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Daniel
Chapter One
Specific Text:1:1-2
Paragraph # 1 Study # 1
August 7, 2022
Broadlands, Louisiana
Thesis: The Book of Daniel is rooted in Prophecy and Law and is a revelation of many specific prophetic events
and the outcome of Law.
Introduction: As we said last Wednesday in our introductory study of the issue of Developing a Biblical Perspective, "prophecy" is one of the two foundations of our claim that the Bible is the very word of the only, and infinite, God. As a detailed presentation of a host of prophecies, Daniel stands as, perhaps, the most important book in the Old Testament in that its prophecies validate the legitimacy of the entire Old Testament It has
this to recommend itself to our study: the Book of Daniel
forces the conclusion that Jesus of Nazareth was/is The Christ of The Infinite God.
- I. The Prophetic Background of Daniel.
- A. Prophecy to Hezekiah of his offspring being carried captive: 2 Kings 20:18.
- 1. There are problems with the dates of Hezekiah's reigned over Judah: Ryrie says he reigned from 715 B.C. to 686 B.C. (Ryrie Study Bible), but 2 Kings 18:10 says that Israel was taken in the sixth year of Hezekiah. The general, non-biblical historical records claim Israel fell to Assyria in 722 B.C. which would have been seven years before he became king if Ryrie's dates are legitimate (it is the specific, non-biblical, historical dating that is problematic, not the records of the Bible). The point is this: Hezekiah was a witness to Assyria taking Israel into captivity and a recipient of the prophecy that Babylon would eventually be the problem.
- 2. This prophecy was given after his recovery from a "fatal" illness and given an extra 15 years of life (20:6) .
- 3. This prophecy included the revelation that it would be Babylon that carried Judah into captivity, and that "some of your sons...shall become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon" (2 Kings 20:16).
- a. Hezekiah's major threat was Assyria, not Babylon.
- 1) According to 2 Kings 18-20... .
- a) He reigned in Jerusalem for 29 years...18:2
- b) He was unique among all the kings of Judah (both before him and after him) for his "trust in the Lord God of Israel"...18:5-6
- c) He was a witness to the deportation of Israel in his sixth year, by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria...18:10-11
- d) He was besieged in his fourteenth year by Sennacherib, and afterward was a witness to the destruction of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers by God in one night...19:35. This means that he was brought to the point of death in that year (20:1 ff) -- after God's destruction of the Assyrian army since the promise was that his life would be extended by 15 years and that would have been a specific promise that his rule would also be so extended.
- 2) These chapters precede the fulfillment of this body of prophecy by more than 100 yrs.
- b. Though Ezekiel 14:14 identifies Daniel as one of only three men in history whose personal "righteousness" was exceedingly exceptional, he is not to be found in the Chronicles of the sons of Israel.
- c. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are the only ones specifically identified as men who "became officials in the palace of the king" (Daniel 1:4).
- B. Prophecies regarding the length of the seventy year long captivity of Judah.
- 1. Daniel 9:2 tells us that Daniel's prayer for the restoration of the nation was prompted by Jeremiah's prophecy that the captivity would last 70 years.
- 2. Jeremiah 25:12 is the prophecy to which Daniel 9:2 refers.
- II. The Legal Background.
- A. The "sabbath" legacy (2 Chronicles 36:21).
- 1. The issue of "legacy" is raised in both 2 Kings 24:3-4 and 2 Chronicles 36:21 as the reason God sent Judah into captivity.
- 2 The land was supposed to be given a "sabbath" every 7th year (Leviticus 25:3-4).
- 3 The refusal of Israel to observe these sabbaths had been in place for enough time to create a "sabbath debt" of 70 years (490 years).
- a. This 70 year long "Sabbath Debt To The Land"is typically tied to the seventh year sabbath years.
- b. But, there is a possibility that it includes the Jubilee Sabbath year also.
- 1) Every 50 years would have generated 8 sabbath years.
- 2) Since the claim is that Israel had not observed the sabbath years for the land to rest, it stands to reason that if they did not observe the 7th year sabbaths, they would not have observed the Jubilee sabbath either.
- 3) This would have put the beginning of the "Sabbath Debt" back about 8.75 cycles of 50 years each, or approximately 437 years.
- 4) This would have put the beginning of the debt back to approximately 1100 B.C., which was about 100 years before David ruled in Jerusalem.
- B. The "problem" of faithful believers living in apostate conditions wherein the promises of God had more to do with "curses" than with "blessings" (How do we relate to unfulfilled promises because of apostasy by the 'majority'?) is addressed by special divine provisions.
- 1. Habakkuk has something to say about this as God, through him, promised "deliverance" to those "justified by faith" even while the apostates are taken to task.
- a. It is impossible that those who wished to be faithful to the covenant could observe the Land Sabbaths if the majority refused.
- b. This would mean that even those who wished to be faithful could not erase the "fault" of the nation for its "national disobedience".
- c. This raises the issue of "justification by faith" since that doctrine promises a righteousness from God, not tied to human obedience so that even though "all" were disobedient, "some" were considered "righteous" because they had come to a right "attitude" before God.
- 2. Daniel and his faithful contemporaries were well taken care of by God's sovereign oversight of their captivity.
