Daniel 1–6 (Part 1)

Richard Belcher provides an overview of the first six chapters of the Book of Daniel. He emphasizes how Daniel and his companions demonstrated faithfulness to God while facing challenges in a foreign land. Belcher highlights themes of integrity, divine wisdom, and God’s sovereignty in adversities, relevant for guiding contemporary believers in living out their faith in challenging environments.

The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.

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This audio lecture is brought to you by RTS on iTunesu at the virtual campus of Reformed Theological Seminary. To listen to other lectures and to access additional resources, please visit us at itunes rts.edu. For additional information on how to take distance education courses for credit towards a fully accredited Master of Arts in religion degree, please visit our website at virtual rts.edu. Let’s move on and get a start on Daniel. Daniel is divided into two lectures, one through six and seven through twelve.

And if for some reason I say Danielle instead of Daniel, it’s because I have a daughter named Danielle. And so sometimes I call her Daniel and sometimes I say Danielle. So you know what I’m talking about if that happens. All right, lecture, whatever this is, chapters one through six, let’s talk about the historical situation. In fact, BJ, why don’t you read for us the first four verses, I think that is all that we need to get us going. Daniel 1:1-4.

¹ In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. (Daniel 1:1, ESV)

² And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, 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 placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. (Daniel 1:2, ESV)

³ Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, ⁴ youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. (Daniel 1:3-4, ESV)

Okay, let’s talk a little bit about the historical context. Babylon is the dominant power, as we have seen in 605. And this is one of the key dates you have the battle of Carchemish.

Remember 609, the battle of Megiddo, where Josiah dies? 605, the battle of Carchemish, where Babylon defeats Egypt. And it really opens up the whole area of the land of Israel to Babylonian control. And so in 605, Babylon comes into Jerusalem and takes away some of the key nobles and key young men. So there’s a deportation in 605 of the royal family and nobility. And Daniel, as we see here, is a part of that deportation. As you read further, in chapter one, his name is mentioned, so he’s taken in 605. This is during Jehoiakim’s reign.

Jehoiakim reigned from 609 to 597. And this is mentioned in Daniel 1:1 as the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim. Now, there are some problems in Daniel related to dating. If you compare Daniel 1:1 to Jeremiah 25:1, you see some of the problem. Daniel 1:1 says, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

If you look over at Jeremiah 25:1, you have the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, the first year of Nebuchadnezzar. So Daniel 1:1 says it’s the third year of Jehoiakim, and Nebuchadnezzar comes through. Jeremiah 25 says it’s the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which is the first year of Nebuchadnezzar. So if the fourth year of Jehoiakim is the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, how can Nebuchadnezzar come into Jerusalem the third year of Jehoiakim? You see the possible problem?

Well, it’s been discovered that there are two different ways of calculating the reign of a king, and so you have first year, second year, third year. In the Jewish way of reckoning, the first year is year number 1, second year is year number two, third year is year number three. That seems to make sense, doesn’t it? In the Babylonian way of doing it, the first year is called an accession year, so that actually the second year is year number one and the third year is year number two.

So with that, you can see there’s not necessarily a discrepancy between Daniel 1:1 and Jeremiah 25:1. And that has cleared up some of the major problems. Now, the other introductory issues related to authorship and period I’m not going to cover. We sort of covered a lot of that when we talked about Isaiah. your introduction book is very good when it comes to Daniel and arguing for a 6th century date of Daniel and not a second century date of Daniel.

As we will see, many commentators think that some of the, the visions of Daniel really come from the 168 to 165 bc period. We’ll talk about that as we go through the book of Daniel, but your introduction is very good on the authorship and the unity of the book and the date of the book. So I’ll leave that to your reading. In your introduction. It’s interesting that Daniel is placed in the third section of the Hebrew Bible.

Once you learn some Hebrew, you soon realize that the order of the books is not the same because you try to find something, it’s not where you expect it because you’re used to the English order. There are some minor differences, but Daniel in our English order is Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. And then you have the minor prophets. Daniel in the Hebrew Bible is actually in the third section, not the section of the prophets, but the section of what’s called the writings begins with the Book of Psalms. And you have other wisdom literature there.

You’ve got Ruth there, Esther, Nehemiah, Ezra, Chronicles in that third section. And Daniel occurs in that third section, not because he’s not a prophet; Daniel is called a hozehouse. Remember, that term is used in prophets. But probably Daniel is in the third section because he’s more of a statesman. And that’s the reason that is given for placing him in the third section of the book.

Now, there are several ways to divide up the Book of Daniel. We could divide the book up chapters one through six and then chapters seven through twelve.

That’s one way the book is divided up chapters one through six stories about Daniel in a foreign context, speaking to the exiles who are living in that context. Chapters seven through twelve are not stories. So one through six are narrative stories. Chapters seven through twelve are visions. So there’s a difference in genre between some of the material in one through six and some of the material in chapters seven through twelve.

Seven through twelve are visions, apocalyptic literature, which we’ll talk about when we get to chapter seven, emphasizing the sovereignty of God and the kingdom of God and the universal nature of the kingdom of God. That’s part of the focus of chapter seven through twelve. And so, that’s one way to divide the book up: one through six, mostly narrative; seven through twelve, mostly visions. However, it’s interesting that beginning in chapter 2:4 and going through chapter 7, the book is written in Aramaic.

So you have Hebrew at the beginning, and then in 2:4, where you have the words of the king introduced, you have Aramaic. Aramaic continues through chapter seven, and then eight through twelve is Hebrew again. So if you’re a Hebrew student and you turn to this section of Daniel and you try to read it, even with Bible works, you’re scratching your head. What’s going on? Grammatically, it’s not. Well, it’s because it’s Aramaic. It looks like Hebrew, but the grammar is significantly different enough to cause you trouble.

Aramaic was the sort of national language of the day, the diplomatic language of the day. And the idea is that perhaps these chapters were more relevant to the nations. And that’s at least one possibility as to why these chapters are in Aramaic rather than in Hebrew. There are other sections of the Old Testament, just a few places of Ezra where letters are given that are also in Aramaic. So, you need to learn a little bit of Aramaic. Alright. The message of the book, basically, I have here the long version of the message.

The sovereignty of God over the whole world is demonstrated through his destruction of the rebellious world powers and the faithful deliverance of his covenant people. Or the shorter version from Longman: In spite of appearances, God is in control. The sovereignty of God, very much parallel to the book of Revelation. Whatever your view is about the book of Revelation, the theme of revelation is what? Christ wins. Right? Christ wins. And that’s basically what the book of Daniel is all about, the sovereignty of God. God is in control of history.

God will fulfill his purposes in history even though you’re experiencing exile. God’s kingdom is powerful and universal. And we’ll see how that is worked out in these chapters. So, in spite of appearances, the way Longman puts it, God is in control. He’s sovereign over history and he’s working out his purposes.

All right, chapter one, you have the training and testing of the remnant. You have the deportation. 605 Daniel is taken.

Two, Babylon you have emphasized in all of Chapter 1, but also at the beginning of Chapter 1, the sovereignty of God in delivering Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands. You see that in Chapter 1:2, the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the vessels of the house of God. Now, Nebuchadnezzar is interested in several things. He’s interested in the vessels that are in the temple.

And part of his interest there is sort of this shows your superiority over the nation that you conquer, and it shows the superiority of your gods over their gods. But that’s the wrong way to look at it. According to Daniel 1, the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand. So God’s sovereignty is stressed here. Although it looks like the Babylonian gods are victorious, it’s actually God himself who is behind the Babylonians.

The other thing Nebuchadnezzar is interested in is young men from the royal family and nobility, as is described in verses three and four. Verse four, use without blemish, of good appearance, and skillful in all wisdom. So he’s looking for young men who have ability, and he’s going to take these young men and he’s going to bring them to Babylon and he’s going to enter them into a re-education process.

He’s going to train them in the language and literature of Babylon. They’re going to eat Babylon’s food. They are given new names.

Those original names are mentioned in verse six: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah. But then their new Babylonian names are also mentioned in verse seven. Belteshazzar is Daniel’s new name, “May Bel protect his life.” Bel is a Babylonian god. And then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are the names given to Daniel’s friends. So, they are going to be immersed in the Babylonian way of life, a reeducation process, so that they will then be trained to serve the Babylonian court. Now, instead of going along with the program fully and completely, Daniel and his friends resolved, verse eight.

⁸ But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. (Daniel 1:8, ESV)

There’s a lot of discussion about what exactly is going on here in relationship to the food and the wine of Babylon. Some of the issues related to the food. Why would this food bring defilement? And why is the wine mentioned? Usually, you don’t think of wine bringing defilement because wine was something that the Israelites drank. And so, several possibilities are offered.

Some argue that the food here is offered to idols, and therefore that would bring defilement. Well, the question is, the vegetables that they eat, would they have been offered to idols? Some make a connection to the Mosaic regulations that the food of the Babylonians would not be in line with Leviticus 11, therefore, would bring defilement. But then, what about the wine? How does the wine fit into that?

Others argue that the issue is not food so much as making a stand, making a statement that we are not going to be totally committed to this new Babylonian way of life. Now, it’s hard to sort all this out. It’s hard to know exactly what is in view in relationship to the food. If the wine wasn’t mentioned, then you could sort of just relate it to the Mosaic regulations. But because the wine is mentioned, that brings in other possibilities. Perhaps you’ve got both. you’ve got a combination of things.

Maybe some of the food is not in relationship to the mosaic requirements, and maybe the wine is a part of some ceremony offered to the gods. And maybe Daniel works out a plan with the chief eunuch where the vegetables that they get will sort of be separate from all that, but we don’t know specific details. But Daniel and his friends do make this an issue.

And they ask the eunuch if they could have vegetables and water for a period of time, and at the end of that period of time, then they can sort of compare Daniel and his friends with the others who are partaking of the king’s food. And God’s sovereignty is emphasized in chapter one in relation to all of this. Chapter 1:9, God gave Daniel favor. Chapter 1:17, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom. And so there is an emphasis here on the sovereignty of God in these events.

Now you can, and God gave them blessing in this, as you read in verse 15 and 19 and 20 as well, God blessed their faithfulness. And so one message to the exiles, and this is something that you can, as you read through Daniel 1:6, what are these chapters trying to say to God’s people in exile? One message to the exiles coming out of this is, you can be faithful to God in a pagan environment, and God can bless your faithfulness even in that pagan environment.

And that message would resound with God’s people even in the post exilic situation. And that message resounds to God’s people today. In many ways, Daniel and his friends are a picture of what we face, of being in the world, but not of the world. They’re not confined to the land of Israel, as they were for so much of their history, but now they’re removed from the land of Israel. They’re living in Babylon, they’re sort of in that pagan environment, but they’re trying not to be sucked into that pagan environment.

And that fits very much our mission of being in the world, but not of the world. And so some things that we learn here can certainly have meaning and application for God’s people today. All right, chapter two. Yes. Were they trying to train Daniel and the royal family to reinstitute to them back in Jerusalem or just to have them there, most of them, to serve in the Babylonian court in Babylon. As we see, Daniel and his friends have positions in the Babylonian system. This is just one of the things that the Babylonians did.

They took certain key people and people of ability and retrained them for these positions. On one level, you’re depleting the nation that you’ve conquered of their key people, and you’re taking their key people and you’re using them for your purposes. So you’re strengthening yourself and you’re taking away key people from the nations you conquer, which means in the long run, the nation is going to be weaker. So that may be part of their rationale for that program.

All right, chapter two. This occurs, this event occurs near the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign as king.

And he has a dream that troubles him greatly. And he calls on verse two, the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, astrologers, Chaldeans, to help him with this dream. So he has a dream. He’s troubled by that dream. He calls in all these skilled people to help him with this dream. They had developed dream manuals where you’ve got manuals of dreams. And so you hear a dream and you take that dream and you compare it to maybe something in a dream manual, and you develop over time certain interpretations that might connect to certain types of dreams.

You know, if there’s certain concepts in a dream that might relate to certain realities. So that’s sort of what is going on here. But there’s a problem. Chapter 2:5.

⁵ The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. (Daniel 2:5, ESV)

In other words, the king says, you have to tell me what the dream is. Then you’ve got to tell me the interpretation.

Now, there’s debate surrounding verse five, and now we’re in Aramaic. But there is a word that’s used in verse five. The word basically means “gone forth.” And that word can have the connotation of a decree, or that word can have the connotation of something that is forgotten. And I think the way the ESV translates that the word from me is firm. If you do not make known to me the dream, that’s more the decree idea. But there are some who take this in the sense of it’s been forgotten.

The king can’t remember the dream, and so he wants these wise men to tell him the dream and then give him the interpretation. I lean toward the decree side. This is at the beginning of NebuchadnEzzar’s reign, and he may be testing them. He may not trust them. And so this may be part of a test to these wise men at the beginning of his reign. If he had forgotten the dream, why not make something up as wise men and then give an interpretation?

But if he knows the dream and he just says, “you have to tell me the dream,” then I will know that your interpretation is correct. That makes more sense to me in context. Of course, the wise men are baffled and say to him, “The consequences are fairly serious, are they not? You will be torn limb from limb if you can’t do this.” And their response is, “you are asking something that is impossible.” Verse ten. There’s not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand.

For no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician, enchanter, or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult. Verse eleven: No one can show it to the king except the gods, and they don’t dwell with us. Impossible. Well, the king gives the order to round up the wise men and put them to death. And so, Daniel, being a part of that category, verse twelve, is one of the wise men who is being rounded up to be put to death.

And so Daniel finds out what’s going on when he finds out the situation. He asks for time to pray about the situation, and he prays about it. And in verse 19, the mystery. Mystery is a key term. In Daniel, the mystery is revealed to Daniel. In other words, God reveals the dream and he reveals the interpretation of that dream to Daniel. And so Daniel is brought in to the king. Verses 27 and 28 of chapter two.

And when he’s brought in to the king, he gives glory to God, because God is the one who reveals mysteries and secrets. Verse 28:

²⁸ but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: (Daniel 2:28, ESV)

And he goes on then to give the dream and the interpretation of the dream. But he gives glory, glory to God, who reveals secrets and mysteries.

Now, before we get to the dream, you can ask, what does this mean for the exiles? What’s the significance of this for God’s people who are in exile? Well, partly all the power of the Babylonians could not do what God does through Daniel. Don’t be impressed with the Babylonian pomp and circumstance. And we’re going to see that pomp and circumstance in another chapter. The wisdom of God is more powerful than the wisdom of the Babylonians. They’ve got all these wise men, and they couldn’t do this.

But God is able, and He’s working here through His servant Daniel. So don’t be impressed by the power and the might of Babylon, because your God is more powerful, and God’s wisdom is wiser than the Babylonian wisdom. You also see that God is in control of history. God is Lord of history. Don’t be fooled by the external show of power of Babylon, because Babylon’s power is limited and in control, under the control of God.

So it may look like the Babylonian gods are powerful, the temple vessels are there in the Babylonian temples, but your God is in reality working out His purposes through all these things. And your God is more powerful than the Babylonian gods. And the fact that God is in control of history comes out in the dream you have in verses 31 through 35, the dream itself related to the king. And then you have in verses 36 through 40, Daniel’s interpretation of the dream.

And just to sort of briefly get the dream in front of us, you have this image that has a head of gold and a chest, including arms of silver, and a belly and thigh of bronze. And then you have legs of iron and clay. That’s the image that the king saw in his dream. Now, if you look at this image, it’s top heavy. As you start at the top of the head, gold. Gold is the most expensive of these items.

And as you work your way down to the feet, the metal deteriorates. And so you have a top-heavy image, a weak image, and you have this stone, rock cut without hands, that topples this image. So rock or stone that topples this image. And this rock or stone is the kingdom of God that then spreads and will never be destroyed. Now, in the interpretation of the dream, Daniel mentions you, O king, king of kings.

This is verse 37.

³⁷ You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, ³⁸ and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold.

So we start with Babylon. Babylon represents the head of gold. And then Daniel begins to describe other kingdoms. And most conservatives see that these fallout with Medo Persia, related to the chest of silver; Greece, related to the belly and thigh of bronze; Rome, related to the legs of iron and clay.

And then the rock of stone is the kingdom of God that follows. And this certainly fits as we see the way history itself works out. It’s during the roman period that Christ comes and the kingdom of God. That’s a major message of Christ. The kingdom of God is established. You compare this stone, this rock, with the other kingdoms, and you see that the rock, the stone, is of divine origin. The kingdoms are of human origin. The stone or the rock representing the kingdom is eternal. It’s going to endure, whereas the other kingdoms are temporary.

And the power of that rock or stone, that kingdom, is unconquerable, whereas the other kingdoms are limited. You have the kingdom of God set over against these nations and these other kingdoms. And obviously, the kingdom of God is the more powerful kingdom.

Now, this is not the only way that scholars have taken this particular image. There are those who argue for Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, and then the stone or rock. There are commentators who argue that all of the Book of Daniel culminates in 168 to 165.

Now, those events are important for the book of Daniel and some of the visions. We will talk about 168 to 165, what happens there. But some see that the book of Daniel culminates in this Greece period. A lot of them take that view because they don’t believe in predictive prophecy. Daniel is sort of a prophecy after the event. So it occurs in. A lot of these visions of Daniel occur in this 168 to 165 period, after these events have taken place.

Even Goldengay in the Word, I think this is in the Word Biblical Commentary series, who professes to be an evangelical, takes the book of Daniel to culminate in Greece. And Goldengay defines the rock. If it culminates in Greece, then what do you do with the kingdom of God idea? He takes the rock as being related to God’s sovereignty and power to establish a new regime, which sort of happens there in that period. You got the Maccabean revolt and all that that we’ll talk about.

But it just seems to make a whole lot more sense to see this culminating in Christ and to see this kingdom here described as at least being initially begun with the ministry of Christ. Plus, historically, Media never replaces Babylon and never rules over the Jews. So, you have a historical problem. If you separate Media and Persia, if you keep them together, then you don’t have that historical problem. Plus, Daniel 8:20 identifies Media-Persia as a united entity. It’s Daniel 8:20.

²⁰ As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. (Daniel 8:20, ESV)

So it’s much better to understand these kingdoms to fall out in this way, which brings us down to the time of Christ. And what was his message? What did he? You read the gospels. What’s the message that he proclaims exactly? Matthew 3:2.

² “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2, ESV)

Matthew 4:23, Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom. It’s not exactly the kingdom they may have been looking for in terms of all the political ramifications that will come, but it’s a spiritual kingdom specifically represented in his ministry.

And then you got the parables that fit in here. The mystery of the kingdom of God is here in a way that you didn’t expect. It’s small, seems insignificant, it’s spiritual, but it will one day encompass the whole world. And so this makes a lot of sense, not just because it makes sense, but because I think it fits a lot of things that Daniel says. It’s better to see, to take medium and Persia together, and then to take Greece and Rome as the final two kingdoms.

So Daniel interprets this dream and states the dream and gives the interpretation. And the chapter ends with Daniel’s promotion in verses 48 to 49. In fact, in verse 46, you have King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel and commanded that an offering and incense be offered to him. you’ve got the most powerful man of that known world falling before a Jew, which, in essence, is also sending a message to the exiles.

And Daniel is rewarded by being given high honors and many great gifts, made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. And then Daniel made a request, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court. So God is the source of wisdom and uses Daniel in a mighty way in this chapter. We will come back to this outlay in chapter seven.

When we get to chapter seven, there’s a similar thing going on in chapter seven. Some of the visions culminate in Rome, but then some of the visions we will see. Chapter eight, especially, culminates in Greece. So we will see that as we go through.

All right, we come to chapter three. The golden image in the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar, still the king here, sets up a gold image to be worshiped. You know, in the dream of chapter two, he was the head of gold.

Why not make a whole image of gold to have people come and worship it? And so he makes a huge image of gold. It’s called a colossus. 90ft high, 9ft wide is this image. Now, there are other images that we have record of. Nero had one that was 110ft high. It needed 24 elephants to drag it. One of Nero’s statues, to compare, the Statue of Liberty is 152ft high, but it’s on a pedestal of 150ft. This image is 90ft high and 9ft wide.

Now, the impressiveness of this image in the dedication ceremony is emphasized. The pomp and circumstance is emphasized. There is a lot of repetition in this chapter that is meant, at least on one level, to bring out this pomp and circumstance and to show how impressive a thing is going on.

For example, the repetition that occurs in chapter three.

You see, in verse two.

² Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. (Daniel 3:2, ESV)

Verse three. Then the satrap, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers of justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered together to get. You see, it’s emphasized repetition. All these important people are there. You also have the musical instruments being repeated.

Verse five.

⁵ that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. ⁶ And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.” (Daniel 3:5-6, ESV)

When you hear the sound of the hornpipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the king. Therefore, verse seven. As soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the hornpipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, and it just doesn’t say when they heard these instruments, it repeats them, which again, is to emphasize the impressive nature of this image and this ceremony.

In fact, Goldengay says this was to be the most impressive statute that the Jews would ever see to be dedicated in the presence of as impressive a gathering of state dignitaries as they would ever witness, representing as many nations as they could envision at a ceremony heralded by as cosmopolitan an ensemble as they would ever hear. So, man, this is big time, this image and this dedication. Now, when you hear the music, what are you supposed to do? Bow down to the image?

If you refuse to bow down to the image, you are being disloyal to the king, and it’s an affront to him. Verse 15.

¹⁵ Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” (Daniel 3:15, ESV)

So this is a statement of the power of King Nebuchadnezzar, and to refuse to bow down is an affront to the king. So when you hear music, you better bow down. Now, as you know the story, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not bow down when the music plays. And so they are brought before King Nebuchadnezzar. And basically, they tell King Nebuchadnezzar in verse 17.

¹⁷ If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. (Daniel 3:17, ESV)

¹⁸ But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:18, ESV)

So on the one hand, God is able and has the power to deliver us, but if not, we are willing to die instead of worshipping a false God. It’s interesting, these three words, but if not, in some translations, just. And if not, were used at an interesting period of history. In June 1940, Hitler’s armies were poised to destroy the British army stranded on the beaches at Dunkirk.

And the British people were kind of anxiously waiting to hear what was the outcome. A three-word message was transmitted from that army: “And if not.” The British public, this is in a column by Chuck Colson, instantly recognized the message, a reference to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In other words, God’s able to deliver, but if not, we’re willing to die here on the beaches.

Now, it’s amazing that the people of Great Britain at that time knew what these three words were talking about, which kind of shows how far we’ve come from our understanding and knowledge of scripture. But these three words were significant. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are willing to die for what they believe. And so, what this is saying to the exiles is that ultimate allegiance is to God, not to being a success in exile. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had become a success in exile, partly through Daniel; they had been promoted to a high position.

But that doesn’t mean you abandon your faith. And so allegiance to God is what’s most important. Plus, they’re saying God can deliver us from any trial, even the trial of a fiery furnace, even the trial of exile. God is able to deliver his people from any trial. And even if God doesn’t deliver, we should be willing to die for what we believe in. So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego make their stand. Nebuchadnezzar is filled with anger. He heats the furnace up about as high as you can get it.

And so, when those who dump Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace, things are so hot that they die. And King Nebuchadnezzar, it says in verse 24.

²⁴ Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” (Daniel 3:24, ESV)

He answered, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt.” And the appearance of the fourth is like. Now, it depends on which translation you are using.

The appearance of the fourth is like, anybody have the New King James in front of you?

²⁴ Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” ²⁵ He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3:24-25, ESV)

What does that say? All right, the Son of God, and Son is capitalized. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That’s the New King James version. I think the NIV, the New American Standard, and the ESV either have, like, the. Or some might have a son of the gods. Now, part of the issue here is you got a translation issue, but then you’ve got a redemptive historical issue. And so let’s kind of talk about this briefly in terms of a translation issue.

The Aramaic word for gods is Elohim. Of course, the Hebrew word is Elohim. Both of these are plural. And you know that the Hebrew word, even though it’s plural many times, is just translated as God, not gods. It’s debated about as to whether the Aramaic word Elohim functions in the same way as the Hebrew word Elohim. Every time Elohim is used in Daniel, it’s always plural. In other words, it’s always translated as gods because of the context.

And some are not convinced that Elohim functions in the same way Elohim does. You also have the perspective of Nebuchadnezzar. What would he be thinking when he utters this statement? And certainly from Nebuchadnezzar’s perspective, the translation like a, or like the son of the gods, small g o d s, would certainly fit his pagan perspective. He sees a fourth figure who is like a divine being, like a son of the gods or the son of the gods.

And so I think, just from a translation perspective and from the intent of Nebuchadnezzar, it’s better to translate this as the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar sees a fourth being who he identifies as a divine being. Now, that’s from his perspective, and that’s from a translation angle. However, if you are reading this as a Jewish person in exile, and you go on to read this, look at what Nebuchadnezzar says in verse 28.

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him.” Nebuchadnezzar sees a divine being. Maybe he identifies a divine being with an angel.

²⁸ Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. (Daniel 3:28, ESV)

If you’re a Jewish person reading this, who are you identifying this fourth being with? Angel of Yahweh, who appears at the burning bush, who appears at many places of the Old Testament, leads God’s people in the wilderness. So, as a Jewish reader, you’re saying, “Wow, God sent the angel of Yahweh to protect Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.”

And then from our perspective, as we read this, what connections are we making? Well, the angel of Yahweh in the Old Testament, angel or messenger that he, your word can mean, either one is separate from Yahweh, but is always closely identified with YhwH. So the angel of Yahweh appears to Moses in the burning bush, and then the text goes on to say, and God spoke to Moses out of the midst of the bush, you see? And I think it’s legitimate to make connection from the angel of Yahweh to Christ, pre incarnate appearance of Christ.

And so we read this, and I think it’s very appropriate for us to see this as a possibility, the likelihood of a pre-incarnate appearance of the second person of the Trinity. A Jewish person reads this, sees a reference to the angel of Yahweh, which is so prominent in their history. Nebuchadnezzar sees it as a divine being. Now, the new king, James, is trying to help the reader by translating it as the Son of God.

And although that’s a part of the meaning in light of the outworking of redemptive history, and we read the text from our fullness of revelation perspective after the coming of Christ, yes, we believe that this is the son of God. But I think in terms of a translation question, it might be a little bit better to translate it like the ESV or the NIV or I think the NASV all translates it son of the gods. But certainly from our perspective, it would include it would be the son of God. So that’s.

You have to sort of, you know, you have to look at the Aramaic. This is Aramaic. What’s the best way to translate it in terms of the Aramaic, in terms of the context, but then also recognize that that’s a limited perspective because it’s from the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar, and that there certainly may be other things going on here which this divine being, from his perspective, can certainly be identified with the angel of Yahweh, or then later with the son of God. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are delivered, and a decree is issued in verse 29.

²⁹ Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” (Daniel 3:29, ESV)

Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

²⁹ Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” ³⁰ Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. (Daniel 3:29-30, ESV)

In this particular case, God delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because of their faithfulness. Yes, sir. Yeah, there is. Nobody knows because Daniel’s not mentioned.

And so, the speculation is maybe he’s off on a mission for the king somewhere outside the country. But we don’t really know. Why wasn’t Daniel not included in this? But we don’t really know. Any other questions?

Well, we come to chapter four, and it’s just about time to break for chapel. Basically, we have chapter four, a few comments on chapter four, and then chapter five. We’re not going to comment on chapter six, just time purposes. Daniel and the lion’s den.

But we’ll probably have time, perhaps, to get to start chapter seven through twelve, which will set us up good for finishing the semester. We won’t get to Daniel 9 today. Think. Well, I know we won’t. We might not even finish chapter seven today. But it’s always good to have a little extra time in Daniel 9 if we need it, just in case there are questions. But we won’t get that far today. This audio lecture is brought to you by RTS on iTunesU at the virtual campus of Reformed Theological Seminary.

To listen to other lectures and to access additional resources, please visit us at itunes rts.edu. For additional information on how to take distance education courses from for credit towards a fully accredited Master of Arts in religion degree, please visit our website at virtual rts.edu.