Daniel 1:1-2

[hotcoffee]

Daniel 1:1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 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[a] and put in the treasure house of his god.​

a.Daniel 1:2 Hebrew Shinar

According to one of the commentaries there are arguments about who wrote the Book of Daniel. Daniel could have written it. As we'll see he was educated. One of the commentaries says Jesus attributed the book to him and that's good enough for me.

Matthew 24:15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand​

a.Matthew 24:15 Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11

Historically, one commentary sets the period for us.

Setting the time: The prophet Daniel lived in the sixth century before the birth of Jesus. During this approximate period:

· Construction on the Acropolis in Athens began

· Mayan civilization flourished in Mexico

· Aesop wrote his fables

· Confucius and Buddha lived

· Greek art began to truly excel

· The Phoenicians made the first known sea journey around Africa

· The Greeks introduced the olive tree to Italy​

Setting the Characters...

King Jehoiakim introduced here is also introduced in 2 Kings 24:14-16. I did a google search on King Jeoiakim and found that he was appointed King of Judah by the Egyptian Pharoah.

And when I did a google search on Nebuchadnezzar I found that he was actually quite a mean guy. I had to do the google search because I couldn't remember if I had learned about Nebuchadnezzar in school or Sunday School. Turns out I probably heard it from both.

Headline news.... Nebuchadnezzar declares "My god is better than your God"

According to the commentary Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem during his march down the Sinai in response to the Egyptian invasion of Babylon. During his siege Nebuchadnezzar plundered the temple.

Some of the articles of the house of God: Nebuchadnezzar did not take all the furnishings of the temple, only some. The rest were either hidden before Nebuchadnezzar came or brought to Babylon later.

i. The confiscation of these items and their deposit in a Babylonian temple was a dramatic declaration by Nebuchadnezzar saying, “my god is better than your God.” Was the God of Israel able to vindicate Himself?

ii. This was a low time for Judah and God’s people. It seemed that the God of Israel lost out to the gods of Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon. The Book of Daniel shows God vindicating Himself at a time when the conquest of Israel might have brought His reputation into disrepute.​

My mother gave me a book many years ago. The book is titled The Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation. According to a note in the front of the book, she got it from the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Forest Glen Maryland on March 2, 1946. The author is Uriah Smith. This copy of the book is a revision with illustrations from 1944. It's really written way over my head but I read it anyway. Now maybe I can understand it.

Every time I think of the Book of Daniel I think of the statue first. Then I remember all the other stories in the book. As I go through the verses in the Book of Daniel from the NIV, please understand that I'm not a preacher or a teacher. I'm only learning and sharing what I'm learning on-line. Please correct me if I get off base.