I was going through Daniel 1 today with Heather Reid and there were all these things that I had never noticed.
(I quite enjoy when I find out something new from the Bible, it makes it a bit exciting I think.)
So, I'll share what I learnt:
- The book of Daniel has a large emphasis of God doing things, as in 'the Lord delivered' (v2), 'God had caused' (v9) and 'God gave' (v17). This really emphasised that in fact God was in control of the whole situation. Though, King Nebuchadnezzar thought that he defeated Judah, it was in fact 'the Lord [who] delivered'(v2) Judah into his hands. And though Nebuchadnezzar thought that he had chose the best men and gave them knowledge, it was in fact 'God [who] gave knowledge and understanding' (v17), and also 'God [who] had caused the official to show favour and compassion to Daniel' (v9). Thus, we have a situation here where Nebuchadnezzar thinks that he's in control and that he 'won', but in reality it was all God's doing.
Heather also mentioned that even though the titles of this section were all along the lines of 'Daniel's training in Babylon', this section is more on the fact that it is God vs. Nebuchadnezzar. And at the end of chapter 1, we are given a hint of who would eventually win. 'And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus' (v 21) This sentence suggesting that Daniel outlasted Nebuchadnezzar, that is the man of God outlasted Nebuchadnezzar, who thought himself as being so great.
Some other interesting things:
- When Judah was exiled, Daniel must have been only around 14 - 15 years old. This is an estimate, but he must have had been this young to in fact be still alive during King Cyrus. And I find this fact absolutely amazing.
- In verse 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 [a] and put in the treasure house of his god.' The footnote [a] says Hebrew Shinar. Now Heather asked me if I had recognised that name, which I did not, but then we turned to Genesis 11:1-9:
'1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel [c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.'
I found it rather interesting that the place where Nebuchadnezzar placed the articles from the temple of God, in the same place where the tower of Babel was.
I shall continue writing about the things I learn, because I quite enjoy it and it helps reinforce what I learnt and it might be interesting for others too.
