Fellow Church People

[MartyMuppets]

Daniel is set chronologically towards the end of the Old Testament timeline.
The institution of the Isrealite monarchy begun earnestly with good King David had been ended by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invading them and subduing them because they had turned their backs upon God and His laws wholeheartedly, though there were some loyal people who were still trying to live to honour God at the time of course. Anyway God allowed the King of Babylon to carry the people captive into exile to punish them.
Daniel was one of four young men among many Isrealites brought to Nebuchadnezzar's palace to be trained to serve in his court. His three friends were Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.
They were all God-fearing young men, who were resolved to live for His honour where He had brought them to.
And God blessed them greatly, as shall be seen when I begin sharing my favourite parts of the scripture, starting with Chapter 2.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Chapter 2 tells us how one night King Nebuchadnezzar awoke with a start thinking about a very strange dream he had had. It upset him very much and he wanted to know what it meant.
So he summoned the wise men of his court and explained the matter to them. They told him to tell them the dream and they would interpret it.
But the King told them he had firmly decided that they should first tell him what the dream had been before interpretating it. They protested that this was impossible for they could not do such a thing.
Nebuchadnezzar insisted that they must do this so that he could know they could tell him what it meant. When they said it could not be done the King flew into a rage and commanded that they and all the other wise men in Babylon be put to death at once.
Daniel and his friends were also considered among the wise men even though they still served their own God rather than the gods of the Babylonians. When they heard about the King's decree they begged him for time in which to be able to reveal the dream and its meaning. Nebuchadnezzar was willing to give them a chance, so the four of them earnestly prayed that night to God for His help that they may be spared and live to serve Him more in their lives.
God did answer their prayer and I shall talk about it next time.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Daniel and his friends went to Nebuchadnezzar and revealed the dream that God had revealed to them as they were praying.
Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed about an enormous statue with a head of gold, an upper body of silver, middle and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet partly of iron and partly of clay. Then a huge stone came flying out of nowhere and struck the statue on its feet and all the gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay fell apart and was scattered on the wind like chaff. But the stone that destroyed the statue became a great big mountain and filled the entire earth.
Imagine Nebuchadnezzar's eyes as he heard his dream untold to anybody spelt out before him by Daniel. God knows everything and can reveal anything He pleases to His servants.

 

[MartyMuppets]

And then they explained the interpretation to him.
The head of gold represented Nebuchadnezzar himself and his kingdom.
The upper torso of silver represented another kingdom which would eventually replace his kingdom in world supremacy. This was fulfilled as told in Chapter 5 when Babylon fell to the armies of the Medo-Persians.
Later on a third kingdom would take its place. This is believed by theologians to have been Greece under Alexander the Great.
Finally a fourth kingdom would come. This was the kingdom of Rome, which held power over the Isrealites in the time when Jesus was born.
Just as gold, silver, bronze and iron are each successively lower in value from each other so too each kingdom would be slightly weaker in its power.
As the feet and toes of the statue were partly iron and partly clay so Rome's power would be partly strong and partly weak. There never was a fifth world kingdom. In certain ways the Roman Kingdom, while it did partly fall, has never lost its hold completely. It still exists in small ways today.
The stone that broke the statue and grew into a mountain all over the earth is taken by biblical scholars to refer to the future eternal Kingdom of God. When the resurrected man Jesus one day returns to earth He will shatter all of Rome's remaining power and He will reign as King for all eternity as God in His divine status at God the Father's right hand side.

Nebuchadnezzar must have been shocked rather to think of his kingdom coming to an end. But we're told he bowed down before Daniel and worshipped him. Even though he gave worship to Daniel he did say that Daniel's God was God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries because of what Daniel had been able to reveal with His help. And he promoted Daniel and his friends to high significant positions in his province.

 

[MartyMuppets]

In Chapter 3 we are told about how Nebuchadnezzar had an enormous golden statue made of himself and commanded that everybody in his province should bow down in worship to it or else be thrown into a furnace of fire. It's possible that Nebuchadnezzat may have been inspired by his dream and its interpretation. He may have said to himself "I should be the entire statue of gold. Not just the head." Like it was his way of defiently denying the meaning of his dream that eventually his kingdom should make way for the upper body of silver.

Anyway we are told that it was reported to the king that the three friends of Daniel refused to bow down to the statue. We don't know why Daniel himself wasn't dobbed in along with them. He certainly wouldn't have worshipped the golden idol and thus sin against God either. Perhaps he was out of town at the time or he just wasn't being targeted by the spies for some reason.
But what really concerns us is what the Bible does say happened to his friends.
I shall talk about it sometime soon.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Daniel's three friends were dragged before Nebuchadnezzar who warned them to bow down to the statue or be incinerated.
But they were amazingly defiant and bravely told him they would not, adding that their God, whom they served, had the power to deliver them from the flames of the furnace. But even if He chose not to save them, let Nebuchadnezzar understand that under no circumstance would they ever worship his gods or the golden idol he set up.
The king was so furious that he commanded the furnace to be heated up seven times more than was customary and for his strongest guards to bind the three men with heavy ropes and throw them in. We're told that the furnace was so hot that the flames killed the guards while they carried out their orders, either because the fire shot straight out through the open grill or the thick smoke smothered them.

 

[MartyMuppets]

But an amazing thing happened then.
The fire burned only the ropes allowing Daniel's friends to stand up upon their feet unharmed and Nebuchadnezzar cried out astonished, "Didn't we cast three men into the fire?"
Those next to him affirmed they did so to which the king replied, "But I can see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the furnace unharmed. And the fourth one looks just like a god."
Nebuchadnezzar approached the door and called for them to come out and they did, the fire had not even burned their clothing, they were completely untouched by its natural effects. But the fourth man had disappeared as miraculously as he first appeared. No doubt he was an angel sent by God to protect His servants. Some speculate that He may have even been the Son of God, Jesus Christ Himself in a manifestation centuries before His physical birth but we cannot know this. But the point is the effect it had upon Nebuchadnezzar.

 

[cherrypotion27]

Just curious.....

Hi everyone. Just curious, but are there any Wiccans/Pagans on this site (besides me?).

Patricia/cherrypotion27 (really hoping to not get flamed here. There are alot of non-Wiccans out there that have the wrong idea about the Wiccan/Pagan faith)

 

[MartyMuppets]

Nebuchadnezzar was so amazed at the power of God to deliver His faithful servants who disobeyed the king's command and yielded themselves up to the furnace rather than worship any god other than their own God, that he decreed the death penalty for anyone who spoke disrespectfully of this God, for no other "god" had ever been able to deliver people from death in this way. And he promoted the three friends of Daniel in the province of Babylon.

God doesn't often miraculously save His servants from their fate of course. 99% of the time when people face persecution to death for their fate, what happens is that they do die. But they go to a far better place. Daniel's friends knew that if they had burned to ashes they would have gone to be in paradise with their loving, faithful God. But God had a purpose for saving them in this case. He wanted to lead King Nebuchadnezzar to faith in Him.
Nebuchadnezzar displayed certain reverence here and before when his dream was interpreted by Daniel, but he still did not yet understand properly.
It would take one more very hard humbling blow before the king of Babylon gave his heart to the God of Israel. This account coming soon.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Hi everyone. Just curious, but are there any Wiccans/Pagans on this site (besides me?).

Patricia/cherrypotion27 (really hoping to not get flamed here. There are alot of non-Wiccans out there that have the wrong idea about the Wiccan/Pagan faith)

Hello Patricia. I would never flame you even though I disagree with Wiccan faith. Jesus Christ freely offers His love to everybody and we as Christians are called to demonstrate that loving attribute to all.
We must respect those whose views are different from our own naturally. We invite pagans to share in the Christian message but we must not ram it down their throats. All of us have freedom to choose regarding Christ. If any of us reject the Gospel that is our own personal choice.

I'm very pleased to introduce myself to you Patricia. My name is Marty