Good Thursday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever read something in God’s Word which impacted you so strongly that you took action and that action became a historic moment in your life or family or maybe even your city? In 539bc that happened in Babylon to the man we met yesterday, Daniel, and it’s a major turning point in “God’s Grand Narrative” history!
Daniel, you’ll recall was taken captive as a teenager from Jerusalem during King Nebuchadnezzar’s first of three invasions of that great city, about the year 605bc. (2 Chron. 36:5-8 & 2 Kings 24:1-7) As far as we know Daniel lived in Babylon for the remainder of his long life and he was elevated by God to the position of Jewish chief advisor to Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and several more emperors who followed him! (Daniel 1:21; 5:1; 6:1; 10:1)
The first six chapters of Daniel’s record are some of his miraculous experiences with God during those years of the Babylonian captivity. You’ll recognize them for they are each famous experiences, like Daniel’s friends surviving the blazing furnace (Daniel 3) or Daniel surviving the lion’s den. (Daniel 6)
Chapter 7-12 are Daniel ‘s accounts of more visions & dreams from God, which are interpreted for Daniel by angels God sent to him, and these chapters are the foundation of a huge amount of prophetic teaching describing events in our world from the days of Daniel through to the time of Jesus and beyond to our time and forward to the end of times in our world!
While God had placed Daniel in Babylon as God’s spokesman to the emperors, God kept his prophet Jeremiah back in demolished Jerusalem where he had been proclaiming God’s messages for more than 40 years. Daniel evidently was receiving copies of what Jeremiah was writing and God gave Daniel remarkable insight from Jeremiah’s messages. Daniel 9:2 says: “I Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years…” Daniel may have been reading in Jeremiah 25, and he may have also received the letter to the exiles from Jeremiah, which we have in Jeremiah 29.
Jeremiah’s letter urged the exiles in Babylon to NOT attempt to flee captivity but rather settle down and be a blessing in Babylon! God said through Jeremiah: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile…and when seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill My good promise to bring you back to this place..” (Jer. 29:7,10)
Daniel immediately went to prayer, seeking to understand what God meant and what he, Daniel, should do about it! (Daniel 9:3) Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9 is one of the great prayers recorded for us in the Bible! And as Daniel prayed, the angel Gabriel came to him with God’s answer which included prophetic insight regarding the time in history from Daniel’s day to the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the second Temple; the future coming of Messiah; the destruction of Jerusalem and the second Temple; the prolonged period when the land of Israel would be under Gentile domination; and even implications for our day and the future time of the great tribulation!
It appears Daniel was so moved by this experience that he sought an audience with Emperor Cyrus, who had recently assimilated Babylon into his great Persian empire. (Daniel 1:21) Evidently Daniel told King Cyrus about Jeremiah’s letter to the Jewish exiles in Babylon and the 70-year captivity prediction. I imagine Daniel also showed King Cyrus another even more specific prophecy written more than 150 years before by the Jewish prophet Isaiah in which King Cyrus was actually named by God as the king who would release the Jewish captives and send them back to Jerusalem to rebuild their city and God’s Temple! Did you get that my friends?
Isaiah had written: “This is what the LORD says – I am the LORD, the Maker of all things…who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt’, and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.” (Is. 44:24-28) Isaiah 45 includes a direct message from God to Cyrus declaring that even though Cyrus did not acknowledge the God of Israel, Cyrus would be used by God to accomplish the return of the Jewish exiles and the rebuild of both Jerusalem and God’s Temple! “This is what the LORD says – I will raise up Cyrus in My righteousness…He will rebuild My city and set My exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty.” (Is. 45:11-13)
While I have no record of what Cyrus may have said to Daniel’s shocking presentations of God’s Word written by two different Jewish prophets 150 years apart, we know King Cyrus took immediate action! The closing words of 2 Chronicles 36, the chapter describing Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem in 586bc, are these: “In the first year of Cyrus king of the Persian kingdom, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD…the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus to make a proclamation throughout his realm…” (2 Chron. 36:22,23) That proclamation, recorded for us in Ezra 1:2-4, was that any Jewish person, anywhere in the Persian Empire, including Babylon, was immediately free to return to their homeland to rebuild Jerusalem! Furthermore, with promised assistance from King Cyrus the Jewish exiles were to rebuild their great Temple for the God of Israel in Jerusalem!
Pause! Do you see God’s direct involvement in shaping history to accomplish His great purposes? These Jewish captive exiles assumed Israel and Jerusalem were finished forever, yet God had promised His Name would be in that city Jerusalem forever! Remember Solomon’s dedication we witnessed a few days ago? (2 Chronicles 7:15,16) Tomorrow we’ll look at Ezra’s record of God leading His exiles back to Jerusalem. For today, what is God saying to you about His sovereignty over all time and how HE is working to accomplish His purpose and how He is including YOU in what He is doing?
More “Lessons Learned” notes are at the Grand Narrative link below and I invite you to worship with a song about Daniel’s great faith in God. That link is below, and I’ll meet you here tomorrow.
“Oh LORD, O God we stand amazed at your unlimited knowledge of the future and your willingness to weave us into your Grand story! Amen”
Today’s Scripture: Dan. 9.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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