The Life of Daniel (ch5,6)

Living Rock Church

The Life of Daniel (ch5,6)

part 3

Chris Hamer-Hodges • Daniel, Daniel 5, Daniel 6

In this chapter we are introduced to a new king. The last of the Babylonian kings, Belshazzar. He was not actually the son of Nebuchadnezzar, but his grandson. The words “father” and “son” in the Bible can also mean “ancestor” and “descendant” – e.g. “Son of David.” His mother, the Queen mentioned in this passage, was Nebuchadnezzar’s daughter; hence her insights into his reign.

It is clear from the text and from Daniel’s reaction to him that he was a wicked and self-indulgent king. The scriptures record nothing about his life or reign, only his end. Daniel does not honour him with respect and royal titles as he did towards Nebuchadnezzar, nor does he want any of the king’s rewards. It is obvious from the passage that the king had never consulted Daniel during his entire reign. It is likely that he was a brash youth with no regard for the lessons learned by his forefathers, it is clear anyway that he had not learned from history.

Daniel would no longer be a youth at this point; in fact he was likely in his eighties. But from chapter 1, we know that he remained in royal service until the first year of King Cyrus, so he had not yet retired. He was still going strong; it was the king’s choice to marginalize him during his reign.

The Life of Daniel (ch1,2)

Chris Hamer-Hodges • Daniel, Daniel 1, Daniel 2

The first thing that marks Daniel out in this book is that he had an unshakable sense of identity. He knew who he was, and that determined what he was prepared, or not prepared to do. What determines who we are? When someone asks, "Who are you?" we give them our name. When they ask, "What are you?" we give them our job. We also talk about ourselves in terms of where we live, where we are from, our family and friends. Daniel and his friends had all this taken away from them. They lost their homes, their jobs, their family, friends, their country, their place of worship; even their names were changed. Yet they did not lose their sense of identity. They had something deeper.

The Life of Daniel (ch3,4)

Chris Hamer-Hodges • Daniel, Daniel 3, Daniel 4

Despite the remarkable vision he was given by God, it is obvious from this chapter that Nebuchadnezzar had not learned his lesson. In fact there is much here that would indicate that far from being submitted to God, he was actually being manipulated by Satan. God’s purpose is for all men to worship him as the true God, for his righteous laws to be established on the earth, and for a final judgement where there will be a separation of the wicked and the good, where the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punished in hell. Here we see an evil, false and twisted version of God’s plan to such an extent that it can only have been devised by the devil himself. His aim from the beginning has been to pervert the true worship and purpose of God.

The Visions of Daniel (ch7,8,9)

Chris Hamer-Hodges • Daniel, Daniel 8, Daniel 7, Daniel 9

The second half of the book of Daniel contains the visions that the prophet himself received. The visions contain a lot of symbolism and numbers that many find hard to understand. There are countless theories on how to best interpret these visions. Generally they fall into three main camps. Preterists – Believe the fulfilment of the prophetic revelations is entirely in events that have already taken place. Futurists – Believe the fulfilment of the revelations is yet to take place at the end times. Historicists – Believe the fulfilment spans the whole of human history and look for fulfilments around the world in the news today.