Brian Somers Most of us who read the book of Daniel are familiar with the story of Daniel in the Lions’ Den and perhaps, to a lesser extent, Daniel’s three good friends being thrown into the fire. In both cases, our Jewish protagonist(s) miraculously survived with the help of Heaven.
Also, in both cases, these Jewish men were faced with the stark choice of whether to obey their God or the ruling authority. For Daniel’s three friends, that was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. For Daniel himself, it was King Darius of the Medo-Persians who overthrew the Babylonians and conquered their empire.
For those of us in either the Assyrian or Roman Diasporas, we can learn from the example of these four Jewish men when confronted with the same choice that they were.
The four Jewish men arrived in Babylon sometime around 605 B.C.E. That is approximately 20 years before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian army in 586 B.C.E. Their exile was the result of Jerusalem and Judah’s refusal to repent of their transgressions. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied to the rulers and people of Judah. But here we will only concern ourselves with Jeremiah’s prophecies.
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the Lord has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. 4 And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ 7 Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.
8 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the Lord, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Jeremiah 25:1-11
10 “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. 12 And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. 13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’
Jeremiah 16:10-13
Exile is the most severe punishment that the Lord God can give, short of death.
27 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me,
28 then I also will walk contrary to you in fury;
and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.
30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols;
and My soul shall abhor you.
31 I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas.
32 I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.
33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you;
your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land;
then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—
for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.
Leviticus 26:27-35
The Jews exiled to Babylon knew the cause of their exile: their generation and previous generations’ worship of other gods and similar infractions of the Covenant.
They also knew what was promised in Deuteronomy 30:1-3.
“Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, 2 and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you.
Deuteronomy 30:1-3
Therefore, Daniel and his three friends set themselves to serving the Lord their God while in exile. They didn’t want to make the same mistakes in Babylon that got them exiled to Babylon in the first place!
Therefore, when the three young Hebrew men were commanded to bow to the image of Nebuchadnezzar, they refused. When confronted by an angry king over their refusal, they doubled down. It did not matter to them whether or not they lived or died; what mattered to them was they were obedient and faithful to the uttermost.
Indeed, King Nebuchadnezzar challenged them “[a]nd who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” (Daniel 3:15). The NKJV renders “bar elahh” in Daniel 3:25 as the Son of God and ‘illay elahh” in Daniel 3:26 as the “most high God”. YHVH personally answered Nebuchadnezzar’s challenge in response to the faithfulness of the three young Jewish men!
Years later, it was Daniel’s turn. His political enemies knew that he prayed thrice daily towards Jerusalem and decided to set a trap for him in order to get rid of him. They thus deceived King Darius.
It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom one hundred and twenty satraps, to be over the whole kingdom; 2 and over these, three governors, of whom Daniel was one, that the satraps might give account to them, so that the king would suffer no loss. 3 Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm. 4 So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him. 5 Then these men said, “We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”
6 So these governors and satraps thronged before the king, and said thus to him: “King Darius, live forever! 7 All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. 8 Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.” 9 Therefore King Darius signed the written decree.
Daniel 6:1-9
Darius was thus set up as a god to the Medo-Persians. What did Daniel do? He likely mentally shrugged and continued on as he had been doing for decades.
10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.
Daniel 6:10
The rest of the story is well-known, how he was thrown to the lions but saved by an angel sent by YHVH.
YHVH promised not to cast off His people forever.
44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them;
for I am the Lord their God.
45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God:
I am the Lord.’ ”
Leviticus 26:44-45
In addition to what was given in Leviticus above, the same promise was confirmed in Deuteronomy 30. In addition to quoting verses 1-3, this time the rest of the passage is quoted, with particular emphases.
“Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, 2 and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. 5 Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
7 “Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8 And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 30:1-10
For the Jews, leaving Babylon was the response of Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9:1-19 and their turning back to the commandments written in the Law. For those of us in exile among the nations, we are hearing or will hear the call to leave Babylon.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
Revelation 18:4
To leave Babylon as the voice from heaved said requires returning to to the Lord our God as stipulated in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 30. That is the lesson that we learn from Daniel and his three friends, Jewish exiles to ancient Babylon.