{Please remember that these are my teaching notes from the Mishkan Katan video series. Therefore, they are "rough". You will likely encounter typos, etc.}
Having cleared that hurdle, Daniel went to the guy in charge of the distribution of the food, the steward.
Vs. 11-14
11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days, giving us just vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s delicacies, and treat your servants according to what you see.” 14 So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.
So, the race was on. Vs. 15-16
15 At the end of ten days their appearance looked better and their bodies healthier than all the youths who ate the king’s food. 16 So the guard took away their delicacies and the wine they were supposed to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
The sages say that the improved appearance of the righteous foursome was due to not only a healthy kosher diet, but also because of the peace of mind the young men had in living according to God’s dietary laws. The sages also say that the steward took their rations appointed by the king and enjoyed them himself, although the Scriptures don’t actually say that.
Some have taken this passage as a justification for a vegetarian diet. While that is permitted, it is not required, since the days of Noah. It’s interesting to note, as I’ve stated in the Holy Cow interviews, that people lived to be several hundred years old on a vegetarian diet. But, there were other earth conditions that were quite different before the Flood, and the Mosaic law requires some eating of meat.
Ok, onward. It has been pointed out that, since the king would not have contact with the Chaldeans-in-Training for 3 years, that there was little chance this “test” would be discovered. That may have been true.
Maybe I’m reading it incorrectly, but verse 16 seems to say that the Fearsome Foursome were in appearance so far superior to the other young men in the program that they immediately went to “the head of the class” and then ALL of those in the program got their wine and delicacies taken away and replaced with vegetables and water. That must surely have made the rest of the guys like Daniel and friends a WHOLE lot! There is a Midrash (or Jewish legend) that says the distinguished Jews at the beginning of the exile asked Ezekiel if they were still bound to follow Torah, and that the three friends of Daniel were among that group. The way these folks viewed it, God had sold his slave (Israel) to a new master (Babylon), or in another perspective, God had divorced His Bride (Israel). Would she still be bound to him? Again, we must understand that this was the first time this had happened, since the redemption (i.e. the Exodus). Fortunately, Ezekiel re-assured the people that God had not “put Israel away”, and that accordingly, yes, they were still bound by the covenant of Sinai. Had he advised the people differently, the Jewish nation would not have endured to this day. And years later, the Talmudic sage, Reish Lakish, explained that Israel had not in fact “changed hands” by becoming subject to an earthly monarch. Because that same monarch was himself a subject of God Almighty.
Vs. 17
17 Now as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and proficiency in every kind of wisdom and literature, and Daniel could understand all sorts of visions and dreams.
As Beth Moore put it, the four young men “became culturally relevant, without becoming spiritually irrelevant.” The sages say that all four stood out and excelled, because of the mercies of God, but perhaps because of his courage in leading the way, Daniel received from God the additional bonus of being given the ability to interpret dreams and visions. Daniel’s spiritual giant predecessor, Joseph, also a stranger and alien in a foreign land (Egypt) had been given by Father Yah a similar gift, and as Joseph said in Genesis 40:8 “Do not interpretations belong to God?” As Joseph likewise stood out among his brothers, Daniel was the class valedictorian!
Vs. 18-21
18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them in, the chief official presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. 19 When the king spoke with them, he did not find among all of them anyone like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers throughout his realm.
21 Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
Daniel was well into his eighties and possibly as old as 100 (Jehoiakim to Cyrus) at the time King Cyrus took the throne. (It depends in which King Cyrus you think vs. 21 is referring to...Darius the Great who came to power right after the Persian conquest of the Babylonians OR Darius/Cyrus, the son of Queen Esther and Ahashuerus, who ruled some 15-20 years later.) Verse 21 seems to indicate that Daniel was there to oversee the governmental transfer and that afterwards, when King Cyrus made a decree throughout his kingdom that whoever wanted to go up to Jerusalem could go (see Ezra 1, verse 3) Daniel, although quite aged, took that opportunity to return home.
There’s lots more to Daniel’s story before that happens, however. And, now, we are headed into chapter 2!
Daniel has been compared to his ancestor, Judah. Remember that Daniel was of the tribe of Judah, the tribe that produced all of the kings of Israel, after Saul, who was a Benjaminite and who was basically installed “over God’s objections”. What I mean by that is that God did not want Israel to have a king in the first place, but allowed Saul to become king to show the Hebrews just how right God was.
At any rate, we read in Genesis 46:28 that the patriarch Jacob sent his son Judah ahead of him to prepare things before him in the area of Egypt known as Goshen. Similarly, Daniel’s role was to lay the groundwork for Jewish life to continue on in Babylon during the years of exile. And, actually, Jewish life continued on and flourished there for many years after may Jews returned from Babylon to the Promised Land.
We have to ask ourselves, as we look back at our study of the book of Esther, if there would have been a Mordechai, had there never been a Daniel. Mordechai surely was aware of Daniel and his shining examples of standing strong for the Torah and for his God. Had Daniel bowed to the king’s image, it is entirely possible Mordechai would have bowed to Haman’s idol that evil man wore around his neck. Perhaps Mordecahi viewed Daniel as one of his role models.
At the beginning of chapter 2, we are not told how much time has passed. It is reasonable to assume, however, that the three years of training had certainly passed and that Daniel and his friends were now serving King Neb. Some of the Jewish sages say the the reference to “Year two” refers to the second year after the destruction of the Temple. Other commentators say that the dream occurred earlier. Still others point out that in the early years of Babylonian conquest, Neb was ruling through proxies, the last four Judean kings who were basically his puppets. Dr. John F. Walvoord, former president of Dallas Theological Seminary for more than 30 years, agrees that this dream occurred shortly after the Jewish noble youths had completed their training. Regardless, Chapter 2 tells of a very disturbing dream Nebuchadnezzar had. {I’m using the Peshitta Holy Bible Translated version this morning. This is a translation from Aramaic and as I’ve already shared, this section of Daniel was written in the Aramaic language.}
1In year two of the kingdom of Nebukadnetsar, Nebukadnetsar dreamed a dream, and his spirit was disturbed, and his sleep was upon him.
Somehow, Neb knew that this was no ordinary dream. The Hebrew here for “disturbed” is that his spirit pounded itself. But, what about this phrase “his sleep was upon him”? The commentators interpret this to mean that he did not wake up from the dream. You know how when you have a nightmare, you wake up, often soaking wet with sweat, with your heart racing and overcome with terror? Well, it appears this was a nightmare from which he was unable to awaken, until it was over. And, then, as is usually the case with nightmares, the dreamer can recall in detail the horrible dream. However, it seems that Nebuchadnezzar could not recall his dream! He was so freaked out by all this that he immediately, in the middle of the night, summoned his wise men to come and tell him about it. And, then, he threw them a curveball like they had never seen before.
2And the King said to call the Sorcerers and the Enchanters and the Magi and the Chaldeans to show to the King his dream, and they came and they stood before the King 3And the King said to them: I have seen a dream, and my spirit is disturbed to know the dream
4And the Chaldeans spoke before the King in Aramaic, and they were saying: “King, live to eternity! Tell the dream to your Servants, and we shall show its interpretation!” 5The King answered and said to the Chaldeans: “The matter of which I spoke is firm, that unless you shall show me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be cut up limb by limb, and your houses shall be plundered! 6But if you shall show me the dream and its interpretation, gifts and wealth and great honor you shall receive from me, only show me the dream and its interpretation!”
The greeting “O King, live forever!” was a common one in the ANE. It was applied to King David in 1 Kings 1:31, for instance. It basically was meant to convey that the one saying it meant no harm to the king, that the speaker bore the king only good will. The sages say only the Chaldeans had the temerity to speak to the King and ask to revert back to the former way of interpreting dreams. Perhaps this was because Nebuchadnezzar was from the Chaldean people or that the skill set of reading minds was another of their claims to fame.
The Chaldean people (Hebrew: Kasdim) had been absorbed by the Babylonian Empire. But, they had long been experts in the related sciences of astronomy and astrology. Archeology has unearthed much evidence of this people group’s proficiency in both these disciplines. We may wonder why Daniel and his buddies were not summoned at this time. A couple of reasons have been put forth. One is that they were still in their training/proving period, although another and perhaps better reason is that the young men had not proved themselves in this area of dream interpretation. Hard to say conclusively.
This request from the king was certainly a new one, as far as the court magicians and soothsayers were concerned. In the past, they had been accustomed to interpreting dreams the king had relayed to them. However, somewhere along the way, he had “gotten their number”. He had begun to suspect they were charlatans, and since this latest dream was so important to him, he decided to put them to the test. They were horrified. And, accordingly, they tried again to revert to the previous way of interpreting dreams, doing so in an attempt to save their own hides. Implicit in the king’s request is the acknowledgement that he would remember the dream when it was told to him, although part of his terror was that he could not remember it on his own.
Back to our floundering charlatans....
7They answered again, and they were saying to him: “Let the King tell his Servants the dream, and we shall show its interpretation!” 8The King answered and said: “Truly I know that it is time you seek, because you see that my word is firm 9Because if you shall not show me the dream, your judgment is one. You have contemplated to speak a lying and worthless word before me until time will pass, but tell me the dream that I may know that you will also show me the interpretation”
In one of the commentaries, the ArtScroll Tanakh series commentary on Daniel, p. 80 of the introduction, I read this:
“the ancient peoples believed that something existing just in the mind of a person is unknown even to the angels. It was therefore impossible for them to find out the dream. Once the king’s dream had been revealed on earth, it would no longer be in the realm of the mind alone and could be known to the angels and consequently also to the sages.”
So, since the dream had come from Father Yahweh, the Almighty Himself, none of the angels (good or evil) could have known about it. This also points out the truth about how demonic spirits can give information to soothsayers, diviners, etc. In other words, the magicians could not hear from their demonic advisors unless the dream itself was made known to them first. I thought that was an interesting thing to contemplate. Satan always seeks to counterfeit the work of the one, true God.
The king, here, then accuses the soothsayers of stalling for time, which they are, of course. Some commentators note that they were hoping if they stalled long enough, while preparing lying and corrupt words, the king would become preoccupied with other, more pressing, matters and forget all about this dream. They know the king is unable to recall his dream. But, their repeated requests to him in which they ask him to reveal it to them only serve to anger him more. Some of the sages say that the magicians were not being sentenced to death for their inability to state the dream, but rather for their repeated requests to the king to reveal it! Had they from the outset told the king they were unable to fulfill his demand, he might have been more lenient with them.
The king was not going to be satisfied with a mere interpretation either. He wanted to have the dream recalled and also the interpretation of it. An interpretation given, without the dream, would in no way corroborate the accuracy of the dream itself.
The entire lot of them, then, were sentenced as one - - death by being hacked into pieces. In other words, regardless of each man’s stature and rank, they were all going down to destruction for their failure to relieve the king of his terrible dream burden.
These practitioners of the forbidden spiritual “arts” were powerless to save themselves. Throughout man’s history, they always have been. Their false deities could not save them. Their divining spirits could not save them. They never could. Finally, the terrified conjurers realized just how expendable they truly were in Neb’s kingdom, and as a last resort they just admitted the truth - - that what the king was asking is humanly impossible. “When all else fails, tell the truth,” as the expression goes, right?
Beth Moore points out in her Daniel study that, by contrast, we too are people of the kingdom of God, but that not a single one of us is “expendable”. The Lord Yeshua said in Luke 12:7 that the very hairs of our head are each one numbered - - which ones are transplanted hairs, colored hairs, etc. We never have to know the kind of fear these magicians and charlatans knew, because God says we are invaluable to Him.
10The Chaldeans answered and they were saying before the King: “There is not a man on Earth who is able to show the King’s matter, neither has a High King or Ruler ever asked a matter like this of any Sorcerer, Enchanter or Chaldean 11And the matter that the King asks is deep, and there is not a man to show it before the King, but only the gods, whose dwelling is not with children of flesh!”
12Then the King was greatly enraged, and in a great rage he said to destroy all the wise men of Babel 13And the command went out and the wise men were to be killed, and they were seeking to kill Daniel and his companions
We need to be thoughtful and careful before using words like “all” or “never” or “none” when making value judgments, as the Magi did here. They were confident, however, that they were the creme de la creme and that accordingly, if they could not accomplish the task, no other human on earth could either. To be fair, they did not know what they did not know. In other words, they only had knowledge of their many false, powerless gods, whose dwelling was not with human beings. They did not know or serve the God of all gods, the God of Heaven and Earth, who can literally do anything He chooses.
According to the ArtScroll Tanakh series commentary on the book of Daniel, the Babylonians believed that there were two categories of angels. The lower category mingled with people on earth, that is, their “dwelling” was earth. They believed that this category of angel could read the minds of humans. However, in order for that to be accomplished, the human would need to have a recollection in his or her mind of the thought, or in this case, the dream. Since Neb could not remember, then this lower class of angelic beings would be of no assistance. The angels whose dwellings are not with people would be required.
The Midrash explains that this type of “higher level” prophecy had ceased with the destruction of the Jewish Temple, and that the king blamed his advisors for that situation, since they had counseled him to destroy it, an act which at this juncture appeared quite short-sighted.
So, here we are, reading along thinking, “Wow, stinks to be a Babylonian magician”, and then suddenly, we notice that Daniel and his fellow Jewish friends have been included in the kill order! It did not appear they were present at the wee hours audience the other magi had with King Neb, but they were roped into the penalty phase, nonetheless. ALL the wise men of Babel!
Sometimes when we are enraged, we make unwise decisions....ya think? Sounds like King Neb was in the process of “cutting off his nose to spite his face”. He failed to differentiate in his kill order between the necromancers and the other wise sages who had nothing to do with dream interpretation. This latter category could have included his lawyers, doctors, etc. That dream had really done a number on him.
Shortly, the executioners set about their grisly task.
{Aramaic Bible in Plain English}
14Then Daniel contemplated and he took counsel and said to Ariuk, the High Guard of the King, he who went out to kill the Wise Men of Babel: 15“Why is this commandment from before the King so urgent?” And Ariuk revealed the matter to Daniel 16And Daniel begged of the King that he would give him time, and he would show the interpretation to the King
17Then Daniel went to his house, and he revealed this matter to KhananYah and to MishEil and to Azarayah, his companions 18That they would seek mercy from before The God of Heaven concerning this mystery, that Daniel and his companions would not be destroyed with the rest of the Wise Men of Babel
Notice Daniel’s reaction to the very disturbing news that his own head was on the chopping block. First what did he not do? Well, as far as the Scriptures are concerned, he did not panic. What else did he not do? He did not shrink away from the news or from the gargantuan task it brought to his doorstep. There is a quote in the Talmud, from King Hezekiah, who would have been Daniel’s ancestor, since Daniel was of royal blood. The quote said: “I have a tradition from my forefather David that even if a sharp sword is already lying on one’s neck, he should not despair of being saved.” Therefore, Daniel did not despair.
Instead, he thought rationally. This Aramaic Peshitta translation says that he took counsel. And then, he went to speak to the executioner. He marched right up to the door of the “lion’s den” you might say. He went straight up to the dude who had been appointed to kill him and essentially asked, “What’s going on here? What’s the big hurry?!” Fortunately, Ariuk didn’t just grab him and make him his first kill. I guess Ariuk could have done that. But, again, fortunately, Ariuk took pity on Daniel and, realizing he had not heard the news or did not know what was going on, he told him the score. Some of the sages say that Daniel HAD heard what was going on, and was feigning ignorance in order to start the conversation with Arioch. But, there’s no way to know for sure.
Another translation of these verses reads “Daniel gave counsel and advice to Ariuk,” that is advising him how to delay the king’s order until Daniel could speak with the king. It appears that Ariuk had severe misgivings about carrying out the king’s plan, harsh as it was, and so he agreed to stall temporarily until Daniel could exert his influence. In so doing Aryioch took a huge risk, because if Daniel went down in flames, so would he. Although Scripture does not record more of their conversation, it apparently gave Ariuk some hope. Here’s a bit of humor from the Jewish Midrash, for whatever you want to make of it. This is not from Scripture, understand, but more like Jewish legend. It was said that Ariuk was reponsible for getting the exiles of Jerusalem across the Euphrates River and that in order to get them to cross, he growled at them like a lion. The name, Aryoch, is from the Hebrew word “ar-YAY”.
What did Daniel do next? Again, right up to the door of the lion’s den. He went straight to the king. And, interestingly, he did not agree to tell the king the dream itself, but merely to tell the interpretation, implying that his interpretation would be so pleasing and convincing that telling the dream itself would not be necessary. And, surprisingly, Nebuchadnezzar must have agreed to that.
Gaining the time he needed, Daniel went to his home where he took more counsel, this time from his three famous friends, Chananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. He then prayed to his Elah (singular form of Elohim, in the Aramaic), AND asked his friends to pray diligently with him “concerning this mystery”. They prayed specifically, not for the saving of their lives, but for the revelation concerning the critical task at hand.
I think about these young men, who were only around 20 years of age at this point. They had such God-given wisdom! They remembered to do what most of us believers forget in times of crisis. What should be our first act, our first response? To pray! Do we do that? Speaking for myself....not as often as I should. The higher the stakes, the lower we should bow....in prayer.
Vs. 19
Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night, and Daniel blessed The God of Heaven.
Have you ever had a vision? I don’t believe I ever have. I’ve had some very vivid dreams. On Monday of this week, I had a very hectic day, which involved driving 200 miles on a tight schedule. After I got home, thanking God that everything was successfully accomplished, I just had to have a nap. Well, apparently, I was SO exhausted that I dreamed and in the dream I was wrestling with a man who had tried to kill me with a gun. As we wrestled he somehow produced a knife from somewhere and tried to stab me with that! It was weird.
At any rate, Daniel had a nocturnal vision, which I don’t believe is the same as a dream. Now, this is the first recorded instance we see of Daniel receiving a vision, although we will see later in his book that God repeatedly employed this method of communicating with Daniel. Even though the Scriptures do not say this, it is a prevalent belief among the Jews that the secret was revealed in the vision by the angel Gabriel, since he is named in Daniel 8:16 and 9:21. Again, that is just an opinion.
Note Daniel’s reaction to receiving this precious gift from the Ancient of Days....
Verses 20 and 23
20Daniel answered and said: “The name of LORD JEHOVAH shall be blessed from eternity and unto eternity, because wisdom and heroic power is his
21And he changes times and the seasons. He removes Kings and raises up Kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those knowing understanding
22And he reveals profound and hidden things, and knows whatever is in the darkness, and light is with him
23To you, God of my fathers, I give thanks and I give praise, because wisdom and heroic power you have given to me, and now you have shown me what we seek from you, and you have shown me the matter of the King!”
Isn’t this a beautiful prayer of thanksgiving? In the Beth Moore study I completed over 10 years ago, these are the only four verses she asked that we study participants memorize, from the whole book. These verses are such a wonderful praise response for a HUGE answer to prayer!
The literal Hebrew of the phrase “eternity and unto eternity”, as it is rendered here is a little different from the Aramaic (naturally). But, the Hebrew equivalent is “to eternity and more”. How wonderful to think of blessing the name of our Father God, Father Yahweh, through countless ages! Daniel thanked him for both His wisdom and His power. Oftentimes, when we lose loved ones, as I did yesterday, or a job or some coveted prize for which we felt we were deserving, we tend to question His wisdom or his timing. Yet, as we read in verse 21, He changes times and seasons, and this is His exclusive prerogative to do so. He is SOVEREIGN - - a key themes of the book of Daniel. One of the actions of the False Messiah will be that he will attempt to “change the times and seasons” (Daniel 7:25), which is a privilege given to our echad Elohim, alone. And, He removes kings and raises up kings. The king’s dream, of which Daniel was enlightened, was “exhibit A” of this truth, since the dream foretold 4 more major earthly empires, extending over a span of at least 2500 years into the future. Even abrupt changes in history are not “happenstance”. They, too, reflect the guiding hand as He shapes human history.
Here in America, we have a major election in just a few months. It is our civic duty to participate in our government, to vote and exert our influence for good in this evil day. This is part of “rendering unto to Caesar what is Caesar’s” (Matt. 22:21). However, we must pray, most of all, for the godliest leaders while still remembering that only our God is sovereign. HE is the one who sets “kings” on the thrones of man’s governments, and we would be wise to remember that.
We should also remember that it is He who gives divine wisdom, who reveals mysteries to whom He chooses. We may wish to be chosen for such revelation, but it is all up to Him! It’s not a “contest” we can “win”. He endows whom HE sees fit. For example, one thing I learned in preparing for this study is that Scripture records only Daniel and Joseph were endowed by their Father Yahweh with the ability to interpret dreams. These were extraordinary gifts these men were given. But, what about “everyday godly wisdom”?
There is a midrash in which a woman questioned a distinguished rabbi about the phrase in vs. 21 “He gives wisdom to the wise”. She wondered why He did not give wisdom to the stupid, since surely they need it the most! In reply the rabbi asked this question, I'm paraphrasing, “If a poor woman and a rich woman both came to you asking to borrow money, to which one would you lend?” “To the rich woman,” she answered. “Why?”, he asked. “Well, she said, if the rich one defaults on the loan then there is greater probability she will pay it back, whereas the poor one - - where would she get the money to re-pay me?” The wise rabbi then said, “Let your ears hear what your mouth is saying.” God gives more wisdom to the wise, so that they will use it wisely.
Matthew 13:12-16 tells us that those who keep on seeking His wisdom won’t be turned away. In fact, He will give more and more! Yeshua was talking to his disciples in this passage:
12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables:
‘Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’b
14In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled:
‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15For this people’s heart has grown callous;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn, and I would heal them.’c
16But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.
And, similarly, James the Just in his book, chapter 1, vs 5, reminds us that godly wisdom is ours, if we only ask for it.
This seems like a good “stopping point” for our study today. We’ll explore briefly the last two verses of the prayer when we resume next week. Shalom
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