the Medo-Persian Empire in 335BC. Persians were defeated by Greeks at the battle of Arbela in 331 BC, making the Greeks the regional world power. |
| 4. Legs of iron, feet part iron, part clay | Roman Empire: The Romans conquered the four smaller Greek kingdoms that emerged after Alexander's death. In campaigns from 197-30 BC, Rome conque red Greece, Asia Minor, the Levant (Judah) and Egypt. By the first century AD, Rome dominated the ancient known world. The feet of part iron and clay may represent the pro-Roman Herodian dynasty of Judea. In the fourth century AD, Rome split into the Western Empire, centered in Rome, and the Eastern Empire, centered in Constantinople (two legs). The feet which are only part iron may represent the ten Roman provinces. The Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century AD. |
| 5. The stone that struck the statue to become a greater kingdom | The 5th Kingdom: The final kingdom was prophesied to be "everlasting" (Dan 2:44; 7:14, 18, 27) ...the God of heaven will set up a kingdom it will shatter and absorb all the previous kingdoms and itself last forever (Dan 2:44-45). It was the "stone" that broke "away from the mountain" (Dan 2:45) of the Old Sinai Covenant centered on Mt. Moriah to become the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the New Covenant Church and the Universal Kingdom of Jesus Christ. |
| M. Hunt Copyright © 2018 | |
Daniel's prophecy was that the 4th kingdom, which conquered and surpassed in power all the other kingdoms, was destined to end in the birth of a 5th kingdom: a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever (Dan 2:44-45). Verses 44-45 are the climax of Daniel's interpretation of the king's vision. The mysterious stone will smash the feet of iron and clay of the fourth kingdom, causing the whole statue to break apart, reducing it to dust which the wind will carry away (verses 34-35). However, the stone itself will grow into a mountain that will fill the whole earth. In the same way, the God of Heaven will destroy the kingdoms of the earth, and in their place, He will establish His own universal Kingdom. Unlike earthly kingdoms and all human-made works that pass away, His new, eschatological Kingdom will stand forever. It will be ruled from Heaven, as Jesus will tell Pilate at His trial: "My kingdom does not belong to this world" (Jn 18:36 NAB), but it is a spiritual kingdom/mountain that will grow, as Daniel's interpretation prophesied, to fill the entire earth (verse 35, also see the prophecies in Is 2:2-4; 11:9 and Mic 4:1-2). In Scripture, the number five is usually the symbolic number representing power and divine grace. See the document "The Symbolic Significance of Numbers in Scripture."
Daniel 2:46-49 ~ The King's Profession of Faith in Daniel's God
In verse 47, "Lord of kings" or "Lord of kingdoms" is an Aramaic rendering of the Greek Kyrios basileion. See a similar expression in Deuteronomy 10:17; 1 Timothy 6:15 and Revelation 17:14
Nebuchadnezzar accepted Daniel's interpretation of his dreams as revealed by Yahweh, God of Israel.
Question: How does King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledge his acceptance of Daniel's interpretation of his dreams? How does he acknowledge the superiority of Daniel's God?
Answer: Nebuchadnezzar gives homage to Daniel by bowing down to him, treating him as a messenger of God, and orders the offering of a sacrifice in Daniel's name. He acknowledges Daniel's God as:
- God of gods
- Master of kings
- Revealer of Mysteries
The pagan king's profession of belief in Yahweh did not mean he accepted Yahweh as the only God of all creation. He only acknowledged Yahweh as the most powerful god and more powerful than Babylon's pantheon of gods.
48 The king then conferred high rank on Daniel and gave him many handsome presents. He also made him governor of the whole province of Babylon and head of all the sages of Babylon. 49 At Daniel's request, the king entrusted the affairs of the province of Babylon to Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego; Daniel himself remained in attendance on the king.
Question: How did the king reward Daniel?
Answer:
- He gave Daniel gifts and made him the governor of the province of Babylon, the head sage, and his chief advisor.
- He gave Daniel's friends prominent positions in the administration of the empire.
The story in Chapter 2 presents Yahweh as wielding power to set up and depose kings and their empires. The story sets the theme of the entire book that presents Yahweh as the Lord of lords, the King of kings, and the God above all false gods whose divine will has a far-reaching impact on the history of humanity to bring about His desired plan for the covenant people and all peoples of the earth.
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A Daily Defense
DAY 238 The Timing of the Fig Tree
CHALLENGE: “Matthew and Mark contradict each other on when Jesus cursed the fig tree.”
DEFENSE: The challenge involves the sequencing of three key events (in italics, below).
Here is the sequence of events in Matthew:
• Jesus visits the temple (21:12a)
• Jesus clears the temple (21:12b–16)
• Jesus stays in Bethany that night (21:17)
• Returning, Jesus curses the fig tree (21:18–19a)
• The disciples see the fig tree withered (21:19b–22)
And here is the sequence in Mark:
• Jesus visits the temple (11:11a)
• Jesus stays in Bethany that night (11:11b)
• Returning, Jesus curses the fig tree (11:12–14)
• Jesus clears the temple (11:15–19)
• The disciples see the fig tree withered (11:20–23)
It has been obvious to scholars throughout Church history that the evangelists don’t always arrange material in chronological order (see Day 89). This may have been commented on as early as the first century, when John the Presbyter stated: “Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, whatsoever he remembered of the things said or done by Christ” (Eusebius, Church History 3:39:15).
Sometimes the evangelists use chronology to organize material (e.g., the Crucifixion is always at the end of the Gospels), but other times they use other considerations.
This can be seen from how Matthew handles the material in Jesus’ major et hical and prophetic discourses (Matt. 5–7, 24–25). Much of the same material is in Luke, but it is scattered in different places. Matthew is not contradicting Luke; he’s simply grouping material together by topic.
With the fig tree, Matthew arranges material topically, so he keeps events involving the temple together (Jesus’ visit and clearing of it) and events involving the fig tree together (its cursing and withering).
Mark, by contrast, often arranges material in what scholars have called “Markan sandwiches,” where one event is placed between two others as a way of commenting on it. Thus Mark has the clearing of the temple between the two halves of the fig tree account to show the spiritual barrenness of the temple (see Day 93).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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