Theological Bites
We now turn to the theology (principal message) of the book of Daniel. As I have repeatedly said in all these introductions to these Bible books, every book has a theme it communicates about the same God. This is what makes the 66 Books of the Bible canonical. Every book contributes to an existing revelation about this God by another book. It is therefore important for us to focus on the main message that each book communicates apart from other important messages the same book communicates, and see how the image, identity and purpose of God manifests through the ages. Let us turn to Daniel again and investigate its principal theology but first, I would like to share summaries (from Rossmoor Bible Study) of the background to Daniel and another of the Babylonians who are two of the three key players in this book.
Babylonian Background
Babylon and the Chaldeans: The Chaldeans were Semitic nomads who lived near the Persian Gulf in what is now Kuwait and southeastern Iraq. These nomadic tribes wandered in and out of Babylon at will until 875 B.C. and settled permanently there. During the 700’s B.C., some Chaldean leaders ruled as kings of Babylon. One of their leaders named Nabopolassar united all the Chaldean tribes and was crowned king of Babylon in 626 B.C. He defeated the Assyrians who had destroyed the Northern kingdom of Israel. He developed commerce and massive a building program and extended the empire as far as the Mediterranean Sea. He was succeeded by his son Nebuchadnezzar around 605 B.C. Today, both “Chaldean” and “Babylonian” mean essentially the same thing.
It was Nabopolassar’s son, Nebuchadnezzar who as Daniel records besieged Jerusalem and not only brought back to Babylon the vessels of the house of God (Dan. 1.1) but captives from who were brought to the Chebar River and treated as colonists. They were given the freedom to lead normal lives as long as they remained politically loyal to the Babylonian government. The first group of captives to be led away to Babylon included the prophet Daniel in 605 B.C. A few years later in 597 B.C. ten thousand captives, including the prophet Ezekiel followed. Finally, when the city of Jerusalem fell in 586 B.C. the final captives were led away to the banks of the Chebar River in Babylon (2Kings 24.1-18; 2Chronicles 36.11-21; Jer. 52.1-11; Ezekiel 1.1-2; Daniel 1.1-7).
Daniel’s Background
Daniel belonged to the royal family of Judah who was probably born in Jerusalem around 620 B.C. He was about 13-14 years old when King Nebuchadnezzar captured him at Jerusalem along with the other noble Israelites and carried them off to Babylon around 605 B.C. Daniel was already educated and was selected along with his friends Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah. They were of “royal descent, with no defects, good-looking and showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding” (1.4). Daniel quickly distinguished himself because he was determined to be faithful to God. He gained the blessings of God and reaped the confidence and favour of those around him. Daniel earned the promotion by Nebuchadnezzar to a position of authority over all the wise men of Babylon when was the only one able to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s troubling dream. Daniel would spend the rest of his life as one of the most powerful men in the world who faithfully served the Lord as well as several world leaders (1.21).
Daniel’s role as a prophet is uniquely different from the others. His role as a prophet is not in speaking to the nation to repent of their spiritual and ethical sins. He wrote down prophetic visions and messages to the nation to enable them to walk through their history with the confidence that God is working among them even though they are being dominated by pagan Gentiles. This book would enable Israel to walk more faithfully with God when they saw His inclusive plan for them.
rossmoorbiblestudy.org
The Players, the Playground and the Audience
If you were keen enough I earlier said that Daniel and the Babylonians are two of the three key players in this book in the field of the world and ‘in’ the presence of the Israelites. Daniel, Babylonians and God are the three key players in the book and the playground is the whole world since Babylon is depicted in the book as the superintendent World Empire and the Audience to whom the effects of the play directly affect is Israelites who essentially are the representative people of God. To perceive the storyline of the book in this approach is what I think is the most favourable to anyone who wishes to understand the message of the book without abusing proper Bible study.
The Players: The key players in the book of Daniel are presented to us in Daniel 1:1-2, 6 and these are Nebuchadnezzar (Babylon), God and Daniel. These characters have the greatest effect on the plot of the whole story in Daniel. What we have here is that there will always be a World Empire. A World Empire is what the modern man has termed as the Super Power. A Super Power is a state or an alliance of state under the same chairmanship that has mastered the seven dimensions of state power namely; geography, population, economy, resources, military, diplomacy and national identity (as presented to us by Paul Kennedy in his book; The Rise and Fall of Great Powers). The book of Daniel asks the modern reader to investigate who that power is today.
There will always be a people of God in each world empire seeking the will of God amidst the dominant Empire agenda; however, their greatest adversary will be Politico-religion in nature (Daniel 6). The contention is fundamentally based on the theological understanding of Who God is, his Purpose and Will by the people of God in relation to the world’s accepted religions. Player Daniel, therefore, is there to question where you stand theologically today and tomorrow.
The God character communicates the truth that there will always be a universal God whose purpose manifests in the acts and choices of both the empire and the people of God (Christians and religious people/institutions). It is not that eventually God’s Will and Purpose will be established at the expense of its adversary but rather that even the manifestation of the contrary will and purpose we see, demonstrates how God’s will and purpose are, runs concurrently with the evil one (Daniel 1:2, Daniel 2= The Great Image, Daniel 7= The four Beasts, Daniel 8= Ram and He-Goat, Daniel 2:34-35, 12:1-13= New World Order). Looking at the book of Daniel in this perspective will help guide our conclusions in a better way.
The Playground: It is important to note that the playground of the characters is the whole world. The events reported in the book of Daniel essentially happened in the then-Empire whose geographical world did not have the same scope the present world has. However, what we can deduce from the text of Daniel is not its demographics but the implications of those demographics to us today. Babylon was a then-international superpower, therefore, its policy affected the entire world…and so what Babylon= Daniel 2:38, 7:4, Medo-Persia= 2:39, 7:5, 8:20, 11:2 and Greece= Daniel 2:39, 7:6, 8:21, 11:3-45 was to the then-world is what the modern superpower (Rome= Daniel 2:40, 7:7-8, 11:29-30) is to the present-world. Precisely, the book of Daniel is a reminder, that we should anticipate another playground (Daniel 2:34-35, 12:1-13= New World Order) where the players and the audience this time will be determined by the then Super Power who is none other than the Michael the great Prince (Daniel 12:1, Revelation 12:7).
The Audience: The book of Daniel presents to its readers two classes of Audiences. There is the first-class audience of the Citizens and the second class of the Captives. The citizens are both biological (by race and all the millennial) and political (earlier proselyted captives like the 10 lost Tribes of Israel=2Kings 17:5-23). The citizens are all the nations under the influence of Babylon. The Captives are the Jews (those from the kingdom of Judah) of which Ezekiel, Esther, Daniel and others were part. With this third character in the events that shape the book of Daniel, we are told that the Audience character is not a mere spectator but an actor or one acted upon. The audience is at least affected by the environment (Jeremiah 51:4-5, 10) or participating under persuasion in the purposes of either of the players (Babylon/Satan=evil 2-God= Good). In the turn of the events, the book of Daniel reminds us that the citizens are believers and Winebibbers of the wine of Babylon (Revelation 18:3, Jeremiah 51:6-9, 11) while the captives are both the victims and villains to the Babylonian establishments (Daniel 3, 6)
How we understand these characters and their role in the world-historical events, sets us on a better path to understand the theological message of the book.
God bless you, I invoke TRUTH, WISDOM, and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)
Priest M.I.T WHITE (+256-775 822833 for further inquiries)
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