DANIEL CHAPTER 6

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Once again Daniel becomes a top official and not only that but Darius decides to put him at the head of the other top officials. So the other officials are jealous so they try to find a way to get rid of him. But they don’t find anything in relation with negligence or corruption. So they decide to look for some religious matters. So they push Darius to establish a royal decree so that nobody can pray his god for thirty days knowing that Daniel wouldn’t care ! Not knowing what they have in mind, Darius does it. All at once, Daniel prays God openly and some men catch him and bring him in front of Darius to be thrown into the lions’ pit. Darius tries to find a way but it doesn’t work. Daniel has to be thrown into the lions’ pit. Darius tells Daniel that his God will save him. The king can’t sleep and early in the morning he goes to the lions’ pit to see if Daniel is still alive. So he asks daniel to get out of the pit and instead his accusers are thrown into the pit and they are eaten all at once. Then Darius celebrates Daniel’s God in all his kingdom.

 

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Daniel’s three companions appear to have the same calm strength. When the king tells them to bow before the king’s god if they don’t want to be thrown into the furnace and died in a terrible way, they refuse telling him that they worship God who can save them and if not they are ready to die to keep faithful. We can say the same for Daniel when he keeps praying openly to God. He is thrown into the pit with hungry lions and God saves him. But whatever happens he keeps faithful always walking in the same direction.

 

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We find the same peacefulness in the case of Daniel’s three companions when they refuse to fall down and worship the image of gold that the king of Babylon has set up. They tell the king that if God wants to rescue them he will do it and if not, his god is not their God and they won’t bow down his god. They are not afraid of dying just like Daniel. It is really refreshing to hear about Daniel and his three companions because they have the same mind toward God compared to the great majority of the Jews. Here we are only told about 4 people, it is really a small number!

 

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What kind of young children was he looking for in this verse four of the book of Daniel? (Daniel 1:4)

They should have no defect and good appearance and wisdom and knowlege and discernment and capable of serving in the king’s palace.

 

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https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-babylonian-exile

The Chaldeans, following standard Mesopotamian practice, deported the Jews after they had conquered Jerusalem in 597 BC. The deportations were large, but certainly didn't involve the entire nation. Somewhere around 10,000 people were forced to relocate to the city of Babylon, the capital of the Chaldean empire. In 586 BC, Judah itself ceased to be an independent kingdom, and the earlier deportees found themselves without a homeland, without a state, and without a nation. This period, which actually begins in 597 but is traditionally dated at 586, is called the Exile in Jewish history; it ends with an accident in 538 when the Persians overthrow the Chaldeans. ​

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Chaldeans, only deported the most prominent citizens of Judah: professionals, priests, craftsmen, and the wealthy. The "people of the land" (am-hares ) were allowed to stay. So Jewish history, then, has two poles during the exile: the Jew in Babylon and the Jews who remain in Judah. We know almost nothing of the Jews in Judah after 586. Judah seems to have been wracked by famine, according the biblical book, Lamentations, which was written in Jerusalem during the exile. The entire situation seemed to be one of infinite despair. Some people were better off; when Nebuchadnezzar deported the wealthy citizens, he redistributed the land among the poor. So some people were better off. In addition, there were rivalries between the two groups of Jews. It is clear that the wealthy and professional Jews in Babylon regarded themselves as the true Jewish people. ​

The salient feature of the exile, however, was that the Jews were settled in a single place by Nebuchadnezzar. While the Assyrian deportation of Israelites in 722 BC resulted in the complete disappearance of the Israelites, the deported Jews formed their own community in Babylon and retained their religion, practices, and philosophies. Some, it would seem, adopted the Chaldean religion (for they name their offspring after Chaldean gods), but for the most part, the community remained united in its common faith in Yahweh. ​

They called themselves the "gola," ("exiles"), or the "bene gola" ("the children of the exiles"), and within the crucible of despair and hopelessness, they forged a new national identity and a new religion. The exile was unexplainable; Hebrew history was built on the promise of Yahweh to protect the Hebrews and use them for his purposes in human history. Their defeat and the loss of the land promised to them by Yahweh seemed to imply that their faith in this promise was misplaced. This crisis, a form of cognitive dissonance (when your view of reality and reality itself do not match one another), can precipitate the most profound despair or the most profound reworking of a world view. For the Jews in Babylon, it did both. ​

From texts such as Lamentations , which was probably written in Jerusalem, and Job, written after the exile, as well as many of the Psalms, Hebrew literature takes on a despairing quality. The subject of Job is human suffering itself. Undeserving of suffering, Job, an upright man, is made to suffer the worst series of calamities possible because of an arbitrary test. When he finally despairs that there is no cosmic justice, the only answer he receives is that humans shouldn't question God's will. Many of the psalms written in this period betray an equal hopelessness. ​

But the Jews in Babylon also creatively remade themselves and their world view. In particular, they blamed the disaster of the Exile on their own impurity. They had betrayed Yahweh and allowed the Mosaic laws and cultic practices to become corrupt; the Babylonian Exile was proof of Yahweh's displeasure. During this period, Jewish leaders no longer spoke about a theology of judgment, but a theology of salvation. In texts such as Ezekiel and Isaiah, there is talk that the Israelites would be gathered together once more, their society and religion purified, and the unified Davidic kingdom be re-established. ​

So this period is marked by a resurgence in Jewish tradition, as the exiles looked back to their Mosaic origins in an effort to revive their original religion. It is most likely that the Torah took its final shape during this period or shortly afterward, and that it became the central text of the Jewish faith at this time as well. This fervent revival of religious tradition was aided by another accident in history: when Cyrus the Persian conquered Mesopotamia, he allowed the Jews to return home. This was no ordinary event, though. Cyrus sent them home specifically to worship Yahweh—what was once only a kingdom would become a nation of Yahweh. ​

 

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What was the difference between the three young children at the end of the ten days?

They look better and healthier.

What did God give the four young children in this verse seventeen of the book of Daniel? (Daniel 1:17)

They receive knowledge and wisdom and daniel could interpret visions and dreams. So they were blessed according to their attitude ande maintaining their faith in God.

 

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What was the decree that King Nebuchadnezzar made for all the wise men? (Daniel 2:13)

The order was to kill all of them. It is a strange way to use fear to rule. It is also a strange way to be ready to kill people without taking into account the cost of educating people you want to kill. It seems to be a short-term vision.

 

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What position was Daniel promoted to by the King? (Daniel 2:48)

He becomes the ruler over all the province of Babylon and the chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. It is interesting to keep in mind the fact that Daniel doesn’t forget his three companions as they also get a position over the administration of the province of Babylon. So they work together.

 

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What did King Nebuchadnezzar say to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when he recognized that their God had delivered them out of the mouth of the burning fiery fire? (Daniel 3:26)

He told them to step out of the fire.

What was the decree or punishment that the King made concerning the three young Hebrew men in verse twenty-nine? (Daniel 3:29)

Whoever spoke against their God should be dismembered and their houses should be turned into public latrines.

 

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Who was the king at the great feast when a thousand lords were drinking wine from the golden and silver vessels? (Daniel 5:1)

Belshazzar

How did the King Belshazzar defile the vessels of the house of God? (Daniel 5:3-4)

They drank wine in them and they praised false gods.

 

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Why did the King prefer Daniel about all of the presidents and the princes? (Daniel 6:3)

There was an extraordinary spirit in him that is God was with him and when we remember the prayer he made to God and the fact he was heard so the Jews could go back and rebuilt Jerusalem. But as usual we can’t speak about a people chosen by God but few men chosen by God and who could develop a special relationship with God. Unfortunately we are not told a lot about it !

 

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What was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den and what did the King sealed it with? (Daniel 6:17)
A stone and the king sealed it with his signet ring and with the signet ring of his nobles, so that nothing could be changed with regard to Daniel.

 

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What did Daniel have in the first year of Belshazzar, the King of Babylon? (Daniel 7:1)
He saw a dream and visions.

 

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What did Daniel tell about Rome, the final form of the fourth world empire, and the ten kings and the little horn? (Daniel 7:8)​

- Another horn, a small one cameup among them, and three of the first horns were plucked up from before it. And it had eyes like human eyes and a mouth speaking arrogantly.

 

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When Daniel saw the he-goat come close to the ram, what happened to the ram? (Daniel 8:7)

The ram was struck down and its two horns were broken and it was powerless and there was no one to rescue it.

 

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What will the King of fierce countenance do in these verses of the book of Daniel? (Daniel 8:23-25)

He will bring ruin in an extraordinary way, and he will be successful and act effectively. He will bring mighty ones to ruin, also the people made up of the holy ones. He will even stand up against the Prince of princes, but he will be broken without human hand.

 

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How was the seventy weeks of Daniels vision explained to him in these verses? (Daniel 9:24-27)

- It represented the time between the issuing of the word to restore an to rebuild Jerusalem Until the coming of Messiah the leader

- It was divided into 7 weeks and 62 weeks

- Then messiah would be killed with nothing for himself

- Jerusalem would be destroyed again

- There would be war and desolations

- The covenant would be kept in force for one week

- At the half of the week, sacrifice and gift offering would cease

- Then the one causing desolation would come

 

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When the mighty King stand up to rule with great dominion and do his will, what will happen to his kingdom? (Daniel 11:4)

So Greece will take the lead and Alexander the great will become great and will die when he is 32, quite a short story and his four generals will share his dominion. He was not far sighted and surely not wise just a warrior, like many others ! Power makes people behave stupidly again and again !

 

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8) When the King returns and pollutes the sanctuary of the temple, what does he take away in this verse? (Daniel 11:31)

They will remove the constant feature.

 

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Looking for Daniel

Daniel 1 : Then the king orders Ashpenaz his chief court official to bring some of the Israelites, including those of royal and noble descent.
They were to be youths without any defect, of good appearance, endowed with wisdom, knowledge, and discernment, and capable of serving in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the writing and the language of the Chaldeans.

- So Daniel is an Israelite, he is young, without any defect, of good appearance, well educated. He must be able to learn the language of the Chaldeans.

- He doesn’t belong to ordinary people!

- He is a special one!

- We can say a chosen one!

- But he is not alone!

- He will also be chosen by God!