Daniel Introduction
Daniel – Introduction We are going to look into the book of Daniel and though we have done it earlier we intend to do it again, since many people lack in faith. The meaning of Daniel is “one who judges me, God is my Judge”. It is found that Jews have separated the books of Bible in the following manner: 1. Creation 2. The Law of Moses 3. History of the people of God 4. Prophets 5.
Evangelisation. Whereas the Jews have classified the book of Daniel into history books whereas we have classified it as a book of prophesy. And as per Mathew 24:15 Daniel is stated to be a prophet and not a historian. Since in Mathew 24:15 it is told by Jesus that Daniel is a prophet we would like to continue as Daniel being a prophet. Daniel was born around 625 years prior to Jesus. I am giving you the background of Daniel mainly because we should know who is Daniel and he has written his book what it means to me. Only then we will know the full history about Daniel and hence I am telling you the background.
Daniel was born between 625 and 626 before Christ and when Christ was born Daiel was not there. Only his prophesy was retained. When Daniel was born Israel was under the Babylonians and the king of Assyria namely Asther alif died on that year when Daniel was born. Daniel was born 12-13 years later of the death of Asther alif and during that time the story of Nineveh took place. You are aware of the consequences. Only during the time of Daniel, the king Navabulezar and his son Nebuchadnezzar were ruling Israel and they were stated to be very strong in administration. Daniel continued in the time of king Josiah and during that time there was a revival. If you see the Almanac of the kings of Israel in which Josiah’s name will be let known to you.
During the time of Josiah there was a revival. Daniel knew about God during this time and grew in wisdom of God. There is a list which tells you about the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel they were respectively 20 kings in each group. We find that the 20 numbers of Israelites kings were not good. We find that out of the 20 kings who were ruling Judah out of which 8 were stated to be good and 5 were exceptionally good and the 5 were serving God.
We find king Josiah was one among the 5 and he did a lot of things for God and we find the revival took place during his time. We are people who follow the New Testaments and Jesus. Jesus happens to be our model and fore runner for us. So, we should compare everything and anything with the activities of Jesus. But there after if you want to follow anyone else other than Jesus it could be only Paul and Jesus happens to be the primary person to be followed.
If you want to take examples from Old Testaments it would be only Joseph and Daniel. There are songs about Moses and the Ten Commandments which are not for us and we should not even sing it. If there is anyone in the Old Testaments who conducted a life without any blemish or mark in them, it could be only Joseph and Daniel. If at all there is anyone who had the wisdom of God it was only Solamon the king. But he is told to have died during his 60’s. He
had a miserable end. It is known that king Salomon had the best wisdom and his fall was because he was proud. Even today many people fall because they are proud. The more you become wise you should possess simplicity and humbleness that is why we teach on Sundays about humility. We find that in Ezekiel 28:3 it is stated that next to Daniel in wisdom was Lucifer the Satan. This shows that Daniel was very wise and humble also.
The whole of Israel was divided into two and the Judah personals were Judah and Manasseh whereas the rest of the ten Tribes were claiming themselves to be the Israelites. It should be the son of Absalom who happens to be the son of king David by name Jeroboam should have become the king of Israel. But Rehoboam son of Batsebal was made the king as promised by David the king to Batsebal. The capital of Judah was Jerusalem and the capital of Israel was Samariah as per John 4th chapter which talks about the Samaritan woman.
At this moment when capital of Israel was Samaria and capital of Judah was Israel, the sin of Israel started increasing much. The Lord said that Israel will go as a captive to Samaria. We find that Samaria made the three Tribes that are Ruban, Tan, Manasseh as captives and later on they took over the Israelites and the Israel nation were captives to Samaria in the year 721 BC. At the same time the Lord told to Judah to come to him or else they would be handed over to Babylonians. During this time the Judeans were told by the Lord and prophets for nearly 115 years to repent and come to the Lord. And the Lord became vexed and in 606 BC handed over the Judah to Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar became the king of Judah also.
The hearts of the people of Judah were so hardened that Nebuchadnezzar came thrice and had taken away all the material that were made by king Salomon. The Judeans were forewarned by Zephaniah, Micha, Isaiah that if they do not hear the word of God then they will be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon. There were preachers who were preaching against the above prophets and made the Judeans to hardened their heart very much for about 115 years. Thereafter came Jeramiah and Habakkuk and preached the same to the Judeans them to repent and come to the way of the Lord. Since the Judeans did not follow neither Isaiah nor Jeramiah the Judeans were handed over to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Jeramiah in his prophesy told that if you do not obey the Lord, you will go as captive for 70 years. This letter was written by Daniel and the prophet Ezekiel when they were in captivity. These three activities warning the Judeans who went into captivity to Nebuchadnezzar are indicated in the notes of Mr. Abraham John David in three colours they are: Blue, Green and Orange. If in case you happen to get prophesy from any prophet you should verify as to whom it was prophesized to and where it was prophesized and for what reason the prophesy was told.
It is stated II Chronicles 36:9-10 “Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord. At the turn of the year King Nebuchadnezzar summoned him and took him to Babylon, with the costly articles from the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem”. The Babylonians burnt the castle and took away all the materials made of gold used for sacrifices to the Lord and they left very poor people in Jerusalem. The Israelites were taken as captives to Babylon and stayed there till the king of Persia took over Babylon and Daniel was one among them. The Israelites caused confusion and they did not have a leader so Daniel was also taken as a captive to Babylon. The historians think that Daniel would be 15-17 years old and maximum 19 years. II Chronicles 36:21 “to fulfil the word of the Lord
by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath, to fulfil seventy years. It is stated that the prophet Jeramiah’s word came true and it continued for 70 years as per the prophesy. This prophesy is found in Jeramiah 25:9-12 “behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,'says the Lord, 'and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 'Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,'says the Lord; 'and I will make it a perpetual desolation”. This prophesy was told by Jeramiah in the year 6005 BC whereas we find this prophesy taking place in 6006 BC where Nebuchadnezzar starts ruling Jerusalem as a king of Babylon. The book of Moses talks about the Sabbath required for the land in Leviticus 25:18-22 “So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety. And if you say, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?"Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years.
And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest”. There are 12 chapters and 357 verses in the book of Daniel. When the book of Daniel was written and Daniel was running 15-19 years. Hence it is calculated that Daniel lived through the years of captivity (70 years). We find that Daniel lived and wrote this when he was 90 years old. We are aware that Daniel lived through the years, the Israelites were in captivity.
The book of Daniel shows how a lad of 17 years could live for 90 years in a foreign land as a captive. The speciality of this prophesy is that 1st chapter to 2:4 was written in Hebrew thereafter from 2:4 to 7:28 chapters were written in Aramaic and from 7:29 onwards it was written in Hebrew. This book was written partly in Aramaic mainly because Daniel was a captive and he had to explain the dream to the king and let know to the other people so that they will also appreciate and hence it was written in Aramaic. Apart from this Daniel wrote this prophesy for four reason 1. To deliver the people of Israel from bondage 2. To take action on the Babylonians who were persecuting the Israelites 3. The action on Babylonians 4. The Israelites delivered from bondage being brought to the limelight. The last vision that was shown by the angel, we find that Daniel could not understand the vision that was shown to him by an Angel. We find that Daniel enquired the angel and the angel replied “you may go and take rest and seal this result till the end of the world” (Daniel 12:8-9). The secret was told in Mark 4:11 “And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside”.
Gist: A lad of 17 years taken captive by the Babylonians lived a life of zeal with his three friends knowing that he was taken as a captive. We find the faith of Daniel was great and hence he could unleash all secrets and dreams of the kings who ruled the Babylonian kingdom. Hence Daniel was made as a Governor for the city of Babylon. We find that many people in the present days educate the children in multiple ways to get very high position in the world but we see that person like Daniel who had wisdom and knowledge of Lord could become the Governor of Babylon. This shows that the amount of education does not matter when you are a child of God since the wisdom and knowledge are owned by God and can be granted to anyone who is the child of God. Amen.