Bible In One Year Day 242 (Jeremiah 26-27, Daniel 8-9, Proverbs 16:9-12)

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Day 242: King Nebuchadnezzar's Role 

Agape Bible Study 
Jeremiah 26-27 

Chapter 26: The Arrest and Trial of Jeremiah

The event in Chapter 26 dates to the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah who ruled from 609-598 BC. Therefore, the events probably date to about 608 BC, four years before Jeremiah's oracle concerning the acceptance of Babylonian rule in chapter 25. Jeremiah opponents arrest him and put him on trial for sedition as a result of the Temple sermon Yahweh commanded him to give in 26:1-6. While his accusers are the priests and false prophets, he has friends among the princes and the king's ministers, especially Ahikam. Jeremiah's excommunication from the Temple took place shortly after this event in about 605 BC (see Jer 25:1 and 36:1, 5).

Jeremiah 26:1-6 ~ Oracle Prophesying the Destruction of the Temple

All of Chapter 26 is in prose except for verse 18b which is a quotation from Micah 3:12. King Jehoiakim began his reign in 609 BC. Therefore, this oracle is dated to before Jeremiah's excommunication from the Temple that occurred sometime between 608 and 605 BC (Jer 36:1, 5). In fact, this event, and the preaching in the Temple in 19:14-20:2 that probably took place in the same year, may have led to Jeremiah's excommunication from the Temple by the religious authorities.

In this oracle, Jeremiah is commanded to tell the people that Yahweh offers His mercy and forgiveness if only the people will repent. That "all the people from the towns of Judah" are coming to worship in the Temple suggests this event took place during one of the three pilgrim feasts: Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks (called "Pentecost" in Jesus' time), or Feast of Tabernacles. The vision and oracle of the two baskets of figs in 24:1-16 probably took place after the chief priests banned Jeremiah from the Temple, and therefore came after this oracle. The vision of the figs suggest that oracle took place during the pilgrim feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) when every righteous man of the covenant was to present himself at Yahweh Temple for the festival's eight days of liturgical services and sacrifices.

Jeremiah 26:7-10 ~ Jeremiah is Arrested

The "chief men of Judah" came from the royal palace to hear Jeremiah's trial. In ancient times, justice was often carried out at a city gate (see the Book of Ruth, 4:1-12), and it is at the "New Gate" (an unknown location near the Temple and the royal palace) that Jeremiah's enemies call a court of inquiry into session to deal with Jeremiah's offense. The charge was probably that of sedition against the Temple and the Davidic king.

Jeremiah 26:11-15 ~ Jeremiah Defends Himself

Question: What group of Jews act as the plaintiffs in Jeremiah's trial and what group of Jews serve as the jury?

Answer: The priests and prophets are the plaintiffs in Jeremiah's trial while the civil leaders and the people serve as the jury.
Question: What is the accusation made against Jeremiah that the priests and prophets say deserves the death sentence?
Answer: Jeremiah has acted as a traitor in prophesying destruction against the city and the Temple, and they denounce him as a false prophet who deserves death.

Jeremiah knows these men do not control his destiny. He knows that God promised him divine protection (Jer 1:8). Therefore, Jeremiah challenges them to kill him, but at the same time reminds them of the penalty for shedding the innocent blood of Yahweh's prophet.

Jeremiah 26:16-24 ~ Jeremiah's Defenders

Question: What two points do Jeremiah's defenders make in his defense in verses 16-19?

Answer:

1. They testify that Jeremiah does not deserve to die just because he spoke in the name of Yahweh.
2. They cite a historical precedent for Jeremiah's prophecy from the time of King Hezekiah when the prophet Micah also prophesied the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, and he suffered no punishment.

Chapters 27: Jeremiah's Message of Submission to Babylon

Chapters 27-29 are in prose, and the focus of these chapters is submission to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Yahweh's servant who carries out His will. The object lesson and oracle are dated to the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah who ruled from 598 " 587 BC. 27:1-28:17 concern Jeremiah's prophecy of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon's conquest of the entire Levant, his plea for submission to the Babylonians, and Jeremiah's confrontation with the false prophet Hananiah.

Jeremiah 27:1-11 ~ Object Lesson #7: The Symbolic Yoke
This episode is Jeremiah's seventh object lesson. Yahweh commands him to make thongs/straps and yokes to wear on his neck similar to what domesticated animals wear when they are subject to their master's bidding. He is commanded to send yokes to the different kings of the region through their official ambassadors in Jerusalem. He is also commanded to go about the city of Jerusalem wearing his yoke and preaching that his yoke serves as a symbol for the "yoke" of the Babylonians that the kings and peoples will wear when the Babylonians conquer the region. For the second time in verse 6, Yahweh refers to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon as His servant (see 25:9). The only other Gentile king honored as a servant of Yahweh is King Cyrus of Persia who is called God's "anointed one" in Isaiah 45:1.

Jeremiah 27:12-15 ~ The Oracle to King Zedekiah

Jeremiah gives the same message to King Zedekiah, telling him, if he wants to survive and to spare the people further hardship, he must submit to the King of Babylon and not listen to the lying false prophets.

Jeremiah 27:16-26 ~ The Oracle to the Priests and the People

The message to the priests and the people also urges submission to Babylon and to be wary of false prophets. 2 Kings 24:11-13 records that in 598 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar deposed Jechoniah/Jehoiachin and the Queen mother and took them into exile, he also took away many treasures of the Temple, the leading ministers, and the best of the artisans.

2 Kings 25:13-17 records that these and other Temple items were broken apart and taken to Babylon. Persian King Cyrus fulfills the prophecy in verse 22 when he returns the people and the Temple treasures to Judah (Ezra 1:1-11).

Agape Bible Study
Daniel 8-9 

Chapter 8: The Vision of the Ram and the He-Goat

Chapter 8 is in Hebrew. The Hebrew text continues into Chapters 9-12. Chapter 10 explains the visions in Chapter 9, and Chapter 12 explains Chapter 11. These visions deal with the experiences of God's people under the rule of the Medo-Persians, represented by the ram (a ram has two horns), and under the Greeks represented by the goat with one large horn.

The vision in Chapter 8 takes place in the third year of Belshazzar's reign (548 BC) when Daniel is transported spiritually to the city of Susa in the Babylonian province of Elam. The vision is in three parts:

1. The ram with two great horns (verses 1-4).
2. The he-goat with a great horn on its forehead (verses 5-12).
3. The angelic beings and Gabriel who explains the vision (verses 13-27).

Daniel 8:1-14 ~ The Vision of the Ram and the He-Goat

Belshazzar's father made him co-ruler in c. 550 BC. Since he served as co-ruler, there was no ascension year, and therefore the third year, counting 550 as year one, was 548 BC. 550 BC, the year Belshazzar became co-ruler of Babylon, was same the year Cyrus overthrew his grandfather and acquired his Median kingdom.

Daniel's vision spiritually transports him to Susa (Shushan in Hebrew), the capital of the Kingdom of Elam, located in the lower Zagros Mountains about 160 miles (250 km) east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers. Elam was a vassal kingdom of Babylon, and Susa was where Nehemiah lived during the Babylonian captivity (Neh 1:1). The city was also the setting for the Book of Esther. Cyrus of Persia conquered Susa in 540/539 BC. Alexander the Great conquered the city in 331 BC and arranged for a mass wedding there between Persians and Macedonians in 324 BC.

The Four Main Divisions of Alexander the Great's Empire After His death:

1. Macedonia & Greece = Antipater & Cassander
2. Thrace & Asia Minor = Lysimachus
3. Syria = Seleucus
4. Israel/Judah & Egypt = Ptolemy*

**Egypt dominated Judah only until the Battle of Panim in 198 BC when Egypt lost the Levant to the Seleucids of Syria.

Daniel 8:15-27 ~ The Angel Gabriel Interprets the Vision

Daniel is either standing by the Ulai gate or by the river; Ezekiel had his first visions by a river (Ez 1:1-3:11). He sees an angelic being who looks like a man and hears a voice addressing the angel as "Gabriel" and telling him to reveal the meaning of the vision. The Hebrew name "Gabriel" means "strength of God" or "warrior of God." He is one of the three angles named in the Old Testament; also see Michael (Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9 and Rev 12:7) and Raphael (Book of Tobit).

Question: What does the angel tell Daniel and how does it relate to Daniel's word of knowledge in 2:28?
Answer: The visions concern the "time of the end" or the "final days."

The "time of the end" or the "final days" does not refer to the end of the world as we know it but to the final days of the present age and the beginning of the final age of humanity in the Messianic Era that will come after a period of persecution during a last domination by the Gentiles.

Gabriel identifies the ram with two horns as the Medo-Persian kings and the he-goat as a king of Greece, the large horn between its eyes representing its first king, Alexander the Great. The four horns that sprouted in its place are the four Greek kingdoms and their dynasties that arose after Alexander's death, but not as strong.

The Greek ruler who fits the description in verses 22-26 is Antiochus IV (r. 175-164 BC). He persecuted the people of God (recounted in the Books of the Maccabees) and desecrated the holy Temple. There are two accounts of his death in 2 Maccabees 1:13-16 and 9:5-27. He was struck with a disease and died a miserable death, without any human intervention. The "prince of princes" may refer to the High Priest Onias III, assassinated in c 195/190 BC or another high priest during the time of Antiochus IV.

CORRELATION OF DREAMS AND VISIONS IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL

	Image from Chapter 2	Beasts from Chapter 7	Beasts from Chapter 8	World Kingdoms
T I M E   of the   G E N T I L E S	Head of gold	Like a lion with eagle's wings		Babylon 606/5-539 BC
	Chest and arms of silver	Like a bear	Ram with two horns	Medo-Persia 539-331 BC
	Belly and thighs of bronze	Like a leopard with four wings and four heads	Male goat with one great horn, four horns, and a little horn	Alexander the Great - Greece kingdoms 332-146 BC
	Legs of iron, feet of iron and clay	Incomparable beast with ten horns and a little horn		Rome and the domination of the Province Judea beginning in 63 BC
Final Days/ Final Age	The stone that becomes a great mountain	Messiah and Saints receive the Kingdom of God		5th Kingdom = Kingdom of Jesus Christ*

* THE CATHOLIC CHURCH "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH

Both little horns of Chapters 7 and 8 are two persons. Several factors support this interpretation:

COMPARISON OF THE VISIONS OF THE LITTLE HORNS OF CHAPTERS 7 and 8

LITTLE HORN OF CHAPTER 7	LITTLE HORN OF CHAPTER 8
Comes from (Rome) the 4th kingdom	Comes from (Greece) the 3rd kingdom
Will root up 3 of 10 horns	Will be a 5th horn, coming out of 1 of 4
Persecutes God's people for 3 and one half years	Persecutes God's people for 1,150 evenings and mornings or over 3 years

 

History has fulfilled Daniel's prophecy of the ram, the goat, and the horns in the empires of the Persians, the Greek, and the Romans and their domination of the covenant people.

The Reigns of the Kings of Persia from Cyrus the Great to Alexander the Great:

559-530 BC: Cyrus the Great (son of Cambyses I, King of Anshan and the grandson of Astyages King of the Medes)
530-522 BC: Cambyses (son of Cyrus the Great)
522 BC: Bardiya (?)
522-486 BC: Darius I, the Great (son of Hystaspes, a Persian satrap of Bactria)
486-465 BC: Xerxes I (son of Darius I)
465-424 BC: Artaxerxes/Xerxes II (son of Xerxes I)
424-423 BC: Soqdianus (son of Artaxerxes/Xerxes I)
423-404 BC: Darius II (son of Artaxerxes/Xerxes II)
404-358 BC: Artaxerxes II (son of Darius II)
358-338 BC: Artaxerxes III (son Artaxerxes II)
338-336 BC: Artaxerxes IV (son of Artaxerxes III)
336-330 BC: Darius III (great-grandson of Darius II)
330 BC: the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great of Macedonia

Daniel 9:1-3 ~ The Prophecy of the Seventy Years
1 It was the first year of Darius son of Artaxerxes, a Mede by race who assumed the throne of Chaldaea.

This verse cannot refer to Darius II of Persia, the son of Artaxerxes who reigned over the Persian Empire from his ascension year in 423 to 404 BC. Verse 1 is undoubtedly a scribal error in which the scribe substituted Darius (grand)son of Astyages for Darius, son of Artaxerxes, and the error continued. The reference cannot be to Darius II son of Artaxerxes for two reasons:

1. Darius II was not a Mede.
2. Daniel would have been about 195 years old in the first full year of the reign of Darius II in 422 BC.

The reference to the Mede who assumed the throne of Chaldaea-Babylon should be Darius the Mede of Daniel 6:1 who probably took the throne-name Cyrus and whose grandfather was Astyages King of the Medes. Daniel would have been 78 years old the first year Darius/Cyrus conquered Babylon.

God's encouragement to use His Divine Name, rendered as all ancient Hebrew words without consonants, is YHWH and which most Biblical scholars assume, with vowels, should be pronounced Yahweh. The word LORD is a substitute for the Divine name in many translations. Yahweh's instructions to Moses demonstrates that to refuse to use the Divine Name in invoking God is a false piety. YHWH is the most frequently used reference to God in the Bible.

Daniel 9:4-19 ~ Daniel's Prayer

Daniel's petition includes:

1. His plea for God not to forget His covenant promises to His people or His faithful covenant love (hesed) for them (verse 4).
2. The confession of his sins (verse 20) and the covenant people's communal sins against God that include not listening to God's prophets and not obeying God's commandments (verses 5-11).
3. He admits that because of the covenant people and their rulers' acts of disobedience and disloyalty that they deserve God's harsh judgments (verses 12-15).
4. He appeals to God's mercy to forgive and restore His covenant people (16-19).

Daniel 9:20-27 ~ The Angel Gabriel Explains the Prophecy

In 9:20, Daniel was still making his petition concerning the return of the covenant people to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of Yahweh's Temple on the "holy mountain" of Mt. Moriah when the angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel for the second time (see 8:16-26). It is significant that Gabriel comes to Daniel at the hour of the second Tamid sacrifice, at the ninth hour, or in our time, three in the afternoon. It will be the same hour as the crucifixion of Jesus nearly 500 years later (Mt 27:45-50; Mk 15:33-41; Lk 23:44-49). Gabriel is the same heavenly messenger sent to explain the earlier vision (8:15-27). Now, he is sent to give Daniel understanding about the return of the exiles and other events associated with their return. We learn from verse 21 that Gabriel has wings like the Cherubim (Ex 25:18-20; 1 Kng 6:23-27) and the Seraphim (Is 6:2).

In Daniel 8:17, Gabriel explained to Daniel that his vision shows the time of the End (also see 2:28). Daniel's vision referred to the whole period from the end of the exile until the end of the Old Covenant, and the coming of the "Anointed one" (in Hebrew Mashiach, meaning the Messiah). The Messiah will usher in the Messianic Era, and the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah in 31:31-34. The angel Gabriel sets a time frame for the coming of the Messiah in Daniel 9:25-27 by offering another interpretation of the seventy years prophecy.

The seventy years are probably a symbolic number reflecting God's perfect plan, but for those looking for a literal fulfillment of the seventy-year period, there are two ways to calculate the time:

1. From the first captivity in 605 BC (2 Kng 24:1) until the rebuilding of the altar by the returned exiles 70 years later in 536/5 BC, or
2. From the destruction of the Temple in 587/6 BC until the exiles finished rebuilding the Temple 70 years later in 517/6 BC.

Each of the empires that dominated the Jews from the Babylonians to the Romans who conquered Judah in 63 BC and Emperor Constantine II's conversion to Christianity:

Daniel's vision	The Angel's Interpretation	The Five Empires	Centuries the Gentile kingdoms dominated the people of God until the 5th Kingdom
1. The Lion	1st king	Babylonian	Late 7th-6th century BC
2. The Bear	2nd king	Medo-Persian	6th-4th century BC
3. The Leopard	3rd king	Greek	4th -2nd century BC
4. Fourth Beast	4th king	Roman	1st century BC-4thcentury AD
5. Son of Man	5th king	Kingdom of God	1st century AD forward to the end of time

Question: In 9:26, Gabriel speaks of the Anointed One, the meaning of the Hebrew word "Messiah." What does Gabriel prophesy about a future Messiah?
Answer: The Messiah, "the Anointed One," will be rejected and killed by His people outside the walls of his city. Another ruler's people will come who will destroy the city and the Temple. This ruler will set up an abomination in the sanctuary.

During the Feast of Unleavened Bread in AD 30, Jesus the Messiah's countrymen rejected and orchestrated His death on a cross outside the gates of Jerusalem. He died expiating the sins of His people and humanity. He arose from death three days later (as the ancients counted) and taught His disciples for forty days before His ascension to the Father in Daniel's vision in 7:13-14. On the fiftieth day from His Resurrection, God the Holy Spirit baptized the New Covenant Church with His fiery spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, AD 30. In AD 66, the Jews revolted against Rome. The Romans send four legions to put down the revolt and, forty years after Jesus' Ascension in AD 70, Titus, the Roman General and son of Emperor Vespasian, made war against the Jews for a short period (AD 68-70), then he destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, ending the Tamid sacrifice and Temple liturgical worship forever (verses 26-27a). Titus took possession of the burnt-out Temple, setting up the Roman legion's standards depicting false Roman gods, in what had been the Temple's Holy of Holies (27b). It was an abomination and desecration similar to that of the Greek-Syrian ruler Antiochus IV in 167 BC (1 Mac 1:54/57, 59/62).

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 242 Nothing but Science?

CHALLENGE: “We shouldn’t believe anything that can’t be verified by science.”

DEFENSE: Authentic science does not maintain this.

Science involves the use of a particular method (i.e., “scientific method”), the principal steps of which are:

1. Observing some aspect of the world

2. Formulating hypotheses to explain the observed data

3. Making predictions about further observations based on the hypotheses

4. Performing experiments to test the predictions (particularly by trying to falsify them).

This general method has proved useful for investigating many subjects, but, as we cover elsewhere (see Day 333), there are limits to what can be investigated by science.

Sometimes the reason is practical, as when an experiment cannot be performed without affecting the behavior of the phenomenon to be observed. This situation is frequently encountered in studying the behavior of subatomic particles, leading to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle (according to which we cannot measure both the position and the momentum of a particle).

Other times the limit is due to a matter of principle. Science—like every other field—cannot get off the ground without using truths of logic that are fundamental to all reasoning. Yet these principles cannot be verified by the scientific method. Instead, they are assumed.

Science also presupposes other principles that it cannot demonstrate, such as the lawlike behavior of natural phenomena and the extension of those laws into the past and future. It also must assume that the data that has been observed is representative of the way things are and not just a misleading set of fluke observations. Repeating experiments to gain more data is good, but the new experiments also could involve fluke observations, so there must remain an assumption that the observed data is representative of the way things really are. 

Most fundamentally, the claim that we should not accept anything that cannot be verified by science does not meet its own test. In view of the limits of science we have covered, the hypothesis proposed in the challenge does not fit the observed data. It is a bad hypothesis and therefore something that authentic science does not support. Authentic science recognizes its own limits and does not claim to be the single tool needed to prove every type of proposition.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist