16 September

Bible In 365 Days

Daniel 4-6

Daniel 4

The last story connected with the reign of Nebuchadnezzar consisted of the king's own manifesto, setting forth the dealings of the Most High God with him.

The opening ascription of praise is most remarkable when it is remembered that it expressed the conviction of so mighty a monarch as Nebuchadnezzar. The story of the dream which troubled him follows. It came to him in the midst of prosperity and ease in his palace. His magicians were unable to give him an interpretation, and Daniel was brought before him. To him he minutely described his vision.

The fact that the king recalled that his dream was symbolic is evidenced by the change to the use of the masculine pronoun, and the declaration that his heart was to be changed from man's and become like a beast's.

Daniel was "astonished," evidently because he immediately saw the application of the dream to the king, and commenced his interpretation with the courteous address, expressive of his sense of the calamity about to fall on the king. Nevertheless, in loyalty to truth he interpreted its meaning to the king.

He then appealed to Nebuchadnezzar to turn from sin and show mercy to the poor in order that his tranquility might be lengthened.

A year later the dream was fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar did not obey the appeal of Daniel, and while he was boasting that he had built the great city, Babylon, by his own power and for his own glory a voice came from heaven to tell him that the kingdom was departed from him, and that all that Daniel had foretold would be fulfilled. He was immediately stricken with madness and driven out from among men to dwell and eat with the beasts of the field.

Finally, his reason returning, Nebuchadnezzar recognized the God of heaven and was restored to his kingdom, praising the King of Heaven whose works are true and whose ways are judgment.

Daniel 5

The next scene is cast in the reign of Belshazzar. He had succeeded to the throne of his father, and was a man of profligate habits. No details are given of his reign, but a graphic picture is set before us of the carousal which revealed the man, and was the occasion of the final manifestation of his sin, and of the consequent judgment of God.

Having gathered together a thousand of his lords, his wives, and his concubines, he was guilty of the unutterable folly of using in drunken revelry the sacred vessels from the Temple of God. Thereupon appeared a mystic hand, writing on the wall the doom of himself and his kingdom.

As in the reign of his father, the wise men were unable to interpret the meaning of the writing; and Daniel, evidently not now near to the king, who seemed not to know him, was sent for.

Daniel was full of dignity and heroic loyalty to God. With clear, incisive words, he first declined all the king's gifts, and then charged him with his guilt. Continuing, he proclaimed God as seated high over the thrones of earth, and interpreted the writing as indicating God's knowledge of the kingdom, and His determination to end it and divide it among the Medes and Persians.

Daniel 6

The last section in the historic portion of the Book is in the reign of Darius. He reorganized the government and distributed the administration among twenty satraps, who, in turn, were responsible to three presidents. Of these Daniel was one, and he was so distinguished by an excellent spirit that Darius proposed to set him over the whole realm. This naturally stirred up jealousy among the other presidents and satraps, who cunningly planned Daniel's downfall.

Knowing that they would be unable to find anything against him save his relationship to his God, they induced the king to sign a decree that for a period of thirty days no one should ask a petition of God or man, save of the king. This was intended to flatter the king, and to bring Daniel into discredit with him, for his habit of prayer was evidently well known. Daniel's loyalty never swerved. He continued to observe the seasons and acts of worship as had been his custom.

Unable to escape from his own decree, the king was reluctantly compelled to commit Daniel to the den of lions. How high his esteem for Daniel was is evidenced by his spending a night of mourning and fasting. The supremacy of God over all the kings and councils of earth was manifest in the supernatural deliverance of His servant, which issued in a proclamation by Darius.