Daniel
|
|
- Introductory Matters
- Daniel the man
- Information from 1-6
- Deported to Babylon in the first deportation in 598/597 B.C.E. - Ezekiel was also part of that deportation
- Very wise - his career is quite similar to Joseph
- both rise quickly from slave/captive to the top level of government due to their wisdom
and reliance upon God
- Some suspect Daniel was not an historical person but an invented role
model after the Dan'el of Ezek. 14:14,20; 28:3
- Bilingual character of book
- Half of the book is written in one language, half in another
- Late biblical Hebrew - Dan. 1:1-2:4a, 8:1-12:13
- Aramaic - Dan. 2:4b-7:28
- Explanation
- No one knows why for certain
- The most widely accepted view is that the book (except for the prayer
in Dan. 9:4b-20) was originally written in Aramaic - later the first and last parts of the
book were translated into Hebrew perhaps to make the book more acceptable to those who
considered Hebrew the holy language of Scripture - this would also have helped
make it more suitable as part of the canon
- Historical situation and date of writing
- 1-6
- Set in the time of the exile of the Jews in
Babylon
- Date - 3rd century B.C.E. or a little earlier because the
vocabulary and cultural knowledge of the stories indicate exposure to Persian and
Hellenistic life and the use of Aramaic indicates a later period
- 7-12
- Apocalyptic in nature - set at the end of history
- Date - first third of 2nd century B.C.E. during the time
of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (167-164 B.C.E.) - reasons:
- Assumes the existence of the Greek empire (8:21, 10:20)
- Use of Aramaic and late biblical Hebrew indicate a later period
- Typical outlook of other apocalyptic writings in the last two
centuries B.C.E.
- Literary structure
- Literary types
- 1-6 - six accounts in the novelette style often employed by late
Israelite writers (e.g., Ruth, Esther) - tell of events in the life of Daniel and his
three friends
- 7-12 - visionary accounts which are clearly apocalyptic
- Book displays unity - for example:
- Dream in 2 seems to provide animal allegory of 7
- Disaster that befalls tyrant in 2:34 parallels that in 8:25
- Daniel 1-6
- The accounts
- Dietary faithfulness (1:1-21)
- Daniel and his three friends (Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah) were
trained to serve the Babylonian king
- All four were renamed by the Babylonians (Daniel became Belteshazzar,
Hananiah became Shadrach, Mishael became Meshach, Azariah became Abednego)
- Daniel refused the rich food and wine offered to them and requested
vegetables and water - the vegetarian diet would allow Daniel and friends to follow
dietary laws
- The steward agreed to a ten-day test - Daniel and his friends
prospered in health, wisdom, and interpretation of dreams
- Nebuchadnezzar's dream (2:1-49)
- Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and asked his magicians to tell him the
dream before they gave their interpretation - by their ability to tell him his dream, he
knew they would have the ability also to interpret it correctly
- His magicians failed
- Daniel was asked to and succeeded
- Dream - great image with head of gold, breast and arms of silver,
belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, feet partly of iron and partly of clay
- Interpretation - Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold -
three more empires, each weaker than the preceding would follow
- Nebuchadnezzar promoted Daniel to ruler over province of Babylon and
chief of advisors
- Fiery furnace (3:1-30)
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to worship the golden image
Nebuchadnezzar erected even under penalty of death
- All three were ready to die for their faith
- They were condemned and thrown into a furnace so hot that the guards
who threw them in were killed by the flames
- As the king looked into the furnace he saw four men inside
- King called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to come out - as they
emerged they were not singed nor did they smell of smoke
- King allowed them to worship their God and promoted them
- Dream of a tree (4:1-37)
- Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a tree - Daniel interpreted the dream
- Dream predicted Nebuchadnezzar's madness as punishment for his pride
and arrogance
- King went mad and grazed in the fields
- When he regained his sanity, he praised God
- Writing on the wall (5:1-31)
- At a feast Belshazzar drank from the vessels of the Jerusalem Temple
- A hand wrote three words on the palace wall
- The words
- The words are not Hebrew but sound similar to Hebrew words
- Interpretation
- Mene - "numbered" - God had numbered Babylon's remaining
days as an empire
- Tekel - "weighed" - Belshazzar had been weighed and found
wanting
- Peres - "divided" - empire will be divided and given to the
Medes and Persians
- Daniel was rewarded and promoted to third ruler in the empire -
Belshazzar was killed that night and Darius the Mede conquered Babylon
- Lions' Den (6:1-28)
- Darius made Daniel one of his three presidents
- Jealousy caused the other officials to set a trap for Daniel - for 30
days people were to pray only to Darius - Daniel continued to pray to God and was arrested
- King reluctantly sentenced Daniel to death in the lions' den but
hoped God would save him
- Daniel was thrown into the lions' den and sealed in for the night
- In the morning Daniel was found to be alive and well - he was let out
and his accusers were thrown in and consumed before they hit the floor of the den
- Darius allowed and protected the worship of God
- Some theological points
- God is sovereign
- To some the sovereignty of God is a threat (4:28-33, 5:22-23), to
others a promise (3:16-18, 4:34-37)
- Each one answers to God for what he or she has chosen to do
(3:16-18,28; 5:17-31; 6:10,21-23)
- Effective ministry is the result of prayer and devotion to God and
His purposes
- Daniel states his ability to interpret dreams is dependent upon God,
meant to glorify God, and intended to contribute to God's purposes (2:27-30)
- No faith or obedience guarantees success or safety
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego state that whether or not God rescues
them, they will still serve God to the end (3:16-18)
- Daniel and his three friends are always rescued (3:26-27, 6:21-23)
but others in similar situations have not been as fortunate (cf. 2 Maccabees 5:11-7:42 as
well as Jews in the Holocaust)
- The sparing of Daniel and his three friends is an undeserved gift of
God - even Nebuchadnezzar knows God's faithful action simply parallels His people's
faithful actions (3:28)
- God's purposes are universal - even Nebuchadnezzar has a role to play
and is led to praise God (2:31-47, 3:28-29)
- Faith for times of difficulty must be strong
- Must be willing to be different for God (1:8-21, 3:16-18)
- Such faith makes one free
- The pagan rulers Daniel and his three friends encounter are all
enslaved by their immutable law
- Daniel and his three friends are free - they are not enslaved to an
unchanging law but free for a dynamic God
- Such faith makes one and God a force to be reckoned with - allows
vigorous living in all times
- Daniel 7-12
- Daniel's prayer in 9:4b-19 is similar to Solomon's prayer at the
dedication of the Temple (1 Kings 8:46-53) - Daniel believed the punishment of exile was
just but appealed to God's mercy to restore Israel
- Value of "end time" preaching
- Ways to interpret 7-12
- Literally
- To take Daniel literally is to realize that Daniel missed it - 70
weeks of years from his time did not lead to the events he described nor did a he-goat
with a multiplicity of horns appear
- To say God has delayed these events does not help - when does a
person start counting the 70 weeks of years? - using the book a number of starting points
might be suggested - which one is correct?
- Allegorically
- Things that have not occurred literally should be interpreted as
occurring in other ways - after all the book itself seems to reinterpret Jeremiah's
prophecy (9:2,24-27; cf. Jer. 25:11-12, 29:10)
- How do we know what to take literally and what to take allegorically?
- who decides? - how do we know when we are correct?
- Symbolically
- Daniel uses the history of the empires with which he is familiar to
illustrate that God is in control of history and working in history
- The use of mysterious figures and numbers heighten the mystery of
God's work and power and prevent people from second-guessing God
- Some valuable lessons
- History is important
- According to Daniel, history may be determined but that does not mean
God's people retreat from it
- History reveals the fact that God is working (e.g., exodus from
Egypt, modern-day Israel)
- God will win in the end - those who are faithful to him also
"win" in the end - the call to be faithful to God then is a matter of utmost
seriousness
Top picture by Peter Paul Reubens from the WebMuseum
Bottom picture by Rembrandt from the WebMuseum
