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Day 239: Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah
Jeremiah 22:6-9 ~ Oracle for the Royal Palace
The structure of the next three oracles includes a progression from:
- A judgment on the royal palace of the Davidic kings at the beginning of verses 6-7.
- An indictment of King Jehoiakim in the center in verses 13-17.
- A judgment on all Jerusalem, capital city of the Davidic kings, in verses 20-23.
Verses 6-7 of the oracle are in the poetic form, but verses 8-9 are in prose. If the Davidic kings of Judah do not uphold their responsibilities as God's civil agents of justice, His threat to destroy their royal seat of power will come to pass; Solomon's magnificent palace that is the symbol of the power of the Davidic kings and the nation will be destroyed.
Jeremiah 22:10-12 ~ Oracle Against Jehoahaz/Shallum
This oracle that begins in poetic form in verse 10 ends in prose in verses 11-12 and refers to Shallum whose throne name was Jehoahaz. In the oracle, Jeremiah says the royal house of David must not "weep for the man who is dead," referring to good King Josiah who was killed by the Egyptians at the Battle of Megiddo. After King Josiah was killed, he was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz who ruled for three months and was then deposed by the Egyptians in 609 BC.
Jeremiah 22:13-19 ~ Oracle Against Jehoiakim
This poetic oracle is a curse-judgment against King Jehoiakim son of Josiah who was made king by the Egyptians who deposed his brother Jehoahaz (see verse 18) and made him their vassal king when he was 25 years old. He ruled from 609-598 BC. He was a man who was more concerned with renovations to his palace than dispensing justice to his people (verses 13-15a). Yahweh describes the righteous deeds of King Josiah in verses 15b-16 that are similar to Yahweh's commands for a righteous king in 22:3. Unlike his father, Jehoiakim failed to fulfill his duty as a king; and, therefore, he was condemned to a disgraceful death. The Babylonians deposed him when he revolted against them a second time in 598 BC, and he died shortly after being taken away in exile to Babylon (2 Kng 23:36-6; 2 Chr 36:5-7).
Jeremiah 22:20-23 ~ Oracle Against Jerusalem: Home of the Davidic Kings
In this poetic oracle, Yahweh personifies Jerusalem whose citizens bewail the events at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's siege against the city 597 BC. The wailing, Jeremiah says, is heard all the way to the north in the mountains of Lebanon, to the north-east in Bashon on the east side of the Jordan River, and to the Abraim Mountain Range east of the Jordan River in Moab. This time all Jerusalem's "lovers" who are ruined are not false gods but her "shepherds," her kings and leading men taken captive by the Babylonians.
Jeremiah 22:24-30 ~ Oracle Against Jehoiachin
Verses 24-27 are in prose and then verses 28-30 are in the poetic oracle form. The oracle begins with the phrase, "As I live;" it is a self-oath that Yahweh makes concerning the destiny of Jehoiachin, also called "Coniah" or Jechoniah in Matthew's genealogy in Matthew 1:11-12, who is like the "broken pot" in Jeremiah's fifth object lesson oracle (Jer 19:1-15). This oracle probably refers to the people's lament for Jehoiachin and the Queen Mother's recent departure into Babylonian exile in 598 BC (see Jeremiah's warning of this event in 13:18; also the account in 2 Kng 24:12).
Jeremiah 23:1-8 ~ Oracle on the Future Messianic Davidic King and the Life of the Nation
Verses 1-4 and 7-8 are in prose, and verses 5-6 are in poetry. This is the conclusion of the "King Oracles" that began in chapter 21. The oracle in verses 1-8 can be divided into three parts:
- Judgment against Judah's failed shepherds/rulers in verses 1-2.
- The promise of restoration for a remnant of Israel in verse 3-4.
- The promise of the coming Davidic Messiah and a new liberation in verses 5-8.
Yahweh ordains judgment on the rulers of Judah who are responsible for the Babylonian exile. That Yahweh is personally coming against Judah's "failed shepherds" is repeated by the prophet Ezekiel (see Ez 34:1-10). However, God also promises that He will preserve a remnant of the covenant people, and He will take care of His flock and will regather them through "shepherds"/rulers of His choosing (also see Ez 34:11-16). He will also send a descendant of the great King David, a Davidic Messiah, to reign over His covenant people in fulfillment of the promises of the Davidic Covenant (see Ex 34:23-31).
This oracle is the third Messianic prophecy in the Book of Jeremiah, and it is repeated in the prophecy of Ezekiel 34:10-24 where Yahweh promises "I Myself" will restore the people.
| Prophecy | Scripture reference | New Testament Fulfillment |
| 1.The Church in the Messianic Age | Jer 3:14-17 | Mt 16:18-19; Acts 2:1-12 |
| 2.The death of Christ, the Lamb of sacrifice, and the Eucharist | Jer 11:19 | Jn 1:29, 36; Acts 8:32; 1 Pt 1:19; Rev 5:6, 12-13 |
| 3.The Davidic "Branch" and "Yahweh-is-our-Saving-Justice"/ "Lord of Righteousness" | Jer 23:5-6 (Is 4:2; 9:5-6; 11:1, 10-12; Ez 34:23; 37:25-28; Zec 3:8; 6:12) | Jn 2:19-21; Rom 1:3-4; Eph 2:20-21; 1 Pt 2:5 |
Daniel 3
Chapter 3
Chapter 3, like Chapter 2 concerns a statue. The scene in Chapter 3 is still in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar, but this time it concerns not a dream of a statue, but a golden statue erected by the king which his ministers must worship as a sign of their loyalty to him. The story concerns a confrontation between the Judahites serving in the Babylonian king's court who worship the God of Israel and the pagan Gentiles who worship idols. The story divides into three parts:
- Part one is the refusal of the Judahites to worship King Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue and the king's judgment to condemn them to death in a furnace (3:1-23).
- Part two contains the prayers of the three Jewish men in the fiery furnace (3:24-90a). This part is not in the Aramaic text but is in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Book of Daniel.*
- Part three records the king's discovery that the young Judahites survived their ordeal, his praise for the God of Israel, and the honor he shows the three young Judahites (3:90b-97).
*Verses 24-90 are in Greek and are not in the Jewish Tanakh or Protestant Bible translations. The wording of the text leads Biblical scholars to believe the original composition was in Hebrew or Aramaic, no longer preserved, and are only in the Greek Septuagint. The Church has always regarded these verses as part of the canonical Scriptures.
Daniel 3:1-7 ~ Nebuchadnezzar and the Golden Statue
The Septuagint dates this event to Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year as does the translation by Theodotion. The date, which is 587 BC, agrees with Jeremiah 32:1-2, This message came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned in the quarters of the guard, at the king's palace.
587 BC was the year the Nebuchadnezzar's army was successfully putting down revolts throughout his empire, including revolts in the Levant. The Babylonians besieged Jerusalem and then withdrew to stop the army of Judah's advancing Egyptian allies before returning, for the last time, to conquer and destroy the city and Solomon's Temple in the summer after the Babylonian new year (in March) that was the king's nineteenth year in 586 BC (2 Kng 25:1-10; 2 Chr 36:11-21; Jer 32:1-2; 34:21-22; 39:1-10). Theodotion's Greek translation also adds having subdued towns and provinces and all the inhabitants of the world from India to Ethiopia.
The colossal statue the king erected was six cubits high and six cubits wide. In our measurements, the statue was about 90 feet high by 9 feet wide, an odd, ill-proportioned human statue since it was very tall and very narrow, having more the dimensions of a stone pillar like an obelisk with a human form engraved on its gold-covered surface. It was an object of religious worship (verses 4, 7, 10) either connected with the cult of Nebuchadnezzar's gods (verses 12, 14, 18) or perhaps an image representing the king by which his people were intended to declare their loyalty by worshipping him as a god. In any event, it was a pagan idol. It was not uncommon in antiquity for a ruler to want his people to worship him as a god.
However, the significance of the size of the statue is in the number of cubits. God created both man and the serpent on the sixth day; therefore, the number six represents both man and rebellion. The numbering system for both Hebrew and Greek was their alphabet. The Greek alphabet, however, does not represent the number six by an alphabetic letter as in the other letters. It is represented instead by a snake-like symbol called the "stigma." In the Book of Revelation 13:18, the number of the Beast is written not as 666 but written with the Greek symbols for 600 and 60 and 6. In his book Numbers in Scripture, E.W. Bullinger observes that these three symbols correspond to first and last letters of the Greek word for Christ (Christos), with the symbol of the serpent in between the two other numbers (Numbers in Scripture page 49). Perhaps this arrangement can be seen as Christ the Messiah crushing Satan, the serpent (Rev 12:9), as God told the serpent in Genesis 3:15: I shall put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he will crush your head and you will strike its heel.
Examples of the number six in Scripture:
- 666 is the number of the Beast in the Book of Revelation (Rev 13:18).
- God commanded man to labor for six days (Ex 31:15).
- The sixth commandment in the Ten Commandments is the sin of murder (Ex 20:13).
- The sixth clause in the Lord's Prayer petitions that we not be led into sin but delivered from evil (Mt 6:13).
- The world turned dark beginning at the sixth-hour Jewish time (noon) when Christ was on the cross (Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33; Lk 23:44). In Roman time, the sixth hour is 6-7AM, the hour Jesus was in His trial with the Roman governor Pilate (Jn 19:14).
- Jesus was on the cross for six full hours (as the ancients counted); suffering to save mankind from sin, from 9 AM, (see Mk 15:25) to 3 PM (see Mk 15:33-34; Mt 27:45; Lk 23:44). He gave up His life at the beginning of the seventh hour (the number of completion and fulfillment).
- All six of the letters which represent the number system of the Roman Empire added together yield the number 666: I = 1; V= 5; X= 10; L= 50; C = 100; D= 500 [there is no letter/number M. 1000 was two Ds back to back which resembled an M].
The location of the statue, built on the "plain of Dura," cannot be identified. The location of the statue may have been the open area immediately outside the walls of the city of Babylon, welcoming all visitors to the city like the Colossus of Rhodes, constructed outside the walls of the city in 262 BC that was c. 108 feet tall.
The dedication ceremony included seven groups of royal officials who were the provincial authorities. The first three groups were of higher rank than the last four. Satraps oversaw the main divisions of the empire. Anyone who does not prostrate himself and worship will immediately be thrown into the burning fiery furnace."
When those assembled heard the musicians playing their instruments (the text names six kinds of instruments), they were to prostrate themselves in worship in front of the golden statue. The horn and pipe were wind instruments, the lyre, zither, and harp were string instruments, and the Aramaic instrument translated as "bagpipe" is unknown but could have been a drum or percussion instrument, the only well-known ancient instrument missing from the list. The punishment for failing to worship Nebuchadnezzar's statue was death by fire.
Daniel 3:8-12 ~ The Denunciation of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego
"Some Chaldaeans" is not a reference to the ethnic group but to Babylonian astrologers and soothsayers. They accused the Jewish royal administrators of disobeying the king's order to worship the statue. Apparently, they forget the kindness Daniel did for them concerning the king's dream in Chapter 1. At this point, the Jewish captives are no longer "young men" since that term is not used to describe them (as their youth was mentioned seven times previously in 1:3, 10, 13, 15, 17, 18, and 19). Notice that they do not name Daniel along with his countrymen. As the king's chief minister, he should have been present unless he was away on some special diplomatic mission as the king's representative.
Question: What was the motive of the Chaldeans for accusing the three Jews? See 3:12.
Answer: Their motive appears to be professional jealousy.
Daniel 3:13-23 ~ Nebuchadnezzar's Judgment
Nebuchadnezzar views their failure to worship his statue as an act of treason and threatens them with death by fire if they continue to refuse to bow down to it. Despite the king's threat, the three Jewish men refuse to worship the pagan idol. Execution by burning alive was not a common practice in the ancient Near East, but it was not unknown. The Book of Jeremiah records that the prophet Jeremiah foresaw that Nebuchadnezzar would have the false Jewish prophets Ahab ben Kolaiah and Zedekiah ben Maaseiah roasted alive for fostering sedition among the Jewish exiles (Jer 29:21).
Question: What is the response of the Jews to the king's threat?
Answer: Their answer is in two parts:
- They tell the king if it is the will of their God to save them, He will.
- However, they do not seek to compel God if it is His will not to save them.
They will submit to martyrdom because they will never serve Nebuchadnezzar's pagan gods or worship the golden statue.
Their answer enrages the king. He gives the order for his servants to stoke the fire seven times hotter and for the Jews to be bound and cast into the furnace fully clothed. The fire was so hot that the men carrying the Jews to the fire, perhaps some of the men who denounced them, were burned alive as they threw the Jews into the furnace.
Daniel 3:24-45 ~ The Song of Azariah (Abed-Nego) in the Furnace
At this point, the Greek Bible has a longer form of the text in three unequal parts. These parts are from the Greek Septuagint versions and Jerome's Vulgate (as well as the New Vulgate) that uses Theodotion's Greek version. The section is in three parts with each poetic passage introduced by prose description of the scene with the men in the flames of the furnace. Each part recalls the promise God made to faithful Israelites through the prophet Isaiah, and the men may have recalled it in their ordeal: And now, thus says Yahweh, he who created you, Jacob, who formed you, Israel: Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine. Should you pass through the waters, I shall be with you; or through rivers, they will not swallow you. Should you walk through fire, you will not suffer, and the flame will not burn you. For I am Yahweh, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (43:1-3a).
The three parts include:
- A short introduction followed by the poetic Penitential Prayer of Azariah/Abed-Nego (3:26-45).
- A prose account of the three Jews in the furnace (3:46-50).
- A short introduction followed by the poetic Canticle of Thanksgiving sung by the three Jewish men (3:51-90).
Daniel 3:46-50 ~ God's Answer to Azariah's Prayer
The passage returns to prose as God answers Azariah's prayer. The flames rose 49 cubits or 7 cubits times 7 cubits (seven is the number of fullness and completion), in other words, the exact amount ordained by God who controls these events. The passage presents a contrast between the fate of the Chaldean accusers and the three faithful Jews. Ironically, the flames consume the Chaldaeans who denounced them to the king like the flames consumed those servants of the king who carried the men to the furnace (verse 22). However, the three men, in the company of "the angel of the Lord" are safe inside the furnace as the angel drove the flames away from the three men who were kept cool and untouched by the fire that did not even burn their garments. In other Old Testament passages, the "angel of the Lord stands for God's power and protection (cf. Gen 16:7-11; Ex 3:2; etc.). However, in this passage, he appears as a person who stands with and protects the three Jewish men in the furnace like the angel who comforted and encouraged Joshua before the Battle of Jericho in Joshua 5:13-15.
The Fathers of the Church saw "the angel of the Lord" as the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. St. Athanasius wrote: "Daniel knew the Son of God and saw the works of God. He saw the Son of God who cooled the fires of the furnace with dew. But when he says, Bless the Lord, all works of the Lord,' he does not include the Son among them, because he knows that He is not a creature, but the One through whom all creatures were made, and who should be praised and exalted in the Father" (Epistulae ad Serapionem, 2.6).
Daniel 3:51-90 ~ The Canticle of the Three Jewish Men
Like the last section, the poetic Canticle of Thanksgiving begins with a prose description of the scene with the men in the flames of the furnace. The key words in this passage are "Forever," repeated 33 times, and the word "bless/blessing/blessed," repeated 40 times. The focus of the hymn is first on God Himself and His greatness. Next, the focus is on His creatures in Heaven and on earth. Finally, the focus shifts to the goodness and mercy God shows to those who fear Him:
- The hymn begins with praises addressed directly to God (verses 52-56).
- Then, the hymn calls on others to join in the hymn of praise (verses 57-87).
- The hymn ends by explaining why Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, and all who fear the Lord should give praise and thanks to the Lord who loves them with an everlasting love (verses 88-90).
There is an order in the blessings in this canticle in verses 55-82 that reflects God's work in Creation. It begins with heavenly beings (the cherubim, angels), then the elements of the air and earth (waters above the heavens that are rain-filled clouds, the sun, moon, and stars, the winds, fire and heat, cold and chill, the dew, rain, cold, chill, ice and snow, nights and days, light and darkness, lightning and clouds, the earth, mountains). That is followed by water on earth and growing things on the earth with its creatures (the springs and rivers, creatures in the seas and waters, birds of the air and animals wild and tame), and finally, human beings (the sons of men).
86 Bless the Lord, spirits and souls of the upright, praise and glorify him forever!
The verse summarizes the Creation event that began with the angels and ended with the creation of man. The angels and human beings are the only creatures capable of offering praise and glory to God and having a relationship with Him in the liturgy of worship. In verse 86, "spirits" refers to the angels, immortal spiritual beings who worship and serve God, while "souls" refers to the immortal lifeforce of humans. The soul is the immortal spiritual part of every human being that animates the body. It is individually created for each person by God and infused into the body at the time of human insemination. However, it is not the total human person since every individual is composed of a body animated by a soul (see CCC 362-367). In this verse, the order that began with the heavenly beings finds completion in the souls of men, especially those who are "servants of the Lord" (verse 85).
Daniel 3:91-97 ~ The King Acknowledges the Miracle
Protestant and Jewish translations include this prose section beginning with verse 90b (numbered as verse 25 in their translations). Nebuchadnezzar hears singing coming from the furnace and sees the three men walking about in the midst of the flames with a fourth man looking like a child of the gods (verse 92) who Nebuchadnezzar identifies as an angel in verse 95 (also see verses 49-50). Nebuchadnezzar calls the three to come out of the furnace, referring to them as servants of God Most High. He is not the first Gentile to use this title for Yahweh, God of Israel; also see Melchizedek (Gen 14:18-20); Balaam (Num 24:16); and another King of Babylon (Is 14:14).
Question: What is the king's final judgment on the refusal of the three Jewish men to submit his command to worship the statue?
Answer: He blesses the God of Shadrack, Meshach, and Abed-Nego who sent His angel to rescue them because they put their trust in their God by refusing to worship any god but Him.
Question: What is the essence of the king's royal decree in verse 96?
Answer: He officially places the Jewish God and worship of the Jewish God under the protection of the Babylonian state.
Verse 96 is almost the same Aramaic wording as in 2:5. In verse 97, the three Jewish men receive favors, and Nebuchadnezzar reinstates them as ministers in his kingdom.
Daniel 3:98-100 ~ Nebuchadnezzar's Proclamation
Chapter 3 concludes with Nebuchadnezzar sending a proclamation throughout his empire, acknowledging the signs and wonders he has seen concerning the God of the Jews whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, his empire endures age after age! The addressees are all peoples, nations, and languages[tongues] dwelling throughout the world. It is similar to greetings in Daniel 3:4, 7; 5:19; 6:26; 7:14 and Revelation 5:9 and 14:6.
The Fathers of the Church, like Saints Ambrose and Augustine, wrote that the episode of the fiery furnace confirms that God wills that peoples of all nations should come to know Him. The transformation of a king who persecutes the righteous to a king who acknowledges and supports worship of the One Tue God foreshadows a world ruled by kings who confess Christ as the Savior who is the Lord of lords and King of kings (Ambrose, On the Christian Faith, 1.4.33 and Augustine, (Letter 93).
DAY 239 God in the Old and New Testaments
CHALLENGE: “The God of the Old Testament is depicted as angry and jealous, but the God of the New Testament is depicted as loving and kind.”
DEFENSE: This claim has elements of both truth and falsehood.
It has an element of falsehood because God is depicted as both just and merciful in both Testaments. Anyone who reads the Old Testament encounters many descriptions of God as loving and kind: “The Lord [is] a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exod. 34:6; cf. Num. 14:18, Deut. 4:31, 2 Chron. 30:9, Neh. 9:17, Ps. 86:5). And anyone who reads the New Testament encounters many mentions of God’s wrath: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31; cf. Matt. 25:41, Rom. 1:18, 2 Thess. 1:8–9, Rev. 20:11–15).
Both the Old and New Testaments thus depict God as stern and as kind, and the passages in question illustrate two of his attributes—justice and mercy—which he possesses and displays eternally. Therefore, there aren’t two different Gods in the Bible, but one God who displays both attributes.
This is not to say that there are not differences in emphasis. There are, and they have to do with the different stages of God’s plan, by which he progressively reveals himself to man (CCC 69).
The earlier portions of Scripture were written in a very violent period, and they reflect the character of the time. In the Old Testament, polytheism was a real threat to the Israelites, and there was constant oppression and exploitation of the poor and the weak. God thus used the image of himself as a powerful, heavenly king to warn the Israelites against polytheism and oppression—the sins that are regularly singled out for the strongest condemnation in the Old Testament.
When Jesus came, a new phase in God’s plan dawned—a phase in which God made himself vulnerable and offered himself on the cross, underscoring in the most dramatic way his love for mankind (John 3:16). The impact of this event naturally colored the way God is revealed in the New Testament and balances the emphases found in the Old.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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