Dear Friend,
The Book of Daniel is
one
of the key books on end time prophecy. All the signs of the times
indicates that the days are upon us that these events are about to
happen. It
is so important to study what the Bible says about the coming of the
Lord.
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the Book of Revelation with out first studying Daniel
DANIEL LESSON 1
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THE
PROPHET
DANIEL
My appreciation to R.E. Harlow for his permission to use this as
a
Bible Course also the publishers. EVERYDAY PUBLICATIONS INC. 421
Nugget
Avenue, Unit 2 Scarborough, ON, Canada MIS 4L8 Copyright 1989
CONTENTSLesson:
1 Daniel in
Babylon
2
Nebuchadnezzar̓s
Dream
3 The Image and
the
Furnace
4
Nebuchadnezzar
Turned to God
5 Belshazzar̓s
Feast
6 Daniel and
the
Lions
7 The Four Wild
Animals
8 The Ram and
the
Goat
9 The Seventy
Weeks
10 The Great
Struggle
11 More About the Great
Struggle
12 The Time of the
End
INTRODUCTION TO DANIEL The prophet Daniel was
born
in the royal family in Judea about the year 620 Before Christ. His name
means
God is my Judge. The word judge in the Old Testament often means the
one
who will prove that a man is right when others say he is wrong. In this
way
God was Daniel̓s Friend.
Daniel was a captive in Babylon and still a young
man
when he became famous for his wisdom and his good life. Ezekiel was
another
prophet of God living in Babylon about the same time and by the Holy
Spirit
he spoke of Daniel as being very wise; and he named Daniel along with
Noah
and Job as three righteous men, Ezekiel 14.14,20; 28.3.
Daniel also was a servant of God, and the LORD, the
God
of heaven, gave him great revelations of things future. Daniel learned
many
details about kings who were not yet born, and empires to be built in
the
future. Many men today do not believe that anyone could know the
future,
so they say that someone wrote the book of Daniel after these things
happened.
But the Lord Jesus Christ called Daniel the prophet, Matthew 24.15;
Mark
13.14. This proves that Daniel was real and that God really showed him
all
these things in advance. After all, God knows all things, past, present
and
future, Isaiah 46.10.
The Holy Spirit led men of God to write the New
Testament
in the Greek language, and the Old Testament in the Hebrew language.
However
Daniel wrote part of his book in the Aramaic language, which is very
much
like Hebrew. In fact, the Jews spoke Aramaic in the time of our Lord
Jesus
Christ, and no doubt the Lord Himself used this language when He spoke
to
the people. Daniel used Aramaic because it was well known in Babylon,
for
most of chapters 2 to 7.
The first half of the book of Daniel contains the
record
of six great events in the city of Babylon. The second half tells us
about
the revelations which God gave to His faithful servant.
1 Daniel in Babylon
2 Nebuchadnezzar̓s dream
3 The image and the furnace
4 Nebuchadnezzar turned to God.
5 Belshazzar̓s feast
6 Daniel and the lions
7 The four wild animals
8 The ram and the goat
9 The seventy weeks
10,11 The great struggle
12 The time of the end
LESSON
1 DANIEL IN
BABYLON
This chapter starts
with the great king Nebuchadnezzar and tells how Daniel came to be near
him.
1.
Nebuchadnezzar̓s
purpose, vs. 1-7
2. Daniel̓s
purpose,
vs.8-21
1. NEBUCHADNEZZAR̓S PURPOSE, 1.1-7
The Holy Spirit teaches us one great lesson in this
book:
that God has a great purpose and He will surely fulfill it. Here
Nebuchadnezzar
was doing God̓s will while he thought that he was working out his own
purposes.
1 Nebuchadnezzar came up to Jerusalem and surrounded
it
with his great armies. Jehoiakim was a son of the last good king of
Judah,
Josiah, but he was like his two brothers and his son who ruled after
Josiah,
they were all wicked men.
2 Nebuchadnezzar was able to defeat Jehoiakim and
conquer
the city which God long before chose as the place for His temple.
Nebuchadnezzar
took some of the holy objects, silver and gold, from the temple. This
was
an insult to the God of Israel, still more so when Nebuchadnezzar gave
these
things as a gift to his own god in Babylon.
Why did the God of heaven allow him to do this? The
LORD
promised to watch over Jerusalem, to honor the temple with His name and
His
presence, and to keep David̓s descendants on the throne forever, 2
Samuel
7.16; 2 chronicles 6.6; Psalm 87.2. But He warned the people hundreds
of
times that He would punish them if they did not obey His laws and His
prophets.
It is remarkable that three of God̓s greatest
prophets
all lived about this time:
Jeremiah lived in Jerusalem and gave God̓s last
messages
to the sinful people and kings;
Ezekiel was a captive of Nebuchadnezzar living in
Babylon,
who also sent messages to those Jews still in Jerusalem, and received
God̓s
warnings of great trouble ahead and His promises for Israel̓s wonderful
future;
Daniel who gives us many more details of Israel̓s
trouble
and the glory yet to come.
From this chart you will see that Daniel went to
Babylon
with the first captivity, Ezekiel with the second. Jeremiah was living
in
Jerusalem even at the time of the third and final captivity, but
Nebuchadnezzar
allowed him to stay there, Jeremiah 39.11,12; 40.4.
3 PROPHETS 3
CAPTIVITY
5 KINGS OF JUDAH 4 KINGS IN BABYLON
____________________________________________________________________
Jeremiah, 626-587
Josiah 640-609
Jehoahaz, 609
Daniel, 605-539
first
Jehoiakim, 609-597
Nebuchadnezzar,
605-562
Ezekiel 592-570
second
Jehoiachin,
597
third
Zedekiah, 597-587
Belshazzar, 562-539
Darius the Mede
Cyrus the Persian,
539-530
We shall see that Daniel continued to live to the
third
year of King Cyrus, and to prosper, v.21; 6.28; 10.1.
3 Nebuchadnezzar had another plan: he wanted to get
the
benefit of the smart young men among his captives. So he ordered one of
his
officers to bring some of the Israelite young men who were members of
the
king̓s family. These were not children, although Jeremiah called
himself
a child when the LORD called him, Jeremiah 1.6. The word child may mean
young
man.
4 Ashpenaz was to choose those who were handsome and
able
to learn quickly. They would come right into the palace of the king and
learn
the language and the science of the Babylonians. Moses long ago learned
the
wisdom of Egypt, Acts 7.22. He was also an Israelite who came to be
very
important in a foreign land. Like Moses, Daniel did not accept the
religion
of the land in which he lived, he continued to follow the Lord GOD of
Israel.
5 Nebuchadnezzar wanted these young men to spend
their
time serving him, so he provided their food and drink. He gave them
three
years to learn the language and science of Babylon.
6,7 Four of the young men were Jewish. The officers
gave
them Babylonian names:
HEBREW NAME MEANING NEW
NAME
BABYLONIAN MEANING
Daniel
God is my Judge.
Belteshazzar
May the goddess protect the king.
Hananiah
Jehovah
is gracious. Shadrach
?
Mishael
Who
is what God is? Meshach
I have become weak.
Azariah
Jehovah is strong.
Abednego Servant of
the shining one
Nebuchadnezzar gave Daniel his new name containing
the
name of his god, Bel, 4.8, or his wife. He wanted the other names also
to
show that these young men should no longer trust in Jehovah. Shining
one
is a name of Satan, Isaiah 14.12. These new names are used:
for Daniel, 2.26; 4.8,9,18,19 (3
times),
5.12; 10.1;
for the other three, 2.49; and 13
times
in chapter 3.
2. DANIEL̓S PURPOSE, 1.8-21
a) Daniel̓s
request,
vs.8-10
b) Melzar
agreed,
vs.11-16
c) The wisdom
of
the four young men from Judah, vs.17-21
a) Daniel̓s request, 1.8-10
8 We do not know the names of Daniel̓s parents but
they
taught him to obey the law of Jehovah while he was still
young, before he became a captive in Babylon. Many people in Jerusalem
gave
their sacrifices to false gods, and all four kings after Josiah allowed
them
to keep on in their sins. Daniel knew that the wicked priests in
Babylon
offered sacrifices to Bel and other false gods, then the king̓s cooks
prepared
this meat for all who lived in his palace. This included the young
captives,
most of whom were happy to eat the same kind of food as Nebuchadnezzar
did.
Not Daniel. He was not happy with his name
containing
the name of a heathen god. He would not make himself unclean before the
LORD
by eating meat which was offered to idols. God̓s prophets taught that
murder
and all kinds of sin would make a person unclean, Isaiah 59.3;
Zephaniah
3.1.
So Daniel made a great decision. He asked Ashpenaz,
the
chief officer, v.3, to allow him not to eat the food or drink the wine
which
the king provided. This decision took real courage but Daniel was never
sorry
he took this step.
Others have made a right decision:
Joseph, that he would not sin against the LORD,
Genesis
39.9; Moses, that Christ was better than all the money in Egypt,
Hebrews
11.25,26;
Joshua, that he and his family would serve the LORD,
Joshua
24.15;
Ruth, that God would be her God, Ruth 1.16;
Josiah, that he would follow the God of David, 2
Chronicles
34.3;
Isaiah, that he would go and obey the LORD, Isaiah
6.8;
the younger son, that he would rise and go to his father, Luke 15.18.
We all must make decisions every day. Some of these
decisions
are very important. it is good to know God̓s Word and make every
decision
according to His will.
9,10 Daniel showed the love of God to Ashpenaz and
the
LORD gave the Babylonian official real love for the young captive from
Judah.
However, the official was afraid to do as Daniel requested. He thought
that
Nebuchadnezzar would accuse his servant of eating or selling the food
which
he appointed for Daniel and his three friends. This man Nebuchadnezzar
did
kill people whenever he wanted to do so, 2.9; 3.19. Other ancient kings
did
the same; for example:
Darius, 6.9;
Herod, king of Judea, Matthew
2.16;
Herod, ruler of Galilee, Mark
6.27;
Herod Agrippa, Acts 12.2.
b) Melzar agreed, 1.11-16
11-13 Daniel did not give up in his decision not to
make
himself unclean by eating and drinking what was offered to idols. He
asked
Melzar, the guard, to test Daniel and his friends for ten days. He
would
give these four young men vegetables to eat and water to drink, not
meat
and wine. After ten days Melzar the guard would look at their faces and
decide
if they looked better or worse than the other young men in training.
14-16 Melzar agreed to this test and gave them
nothing
but vegetables and water. At the end of the ten days, the four young
men
from Judah looked better and healthier than all the rest. So Melzar the
guard
kept them on this simple diet. He could be sure that the king would not
accuse
him of doing any wrong.
The LORD honored these young men because they chose
to
obey Him, but it is still true that simple food is often better for any
person̓s
health than rich and fancy food and drink which many people use today.
c) The wisdom of the four young men from Judah,
1.17-21
God gave these young men favor with Ashpenaz and
Melzar,
but also with King Nebuchadnezzar. This was through the wisdom which
God
gave them.
17 God gave Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah:
knowledge;
ability to learn from books;
wisdom.
In addition He gave Daniel the ability to understand
visions
and dreams. Daniel needed this ability in chapters 2 and 4.
18 Nebuchadnezzar gave Ashpenaz three years to
educate
the young captives, v.5, but they may have made such good progress that
he
brought them to the king after two years. Old books of history tell us
that
Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem before he became king of Babylon, so
it
was his second year when he saw his dream, 2.1. God prepared Daniel so
he
was ready for that important event.
19 Nebuchadnezzar talked with all these young men and found that the
four
from Judah were far better than any of the others. So he chose them to
stand
before him in a special way.
20 Then the king found that the four young men from
Judah
were wiser than any of the priests whom he usually asked what to do and
when
to do it. These men are called magicians, fortunetellers, astrologers,
or
enchanters. The magicians in Egypt could not tell Pharaoh what his
dream
meant, Genesis 41.24, although at first they could do some miracles as
Moses
did, Exodus 7.11,12; 8.7,18; 9.11. Today we have astrologers who say
they
can tell from the stars and planets what will happen next in this
world.
Sometimes they are right but we should not listen to these false
prophets.
Others today can move their hands very quickly, and speak as though
their
voices came from some other person or thing. They are able to deceive
some
people. Most of them consult with evil spirits and never give glory to
the
Lord Jesus Christ. We should not pay these people any money, or believe
what they say.
21 We read again about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
in
chapters 2 and 3 only, but Daniel continued for nearly 70 years, until
the
third year of Cyrus, 10.1.
God says that He will honor those who honor Him, 1
Samuel
2.20. He did this with Daniel and his three friends. He does the same
today.
TEST LESSON 1
DANIEL
Place a T (True) or F(False) for your answer at the beginning or
end
of the question;
1. Daniel’s name means “God is my helper.”.
2. Nebuchadnezzar gave the holy vessels to the Moabites
3. Daniel accepted the religion of Babylon.
4. The king gave Daniel a new name that he was happy
with.
5. Daniel give us much details about the church to come.
Fill in the blank spaces with the correct word/s
6. Many____in ______gave their _____to false _______
7. Joseph vowed that __ ___ Not ____ against _____
8. Isaiah said ___am I, ______me
9. Daniel ____ ________ ______and dreams
10. The magicians of ____ ______not ___ the king ___his ____was..
Name:
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