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SEGMENT
2 DANIEL 3
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SEGMENT 2 DANIEL 3
A Faith More Precious Than Gold
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You say, I am
rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a
thing. But you do not realize that you are
wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I
counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the
fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes
to wear, so you can cover your shameful
nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you
can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and
discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am!
I stand at the door and knock
.
-
Revelation 3: 17-20
Gods
Agent of Wrath
King Nebuchadnezzar set
siege to Jerusalem three times. He finally
destroyed the city in 586 B.C. because Israel
refused to submit to his higher
authority. Even thought the secular mind would
say that Jerusalem was destroyed because of
rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, the Bible
indicates that Jerusalem was destroyed because
Israel refused to submit to Gods
highest authority. (See Jeremiah 25
and Ezekiel 14.) The destruction of Israel by
Nebuchadnezzar teaches a profound truth:
Gods longsuffering with Israel and His
wrath against Israel is mirrors reflecting how
God deals with all nations. (Leviticus 18:28;
Jeremiah 25:12; Acts 10:34) God preserved a
record of His actions in the Bible so future
generations could understand why He
sets up governments and takes them down.
In this particular
setting, God selected Nebuchadnezzar to be His
servant, His agent of wrath against Israel.
(Jeremiah 25:9; 27:6; 43:10) God empowered and
enabled the king of the north, Nebuchadnezzar, to
destroy His city and His people because of their
rebellion and decadence. (Daniel 9) The role of
Nebuchadnezzar as king of the north and
the office of Nebuchadnezzar as the king of
Babylon parallels the coming of the
Antichrist. During the Great Tribulation, Lucifer
will appear on Earth masquerading as God. The
devil will be the stern-faced king
from the North (Daniel 8:23; 11:36) and the devil
will be the king of modern Babylon! We will
examine these profound parallels in our study on
Daniel 8.
Three
Sins
Gods patience with
Israel ended because of three persistent sins: a)
Israel violated Gods Sabbaths, b) Israel
engaged in sexual immorality, and c) Israel chose
to worship idols instead of their Savior. (Do you
see an end-time parallel?) Thoughtfully consider
Gods words as He lamented the apostasy of
Israel: Her priests do violence to my
law and profane my holy things; they do not
distinguish between the holy and the common; they
teach that there is no difference between the
unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes
to keeping of my Sabbaths, so I am profaned among
them. (Ezekiel 22:26)
Also consider Gods
comments about the clergy of Israel: And
among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen
something horrible: They commit adultery and live
a lie. They strengthen the hands of the
evildoers, so that no one turns from his
wickedness. They are all like Sodom to me; the
people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah
For
they have done outrageous things in Israel; they
have committed adultery with their
neighbors wives and in my name have spoken
lies, which I did not tell them to do. I know it
and am a witness to it, declares the
Lord. (Jeremiah 23:14; 29:23) Therefore
this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I
myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will
inflict punishment on you in the sight of the
nations. Because of your detestable idols, I will
do to you what I have never done before and will
never do again. Therefore in your midst fathers
will eat their children, and the children will
eat their fathers. I will inflict punishment on
you and will scatter all your survivors to the
winds. (Ezekiel 5:8-10)
We learn from Isaiah,
Jeremiah and Ezekiel why Gods anger with
Israel reached a boiling point. His holy name had
been profaned among the nations of Earth by
Israels decadence. As representatives of
the Most High and trustees of the everlasting
gospel, Israel degenerated to such a decadent
condition that God could no longer use Israel as
His representatives. Destruction was the only
solution. Therefore, God Himself raised up a
servant-destroyer, the king of
Babylon, to destroy His city and His people.
The
Vanished Vision
Daniel and his three
friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, were
taken from Jerusalem as prisoners of war during
the first siege of Nebuchadnezzar in 605 B.C.
Shortly after they arrived in Babylon; God
exalted Daniel and his friends before King
Nebuchadnezzar through a curious turn of events.
One night, God gave Nebuchadnezzar a vision that
outlined the remaining course of human history.
(Daniel 2) Essentially, the vision consisted of a
great statue of a man that was made out of
various materials. At the end of the vision, a
great rock that came out of the sky smashed the
statue to pieces. When the king awoke, he became
agitated for two reasons. First, Nebuchadnezzar
knew that he had received an important vision but
the could not remember what is was. He thought it
was from Marduk, the god of the Babylonians.
Second, as the king fretted over the loss of
memory, he realized that he had no other option
than to ask the clergy of Babylon for help. The
king did not have total confidence in the
wise men of Babylon and he
anticipated a skirmish with them. To stop this
before it started, Nebuchadnezzar made it clear
that he would not tolerate any delay or double
talk on their part.
Behind the scenes, the
God of Heaven was unfolding a plan to exalt His
holy name throughout the world.
Nebuchadnezzars vision was from the God of
Heaven, not Marduk, and it was the God of Heaven
who gave the king amnesia. By doing this, God
made fools of Babylons clergy and at the
same time revealed the impotence of Marduk. Even
though the vanished vision agitated the king, the
agitation by that vanished vision became the
means through which young Daniel became exalted
to a position close to the king.
God
Is So Clever
After rising from bed,
and I am sure, pacing the floor, Nebuchadnezzar
called an emergency meeting for all the wise men
of the palace. Suspecting lame excuses and weasel
words, Nebuchadnezzar confronted his wise men
with these words: So the king summoned
the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and
astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When
they came in and stood before the king, he said
to them, I had a dream that troubles me and
I want to know what it means. Then the
astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, O
king, live-forever! Tell your servants the dream,
and we will interpret it. The king replied
to the astrologers, This is what I have
firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my
dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut
into pieces and your houses turned into piles of
rubble. Butt if you tell me the dream and explain
it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards of
great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret
it for me. Once more they replied,
Let the king tell his servants the dream,
and we will interpret it. Then the king
answered, I am sure that you are trying to
gain more time [so that you can create
another one of your incoherent riddles], because
you realize that this is what I have firmly
decided: If you do not [immediately] tell
me the dream, there is just one penalty for you. [If
you do not tell me the dream, I will know that] You
have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked
things [during past times], hoping the
situation will [favorably] change [in
each instance to fit your predictions]. So
tell me the dream, and I will know [beyond
doubt] that you can interpret it for
me. (Daniel 2:2-9,
insertions mine)
Nebuchadnezzar was no
dummy. Consider his speech to the wise men. If
the wise men proved to be a bunch of clever
liars, he would destroy them. If they really did
have supernatural connection with Marduk, as
they had claimed, they would be rewarded. The
astrologers, magicians, sorcerers and enchanters
represented Babylons diverse religion and
they claimed from time to time, to have received
visions from Marduk on behalf of the king. Their
claims of contact with Marduk almost led to their
demise.
False
Prophets
In ancient times, kings
often sought out the services of clergymen as
counselors and advisors. For example, Jezebel
employed 450 prophets of Baal. (1 Kings 18:19)
Even as late as the fourth century A.D.,
Constantine depended heavily upon the advice and
flattery of the theologian, Eusebius. Clergymen
were important because ancient rulers believed
their prosperity and power depended on staying
within favor of the gods. To earn
their salt, clergymen had to walk a
fine line. They had to say things that flattered
the ego of their employer and they had to utter
prophecies that could not prove to be
embarrassing. For this reason, wise
men were notoriously hard to pin
down. By using crafted weasel
words, they always had an out
hidden somewhere in their riddles and prophecies.
In ancient times, the
highest rank among the clergymen was that of a
prophet. (Remember Balaam? See Numbers 22.) Any
person who had a connection with the
gods was highly honored, respected and paid
well.
It is ironic that
Gods prophets in Israel received the
opposite fate. Gods prophets were often
stoned or executed because Israels kings
did not want to hear the truth! (Matthew 23:37)
Babylons prophets were well educated and
they presented their messages to Nebuchadnezzar
with such slippery words that their prophecies
always seemed to come true no matter how the
situation unfolded. When Daniel stood before the
king, repeated the forgotten vision, and declared
its interpretation, the king immediately
recognized the veracity of Daniels words.
Daniel was a true prophet speaking
clearly and decisively. He did not use weasel
words! To keep Daniel close, Nebuchadnezzar
promoted Daniel above all the prophets in
Babylon.
Keep this thought in
mind. A false prophet is a person who claims to
speak for God when God has not spoken to that
person. Every time Israel drifted away from God,
she became full of false prophets and this made
God angry. Men were saying God showed this
to me, or God said this to me,
when in fact God had said nothing or shown
nothing. False prophets make God angry because
the predictions or false prophets do not come to
pass. Therefore, it is only a matter of time
until Gods Word is defamed and considered
worthless when falsehoods are uttered in His
name. God promises to destroy anyone who uses His
name for the sake of credibility. (See Ezekiel
13.) Lucifer is given the title, false
prophet, in Revelation 19:20 for this very
reason. The devil will speak out of his own evil
imagination while masquerading as God!
Therefore, in an effort
to stay within the kings favor (and earn
their keep), Babylons prophets made up
fables and riddles to please and flatter the
king. However, Nebuchadnezzar was smart enough to
know that a dream cannot be validated or studied
by other people, and although a false prophet can
say that he has received a vision, no one can
prove otherwise if the message is not clearly
stated. (See also 1 Kings 18:22 and 2 Kings 3.)
Therefore, when Nebuchadnezzar demanded the wise
men to reveal the vanished vision, he turned the
tables on them. There was no room for deception.
The king reasoned that if his wise men really had
contact with the gods, if they received visions
as he had, and if they had the ability to
interpret visions from Marduk, then they should
be able to describe and interpret the vision that
Marduk had given the king.
Therefore, the king
called his wise men to his throne and he
confronted them as a request that left no wiggle
room. When the wise men heard the demand of the
king, they knew they were in serious trouble.
They would not be able to weasel their way out of
this confrontation. Consider their defense: The
astrologers answered the king, there is not
a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No
king, however great and mighty, has ever asked
such a thing of any magician or enchanter or
astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult.
No one can reveal it to the king except the gods,
and they do not live among men. This made
the king so angry and furious that he ordered the
execution of all the wise men of Babylon. (Daniel
2:10-12) Can you imagine being summoned to the
palace for an emergency meeting only to discover
that your execution is minutes away? In the
presence of Nebuchadnezzar, all the wise men of
Babylon were forced to admit their deceitful ways
and failure. How clever of the God of Heaven to
have the wise men confess with their own mouths
the impotence of the Babylonian religion. When
the decisive moment of truth came, the clergy of
Babylon were disgraced and the king was
justifiably furious with them.
Marduk
Is Not a God
Before God exalted His
holy name throughout the empire, He chose to
demonstrate that Marduk was not a
god. It is amazing how a forgotten dream
turned the world of Babylons clergy upside
down. Minutes before the vision took place, the
prophets of Babylon were highly paid and widely
respected as wise men. After meeting
with the king for a few moments, the clergymen of
Babylon were forced to confess their impotence
and a death sentence was hung over their heads. I
am reminded of Pauls words, But
God chose the foolish things of the world to
shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the
world to shame the strong. (1
Corinthians 1:27) Do you see an end-time parallel
here? (Few, if any of the 144,000 will be
theologians; yet, they will embarrass the clergy
of the world.)
Remember, the point of
this story is that God wanted to vindicate His
holy name before the nations of Earth. He wanted
the whole world to know that He was a God of love
and salvation, a God of mercy and justice, a God
of fairness and truth, a God of compassion and
majesty. Unfortunately, the opposite had
occurred. The Jews had made enemies of almost
everyone on Earth. They had slandered and
profaned the exalted name of God, trampled upon
His law, and rejected every prophet He sent to
them. Therefore, God implemented a plan to
restore His good name and He chose to use the
mouth of a heathen king to do it! A sovereign God
can make a servant out of anyone or anything.
The
Death Decree
News of a sudden and
unexpected death decree for all the wise men of
Babylon flew from the palace of Nebuchadnezzar as
fast as a horse could go. The news
media was on the story in a heartbeat. The
threat of death for all the wise men of Babylon
did something that Nebuchadnezzar would later
regret. The king unwittingly informed the whole
world of the impotence of Babylons wise men
by putting a death decree on their heads. Even
worse, the entire kingdom became eager to know
the contents of a vision that had vanished from
the kings memory.
Daniel Exalted
Through a series of
providential events, Daniel eventually stood
before the king. He not only revealed the
vanished vision, but he also interpreted the
vision for the king. This pleased the king more
than words can express. When the king heard
Daniels testimony, he was thrilled. Then
King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel
and paid him honor and ordered that an offering
and incense be presented to him. The king said to
Daniel, Surely your God is the God of gods
and the Lord of kings and a revealer of
mysteries, for you were able to reveal this
mystery. Then the king placed Daniel in a
high position and lavished many gifts on him. He
made him ruler over the entire province of
Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise
men. (Daniels 2: 46-48)
A
few hours later, the king had a change of heart.
He must have grimaced as he faced three sobering
truths: First, Daniel had informed the king that
Marduk did not give him the vision.
Nebuchadnezzars vision came from the Most
High God of the Jews, those despicable
captives from Jerusalem. How could these captives
have a God greater than the god of the
Babylonians? Second, Daniel told the king that
the God of the Jews was sovereign over the
kingdoms of the world, even Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar was told that God sets up kings
and He takes them down, according to His
sovereign authority. Nebuchadnezzar may have been
somewhat flattered to learn that the Most High
God of Heaven who had given him a throne.
However, the reality of Daniels words did
not sink in. Nevertheless, God wanted
Nebuchadnezzar to know that he had not gained the
throne of Babylon by human prowess, but this
lesson would not be learned until after the king
spent seven years living with animals. (See
Daniel 4:16; 5:21.) The third truth that
dawned on Nebuchadnezzar was the most chilling of
all. Daniel told the king that his kingdom would
be destroyed in days to come and another kingdom
would rise to take its place. As the king churned
over the vanished vision and the train of events
that it produced, he must have concluded his
vision was more of a nightmare than a revelation
from God.
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