Daniel Chapter 1- தானியல் - அதிகாரம் 1
We are going to see about Daniel’s activity from the book of Daniel from the Bible. Last week we have seen the background of Daniel’s historically elaborately. I intend to tell you in two minutes the historical story of Daniel for the new comers and proceed fourth to chapter 1 of Daniel.
The Israelites after the bondage in Egypt, they came out with the mighty hand of God after 40 years and they entered into Canaan and live there peacefully. They forgot the Lord who let them out of bondage for 40 years. They followed Salomon the king born to king David and the people also went astray like king Salomon who worshiped Pagan Gods and built tables for sacrifices for their Lords and slipped away from the Lord.
The Israelites were divided into two clans like the Judeans and the Israelites. The Judeans were holding Bejamin and Judeans. These people were in the south and their capital was Jerusalem. The rest of the twelve Tribes belonging to son of Isaac, Jacob who was called Israel.
The two tribes are Judah and Benjamin. The ten tribes other than the two tribes were called as the Israelites and they were in the north having Samaria as their capital. The Israelites of ten tribes of Jacob called themselves as Israelites did not obey the voice of Lord and hence the Lord gave them as captives to Assyrians (Samarians). Many a times the prophet Isaiah had prophesized to the Israelites to repent. But since they did not repent, they were handed over to the Assyrians by God. We find that the Lord was sending prophets and warned the Judeans for 115 years but they did not hear the word of God. The last 40 years were Jeramiah warned that if the Judeans did not obey the Lord, the Judeans will be handed over to the Babylonians. We find that the Babylonians came in the year 606 BC and took over total Israel and were ruling the Israelites. One of the captains of Assyria by name Nebubalizer’s who was a junior captain belongs to the Chaldeans became the king of Israel.
He belongs to the Chaldeans tribe and he claimed to be the king for Israel after the death of Assubanal the king of Babylon. And the third son happens to be Nebuchadnezzar of Nebubalizer becomes the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar went to win over Judea and because of Nebubalizer’s death Nebuchadnezzar became the king of Judea. When Nebuchadnezzar came to Jude king Jehoiakim was ruling Judea. Daniel 1:1-2 tells us the history in Daniel 1:1-2 as to how God gave the reign to Nebuchadnezzar “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles
of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God”. King Nebuchadnezzar came again to Judea and nearly 50000 people were taken as captives to Babylon. This happens to the people of Judea since they did not hear the word of God. Thereafter again after 9 years Nebuchadnezzar came back and took some people from Judea. Again, Nebuchadnezzar came after 8 years and swiped of Judea and took everything to Babylon. General people think as to what benefit will it bring in if we know the history of Babylon. What advantage will we get by knowing about Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel in the New Testament time where Christ is our head. It is stated that in the last days as per revelation 17th chapter Babylon (Iraq) will take over the world which means Babylon means the reign of Anti-Christ. It is stated that in the last days Anti-Christ will take over the world and this is what is stated in Daniel as Babylon being the big city and Jerusalem being the holy city. When Babylon takes over Israel (Jerusalem) the holy city that time it is stated that Daniel was only 17 years of age. This message to the people of the last days means that Daniel was only 17 years but he continued to manifest zeal and the preacher says that even today there will be some people who will have the spirit of Daniel will exist.
The preacher says that Anti-Christ in these days will do miracles and wonders. We the people of today should not get carried away by the above miracles and we should stand like Daniel with zeal. Reason for us to study the book of Daniel is mainly we find Daniel who was an young lad of age 17 was avoiding the food of king Nebuchadnezzar and ate only vegetarian food and pulses. We too should have the zeal of Daniel and continue to hate the modern food and world like Daniel and the reason being that we should live like Daniel in this present adverse world. The first two verses depict the activities of Daniel in the diverse situation of the world.
The third verse says that the king’s order was very clear that young lads from the royal family and the Lord’s family with no blemish should be there and they should be very handsome, they should be exemplary in wisdom, in education and they should possess the best qualification, they should be capable of working in the palace of the king. The king ordered Arbanes that these young people should be taught in the language of the king and the land and also, he ordered that for three years the young people should be fed the king’s food and observed after three years regarding their growth. And the four youths namely Daniel, Ananias, Mashael, and Azariah were among them. The four people were re-named by the chief as Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We find Daniel did not want himself to be defiled with the food of the king and hence he chose to take only vegetable food, pulses and water. Regarding food practices it says in Romans 14:21-22 “It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves”. As per these verses the chief who was maintaining Daniel cautioned Daniel that he is afraid of the king’s order and hence he was not ready to budge.
Daniel on the other hand told the chief that you continue to give the pulses to me and after ten days check out with the lads who have been brough from Israel. Then you do according to your wish looking at the result. This shows that the Lord provides food for the people to live longer. Later when the chief checked up the lads it was found that the vegetarian food worked better and Daniel and his friends were looking better than the other Jewish lads.
Based on the above the chief provided vegetable food for the four Jewish boys. It was found by the chief that these boys were special and they have dedicated themselves to the Lord. The preacher says that there may be people who mock at you for doing so but the Lord will
reward you at a later time and the same people will come to you for prayer regarding problems in their families. The Lord was able to bless all the four with blessings of wisdom, knowledge, education and he blessed Daniel with heavenly secrets being unleashed.
The preacher says that he was imagining himself in the place of Daniel and if he would not have shared the matters with the other three friends of his, they would have gone astray and would have got ruined but since God was there with Daniel and Daniel had the vision to take his friend along with him, the friends were also saved and God blessed them also. The preacher also says that he has many witnesses about himself. He happened to be the head of an engineering industry whereas he had studied not an engineering subject. He was very successful and he made the company to turn around and make profits. He has many testimonies like this. The Lord was able to bless me since I used to teach the technical people of the company matters which were not known to them and the Lord had told me. There were many occasions like the above and made the people around to get astonished including me and the owner of the wisdom and knowledge was the Lord. I have not gone to any Theological College or I have not worked under any pastor, yet I could conduct a service, manage a Sunday school, youth groups and the women fellowship. This is all the work of the Lord and he is not partial to anyone. You can also get it if you ask for it.
The chief of the trainers took Daniel and his group before king Nebuchadnezzar and the king was appreciative of the four lads from Israel. The four were found having much knowledge and wisdom than the others who were also trained. Nebuchadnezzar was able to find ten times better than the others and Daniel was having special powers of explaining the secrets and the dreams and the heavenly matters. We find that we send our children to tuitions and training classes but we find our children are average only. The preacher says that if you leave the children in the presence of God and teach them about God then they will be found ten times better than the gentiles. We take the priority as education to the children instead of teaching them Godliness. The preacher happens to narrate the incident of a woman who had two children and they are in high positions after an excellent track record of their education, but it was told that they do not even go to church today. They have relinquished marriages and they do not know the alphabets of God. The woman was crying about her children. We find we are giving importance to the worldly knowledge to the children than the evangelical knowledge. By associating with Daniel, the three friend of his were found to be having ten times better knowledge and wisdom than others but we forget this and we are the culprits in stuffing the children with worldly knowledge. The Proverb (chapter 18) says that your knowledge and grace of god will take you to the presence of the king. If you lookout for the blessing of the Lord and get his wisdom and knowledge people will come to you and throng you. It says in the 21st verse that Daniel was there in the king’s palace till his 40th year and king Kores was ruling. Daniel came into the king’s palace while he was 17 years old. He decided that when he enters into the palace, he will not defile himself with the food of the king. He decided to live for the Lord. He was in the palace up to 80 years and it is stated that he lived up to 92 years. He lived with the zeal till the 12th chapter of the book of Daniel. He ultimately became the governor of a particular state. The people around testified that Daniel was a man of God and he continued in the zeal till the end having been a captive in the land of Babylon.
We should also act similarly and having zeal of Daniel in a particular matter for the Lord at least. Amen. -