GOD BALANCES THE BOOKS DANIEL 1:1-5

DANIEL

   (1) In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.  And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God.  These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.

   Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility--young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.  (5)The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table.  They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king's service.  Daniel 1:1-5  (NIV)

COMMENTARY

   Judah was exiled to Babylonia because she disobeyed God's word regarding covenant-keeping, the sabbath years, and idolatry.  The first deportation included Daniel, and the second included Ezekiel.  A third deportation took place in 586, when Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem and Solomon's temple.

   The word was fulfilled, which God had previously declared via Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets.  For a number of years Jehovah had been sending prophets to the backsliding kings of Judah, warning them that the day of His patience had almost run out, and that though Israel had been His chosen people, yet because of their sin He was going to give them over to the power of their enemies, and the land of Palestine was to lie desolate.  Singularly enough, as we might consider it, God connects this with their failure to keep the sabbatic year.  He had told them, when they came into the land, that every seventh year must be His.  For 490 years they had not kept one sabbatic year.  They doubtless thought they would do better by tilling the land annually, and that they would be richer as a result of making their own way.  God had told them that if they gave every seventh year to Him they would have abundance in the sixth year to last them until harvest in the eighth year; but they evidently did not believe Him, and they thought to better themselves by their own efforts.  Thus, through COVETOUSNESS--a sin that is eating like a cancer among many of God's professed people today-- the word of the Lord was ignored and His commandment broken.  For 490 years He seemed to be indifferent to this breach of obedience on their part.  They had cheated God out of seventy years, they thought; but He squared the account by giving them into the power of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans, who carried them away to the land of Shinar; and there they remained until the seventy years had expired, while the lost sabbaths were being made up.

   But there was a second and greater reason still why God chose to give His heritage over to the power of the Chaldeans.  For centuries idolatry had been gaining ground among them.  They had turned away from Him, the living and true God, to serve the false gods of the heathen.  Now Babylon was the home of idolatry; so sending the Jews there would teach them to loathe the idols they had loved.  And we find the lesson was well impressed.  Ever since the captivity the Jewish nation, whatever its other sins, has been free from this great evil.

   Note that Chapter 1 and verses 1 - 3 of  Chapter 2 were written in Hebrew.  Beginning with verse 4 of Chapter 2 until the end of Chapter 7, it is written in Aramaic.  The parts of Daniel written in Hebrew are especially noteworthy to the Jew; the Aramaic parts are for the Gentile to better understand.  We will discuss the language further in Chapter 8.

   Did you note that the actions in heaven manifested on earth?  God waited 490 years for a number of reasons that tie into future events.  Oh, how I am so in awe of my God!

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