Day #257

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Daniel 1-3 - Audio
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Daniel 1-3

Chapter 1 – Daniel describes how he and his three friends were taken into exile, remained undefiled, and were promoted and preserved.

v. 1-2 – In 605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar took Daniel and other promising young people to Babylon to be trained in Babylonian culture and literature. This deportation was the beginning of what came to be known as the Babylonian exile. Two additional invasions of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar occurred in 597 B.C. and 586 B.C.

v. 3-4 – The exile was a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy to King Hezekiah (2 Kings 20, Isaiah 39), a century earlier. Hezekiah had shown the representatives of Babylon all of his treasures, hoping to win a political partner. Hezekiah’s failure to trust in God was met with a prophecy that the treasures would be carried off to Babylon.

v. 8 – The reason for Daniel’s conclusion that the king’s food would defile him and his friends is not given. Perhaps eating it involved violation of the dietary laws of the Mosaic legislation, which prohibited eating pork or meat from which blood had not been drained. It may also have involved partaking of food that had been offered to Babylonian idols.

v. 21 – Daniel lived through the entire period of the Babylonian captivity. Cyrus issued a decree in the first year of his reign that permitted the Israelites to return from captivity.

Chapter 2 – Daniel’s God shows himself superior by revealing to Daniel both the content and the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

v. 1 – It was widely believed in the Ancient Near East that the gods spoke to humans in dreams. Nebuchadnezzar’s agitation is understandable because the dream had implications for the future of his kingdom. When a dream could not be remembered it was believed to be a sign that the deity was angry with the person involved.

v. 4 – From this point until the end of Chapter 7 the text switches from Hebrew into Aramaic. Perhaps the change indicates that these chapters address matters of universal significance rather than those of more specifically Israelite concern.

v. 15-16 – With remarkable faith Daniel requested from Arioch an appointment with the king to reveal the dream and its interpretation even before God had revealed the dream to Daniel.

v. 37-38 – The Interpretation of the Vision of the Statue – The head of gold was Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire (625-539 B.C.). God gave him great dominion, power, and glory – remininscent of that granted to Adam, with dominion over human beings, birds of the air and beast of the field. Babylon had become a vast empire and Nebuchadnezzar ruled ruthlessly. The nation itself was an amazing achievement. Thus the head of gold is a fitting description.

v. 39 – The chest and arms of silver represent Medo-Persia Empire (539-331 B.C.). The middle and thighs of bronze represent the Greek Empire (331-63 B.C.). After Nebuchadnezzar’s time there would be two more kingdoms, each inferior to the previous one in glory and unity, though still strong and powerful.

v. 40 – The fourth kingdom, the Roman Empire (63 B.C. – 476 A.D.), is represented by legs of iron and feet of iron and clay. It would be strong as iron, yet also an unstable composite of different peoples who would not hold together.

v. 44-45 – The stone that breaks in pieces all these other four kingdoms is most likely Christ. He is the mystery of the ages, the one in whom God plans to unite all things in His glorious kingdom.

v. 46-49 – Nebuchadnezzar recognized and honored Daniel’s God and promoted Daniel and his friends within the Babylonian court, giving them further opportunity to promote the peace and welfare of the city where God had exiled them.

Chapter 3 – Daniel recounted God’s miraculous deliverance of his friends from the fiery furnace to instruct his readers that God’s people must admire Daniel’s companions and be faithful to God alone. He also illustrated that God would eventually frustrate even the mightiest kings who tempt His people to abandon their God to worship another.

v. 1 – The image was 60 cubits high and 6 cubits wide which is equal to 90 feet high and 9 feet wide. Its location on a plain in Babylon recalls the location of the tower of Babel (also a plain), as does its purpose to provide a unifying center for all the people of the earth.

v. 12 – Daniel is absent. Perhaps he is away on a mission, or above the administrative rulers and thus immune from such displays of Nebuchadnezzar’s pride or perhaps the Chaldeans did not feel safe accusing Daniel.

v. 17-18 – The men did not assert that God always protects His people from physical harm. Although He may opt to do so, the central idea is that God’s people should remain obedient to God no matter what the circumstances because He is far more trustworthy than any human ruler and more powerful than any force on earth.