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Daniel Segment 1

All scripture is from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. Before beginning this study, I suggest you pray and ask God to guide you through this study. I also suggest that you do you own study of this material in order to ensure its accuracy.
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aniel means "God is Judge". Daniel was about 16 when he was carried away to Babylon. He was of the seed of the royal family, or David. The book contains many future prophecies and is known as the apocalypse (revealing) of the Old Testament. Many of the prophecies have been fulfilled exactly as spoken by Daniel, prompting many skeptics of the Bible to place the writing of Daniel at a much later date, a date after prophecies were fulfilled. They do this to prove their claim that Daniel was not inspired because, according to them, no one can know the future. Well, God knows and He gave these prophecies to Daniel.

Jehoiakim was the son of Josiah and he was king when Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem in accordance with the prophecy given by Jeremiah. His name, Eliakim, was changed to Jehoiakim when he became king. He replaced his brother Jehoahaz as king after Pharaoh Necho deposed Jehoahaz and took him to Egypt. Dating the third year of Jehoiakim's reign depends upon who reckons it. Ussher says it was c. 497 BC. More modern chronologies put it around 605 BC.

Nebuchadnezzar means, "Nebo protects the king". Nebo was the Babylonian god of wisdom, science, speech, and authority. Nebo also means to speak forth, or the prophesy, and the word can mean prophet. In fact, the Hebrew word for prophet is nabi, Strongs 5030. This word is directly from the Chaldee word nebo. Nebuchadnezzar is also called Nebuchadrezzar, which is a closer approximation of the pronunciation of the word.

The Chronicler of the Israeli kings put it this way:

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Jeremiah prophesied about this in Jeremiah 27:1-7. God delivered Jehoiakim and many of the consecrated vessels from the Temple into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar took them and put them in the temple of Nebo.

Nebuchadnezzar looked for high quality men and women in the conquered peoples to be trained in Babylonian ways. This was a device used to assimilate captive nations into their own society. By training up high quality young men in the schools of Babylon, and then placing them in key government positions, the Babylonians hoped to keep the peace among the captives. They hoped to make the captives feel at home. This way they could prevent insurrection before it began, and they would be a step ahead of the game. From the description above we see that these young men must be the cream of the crop. These were literate individuals.

Asphenaz was in charge of selecting these individuals and training them. He was the master of eunuchs. Now the word for eunuch, saris, can mean either a castrated man or a government minister, usually a chamberlain, or harem keeper. But the word can mean any government official. Here it seems to indicate that Asphenaz was the master over the eunuchs in the Kings house. He would have been in control of all that happened in the king's household. He was a sort of butler.

The king gave these youth the same food and wine that he had at his own table. He gave orders that they should be in training for three years and that they should be physically fit and educated at the end of that time. The king's food and wine would not have been acceptable to them. The Babylonians ate unclean meats, strangled beasts, improperly blooded beasts, and most of their food and wine was first sacrificed to idols. Israeli dietary laws prevented eating such things.

The king's wine was also not up to Israelite standards. Wine is made by the action of yeast on grape juice. The grape on the vine before harvest is covered with a haze. This haze, which is on every grape, is made of yeast spores adhering to the skin of the grape. The spores are also in the air around us. One cannot crush the grape to get the juice out without mixing the juice with the yeast. It is impossible. Yeast is symbolic of sin. Grape juice is necessarily impure because of the yeast that is in all grape juice makes it so. It is symbolic of God's people with sin in their lives before the blood of the atonement purifies them. The juice must undergo fermentation because that process leaves the juice pure. It causes all yeast growth to cease, kills the live yeast cells. The dead yeast cells then sink to the bottom of the fermentation vessel (wineskin) in the form of dregs. The wine is decanted or poured off of these dregs, leaving them in the wineskin. The wine is then purified from leaven. Only when purified from all leaven could Daniel and his friends drink it.The Israelites took leaven very seriously. Wine could have absolutely no leaven in it when used at Passover. The Israelites had specific procedures for the production of the wine. Those procedures made sure that all leaven was removed from the wine. Any wine would not do. Only wine properly made was acceptable. Wine not prepared in accordance with strict dietary laws could not be drunk by a devout man like Daniel. The same reason that Daniel could not eat the king's food was the reason he could not drink the king's wine.

Bel is another name for the Babylonian high god Marduk. Marduk was the creating god of Babylon. Aku is the Babylonian moon god. Nego is a word play on Nebo, the Babylonian god of wisdom and language (see above).

We discussed the king's meat and wine above. Daniel would not defile himself with such things. He stood up for what was right. Even against unmatchable odds, Daniel stood up for his principles. These principles were of the Law of God. Telling the eunuch that he did not want to eat the food and wine the king himself had provided for them could have cost him his life. After all, he was basically a slave. If a slave opposed his master in any way he could be killed.

This is why Daniel was able to make such a request. God had given Asphenaz kindness (favour) and compassion (tender love) toward Daniel. Chesed-kindness, or mercy and racham-compassion. There was a soft spot in the heart of Asphenaz for Daniel.

Asphenaz had been appointed by the king to nurture and educate these young men for the king. The king's word was law. If the law of the king was disobeyed, the disobedient person could be killed. The eunuch had been led to believe that the food that the king had appointed was the absolute best available and would keep Daniel and his company healthy. Perhaps it would have done so. But because of the Law, Daniel and his company could not eat the food without transgressing the Law. Daniel knew that his God would care for him and make him healthy, even healthier that he would have been, if he had eaten the king's provisions. If the health of Daniel and company had worsened, then it would be worth Asphenaz' head. Asphenaz did not want to fail the king. He had a good point; a very good point!

Daniel had his say with Aphenaz, but failed to win approval from him, so Daniel went to Melzar, an underling of Asphenaz but the eunuch directly in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Pulse is an Elizabethan term for vegetables. Melzar had heard his boss's reasoning for not allowing the four to refuse the king's rations. So Daniel took a different tack with him. He asked Melzar just to test them and see if their health failed if they did not eat the king's supplies. The test was to last only ten days and if there was any change for the worse, then they would eat the king's food. The control group was the others who ate the king's food. If after ten days the others looked better than they did the test would be a failure. Melzar agreed. After all, in just ten days, not much could happen to them, could it?

After ten days, the matter was proved and then settled. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were all healthier that the control group.

Now they were no longer required to eat the king's provision and were allowed a diet of vegetables and water. Such is a good diet, but lack of red meat can cause an unhealthy loss cholesterol and possibly loss of red cells. But there are ways to get the needed elements from vegetables. God provided that the food they were given was nutritious and had all the elements necessary for good health.

They were good students and they learned their lessons well. God provided the skill and knowledge, they provided the effort to learn, and the results were good. Make no bones here, this verse does not say that God implanted the knowledge in their brains, it just says that He gave them the skill to learn and gain wisdom. They had to apply themselves and use the skill God had given them to gain the knowledge through hard work and study. The special discernment that Daniel had for dreams and visions is mentioned here as a segue into the next chapter where Nebuchadnezzar had his first dream.

After graduation, the king wanted to examine them to see if they had indeed gained the knowledge that he had appointed them to gain. They interviewed with the king and the four were by far the best and brightest of the lot. They then went directly into the king's service (they stood before him) where he would have direct access to them. They were his ministers. Daniel eventually became an important minister, even prime minister. His fame was still extant when the Persians took over. He was still a favorite even with the king of Medo-Persia.

That is so because they were God fearing men and they honored God in the face of adversity. God blessed them for it. He made them better that the smartest men in the land.

The first year of Cyrus was 539 BC (Modern) or 426 BC (Ussher). Daniel was 64 or 65 then. At the time of this chapter, Daniel would have been about 16 when he went to Babylon so at the end of his education, he was 19.

This is a good place to discus the history of the area in the years since Josiah. The second year of Nebuchadnezzar would have been 604 BC (modern) or 495 BC (Ussher). Let us begin by discussing Biblical dating. James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin, developed a dating system based on evidence contained in the Bible itself. He did not use external evidences. He was a highly respected of the seventeenth century. His work is still highly respected.

More modern chronologists have also added some historical dates based upon extra-biblical sources, such as culture, history, and archaeology. The NIV Study Bible, for example, employs what it calls "Dates accepted by many scholars". They state:

This differs a little from Ussher. Their system begins at with the Tower of Babel at 2500 BC. Ussher tells us that this was around 2250 BC. So you can see that modern dating methods and Ussher are not far apart. The modern dates are usually within 100 or so years of Ussher's dates. For example, Ussher states that Christ was born in 4 BC. Modern methods state it was 5 or 6 BC. Our dates in this study of Daniel show a difference of about 100 years between Ussher's method and the more modern method. The 1611 version of the KJV has Ussher's dates in the margin. The Companion Bible also has Ussher's dates in the margin. If you prefer the more modern method, the NIV Study Bible uses the modern dates. But you will find differences in dating methods in different modern translations. Ussher's method is more standardized than modern methods. I am not dogmatic that Ussher's dates are inspired and inerrant, for they are not. I accept that biblical dating is an inexact science and am willing to accept other (but not all) dating methods. But I prefer the more standardized method. For this reason, from this point forward, we will rely strictly upon Ussher for our dates.

(I would post Archbishop Ussher's Annals of the World at this site but it is copyrighted. You will find it on the net. Use a search engine).

Nebuchadnezzar was in his second year as king when the dreams occurred. This second year means the second year of his reign as king alone. Prior to this he ruled with his father Nabopolassar for three years. So his total reign was five years at this point. Nebuchadnezzar's father gave him full authority as king and sent him to defeat the Egyptians who had allied with one of the Babylonian vassals is defiance of Babylonian authority. Nebuchadnezzar defeated Pharaoh Necho and the vassal governor at Carchemish. This defeat of Pharaoh gave Babylon control over western Asia, including Judea. He then went to Jerusalem and conquered it taking away the captives. Each of these events was prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 5:15, 46:13), and they were part the plan of God to take Judah away captive. Meanwhile, Nabopolassar died giving Nebuchadnezzar sole control of the throne. The dreams took place two years after the death of Nabopolassar.

Nebuchadnezzar's dream was so vivid it awoke him from sleep. His dream troubled him. Waking from a vivid dream can be troubling. Sometimes one just remembers the most outstanding features of the dream and the details slip from the mind. Nebuchadnezzar immediately recognized the significance of the dream and sought his main advisors to interpret the dream. He only knew the general nature of the dream and not the specifics.

The Hebrew rendered magician is chartummim (Strong's 2748) and may come from the Hebrew root cheret, (2747), which means pen or engraving tool. This would tend to lead us to the conclusion that this was a scribe or other learned man. Some suggest these men were interpreters and scholars of difficult subjects. They were well-educated men upon whom the king could call for help with difficult subjects. There were not illusionists as a magician of today is, though they probably were skilled in the art of illusion and used it when it was to their advantage.

The word translated astrologer is 'ashshaph, and it means a necromancer or conjurer. It can mean astrologer, enchanter, or exorcist. Its common use as a conjurer is in view here. This was the actual magician. The sorcerers cast spells and made potions and brews. This was a witch. The Chaldeans were probably a school of wise men or philosophers. So Nebuchadnezzar called his wise men, his conjurers, his witches, and his philosphers to interpret his dream. Again, Nebuchadnezzar did not fully remember his dream, only that it was significant. He asked them to tell him the substance of the dream.

It was impossible for them, mere flesh men, to actually know the substance of the dream.

From this point until the end of chapter seven, Daniel is written in Syriac, or Aramaic. I would like to quote E.W. Bullinger on this subject:

So we are studying the portion that is currently history (though it was prophetic in Daniel's day) and when we get to Chapter eight, we will be studying what is still future.

These wise and learned men had probably made themselves out to be more wise and learned that they really were and exaggerated their abilities to know the unknowable. They made themselves look like there was nothing they did not know nor was there anything they could not do. They pretended to take on god like qualities. But they were charlatans. The king believed that they should be able to know his dream, as wise and wonderful as they made themselves look. Since the King threatened to kill them if they did not know the dream, they were desperate to find a solution.

The king was on to them. He knew they were stalling for time and he was not that patient. He knew they could not tell him his dream. He knew that if he gave them time, they would be able to run away and save themselves and their possessions.

Nebuchadnezzar knew they would keep developing theories and stories to keep the king dangling hoping that the situation would change and the king would let them off the hook. If they could not tell him the dream there was only one verdict for them-death.

Now they told the truth, that no one on earth could do what the king wanted. Not all the wise men, conjurers, philosophers, etc in the world could do what the king asked. They were powerless to do so and they admitted it. Only the gods could know such a thing. This was so to show the power and might of the LORD, God of Israel, who can know dreams and his instruments can know this also. God knows all and sees all and knows the very heart of men. There is nothing too hard for Him. He is the One Who caused the king to dream this dream in the first place.

Now here is the heart of the matter. God was using this incident to establish Daniel as a very wise man indeed whose God was all knowing. The king's anger caused his to act impetuously and seek to kill every one of his wise men in the kingdom. This was a capricious act at best. The king had only to be displeased with someone to have that person executed by decree. Daniel and his three compatriots were known to the king as wise men as we were told in Daniel 1:20, and therefore were sought out to be killed with all of the other wise men. In his haste to be requited, Nebuchadnezzar almost denuded the kingdom of any wise men-an act he would surely have regretted.

Arioch, whose means "lion like", was the chief executioner. When the king decreed an execution, Arioch went out and took care of the matter. It is obvious that Arioch knew Daniel because of the casual way he asked Arioch what was happening. Arioch did not have to tell Daniel, he could have taken his head on the spot and yet Arioch took time to explain the situation to Daniel. IT is quite probable that Arioch liked Daniel so much that he was hoping that Daniel's God could rescue him, just as Darius did when Daniel was in the lion's den (Daniel 6:16).

Daniel had access to the king for he went right in to the king to ask him for time to seek his God for an explanation so that he could give the king his interpretation. Evidently the king respected Daniel enough to grant his request for a stay. Note though, that the wise men had only said they would interpret the dream if the king could remember it. Daniel said he would find out about the dream and its interpretation. This would have given pause to the king. The LORD prepared the king's heart to make such an exception. Remember that the king scolded the other wise men for wanting more time. But the king knew they would fly if given the time. He evidently knew that Daniel would be a man of his word. Nebuchadnezzar gave Daniel the time needed so Daniel sought God desiring His pity on them.

Daniel prayed this prayer of thanksgiving. It is a beautiful song:

 It was probably a relief to Arioch when Daniel told him he had the interpretation. The interpretation of the dream is one of the greatest and most well-known prophecies in the Bible. We will look at it in the next segment.

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