The Kingdoms in Opposition - The Book of Daniel - Daniel 1:1-2
The Kingdoms in Opposition
Daniel 1:1-2
Structure:
I. Context & Structure are key in understanding the book of Daniel
1. Literary Structure
2. Historical Background
II. Pillar #1: The Lord is Sovereign over all the kingdoms
III. Pillar #2: There are only two kingdoms and they are at war with each other
Passages:
- Isaiah 39:6-7 "Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon"
- Gen. 10:8-10 "Babylon, Erech, Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar"
- Gen. 11:2 ""As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settle there."
- Gen. 3:15 "I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel
-Gal. 4:28 "But just as then the child born as a result of the flesh persecuted the one born as a result of the Spirit, so also now"
- John 3:3 "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again"
Quotes:
- Sinclair Ferguson "There are two ways of looking at life: it can be viewed simply in terms of what occurs ("history), Christians, however, can never be interested in human life merely to discover the "when" or the "who" or the "what". They are always concerned to know the answer to the question "why" in order to relate their answer to the biblical teaching on the purposes of God."
- James Hamilton - "Shinar thus comes to be associated with rebellion against God: it is the land of the seed of the serpent, where God's enemies dwell."
- Augustine - "Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self"
- Sinclair Ferguson says "The heart: the good news of the kingdom of God: Nations and empires, thrones and dominions will rise and fall, but the city of God will endure. ... The stone cut without hands will break into pieces the idols of man's creation and ultimately grow into a mountain that will fill the whole earth.
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NOTES:
The book of Daniel is extremely relevant book for us today.
Daniel and his friends were in the same context.
◦ Their country was destroyed by Babylon
◦ They were taken from their homes against their wills.
◦ They were attempted to be brainwashed by the Chaldean philosophy and religion.
◦ Daniel and his friends probably were made Eunuchs against their will. Not having a family of their own, their main point in life was to be in full service to the king.
Yet with all of that this book is not filled with sorrow over their condition, but with hope
I. Context & Structure are Key in Understanding the Book of Daniel
1. Literary Structure
As any writing we need to know what kind of writing we are dealing with.
- This kind of genre is often called as: Apocalyptic literary genre +
• (Very similar to Revelations) - Daniel is the Revelations of the OT.
◦ But it's a bit more than that because it contains big narrative accounts.
• The structure of the book at first glance seems simple:
◦ The challenge is this book is written in two languages:
◘ 1-2:4a - Jewish
◘ 2:4b-7:28 - Aramaic (It was considered to be the international language of the day and some consider it to make this as core of the book)
◘ 8-12 - Jewish.
• Daniel often falls into a "progressive parallelism" structure. Where the author begins and ends the sequences of event and then turns to describe them again in different terms or perspective, and as a response deepening our understanding.
◦ Most of us think in a straight line: beginning, middle and then the end. (which is very Aristotelian, and logical)
◘ The ancient civilizations often times thought in a "spiral" fashion,
◦ That is why you may notice a pattern in Daniel and the way he structure this book, it follows a Chiastic structure: Many commentators propose that the book of Daniel is a carefully constructed into a chiasm
◘ 1 - Exile
◘ 2 - Statue: four kingdoms, everlasting dominion
◘ 3 - Delivered from the fiery furnace
◘ 4 - Nebuchadnezzar humbled
◘ 5 - Belshazzar humbled
◘ 6 - delivered from the lions' den
◘ 7-9 - visions: four kingdoms, everlasting dominion
◘ 10-12 - return from exile
• The author is Daniel
◦ Two dates are mentioned in the book, one from 605BC and the other at 537 BC (10:1), which means we have 70 years of Daniels life in this book.
◦ Various critics have attacked this notion that Daniel wrote this book
◘ He predicts precisely the Fall of the Medes and Persians and the Greek kingdom of Alexander the great and his successor to Rome.
◦ These prophesies as a whole is prof that God speaks to his people.
◘ Who can know the future that far? If it is not our God.
◘ God is the one who knows the future, because he make the future happen!
◦ That means everything he prophesied to happen in our day and age will happen, just as he said.
Now understanding how the book is composed, then we need to ask, what is the context for this book, that is extremely important to understand.
2. Historical Background
• We read of the Babylonian Expansion in relationship to Jerusalem in 2 Kings 24:1-25:1
◦ This was prophesied by Isaiah 100 years earlier:
◘ Isaiah 39:6-7 "Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon"
• Babylon attacked Judah three times.
◦ 1. 605 BC - Nebuchadnezzar breaks through the Jerusalem wall (with was the Southern Kingdom) and defeats Jehoiakim king of Judah. (this is 100 years after Israel - the Northern Kingdom was conquered by Assyria.)
◦ 2. 597 BC - When Jehoiachin the son of Jehoiakim tried to fight back again, but failed and completely surrender.
◦ 3. 586 BC - The third invasion was the one we remember the most because that point the whole temple and wall was destroyed.
◘ The prophet Jeremiah was there during this time, and he wrote his book of Lamentations.
◘ In fact Daniel new of Jeremiah, because he quotes his prophesies in this book.
*Daniel and his friends were part of the first of the three invasion.
◦ That means not only did Daniel experience exile, he also was able to hear the news that the king he so faithfully serves just destroyed their temple, that Israel is there no more.
◦ Makes you wonder how he was able to stand so strong.
◦ The answer lies in two underlining truths that we read of in the book of Daniel
◦ Even though the message of Daniel is multifaceted there are two pillars on which everything is hung on. And we see them in the first two verse:
II. Pillar #1: The Lord is Sovereign over all the Kingdoms
Notice that the first thing that Daniel mentions that was taken from Jerusalem were not people but the "vessels from the house of God" and Nebuchadnezzar carried them to the land of Babylon or Shinar to the house of his god.
• Nebuchadnezzar symbolically shows that their god's and himself are stronger than the Jerusalem God.
• Nebuchadnezzar was very arrogant and power hungry. We will learn more about him later, but he believed that he was sovereign over all the world.
Yet,
~In verse 1 we read men's perspective on what has happened: "King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it"
~In verse 2 we read of God's perspective on the same event: "The Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels from the house of God"
The destruction of Jerusalem was not an accident, it was in God's plan
In the midst of chaos and turmoil, God there. Despite various kings edicts and military power, God's decrees stand!
In the book of Daniel every difficult events: the destruction of the temple, Daniel's and his friends brainwashing, the untold dream that needed interpretation, the blazing furnace, the hungry lions and more all have the hand of God in them.
Sinclair Ferguson says it well- "There are two ways of looking at life: it can be viewed simply in terms of what occurs ("history), Christians, however, can never be interested in human life merely to discover the "when" or the "who" or the "what". They are always concerned to know the answer to the question "why" in order to relate their answer to the biblical teaching on the purposes of God."
Tragedies in life are somehow in God's plan are for our good:
• Job - lost everything, and yet in the end he learned more about God, and we read that God blessed him even more.
• Jesus - dies on the cross, the worse tragedy in the world yet it produced the greatest result, now he is able to set us free from our sins.
• The trials that the church experiences is real and difficult.
◦ Yet, we should constantly keep our hope in God, because we know no matter how horrible the world gets it is not outside of God's will.
◦ Even as AI technology gets to a level where the government can truly control people, God is still ultimately in control.
That is what gave Daniel the ability to function in the place and condition he was in.
• We often lose heart, when the republican party loses, or another law passes about abortion or transgender.
◦ We should stand for justice and pray for goodness in our country. But when brokenness is felt and chaos is sweeping through the nation, we should look to our sovereign God.
• This reality of God's sovereignty might not be as evident at times, but that does not change who God is and what he is doing.
◦ The storms might appear to be out of control in our life, Yet, Jesus is there with us.
• What else can give us this foundation to function when everything seems to be at a loss?
◦ The Sovereignty of God
◘ Believe and preach that to ourselves
◘ We need to trust Him.
◘ We are to seek his will for our time and situation.
Fathers, husbands what God do we serve?
◦ Do we lead our families faithfully standing on the sovereignty of God?
◦ Do we stand firm on this truth even as everything crumbles?
◘ Our wives may have a lot of worry, and kids might not know where to go. But is there a firmness to our walk because we know what kind of a God we serve?
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III. Pillar #2: There are only two Kingdoms and they are at War with each other
The phrase ""Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege" has huge symbolism.
• Jerusalem represents the kingdom of God.
• Babylon - represent the kingdom of man.
◦ Actually when it says in the CSB "Nebuchadnezzar carried the vessels to the land of Babylon" the original wording is into the "land of Shinar". Babylon was in Shinar. But to call Babylon Shinar draws out a lot of theological elements.
◘ In Gen. 10:8-10 we see that Cush fathered Nimrod, who began to be powerful in the land. He started cities of "Babylon, Erech, Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar"
◘ This was a kingdom of man!
◘ Also in Gen. 11:2 "As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settle there." and there they decided to build themselves a Tower.
◘ This Tower we often call The Tower of Babel, it is a representation of man's kingdom.
◘ James Hamilton points out that "Shinar thus comes to be associated with rebellion against God: it is the land of the seed of the serpent, where God's enemies dwell."
In other words Babylon and Jerusalem present two diametrically apposed kingdoms in this world.
• Augustine describes these kingdoms as two cities saying "Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self"
• Not only are there two kingdoms but these two kingdoms are at war with one another.
◦ The people of God are in conflict with the people of this world
◦ This conflict is traced back to the garden of Eden.
◘ Gen. 3:15 "I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel"
◘ Since then there is a distinction between the people of God and people of man.
◘ As we read in Gal. 4:28 "But just as then the child born as a result of the flesh persecuted the one born as a result of the Spirit, so also now"
◦ Jesus said that there is only two masters "God or Money" Money is self.
◘ Jesus said that: "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" (John 3:3)
◦ In the Book of Revelations Babylon is referenced as "the mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth".
◘ Which wages war against the church of Christ
• In the whole book of Daniel there is a constant struggle between these two kingdoms
◦ Nebuchadnezzar carries the temple cups into his gods temple, as if he won God.
◦ Daniel and his friends stand in opposition to Nebuchadnedzar and his system.
◦ In the visions that Daniel explain: there are numerous kingdoms of man, yet one kingdom of God, which crushes them all
The question that we should ask ourselves: "AM I living for the city of God and according to its code of conduct or am I living according to the laws of the city of destruction?"
◦ The kingdom of man lives to uphold humanity
◦ The Kingdom of God is to uphold God and his rule
◘ This world is not your true home, you live as Daniel in a foreign land, yet you operate from a different kind of living.
We all live in exile as Daniel lived, and it may seems that the world is winning.
◘ Yet, as in Daniel, God is sovereign over all the processes of life.
◘ EX: As in the Lord of the Rings, it gets darker and darker as the story goes, and at some point it may seem impossible and the evil will win, yet the light wins in the end.
◘ Our life may seem dark and gloomy, but God is there, we need to be faithful to his way of living.
◘ Jesus went to the cross, and it seemed like God's kingdom has lost.
◘ Yet that is precisely how he gained upper hand over the enemy.
◘ He was raised on the third day in power and sovereign rule.
◘ He is the conqueror
◦ Let me point this out: the Republican party is not the kingdom of God.
◘ Yes they do a lot of good, but they have not Christ centered.
Fathers: Which Kingdom are you building in your home?
• Do we stand in clear opposition to the men made kingdom of self?
• Are we courageous to build carefully and wisely?
• Do we have convictions?
Amen!