The Stories of Daniel

Daniel 2-6

            Daniel 2: Pharaoh had been troubled by his dreams of plenty and famine (Genesis 41), but he had at least told his magicians and wise men the dream before asking for an interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar is a breed apart and demands that his magicians not only tell him what his dream means; they must also tell him what the dream was. (One gets the impression that the king of Babylon knew that many of his advisers were shysters…) Enter Daniel, who like Joseph before him, gives the credit to the Lord.

            Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was about a huge statue made of gold, silver, bronze, and clay which was destroyed by a rock and crashed to the ground. Most modern scholars think the whole scene was made up after the fact to describe the succession of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and eventually Syrians (technically the Seleucids, a Greek people ruling over Syria) as the nations that oppressed Israel. Of course, if you don’t believe that God knows the future, you have to find a different explanation. The reality is that the dream has Babylon as the gold, but historically you could argue that Persia and Greece were the greater empires. The dream and its interpretations seem to have two purposes. First, it seems designed to stoke Nebuchadnezzar’s ego, similar to the way that the Lord enticed Pharaoh to arrogance so that He could glorify His name. Second, it looks forward to a lasting kingdom, which in Christian reflection means the kingdom of the Messiah.

            Daniel 3: Having dreamed about a statue, Nebuchadnezzar builds himself a statue and its quite a thing—90 feet tall and 9 feet wide. Think a giant obelisk, or in the language of archaeology, a stele. He falls right into the trap of arrogance laid for him. The three young men: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to worship and are thrown into a blazing furnace. Two quick notes: first, the fiery furnace should remind us for fiery trial, that is, the difficulties that come on us to test our faith. (The testing of faith is a theme through Daniel—part of that no-compromise agenda.) Second, when the king looks in the furnace, he sees four men, and one looks a son of the gods. The fourth may have been an angel, or it may have been the pre-incarnate Christ, that is the legitimate Son of God. Daniel is filled with messianic expectation.

            Daniel 4: Daniel 4 takes the form of a letter after the fact. Nebuchadnezzar narrates a story about a dream with a great tree cut down, it’s interpretation by Daniel, namely, that Nebuchadnezzar will be punished for his arrogance, and the fulfillment of that threat. The point of the thing is at the end of the chapter when Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the God of Israel. Another theme of Daniel: the pagan kings cannot help but acknowledge the Lord’s power.

            Daniel 5: That same theme continues in chapter 5, where, on the night of the Persian conquest of Babylon, the king is having a banquet. Filled with pride in his own power, a hand writes a message on the wall: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin—“Your days are numbered; you have been weighed; your kingdom is divided.” The Lord judges the great nations and His power can only be recognized, never denied.

            There’s a difficulty in chapter 5, namely, that it says Darius the Mede conquered Babylon. Historically, Cyrus was the Persian king who accomplished that in 539 BC. Skeptics will look at that and use it as evidence that the Bible is inaccurate. However, consult a decent study Bible and you will see there are ways to explain it.

            Daniel 6: The last chapter this week tells the familiar story of Daniel and the lion’s den, one of those iconic Sunday school stories. As adults we notice the continuation of the themes that God’s people are never to compromise their faith, no matter what the consequences, and that the Lord is able to deliver from every threat. Notice, too, the deep identification of pagan powers with beasts: Nebuchadnezzar becoming a beast, the king of Persia using wild beasts to impose his will. Why notice that? The vision of succeeding kingdoms and their beastly nature lies behind the fantastic visions that will occupy us next week.