To first understand the book of Daniel, we need to understand a very significant question: What is a Jewish man doing in Babylon? Shouldn’t he be in Jerusalem? The answer is that Daniel, along with all of his society, was deported to Babylon. But why? The answer to the question is long, but necessary in answering this fundamental question. To begin, we need to go all the way back to the book of Judges, some 800 years before. Here we see a cycle of judgment and restoration, God’s wrath and mercy, and it all plays into the story of Daniel.
We have to travel back to about 1350 BC, the time the Jews were entering the Promised Land. They were to enter the land as God’s chosen people, a shining light to all the surrounding nations, a symbol of what following God looked like. Unfortunately, this wasn’t going to come to pass. The Jewish nation immediately foibles their rush into the promised land, negating the work Joshua had done years before. Instead of driving the people out of the land they begin living with them. This, of course, was the very item God warned about. Why? Because the people (Canaanites), if they were left in the land, would become a snare. Their sinful practices would weave their way into the Jewish culture and corrupt them.
You see, the Canaanites are people beyond redemption. They have completely turned their backs on God and worship the despicable god Molech, who demands child sacrifice and has perverted their worship with sexual rites. In other words, God used the Jews as the implement of judgment against the Canaanites. But the Israelites are unable to do it. They fumble God’s plan and end up corrupting themselves in the process.
So God sets up another plan. When Israel wanders away and are ultimately oppressed by an outside force, they eventually call out to God in their despair. So each time they do this, a savior rises from he ranks of the Israelites. A judge who is a person specifically picked by God to lead Israel back to Him. This process, called the Sin Cycle, is prevalent for the next 300 years and is God’s preferred method for his wayward children.
The prophet Samuel is considered the last judge. When we get to his life, around 1050 BC, we see that he is a faithful leader and is running around Israel rescuing the people of different tribes. But Samuel is aging and the officials in Israel see this. They also notice that his sons aren’t cut from the same cloth. They are wild and evil, and they cannot take the mantle. So instead of realizing how God provides through mercy, the officials decide they should have a king rule over them.
Samuel doesn’t like this idea, because it feels like the people are rejecting him. But Samuel goes to God and God reminds him that he is not rejected, but the people are rejecting God himself. So, God allows them their wishes, but Samuel warns them of what will happen. They still want a king. If the king follows God, and the people follow the king, there will be a blessing.
The first King to rule Israel is Saul. The selection is not a good one, as Saul is not a king of noble birth and really tries to follow his own lead. In fact, one item that marks Saul is a counterfeit discipleship. He looks like he is following God, but really leads without God. It is only when he gets into trouble that he makes quick sacrifices so God will bless his actions. Ultimately, a judgment is leveled on Saul. The Spirit of God, which for most of his story was thrown upon him, shown to him, given to him, ends up leaving, and Saul is tossed into a paranoid and fitful existence that ends in death by his own hand.
David rises in 1010 BC and is a good king for the people, but his personal life is a shambles. As a matter of fact, David stumbles hard personally, dealing with such issues as fear, revenge, lust and lying. He is also brought into judgment from God, one that ends with his illegitimate son dying. But he is restored and given another son, this one named Solomon.
Solomon is the most successful king in Israel’s history. He expands the borders of Israel as far as they ever would be, creates a peaceful land that is abundant and blessed. But just as his father did, he slips. Unlike his father though, Solomon doesn’t readily turn from his sin back to God. He too is judged for wandering away, and his judgment is the loss of his kingdom. But we see God’s mercy in this as well. The kingdom will stand for the rest of Solomon’s life. So Solomon gets to remain in his lavish kingdom and will not see it dissolve in his lifetime. This is a mercy, because later in his life he begins to understand his treacherous nature and produces Ecclesiastes, which is an experiment in discovering what the meaning of life is.
After Solomon, the kingdom splits. The 10 northern tribes split off from the southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin. The 10 northern tribes, referred to as Israel, starts off bad and continues in its evil. It produces no good kings. It lasts 250 years, until God says enough. This time, the society of Assyria is God’s hammer against Israel, and in 722 BC Israel is conquered and disassembled, some deported to Assyria, some remaining.
In Judah, however, there are good, but flawed kings in the mix. Judah is able to continue for 344 years. The kings start as mostly good but as time goes on, they get progressively worse. Eventually they wander away from God completely and God says enough. Judgment is levied against Israel and they are conquered by Babylon in 605 BC.
You’ll notice a trend in all of this history: God takes his time. It doesn’t happen immediately but instead takes hundreds of years. We have to remember this in our own life, when prayers seemingly go unanswered. If you consider that there were good Israelites who kept God’s word during this time (the remnant), then it becomes obvious that for many of them, praying for better leadership or a hope that Israel would return to God, those prayers were not answered in their lifetime.
Babylon’s capture is a long one. They first show up in 605 BC, a bloodless coup of Judah. The Babylonian’s take over the culture and insert a puppet king, and three years later (602 BC), they begin to deport people to Babylon. Daniel is among those first taken. Five years later, in response to a revolt, Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem and carries off riches from Solomon’s temple. 597 BC also marks the second deportation of the Jews, where Nebuchadnezzar strips the land of all the craftsmen and smiths- all of the people with skills- leaving the poorest in Jerusalem. In 590 BC, in retaliation of another uprising, Nebuchadnezzar lays a seigeworks against Jerusalem. Four years later he comes back, burns the city and destroys the temple, and breaks down the city walls. In this final act, Jerusalem is destroyed, the people gone, and judgment has been rendered.
So we see, from this long history, that the Jewish people have a history of judgment. Daniel and his people are in Babylon because they turned their backs on God and were judged for it. Does that mean that all of the Jews are corrupt? Not at all. The remnant, the small amount of people who follow God even when the greater society does not, is still evident. Daniel is one of those people, a devout young man who follows God, even in the shadow of one of the most despotic leaders known.
Nebuchadnezzar is a ruthless leader who reigned from 605BC-562 BC. He is the longest reigning Babylonian king and we get to meet him in the first four chapters of Daniel. In fact, Daniel is serving in his court. That’s where the story begins.
CHAPTER 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 and put in the treasure house of his god.
We first have to look at where the Babylonians are spiritually. The Babylonians primarily worship the god Marduk. Marduk is the god of thunderstorms. This is typical of many supposed gods of old time cultures. Zeus, Jupiter, Baal- these are gods of thunderstorms. This is because the storm, the rain, waters the crops. The crops grow, people can eat and ultimately build a life. The Babylonians are a polytheistic society, meaning that they believe and worship more than one god. Marduk, the head of the gods, has a variety of subset gods for specific tasks. To show allegiance to the main god, it was important for Nebuchadnezzar to give the stolen treasures of Judah to his god. Marduk’s name is also Bel.
3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— 4 young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. 5 The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service. 6 Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.
The next part of Nebuchadnezzar’s plan against Judah: indoctrination. You may remember that Nebuchadnezzar systematically dismantled Judah. In three different waves he deported Judaens to Babylon, stripping the land of the best and brightest, until Judah was a shell of what it once was. In Babylon, from the displaced population of Jews, he begins to select the best and brightest to serve in his royal court. From there, he gives them the best he can offer: eating at the royal table. Shelter. And new names. Nebuchadnezzar’s plan is to indoctrinate these men into Babylonian culture so they will forsake or lose their heritage.
8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, 10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.” 11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. 15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. 17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. 18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. 21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
Daniel does not want to defile himself with the king’s food. Defile speaks to a spiritual condition. The food in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace most likely isn’t kosher. So first, we see that Daniel has a devout nature to him that translated even to the food he eats. But there’s a larger item at play here. If Daniel eats the food, he is bound to Nebuchadnezzar. It is a silent acceptance of the Babylonian culture, a contract that removes the final pin of Daniel’s culture and secures him to the Babylonians.
So Daniel refuses the food. But he strikes an agreement with the guard. He asks for 10 days. If he is fine with his food after 10 days, then what is the problem? The guard agrees, and Daniel and his friends don’t defile themselves, the king doesn’t know, and Daniel is able to refuse the king’s food and remain where he is supposed to be.
This isn’t just a diet. Their purity and dedication, in the face of fear, is rewarded by God. They are able to remain in the palace, able to not draw the ire of the king, and keep their standing in the palace, right where God wants them to be.