Daniel Prophet and Man of God

III. The Setting for the Book of Daniel

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god (Daniel 1:1-2).

From the first two verses of Daniel 1 which inform us of the setting of the book, we can draw some initial conclusions to provide the key to understanding this book and its implications for our lives.

(1) The Book of Daniel contains a great deal of future prophecy but also is the result of fulfilled prophecy.

The reason for the extraordinary qualities of Daniel lies in the historical situation that faced God's people after the Fall of Jerusalem and their deportation into exile in Babylonia. Despite decades of solemn warning by Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, and many other faithful prophets, the people's flagrant apostasy and immorality--described in 2 Chronicles 36:16: "They mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy"--brought about the total destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, a destruction that God had warned his people about ever since the time of Moses (cf. Deut 28:64; 29:28). The covenant people had at last been expelled from their Promised Land and their Holy City and were condemned to captivity and enslavement in a foreign land.

From the viewpoint of a human observer, it seemed that the religion of the Hebrews had been completely discredited. Their God, Yahweh, had apparently shown himself inferior in power to the mighty gods of Assyria and Babylon; for he seemed unable to deliver his people from the worshipers of Asshur, Bel, and Nebo. When they leveled Yahweh's temple to the ground and burned its ruins, the Babylonian troops served notice to all the world that their gods were mightier than Yahweh, no matter what titles the Hebrews gave him. Ethical monotheism was exposed to universal scorn as an empty fraud. Therefore, it was essential at this time in Israel's history for God to display his power in such a way as to prove that he was the one true God (in contrast to the false gods of the heathen) and the sovereign Lord of history. So he showed his power by a series of miracles that vindicated biblical monotheism over against its detractors and convinced the supreme rulers of Babylon and Persia that Yahweh was the greatest power both on earth and in heaven. As God found it necessary in the days of Moses to display his redemptive power in the Ten Plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea in order to deliver Israel from idolatry and spiritual cowardice, so he acted during the disgrace and humiliation of the Babylonian exile. Indeed, it was essential for him to prove by his miraculous acts that he had allowed his people to go into captivity in 587 B.C., not through weakness, but rather to maintain his integrity as a holy God, who carries out his covenant promises both for good and for ill according to the response of his people. So the whole narrative in Daniel relates a series of contests between false gods of human invention and the one true sovereign Lord and Creator of heaven and earth.

In these brief words of introduction, Daniel informs us that he and his people are captive in Babylon because God gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. How did this come about and why? We see from the Old Testament scriptures that verses 1 and 2 are the precise fulfillment of prophecy.

Before the nation Israel crossed the Jordan to possess the promised land of Canaan, God renewed His covenant with this people, promising to bless them for obedience to His law and to curse them for disobedience. This curse included captivity:

“But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you … Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes shall look on and yearn for them continually; but there shall be nothing you can do … The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you shall set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the Lord will drive you” (Deuteronomy 28:15, 32,36-37).

“The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who shall have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young” (Deuteronomy 28:49-50).

“Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known.” (Deuteronomy 28:64).

The nation Israel divided into the northern kingdom (referred to as “Israel” or “Ephraim”) and the southern kingdom (most often referred to as “Judah”). Israel consisted of 10 tribes under the leadership of Jeroboam and then 18 subsequent kings, none of whom were of the line of David. The northern kingdom was consistently in one of two conditions: “bad” or “worse,” as seen from a reading of 1 and 2 Kings. The southern kingdom of Judah also had 19 kings, all of whom were of the line of David. Some of these kings were bad, others had a heart for the Lord, and some wavered in between.

God foretold the defeat and destruction of Israel, the northern kingdom, by the Assyrians:

“For the Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the Lord to anger. And He will give up Israel on account of the sins of Jeroboam, which he committed and with which he made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 14:15-16).

The scriptures record that defeat:

Now it came about in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. And at the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured. Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and put them in Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded; they would neither listen, nor do it (2 Kings 18:9-12).

During the reign of Hezekiah, Judah (the southern kingdom) was threatened by Assyria but was divinely delivered from their hand (2 Kings 18-19). Hezekiah later became very ill and was told that he was to die. Because of his appeal to God for mercy, his life was extended 15 years (2 Kings 20:1-11). The king of the (as yet) distant and obscure empire of Babylon, hearing of Hezekiah’s sickness and recovery, sent him a “get well” note which led to a visit to Jerusalem. Foolishly Hezekiah showed his Babylonian visitors all the riches of Jerusalem. For this Isaiah rebuked Hezekiah and gave this prophecy of Judah’s downfall at the hand of Babylon:

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord. ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ‘And some of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you shall beget, shall be taken away; and they shall become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon’” (2 Kings 20:16-18).

Reading Daniel 1:1-2 in light of these and other prophecies, I am struck by the fact that God’s promises and prophecies concerning Israel and Judah were literally and precisely fulfilled. If Daniel is the source of future prophecies, his book is also a testimony to fulfilled prophecy. The future prophecies of Daniel are all the more certain in light of the fulfilled prophecies, to which Daniel bears witness.

(2) The Book of Daniel turns our attention and focus to Israel’s God and the certain hope of His people for reconciliation with God, restoration, and eternal blessing.

The promises and prophecies of God fulfilled in the defeat and captivity of Israel and Judah were only part of the picture. God not only promised Israel’s captivity, but also her restoration:

“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers” (Deuteronomy 30:1-5).

As surely as God’s promises of judgment were fulfilled, so will be His promises of salvation and blessing. In many ways, this Book fixes our hope on the restoration of His people, as well as the blessing of the Gentiles.

The certainty of restoration and blessing for God’s people was assured by the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. God’s sovereignty is indicated in the introduction, Daniel 1:1-2. Judah, under Jehoiakim, was defeated by Babylon and taken into captivity. But Daniel makes it clear that this defeat was in fulfillment of God’s purposes and promises. God gave Jehoiakim and Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Judah’s defeat came from God. The great and mighty nation of Babylon was but an instrument in the hand of God to achieve His purposes.

The sovereignty of God, pointed out in the introduction, is taught and affirmed throughout the rest of the book. The prophecies which God revealed to the kings of Babylon and fulfilled in their times bore witness to God’s sovereignty. The miraculous deliverance of Daniel (from the lions, chapter 6) and his three friends (from the firey furnace, chapter 3) also testifies to the sovereignty of God.

The greatest witness to God’s sovereignty comes from the Babylonian rulers themselves. Note the contrast between Daniel 1 and Daniel 4.

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god (Daniel 1:2).

In the ancient world, military battles waged between two nations were battles of the gods of those warring nations. The winning nation was thought to have the greater gods.² When a heathen nation defeated another nation, it often placed the gods of its defeated foe in the temple of their own god as a symbol of their god’s victory (see 1 Samuel 5:1-2; Daniel 1:1-2).

When Nebuchadnezzar took the vessels of the house of God and placed them in the house of his god, we are prepared for a “battle of the gods.” Did Nebuchadnezzar think that his “gods” had prevailed over the God of Israel and Judah? Though the book of Daniel begins with Nebuchadnezzar giving his gods credit for being better than the God of Judah, take note of his final words, which speak of the God of Israel:

“But at the end of that period I, Nebuchadnezzar raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. But He does according to His will in the host of heaven. And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What has Thou done?’

“At that time my reason returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and surpassing greatness was added to me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just and He is able to humble those who walk in pride” (Daniel 4:34-37).

Nebuchadnezzar, like Israel, had become proud in the position and power God had given. Nebuchadnezzar, like Israel, was humbled for a time, and then restored to give praise and glory to God. There is hope of Israel’s restoration, as Nebuchadnezzar and the Book of Daniel bear witness.

May God enrich our lives as we study and apply the message of this great book to His glory. And may the kingdom for which the saints of all ages have looked soon come to the earth with the Lord Jesus as our Great King.