PT-7 Intro to Daniel

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/23/2023 9:45 AM

 

PT-7 Intro to Daniel from John MacArthur’s Sermon

 

From the places I want to talk about the period for a moment, and I think this is fascinating. Look at verse 1, “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim,” – now we’ll stop there. Now we know when it takes place. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim. That’s a very specific time reference and immediately the critics pull up their red flag, “Aha, you see, Jeremiah said in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim. That proves the Bible contradicts. Jeremiah says the fourth year and Daniel says the third year and if they can’t even get that straight, how could they ever be trusted in anything else?”

But you know something? Critics say what they want to say for their own purposes. The fact of the matter is this. Jeremiah used Hebrew dating, Daniel used Babylon dating. The Babylonians never assumed that the first year of any king was to be considered in his reign; it was isolated from every other year. And according to Babylonian chronology, that was his accession to the throne year and it was not counted among the years of his reign. And here is Daniel – and we know that from archaeology – Daniel living in a Babylonian society would use Babylonian chronology.

This doesn’t disprove the authenticity of the Bible, it simply reinforces its absolute accuracy. Daniel would never contradict Jeremiah anyway because in Daniel 9:2 he indicates that he’s got Jeremiah’s prophecies in his mind while he’s writing. It would be pretty dumb if he contradicted him. Daniel simply writes in a Babylonian context.

Now, let’s look back and see something of the history. We say, “The third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, big deal. Who’s he?” I’m glad you asked. The events of Daniel take place at a tragic time in Israel’s history. And I – this is going to be some history, so you’re going to have to screw your brain on and think along with this. I’m not going to just waltz you along with lots of funny things and – and happy thoughts. We’re going to dig a little bit. I want you to think it through because it will give you some basis for your understanding of the book.

The events of Daniel’s time took place in a tragic hour in Israel’s history. This was the day of severe punishment. Israel had deteriorated in its relation to God and now God was finally going to punish. Just to give you the – the background very briefly. When the tribes came into the land, you’ll remember, God said, “I’m going to bless you,” Deuteronomy 28. But I’m going to bless you if you are – two words – faithful and obedient. If you’re faithful and obedient, I’ll bless you. Then He said also in Deuteronomy 28, “If you’re unfaithful and disobedient, I will punish you.” You know something. They were unfaithful and disobedient and finally the punishment came.

Really it had been trickling along all the while. They got punished even during the time of the Judges. All you have to do is read Judges 3 to 16 and find that out. In the time of David, there was a temporary reprieve from the chastening of the Lord because David was a faithful leader. But after Solomon, the whole thing got chaotic again because they had turned away from the Lord. The Bible says the Lord brought trouble and separation into the kingdom.

The Lord then began to send prophets to speak to them through the several hundred years after the kingdom was divided, and they sunk deeper and deeper into sin. Finally in 722 B.C., the Northern Kingdom was taken captive by Assyria; the whole thing fell to Assyria, 2 Kings 17. They were gone and only Judah remained. Just over a century later, just over a century after the Northern Kingdom went into captivity, the Southern Kingdom went too to the hands of the Babylonians. And the crushing blow was in 586 or 587 B.C. Jerusalem was destroyed, the country was turned into a province of Babylonia, it lost its identity. Second Kings 25 tells us about it.

But I want you to know something. We usually use the date 586 for the captivity. But eleven years before that in 597 there was another group taken captive. And even eight years before that in 605, there was another group taken captive. So in the captivity there were three periods, 605, 597 and 586. You say, “Well what’s that mean?” Well just this. Daniel went in the first captivity in 605. By the time the second group got there, he’d been there eight years. By the time the third group was there, he had been there 19 years and was well established as a leader in the land who could come to the aid of his people. So God had set it all up in advance. He lived through that whole captivity, even the return, and he still stayed there.

Now, the capture of Jerusalem and the deportation of Jews to Babylon, including Daniel and his friends, was the fulfillment of many, many prophecies. Isaiah had talked about the fact that this was inevitable. Jeremiah had talked about it. They all said it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming, terrible moral apostasy is going to pay – is going to bring a price.

In fact, in Isaiah 1 – I’ll just read you a few verses – 4 to 6. “Ah sinful nation,” – says Isaiah – “people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more.” – In other words, we can't spank you anymore. You just get angry and revolt. It doesn’t work. – “Your whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.” You're a mess, he says. Apostate, immoral, they had descended into degeneracy.

So that’s what’s going on in Judah. And by the time you get to 605, 597 and 586, God is going to move against them. But before He takes the whole nation captive, He makes sure He has a few key men. And in the first deportation went Daniel and his three friends. Now, what’s going on in Babylon at this time? “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”

Now, Nebuchadnezzar is a familiar name to anybody who studies the Bible. And he’s from the other side. Let’s balance it off a little bit. What’s going on over there? Well back in Genesis 10:10, we learn that Nimrod was the builder of the city of Babel. And Babel or Babylon became the seat of idolatry. Now watch this. As centuries went by, more and more false religion grew up in Babylon. There were mystery religions and mystery cults that just began to proliferate. And from Babel they spread over the world.

Babylon had some famous kings. Do you recognize the name Hammurabi? If you’ve ever studied history you know that the first or the most ancient code of human law was a code supposedly written by Hammurabi. Hammurabi was an ancient king of Babylon. The Empire reached its zenith apparently around the time of Hammurabi. And it’s speculation about how long ago it was, some say 1500 years before Christ or more. That was the great apex of the early Babylonian Empire.

But after Hammurabi the whole thing fell apart and the Babylonian Empire as such disintegrated into absolute nothingness and disappeared. But hundreds of years later, rose from the ashes of the old Babylonian Empire what is known as the Neo Babylonian Empire. This is the one we meet in the book of Daniel. It has just moved to its ascendency. It has just reached the point of power in the world. It is called the Neo Babylonian Empire. And the key guy in its development is this man Nebuchadnezzar.

And he was quite a fellow. He was a statesman, politician, tremendous soldier and an amazing architect. He designed, as I understand it, all of the wonders of Babylon, including the Hanging Gardens which were air-conditioned – if you can imagine that – and many other wonderful and startling things. I read a book, not a month ago, about all the wonders of the buildings of the city of Babylon. It was absolutely hard to believe that in a primitive society as we – as we think that was, somebody could do what they did. But believe me, it wasn’t primitive.

And if anything, today we have more information but we’re not any smarter than they were. In fact, we’ve probably gotten worse because of the constant deterioration that sin brings to the human heart and mind. But this man was amazing and brilliant, a genius in many areas. And he built this incredible city of Babylon and he developed the Empire.

Now, let me give you a little bit of an idea of how it all happened. After the old Babylonian Empire which had dominated the east under Hammurabi and some other contemporaries, faded away, the Assyrians – and the Assyrians were a group of people who occupied the northern part of that part of the world. And they ruled there, the Assyrians. And you read about them in the Bible, don’t you? A-S-S-Y-R-I-A-N-S. And they had a capital city by the name of Nineveh. Remember Nineveh? Famous story of Jonah. They – the Assyrians were wild and just ruthless, wicked, slaughtering type of maniacal people and went around just blasting away at their enemies.

Now, their last great ruler was a man named Ashurbanipal. You’re not going to remember all these names, don’t worry about it. But this guy named Ashurbanipal – for you that are interested – he was the last great ruler of Assyria. And his son couldn’t hold the Empire together. So around 625 when he died, the thing began to disintegrate. Well, there’s an interesting fellow who worked for Ashurbanipal by the name of Nabopolassar. How would you like to write out the name tags for that group? But anyway, Ashurbanipal had this guy that he had appointed as his vice-regent. Because the Assyrians ruled all that area and the Babylonian segment he had given to Nabopolassar.

And when Ashurbanipal died and his son took over, Nabopolassar said, “Now, is my moment, I’m going to take over this whole deal.” So from his little territory of Babylon in the south, he pulled a coup and he had a revolt and he literally took his Babylon army and they swept through the whole thing. They took all of Assyria. They went to Nineveh, the capital city, and obliterated it. And they chased all of the Assyrians as far as they could chase them to mop them up. Ashurbanipal died in 625 and Nabopolassar had taken the whole thing over by 610. So in fifteen years he just took the whole thing over.

11/23/2023 9:48 AM