Purpose

Bible Studies for those who love the Word or want to discover more.

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Seasons of Change: Part 1 Daniel 1:1-21



Read:  Daniel 1:1-21

We’re living in some troubling times, aren’t we? Economies rise and fall. Terrorist activity and natural disasters put us on edge. Some politicians and world leaders abuse their powers. In this first of three lessons, our scripture focus is planted firmly in an even worse situation.

As with all good Biblical study, we must first seek to understand the context and situation of the Scripture at hand. It is then that we can start to draw application and contemporary meaning. So, let’s set the stage.

The nation of Israel had been split in two following Solomon’s reign – Judah (South) and Israel (North). Because of ongoing sin and idolatry, God’s only recourse was to punish them for their sins, of which they had no intention of repenting. In the very first chapter of Jeremiah, where the prophet hears the call of God to be one of Israel’s premiere prophets, God’s intent is made clear (Jeremiah 1:13-16).
    13 The word of the LORD came to me again: "What do you see?"
      "I see a boiling pot, tilting away from the north," I answered.
    14 The LORD said to me, "From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. 15 I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms," declares the LORD.
       "Their kings will come and set up their thrones
       in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem;
       they will come against all her surrounding walls
       and against all the towns of Judah.
    16 I will pronounce my judgments on my people
       because of their wickedness in forsaking me,
       in burning incense to other gods
       and in worshiping what their hands have made.
They had some terrible neighbors who had pressed and oppressed them for a very long time. The Assyrians, a fierce and warring nation, had been mighty in the land, but Babylonia was on the rise. Babylonia was led by a king named Nebuchadnezzar. His desire was to conquer not only Assyria, but to take as much land as he could in the process. Of particular interest to all of the largest and warring nations was a little strip of land known as Israel. This area was important for several reasons. It was the primary passage way between Northwestern Asia (modern day Iran, Iraq and Syria) and Egypt. It was a vital shipping area. It was God’s country and covetous nation-builders wanted it because they had not yet been able to get it. Some of the ways that oppressive nations warred against their neighbors. Taxes and tributes were required – paying these let the people stay in their nations and not receive any punishment. Human exchange – a conquering country would take some of their own people and plant them in the conquered country to infiltrate and influence their cultural and religious practices. Exile – Conquering nations would destroy all places of worship and culture, often exporting all or most of the people. Some conquerors would leave behind the poorest and feeblest to till the land for the conquering nation. (the Babylonian way). Decimation – Conquering nations would leave nothing alive or fit:  fields would be burned, wells filled, all or almost all of the people would be killed or taken as slaves (the Assyrian way) Which of these would you choose?

The book of Daniel takes place after a significant exile by the Babylonians was put upon the nation of Israel and specifically on the city of Jerusalem.  This was a major turning point in the spiritual life of God’s chosen people.  They had consistently refused to completely obey God’s law as handed down through Moses. Isaiah prophesied that this would happen in 2 Kings 20:12-20. See what Isaiah said in verses 16-18.     

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, that will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."   

It’s pretty easy to just read that Scripture, isn’t it?  It just kind of rolls off of our tongues and doesn’t become real for us. So, let’s try to flesh this out. Stay with me because there’s a lot of good news ahead. Sometimes the good news gets better when we really know how bad the bad news is.

In 587 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia found his way through the weakened Assyrian ranks and attacked Jerusalem. He did this by several ways including a war tactic called a siege.  The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia helps us to understand this tactic in detail: “The siege was a strategy intended to bring the population of the city and its surrounding territory under the control of the attacker. The siege might represent an initial conquest by the hostile force or an effort to regain control of her rebellious city. The siege of the city by a hostile force involved pitching camp near it, blocking the roads, and cutting off access to sources of water outside the city. A fortified city could be captured by six possible actions.
1.  An approaching army could take a position outside the city and by this show of force intimidate the population into surrendering without a fight.
2. A city might be taken by a ruse or a trick, a strategy successfully used by Joshua and the conquest of Ai (Joshua 8:10 – 23).  If these two methods fail, four other actions could be attempted, either singly or in combination, but they all required more concentrated force: going over, through, or under the wall; or establishing a prolonged siege.[1]
3.  The quickest way to gain access to a city was by going over the wall of the city.  However, this was dangerous to those who climbed the ladders and ropes and many soldiers were lost.
4.  Another approach would be by use of a battering ram or some type of leverage to beat down the gate of his city.
5.  Access to walled cities could be gained by earthen or wood ramps that enabled large numbers of soldiers to charge the wall and quickly drop down into the city.
6.  One more method would be to cut off all sources of livelihood for the inhabitants which would include water and food supply.[2]”

Jerusalem, a mighty walled city, was besieged for three months! Let’s imagine what that means. Day and night residents of the city might have heard the booming of the battering ram on the city gates. Day and night people in their homes might have heard the incessant hammering of wood as ramps are built against their sturdy wall. Water rations began and thirsty children would cry to their mothers for a cup of cold water. Meals became sparser and, as the siege went on, there was less and less fresh produce from which to choose. No one could go outside of the city for fear of being captured or killed. The men of the city were constantly armed and had stations across the wall. Fear and restlessness prevailed for three months. 

For centuries the Israelites had known their God to protect and save them from their enemies. Although several times Israel had fallen to some of their enemies, God had always brought them back. There was a deep and abiding belief that God would never let Jerusalem be destroyed.[3] However this belief was based on a Pollyanna-type of untruth. Although God had chosen them as a people to bring his message to all the nations of the earth, the covenant made between God and Moses had conditions. In Leviticus 26:27- 45 and Deuteronomy 28:15-68 we can read extensive lists of consequences for the Hebrews had if they do not keep the covenant God had so graciously offered to them and to which they had agreed. These passages of Scripture are commonly known as curses, which are the consequences of breaking the covenant with the holy God. These are not fun lists to read. They include things like piles of dead bodies on tops of idols, cities in ruins, sanctuaries laid waste, failed crops and herds, confusion, evil, no rest, constant weariness and longing, wasting away. But this nation was made up of people just like you and me. Sometimes we forget about these consequences because we are so busy convincing ourselves that God has chosen us that we no longer see the need for careful review and realignment of our lives.

And with God there is always redemption. In Leviticus 26:40-45 we read that God created a loophole. Essentially, he tells them that if they confess their sin and repent (turning back to God) he won't remember those sins. As a people, he will not reject or abhor them forever. Always with God our consequences can have a better end. And with God our consequences can be carried with his great help.

The Israelites had lived so long believing that because of God's promises for an eternal nation under his rule, no matter what they did God would save them. When they could hear the siege works against the city walls it may not even have occurred to many of them that they should throw out their idols, they should stop practicing magic arts, that they should stop cheating their neighbors and that they should stop lying to God.

But Israel's sin was so pervasive, was so normalized and so predictable that God's patience had run out. Therefore, God permitted the Babylonians to destroy the city of Jerusalem, the Temple which was the very center of the entire nations worship, and the city where they believed God dwelled with them. Babylon carried off ten thousand people as captives in exile.

This was not a random picking of people throughout the city. For, remember that part of an exile by a conquering nation was to capture the best of the conquered nation—people, animals and material goods. We can imagine that they lined up all the best and the brightest in the middle of the market. We can imagine that they got the city records and discovered who were the most influential families and then systematically seized their sons and daughters to be used in the Babylonian empire. One of the most devastating things an enemy can do to any nation or people is to take away their children and cause them to be raised outside of their own culture–assimilating them into a culture so different from their own that the children would forget. And these children would still make valuable contributions to the capturing nation.

The Babylonians were idol worshipers. Their high God was Marduk and there were many, many other gods they worshiped. They were a violent people. They were a people set on taking all that was good of these people and reprogramming and reusing them for the benefit of their own culture.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have soldiers come into your home, search for your children and take them away while you were screaming and crying? Can you imagine what it would be for those young people and children? After three months of siege against the city and living in great fear, the soldiers come to their rooms, tied their hands and feet and threw them into carts to be taken away to Babylon.

This is what Daniel and his friends experienced. We have no way of knowing if Daniel and his friends ever saw their parents or family again. We do know that they were from highly respected and influential families and were known to be bright young men. This was precisely the kind of booty that the Babylonians wanted. Not only did they take the treasured items from the temple of God Most High, but they took the human commodity of bright young people to assimilate into their culture and used those skills and those gifts to the advance their own nation.

The trip to Babylon was not a short one. All the soldiers with their captives had to go North for 500 miles, up and around the Arabian desert, and then Southeast for another 500 miles to the center of Babylon. The roads would have been dusty, rough and terrible. Biblical scholars believe that Daniel and his friends were probably only fifteen years of age when they were taken captive by Babylon. Fifteen-year-old boys were covered with dust and their hearts were broken, terrified of what might come next. They did not know if they would ever see their families again or Jerusalem itself, for as they left they could see the great stones of the wall of Jerusalem tumbling down and falling scattered to the earth. They had no idea what was ahead for them—slavery or death?  The city, once defended by a monumental wall quite possibly 39 feet wide 121 feet high[4], was naked, exposing the homes and the marketplaces. No other marauding force would ever have to climb that wall again. The devastation was complete, thorough, and precisely what the Babylonians wanted.

Let’s break this down for today. Not many of us have lived in walled cities. So, what are our walls?  What are the things that help us feel safe and protected?  Home, families, marriages, financial security, credit cards, savings, ingenuity, businesses, good physical and mental health?  You’ve probably got a few of these things in mind right now.

Our literal, emotional or spiritual landscapes change, don’t they?  All of the things that we cling to can suddenly disappear.  Because we live in a fallen world and because we have an enemy who constantly lays siege to our souls, minds and bodies we are subject to change.

When trouble comes, does everything change? For Daniel, and 10,000 of his countrymen, nearly everything changed. They could not recognize land marks, the food was strange and smelled odd, the dress was uncomfortable, the language was hard to understand, the religion was confusing. What gave Daniel the courage, confidence and decisiveness in the face of all of this trouble and while everything seemed to change?

I hope we know the answer. And if we don’t, we’ll learn how to get to the Answer in the next lesson. For now, take a good, hard look at your walls of security. What might change if spiritual, emotional, political or financial siege works would come up against them?  Where has or would our courage and confidence rest?

Answer these two questions right now.

If ___________ were taken away from me right now, what would change?

If ___________ were taken away from me right now, what would not change?

It’s very simple exercise, but it can help to be honest about what happens during seasons of change. In our next lesson we will explore not only how Daniel handled these kinds of changes, but how we can also.

Read aloud this wonderful prayer from Daniel 2:19b-22.

"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
       wisdom and power are his.
    21 He changes times and seasons;
       he sets up kings and deposes them.
       He gives wisdom to the wise
       and knowledge to the discerning.
    22 He reveals deep and hidden things;
       he knows what lies in darkness,
       and light dwells with him.” 
Amen

M.R. Hyde
Copyright 2019

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