Tag Archives: Iain Duguid

Bible Interpretation, Sunday School

Commentary on Daniel 3 (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego Refuse to Bow)

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The events of chapter three are hard to date, but it seems that they take place within a few years of Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Inspired by the statue in the dream, the king builds a statue which is 90 feet high, ten feet wide, and overlaid with gold. This is the height of a nine story building. The statue is built on an elevated plain outside of the ancient city of Babylon. Construction on the plain would make the statue easy to see from a long distance. J. Dwight Pentecost, in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, writes,

Archeologists have uncovered a large square made of brick some six miles southeast of Babylon, which may have been the base for this image. Since this base is in the center of a wide plain, the image’s height would have been impressive. Also its proximity to Babylon would have served as a suitable rallying point for the king’s officials.

It is unclear whether the statue is made to look like Nebuchadnezzar or one of the gods of the Babylonians. It may have even been a mixture of the two. In any case, the image carved into the statue was meant to be worshiped.

When the statue is finished, Nebuchadnezzar assembles Babylonian government officials from all over the empire. There are likely hundreds of these officials brought to dedicate the image. Pentecost explains who is in attendance.

The satraps were chief representatives of the king, the prefects were military commanders, and the governors were civil administrators. The advisers were counselors to those in governmental authority. The treasurers administered the funds of the kingdom, the judges were administrators of the law, and the magistrates passed judgment in keeping with the law. The other provincial officials were probably subordinates of the satraps. This list of officers probably included all who served in any official capacity under Nebuchadnezzar.

As they are standing in front of the statue, a herald announces that when the orchestra begins to play, everyone is to bow down and worship the image Nebuchadnezzar has built. Refusal to bow down to the statue will result in execution by furnace. The furnace that had likely been used to build the statue was now acting as a death chamber.

Why would Nebuchadnezzar build this giant gold statue and then command his government officials to bow down and worship the statue? His reasoning is likely that it would unite his new empire and consolidate his authority. Iain M. Duguid, in Daniel, Reformed Expository Commentary, notes that

this act of worship was designed to reverse the consequences of the original Tower of Babel by unifying the whole world in an act of submission to this statue. When the music of a cacophony of different instruments sounded, everyone was to bow down to the statue. Sure enough, when the music rang out, ‘all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up’ (3:7). For a moment, the whole world was united in bowing to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. The curse of Babel had, it seemed, successfully been reversed.

When the orchestra begins, everyone bows down except for three men – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Unnamed officials, who are undoubtedly jealous of the powers given to the three Jewish men, inform Nebuchadnezzar that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not bow down as commanded. No mention is made of Daniel, so it seems that he was not required to attend the ceremony. He was perhaps left in the city of Babylon to administer while the rest of the government attended the dedication of the gold statue.

Nebuchadnezzar brings the three Jews before him and gives them one more chance to bow down to the statue. The three Jewish men refuse and express confidence that God will save them from the furnace, but even if He does not, they will still not worship the gods of Babylon. Duguid explains,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not presume to predict what the outcome would be in their case. If God were our servant, or our accomplice, he would be predictable: he would always do our bidding. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego understood that since God is sovereign, however, it was his choice whether he opted to be glorified in their deaths or through their dramatic deliverance. Either way, it didn’t make a difference to their decision. Whether they were miraculously delivered or left to burn in the fire, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not compromise their commitment to the Lord. Live or die, they would be faithful to their God.

Nebuchadnezzar orders the furnace to be heated to maximum intensity. Soldiers tie up the Jews and carry them to the opening in the top of the furnace and drop them in. The fire is so intense that the soldiers carrying the Jews are killed by the flames shooting out the top.

As Nebuchadnezzar watches at a safe distance, he is shocked at what he sees. The furnace would have an opening on the side of it where fuel could be added and ashes could be removed. As the king peers into this opening, he sees four people walking around, apparently unharmed. The fourth person appears to be some sort of divine being. The identity of this divine being could be an angel or the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ Himself. It’s impossible to know from the text.

The king approaches the furnace and orders the three Jews to come out of the opening on the side. When they step out of the furnace, they are untouched by the fire. In fact, their clothes do not even smell from the fire of the furnace.

The king, who has clearly seen a miracle, praises the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego for saving their lives. He then decrees that anyone who speaks against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be executed and have their property destroyed.

Although Nebuchadnezzar has just seen a miracle, he still does not pledge his personal allegiance to Yahweh. He merely expresses respect for the God of the Jews. Why is this? Duguid offers the following analysis:

Yet even great miracles don’t have the power in themselves to change people’s hearts. People will always find a way to explain them away. So too Nebuchadnezzar’s heart was not changed at a deep level by this experience. The God of whom he spoke was still ‘the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,’ or ‘their God,’ not his own. He still would not fall down in the face of this revelation of the Lord’s power and confess, ‘My Lord and my God.’

Sadly, there are many who respond in exactly the same way to the message of the cross and resurrection of Christ, and other demonstrations of God’s mighty power. When you tell them what the Lord has done, they say, ‘I’m glad you’ve found something that works for you. I’m happy for you. But don’t ask me to submit to your God.’ Sooner or later, though, they will be forced to bow their knee before the Lord and confess his power and his glory. Such a confession on that day will save no one: it will be a bare recognition of the nature of reality. The confession that saves is the one that bows joyfully now before the Lord and confesses him, ‘My Lord and my God, my only hope in life and death.’

Bible Interpretation, Sunday School

Commentary on Daniel 2 (Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream)

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Three years after Daniel is brought to Babylon (602 BC), King Nebuchadnezzar has a recurring dream. He knows the dream is significant, so he asks the wise men who serve him to interpret the dream for him. There is a catch, though. He will not tell them what he dreamed; they have to figure that out for themselves, and then interpret its meaning. The wise men complain that only the gods could possibly know his dream and that what he asks is impossible.

It is interesting to note exactly what the wise men say to the king: “The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” The Babylonians are convinced that the gods do not dwell in the flesh, yet this is exactly what would happen 600 years later when Jesus Christ is born. Jesus’s birth completely refutes the pagan theology of the Babylonians, for He is God in the flesh.

The king then passes a death sentence on all the wise men in Babylon, for he has become convinced that they are all frauds. Daniel learns about the king’s decree and seeks a stay of execution from the king so that Daniel can have some time to figure out the dream and its interpretation.

Why is Nebuchadnezzar so anxious about the dream and why does he seemingly overreact when his wise men cannot tell him what the dream is? Stephen R. Miller, in vol. 18, Daniel, The New American Commentary, speculates that

the king probably felt that the dream foretold some terrible disaster that was going to befall him. After all, Nebuchadnezzar had seen a manlike statue destroyed, which he likely associated with himself or his empire. He may well have felt insecure about his newly acquired kingdom, and he may have considered the destruction of the statue a divine omen to him that he and his empire were doomed. Perhaps this led him to believe that someone was planning to assassinate him and take away his kingdom. With intrigue in the courts of that day common, such was a real possibility (two out of the next three Babylonian kings were assassinated). Traitors may have been in his midst planning to overthrow his government at that very moment. Since a coup usually was perpetrated by the military or the court, the king may have wondered if some of these very wise men were plotting against him. Thus he was not reluctant to rid himself of them.

Daniel and his three friends start praying to God that He will reveal the dream to them. That very night God reveals the dream and its meaning to Daniel in a vision. After offering a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God, Daniel promptly seeks an audience with the king to reveal the dream and its meaning. Daniel gives all the credit for the revelation of the dream to the “God in heaven” whom Daniel worships. Daniel agrees with the previous wise men that no human being could discover the mystery of the dream, but only the one true God who knows everything.

In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he is standing in front of a massive statue. The statue is composed of 1) a head made of gold, 2) chest and arms of silver, 3) torso and thighs of bronze, 4) legs of iron, and 5) and feet made of a mixture of iron and clay. As the dream progresses, a rock, which is supernaturally cut out from a mountain, strikes the feet and destroys them, after which the entire statue disintegrates into dust and is blown away with the wind. The rock then grows in size until it is as big as the entire earth.

But what does this dream mean? Daniel explains that the head of gold symbolizes the Babylonian empire led by Nebuchadnezzar. His kingdom will be followed by another (the silver kingdom), and that kingdom will be followed by another (the bronze kingdom), and then finally the fourth kingdom will arise (the iron and clay kingdom). The rock that destroys the statue is a kingdom set up by God Himself. God’s kingdom will eradicate all of the human kingdoms and it will stand forever.

So what are the three kingdoms in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream? Most conservative scholars identify the silver kingdom as Medo-Persia, the empire that topples the Babylonians in 539 BC, initially led by Cyrus the Great.  The bronze kingdom is the Greek empire. The Greeks defeat the Medo-Persians in 332 BC. Alexander the Great is the first leader of the Greek empire. The iron kingdom is the Roman empire, which begins in 146 BC and would last 500 years before its split into east and west.

Most scholars likewise recognize that the rock which destroys the human kingdoms is Jesus Christ at His second coming. When the Messiah returns, He will set up his kingdom on earth and it will have no end.

How do we know Jesus is the rock in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream? In Luke 20, Jesus tells the parable of the son of the vineyard owner. In that parable (verses 17-18), Jesus quotes from Daniel 2 in reference to the rock. He identifies Himself as the Messiah, the rock which will crush the kingdoms of the world. Clearly Jesus believes that He is the rock of Daniel 2.

Nebuchadnezzar is amazed by Daniel and his God and he pays homage to them. As a reward to Daniel, he promotes him to ruler of the province of Babylon (the city) and also leader of all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel asks that his three friends also be promoted to serve Daniel in the province of Babylon, and his request is granted. Even though Daniel is probably not even yet twenty years old, he has become one of the most important people in the entire Babylonian empire.

The primary purpose of this story is to communicate the triumph of Daniel over the Babylonian wise men. Daniel serves an all-powerful, all-knowing God who can reveal to Daniel what the future holds. The Babylonian wise men worship false gods who know nothing about the future.

Additionally, Daniel 2 teaches us about the broad sweep of human history. Each of the successive world empires is inferior to the former – gold to silver to bronze to iron. There is a progressive decay in the world of men. Iain M. Duguid, in Daniel, Reformed Expository Commentary, writes,

In a real sense, this is not simply a vision of the decline and fall of the Babylonian empire and its immediate successors, but an epitaph for human history. The entire human endeavor, though gifted and blessed by God in the beginning with unparalleled glory and dominion, ends up in nothing but division and dissolution.

This vision of mankind runs counter to the narrative popular in our day, that mankind is improving itself and world we live in. Duguid explains the significance of the rock destroying the statue:

The final word of history does not lie with a new and improved version of the statue of man. Rather, it lies with something radical that God will do: a rock that is not hewn by human hands will strike and demolish the statue and then grow to fill the earth (Dan. 2:34–35). This rock clearly points to the kingdom that God will establish in the last days, a kingdom that starts small and lacking in glory but grows through the power of God until it ultimately dominates the entire globe and becomes the ultimate fact of history. Only that divine kingdom is eternal.

Bible Interpretation, Books of the Bible, Sunday School

Commentary on Daniel 1 (Daniel Resolves to Obey God in Babylon)

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The traditional view of the book of Daniel is that it was written by Daniel or an associate of Daniel and completed around 530 BC. Some biblical scholars are skeptical that Daniel wrote the book and they attribute it to a second century BC Jew writing during the Maccabean revolt. More will be said about this in a subsequent blog post.

Assuming Daniel actually wrote the book, his purpose was to encourage the Jewish exile community. He reminded them that God is in control of everything and that in the future God would restore His people.

Daniel is also unique because it is the first example of apocalyptic literature in the Bible. Stephen R. Miller, in vol. 18, Daniel, The New American Commentary, explains what the apocalyptic genre is.

Canonical apocalyptic should be viewed positively as a method (or genre) employed by God to ‘unveil’ wonderful truths to his people. What is unveiled by apocalyptic? Two truths stand out. First, apocalyptic grants the world a glimpse of God himself. In Daniel and other apocalyptic works, God is portrayed as sovereign, just, and powerful. He is in control of the universe and the lives of individuals. Second, canonical apocalyptic works unveil the future, not in order to satisfy idle curiosity but as a source of comfort and encouragement to the saints during their time of need.

Daniel is taken to Babylon during the second deportation of Jerusalem in the year 605 BC. Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaria, are evidently part of the royal family, or members of important noble families in Jerusalem. Because they were young (likely under sixteen years of age), intelligent, and physically healthy, they were selected by King Nebuchadnezzar to be trained as royal advisors. Training would typically take about three years and included being thoroughly educated and indoctrinated in Babylonian language, culture, and literature. Stephen Miller provides more details about their education:

They learned to speak and write the language of Babylon, which was a form of Akkadian known as Neo-Babylonian. Akkadian was written in cuneiform, which was made up of wedge-shaped characters, commonly engraved on clay tablets. Archaeologists have uncovered thousands of these texts. Daniel and his friends would have known several other languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic, and, later, Persian.

The chief court official, Ashpenaz, who is administering their education, gives them Babylonian names which they were expected to use going forward. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah became Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Why change their names? Iain Duguid, in Daniel, Reformed Expository Commentary, explains:

In place of their good Hebrew and Yahwistic names, Daniel (‘God is my judge’), Hananiah (‘the Lord is gracious’), Mishael (‘Who is what God is?’), and Azariah (‘The Lord is a helper’), they were assigned pagan, Babylonian names: Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (1:7). These Babylonian names invoked the help of the Babylonian gods, Marduk, Bel, and Nebo, rather than Israel’s Lord.

As part of their training, the four Hebrew youths are fed the same food as the king. This was to presumably keep them healthy because the king would eat only the finest food. Daniel and his four friends, however, did not want to eat the king’s food because it was forbidden by the Mosaic Law. In what sense was the royal food forbidden? Stephen Miller offers the following:

At least two factors would have caused these religious Jews to be reluctant to eat the king’s food. First, many of the foods eaten at the Babylonian court (e.g., pork and horseflesh) would have been unclean according to the law of Moses (cf. Lev 11 and Deut 14), either inherently or because they were not prepared properly; for example, the blood might not have been drained from the meat (cf. Lev 17:13–14). To eat such foods would have been a sin for an Israelite and would have rendered the individual ceremonially unclean before God.

Second, the meat and wine would have been undesirable because a portion of it was (at least on occasions if not always) first offered sacrificially to the Babylonian gods before being sent to the king and was therefore associated with idolatrous worship. Although wine was not forbidden by the Jewish law, Daniel’s aversion to drinking it probably is to be explained by its use as a libation in these pagan rituals.

Daniel asks permission of Ashpenaz to eat only fruits, vegetables, grains, and bread, and only drink water, but Ashpenaz is reluctant to agree to his request because he fears the king will have him killed if he is malnourishing the king’s Hebrew trainees.

So Daniel then moves down the chain of command and proposes to the steward who is overseeing them a ten-day test. If Daniel and his friends look healthy after ten days, the steward would allow them to continue with their preferred diet. The steward agrees and indeed, after ten days, they are healthier looking than the other trainees who are eating the king’s food. Thus they are allowed to continue their diet.

As chapter 1 ends, we learn that God gifts the four Hebrew youths with extraordinary knowledge and wisdom. God also gives Daniel the ability to interpret visions and dreams. When the three years is over, the king tests them and he finds them to be superior to all of the other trainees. They are all given the privilege of serving the king as his advisors. As time moved on, they proved themselves to be Nebuchadnezzar’s most valued advisors. Daniel would remain in the king’s court for decades, serving several different rulers. Daniel was blessed with a long life, probably living for 85-90 years.

Although Daniel and his friends refused to defile themselves with the king’s food, they still accepted jobs in the pagan king’s service. What can we learn from Daniel’s decisions in this chapter? Iain Duguid writes,

They did not refuse to work for the Babylonians, perhaps because they recognized the hand of God in their situation. They understood the word that the Lord gave through Jeremiah, that those whom he had sent to Babylon should labor there for the blessing of the place in which they found themselves (Jer. 29:4–7). As far as possible these young men sought to work within the system in which they had been placed, being good citizens of Babylon as well as of heaven. They didn’t kick against the challenging providence of God, but rather accepted it as their present calling, with all of its trials, pains, and limitations. This reminds us that our calling is not to form Christian ghettoes that are isolated from the world around us. On the contrary, we should be active in pursuing the common good of the community in which God has placed us, whatever challenges may face us.