Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 45:1-13
New Testament Reading: Romans 15:1-6
The Book of Daniel
“Daniel’s Determined Destiny”
Daniel 1:1-21
Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor
The Book of Daniel is called the spine of biblical prophecy because it provides the chronological timeline necessary to establish biblical prophecy into linear history.
- Many liberal theologians, professors, pastors, and people believe the Book of Daniel is history, not prophecy.
- Some even claim the book is a forgery – a fable written by a Jewish man in 165 B.C. who merely claimed Daniel wrote it.
- While Satan is behind every attack on the inerrancy of Scripture, the tool he has used since the 1700’s is humanistic rationalism.
- Humanistic rationalism concludes that since man is the measure of all things, man’s mind is the ultimate discerner of all truth.
- Therefore, there is no supernatural intervention or divine revelation, which means the miracles of the Bible did not happen; the Bible is just religious mythology and tradition.
- The ultimate goal of such vain philosophies is to deny the existence, and therefore the authority of God over their lives.
However, what the Book of Revelation is to the New Testament, both prophetically and apocalyptically, the Book of Daniel is to the Old Testament.
- Daniel affirms Israel as God’s channel of redemption, including the first-coming of Christ, His rejection by the Jewish religious leaders, God’s judgment upon their unbelief, including the 7-years of tribulation, the revival of the remnant of Jews, and the second-coming of Christ to establish His kingdom on this earth.
- If the Book of Daniel is true – i.e., that God’s sovereignty rules over man’s vanity, we can trust that God is working all things out according to His divine plan.
- If not, God is a liar, and we are on our own to explain the purpose of this life.
- If the Book of Daniel is true, the rest of Holy Scripture is true, for no prophecy of Scripture was of any private interpretation.
- If not, the rest of Scripture becomes questionable, and we have no promise of hope beyond this life.
- If the Book of Daniel is true, what Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 is also true.
- If not, then Jesus was not God, and therefore the Savior we believed Him to be, and we are still lost in our sins, and without hope of God’s forgiveness.
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The Book of Daniel is divided into two parts:
- The man – the prophet –
- The message – the prophecies –
Beyond the book’s eschatological treasures, as a man, God chose Daniel to show His people:
- How to live in the present by keeping their focus on the future.
- How to live for God in this wicked age by visualizing what life will be like in that millennial-age to come.
- How to overcome the ever-increasing evil of this world, with an ever-growing anticipation of living in that glorious kingdom to come.
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His.
He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.” Daniel 2:20-22
1. Daniel’s Dilemma – Daniel 1:1-7 – vs. 5 – “The king appointed them a daily provision of the kings’ meat, and of the wine which he drank.”
Writing about 50-years into his servitude, (540-530 B.C.) Daniel wanted his readers to know, while Judah had been seized by King Nebuchadnezzar, and he was among those who were taken captive, his life circumstances, as well as the nation of Israel, were according to the sovereignty of God.
- God had told the Israelites if they went astray from Him, He would send them into exile, and He had done what He said.
- God warned them through Isaiah and Jeremiah that they had forsaken His laws and ignored His covenant, but they would not repent. Their 70 years of captivity was God’s way of reclaiming the Sabbaths the people of Israel had neglected and violated.
In 605 B.C., Babylon conquered Jerusalem, captured the people, and took the brightest teenagers back to Babylon, including Daniel and his three friends.
- They faced a crisis of authority – vs. -4 – they were chosen to be indoctrinated into the godless philosophy of the Chaldean culture.
- They faced a crisis of morality – vs. – 5 – they were to be fed foods that were forbidden by their Jewish faith.
- They faced a crisis of identity – vs. – 6-7 – they had their Judean names changed to reflect the Chaldean gods.
- From Daniel – “God is my judge” – to Belteshazzar – “god, protect my life.
- From Hananiah – “Jehovah is gracious” – to Shadrach – “I’m fearful of god.”
- From Mishael – “Who is He that is God” – to Meshack – “I am despised before my god.”
- From Azariah – “the Lord is my help” – to Abednego – “servant of Nebo.”
- Nebuchadnezzar’s four-fold strategy of cultural conversion:
- Isolation– separating them from the family and their faith.
- Indoctrination – saturating their minds in the Babylonian culture to change their worldview.
- Accommodation – providing all the comforts of life to draw them away from their faith in God.
- Transformation – severing their names from their Judean culture and attaching them to the Chaldean culture.
2. Daniel’s Decision – Daniel 1:8-21 – vs. 8 – “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.”
Daniel made a four-fold decision:
- It was a heart decision – vs. 1 – they could change his place of living, his diet, and even his name, but they could not change his heart toward God.
- It was an individual decision – vs. 8 – some other boys had already caved to their captors, but not Daniel.
- It was an influential decision – vs. 10 – Daniel encouraged those who had not acquiesced to stand firm in their faith in God.
- It was a humble decision – vs. 8-16 – even though Daniel had strong convictions, he expressed himself in a humble and respectful way before his captors.
- 8-10 – Daniel requested to be exempted from the king’s diet, but his request was denied.
- 11-14 – Daniel suggested an alternative plan, and it was accepted.
- 17-21 – God honored Daniel’s faith by giving him and his friends skill, knowledge, wisdom, and discernment.
“Among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
In all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them
ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.” Daniel 1:19-20
- Daniel remained a servant of the King even to the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, and may have influenced him to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple.
- Daniel was God’s mouthpiece to the Jews – encouraging them to remain faithful to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- Daniel was God’s mouthpiece to the Gentiles – outlining the four Gentile Kingdoms that would rule the world until they were all subdued by the Kingdom of the Lord.
- Daniel may have witnessed to the “Magi” who came to Jerusalem in search of the “new-born King of the Jews.”
- Among all the prophets of his day, Daniel was respected and revered as the wisest man that ever graced the earth.
