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Day 243: The Lord's Plan
Agape Bible Study
Jeremiah 28-29
Chapter 28: Jeremiah's Dispute with Hananiah
Jeremiah 28:1-4 ~ Hananiah Confronts Jeremiah
The event in this chapter dates to the fifth month of the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah (ruled 598-587 BC) in what is probably the month of Ab/Av (July/August) in about 594/3 BC, if the reference is to the liturgical calendar. However, if it is the fifth month of the civil calendar, the month is Sebat (January/February).
Hananiah, one of the false prophets Jeremiah warned about in Chapter 27, challenged Jeremiah in the Temple and prophesied the return of the Temple vessels taken by the Babylonians in 598 BC, the return of exiled king, and people within two years (2 Kng 24:8-17; 2 Chr 36:9-10).
Jeremiah 28:5-9 ~ Jeremiah's Reply to Hananiah
Jeremiah replies that he is in favor of peace and the return of the Temple vessels, the young king, and the other people taken into exile. However, he says, this is not the outcome for Judah preached by Yahweh's prophets for the past century since the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC. He reminds the people that the test of a true prophet is the fulfillment of what he preaches (Dt 18:21-22).
Jeremiah 28:10-17 ~ The End of the Confrontation Between Jeremiah and Hananiah
Hananiah, in a display of brazen impudence, attacked Jeremiah. He broke Jeremiah's symbolic yoke (28:10) and announced it as a prophetic action, symbolizing that his message takes precedence over Jeremiah's message. His prophecy is the end of the Babylonian threat within two years. The contest between the two prophets ends in a tie and Jeremiah leaves.
In verses 13-16, God gives Jeremiah an oracle just for Hananiah. He returns to Hananiah with the new oracle of an iron yoke to symbolize the message that submission of Babylon is not a broken yoke "it is an inevitable fact. Jeremiah's prediction reinforces the symbol that Hananiah is a false prophet. Hananiah died two months later, suffering the punishment in Deuteronomy 18:20 that the chief priests intended for Jeremiah in 26:8.
Chapter 29: Jeremiah's Letter to the Exiles in Babylon
Chapter 29 divides into three sections:
- The introduction to the letter Jeremiah sent to the Babylonian exiles in verses 1-3.
- The content of the letter Jeremiah sent to the Babylonian exiles in verses 4-23.
- The consequences of Jeremiah's first letter that result in a second letter in verses 24-32.
Jeremiah's letter was probably written sometime during the decade between the exile of the citizens of Judah and Jerusalem in 598 BC and the advance of the Babylonian army against a rebellious Judean King Zedekiah in 587 BC that ended in the destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6 BC. The body of Jeremiah's letter in 29:4-23 divides into five parts:
- God's advice on how to live in exile (verses 4-7).
- God's warnings concerning false prophets (verses 8-9).
- The promise of God's good plans for the exiles after their return (verses 10-14).
- The Babylonian conquest is God's doing because they refused to listen to His prophets (verses 15-20).
- God's judgment on three false prophets who dare to claim they speak in His name (verses 21-23).
Jeremiah 29:1-3 ~ Introduction to Jeremiah's Letter to the Exiles
God commanded Jeremiah to send a letter to the Judean exiles deported to Babylonian in 598 BC with young King Jechoniah, the queen mother, ministers of the royal court, and the artisans trained in metal work and as blacksmiths.
Jeremiah 29:3c-14 ~ The Letter to the Exiles Part I: The Promised Return
Question: How does God tell His people to live in exile in verses 5-7?
Answer: They must:
- settle down and build houses
- sow crops and produce food
- have families to increase their numbers
- take an active role in being good citizens
- pray to Yahweh for the benefit of their communities
In verses 8-10, God shares His divine plan with the exiles, warning them not to be deceived by false prophets who tell them otherwise. 29:10 is the second time Jeremiah mentions a seventy-year exile and a promised return (see 25:11-12).(2) The seventy years is probably a rounded number and is not necessarily a literal number; it is the equivalent of a lifetime (Ps 90:10).
Jeremiah 29:15-20 ~ The Letter to the Exiles Part II: Warnings Concerning False Prophets
In verse 15, Jeremiah's letter makes the argument that in Babylon false prophets have apparently announced that God will overthrow their oppressors. The king currently occupying the "throne of David" is King Zedekiah who Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II made his vassal king of Judah when he deposed Zedekiah's brother and nephew and took his nephew and the Queen Mother away into exile. In verses 16-20, Jeremiah portrays a scenario in which King Zedekiah and the people still left in Jerusalem and Judah will suffer further punishment at the hands of the Babylonians because they did not listen to God's prophets, like Jeremiah. In verse 17, the same rotten fig imagery is used to describe the king and the people left behind after the 589 BC exile as in Jeremiah's vision and object lesson #6 in chapter 24. The rotten fig imagery it is followed by the warning to the exiles already in Babylon to listen to "Yahweh's word" in the letter and not to behave unlike the "bad figs" who did not listen and will pay the price of their failure (verse 20).
Jeremiah 29:21-23 ~ The Letter to the Exiles Part III: The Conclusion and God's Judgment on the False Prophets Ahab and Zedekiah
Jeremiah's letter condemns two false prophets in Babylon: Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah. Both men are otherwise unknown. Zedekiah son of Maaseiah may be the brother of Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the deputy priest of the Temple (see verses 24-28).
God will judge us on both our words and our deeds, and nothing in our lives can be hidden from Him. In warning teachers, St. James wrote: Only a few of you, my brothers, should be teachers, bearing in mind that we shall receive a stricter judgment (Jam 3:1a). It is a warning that all of us who teach must take to heart or bear the eternal consequences. The two men named in verse 21 suffered the consequences of their deeds by paying with their lives.
Jeremiah 29:24-28 ~ The Response to Jeremiah's Letter by Shemaiah
Shemaiah the Nehelamite is not a descendant of Aaron and a man from a priestly family. Notice that in the passage he is never referred to as a priest. Shemaiah took upon himself the role of priestly leadership over the people in exile. No site called Nehelam is mentioned in Scripture, nor have archaeologists identified a town by that name. Its etymology suggests a connection with the Hebrew word chalam, "to dream," and may be a reference to Shemaiah's claim as a prophet who has "dreams." Jehoiada, mentioned in verse 26, was perhaps the legitimate high priest or the deputy priest of the Temple who has been overthrown by Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. The priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah was a member of a priestly delegation sent by King Zechariah to Jeremiah asking him to consult Yahweh concerning the threats of Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah 21:1-2. He is named again in 37:3.
Shemaiah the Nehelamite sent an angry response regarding Jeremiah's letter to the exiles back to Jerusalem. In his letter, he demands that the chief priests in Jerusalem must put a stop to Jeremiah's inference. Jeremiah's letter has apparently contradicted the message of this false prophet who preached an immediate return from the exile and has urged the people not to settle into normal life in Babylon.
Question: What became of the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah who received Shemaiah's letter? See Jer 52:24-26.
Answer: He was put to death by the Babylonians after the fall of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 29:29-32 ~ Jeremiah's Response to Shemaiah's Letter
After Jeremiah heard the letter from Babylon, God told Jeremiah to condemn Shemaiah as a false prophet who urged rebellion against God's divine plan, a violation of Deuteronomy 13:6, That prophet or that dreamer of dreams must be put to death, since he has preached apostasy from Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the place of slave-labor; and he would have diverted you from the way in which Yahweh your God has commanded you to walk. You must banish this evil from among you.
Daniel 10 -11
Chapter 10
The Great Vision of the Man Dressed in Linen
St. John's vision of the glorified Christ: I turned to see who was speaking to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands and in the middle of them, one like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a belt of gold. His head and his hair were white with the whiteness of wool, like snow, his eyes like a burning flame, his feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of the ocean [many waters].
Revelation 1:12-15
Daniel 10:1-8 ~ The Man Dressed in Linen
In Chapters 10-12, Daniel witnesses the last of his visions. It is the year 537 BC (Dan 10:1). In his final visions, he receives further insight into the great spiritual battle between God's people and the "seed of the serpent" (all those who reject God become the "seed of the serpent" in Gen 3:15). By this time, many Jews had made the journey back to their homeland, but Daniel chose to remain in Babylonia. At the time of the vision, Daniel was fasting during a three-week penance. It is uncertain if the twenty-fourth day of the first month refers to the civil or liturgical calendar. If it is the liturgical calendar, it is in the spring, several days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread that lasted from the 15th to the 21st. If it is the civil calendar, the first month of the new year is in the fall, and the 24th day is several days after the final assembly of the Feast of Tabernacles. Like the prophet Ezekiel, Daniel receives this vision on a specific date and on the banks of a river (Ez 1:1).
5 I raised my eyes to look about me, and this is what I saw: A man dressed in linen, with a belt of pure gold round his waist: 6 his body was like beryl, his face looked like lightning, his eyes were like fiery torches, his arms and his face had the gleam of burnished bronze, the sound of his voice was like the roar of a multitude.
Question: Compare the description of Daniel's man dressed in linen with a belt of gold around his waist and St. John's vision in Revelation 1:13-15 of the glorified Jesus Christ.
Answer:
| Daniel's Vision in Daniel 10:5-6 | John's Vision in Revelation 1:13-15 |
| A man dressed in linen, with a belt of pure gold round his waist | one like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a belt of gold. |
| his body was like beryl, his face looked like lightning, his eyes were like fiery torches, his arms and his face had the gleam of burnished bronze | his body was like beryl, his face looked like lightning, his eyes were like fiery torches, his arms and his face had the gleam of burnished bronze |
| the sound of his voice was like the roar of a multitude. | and his voice like the sound of the ocean [many waters] |
The visions of Daniel and St. John are remarkably the same; therefore, many of the Church Fathers believed Daniel had a vision of the pre-Incarnate Christ, but others suggest it is an angel. He cannot be Gabriel, who Daniel knew from a previous encounter, and he cannot be Michael, the archangel, because the person in the vision will refer to Michael in verse 13. When St. John sees Christ in Heaven in the Book of Revelation, He is wearing the garment of the High Priest of the heavenly Sanctuary. The priestly vestments of the high priest and the chief priests are described in Exodus 28:1-43. The high priest and chief priests wore seamless tunics of finely woven linen. The high priest also wore elaborate woven outer garments (see the chart Liturgical Vestments of the Priests and Levites. However, on the Feast of Atonement, the High Priest only wore the seamless linen tunic and a waistband (Lev 16:3-4). The priests only wore their priestly vestments in the liturgy of worship in service to God in the Temple (Ez 42:14).
Question: What garment did Jesus wear to the Last Supper and His Crucifixion? Why was this garment significant to the event of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion? See Jn 19:23-24.
Answer: He wore a priestly seamless garment which made the Last Supper and His Crucifixion liturgical events.
7 I, Daniel, alone saw the apparition; the men who were with me did not see the vision, but so great a trembling overtook them that they fled to hide. 8 I was left alone, gazing on this great vision; I was powerless, my appearance was changed and contorted; my strength deserted me.
The men with Daniel did not witness the vision, but physically felt the power of the divine presence, and so did Daniel.
Daniel 10:9-19 ~ The Message of the Apparition
Question: The person dressed in a white linen tunic takes what three actions concerning Daniel?
Answer:
- He assures Daniel that God chose him to receive the vision.
- He calms Daniel's fears.
- He tells Daniel he has come because God heard his prayers.
Daniel 10:20-11:1 ~ Prelude to the Final Prophecy by the Man Dressed in White Linen
The being that looks like a man who is wearing a white linen tunic with a belt of pure gold and first appeared to Daniel in Chapter 10 (Dan 10:5-8) continues his prophecies of the future. The "Prince of Persia" is a demon angel like the "Prince of Javan/Greece" (10:20b) who is exerting his power over those men ruling Persia and Greece in opposition to Yahweh's divine plan (see Dan 10:13). The "man" tells Daniel that Michael the Archangel (whose name means "who is like God") is "your Prince;" "your" refers to Daniel because Michael is the patron and protector of the nation of Israel. He is one of the three angels the Church venerates by name along with Gabriel and Raphael (see Dan 10:13. 21; 12:1; Jude 9; Rev 12:7).
Daniel 11:2-14 ~ Struggles and Wars Between the Greek Kings of the North and South
2"Three more kings are going to rise in Persia; a fourth will come and be richer than all the others, and when, thanks to his wealth, he has grown powerful, he will make war on all the kingdoms of Greece."
The four kings of Persia who came after Cyrus:
- Cambyses (son of Cyrus the Great) ruled from 530-522 BC
- Bardiya (?) ruled in 522 BC
- Darius I, the Great (son of Hystaspes, a Persian satrap of Bactria) ruled from 522-486 BC
- Xerxes I (son of Darius I) also called Ahasuerus, ruled from 486-465 BC; he was the husband of Esther/Hadassah (Esth 1:1) who attacked the city-states of Greece.
Xerxes is the Greek form of his Persian name Ahasuerus. The Septuagint and Flavius Josephus consistently render Ahasuerus as Artaxerxes (see Antiquities of the Jews, II.184). Xerxes the Great was the fourth king of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia. He ruled the Persian empire at its territorial apex and is known for his attempts to conquer the city-states of mainland Greece which Alexander the Great used as his excuse for invading and conquering Persia. He ruled until 465 BC when Artabanus, the commander of his royal bodyguard, assassinated him.
All Biblical scholars and commentators, ancient and modern, believe these prophecies apply to Alexander the Great, the "great horn" of the "he-goat" in Daniel 8:5-8. After his untimely death in 323 BC from a fever at age 32, his four most powerful generals, known as the Diadokhoi, meaning "successors," divided his kingdom. St. Jerome listed his generals as Ptolemy, Seleucus, Philip, and Antigonus" (Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, 7.6). St. Theodoret list has: "The rulership of Egypt was entrusted to Ptolemy, son of Lagos; the realm of the Orient was granted to Seleucus; Antigonus acquired Asia; and Antipater Macedonia (although some say that Alexander's brother, Philip, also known as Aridaeus) acquired Macedonia" (Theodoret, Commentary on Daniel, 7.6).
Power struggles began almost immediately after Alexander's death. When the political situation stabilized, Antipater lost control of Macedonia and Greece to Cassander in 319 BC. Lysimachus was in control of Thrace and Asia Minor, Ptolemy Soter had Egypt, Palestine, and Phoenicia, while Seleucus replaced Antigonus in Babylonia and Syria. The "four winds" in verse 11 most likely refers to the four regions of the compass in the division of the Greek empire. The wars of the Diadokhoi mark the beginning of the Hellenistic period that extended Hellenistic culture from the Mediterranean to the Indus River in India.
| The Syrian-Greek Seleucid Dynasty (kings of the north) | The Egyptian-Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty (kings of the south) |
| Seleucus I Nicator ruled 312-281 BC Antiochus I Soter ruled 281-261 BC Antiochus II Theos ruled 261-246 BC Seleucus II Callinicus ruled 246-226 BC Seleucus III Soter ruled 226-223 BC Antiochus III the Great ruled 223-187 BC Seleucus IV Philopator ruled 187-175 BC Antiochus IV Epiphanes ruled 175-164 BC Antiochus V Eupator ruled 164-162 BC Demetrius, I Soter ruled 162-150 BC Alexander Balas ruled 150-145 BC Demetrius II Nicator ruled 145-139 BC Antiochus VI Dionysus ruled 145-142 BC Antiochus VII Sidetes ruled 138-129 BC Dynastic struggles, civil wars, and regional wars ended the dynasty and made way for the Roman conquest in 63 BC. | Ptolemy I Soter ruled 323-285 BC Ptolemy II Philadelphus ruled 285-246 BC Ptolemy III Euergetes ruled 246-221 BC Ptolemy IV Philopater ruled 221-205 BC Ptolemy V Epiphanes ruled 203-180 BC Ptolemy VI Philometor ruled 180-145 BC Ptolemy VII Neos Pilopator ruled 145 BC Ptolemy VIII & Euergetes II ruled 145-116 BC Ptolemy IX Soter II (Lathyrus) ruled 116-108 BC Ptolemy X Alexander ruled 108-88 BC Ptolemy XI Alexander II ruled 80 BC Ptolemy XII Auletes ruled 80-51 BC Ptolemy XIII ruled 51-47 BC with Cleopatra VII 51-30 BC Ptolemy XIV ruled 47-44 BC with Cleopatra VII 51-30 BC Cleopatra VII ruled 51-30 BC and with her son Ptolemy XV Caesarion from 44-30 BC After Cleopatra and Marc Antony's defeat at the Battle of Actium in 30 BC, Rome controlled Egypt as a Roman province. |
Antiochus IV Epiphanes persecuted the Jews and desecrated the Temple, leading to the successful revolt of the Maccabees and the rededication of the Temple in 164 BC.
Ptolemy XV Caesarion was the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.
5 The king of the south will grow powerful, but one of his princes will grow more powerful still, with an empire greater than his own.
The "king of the south" refers to Ptolemy I Soter who ruled Egypt. The focus of this part of the revelation is the struggles between the Ptolemies to the south in Egypt and the Seleucids to the north in Syria for control of the Levant that included Phoenician and Judah. Seleucus I Nicator was forced to flee his domain in 316 BC to escape from Antigonus. He then offered his services to Ptolemy, becoming "one of his princes" (see verse 11:5), and together they defeated Demetrius, son of Antigonus, at Gaza in 312 BC. Seleucus I Nicator then recovered his lost territories of Babylon and northern Syria and the other eastern provinces of Alexander's empire, consolidating his power and territory that eventually extended from Asia Minor to the Punjab in India, an empire larger than Ptolemy's control over Egypt, Phoenicia, and Judah.
Daniel 11:15-20 ~ The Prophecies of the Man Dressed in Linen Concerning the Continuing Wars of the Greek Kings
The "Land of Splendor" refers to the holy land of Israel/Judah that the Syrians subdued as a vassal state (verses 15-16). After his success in Phoenicia, Samaria, and Judah, Antiochus III "set about conquering his [Ptolemy's] entire kingdom" but then made a treaty with the Egyptians (verse 17). Antiochus was now firmly in control of Coele-Syria, but Rome was a growing power across the Mediterranean, and Antiochus feared Roman intervention. Instead, he made a treaty with Ptolemy V and sealed it by giving his daughter Cleopatra in marriage. According to St. Jerome, the formal betrothal took place in 197 BC, and the wedding in 193 at Raphia when Cleopatra was of marriageable age. Antiochus hoped to control Ptolemy through his daughter, but she proved to be loyal to her husband and urged Ptolemy to make an alliance with the Romans which would turn out to be a calamity for the Syrians.
Daniel 11:21-28 ~ The Prophecy of the Wicked King
Seleucus IV Philopator's successor was the vilest of the Seleucid kings, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He was the son of Antiochus III the Great who assumed the throne after the murder of his elder brother Seleucus and his nephew Demetrius in 175 BC (verse 21). He had been a valuable and well-treated hostage in Rome since 190 BC, after the Roman victory against the Syrians at the Battle of Magnesia. He returned to claim the throne of the Greek Seleucid Kingdom and launched a diabolical and systematic persecution of the Jews.
Daniel 11:40-45 ~ The End of the Persecutor
Verses 40-45 give a prediction of Antiochus last endeavors. There may have been a third war against Egypt that is unknown in the historical record, or the verses may be a summary of his last Egyptian war that ended with his withdrawal from Egypt and his ravaging of Judah. Daniel 8:25 predicted he will be broken but not by human hand. What is not in the prediction is Antiochus' eastern campaign against Judah in 165 BC, his defeat by the rebellion of the Maccabees, the rededication of the Temple in December 164 BC, and the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning his painful death from a mysterious disease in late 164 BC in Persia when he is struck down by "not by human hand."
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A Daily Defense
DAY 243 “The Firstborn of All Creation”
CHALLENGE":“Jesus is a created being. Paul describes him as the ‘firstborn of all creation’ (Col. 1:15).”
DEFENSE: Without knowledge of the relevant context, the phrase “firstborn of all creation” could suggest Jesus was the first created being. However, context makes it clear this isn’t the case.
The term “firstborn” had a special meaning in Jewish society. A firstborn male was sacred to God (Exod. 13:1, 11–15) and had special rights (Deut. 21:15–17).
With time, “firstborn” became a title of privilege that didn’t necessarily indicate a literal firstborn male. Thus God says he will make David his firstborn (Ps. 89:20, 27), though David was the last son in his family (1 Sam. 16:10–11). In context, the reference to David as God’s firstborn is clarified as “the highest of the kings of the earth,” indicating a position of preeminence, not of age. Similarly, God describes Israel as his firstborn (Exod. 4:22), though Israel was not chronologically the first nation. God also describes Ephraim as his firstborn (Jer. 31:9), though Ephraim was not the chronologically first tribe.
It is as a title of preeminence that the term “firstborn” is used for Jesus in the first-century hymn to Christ that Paul records in Colossians 1:15–20. In the ancient world, hymns were sung to deities, and this hymn puts Christ in that class. He is the firstborn “of” creation in that he is preeminent over creation, the same way David was king “of” Israel—i.e., king over Israel.
That Jesus is not a created being is indicated by what the hymn says next: “For in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things. . . . He is the beginning . . . that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col. 1:16–19).
If all things were created through Christ, if he existed before all things, then he is not a created being. (Jehovah’s Witnesses put the word “other” between “all” and “things” to avoid the implication Christ isn’t a created being, but that’s not what the Greek says.) Jesus possessed “the fullness of God” and thus had equality with God (John 5:18, Phil. 2:6).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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