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 t
a school in Ireland,
a
clergyman is reported to have asked a group of children, “What
is holiness?” A poor, dirty, ragged-clothed young Christian
child jumped up and said, “Please, your Reverence, it is
to be clean inside!” That is a wonderful definition, “To
be clean inside” - morally clean. As we saw in our last
study, the Israelites missed this point. Most of the kings of
both Israel and Judah were doing evil before God. The prophets
of God had warned them to stop, but they did not listen. So
God brought the Assyrian and then the Babylonian Empires down
to take Israel and Judah into captivity. The prophet Isaiah
explains why this happened with, “For they have brought
evil on themselves” (NASB) Isaiah 3:9. God wanted their
holiness, but they had ignored Him.
Opening
of Daniel.
At the opening of our last study in Daniel, we discovered that
Nebuchadnezzar had besieged Jerusalem. What a way to start a
book. What an incredible opening! The book opens with a military
battle.
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In
the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and
besieged it. (NASB) Daniel 1:1 |
This was judgement. God’s judgment came in 605 B.C.
as illustrated in the chart entitled “Events
of the Conquest”
in the Appendix (also see
an outline of Daniel in the
Appendix). We are told that Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem
during the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign. But Jeremiah
46:2 says this occurred in the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s
reign. The difference is that the Babylonians counted the first
year as the ascension year and the next year as the first year
of a king’s reign. This fact is found in the first and
second chapters. In the first chapter, Daniel says that he was
trained for three years (Dan. 1:5) before he entered the king’s
service (Dan. 1:18). So the chapter marks the end of Daniel’s
third year of captivity, but Daniel 2:1 says this is also the
second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Nebuchadnezzar has
been the ruler for three years: one ascension year plus two
years as king. Daniel, the author, was trained to count the
reign of a ruler as a Babylonian would. He counted Jehoiakim’s
reign in the same way.
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Nebuchadnezzar‘s military
victory was not something God happened to allow. God caused
it to happen. He gave the kingdom of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar
along with the vessels from His temple.
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And
the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along
with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought
them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and
he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god. (NASB)
Daniel 1:2 |
Nebuchadnezzar brought the vessels to the temple of his god
in Shinar, the ancient name for Babylon. What an incredible
set of events! God gave Jehoiakim to Nebuchadnezzar. God gave
the vessels from the temple and He gave some Jews, His people,
as captives. God did this! He gave the king, temple vessels,
and people whom He loved to a man who did not believe in the
true God, to a man who was named after and who served the god
Nabu. |
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