The Book of Daniel.
The story is set right after Babylon's first attack on Jerusalem
and they had plundered the city and its temple and taken a wave of Israelites into exile.
Among them were four men from the royal family of David.
Daniel, whose later named Belteshazzar
and his three friends, who you probably know by their Babylonian names:
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
This book tells of their struggles to maintain
hope in the land of their conquerors.
The book's design seems pretty simple at first--
Chapters one through six contains stories about Daniel and his friends in Babylon
while chapters 7 through 12 contain the visions of Daniel about the future.
But this two-part shape is made even more interesting by another design feature.
And that's the book's language.
It begins in Hebrew, the language of the Israelites.
But chapters 2 through 7 are written in Aramaic,
a cousin language to Hebrew spoken widely among the ancient empires.
But then in chapters 8 through 12 it goes back to Hebrew.
This design shows how chapters 2 through 7 are a coherent section
but it also highlights the importance of chapters two and seven
for understanding the later chapters of the book.
Let's just dive in.
Chapter one introduces the basic attention of the first half of the book.
Daniel and his friends. They're really wise and capable.
And they're recruited to serve in the Royal Palace of Babylon.
But they're pressured to give up their Jewish identity by living and eating
like Babylonians and violating the Jewish food laws found in the Torah.
So they refuse and they choose faithfulness to the Torah and it puts them in danger.
But God delivers them and they end up being elevated by the king of Babylon.
After this begins the Aramaic section which you'll see has this really cool
symmetrical design.
So first the king of Babylon has a dream
that it turns out only Daniel is able to interpret.
It's about a huge statue made of four types of metal
and it symbolizes a sequence of kingdoms and the head is Babylon.
But then a huge rock comes flying in and it shatters the statue
and it becomes this huge mountain.
Now this dream is the first of many symbolic visions in the book
and this one introduces the basic story line of them all.
Daniel says that the statue represents a train of human kingdoms following from Babylon
and they will all fill God's world with violence.
But one day God's kingdom will come and will confront and humble the arrogant kingdoms of this world
and fill the world with the healing justice of God's reign and rule.
After this, chapter 3 tells the famous story of Daniel's three friends
who refused to bow down and worship a huge idol statue,
which like the statue in chapter 2 represents the king in his imperial power.
So the friends are persecuted. They're thrown into a fiery furnace.
But God delivers them from death and they're exalted by the king
who now acknowledges their God is the true one.
After this come a pair of stories about two Babylonian kings,
the father, Nebuchadnezzar and then his son, Belshazzar.
They're both filled with pride because of their imperial power.
And so, like in chapter two, God warns them both through dreams and then visions,
which also like chapter 2 only Daniel can interpret.
He says that both kings are to humble themselves before God
and both kings arrogantly resist.
So Nebuchadnezzar is stricken with madness.
He becomes like a beast in the field.
But then he humbles himself before God and his humanity returns to him.
He's restored as king.
This is in contrast with his son Belshazzar who doesn't humble himself before God
and he's assassinated that very night.
Now these two stories draw this imagery from Genesis chapters one and two and Psalm 8
where humans are depicted as the royal image of God.
He has given them authority to rule over the beasts of the field, the birds of the air
on behalf of God who is the world's true king.
But when human kingdoms forget that,
when they rebel and make themselves and their power into a "god,"
they become less than human like violent beasts who will face God's justice.
Which brings us to chapter six, the pair of chapter three.
And this time it's Daniel who is being persecuted
because he refuses to pray and worship the king as a god.
And so like the friends, he's sentenced to death and he's thrown into a lion's den.
But God delivers him from the beasts
and like the friends, the king exalts Daniel and praises his God,
which brings us to chapter 7.
It's the pair of chapter 2 and the center of the book
where all its themes come together.
It's another dream but it's Daniel's this time.
And ironically he cannot understand the dream until an angelic messenger explains it to him.
He sees a series of four beasts: the one like a lion
then like a bear, then one like a winged leopard.
Each of these symbolizing an arrogant kingdom.
And last of all is a super beast identified as a really evil empire
and it has lots of horns -- a common symbol for kings in the Old Testament.
And there's one specific horn
who is an image of an arrogant king who exalts himself above God
and persecute God's people.
Now they are symbolized by a figure called the "Son of Man"
who is an image for both God's covenant people but also for their King from the line of David.
But then all of a sudden, God, who is called the Ancient of Days,
comes and He sets up His throne.
He destroys the super beast and He exalts the Son of Man on the clouds
where he comes up to sit at God's right hand
and share in God's rule over the nations.
We can look back now and see how all of these stories in the first half fit together.
The three stories of faithfulness despite persecution.
These are meant to offer hope to God-suffering people among the nations.
But they suffer because human kingdoms have rebelled against God and become beasts.
And so these visions encourage patience that God's people are to wait for him
to bring his kingdom and rule over our world and vindicate his suffering people.
But it raises the question about when God is going to do that and that's what
these final three visions set out to explore.
In chapter 8, Daniel has another vision about the final two beasts of chapter 7.
But this time they are symbolized by a ram who we're told is an image of the empire of the Medes and Persians.
And then by a goat who is an image of ancient Greece.
And out of the goat come a whole bunch of horns,
one of which symbolizes the evil king from chapter 7.
And we're told more about him. That he will attack Jerusalem
and exalt himself above God and defile the temple with idols.
However in the end he will be destroyed by God
who will exalt His people and His kingdom.
Now by chapter 9, Daniel is very puzzled
especially as to when all of this is going to take place.
So he consults the scroll of the prophet Jeremiah
where God said that Israel's exile would only last 70 years
so for Daniel the 70 years is almost up and
so he asked God to fulfill His promise soon.
But an angel comes and informs him
that Israel's sin and rebellion has continued and so their time of exile and
oppression will continue on seven times longer than Jeremiah envisioned.
Daniel is deeply disturbed by this and he has one final vision.
We're shown the same sequence of kingdoms. It's Persia and then Greece and
Alexander the Great followed by lesser kings all leading up to this final king of the north,
who will invade Jerusalem, set up idols in the temple and exalt himself above God.
But then all of a sudden this king comes to ruin.
Now there's been endless debate about what all of these visions refer to.
Many see a clear connection to the exploits of the Syrian king Antiochus in the 160s BC.
He killed many faithful Jews in Jerusalem and set up idols in the temple.
Others think it points forward to the Roman Empire's role in the execution of Jesus
and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD70.
And still others think it will be fulfilled in future events that have yet to happen when Jesus will return.
Now the problem is that the symbols and the numbers they don't quite match any of these views perfectly.
But it opens up the possibility that in a sense they are all right.
The book of Daniel has been designed to offer hope to all future generations of God's people.
It did so in the days of Antiochus' Empire and it has ever since.
This is why Jesus could use imagery from Daniel to describe and confront the oppressive leaders he confronted in Jerusalem.
This is why John the visionary who wrote the Revelation could adapt Daniel's visions
and apply them to Rome of his day and also all future oppressive empires.
And so the point of Daniel is that all generations of readers can find here a pattern and a promise.
It's a pattern that human beings and their kingdoms become violent beasts
when they glorify their own power, when they redefine right and wrong
and don't acknowledge God is their true king.
But Daniel also holds out a promise that one day God will confront the Beast.
He will rescue His world and His people by bringing His kingdom over all nations.
And so for every generation, this book speaks a message of hope that should motivate faithfulness.
And that's what the book of Daniel is all about.