Book of Daniel - Lesson 1 - Daniel, Chapter one

I have been given just six weeks to cover the 12 chapters of Daniel, which is a very short time for me, as many of you know who have been in the Colossians study for many months. I will therefore not add so many references to other Scriptures as I usually do. I will also not talk about several topics that could be included: 1) the very liberal views of many scholars critical of the Bible and of the reliability of Daniel, and how their criticisms can be refuted; 2) legends about Daniel and his friends that are not true and not Scripture (some of the “apocryphal books“ of the Old Testament), but which were mixed in with the true Book of Daniel in a Greek version of Daniel; 3) that parts of Daniel were written in Aramaic, as well as Hebrew, and why that might be; etc.

We will simply trust the words of Jesus Himself, when He quotes from Daniel and says that these words are the very words of “the prophet Daniel” himself. See Matthew 24:15-16.  We will just read through and talk about Daniel, believing that this is the true, prophetic Word of God coming through Daniel.

In Daniel 1:1-2, we hear that the Lord Himself gave the King of Judah into the hands of the pagan, unbelieving King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. This happened because of the judgment of God for the many sins of His chosen people and their rebellion against Him as the one true God and His will for them. After the reign of King David (1009 BC to 970 BC) and King Solomon (970-931 BC) the Kingdom split into two kingdoms, which often disagreed and even fought with each other. There were times of faithfulness to God, but many times of unfaithfulness. The Northern Kingdom of Israel drifted most quickly away from God, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah followed in evil ways, also. See 2 Kings 17:13-18 for a description of how bad things were in Israel, which was conquered by Assyrian armies in 722 BC and many of the people were carried away into captivity in other nations and never came back. See 2 Kings 17:19-20 to hear how bad the Southern Kingdom of Judah became, too, leading to the events we hear about in Daniel, chapter one. Nebuchadnezzar took control of Jerusalem and King Jehoiakim in 605 BC and carried away treasures from the temple and took some Jews as captives, including Daniel and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. (Later on, Nebuchadnezzar came back and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 587 BC and carried many more Jews into captivity in Babylon, as well, as part of that judgment of God.)

Read Daniel 1:3-7 to hear why Daniel and his friends were captured and taken to Babylon. They were capable young Jews, probably in their teens, who were to be trained for three intense years in Babylonian ways and then could serve the king as advisors. That included learning of Babylonian religion and gods. Their names were all changed from names that honored the one true God, Yahweh, into names that honored Babylonian gods. It was a difficult time in a very different culture, with many views opposed to the true God and His will. (Dr. Gene Veith, a member of the LCMS, wrote a very interesting book, Loving God with All Your Mind, which talks about living in our current culture, which is becoming more non-Christian. He uses Daniel 1 to describe the “University of Babylon” and how Daniel and his friends coped, and what our high school and college students can learn from that. They are not in church but in Babylon, in some ways, in a university with a “Universe” of ideas, good and bad, around them. They can survive and thrive by God’s blessing (He is still with them and us) and by sticking with the Word of God and the Biblical training they have already received, and supporting each other.)

Read Daniel 1:8-16. Daniel is faced with an Old Testament challenge about what Jews could eat and not eat. (We are free from that in the New Testament, by Jesus and what He teaches us, but Jews in Daniel’s day still had to eat foods that were acceptable and prepared in a “Kosher” way.) That was not possible, with the King’s food and drink

Daniel is not nasty and rebellious, though, but tries to find a way to do what God wishes and yet not get the people working with him in trouble. Jews could eat vegetables with no restrictions, and drink water, all from the King’s table. Daniel also provides a way to show that this diet will not hurt but help them, even in 10 days time. God helps and blesses all of this, and Daniel and his friends are much better off than the others. They are safe in doing God’s will.

Read Daniel 1:17-21 and see how they are better off throughout their training and when they are examined by King Nebuchadnezzar - 10 times better. (Notice, by the way, that certain numbers, like number 10, occur again and again. We will talk about that later.) They had learned the good and useful things they needed at their university and were able to sort out by God’s Word what was not so good. The Babylonians, for example, were said to be ahead of other nations in science and astronomy and math of that time (sounds like a STEM curriculum!), but also followed astrology, which the Jews knew to reject. See Psalm 119:97-104, where the psalmist praises God for His Word, which makes the psalmist wiser than many, including his enemies and even some of his teachers and the aged (and some very smart professors who know a lot, but not about God and His will, the things that count the most!)

Finally, note in Daniel 1:21, that Daniel ended up, by God’s mercy, serving at the court of King Nebuchadnezzar and those who followed him, for many years, and even when the Medo-Persian leader, Cyrus, conquered the Babylonians and led a whole new empire in 539 BC. Cyrus is the one who allowed the Jews to return to the land of Israel and even gave them help in starting to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. See 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 and Ezra 1:1-4. Maybe Daniel was left there, from 605 - 539 BC and even a little after that, to be an advisor who could help guide the unbelieving Cyrus to do what he did.

God was clearly still helping His people who did trust Him, even in very difficult times, as He still does today, in these complex, challenging times. The Word of God stills works and helps and teaches us, as we pay attention to it.

Read on in Daniel 2 and following, too, if you have time. We start with Chapter 2 in the next lesson.