Introduction to the Book of Daniel by Cooper P Abrams III Historical Background
Judah also was taken into captivity beginning first with an invasion by the Chaldean king,
King Nebuchadnezzar. The word "Chaldeans" refers to the Babylonians. Chaldea was originally a small providence in the southern territory of Babylonia at the head of the Persian Gulf. Later when King Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562) established the neo-Babylonian Empire ("neo" means "new") the name came to be applied to most all of Babylonia.
Judah was not completely destroyed, but was looted extensively. This invasion is referred
to as the first deportation. King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah, took all the vessels from the Temple and deported the healthiest of the Hebrews back to Babylonia to be slaves. Judah was made a vassal state and was allowed to keep its king. Daniel and Jeremiah was among those taken into captivity. Eight years later there was a second deportation in 598, when Ezekiel was prophesying, followed almost eleven years later in 588 when Judah was completely destroyed and cease to exist.
The reason God allowed this to happen is found in the following passages of Scripture: "The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; The which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever: And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my
servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (Jeremiah 25:1-11) "Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the
abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in
Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till {there was} no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave {them} all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all {these} he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the
kingdom of Persia: To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: {for} as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years. (2 Chronicles 36:14-21) God's stated reasons were (1) they continued idolatry, (2) they mocked and abused God's
messengers, (3) they failed to give the land the sabbatical years. Israel's Failures: Idolatry Idolatry is worshiping any created thing. God's First Commandment is "to have no other Gods before Me." Israel came into being at the divine decree of God. He made them a special people, the people to whom He would reveal Himself. To them was given the special privilege of reveling God to the world. No one could know of God and receive eternal life apart from the agency of the Nation of Israel. He gave the special promises of land and prosperity and most of all He promised them the Messiah. They had more knowledge of God than any people on the earth, yet with the knowledge of God they refused to obey God's instruction and receive salvation and eternal life. They rebelled at almost every step of their History. Rather they chose to worship inanimate objects such as stones, trees, rivers and a host of other things in nature. They worshipped the heavenly bodies as the sun, moon and stars. To try
and understand why is to look into the very depravity of man. Man is at heart carnal and a sinner. Paul in Romans 1 states it clearly. "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." (Romans 1:21-23) God's love is shown in that even when man willingly rejected Him, He would not be deterred
from His plan to save man. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) Israel's Failures: It should be understood that not all rejected God. Through Israel's history there were those few who believed God and longed for the day when their nation and its leaders would also. They worshipped God and they lived their lives trusting God in faith. These believers were always the minority and were always oppressed and persecuted by those
who practiced false religion These true saints and prophets believed and taught God’s truth which offended the leaders of false religion within their nation. These wicked men hated the very Word of God because it exposed their false teachings and their sins. Their shameful treatment of God's messengers the prophets is clear evidence of their despising the Word of God. The messenger was the one who delivered the Word of God, the message was from God! Yet, with no apparent fear of God, they imprisoned and murdered many of the prophets God sent to them. It is clear that they hated the men who delivered God's Word to them. Many would even conclude that it was the messenger's fault. But think for a minute. Who called and sent them the messenger? Who was it who chose "that" particular man? The answer is clearly revealed in God's Word. God did. Jesus said in John 10:4-5, that His sheep hear His voice! Those that are truly sheep know when God's speaks and they know who speaks for God. There is no rebellion against the message of God from His children. But that is not so with the children of this world. They hate the instruction from God and they will rebel against it and the messenger sent of God. Jesus said the time would come when
in the name of religion they would kill the saints of God and think they have done God a service. (John 16:2) Israel's Failures: In Leviticus 25:1-7, God directed the Children of Israel to allow the land to rest each seventh
year. After the forty ninth year they were to declare a special "jubilee" in which all land returned to its original owner and slaves were returned to their families. In Lev. 25:21-22, God promised to bless them abundantly in the sixth year with enough harvest to provide for them in the seventh year when no crops were to be planted or harvested. Israel never kept even one sabbatical year! For four hundred and ninety years all went well
and not obeying God seemed to be of little consequence. Yet, God's day of accounting was coming and now as 2 Chronicles 36:21 says the land would rest for seventy years. They would not be in the land to disturb it. This period is figured from the time of the first deportation in 605 BC until 536 BC when the foundation of the temple was rebuild. (See Dan. 9:2 and Ezra 1:1) If Israel had repented God would have forgiven them and they would be spared this
judgment. They refused. God is loving and merciful and His longsuffering can be seen in that He waited for them to repent for four hundred and ninety years! God wanted Israel to live by faith and live according to His promises, yet they would not.
They refused to trust God to meet their needs. In human terms it was unthinkable to "waste" a year of crops. They would be poorer for trusting God. It was a simple test of their faith. In the six years before the sabbatical year they did not live by faith and their ignoring God's instruction in the seventh was proof they were not living by faith at any time. Background on the Book The modern Bible places the Book of Daniel as the first of the Minor Prophets, as well as did
the LXX (The Septuagint (70), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) and the Vulgate (Latin Bible). However, in the Hebrew Bible the Book of Daniel is placed among the Poetic Books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Ester, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1&2 Chronicles. Daniel was not a prophet in the normal sense because God did not deliver a message through
him directly and publicly to the people. Yet Jesus called Daniel a prophet in Matt. 24:15. Through him God revealed some of the most revealing of all the prophecies of God. The Book is referred to as being the "Book of Revelations" of the Old Testament because both books are apocalyptic. "Apocalyptic" means an unveiling, disclosing or revelation. The Book is believed to have been written in 537 BC after the Captivity was ended. The
liberal scholars (so called by themselves) of the 18th and 19th Century rejected Daniel as the writer of the Book. Their chief premise was that the prophecies in Daniel of the fall of the Babylonian Empire followed by the Persian, Greek and Roman Empires was proof that the Book was written during the Roman period because no could have known of the session of these empires in their correct order. They denied that God could reveal coming history to a man many years in advance. They purported other supposed discrepancies in the Book, however most of their arguments have been proven invalid by modern archaeological discoveries. It is clearly established Daniel could and did write the Book. In Dan. 12:4, he claims to have
written the Book and this is verified in the New Testament by Christ's reference to him. About the Prophet Daniel Daniel's name means, "God is my judge". In Ezekiel 14:14, 20, the righteousness of Daniel
is attested to as well as his wisdom in Ezekiel 28:3. He was born to the royal family and of noble birth (Dan. 1:3,6). His physical appearance is said in Daniel 1:4, as being without blemish and well favored. He lived to the end of the Captivity and was possibly eighty five when he died, if he was taken into captivity at age sixteen. The Book of Daniel covers his life from a teenager to his death as a captive in Babylon.
They Despised the Word of God Mocking and Misusing God's Messengers.
They Refused to Observe the Sabbatical Years