Daniel 1
McGeeCHAPTER 1THEME: Decline of Judah and Fall of Jerusalem; Daniel decides to be true to God; Delight of Nebuchadnezzar in the development of Daniel and his three friends
Daniel 1:1
DECLINE OF JUDAH AND FALL OF JERUSALEMJehoiakim was placed on the throne of Judah by Pharaoh Nechoh to succeed his brother, Jehoahaz. Both of these evil men were sons of Josiah, the godly king who led in the last revival in Judah (see 2Ki_23:31-37). Jehoiakim’s name was actually Eliakim. During his reign Nebuchadnezzar first came against Jerusalem. The year was about 606 B.C.; he took the city in about 604 B.C. The city was not destroyed, but the first group of captives was taken to Babylon. Among these were Daniel, his three friends, and literally thousands of others. When Jehoiakim died, his son Jehoiachin came to the throne. He rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar who, in 598 B.C., again besieged Jerusalem. Once more Jerusalem was not destroyed, but the king, his mother, and all the vessels of the house of the Lord were taken away to Babylon, along with an even larger group of captives. Evidently among this latter group was Ezekiel (see 2Ki_24:6-16). Zedekiah, the uncle of Jehoiachin, was subsequently made king and also rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. This time Nebuchadnezzar came against the city, destroyed the temple, and burned Jerusalem. The sons of Zedekiah were slain in his presence, and then his own eyes were put out. He, along with the final deportation, went into captivity about 588 or 587 B.C. All this, by the way, was in fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy in Jer_25:8-13. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel had told the people that the false prophets were wrong and that Jerusalem would be destroyed. These two men just happened to have been right.
Daniel 1:2
Only some of the vessels were taken to Babylon at this time; the remainder were removed when Jehoiachin surrendered (see 2Ki_24:13). Nebuchadnezzar took these vessels and carried them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god. We want to keep this in mind, because later on King Belshazzar (probably a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar) will bring them out for his banquet.
Daniel 1:3
Nebuchadnezzar always took for himself the cream of the crop of the captives from any nation. I think they were given tests to determine their IQ’s, and those selected were trained to be wise men to advise the king of Babylon. We will find that Daniel was included in this group and that the king did consult them. “And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs.” Verse Dan_1:9 of this chapter also says: “Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.” (italics mine) Daniel and his three friends were made eunuchs in fulfillment of Isa_39:7, “And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Most conservative scholars agree that Daniel was taken captive when he was about seventeen years old. He was made a eunuch, and so you can understand why Daniel never married or had any children. Some people wonder what kind of an oddball Daniel was. Actually, he was no oddballthis was something the king did, and it did not destroy the mental development of these young men. It served the purpose of making them more docile toward the king, and it also enabled them to give all their time to the studies which were given to them. I am sure that it is true today as it was when I was in college: I spent half of my time taking a “course” that was known as dating.
I had a lot of good timesI did a great deal of studying, but I could have done lots more! But, you see, the king wanted these boys to spend their time studying, and his way of doing that was to make them eunuchs. Daniel was in this group.
Daniel 1:4
I want to submit to you that the Bible was not written by a bunch of ninniesit wasn’t written by men who were ignorant. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt. The Egyptians were quite advanced; they knew the distance to the sun, and they knew that the earth was round. It was a few Greeks who came along later and flattened out the earth. They were the “scientists” in that day, you see. Science taught that the earth was flat.
The Bible never did teach that; in fact, it said it was a circle (see Isa_40:22). Daniel, too, as a young man was outstanding. He must have rated high on the list of these young men who were given tests in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, was up in that bracket intellectually also. All these were brilliant young men who were exposed to the learning of their day. I get weary of these so-called eggheads who act as if the Bible was written by a group of ignoramuses.
If you feel that way about it, you are mistaken. Daniel was nobody’s fool. He was a brilliant young man, and he was taught as few men have been taught. Don’t despise the learning of that day. There were many men who were well advanced in knowledge, in science, and in many other areas. Daniel is going to be exposed to all that.
Daniel 1:5
“Meat” could be translated “food.” This, of course, was the diet of pagans, and it would include unclean animals. Remember that Daniel was a Jew and was under the Mosaic Law. They had been told not to eat certain meats, certain fowl, and certain fish.
Daniel 1:6
DANIEL DECIDES TO BE TRUE TO GODThe prince of the eunuchs actually changes their Hebrew names and gives them pagan names. He gave Daniel the name of Belteshazzar which means “worshiper of Baal,” a heathen god. He named Hananiah Shadrach, and Mishael Meshach, and Azariah Abed-nego. Notice that the names with which we are acquainted are the heathen names. I think maybe these four boys registered the highest IQ’s of the whole group. You see, Babylon wanted the best brains as well as good physical specimens. These four young men from Judah are singled out and identified to us, and the reason is that they are going to take a stand for God. If all these boys were the same age as Daniel, I would say they were around seventeen years of age. Dr. Arno C. Gaebelein, who was a very able expositor of the Old Testament and especially of the prophetic books, felt that Daniel was about fourteen years old. Sir Robert Anderson gave him the age of around twenty. Therefore, seventeen would be a good conservative estimate of the age of these four.
Daniel 1:8
This boy takes a real stand for God, and he does it in a heathen court. Under normal circumstances, this would have been fatal. Obviously, Daniel was not trying to win a popularity contest. He wasn’t attempting to please Nebuchadnezzar. His decision did not reflect the modern softness of compromise which we find all around us today; nor was it dictated by the false philosophies of “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Daniel knew nothing of the opportunist’s policy of “When in Babylon, do as the Babylonians do.” Daniel was not conformed to this world, but he was transformed by the renewing of his mind, and the will of God was the all-absorbing purpose of his life. Daniel and his friends represented in their day that Jewish remnant which God has had in all ages. This is the remnant of which Paul spoke in Rom_11:5"Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Now these boys don’t want to eat the king’s food; they are going to rebel against a Babylonian diet. Actually, an attempt will be made to brainwash these young men, to make them Babylonians inwardly and outwardly. They were supposed to eat like Babylonians, dress like Babylonians, and think like Babylonians. However, Daniel and his friends were under the Mosaic system, and God made what they were to eat very clear to His people in the Old Testament. We read in Lev_11:44-47: “For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth: To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.” Certain meats were specifically forbidden, and they are listed in the Book of Leviticus; also, meats offered to heathen idols were repulsive to godly Israelites. Perhaps Daniel and these other Hebrew children were Nazarites to whom even wine was forbidden: “He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried” (Num_6:3). These young men were following the injunction of Isaiah: “Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD” (Isa_52:11). However, believers today have not been given a diet chart or menu. Paul tells us in 1Co_10:25-27: “Whatsoever is sold in the shambles [that is, out yonder in the meat market], that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.” Then again, in 1Co_8:8, he says, “But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.” These Hebrew young men were taking a stand under the Mosaic Law, and they were taking a stand for God.
Daniel 1:9
Now, you see, Daniel is already a favorite, and that is no accident. God was working on Daniel’s behalf, even as He worked in the life of Joseph down in the land of Egypt.
Daniel 1:10
The prince of the eunuchs did not want to force the diet upon them, but he was really on a hot seat. He was caught between a rock and a hard place. He liked Daniel, but what was he to do?
Daniel 1:11
“Pulse"some translators have felt that this means vegetables, but I don’t think that is exactly it. Actually, it was a grain they wanted to eat. To tell the truth, what Daniel was saying was, “Let us have our pulse, and in a few days we’ll show you that we are all right, that we are in just as good physical condition as the others are.”
Daniel 1:13
In other words: “Test us out, and put us on this diet for a few days to see if we are not in as good condition as the other fellows are.” Well, God had brought favor from this man Melzar to Daniel, and so Melzar is going to make the test. The Bible tells us that Daniel’s decision to refuse the Babylonian diet was something he “purposed in his heart.” I want to comment for a moment on this issue of making Christian living and separation from the world a matter of a few little rules that have to do with eating and with conduct. There is always a tendency in this area to be dogmatic and forbid certain questionable things, things which are actually debatable. I received a letter once from a lady who joined a small group shortly after she had become a Christian, and they told her there were certain things she couldn’t do and certain things she could do. In the letter which she wrote to me she said, “I have followed all these rules, and yet I am still miserable.” In the history of the church we can see times when people set up a system of doing things and not doing thingssystems that actually were good at first. For example, the monasteries which began in the Roman Empire were actually a protest against the licentiousness of their day. But before long it was worse on the inside of the monastery than on the outside. Remember that Christ said to the Pharisees, “…Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness” (Luk_11:39). In other words, “You make the outside of the cup clean, but inside it’s dirty. It is just like whitewashing a tomb.” Today it is “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Tit_3:5). In order to live a life of holiness, we must first receive new life from Godwe must be born from above. “Daniel purposed in his heart” (v. Dan_1:8)it all began in the heart of Daniel. He was not a papier-mâche; he had a heart, and his convictions came from his heart. That should be our experience also. We are captives in this world in which we live; gravitation holds all of us by the seat of our pants, and we cannot jump off this earth. The Lord Jesus said that we are in the world, but not of the world.
And He said, “…Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Mat_6:24). However, we cannot serve God by following a set of rules; we must have a purpose in our hearts. Jesus said that it was out of the heart that the issues of life proceed; the things which we put into our bodies are not the most important. Daniel purposed in his heart that he would obey God’s law given to God’s people Israelthis was to be his testimony.
Daniel 1:14
The prince of the eunuchs was rather reluctant to go along with Daniel’s suggestion because he had been brought up in Babylonian culture and believed that this diet was the thing which produced geniuses. However, he liked Daniel and gave them then days to test it out.
Daniel 1:15
DELIGHT OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF DANIEL AND HIS THREE FRIENDSDaniel’s diet worked in their behalf. This ought to tell us something. God wanted His people Israel to be different from the surrounding nations, but He did not give them a special diet just to make them differentthere was also a health factor involved. I firmly believe that if we followed the diet outlined in Leviticus, we would be healthier than our neighbor who eats just anything. But we can eat anything we want; we are not under the law. I have found, though, that it is a matter of health.
I have had a number of physical problems and have discovered, among other things, that pork just isn’t the best thing for us. Israel’s God-given diet was very meaningful healthwise, and it had more than just a ceremonial basis.
Daniel 1:16
Just as God blessed Solomon, God is blessing these Hebrew children who were in a foreign court. Daniel will eventually become prime minister to two great world empires. “Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.” Daniel was still in the time of revelation, the time in which God used dreams and visions. Now don’t you say that God has spoken to you in a dream, because I must contradict you. I do not think that God is speaking to us that wayHe speaks to us today in His Word. For a great many people it is easier to dream about the Word than it is to study it. I used to have students in a Bible institute who would very piously pray the night before an exam. They didn’t study much, but they were very pious about it all. One student told me that he stuck his Bible under his pillow the night before an examination! I asked him, “Do you really think the names of the kings of Israel and Judah will come up through the duck feathers and get into your brain?” The Holy Spirit is not a help and a crutch for a lazy person. You are going to have to study the Word of God. God speaks to us through His written Word today. However, God is speaking audibly to Daniel, for he is now writing one of the books of the Bible. In spite of what the critics say, Daniel wrote itit was not written three or four hundred years later.
Daniel 1:18
Nebuchadnezzar is going to look at the training which was given to them to see if it has been the proper training. I honestly believe the Communists have been very stupid in their methods of brainwashing. They attempt to break a man down. You can break down any human being; he will finally give in, of course. A man can only take so much. But this man Nebuchadnezzar really knew how to do it. He gave them a lot of food, he tested them, and finally he placed them in a fine position. He did all this in a friendly way. This was his philosophy, his way of making friends and influencing people.
Daniel 1:19
Nebuchadnezzar talked with those four boys and found they were geniuses, and so he gave them good positions in his kingdom.
Daniel 1:20
Daniel is moved to the head of the class.
Daniel 1:21
With verse Dan_1:1 and this verse we can learn Daniel’s life span. Coming to Babylon at about the age of seventeen, he died when he was about ninety years of age. He bridged the entire seventy years of captivity. He did not return to Israel but apparently died before the people left Babylon. We actually have no record about that.