Daniel The Man who Feared God 2016

Station (17-21)

1. 
   How did God bless the faithfulness of Daniel and his friends in their education?
   
   1. 
      God gave them knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning.
      
      1. 
         Knowledge and understanding are gifts from God (Eccl 2.26; 1 Kings 3.9-12 [Solomon]; Jam 3.17).
         
         1. 
            The world thinks that knowledge and understanding are either inherited (in the genes) or the product of our environment. While both play a part in an individual’s abilities, ultimately God provides knowledge and understanding.
            
         2. 
            There are people who are blessed with the best genes or educational environment who become intellectual, moral, or practical fools.
            
         3. 
            In contrast, there are individuals who come from challenging backgrounds, who rise above their inherited capacities and environmental hindrances and become wise and discerning.
            
         4. 
            The single, most critical factor isn’t faculties or family but a fear of God.
            
      2. 
         They were able to pass the ‘civil servants’ exams’ of their day. They were able, at least, to regurgitate successfully their learning about the language and literature of the Babylonians (4). It is interesting, however, that the account does not speak only of the “the language and literature of the Babylonians”. Rather, the account says, “all/all kinds of literature”. What is the implication?
         
         1. 
            They had a broader knowledge of reality than was provided by their Babylonian schooling.
            
         2. 
            They would have been better educated because of studying the Biblical alternative to humanistic world-views.
            
         3. 
            They would have had to develop an ability to think and debate critically because they would not have accepted the Babylonian religious and philosophical systems.
            
         4. 
            They would have learned how to formulate arguments and an apologetic for Biblical truth in a hostile environment.
            
      3. 
         What would they have had available to them as instruction that a typical student (from Babylon or the surrounding nations) would not have had?
         
         1. 
            As children of the Covenant and the nobility of the Jews, they had been favoured with a learning environment that would have included much of the OT. This provided them with a perspective on reality that they could never have obtained from the “language and literature of the Babylonians” alone.
            
         2. 
            What important lessons in reality did they obtain from the Scriptures, that had been provided by God by the time of Daniel:
            
            1. 
               Pentateuch – creation, origin of sin, origin of the nations, God’s law
               
            2. 
               Job – God’s providential sovereignty and the ‘problem of evil’
               
            3. 
               Ecclesiastes – the meaning of life
               
            4. 
               History – God’s control over the events of history and his ownership of the nations
               
            5. 
               Isaiah – God’s plans for providing a saviour
               
            6. 
               Proverbs – Guidance for a wise life
               
            7. 
               Psalms – (in addition to all of the above) the Holy Spirit’s guide book to the soul and attributes of a gracious God
               
      4. 
         How can modern Christian youth be prepared with a Biblical world-view that gives them an advantage over their non-Christian peers, which is equivalent to the learning situation of Daniel and his three companions?
         
         1. 
            By studying the Bible, not only as providing the way of salvation, as the primary source for: theology, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, history, ethics and morality, sociology and human relationships, political science, and (even!) science. Consider the following examples:
            
         2. 
            Philosophy – A university student who has studied only the worldly philosophers from Plato to Bertrand Russell cannot provide a consistent world-view because he will reject the reality of God and his creation. What are some of the basic questions that no non-Christian system of philosophy can answer adequately?
            
            1. 
               Why is there anything instead of nothing? [Gen 1.1]
               
            2. 
               Is the universe eternal? [Gen 1.1; 2 Pet 3.12]
               
            3. 
               Why does the universe appear to have been designed? [Gen 1]
               
            4. 
               Is their replicability of nature, or will the future be like the past? (The ‘problem’ of induction⁴³) [Gen 1, 8.22; Ps 90.2; 102.27; Jam 1.17]
               
            5. 
               Why are their particulars and not just a universal? [Gen 1]
               
            6. 
               Does God exist? [Gen 1.1]
               
            7. 
               What is the nature of God? [Jn 4.24; Job 11.7-9; Ps 90.2; Ex 3.14; Ps 147.5; Rev 4.8; Ex 34.6, 7]
               
            8. 
               How did personality arise? [Gen 1.27]
               
            9. 
               How do I know I really exist? [Gen 1.1]
               
            10. 
                Is there really an external world (i.e., relative to my mind⁴⁴)? [Gen 1]
                
            11. 
                How do I know that other minds exist? [Gen 1.27]
                
            12. 
                Is man different from animals? If so, why? [Gen 1.26; 1 Cor 15.39]
                
            13. 
                Why do animals and men die and not live beyond a certain maximum point? [Gen 3]
                
            14. 
                Why does man reproduce sexually and not asexually? How did sexual reproduction arise? [Gen 1.27, 28; 2.18-25]
                
            15. 
                Why am I able to communicate with other people? [Gen 1.27]
                
            16. 
                How did language develop? [Gen 1.27; Gen 11.1-9]
                
            17. 
                How do we deal with the brain-mind distinction? What is ‘soul’?⁴⁵ [Gen 2.7; Eccl 12.7; Mt 10.28; Lk 23.43]
                
            18. 
                Why are there principles of mathematics and logic? [Gen 1.14-19; Is 40.22; Ps 19.1-4]
                
            19. 
                Why are the laws of mathematics universal and necessarily true? [As above]
                
            20. 
                Why is there a correspondence between mathematics and the natural world? [Gen 1]
                
            21. 
                Is anything true? [Jn 3.33; 1 Jn 5.20]
                
            22. 
                Why are the principles of beauty universal? [Gen 1.31-2.1; with Gen 1.27]
                
            23. 
                Why is there religion? Why does man seek after a god? [ Ps 19; Rom 1.19-20; Act 17.26-26]
                
            24. 
                Does man have a purpose in existence? [Gen 1.27, 28; 1 Cor 10.31; 1 Pet 4.11]
                
            25. 
                Is there such a thing as an evil or good action? [Ex 20.1-18]
                
            26. 
                Why is there evil? [Gen 3]
                
            27. 
                How can we deal with the ‘problem of evil’⁴⁶?
                
            28. 
                How can we deal with the problem of evil—man’s sin? [Jn 3.16]
                
            29. 
                Can there be a universal system of ethics for morality? [Ex 20.1-18; Ps 96.10; Acts 17.24-31; Rom 1.18-32]
                
            30. 
                What is the meaning of work? [Gen 2.15; Ps 128.2; Eph 4.28]
                
            31. 
                What is marriage, and why do people marry? [Gen 2.18-25; Mk 10.6-9]
                
         3. 
            Science – A university student who has studied science from a materialistic and uniformitarian perspective cannot answer questions that a Christian child could answer:
            
            1. 
               How could man and dinosaurs have co-existed (as is shown by some historical artefacts, even though modern ‘science’ rejects the evidence)? [Gen 1; 7.2; 8.17, 18]
               
            2. 
               Where did oil and natural gas come from? [Gen 7, 8]
               
            3. 
               Why is there global warming today (if there is)? [Gen 7, 8]
               
            4. 
               How do species originate? [Gen 1.20-24; 7.2; 8.17, 18]
               
            5. 
               Why is there similar structures and mechanisms in quite distinct classes of animals (e.g., fins in fish and sharks; wings on bats and birds; eyes in insects and fish; etc.)? [Gen 1.20-24]
               
            6. 
               Why do men speak different languages and why are linguists stumped when they try to find a common ancestor for all language? [Gen 11.1-9] “Do materialists really think that language just “evolved”, like finches’ beaks, or have they simply never thought about the matter rationally? Where’s the evidence? How could it come about that human beings all agreed that particular grunts carried particular connotations? How could it have come about that groups of anthropoid apes developed the amazing morphological complexity of a single sentence, let alone the whole grammatical mystery which has engaged Chomsky and others in our lifetime and linguists for time out of mind? No, the existence of language is one of the many phenomena—of which love and music are the two strongest—which suggest that human beings are very much more than collections of meat..”⁴⁷
               
            7. 
               Why are sub-atomic particles uniform? Why do all the electrons in the universe have exactly the same mass and charge, and exactly the opposite charge to all protons?
               
            8. 
               What is matter composed of? [Col 1.16, 17]
               

1. 
   History – A university student who has studied history in the past fifteen years, or so, has been subjected to a deconstructionist approach to reality. He is confronted with relativism and revisionism. Also, he has no objective means for assessing whether or not he is being presented with a reasonably accurate view of the past. His professors generally claim to believe that the study of history is subject to the whim of the interpreter and that history has no single interpretation or didactic purpose. In contrast, a Christian who has been grounded in the objective history of Scripture will likely also have been introduced to the non-politically correct interpretation of history.
   
   1. 
      History is not subject to selective revision by atheists, black activists (e.g., the reinterpretation of Lincoln’s views about slavery), feminists, homosexuals, or political liberals.
      
   2. 
      History is not circular, is liner with an end, and has a purpose. It is focused on three Christ-centric events: Creation, Cross, and Consummation.
      
   3. 
      The events of history can be factually discerned and individual perspectives can be tested against facts that can be interpreted in common way.
      
   4. 
      History can teach us lessons because mankind (being created in the image of God) responds in similar ways to external events that are similar.
      
1. 
   Daniel and his friends were like Solomon (1 Ki 4.29-34). They were wiser than the wise men of the nations of the East because they knew that there is such a thing as absolute and objective truth and could discern truth form falsehood. This enabled them to discern the errors in the Babylonian system for interpreting reality.
   
   1. 
      For example, we know that they did not accept/believe the falsehood that the king or idols were gods (e.g., Dan 3).
      
   2. 
      Since all truth is God’s truth, it can be found even in the false systems of the world; e.g., astrology then, and evolution now. For example, the astrologers were able to predict solar and lunar eclipses accurately and evolutionists are able to describe accurately the life history of different species of birds; etc. But only a person working from a Biblical world-view is able to discern truth from error. This is true wisdom.
      
   3. 
      Their ability to discern truth from error would have made them valuable advisors of the king. In what areas would their world-view have clearly shown that they were wiser than their peers among the students and the wise men?
      
      1. 
         They would not have believed that the Fates, false gods, or astrological/astronomical events controlled the events on earth.
         
      2. 
         They would not have believed in fortune telling using sheep entrails or cast bone fragments.
         
      3. 
         They would not have been prone to accept common superstitions that the mass of mankind accepts (e.g., sneezing expels part of the soul, spilling salt would result in bad luck, knocking on wood [sacred oak] will bring good luck, etc.)
         
      4. 
         They knew that offering produce, blood or meat, or human life could not placate the anger of the gods.
         
2. 
   Is there any reason to conclude that the understanding of the four young men was the result of a supernatural act on God’s part?
   
   1. 
      The passage says that God gave them their knowledge and understanding. This may imply that God acted in a supernatural way to help them learn. However, on the other hand, it is not necessary to attribute their endowment to a specific miracle (i.e., an extra-ordinary intervention on the part of God). We need to distinguish between:
      
      1. 
         God’s gracious provisions in providence for all mankind and, in particular, his people (examples include: Eliezer happening to ask for water of Abraham’s relative, Rebecca; the stone from David’s sling hitting Goliath’s temple; Paul surviving a shipwreck on a beach in Malta; etc.).
         
      2. 
         God’s direct intervention in the events of history that suspends natural (i.e., the normal manner in which God unfolds his providence) processes (e.g., the world-wide flood; the widow’s never emptying jar of flour as long as there was a famine and she fed Elijah; sending time backward on the sun-dial/steps of Hezekiah; etc.).
         
   2. 
      There is no reason to conclude that their understanding was the result of a miracle or that their ability to study and learn was supernatural. The contrast between the two parts of verse 17 seems to suggest the opposite. It appears, that Daniel alone was given something that the others did not have—the ability to understand visions and dreams. This seems to indicate that the basic learning of the four of them was natural or ordinary within the general provisions of God’s general and Covenantal grace.
      
   3. 
      Nor, should we conclude that they gained their wisdom and understanding as the automatic result of an ascetic life. However, they would have had more applied discipline and dedication, based on their belief that they served the true God. Therefore, they would not have been as prone to the profligacy and decadence of their peers because they would have seen a greater purpose in their lives and been cognizant of their being the ‘representatives’ of the God and Judah, even while being hostages or slaves.
      
   4. 
      The level of understanding that they achieved is available to any diligent student who learns about the world while filtering that learning through a Biblical theology, cosmology, anthropology, sociology, soteriology, polity, and eschatology.
      
1. 
   God gave Daniel a special (extra ordinary and supernatural) ability to “understand visions and dreams of all kinds.”
   
   1. 
      Dreams, in ancient civilizations, were thought to reveal the future. Therefore, a person who could understand and interpret dreams was believed to be able to foretell future events.
      
      1. 
         Natural dreams do not in fact foretell the future.
         
         1. 
            Satan does not have the ability to foretell or reveal the future.
            
         2. 
            Natural dreams from the subconscious world of sleep are not revelatory.
            
      2. 
         The supposed ability, called oneirocritics⁵⁰, to interpret dreams, is nothing more than mysticism in false religious⁵¹ or psychobabble (e.g., in Freudian dream analysis⁵²).
         
   2. 
      Why is the ability to interpret visions and dreams a supernatural gift?
      
      1. 
         Visions and dreams as prophetic revelations come only from God. In Scripture, visions and dreams are associated with the prophetic office (Num 12.6).
         
      2. 
         The giving of prophetic dreams and visions, and the ability to interpret them, is a gift of the Holy Spirit (Dan 2.28; Joel 2.28).
         
      3. 
         [Note: If people have dreams (premonitions) that are accurate (for example, a person dreams or senses that a relative or friend has died, and discovers days later that the person did die at the exact time of the dream/thought) this may be attributable to the supra-natural (i.e., above the physical realm). It may be a direct revelation from God or it may be the communicative abilities of man’s spiritual component breaking free temporarily from the physical relationship with the body.]
         
   3. 
      What does this tell us about Daniel?]
      
      1. 
         He was a prophet (Mt 24.15).
         
      2. 
         In his prophetic office he may have been, effectively, in the class called Nazirite. A Nazirite devoted himself through self-imposed discipline to perform a service for God (Num 6.1–21). A Nazirite abstained from drinking wine, allowed his hair to grow, and avoided contact with dead bodies. Samson was an example who was consecrated through a vow of his mother (Judges 13.5; 16.17). Daniel consecrated himself through his own vow.
         
      3. 
         He was given a double portion of blessing. His three friends were blessed with wisdom and understanding. Daniel had this blessing, plus the blessing of a calling to serve God as a prophet.
         
      4. 
         The statement in verse 17 about Daniel’s ability “to understand visions and dreams of all kinds” is a literary device to set up the subsequent narrative which records Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream and the writing on the wall at Belshazzar’s feast.
         
   4. 
      Daniel’s ability to understand and interpret visions and dreams made him invaluable throughout Nebuchadnezzar’s long reign and the reign of the kings that followed.
      
      1. 
         We find this gift immediately applied in chapter 2—to the saving of lives—and again in chapter 4.
         
      2. 
         We also find him applying his gift foretelling the future from chapter 7 onward. In these chapters we are provided with explicit information for the arrival of the Messiah. This helps to vindicate our belief that God is the ultimate author of Scripture and that he is in control of all the events of history.
         

2. 
   What did the chief official do with Daniel and his friends at the end of their training period?
   
   1. 
      He presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.
      
   2. 
      What might be the modern equivalence of this presentation?
      
      1. 
         It may have been similar to a graduation ceremony.
         
      2. 
         However, it is more likely to have been a final interview to assess the effectiveness of their training—i.e., their final exam.
         
         1. 
            This may be how we are to understand the king’s speaking with them. The NKJV has ‘interviewed’ whereas the NIV and ESV translate the verb ‘to speak’ as ‘talked’ and ‘spoke’.
            
         2. 
            In addition, in verse 20, we read that the king questioned (examined/inquired) them. This indicates that they were not participating in a casual conversation with the king.
            
      3. 
         It could have been similar to defending a PhD in an oral examination or the final interview in the process of an appointment of an employee to a senior high-level executive, account management,, or company ‘ambassador’ position.
         

3. 
   What did Nebuchadnezzar discover about Daniel and his friends?
   
   1. 
      He found no one who could equal them in knowledge/wisdom and understanding, and found them to be ‘ten times’ better than magicians and enchanters/astrologers of the kingdom.
      
      1. 
         The reference to ‘ten times’ is likely a literary device or idiom (Gen 31.7; Num 14.22; Neh 4.12; Job 19.3) meaning something like ‘greatly above’ or ‘vastly superior’ which is used to indicate that their knowledge and understanding excelled, by a significant amount, the abilities of the their peers and the incumbent officials serving the king.
         
   2. 
      It wasn’t their physical appearance that stood out, but their intellectual capacity.
      
      1. 
         It is likely that the concessions made by the chief official about their diet had not been discussed with the king.
         
   3. 
      The king discovered that what God had prepared was the best.
      
      1. 
         Although men hate Christianity and ridicule those who are faithful Christians, they appreciate the results of a disciplined Christian life. For example, they like having honest employees who can be trusted to protect their interests and work diligently.
         

4. 
   To what group of officials does the recorder compare Daniel and his friends?
   
   1. 
      They were found to be better than the magicians and enchanters/astrologers.
      
   2. 
      What is peculiar about this comparison?
      
      1. 
         The comparison includes officers of the court whose duties were in the realm of soothsaying, fortune-telling and religious rites.
         
      2. 
         The comparison does not appear to include court administrators, judges, and territorial administrators—other roles of those who were standing and serving in the king’s palace.
         
      3. 
         It may be that this list of terms includes all the other offices—although this is unlikely as other types of officials are listed separately in other places in the book (3.2, 3).
         
      4. 
         It may be that the ‘magicians and enchanters’ held the most important, senior, or most trusted positions in the court, like the mythical/legendary Merlin was to King Arthur (compare with: Est 1.14).
         
   3. 
      The king consulted magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, astrologers, and diviners.
      
      1. 
         ‘Magicians’ refers to men who ‘held the book’ and practiced as apothecaries and alchemists (e.g., with herbs, chemicals and metals). It may have included early physicians. Outside of Daniel (Gen 41.8, 24; Ex 7.11, 22; 8.7, 14-15, 18-19; 9.11) is only used to refer to Egyptian magicians.
         
      2. 
         ‘Enchanters’ (used only in Daniel 1.20; 2.21) may refer to those who used incantations to perform exorcisms, interpreted dreams, maintained the religious liturgy, and developed the myths and legends of the Babylonian religion.
         
      3. 
         ‘Sorcerers’ (2.2) is probably an Akkadian loan word. In its verbal form, it appears to mean, “to bewitch” or “to cast a spell.” As a noun it is used four other times in the OT (Ex 7.11; 22.18; Dt 18.10; Mal 3.5).
         
      4. 
         ‘Astrologers,’ (2.2, 4, 5; etc.) rendered ‘Chaldeans’ in some translations, seems to refer to a priestly class in the Babylonian religion who studied omens through changes of the stars which were objects of worship.
         
      5. 
         ‘Diviners’ (2.27; 4.7; 5.7, 11) appear to be those who sought to ascertain or decree the fate of others through the interpretation of fissures and orifices in animal entrails.
         
   4. 
      The practices of these ‘wise men’ may have overlapped. Several times Daniel appears to refer to these officials under a general title of ‘wise men’ (2.12-14, 18, 24, 48; 4.6, 18; 5.7-8, 15).
      

5. 
   What potential difficulty does this statement (20) present for us?
   
   1. 
      It seems to imply that Daniel and his friends were skilled in the arts of the magicians and enchanters.
      
   2. 
      Does this statement, in fact, imply that Daniel and his friends participated in the occult?
      
      1. 
         Given Daniel’s unwillingness to compromise with false religious practices by eating meat sacrificed to idols and drinking wine poured out as a libation to idols, it is extremely unlikely that he would have turned to false gods, demons, or jinns; or supposed extra-terrestrial forces in the cosmos for guidance and direction. Similarly, it is unlikely that his three friends, who were willing to give up their lives rather than to bow down to a carved image, would have been willing to consult with spirits.
         
      2. 
         A solution to this apparent problem is that their knowledge of true religion gave them insights into human behaviour and natural phenomenon that the superstitious magicians and enchanters could never have had. It would be similar to a Christian psychiatric counsellor today, who understands the causes and nature of guilt from a Biblical perspective, being better able to deal with a client’s depression caused by guilt.
         
         1. 
            For example, a woman who has had an abortion and who is feeling guilt resulting from this action will not be able to find real and lasting help from non-Christian counsellors. They will counsel her to ignore the guilt, attempt to teach her that the action was not immoral and therefore her guilt is nothing more than a latent vestige of a pre-modern culture, help her find ways to stop thinking about the guilt (hide from it), or prescribe drugs to make her forget the action.
            
         2. 
            In contrast, a Christian counsellor can lead the woman to a realization that the guilt is valid because the action was wrong before God. She can then help the woman confess her sin to God and receive true forgiveness in Christ.
            
         3. 
            The Toronto Star reported, “One in four working Canadians say they suffer from depression—the highest prevalence ever reported, according to a poll ... by Ipsos Reid.”⁵³ It is not surprising to find this level of depression when people do not have a Christian basis for dealing with relational problems and their associated guilt. The ‘answer’ according to most people would be for the government to fund mental-health care programs or for businesses to provide counselling services as part of the employee benefits package; whereas the real solution is for people to receive Christ as saviour.
            
   3. 
      In ‘every matter’ that the king questioned/examined them he found them superior to their peers because their wisdom was founded upon the fear and knowledge of God.
      
      1. 
         They were like Solomon, whose wisdom was proverbial (1 Ki 4.29-34) because it was founded upon the fear and knowledge of God (Eccl 12.13).
         
         1. 
            Solomon’s knowledge was God-given (1 Ki 3.12). The truly wise person is the one who first has wisdom from God. It is only when a person has wisdom from God that he can gain valid knowledge of the world—how it works, how man relates to it, and how men are to relate with one another (1 Kings 4.32-33).
            
      2. 
         We already considered (when we looked at verse 17) the importance of having a Biblical world-view as a foundation for philosophy, science, and history, etc.. No matter how much knowledge a person has about the things in this world, he can never have a proper perspective on reality without the foundation that can only be provided through the Bible. Without the Bible, man’s theological, ontological, epistemological, psychological, and ethical knowledge is going to be deficient. God’s general grace permits men to function without acknowledging their debt to revelation and divine knowledge; but their knowledge of the created realm, derived without an appreciation of God’s role in providing true knowledge, will always be deficient. If a person’s theological, ontological, epistemological, psychological, and ethical knowledge is deficient so will be his philosophical, scientific, historical, and technological knowledge.
         
      3. 
         Some modern philosophers think, and claim, that proponents of religious ideas are unable to be scientifically rational. Some also claim that religious beliefs actually prevent a person from being rational and they claim that religion is dangerous for the advance of civilization.⁵⁴ There is, actually, an element of truth in what they are saying. Any adherent of a false religion such as Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam cannot be consistent to his religious presuppositions and be scientifically rational. Their false religions are irrational and superstitious, and this must have an effect on their understanding of the created realm.
         
      4. 
         However, it is the other way around with Christianity—only a person who accepts the teachings of Biblical Christianity can be rational and scientific. There is no contradiction between being rational and scientific and being a Christian; in fact, it is the opposite, only a Christian can be truly rational and scientific (Dt 4.6-8; Job 28.8; Ps 111.10; 119.99, 100; 2 Tim 3.15, 16; Jam 1.5).
         
      5. 
         Daniel’s (and his friend’s) wisdom was from God. Daniel was effectively a second Solomon (Ezk 28.3). Whether or not his wisdom was provided supernaturally is beside the point. The key point is that his wisdom from God enabled him to be more competent than all the wise men of his age.
         

6. 
   What was the outcome of their training?
   
   1. 
      They entered the service of the king.
      
   2. 
      They “Stood before the king.” This is a Hebrew idiom that can be translated as “served the king”.
      
   3. 
      The promise of scripture is that anyone who excels in his work will be recognized, even by kings (Prov 22.29).
      

7. 
   How long did Daniel serve in the courts of the Babylonian-Persian kings?
   
   1. 
      We are not told how long his three friends served or lived; although we know they were around for some time into Nebuchadnezzar’s reign because of the incident with the fiery furnace (chapter 3).
      
   2. 
      In Daniel’s case, we are told that he served at least until the first year of Cyrus.
      
      1. 
         He was probably taken captive in 606 BC.
         
      2. 
         Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BC.
         
      3. 
         However Daniel was still alive in ~536 BC (10.1).
         
      4. 
         If we assume he was 13 when he was taken captive then he lived to be at least 82, but could have been older when taken captive and could have lived longer than the last dated events recorded in the book of Daniel.
         
   3. 
      We do not need to conclude that Daniel’s service ended in the year that Cyrus ascended the throne or issued his edict. The use of the word ‘until’ does not necessarily imply the cessation of an action once the particular state has been reached or event has occurred (e.g., Gen 8.5, the waters continued to abate after the tenth month; Lk 2.37, Anna did not stop being a widow at age 84;1 Cor 15.25, Jesus does not stop reigning once his enemies are conquered). Daniel may well have served in Cyrus’ court as well as in those that preceded.
      
   4. 
      This is a brief statement (21) but it indicates that he had many years of faithful service even as captive slave/hostage. He was serving God, through his service to the great kings of the ancient world.
      
   5. 
      Daniel lived throughout the entire period of the Babylonian Exile. He saw the destruction of the old Jewish order and the beginning of the new era prophesied by Isaiah (Is 44.28; 45.1).
      
      1. 
         He had seen the rise of the greatest kingdom on earth to that point—the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar and had lived to see its demise and destruction (Prov 29.16).
         
      2. 
         In total, Daniel lived through a portion of the reigns of seven different kings: Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 BC); Amel-Marduk (or Evil-Merodach) (561-560 BC); Neriglissar (or Nergal-shar-usur, or Nergal-sharezer) (559-555 BC); Labashi-Marduk (555 BC); Nabonidus (555-539 BC); Belshazzar (549-539 BC); Cyrus (539-530 BC).
         
      3. 
         He saw the rise, reign, and ruin of the greatest pagan kingdom in history—to that point and possibly ever. He clearly understood the meaning of the words that he proclaimed in praise of God: “He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them.” (2.21)
         
      4. 
         Being able to see the decree for the return from Exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem was a great reward for Daniel, in recognition of his faithfulness to God.
         

8. 
   What are some lessons that we can derive from this section?
   
   1. 
      To be useful we must be faithful.
      
      1. 
         In the natural realm, the most useful people are those who are faithful:
         
         1. 
            In business, a person who cheats or does sloppy work soon brings his company into disrepute or is fired. The faithful employee is the one works diligently and produces quality results.
            
         2. 
            In sports, an athlete who misses workouts or is careless in play causes his team to lose games. The faithful player is the one who works hard and executes the plays precisely.
            
         3. 
            In the military, in a time of war, the soldier who is a coward or does not carry his share of the load can be the cause of casualties. The faithful solider is brave and puts the welfare of his buddies above his own.
            
         4. 
            In families, a husband or wife who is selfish or cheats destroys the family and drags it through the mess of a divorce. The faithful spouse provides for his/her family and raises up the next generation.
            
      2. 
         In God’s kingdom it is the same thing.
         
         1. 
            Unfaithful seminary professors, pastors/elders, or Sunday School teachers can lead their flocks into damnation. Teachers who proclaim the Word of God faithfully lead many to righteousness (12.3).
            
         2. 
            Unfaithful members of congregations cause discord and disrupt the peace of the congregation. Faithful members of the congregation build up and encourage their brothers and attract the unsaved to the Gospel.
            
      3. 
         Christians serving faithfully, in the fear of God, in any domain are the most useful and valuable members of their community, whether in a family, church, school, company, or country.
         
      4. 
         Christians should live in such a way that they maintain a sharp and clear identity as followers of the one true God. One of the key ways this can be accomplished is through living faithfully for God in whatever callings we have from God.
         
   2. 
      The wisest person in any discipline (e.g., science, engineering, carpentry, philosophy, medicine, law, economics, finance, theology, etc.) will always be the one with advanced knowledge (physical, psychological, metaphysical) who tempers that knowledge with a knowledge of God and his principles, as provided in the Bible. The truly godly person will always be wiser than a person of equal knowledge and skill who does not know God. This difference will become more obvious as unbelievers drift further from the Biblical principles on which Western culture was established into superstition and false religions.
      
      1. 
         Never be ashamed of the Christian world-view—it is the only world-view which can provide a basis for building sustainable societies and civilizations!
         
      2. 
         Contrary to what men think, civilizations have not, and cannot, grown out of un-Biblical world-views. The ancient civilizations (Sumerian, Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, Greek, Roman, Aztec, Mayan, Incan) were founded on a vestigial knowledge of the truth that was handed down from Shem. As men moved further away from God and from the people of God (ancient Israel) who had the oracles of God (Rom 3.2) they deteriorated into extreme forms of polytheistic paganism and animism. After the fall of Rome, it was Christianity that created modern Western civilization⁵⁵ as the ancient civilizations of the Middle East were being sucked dry by Islam and the civilizations in Japan, China, and India were decaying into chaos and morbidity.
         
   3. 
      God said, “Those who honor me, I will honor” (1 Sam 2.30).
      
      1. 
         Daniel was determined to honour God while living in a milieu where people did not follow God’s standards.
         
      2. 
         God, in turn, honoured Daniel’s obedience with wisdom, recognition, and promotion.
         
      3. 
         As a general principle, obedience brings blessing and righteousness is the prerequisite for enjoying covenantal blessings (Ex 15.26; Lev 26; Dt 4.40; 28.1-14; 29.9; 30.15-20; Josh 1.8).
         
   4. 
      The Church in all ages is to be the light of God to the nations (Is 42.6; 49.6; 51.4; 60.1-3; Mt 5.14; Acts 13.47; 1 Pet 2.9). In the OT the lamp-stand in the Tabernacle reminded the people of God’s illuminating light to the world through the Church. In the NT the preaching of the Gospel is the light that brings illumination to the world (Rev 1.12, 13, 20; 2.5). Daniel, the man who feared God, was the primary light of God to the Gentiles of his day.