DBRP_313 DAN.1 ISA.22 2CO.2.14-17 2CO.3

DANIEL 1:
Yesterday in Ezekiel, the land was divided in horizontal bands across the entire width of Israel. We will see the 12 gates of the New Jerusalem again in Revelation.

We start the little but immensely important book of Daniel today. Daniel wrote this sometime between 540 and 530 BC. As Daniel will relate, he was an exile to Babylon starting from 605 BC. For comparison, Ezekiel tells us that he was deported to Babylonia in 597 (and his location beside the Chebar river might have been 75 miles southeast of Babylon). So Daniel would have come to Babylon only 8 years earlier.

For listeners who are in-step with the 2016 calendar release dates, I realize just today that I uncritically followed GNT’s text and footnotes which identity the Daniel Ezekiel mentioned three times as a Ugaritic mythical figure named Danel, rather than being the prophet Daniel. I apologize that I didn’t dig deeper earlier on this topic! Only today I realize that GNT followed the scholarly opinion that was current in the 1960s to 1970s on the identity of Ezekiel’s Danel/Daniel. And liberal scholarly opinion at that time and even today is dead set against the the prophet Daniel living when he said he did. I agree with the two articles I link to here in the episode notes, and I will go back and correct my recordings of Ezekiel 14 and 28 accordingly. I think it plausible that Daniel’s miraculous deeds (publicized even in the king’s proclamations) would have made him famous in Ezekiel’s day. And the remote Ugaritic figure named Danel was not famed to be either wise or righteous.

Article: Did Ezekiel know Daniel?

Wallace: Who is Ezekiel’s Daniel?

Daniel is a wonderful example of what God can do with someone completely surrendered to the Lord. Note Daniel’s devotional habits and how he and his friends completely trusted in God.

The book has two clear sections. The first narrates history, and contains the famous stories we all love. The second is prophecy and revelation. Again, like Ezekiel, much of Daniel reappears in the book of Revelation. And as for the question if Daniel was a real prophet, note that Jesus thought he was!

Translation note:
2 The Lord let him capture King Jehoiakim and seize some of the Temple treasures. He took some prisoners back with him to the temple of his gods in Babylon, and put the captured treasures in the temple storerooms [there in Babylon].

ISAIAH 22:
Yesterday’s prophecies dealt with Babylon, Edom, and Arabia.

2CORINTHIANS 2:14—3:
I want to emphasize the precious verses from the end of chapter 2, and these verses are important for understanding the beginning of chapter 3.

14 (NLT) But thank God! [God/He] has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.
15 Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.
16 To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?
17 You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us.

Check out this episode!