Today, I am reading and commenting on Daniel 9-10.

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As I began reading this passage I noticed something I have never thought about before (If you have been regularly reading this Bible study you know that is something which happens often).  In his introduction to his prayer and the prophecy which followed, Daniel says that he “perceived in the books.”  The NIV translates that as “understood from Scriptures,” but the NASB agrees with the ESV by saying, “observed in the books.”  I want to note that this indicates the Daniel had the Book of Jeremiah and other books in addition to the Torah, which he considered worth studying in order to learn God’s will.  I will emphasize the point that Daniel considered the Book of Jeremiah to be worthy of regular study even though it had been completed in his lifetime (Jeremiah continued to prophecy in Jerusalem for another 12 or so years after Daniel was taken to Babylon).

Then having read Jeremiah’s prophecy and concluding that the seventy years of desolation for Jerusalem which Jeremiah had predicted were up, he did not “claim” God’s promise.  Instead, Daniel prayed and confessed the sins of his people, acknowledging that they deserved God’s punishment, that they deserved for their homeland to be desolate.  Further, Daniel prayed that God would listen to his pleas for mercy, and for His sake (not for Daniel’s sake, or for the sake of the people of Israel) restore the temple in Jerusalem.  Daniel asked God to hear his prayer, to forgive him and the people of Israel, and to act.  But Daniel did not ask God to act for the sake of himself, or to act for the sake of his people.  He asked God to act for His sake, because the people were called by His name and if God acted to restore them He would be glorified.

Daniel’s prayer, and the answer he received in the rest of this passage, allows us to understand what Jesus meant in John 14 when He said, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”  Asking for something in Jesus’ name means asking for something which will glorify God.  Anything which we ask in order to bring glory to God’s name, God will do.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Daniel 7-8.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

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The first thing I thought about when I read this was that I did not realize Susa (mentioned as where Daniel was in verse two of chapter eight) was associated with the Babylonian Empire.  I have always associated Susa with the Persian Empire.  So, I looked it up and it turns out that Susa originated as the capital of Elam.  Which means that Susa was indeed an important city under the Babylonian Empire.  While I am writing about historical facts in the Book of Daniel, I want to touch on Belshazzar.  In the nineteenth century historians thought that the references to Belshazzar as king of Babylon indicated that the Book of Daniel could not have been written by someone who knew anything about Babylon, since the records we had said that Nabonidus was the last king of Babylon, and that there was no historical record of a Belshazzar in Babylon.  However, in the middle of the nineteenth century records were found that indicated that Nabonidus had a son named Belshazzar, and since then we have found records that indicate that Belshazzar served as co-ruler with his father.  Further, archeologists now believe that Nabonidus became king after a coup, but that he never wanted to be king.  The evidence suggests that he was made a figurehead by the coup plotters, chief of whom was his son, Belshazzar.  Which means that a government bureaucrat, such as the Book of Daniel portrays Daniel as being , would have viewed Belshazzar as the real king.  When I began reading the Book of Daniel this year I was inclined to think of it as an apocalyptic metaphor and not about actual historical persons.  As I wrote the above I came to realize that those scholars who deny the historicity of this book generally start from the assumption that there cannot be predictive prophecy.  They use as evidence persons and events in the book for which archeologists have been unable to find evidence and use that to conclude they never existed and that therefore the writer of Daniel must have made them up.  I currently am inclined to believe that these events happened, with varying degrees of hyperbole added by the writer to increase the drama of the story (for example, the image which Nebuchadnezzar erected in chapter three may not have been that tall, and may not have been made primarily of gold).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Daniel 5-6.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

The account in chapter five is where we get the saying, “read the writing on the wall.”  However, based on this passage, we use that phrase poorly, because in this story, once there was writing on the wall to read it was too late to do anything about the coming disaster.  There wasn’t even time to run away.  Now let’s look at what the story says about why their time was up.  It tells us that when Belshazzar was having a feast with his top officials, he decided to use the vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem in order to drink wine as part of a festival honoring their gods.  By doing so, they were declaring that their gods had given them victory over God and that He served their gods now.  Then when the writing appeared on the wall, they remembered that there was a man among them who spoke for God.  Except they only remembered that in part.  They thought that Daniel had the spirit of their gods in him which allowed him to interpret things others did not understand.  Despite the truth being revealed during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, that Daniel worshiped and served the only true God, the Most High, they dismissed that on the basis of their partial knowledge.

As I was writing this I realized how much this is like so many today.  They know just a little bit about what Christians believe, but what little they know is terribly distorted.  So, they dismiss Christianity as foolishness and as being based on superstition.  They see no reason to look closer, because “anyone with just a little knowledge knows it can’t be true.”  And that is where they make their mistake.  Anyone with a little knowledge “knows” Christianity can’t be true, but those with a lot of knowledge realize there’s no other good explanation for the facts upon which Christianity is based.  Don’t be one of those people who dismiss Christ until the writing is on the wall and it is too late.  And those of us who have seen and understood the truth, who worship and serve the One True God, must strive to live our lives as Daniel did. So that people who do not know Him will think of us that light and understanding and wisdom are found in us.  So that when things happen which make their life fall apart, they will turn to us for meaning.  Let us pray that some of them will listen to us before the writing is on the wall.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.