Daniel Bible Study #1

Thank you, Father God for giving us grace to study the book of Daniel. Through the same grace and understanding you gave unto Daniel, may we all clearly see and understand the things ahead, so that we will not be shaken in hope in this current world what we live in which is just like the Babylon of the past. Please provide the same grace to all the saints and unto all listeners of this podcast and through our digital archives of our main church website. We thank you, beseech and pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

            First of all, before we start the book of Daniel, let’s go over some introductory parts together. The book of Daniel has 12 chapters, 357 verses. Hebrew word for “Dan” means judge and “El” is the abbreviation of Elohim meaning God. Therefore, the name Daniel means “my judge is God.” If the book of Revelation describes what will happen from the end of the New Testament to the second coming of Christ, then the book of Daniel describes historical period from the end of the Old Testament to the beginning of the New Testament. In this respect, the book of Daniel occupies a very unique position in the Bible. What Revelation and Daniel have in common is that both of these books fill a certain gap. Therefore, to get all the historical information from Malachi to Matthew, we have no choice but to rely on the book of Daniel, which fills the gap in this period.

            Of course, the book of Daniel contains not only historical facts that fill the gap between Malachi, where the Old Testament ends, and Matthew, where the New Testament begins, but also prophetic words that go far beyond the Church Age and foresee the Great Tribulation and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. So, as we read the book of Daniel, we must have a broader view of not only the past history but also the future when the Lord comes. This will be very important to accurately understand the prophecies contained in the book of Daniel. With this thought in mind, we must study the book of Daniel. There has been attempts to find the historical information of this period from Malachi to Matthew through historical interpretations. Although there are powerful historical data such as the contents recorded in inscriptions or the traces of ruins, it could be used as a reference, but it can never be God’s explanation through the Bible. Daniel is the only God’s explanation of the historical facts from Malachi to Matthew. There is something called church history that describes history in this period: from the end of the New Testament to the Second Coming of Christ.

            However, in order to hear God’s explanation of history during this period, we must fully rely on Revelation, especially chapters 1, 2, and 3, rather than church history. The only thing we can fully rely on is the Word of God. In other words, just as the book of Revelation deals with the gap of the church age, we must know that the book of Daniel deals with the gap between Malachi to the beginning of the New Testament. The church history can be a reference, but it cannot be the only reference material and the source of all explanations. We must know that the source of all information for us is the Word of God. The book of Daniel records events over a period of around 73 years, between 607 BC to 534 BC. We can accurately estimate the time span of events recorded in this book, since we know for sure that these events were during Daniel’s captivity of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. The book of Daniel was originally not included in the Prophets of the Hebrew Bible, but belonged separately to the Ketuvim. There are many reasons for this, but undoubtedly perhaps not only did Daniel spend most of his life among the Gentiles as he spoke much about them, the Jews thought it to be bad to consider Daniel to be listed among the prophets. Part of this book was written in Aramaic (the ancient language of Syria), and the Old Testament as we all know was generally written in Hebrew, and we can see that parts of Genesis and Daniel were written in Aramaic instead of Hebrew especially Daniel 2 From verses 4 to 7:8. However, from that part of the prophecy concerning the future of Israel is written in Hebrew language. Ezekiel and Daniel are prophetic books that prophesied after being taken captive to Babylon. Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied the judgment before their captivity. The let us begin part of Chapter 1 today.

            ¶ In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. (Daniel 1:1-2 KJV)

We learned in 2 Chronicles. King Necho of Egypt invaded the southern kingdom of Judah and dethroned their King Jehoahaz. And after establishing his brother Eliakim as the king of Judah, he changed his name to Jehoiakim. This is in 2 Chronicles 36:3, verse 4. Jehoiakim was a puppet king backed by the Egyptian forces. 2 Kings 23:37 and  (2 Chronicles 36:5 KJV) says that ‘Jehoiakim did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.‘ It is recorded in 2 Kings 23:35 that the king forcibly collected silver and gold by taxing the land to prepare tribute to be sent to Egypt. The reason Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded Judah in 2 Kings 24 was because of all the sins of Manasseh, son of King Hezekiah, according to 2 Kings 24:3. Manasseh was the successor to King Hezekiah and the great-grandfather of Jehoiakim. Unlike his predecessor, Hezekiah, he committed countless evil sins and crimes that were atrocious to God. He killed many prophets during his 50 years of reign. However, because he finally repented, there was no judgment in his days. Instead, God handed Judah over to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon for the punishment of the wicked sins committed by the kings of Judah. Three years after Jehoiakim ascended to the throne by Egyptian Pharaoh King Necho, Judah was invaded by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of Judah didn’t end with just this once. Even after Jehoiakim was taken bound in fetters into Babylon, and his son Jehoiachin ascended the throne at the age of eight, three months later Nebuchadnezzar invaded again and took King Jehoiachin captive to Babylon.

            This also appears in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Zedekiah succeeded Jehoiachin. This last king was also invaded by Nebuchadnezzar after 9 years, and after holding out for 3 years, Jerusalem was eventually sieged by Babylon. Because Zedekiah rebelled against Babylon and turned to Egypt, Jerusalem was completely captured. They all fell for the false prophecy of “No one can take us out of the cauldron” However, in reality, all but some of the meat in the cauldron were taken captive. It was when King Jehoiachin was invaded by Babylon that Daniel also became a captive. Daniel was captured along with three young Jewish men, and we can see that they learned Babylonian teachings and language in the royal palace according to Nebuchadnezzar’s order. Daniel 1 begins with the  very impoverished era of the kingdom of Judah. Verse 1 mentions the fact of the invasion of Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 2 explains very briefly what Nebuchadnezzar did when he invaded Judah. After entering Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar captured bound Jehoiachin, king of Judah, entered the temple, and plundered the vessels of the house of God. It is not recorded in detail what vessels he plundered, but among the vessels in the temple there were golden candlesticks, a table set with showbread, and an altar of incense. However, it is clear that they did not take the Ark of the Covenant. How do we know? When the book of Revelation was written, Revelation 11:19 says when Apostle John ascended to the third heaven in the Spirit, the temple of God was opened in heaven and he clearly saw the ark of his covenant in the temple. The ark ascended to the third heaven by God’s power. It cannot be done with human strength. Since the Bible says that there is one Ark of the Covenant, and it is certain that Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon could not touch the Ark of the Covenant since the Ark of the Covenant is said to be in heaven. Movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark depict spirits, flames and bolts of energy being released from within the Ark killing nearby people. Some archaeologists claim to have found the Ark of the Covenant, but we must rely all our info on the Bible. You must know that only the words of the Bible are true. The fact that Nebuchadnezzar took all the vessels from the temple is also recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:7. The fact that the holy articles of the temple of God were plundered by a gentile nation and moved to a dirty temple serving a pagan god was the greatest shame for the Israelites. From then on, Israel is still being humiliated.

            (Daniel 1:3-5 KJV) And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the C