Friday, August 16, 2013

Daniel 1

Daniel 1

Living in the world, but not of the world. How to live godly lives in an ungodly world.

The background to this chapter: Judah fails to observe the sabbath for the land every 7 years, the king ignores the prophet Jeremiah's warnings and doesn't learn the lesson of the northern tribes being carried away. As a result, Judah is defeated, the temple is plundered and at least four innocent God-fearing teenagers are ripped away from the homes, their families, everything they have known, from their land and forced to march from Jerusalem to Babylon, probably in chains - all not their own personal fault. I wonder if they were wondering "Why us?", "Why has God abandoned us?", "Why are we being shipped off to a pagan king, being forced to learn their language and their customs?", "What is going to happen to my family?", "Will this nightmare ever end?", "Will I survive?"

Daniel was contemporary with Jeremiah and Ezekiel:

  • Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem before and during the Babylonian exile (626-528 B.C.)
  • Ezekiel prophesied in Babylon among the exiles (592-570 B.C.)
  • Daniel prophesied in the capital of Babylon (605-586 B.C.)

Judah’s captivity was a divine judgment for the sins of this nation. Daniel’s prayer, recorded in chapter 9, reveals his grasp of this fact. Daniel was fully convinced that it was God who gave Jehoiakim king of Judah, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. It was this knowledge which enabled Daniel to deal with his own circumstances in the godly manner evident throughout the Book of Daniel.

Will they be assimilated? Will they abandon the Hebrew God and worship the Babylonian "gods?" Will they blame God for their troubles? Will they just become like everybody else? Will they abandon their moral values and what they were taught as children? Will they work hard at pleasing the king and his attendants so they can be "successful" even if it means becoming just like them and compromising everything God had planned for them?

But, we read that they not only don't blame or abandon God, but they still worship Him and allow God to work in their lives even in a pagan world and even under threats even to their lives, peer pressure, loneliness, etc. THEY DO NOT COMPROMISE! What a lesson for us and for our children! Today, many children raised in godly homes go off to college, are corrupted by their professors and their peers and are ruined.

Daniel was probably between the age of 14-17 when the Babylonians came into Judah and carried his people away as captives. He was now forced to live in a pagan environment, much like our own, where he was constantly being tempted to compromise his convictions. Yet, Daniel chose not to give in to the demands of the culture. The United States is becoming more and more like Babylon every day.

1 John 2:15-17: Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world. And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever.

Romans 12:2: Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

(1) During the third year of King *Jehoiakim's reign in Judah, **King Nebuchadnezzar of ***Babylon came to Jerusalem and ****besieged it with his armies.

  • *Jehoiakim – King of Judah. His real name is Eliakim ("whom God will raise up"). He reigned 11 years and was a son of Josiah. His father was murdered by Pharaoh Neco and his brother, Jehoahaz, reigned for three months before being taken prisoner by Pharaoh Neco. Pharaoh Neco then set Eliakim (Jehoiakim - "he whom Jehovah has set up") up as king.
  • **Nebuchadnezzar:
    • Nebuchadnezzar was not really king yet because his father Nabopolassar (626-605 b.c.) did not die until the summer of 605 b.c. He was the crown prince in charge of the military campaign.
    • Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians at Charchemish, and then he pursued their fleeing army all the way down to the Sinai. Along the way (or on the way back), he subdued Jerusalem, who had been loyal to the Pharaoh of Egypt.
    • ***Babylon was a long descendant of the city built by the descendants of Noah before they were dispersed by God with the judgment of languages. The name Babel means, “confusion” in the Hebrew. Those who settled in that area eventually became a great nation that spread throughout the eastern world. Shinar is another name for the land of Babylon as translated in the KJV.
  • ****besieged:
    • This specific attack is documented by the Babylonian Chronicles, a collection of tablets discovered as early as 1887, held in the British Museum. In them, Nebuchadnezzar’s presence in Judah is documented.
    • Nebuchadnezzar conducted three campaigns against Judah:
      • In the first onslaught he carried off Daniel and his three companions as well as some articles from the temple and other nobles.
      • In the second attack he carried off Ezekiel.
      • In the third and devastating holocaust he burned the city and temple.
  • 2 Chronicles 36:6-7: Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and captured it, and he bound Jehoiakim in chains and led him away to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the treasures from the Temple of the LORD, and he placed them in his palace in Babylon.
  • 2 Kings 23:36-37: Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah. He did what was evil in the LORD's sight, just as his ancestors had done.
  • 2 Kings 24:1: During Jehoiakim's reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land of Judah. Jehoiakim surrendered and paid him tribute for three years but then rebelled.:
  • Isaiah 39:1-8: Soon after this, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent Hezekiah his best wishes and a gift. He had heard that Hezekiah had been very sick and that he had recovered. Hezekiah welcomed the Babylonian envoys and showed them everything in his treasure-houses -- the silver, the gold, the spices, and the aromatic oils. He also took them to see his armory and showed them all his other treasures -- everything! There was nothing in his palace or kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did those men want? Where were they from?"Hezekiah replied, "They came from the distant land of Babylon." "What did they see in your palace?" asked Isaiah."They saw everything," Hezekiah replied. "I showed them everything I own -- all my treasures." Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Listen to this message from the LORD Almighty: The time is coming when everything you have -- all the treasures stored up by your ancestors -- will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. Some of your own descendants will be taken away into exile. They will become eunuchs who will serve in the palace of Babylon's king." Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "This message you have given me from the LORD is good." But the king was thinking, "At least there will be peace and security during my lifetime."
  • Jeremiah 7:16-20: "Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, and don't beg me to help them, for I will not listen to you. Do you not see what they are doing throughout the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? No wonder I am so angry! Watch how the children gather wood and the fathers build sacrificial fires. See how the women knead dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. And they give drink offerings to their other idol gods! Am I the one they are hurting?" asks the LORD. "Most of all, they hurt themselves, to their own shame." So the Sovereign LORD says: "I will pour out my terrible fury on this place. Its people, animals, trees, and crops will be consumed by the unquenchable fire of my anger."
  • Jeremiah 24:1: After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon exiled Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, to Babylon along with the princes of Judah and all the skilled craftsmen, the LORD gave me this vision. I saw two baskets of figs placed in front of the LORD's Temple in Jerusalem.
  • Jeremiah 25:1-11: This message for all the people of Judah came to Jeremiah from the LORD during the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign over Judah. This was the year when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon began his reign. Jeremiah the prophet said to the people in Judah and Jerusalem, "For the past twenty-three years -- from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until now -- the LORD has been giving me his messages. I have faithfully passed them on to you, but you have not listened. "Again and again, the LORD has sent you his prophets, but you have not listened or even tried to hear. Each time the message was this: 'Turn from the evil road you are traveling and from the evil things you are doing. Only then will I let you live in this land that the LORD gave to you and your ancestors forever. Do not make me angry by worshiping the idols you have made. Then I will not harm you.' "But you would not listen to me," says the LORD. "You made me furious by worshiping your idols, bringing on yourselves all the disasters you now suffer. And now the LORD Almighty says: Because you have not listened to me, I will gather together all the armies of the north under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whom I have appointed as my deputy. I will bring them all against this land and its people and against the other nations near you. I will completely destroy you and make you an object of horror and contempt and a ruin forever. I will take away your happy singing and laughter. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard. Your businesses will fail, and all your homes will stand silent and dark. This entire land will become a desolate wasteland. Israel and her neighboring lands will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
  • Jeremiah 29:4-7: The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, sends this message to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: "Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food you produce. Marry, and have children. Then find spouses for them, and have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray to the LORD for that city where you are held captive, for if Babylon has peace, so will you."
  • Jeremiah 32:26-32: Then this message came to Jeremiah from the LORD: "I am the LORD, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me? I will hand this city over to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will capture it. The Babylonians outside the walls will come in and set fire to the city. They will burn down all these houses, where the people caused my fury to rise by offering incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods. Israel and Judah have done nothing but wrong since their earliest days. They have infuriated me with all their evil deeds," says the LORD. "From the time this city was built until now, it has done nothing but anger me, so I am determined to get rid of it. "The sins of Israel and Judah -- the sins of the people of Jerusalem, the kings, the officials, the priests, and the prophets -- stir up my anger.
  • Jeremiah 36:1-32: During the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king in Judah, the LORD gave this message to Jeremiah: "Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message you have given, right up to the present time. Perhaps the people of Judah will repent if they see in writing all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings." So Jeremiah sent for Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote down all the prophecies that the LORD had given him. Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, "I am a prisoner here and unable to go to the Temple. So you go to the Temple on the next day of fasting, and read the messages from the LORD that are on this scroll. On that day people will be there from all over Judah. Perhaps even yet they will turn from their evil ways and ask the LORD's forgiveness before it is too late. For the LORD's terrible anger has been pronounced against them." Baruch did as Jeremiah told him and read these messages from the LORD to the people at the Temple. This happened on the day of sacred fasting held in late autumn, during the fifth year of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah. People from all over Judah came to attend the services at the Temple on that day. Baruch read Jeremiah's words to all the people from the Temple room of Gemariah son of Shaphan. This room was just off the upper courtyard of the Temple, near the New Gate entrance. When Micaiah son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan heard the messages from the LORD, he went down to the secretary's room in the palace where the administrative officials were meeting. Elishama the secretary was there, along with Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Acbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the others with official responsibilities. When Micaiah told them about the messages Baruch was reading to the people, the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, grandson of Shelemiah, and great-grandson of Cushi, to ask Baruch to come and read the messages to them, too. So Baruch took the scroll and went to them. "Sit down and read the scroll to us," the officials said, and Baruch did as they requested. By the time Baruch had finished reading, they were badly frightened. "We must tell the king what we have heard," they said. "But first, tell us how you got these messages. Did they come directly from Jeremiah?" So Baruch explained, "Jeremiah dictated them to me word by word, and I wrote down his words with ink on this scroll." "You and Jeremiah should both hide," the officials told Baruch. "Don't tell anyone where you are!" Then the officials left the scroll for safekeeping in the room of Elishama the secretary and went to tell the king. The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. Jehudi brought it from Elishama's room and read it to the king as all his officials stood by. It was late autumn, and the king was in a winterized part of the palace, sitting in front of a fire to keep warm. Whenever Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took his knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire, section by section, until the whole scroll was burned up. Neither the king nor his officials showed any signs of fear or repentance at what they heard. Even when Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, he wouldn't listen. Then the king commanded his son Jerahmeel, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch and Jeremiah. But the LORD had hidden them. After the king had burned Jeremiah's scroll, the LORD gave Jeremiah another message. He said, "Get another scroll, and write everything again just as you did on the scroll King Jehoiakim burned. Then say to the king, 'This is what the LORD says: You burned the scroll because it said the king of Babylon would destroy this land and everything in it. Now this is what the LORD says about King Jehoiakim of Judah: He will have no heirs to sit on the throne of David. His dead body will be thrown out to lie unburied -- exposed to hot days and frosty nights. I will punish him and his family and his officials because of their sins. I will pour out on them and on all the people of Judah and Jerusalem all the disasters I have promised, for they would not listen to my warnings.'" Then Jeremiah took another scroll and dictated again to his secretary Baruch. He wrote everything that had been on the scroll King Jehoiakim had burned in the fire. Only this time, he added much more!
  • Many people study about the Babylonian captivity and fail to understand the divine reason for it. In the 26th Chapter of Leviticus, we have recorded the law of the sabbatical, year, in which the Children of Israel were instructed to let the land rest every seventh year. During that year they were neither to sow nor reap but were to live by the old store which GOD had provided for them during the six years. But for 490 years (7 x 70) which would include a total of seventy sabbatical years, they failed to do this. In due time, GOD allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to come and take them into Babylonian captivity, which captivity lasted for seventy years, which was exactly time enough to balance the budget, as it were. They refused to let the land rest one year in seven and, therefore, GOD allowed them to be dispossessed of the land until their trespass was atoned for. Another reason GOD allowed them to be taken into Babylonian captivity was because they had fallen into idolatry.

(2) The *Lord gave him victory over King Jehoiakim of Judah. When Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon, he took with him some of the sacred objects from the Temple of God and placed them in the treasure-house of his god in the land of Babylonia.

  • *Lord: Adonai
  • This shows God's control of history! This is a recurrent theme in Daniel. In the ancient world every army fought under the banner/name of their god. Success in battle showed the supremacy of one god over another. However, the Bible clearly asserts that it was because of Israel's and Judah's sins and rebellion against YHWH that YHWH engineered the invasion of the promised land.
  • New archaeological findings in the ruins of Ashkelon, Philistia's main seaport, are providing evidence that Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of his enemies was utterly merciless. If Judah's kings had heeded the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah about imitating Ashkelon and embracing Egypt, Jerusalem's destruction might have been avoided. Instead, the Jews ignored both the religious rantings of Jeremiah and the unequivocal real-world implications of Ashkelon's fall.
  • This campaign of Nebuchadnezzar was interrupted suddenly when he heard of his father’s death and raced back to Babylon to secure his succession to the throne. He traveled about 500 miles in two weeks - remarkable speed for travel in that day. Nebuchadnezzar only had the time to take a few choice captives (such as Daniel), a few treasures and a promise of submission from Jehoiakim.
  • This first siege of Jerusalem begins the 70-year "Servitude of the Nation."
  • Nebuchadnezzar took only "part of the vessels," as he did not intend wholly to overthrow the state, but to make it tributary, and to leave such vessels as were absolutely needed for the public worship of Jehovah. Later, all were taken away and were restored under Cyrus ( Ezra 1:7 ).
    • Ezra 1:7-11: King Cyrus himself brought out the valuable items which King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the LORD's Temple in Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his own gods. Cyrus directed Mithredath, the treasurer of Persia, to count these items and present them to Sheshbazzar, the leader of the exiles returning to Judah. These were the items Cyrus donated: gold trays - 30; silver trays - 1,000; silver censers - 29; 10 gold bowls - 30; silver bowls - 410; other items - 1,000 11 In all, 5,400 gold and silver items were turned over to Sheshbazzar to take back to Jerusalem when the exiles returned there from Babylon.
    • Notice in the above list, nothing about the ark of the covenant, the menorah or the table of the showbread.
  • In Deuteronomy chapter 28, God had promised Israel that if she went astray He would send her into exile. And now, almost a thousand years later, a patient and long suffering God is fulfilling His promise. The exile is not a proof that God’s plan has failed; it’s a proof that God’s plan has been fulfilled. It is Daniel’s belief that God is in control that enables Him to do so well in captivity. He knows that there is nothing incidental in human life and there is nothing accidental in human life, and it is that that gives Daniel confidence to be such a productive believer in the city of his exile.

(3) Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, who was in charge of the palace officials, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah's royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives.

  • This was a very difficult time for these teenagers. They were forcibly taken away from home, and perhaps made to march the hundreds of miles to the alien land of the idolaters. They were taken away from their religious center and from parental control and influence of other godly adults. They had to endure all this, and probably many other horrors, in their impressionable years. It is enough for the young to have to cope with the mental and physical changes connected with adolescence, with the attendant temptations and snares, but these young Judaeans had to cope with much more.

(4) "Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men," he said. "Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good sense, and have the poise needed to serve in the royal palace. Teach these young men the *language and literature of the Babylonians. "

  • *language: The language of the Chaldeans referred to here is Akkadian, an East Semitic cuneiform language.
  • This may indicate that they were not made eunuchs (castrated).
  • Babylon was the capital of ancient learning. “Here were the great libraries of the Semitic race. Here were the scholars who copied so painstakingly every little omen or legend that had come down to them out of the hoary past. Here were the men who had calculated eclipses, watched the moon’s changes, and looked nightly from observatories upon the stately march of constellations over the sky.” Evidently, what these young men studied was the history and literature of this ancient part of the world. This included the old Akkadian and the ancient Sumerian cultures from which the Babylonian had developed. Learning the language of a people is one of the best ways to absorb the worldview of its people. Thus, Nebuchadnezzar was seeking to make them thoroughly Babylonian.
  • Christians may have to study things that do not agree with God’s Word, but should never, in the end, abandon their faith. Understanding the world is far different from embracing and living according to the world.

(5) The king assigned them a daily ration of the best food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for a three-year period, and then some of them would be made his advisers in the royal court.

  • To eat food from the king’s table was an honor and a privilege. It was the finest food available. Joseph, for example, honored his brothers by feeding them from the food at his table (Genesis 43:34). David provided a place at his table for Mephibosheth, the son of his friend Jonathan (2 Samuel 9). This was no McDonalds®. They were given the opportunity to eat gourmet food at every meal.

(6) Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah.

  • These are the only Hebrew names given. The corrupting influences of Babylon may have been too much for many others, and they were useless in God’s hands.

(7) The chief official renamed them with these Babylonian names: *Daniel was called Belteshazzar. **Hananiah was called Shadrach. ***Mishael was called Meshach. ****Azariah was called Abednego.

  • *Daniel (Hebrew God is my judge) renamed Belteshazzar (Chaldean meaning "Bel's prince"). The name Belteshazzar was given to Daniel in honor of Bel the god of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar thus made a desperate but vain attempt to obliterate the name of the Lord and all remembrance of Him.
  • **Hananiah (Hebrew Yahweh is gracious) renamed Shadrach (Chaldean meaning "Command of the moon god")
  • ***Mishael (Hebrew Who is like Yahweh) renamed Meshach (Chaldean meaning "Who is what Aku is?" - the earth god)
  • ***Azariah (Hebrew Yahweh has helped) renamed Abednego (Chaldean meaning "servant of Nebo/Nabu" - the fire god)
  • Although Nebuchadnezzar changed the names of these Hebrew teenagers, he could not change their nature.
  • Pharaoh gave Joseph the name “Zaphenath-paneah” (Genesis 41:45). Joseph did not reject this name, nor is there even so much as a hint that God considered the name defiling to Joseph.
  • In the Old Testament Scriptures, name-giving was most significant when God gave the name. In some cases, God gave a person’s name before or at the time of birth. This was the case with the Lord Jesus (Luke 1:31). Also, God changed the names of some individuals. He changed Abram’s name to Abraham, and that of Sarai, his wife, to Sarah (Genesis 17:4-5, 15). The change of a person’s name had to do with a change God was bringing about in their destiny. Since only God can change a person’s destiny, it is only His name-giving that is of the greatest significance.

(8) But Daniel made up his mind not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief official for permission to eat other things instead.

  • What can they do? They feel all the pressure and they hear all the familiar arguments that any person hears today to try to get them to give up acting on the basis of faith. They surely hear the argument, in whatever form it took in those days, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." "Everybody else is doing this; what difference does it make what you eat? After all, they are prisoners in a country far away from home. Their own country has been laid waste. Who will know, or care, what they do? They feel that pressure. But these young men stand fast and God honors them. God gives them the grace to stand despite that pressure, and as a result they are exalted and given positions of authority and responsibility in that kingdom.
  • Daniel could not avoid being captured by the Chaldean (Babylonian) army, he could not prevent the Gentile king changing his name, he could neither hinder his own confinement, nor the confinement of his companions in the court of the Chaldeans, he could not prevent the King from dictating certain foods and drink - BUT he could refuse to change his life and he could refuse to eat THE FORBIDDEN FOOD.
  • What shaped these young men? What enabled them to resist the temptation to compromise and lose a luxurious and famous career, at a time when he had absolutely nothing, just so he could remain faithful to God?
  • The God they served was not the same as the gods of other nations. Their God was not a local deity, who was bound to Jerusalem and who had not jurisdiction outside His own territory. To them, God was the same abroad as at home - something Jonah had learned. Daniel and his friends considered the knowledge of God to be more important than their education, more important even than life itself.
  • God always has a remnant who serve him. They are a minority, but they will stand for God's truth and for holiness. They were like pious Joseph of old, who would not sin though he was in Egypt (Genesis 39:9). Notice the similarity between Daniel's experience and character and Joseph's throughout this chapter.
  • Verse 8 is obviously a key verse for anyone facing pressure from the ways of Babylon. Daniel resolved, or as the KJV says, Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself. They couldn't change his heart! He was not swayed by the lure of Babylon even though he lived right in its midst. So, think about the effect that the world has on your life? Is there a difference between the desires of your life and of those who don’t know the Lord? Because it is fair to say that non-Christians watch you a lot more than you think. And they watch and are interested in your actions more than your words.
  • Proverbs 25:26 states: If the godly compromise with the wicked, it is like polluting a fountain or muddying a spring. If Daniel had given up his convictions and just become like the other Babylonians (as they wanted), then the Bible says he would have become like a muddied spring or a polluted well. That is, he would have become someone that once had the ability to give life and sustain the thirsty… but now was useless for that which it had been created!
  • This is the crucial event of his life. Although it might not have appeared important at the time, what Daniel did shaped the next 60 years.
  • There are several attractive features in the way Daniel made his proposal. First, he was tactful in the way he spoke. He didn’t demand anything, he simply made a request. Second, he was obedient in following the chain of command. Third, his request was reasonable. The test would be over in ten days and didn’t require the preparation of unusual food. Fourth, it was easy to evaluate. The guard simply eyeballed the four versus the others and drew his own conclusions.
  • These young men faced a situation common to every modern Christian youth. They could be a part of the crowd and submit to peer pressure to get ahead. Or they could do what they knew would please their God though it might involve persecution and cost them advancement opportunities.

(9) Now God had given the chief official great respect for Daniel.

  • God is at work in the background! How often has that been for us, and still is?
  • We see this very same thing happened to Joseph, when he was captive in Egypt, in the following verse. Genesis 39:21 "But the LORD was with Joseph there, too, and he granted Joseph favor with the chief jailer." God is in control of everyone.

(10) But he was alarmed by Daniel's suggestion. "My lord the king has ordered that you eat this food and wine," he said. "If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded for neglecting my duties."

(11) Daniel talked it over with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief official to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

(12) "Test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water," Daniel said.

  • The “pulse” in the KJV of verses 12 and 16 included barley, wheat, rye and probably peas and beans.
  • Daniel did not rebel against the restrictions that his elders placed upon him. Instead, he courteously requested permission to abstain, and then, having received an encouraging response, he offered a positive alternative course of action.

(13) "At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king's rich food. Then you can decide whether or not to let us continue eating our diet."

(14) So the attendant agreed to Daniel's suggestion and tested them for ten days.

(15) At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king.

  • God gave the young men better (fatter, i.e., healthier) appearances by natural or by supernatural means. The result of the test encouraged their supervisor to continue feeding them a diet of things grown in the ground. This is the meaning of the rare Hebrew word translated "vegetables" or "pulse". God blessed these three young men because they followed His will, not because they ate vegetables instead of meat.

(16) So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the rich foods and wines.

(17) God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for learning the literature and science of the time. And God gave Daniel special ability in *understanding the meanings of visions and dreams.

  • *understanding the meanings of visions and dreams: Just as Joseph had been given the gift of interpreting dreams. But, the parallel doesn't stop there. Both were very young men, unjustly taken captives and made slaves, yet both rose to the top in a Gentile world!
  • We’ll read in Chapter 2 that God gave this gift to Daniel so he could tell Nebuchadnezzar that Daniel's God is the true God.

(18) When the three-year training period ordered by the king was completed, the chief official brought all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar.

  • By the time they completed their education, they were probably nearly twenty years of age. In addition to their natural intellectual ability and their evident careful application to their studies, God added His grace.

(19) The king talked with each of them, and none of them impressed him as much as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they were appointed to his regular staff of advisers.

(20) In all matters requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, the king found the advice of these young men to be *ten times better than that of all the **magicians and ***enchanters in his entire kingdom.

  • *Ten is the number of completeness
  • As Keil puts it, Daniel “needed to be deeply versed in the Chaldean wisdom, as formerly Moses was in the wisdom of Egypt (Acts 7:22), so as to be able to put to shame the wisdom of this world by the hidden wisdom of God.”
  • **Magicians in our English Version, "magicians," comes from mag, that is, "a priest." The Magi formed one of the six divisions of the Medes.
  • ***enchanters," from a root, "to conceal," practicers of the occult arts.
  • The fact that Daniel called these other officials magicians (Hebrew hartummim, astrological diviners) and conjurers (Hebrew assapim, enchanters, NIV) has raised questions about whether the four Hebrew youths practiced occult arts. If they refused to eat non-kosher food because of religious conviction, they presumably would not have participated in divination and magic, which the Mosaic Law also expressly forbade (Deut. 18:10-12). Probably we should understand that they excelled in the matter of offering wise advice to their king.

(21) Daniel remained there until the first year of *King Cyrus's reign.

  • *King Cyrus (from the Persian name "Kurush", meaning" throne") - king of Persia.
    Isaiah 45:1-5: This is what the LORD says to Cyrus, his anointed one, whose right hand he will empower. Before him, mighty kings will be paralyzed with fear. Their fortress gates will be opened, never again to shut against him. This is what the LORD says: "I will go before you, Cyrus, and level the mountains. I will smash down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness -- secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name. "And why have I called you for this work? It is for the sake of Jacob my servant, Israel my chosen one. I called you by name when you did not know me. I am the LORD; there is no other God. I have prepared you, even though you do not know me,
  • Here we are told that Daniel lived through the entire period of the seventy years' Babylonian captivity. But that was not all; for not only did he live to see the faithful remnant in Judah return to their own land, after seventy years, as God had foretold; but Daniel also continued to live in Babylon “in the third year of Cyrus” (Daniel 10:1), still being mightily used of God, still receiving prophecies from God for His people.
  • The Persian king Cyrus’ first year in control of Babylon was 539 B.C.

NOTES:

Posted by at