Lesson 4 - Daniel 1 Cont.

[Music] [Music] we found out last time that Daniel was deported Babylon in 605 BC a consequence of this first attack ordered by Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem now this was in response to King Jehoiakim of Judah breaking his three-year old agreement to be a tribute paying vassal Babylon now Jerusalem wasn't badly damaged although the temple was looted for a number of its valuable gold and silver ritual vessels those items were replaceable but what was not so easily replaced was the brainpower it was drained from the ruling class and then sent to Babylon to serve the Babylonian royal court Oh Daniel and his cohorts were not made slaves per se they indeed were taken against their will but they were treated with dignity and respect and they were offered prestigious positions within the Babylonian government some of this had to do with the fact that they were Judean nobility some might even have been part of the royal family but not so close as to be eligible to rule over Judah now while there were more than these for use taken to Babylon our story focuses only on these four and the primary interest is on one in particular Daniel now chapter 1 verse 4 explains that they were especially chosen for their intelligence their education their noble bearing and their good looks the first thing that happened to them was that they were sent to school to learn the ways and the language of the Babylonians they were turned over to a group called the toss team or in English the Chaldeans to be taught now the term Chaldeans has always presented a bit of a problem for Bible interpreters is there's not a great deal known about them and it seems that Durham Chaldeans met slightly different things in different eras Chaldeans first appear in Assyrian records around the 9th century BC and it is referring to a territory this located south of the city of Babylon the people of this territory seem to gain more and more influence in the area and tell by the time of Nebuchadnezzar it appears that the term Chaldean referred to an elite class of people intellectuals those especially versed in in language the arts magic astrology to use the New Testament description of them they were wise men now while the general language of the region at that time was Aramaic it seems nearly certain that the elite of the Chaldeans spoke Akkadian and we see this phenomenon in many Middle Eastern cultures where the language of the common folks is different from the language of the most learned in their society and Yeshua's day Aramaic was the language of the bulk of the common working class while the most worldly Jews those they call the Helenus spoke Greek and the priests and the Levites and the Jewish aristocrats conversed mainly in Hebrew but it's not as though these different segments of society couldn't communicate in point of fact nearly everyone was multilingual to one degree or another and all these languages operated simultaneously side by side so when Daniel and his comrades were sent to the Chaldeans school they would have learned both Akkadian and Aramaic the languages had similarities both used cuneiform alphabets but there was another point to sending them to school they were to learn the ways of the Babylonians including about their gods and their religion and their magic so let's pick up now at Daniel chapter 1 verse 5 and this matter involving food Daniel chapter 1 verse 5 will begin there page 1098 if you have a complete Jewish by the King assigned them a daily portion of his own food and the wine he drank and they were to be cared for in this way for three years at the end of this time they were to become the king's attendants and among these from the people of Yuda or danielle Hananiah Mishael and Hazara the chief officer gave them other names to Danielle he gave the name belts are to Chania shadrach's tamesha el misha and to Azaria Avett Nicole but Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the King's food or the wine he drank so he asked the chief officer to be excused from defiling himself God caused the chief officer to be kind and sympathetic towards Daniel however the cheese chief officer said to Daniel I'm afraid of my lord the king after all he's given you an allowance of food and drink so if he were to see you boys looking worse than the others of your age you'd be putting my own head in danger from the king and then Danielle said to the guard whom the team off a chief officer had put in charge and Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah please try and experiment on your servants for 10 days have them give us only vegetables to eat and water to drink there then see how we look in Paris with how the boys who eat the King's food look and then deal with servants according to what you see well at the end of ten days they look better more robust than all the boys who are eating the King's food so the guard took away their food and the wine they were supposed to drink and gave them vegetables now to these four boys God had given knowledge and skill and every aspect of learning and wisdom moreover Daniel could understand all kinds of visions and dreams and when the time the King had set for them to be presented came the chief officer presented them to Nebuchadnezzar and when the King spoke with them none was found among all of them to compare with Danielle honey yah Misha L and Azaria so they entered the King's service and in all matters requiring wisdom and understanding whenever the King consulted them he found them ten times better than all the magicians and exorcists in his entire kingdom so Danielle remade there until the first year of King Koresh well verse five explains that these Jewish youth were to be fed from the king's table now that did not mean that they dined with King Nebuchadnezzar rather it means they food from the Royal pantry which of course was the best food in the land the best of the best it means that the food was provided for them it was prepared it was served to them as would be served to an aristocrat and were told that the period of their education was to be for three years now a Serie ologists are convinced that this mention of three years event of education indicates a form of organized institutional higher education and that essentially a student got a three year degree on graduation so this wasn't some special arrangement for only these Jewish immigrants we read of the same thing concerning an education system and later persian documents and naturally only the most privileged and noble were given access to this kind of a valuable education well verses six and seven give us the names of these Jewish uses and then we're told that the man in charge of them assigned them new names now let's get the preliminaries out of the way by explaining the meaning of their Ebru name's Danielle L God has judged onon yah yah God is gracious Misha L means who is as God is and finally as our yah means God has helped now notice how each one of these Hebrew names in volts their Hebrew God in some way it was the prerogative and it was a standard practice of conquering Kings to change the names of their battle kings and those who they captured and used near them in the royal court the idea was partly that their old life and status had terminated and so with a new life and a new status come a new name to symbolize it Danielle's new name was Belteshazzar there's no consensus on its meaning some scholars believe it comes directly from an Akkadian phrase that means protect his life others think that because the god Bell was an important god of the Babylonians that it might have been intended to make some connection in that way but it's not for sure and yaws new name was shadrock and i found so many differing suppositions on the medium his name it's not even worth discussing Misha ELLs new name was may shock which is probably from an Akkadian word that means I am slighted and finally as Arya's name was changed to a vet nickel now scarlet consensus here is that nego is a copyist heir and but since all translations from one language to another depend on how a word sounds when it's spoken then since an Aramaic Nagle and Nebel sounds so similar that it's not so much of an air is it's just another way of vocalizing the same word Nevo was a high babylonian deity if the consensus is correct that probably means a servant of neb oh and that makes sense but now as we get to verse 8 the deeper reason for the name changes begins to reveal itself which is why we took a moment to see what these Babylonian names might have meant we were told earlier that the king ordered that these Jewish youth be fed from the Kings own food supply but Daniel decided he could not accept this because what of meant defiling itself why because the food being offered would not have been compatible with poorer law it would have been ritually it would not have been ritually clean so here we see Daniel emerge as the leader of the group because he steps forward to establish that he'll not give up his holiness to comply even with the orders of the king now no doubt Daniel sees this as a divine test of his faithfulness the issue was not necessarily that the preparation of the food would not have met Levitical standards as it was that the meat would have been unclean due at least to a portion of it having been sacrificed to the Babylonian idols that was common practice now let me pause for a brief detour to explain a common misconception about the laws of kashrut torah dietary rules the frankly even much of the Jewish community is unaware see there are two distinct sets of Torah laws that deal with food one set deals with what is considered permissible the other set deals with the proper handling of the permissible foods the first set is all about defining ones to be considered as food and the second set then explains what can contaminate these otherwise permissible foods thereby rendering them unclean and therefore ritually inedible technically the terms clean and unclean have nothing to do with the listing of which items can be considered as food that falls under the classification of permissible and prohibited rather clean and unclean are only about the handling of food that have done properly can render a perfect rather done improperly it can render a perfectly permissible food as ritually unclean so and this is key for understanding the issue of food especially in the New Testament from Leviticus onward after the food laws are given to Moses the term food is only referring to permissible food because if something otherwise edible is prohibited it's not food our Western minds think about categorizing food items more as edible versus inedible that is things that will not harm us and may supply some level of nutrition I called edible things that would cause us to be harmed maybe even die if we ingest them are called inedible thus while a lot of insects and worms and reptiles and some class plants that taste disgusting are indeed edible by humans from a purely scientific and medical standpoint from a biblical standpoint they don't qualify as few as food and humans especially redeemed humans ought not to eat them so remembering that from Genesis to Revelation the Bible is a Hebrew document created in the context of a Hebrew culture and understand that unless the biblical context specifically calls for a different definition when God or Hebrew uses the term food it's only referring to permissible food according to the list given in the law of Moses anything outside that list isn't food so it's not referred to in the Bible as food and thus when we encounter a food issue in the Old Testament or in the New Testament keep that in mind and since this matter is especially problematic for Christians consider this example in 1st Corinthians 8 4 through 7 I'll just read it to you this will sound familiar so as for eating food sacrifice to idols we know that as you say and iittle has no real existence in this world and there is only one God for even if there are so-called gods either in heaven or earth as in fact there are gods and lords galore yet for us there is one God the Father from whom all things come we exist from whom we exist and one Lord Yeshua the Messiah through whom were created all things and through whom we have our being but not everyone has this knowledge moreover some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat food which has been sacrificing them they think of it as really affected by the idol and their conscience is being weak of us defiled so this passage has a number of issues involved in it first is the use of the term food and food is defined in the Bible as something that God has said in the law of Moses is permissible to eat but because in this case of 1st Corinthians 8 the food had been sacrificed to idols then this food now becomes ritually unclean so for instance this passage by no means is indicating say sacrificing a pig or a horse or something that's prohibited and thus is fundamentally not food and just so we don't leave this passage hanging Paul goes on to explain that since idols have always been nothing's since there are no such things in reality as other gods then it is certainly not that some silly Idol somehow caused the molecular structure of the meat to literally change or is it contaminated like you dropped it in the mud puddle so that's not why this food becomes unclean thus because the people in question don't have the knowledge of God the God of Israel or the laws of Moses and the Torah or no doubt speaking about Gentiles here this passage and the Torah makes it clear that it is not any inherent physical aspect of an edible item that is at the root God's food choices rather it's simply the Lord sovereign decision the conclusion is that to not eat food sacrifice to idols is strictly a matter of obedience and faith to the God of Israel it's not an issue of a magical spell cast over the meat or some physical transformation within the meat thus these Gentiles in this New Testament passage who sacrificed their meat to idols before they eat it really believing that these idols have some physical tangible effect on that need for them it's not that their food somehow becomes physically defiled since these idols don't have any power anyway rather it's that their consciences become defiled ritually unclean before God because their intent is wrong the issues of clean and unclean prohibited and permitted our spiritual issues they always have been they're just being played out in a physical world so armed with that understanding we now come back to Daniel and see that for Daniel this problem that he had with eating the Kings food was an issue of proper obedience to the Torah law of not eating food that had become ritually defiled because from a physical standpoint it was otherwise perfectly edible and nutritious so and what is described as a humble attitude showing respect Daniel asks if he might be excused from eating the King's food so that he is not ritually defile interestingly the chief officer of Babylonian was not insulted by this he was actually quite sympathetic but he was also afraid that a Daniel didn't partake of the food that was so graciously allotted to him by the king that he'd get in trouble and the main proved to the king as to whether the youths were giving the proper food was how they looked so Daniel turns to a subordinate of ashkenaz the the chief eunuch and he asks him to just try a relatively short experiment to prove that the king would be none the wiser if Daniel was granted his request because outwardly they look just fine and by the way although the complete Jewish Bible says it was the guard whom Daniel spoke to the Hebrew word is melzar and very likely this is a proper name and doesn't have a generic meaning like guard or steward that is Daniel spoke to a fellow named melzar and he asked melzar if he if they could just eat differently so the bargain was the Daniel and his three friends would eat only vegetables which accepted under the most radical circumstances don't get defiled and then drank only water why can't they drink the King's wine wine is kosher no one really has a provable answer to that except that perhaps the wine used by the Babylon Babylonian royalty was a much higher alcohol content the Hebrew table one and it is if that's the case a wine with too high of an alcohol content is called in the Bible old wine or car and it's fermented with the express purpose to get you drunk as quickly as possible but that's just speculation and opinion well the testing period was to be for ten days and then melzar could determine if the Jewish use looked ok so he wouldn't get in trouble and of course at the end of ten days a young man looked better than the others who ate the King's food and drank his wine so melzar agreed to continue with the dietary program a point I'd like to make here is this from a nutrition or a food safety aspect there wasn't a thing in the world wrong with the food that the King provided for the Jewish you it was first-rate and no doubt it was probably permissible under Torah law and for you vegetarians don't think that this vagin diet we see Daniel and his buddies eating was somehow causing them to look better this was a spiritual issue I've said it over and over again the laws of Moses aren't and have never been salvation issues the laws of Moses did not redeem Israel to start with and with some exceptions they didn't maintain Israel's Redemption when a bait and four believers there's only one thing that redeems us our trust in Lord Yeshua and scrupulously obeying God's commandments is not the determining factor with some exceptions in maintaining our relationship and our membership in the kingdom of God Daniel and his friends would not have become unredeemed have he eaten the kings defiled food but they would have become ritually unclean now the issue I'm highlighting here is a determination to be obedient to the Lord's commandments is a proper response to God's free gift of redemption and relationship however if one's determination is to intentionally and habitually trespass against God's commandments this may will indicate a fundamental lack of trust or faith in God and a lack of faith or trust indeed but one's Redemption and out since trust in faith are the core requirements for read em now Daniel and his friends knew God's laws well but now that they were up in Babylon would they strive to obey those dietary laws even in a foreign place under challenging circumstances would they continue to be a good witness for you Jose in a pagan place by steadfastly remaining obedient or would they go along with the crowd employ the motto When in Rome Daniel passed the divine test the Lord favoured Daniel and he's history friends not only was sustained health on such a limited diet but they actually fared better than those who ate the full menu this was not a natural result of eating only vegetables and water it was a supernatural blessing by God and it no doubt made a favorable impression on both melzar and his boss ashpenaz now if I can ask for your full attention it's important to understand that the bottom line of Nebuchadnezzar taking these Jewish news from Judah offering them prestigious positions in his government giving them new Babylonian names sending them to a three-year program of the best higher education available and of offering only the best Babylonian foods from the King's Own table was to fundamentally change Danielle on an yah Mishael and Azariah z-- identities they were brought to him as intelligent faithful Jews and he wanted them to become loyal useful Babylonians the intent was to separate them from their heritage their nation and their faith the intent was to separate them from their heritage their nation and their faith the goal was to have them in time think differently and when they first arrived and the primary ingredients needed to facilitate this new identity were location name education and diet and notice that of these four ingredients on the path to identity change the one that's given the most attention in this story was diet this is not by accident and as I tried to remind Gentile Christians whenever the opportunity arises when Adam and Eve were created they had no known rules given to them save for one they essentially had a Torah but it consisted of one commandment recall what that one commandment was the Genesis 2:15 through 17 Adonai God took the person and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and care for it Adonai God gave the person disorder you may eat freely from every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat from it because on the day you eat from it it will become certain that you will die in a pristine world that was perfect at that moment completely free of sin there was given to the first couple a divine commandment that as illogical as it might seem to our modern scientific systematic theology based Christianity was about diet yes the very first law ever given to mankind long before Abraham Isaac or Israel was about food they could eat anything anything they chose in that garden no restrictions except for one particular fruit from one particular tree the result of eating that fruit as both Jews and Christians fully agree in except it was not that Adam and Eve were poisoned the fruit was obviously not only edible final says it was delicious the result of breaking that dietary law was the emergence of sin itself and the result of sin is death physical death spiritual death obedience to God and the resultant spiritual blessing toward disobedience to God and the resultant spiritual curse this is the God principle it's being demonstrated with Adam and Eve and with the kosher dietary laws of the Torah now for those who have ears I pray you hear I pray you Shema the verse 17 of Daniel chapter 1 continues that these four boys have been given tremendous spiritual gifts however division is drawn and an emphasis is created Daniel unlike his three friends and apparently unlike any of the other unnamed Jewish youth taken up to Babylon he was given the gift of understanding dreams and visions and let's be clear about what is meant about the type of learning and wisdom that all four were given special gifts for it was any type these boys would have had great ability to learn and to digest the Babylonian languages magic arts gods systems but with wisdom they could also discern what was true what was false all of these boys would become expert in the ways of the Babylonians and the Chaldeans but that doesn't mean that they subscribed to their efficacy or to their societal morality Daniel especially would rise in knowledge of the Babylonian system above above even the best of Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian braintrust and this isn't the first time we've heard about such a thing like this listen to acts 7:22 so Moses was trained and all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he became a powerful speaker and a man of action but in the end see this knowledge was used by Moses and soon by Daniel for a godly purpose as directed by God or as CF Kiel so eloquently put it such acquisition of heathen knowledge was arranged so as to put to shame the wisdom of this world by the hidden wisdom of God thus after the three years of training ashpenaz presented Daniel and his three comrades to King Nebuchadnezzar the king carefully interviewed them he was so impressed by what he saw and what he heard that among all the Jewish use he had commandeered and added trained in Babylonian ways these four were superior and everything no doubt the King gave them difficult problems to solve and ponder and they're a cute degree of discernment in these matters set them apart from everybody else now this chapter ends with the notice but Daniel continued until the first year of King chorus now I told you I point out places that Bible scholars of the Bible criticism school latch on to as evidence the Daniels of fraud and this is one of them King korish is also known as the Persian king Cyrus so we have Daniel serving the babylonian kings as long as babylon remained the regional power and then serving the persian kings when they took over the babylonian empire however in daniel chapter 10 we read this first verse and the third year of korish king of persia a word was revealed to danielle also called Belshazzar the word was certain a great war and he understood the word having gained understanding in the vision so the bible critics say all this is a discrepancy because in chapter 1 verse 21 daniel says he served until the first year of king korish but in chapter 10 verse 1 we had daniel serving chorus and choruses third year and they say the meaning of verse 1 is the daniel served chorus only encouraged his first year so the fictitious author of daniel has revealed himself as a poor historian this is a classic red herring and it's what happens when one tries to reduce the bible to science and wants to examine it to the subatomic level first of all without any needed explanation up until the modern the the era of modern critics it was generally understood by church leaders but all the chapter 1 verse 21 is saying is that daniel continued serving as an advisor even when the empire changed hands in the Babylonians to the persians trying to parse the single word until which is odd in Hebrew to mean that the first year of king chorus was the terminating year of Daniel service however is the brown Briggs Driver lexicon explains well odd can mean up until it can equally mean Wael as in the sense of during so it's flexible it's not a definite term so one legitimate meaning is that Daniel served there during the first year of King chorus and as the Book of Daniel continues the additional information of chapter 10 verse 1 then describes a time when Daniel is still with chorus and choruses third year and it shows that the proper use of odd Hebrew and odd in this context is while ordering not up until and yet the Bible critics want to say that chapter 10 verse 1 doesn't provide context it provides contradiction this is a good reminder of what challenge is a modern Bible student faces when you're trying to honestly and openly study God's Word because the bulk of scholarship for over a century that is influenced nearly every Christian denomination and much of the Jewish world as well as said about trying to prove that the Bible while a good book is nonetheless not a divine book and that Christ's public good man is nonetheless not a divine man for the Son of God will begin the fascinating Daniel chapter 2 next time when Nebuchadnezzar has a frightening series of dreams please rise [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Torah Class

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Keywords: Daniel, Old Testament, Seed of Abraham, Torah Class, End Time Prophecy, Tom Bradford, Bible Study

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Length: 40min 50sec (2450 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 03 2019