Part 4: Recognizing the Lion is not King

I hope reading the 7 chapters did not seem much. The sneaky goal was to have you all read at least a Bible chapter a day to form a good habit and thus we would complete Daniel. At any rate, feedback from most via the web blog or text has been to continue the series. Which joys my heart that you are enjoying the teaching lessons. I sincerely believe this opportunity to learn and grow together is about the collective whole and God’s word abounding in our lives. Furthermore, my goal is always to put God first. In doing so, I hope to reach that one person or persons who have yet to call Jesus their Lord and Savior. With that we will extend the series ‘’Recognizing the Lion is not King” and conclude with part 6.

Ok so let’s pick up where we left off last week. The Hebrew boys Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah are covered by Jesus in His pre-incarnate (before human flesh) form from the fire. We see the awesomeness of our Lord as that is His goal with us today, to save us from the eternal fire. Thankfully none of us have to go into an oversized pizza oven to experience His grace and loving salvation. After the experience the boys are promoted within the kingdom. As noted, Nebuchadnezzar after living like an animal finally gives up all praise and glory to God. Funny, had Nebuchadnezzar learned from what the Lord told to Jeremiah he could have saved himself a lot of trouble. Read Jeremiah 9:23-24.

As God is true to his word at some point around 563 B.C. (before Christ), Nebuchadnezzar dies and a new King is over Babylon. We know these folks today as Chaldeans. A little history nugget, the B.C./A.D. system is from the ninth century it was adopted by Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne for dating acts of government throughout Europe. The A.D. however is confusing as its Latin for “anno domini” (“in the year of the Lord”) not “after death” as most people think. As I understand it was to represent the year Jesus was born to of course become flesh (incarnate). The new king Belshazzar is now in power over Babylon the events of his reign are roughly 20 years after Nebuchadnezzar’s death around 539 B.C. The most notable event that occurs is the night of a great feast for a thousand of his lords. It was his way of trying to boost morale because they way under impending takeover by the Medo-Persian army led by Darius the Mede (King Cyrus). At some point during the feast they were getting drunk and praising their gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone. Remember the vessels they are drinking from for this feast belong to the temple of God. Nebuchadnezzar who is actually Belshazzar’s grandfather had taken them when he conquered Jerusalem earlier in chapter 1. Read Daniel 1:1-2. If your reading the bible it says father but it was actually interchangeable with grandfather. Which just like his grandfather before him the use of the vessels is their way of challenging God. However, on this night God’s answer to the king challenging his authority was swift. Just like in life today sometimes the writing is on the wall and we need to heed to it.

God supernaturally writes “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN” on the plaster wall where they were feasting. Read Daniel 6:25-28. This clearly frightened the King but the queen had an answer and it was of course Daniel. For clarity the queen is not the wife of Belshazzar. History notes she is either the wife or daughter of Nebuchadnezzar or the wife of Belshazzar’s dad Nabonidus (Nebuchadnezzar’s son) who was co-ruler of the kingdom. He’s mentioned without name in chapter 5 verse 16. Belshazzar offers Daniel to become the third ruler of the kingdom if he interprets for him the writing. Daniel refuses his offerings and tells him the meaning of the writing. It’s amazing how you read this and you see the arrogance of the king even after knowing the humbling his grandfather had experienced at the hand of God prior. However, once Daniel was done the king commanded Daniel be clothed in purple and a gold chain placed around his neck to be third ruler of the kingdom. That however was short lived as that very night Belshazzar is killed.

Lastly, for this week I want you to note the old testament to the new testament correlation. The color purple symbolically represented royalty, majesty and high officials, also luxury, wealth etc… The fact and mockery of Daniel being clothed in a purple garment and gold chain should not go unnoticed. It actually foreshadows the mockery that will happen to the real King of Kings sometime later. Except Jesus had a purple garment and a crown of thorns placed on his head. Read John 19:1-3.