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NOVEMBER 25
Daniel 1-2:23
The book of Daniel has been an unexpected blessing in my life. The Lord
surprised me with it one day. Back in 1979 or 1980 as I was studying in an
empty college classroom, I opened my Bible for my quiet time and began to read
Daniel. It was one of those things where the Spirit just “opened my eyes” to
some things. I saw connections. In the week that followed, my desire for
reading the Word, and pursuing God in it, received a huge shot of adrenaline
that has carried me through to today. I remember taking a walk on one of those
days thinking my life would never be the same. In a way it hasn’t been. Though
some of the emotion and thrill of discovery has faded, I received a lasting
sense of expectation and a desire to search the Word and ask the Lord to draw
near to me. Even this morning as I was reading through Isaiah 55, I felt that
privilege again, of having the Lord show me something in the Word and of
Himself that will stay with me as I follow Jesus in the harvest.
I’m going to try to make observations here to help you discover stuff,
but I know I won’t be able to restrain myself and I’ll probably say too much.
Almost all of what I’m sharing with you I’ve gotten out of my quiet time and
personal study, not from books or seminary classes. I want to encourage you to
spend time in the Word, asking questions, looking for clues and connections. It
will not only mark you for life with a sense of desire and joy in the Word, but
when you share what you’ve learned, it will have a sense of life to it. You
will become a contagious teacher.
Daniel was a special man and God used him in an incredible way. You’ve
heard me hint at things about him. Yet, as we've learned from examining great
men, there are some very normal things that we can learn from Daniel. In
Ezekiel 14:14, Daniel is mentioned with Noah and Job. I remember asking myself
why Daniel is mentioned with them, and it hit me that both of those men were
the most righteous men on earth at their particular times in history. So was
Daniel. He is the only man I know of other than Jesus where God refers to him
as "beloved." We’ll see that.
So where did this “superman” come from? As we have seen with other men
in the Bible, Daniel paid his dues in following God; and the background and
foundation of his faith were the result of a string of failures.
King Manasseh repented of his great sins, but could not reverse the
damage he’d done, or get his son to follow the Lord. Yet, Manasseh spent the
last six years of his life with his grandson Josiah. After his father's short,
two-year reign, Josiah became king at age eight and was immediately known as a
godly king. That had to have come from Grandpa Manasseh, the failure. But there
was no Bible until ten years later when they were repairing the temple and
found a copy of the law. When the first five books were read to him, the
18-year old King Josiah was moved to tears and was emotionally alarmed by the
judgments God had spoken in Deuteronomy. God commended Josiah for his passion
and tears, but He would not withhold the fury of His judgment against Judah. As
if hard of hearing and against all hope, Josiah launched a revival in the land
that was the greatest Israel had ever known. In fact, I think Josiah was the
godliest king Israel ever knew. But in the end, it was a "failure."
His sons, who became kings after him, were ungodly men. In fact, not only did
Pharaoh Neco take his first son captive, but Nebuchadnezzar walked into the
city, looted the temple and took some of Judah’s finest sons as captives to
Babylon. Israel was no longer a sovereign state. The times of the Gentiles had
begun.
So, who is Daniel? I’m going to suggest that Daniel was about 16 when
Neb took him to Babylon. If Daniel was 16, it means he would have grown up
during the end of Josiah’s reign, but his parents would have been born and
raised during Josiah’s revival. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were four
very godly teenagers who came out of four very godly families. Their dads and
moms were products of Josiah’s revival. Josiah’s hopeless effort to save the
nation failed, or did it? Wait until you see what God does with Daniel and his
friends to save Israel. Faithfully bearing witness against all hope, like kings
Manasseh and Josiah did, is all God wants. He does the rest. For us, this is
following in the harvest, reaching out to the lost and making disciples.
God has a funny way of working under the radar. Two failed kings hoped
against hope, working, knowing that God’s wrath would come. Manasseh influenced
Josiah; Josiah influenced a generation of men and women. Four families had
godly boys, and God used them to save the nation. Never give up. Make disciples,
who make disciples, and leave the rest to God. I think that’s pretty cool.
Daniel 1
Vs. 1-3 This is God humbling Israel. To walk into the temple of a
people’s god meant your god was bigger than their god. To take that god’s stuff
and lock it in the treasury of your god showed superiority.
Vs. 4-7 We will get an idea in chapter 3 of Neb’s plan in educating
these boys. He apparently took young men from every country to train them and
send them back as loyal servants, governing their land for the Babylonian
Empire. It was a brilliant plan. Alexander the Great’s idea was to encourage
his men to intermarry in their conquered kingdoms, and therefore the Greeks I
grew up with used to say that the original Greeks were all blond-haired and
blue-eyed until Alexander conquered Persia. Anyway, you'll see the "loyalty
test" for Nebuchadnezzar’s educational plan in Daniel 3.
The food had all been offered or blessed in worship to Babylonian gods.
Yet, who could blame anyone under those circumstances for eating his first pork
chop?
V. 6 Notice the words among
these. Daniel and Co. were not the only Jewish boys taken, so, for good
or for ill, there was a peer group of Jews. That would have compounded the
difficulty of standing alone. Thankfully there were four of them, like a
disciple's cell group.
V. 7 All the boys had names that honored the God of Israel. They were
renamed in honor of the gods of Babylon.
Now, write out a list of what these boys had lost: parents, home,
names, language, etc. Not only that, they were threatened with death should
they disobey. Not only that, they were with others they knew from Jerusalem who
were "understandably" being compromised. None of this put them in a
“secure” situation. Why would God do this to them?
V. 8 The contrast with all they had lost makes the faith of this verse
so deep. Daniel and Co. had every excuse to compromise. They could have said
they were going "undercover" for God. He’d understand. And after all,
“Those of us who run away live to run another day.”
Vs. 9-16 Do you notice the words, God
gave? You’ve seen this before in v. 2. You've also seen this in Joseph's
life in Egypt. This is what Daniel and Co. knew. They understood all of this
as God’s work. They might have been sad, but they never lost their
understanding that the Lord was working. They understood that God was with them
and loved them. What had happened to Jerusalem and what was happening to them
was from the hand of God. This is why they had the courage to suggest this
test. And God gave. Think of the
things that make you anxious or ready to flip out. These guys had more than
enough to stress an elephant to death, but they understood the Lord and knew He
was with them. They just didn’t know what God would do, but it was more
important for them to honor God than to stay alive on earth. We’ll see that
very clearly in chapter 3.
Vs. 17-20 And God gave.
Something else happened too. They were so good that Nebuchadnezzar kept them
close, in the city, in his personal service. They became notable and memorable
and useful to Neb. We’ll see how that plays out in chapter 2.
V. 21 This is a significant time marker. What is really interesting is
that Daniel 10 happens in the third year of Cyrus. That’s two years later. So,
why the mention of the first year of Cyrus? Why is that year so important? You
should know this. In the first year of Cyrus, Cyrus the Persian king (who had
just become the ruler of all that had been the Babylonian Empire) gave the
command for the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. The 70-year
exile began the day Daniel was taken, and Daniel was still serving in the
government the day the exile ended. Daniel will be the story of God preparing
the nations for the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and preparing the nations
for the return of Christ to establish His everlasting kingdom.
Notice, that even in this crisis, through this crisis and by means of
this crisis, God was working for good.
Daniel 2:1-23
V. 1 This was the second full year of Neb being king, but they may not
have counted the months before that full year. It seems that this happened after
the education of Daniel and Co.
Vs. 2-4 These various men were there especially for Nebuchadnezzar.
They were his counselors, his support system, and his access to the gods. He
was in a very personal and emotional distress, and now he needed them.
V. 4 Up to this verse everything has been written in Hebrew. From this
verse to the end of chapter 7, Daniel is writing in Aramaic, the common
language of the empire. Great scholars wonder why. You’ll figure it out just by
observing the text.
Vs. 5-11 So what do you notice here? Why do you think Neb was so ardent
that they tell him the dream too? As things are heating up in this
confrontation, God leads the issue to exactly the point He is going to make to
Nebuchadnezzar. Actually, God is taking Neb to school. I think vs. 10 and 11
are the key verses here. Is there a man on earth who can talk to the Most High
God, who doesn't dwell with men? Nebuchadnezzar is about to find out that there
is a man and that the Most High God does talk.
Vs. 12-16 Apparently Neb went nuts. What you need to see here is that
this is now a very public event in the city of Babylon. Troops are showing up
at the houses of wise men (still wearing their Disney© Sorcerers’ Apprentice pajamas
and cone-shaped hats with the stars and moons on them) and dragging the wise
men out into the street, and taking them to prison to hold them for execution.
The city would have been electric as well as the entire government. People in
the market places would have been talking. Wolf Blitzer would have been there
for CNN.
In a crisis like this, I could have imagined Daniel and Co. trying to
escape somehow; but notice Daniel’s composure in this life-threatening crisis.
They have seen God’s blessing, and they know God is with them, so they bring
their personal calm into the public chaos.
Arioch listened, and Neb must have remembered that Daniel had made a
fantastic impression during his oral exam. Apparently Daniel and Co. hadn’t
yet been brought fully into service. This might have happened very close to the
time of their graduation and presentation to Nebuchadnezzar.
Vs. 17-23 It doesn’t say “God gave,” but we’re seeing that God was with
them.
V. 18 Notice that they cried out to God.
V. 20 Notice that God spoke to Daniel and that Daniel spoke back.
Vs. 20-23 Notice the understanding that Daniel and his friends had. At
this point, I think Daniel was about 19. I’ll explain this “guesstimate” when
we get to the end of the chapter.
V. 21 Although this dream was to begin Nebuchadnezzar's education and
give the world some interesting information on God's working, imagine what this
must have meant to Daniel and Co. And we are disciples too. When you read
about the dream tomorrow the question will be, “what does this information mean
to us?”
V. 23 Notice the “us.” God spoke to Daniel, but Daniel understood that
this answer was in response to all of them seeking God together.
Does crisis always mean a loss of blessing or a disaster? It depends on
what we’re living for, and what we understand about God and this life on earth.
As disciples in the harvest there is a lot for us to learn from looking at what
God did through Daniel and his friends.
1 Peter 3:8-4:6
And now, we are on to another crisis. Peter is encouraging and
strengthening these disciples to thrive in the on-coming persecution Nero will
bring against the Christians in the Roman Empire.
1 Peter 3:8-22
V. 8 This sounds like Paul in Romans 12 and is addressed to having a
kind heart toward other believers.
Vs. 9-12 It seems that Peter might have gotten some of this from Psalm
34:11-22. Very interesting. Also, this looks again like Romans 12.
Vs. 13-17 We are called to be put to the test so that others can
observe Christ in us and ask us why we have this hope. We need to make sure we
are honoring God. These are great verses. Just so you know that Peter was
listening when Jesus taught, here is Matthew 10:18-19, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear
witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be
anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say
will be given to you in that hour.
Vs. 18-22 And in our suffering, to see the world rescued for Christ, we
are following our Savior and His example.
Vs. 19-20 I have always understood that after Christ died, before He
was resurrected, He spoke to those who lived before the flood. On what basis
could God judge those people as righteous or unrighteous since the law hadn’t
been given? Also, this was a very “spiritual” time, with fallen angels having
much more contact with humans. Those angels were judged and locked up. Was God
just in doing that? I think the issue might have been raised by Satan that it
would be impossible for God to righteously save mankind without violating His
own righteousness. But, there were some mysteries that God held back, that
Satan couldn’t have guessed at. Jesus, by His sinless life and death for the
payment of sin, became the basis both for the forgiveness and salvation of all
men and for the judgment and damnation of all men and angels. Jesus spoke to
all those people. A few were pronounced justified by faith (Methuselah probably
died the year the flood began), but most were pronounced guilty. Apparently the
people who lived between Adam and Noah were a special case.
So, if Jesus' work brought clarity (the pronouncement of judgment and
forgiveness) to that mess, He can certainly rule over this mess.
Vs. 21-22 This salvation brought by baptism is not for salvation (the
removal of dirt), but for a clear conscience in that we are committing
ourselves to following Christ. We are humbling our lives to His leadership,
putting ourselves under His authority. This is meant also to save our faith
from damage. This authority was visibly confirmed on Jesus at His resurrection.
Another way to understand this is Paul’s mention to Timothy, in 1
Timothy, about the importance of keeping a clear conscience. By denying
conscience, certain persons had shipwrecked their faith. As we’ve seen before,
it is possible to damage our faith and walk on earth. God still loves and works
with a repentant believer, but once a marriage is destroyed or adultery has
been committed, you have to live with the resulting damage. Baptism can save us
from this damage, if baptism and discipleship are understood as swearing total
devotion to the authority and Word of our Lord. It is hard to sin or mess up a
marriage if we are obeying Him and not our gut.
1 Peter 4:1-6
Vs. 1-2 Jesus is our example of seriousness and suffering. Anyone who
has suffered has been tempered to see the true perspective of this life, and
will therefore not live for passions and what is temporary, but will live for
the eternal. Suffering is what God uses to refine us like gold and silver.
Vs. 3-5 Like Paul, Peter is warning these believers not to drift back
to their former lifestyles and with their former friends. The temptation to do
this would be to look acceptable and not to be mistreated because they belong
to Christ. They needed to keep the eternal perspective before them. This sounds
like Daniel and Co.
V. 6 Even though our bodies are judged and dead (and awaiting
resurrection), our spirits are alive and will live forever with God in that new
spiritual body. This is why we work in the harvest, making disciples, who make
disciples, to let people know that there is salvation in our Lord.
Psalm 119:65-80
Vs. 65-66 Exactly how did God deal with David according to His Word to
teach him? Through suffering.
Vs. 67-72 Can you see 1 Peter 4:1-2 in these verses? Can you hear Paul
and James and Peter saying that the testing of our faith is more precious than
gold or silver?
Vs. 73-74 Through the Word and through suffering, God fashioned David
in such a way that he would be a walking witness to others.
Vs. 75-76 These verses remind me of Job. God afflicted him in faithfulness, and God comforted him in
due time with His steadfast love.
Vs. 77-78 In addition, David, even in his dismal days, had the promise
he had received years earlier, as Samuel anointed him, that he would someday be
king. David was pursued by the insolent and his only recourse to control and
calm his thoughts was to meditate on God's precepts.
V. 79 Through David's affliction, and having to cling to God’s Word,
God made David a witness and a model for those who were suffering. In Isaiah 55
it says, Behold God made him (David) a
witness to the peoples…
V. 80 Amen.
Proverbs 28:14
Amen, again.
Please Read
the Following Disclaimer
I'm writing the Reading Notes to and
for those who are following a One Year Bible and are interested in growing
deeper as a disciple, following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see the
growth of a discipleship culture in the church, that is, groups of 3-4
disciples, meeting weekly, encouraging each other to follow Christ and work to
reach out and make disciples, who make disciples. The Bible itself is the most
universal and important discipleship manual we have and it is the key to our
growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us more focused on why we are here,
or what we are to be doing, or whom we are to be following. My comments are
only meant to provide some explanation of the events or to show the flow of
God's plan of redemption. My comments are in no way exhaustive, but are
designed to keep us, as disciples, focused on Christ and our role in His
harvest. My hope is that the people in these groups will grow in Christ and be
willing, after a year, to find 3 others to meet with and encourage in their
growth as disciples, making disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a more descriptive
commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary (BKC).
I read the BKC in doing background for the Reading Notes and refer to it quite
often. I also make reference to maps or charts in the BKC, though I will only
note where those resources can be found. Often you can do a search for these
and find them in Google books. Buying both volumes of the Bible Knowledge
Commentary would be a good idea.
I am not endorsing any particular
One Year Bible translation; in fact, I read something you probably don't, Die
Revidierte Lutherbibel, 1984. Unless noted, all Scripture quotes are from the
ESV Bible.
Anyone reading along with us is
welcome to do so and is encouraged to take their own notes and make their own
observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition
or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any
point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as
I understand it. Often there is a breadth of opinion on certain events, both
historical and prophetic. Many of my views come from my church background,
theological training and my personal study.
I'm
doing this with discipleship in mind, meaning, I'm writing out thoughts that
will keep discipleship and our growth as disciples applied to what we are
reading. Remember, the real focus of the Reading Notes is to be a
supplement, a disciple’s commentary, giving motivation and insight so that we
will keep following our Lord in the harvest, reaching the lost and making
disciples, who make disciples. Being in
the Word every day, sitting at Jesus’ feet, learning directly from Him, is the
essential essence of being and making disciples.
May the Lord bless you as you follow Him in the
harvest, reaching the lost and making disciples, who make disciples. Dan
If you would like documents
containing an entire month of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes.
If you would like a full
presentation of discipleship read Simply
Disciples*Making Disciples.
Or if you are struggling with
insomnia and would like a long boring dissertation on disciple making, these
can both be found on https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes.
Reading Notes ©, Dan Kachikis
2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
The One Year Bible © by
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton Illinois 60189
The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.
All charts/graphics/outlines
from the Bible Knowledge Commentary are used with the permission of David C.
Cook.
© 1983, 2001 John F Walvoord and Roy B Zuck.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary is published by David C Cook.
All rights reserved. Publisher permission
required to reproduce.
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