Daniel 1:1-7 - Babylon's Captive Prophet - The Mysteries of God's Word

Journey back to ancient Babylon as we begin our verse-by-verse exploration of one of Scripture's most fascinating prophetic books. The story opens around 607 BC when Nebuchadnezzar first besieges Jerusalem, marking the beginning of Judah's subjugation to Babylonian rule. 

This inaugural episode lays crucial historical groundwork, revealing how the young Daniel-likely only 15 years old-was uprooted from Jerusalem along with other noble youths and thrust into Nebuchadnezzar's sophisticated indoctrination program. We examine the political landscape of the ancient Near East, where Egypt and Babylon competed for dominance as the Assyrian Empire declined, with Judah caught in the crossfire. Understanding this context illuminates why God permitted His people to fall under pagan authority and how He worked through unlikely instruments like Nebuchadnezzar.

The Babylonian strategy went beyond mere military conquest—it involved a comprehensive cultural assimilation campaign. Palace officials changed the Jewish youths' names from those honoring Yahweh to names glorifying Babylonian deities, provided them royal food and wine, and immersed them in Chaldean literature and language. This systematic attempt to reshape their identity foreshadows the challenging decisions about compromise and faithfulness that Daniel would soon face.

Nine of Daniel's twelve chapters contain apocalyptic visions that parallel the Book of Revelation, earning Daniel the distinction of being "the Revelation of the Old Testament." As we continue this series, we'll witness how this remarkable prophet maintained his faith under extreme pressure, influenced kings, and received some of Scripture's most significant prophecies about world empires and end times. Subscribe now to follow Daniel's extraordinary journey from captive to confidant of kings to receiver of divine mysteries.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Daniel Study
• 1:38 Historical Context of Daniel's Exile
• 5:33 Multiple Prophets During Daniel's Time
• 9:48 Nebuchadnezzar Takes Jerusalem's Treasures
• 12:08 Noble Youth Selected for Babylonian Training
• 16:28 Name Changes and Cultural Indoctrination

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

Grace, peace and love be multiplied to you in the name of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. This podcast begins an in-depth study of the book of Daniel. As in all of our podcasts with the mysteries of God's Word, I will be going verse by verse, but because the book of Daniel contains many prophecies, both end-time prophecies as well as prophecies that have already occurred historically, I want to do my research thoroughly. So if there's a week in which I don't post a podcast, know that it's because I want to do my best at bringing you the word of God and dividing it properly.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Now let's start at verse 1 of Daniel. It begins In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. Let's just talk a little bit about verse 1 and the people and places that it's naming. First of all, we see Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim is the third from the last king of Judah. Jehoiakim was actually a vassal king. He came to power under Egyptian authority via the appointment of Pharaoh Necho shortly after his father, josiah, had died in a war with the Pharaoh. So Jehoiakim was a pawn in Egypt's hand. If you will paying tribute to the Egyptians, pharaoh Necho from Egypt actually changed Jehoiakim's name so that Jehoiakim knew he was under Pharaoh's authority and Judah, at this time, had become the tributary of Egypt. And we say Judah because all that was left of the nation of Israel was Judah. The divided kingdom of Israel had fallen a hundred years prior and now Judah had become the tributary of Egypt. Additionally, the Assyrian empire had ruled much of the Middle East for some time, but was now on the way out. The empire of the Assyrians was falling and much of the Middle East was up for grabs, and the two greatest competitors were Egypt and Babylon. Egypt, as we all know, has always been primarily located around the Nile. However, the empire of Babylon is less known. Babylon was in the Mesopotamian plain, a land also known as Shinar, to give a modern-day location for this. It's about 55 miles south of Baghdad, iraq today. And at this time, nebuchadnezzar was just coming to power and it was his first year as king when he came and besieged Jerusalem for the first time. And I say the first time because Nebuchadnezzar actually sieged Jerusalem three separate times. But Nebuchadnezzar's siege on Jerusalem at this time is only to make it his vassal. His primary goal right now is to take away a tributary from Egypt, his enemy, and to make it his to bring the income from Judah his way rather than the way of his enemy.

Speaker 1: 3:56

The first verse talks about this being the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim when Nebuchadnezzar came and besieged Jerusalem. And right off the bat, that seems to contradict what Jeremiah says. When Jeremiah received a word from the Lord, in Jeremiah 25.1, it reads In Jeremiah 25.1 it reads no-transcript. Also, in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 46, verses 1 and 2, reads the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah, the prophet, concerning the nations, about Egypt, concerning the army of Pharaoh, necho, the king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates, at Carchemish, and which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. So we see from the book of Jeremiah that Nebuchadnezzar's military campaign in his first year occurred in the fourth year. So why does Daniel record it in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim?

Speaker 1: 5:20

Well, most scholars believe that Daniel was recording this. According to the Babylonian traditions in which he is about to be raised, daniel didn't include the first year of a king's reign because in Babylonian traditions this was known as the year of ascension of a king's reign, because in Babylonian traditions this was known as the year of ascension of a king, and when we understand that this is, according to Daniel, actually the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign, because the first year is not included under Babylonian traditions and that puts it in harmony with Jeremiah when he says it was the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Now, according to James Usher's Annals of the World, the year of this first siege, when Daniel is taken back to Babylon, is 607 BC. As I said before, this is the first of three sieges that Nebuchadnezzar will bring on Judah. This first siege puts Israel under Babylonian authority rather than Egyptian authority and, again, the purpose of this first siege is simply to put Israel under his authority as a tributary rather than Egypt's authority, as a tributary rather than Egypt's.

Speaker 1: 6:42

I think it's also important to recognize that during the time of Daniel and these 19 years that are left of Judah, in which they will be the vassal of Babylon, there were many prophets that the Lord was bringing forth, warning the people of God. I'd like to name some of them now Zephaniah, the prophet, prophesied for almost 15 years and was ending just around the time Daniel was born. Nahum, the prophet, prophesied for 45 years and was ending just around the time Daniel was exiled. Habakkuk was a prophet who prophesied for about 10 years at the time Daniel was taken into captivity and exiled. Jeremiah, the prophet, could probably be considered the major prophet for Israel at the time of Daniel, and Jeremiah's influence as a prophet lasted for 65 years. Jeremiah prophesied for 35 years before Daniel and then 30 years into Daniel's life. Ezekiel was a prophet right alongside Daniel, as a contemporary for about 50 years. As a contemporary for about 50 years, daniel himself prophesied and bridged the entire 70 years of Babylonian captivity and continued to prophesy for a total of at least 80 years.

Speaker 1: 8:11

And as we talk about the book of Daniel, which we are going to be looking more at, I think it's important to recognize that nine of the 12 chapters in Daniel are prophetic revelations about God's future plans for the world, and they come to Daniel in dreams and visions. The book of Daniel is to the Old Testament. What revelation is to the New Testament? Verse 2 of Daniel says and the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the vessels of the house of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God. Here in verse 2, daniel records how the Lord gave Jehoiakim into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Both Daniel and the prophet Jeremiah record how Nebuchadnezzar was used as an instrument of God against the sin of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar, at this time, was a pagan and worshipped pagan gods, but yet the prophets tell us that God used this king and moved him to punish his people and become the dominant king because his people had sinned against him. When Jehoiakim had been given into Nebuchadnezzar's hand, nebuchadnezzar chained Jehoiakim to take him back to Babylon. We find that in 2 Chronicles 36.6. However, we also read that Jehoiakim was allowed to stay in Jerusalem and at his own home. It's safe to assume that, based upon promises of subjection, nebuchadnezzar allowed Jehoiakim to remain as the king in Judah.

Speaker 1: 10:10

As we stated earlier, it wasn't Nebuchadnezzar's desire at this time to change the civil laws of the Israelites or to change their worship or to change their worship. At this time, his primary goal was to make Israelite a vassal and a tributary to Babylon, instead of being a tributary to Egypt. It was at this time that Nebuchadnezzar took with him some of the finest of the priestly instruments from the house of God. He didn't take everything at this time. This wasn't the time where he looted the entire house of God. In fact, he left most of the things in the house of God. He left what was needed for continuing public worship at this time and he didn't try to change the religious worship. It won't be for another eight years until Nebuchadnezzar comes and takes all of the treasuries from the house of God, and we're told that Nebuchadnezzar brought it back to the land of Shinar.

Speaker 1: 11:14

Now, the land of Shinar was a plain in the lower Euphrates Tigris River system, the lower Euphrates-Tigris River system. The name the land of Shinar originated way back around the time of Noah, ever since Noah's family came down from the mountains of Ararat and they settled in the plains of Shinar. That can be found in Genesis 11 too. It was here in these plains that the original tower of Babel was erected, and now it is the location of Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom of Babylon, verse 3,.

Speaker 1: 11:55

Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility Youths, without blemish of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning and competent, to stand in the king's palace and to teach them literature and language of the Chaldeans. In verses 3 and 4, we see that after this first siege of Jerusalem, nebuchadnezzar took the most promising young men from noble families to be trained in his kingdom. These were young men that were healthy, attractive and had a good foundational education. The Hebrew word for youth here means boys or children, so these young men were very likely between the ages of 13 and 16. Daniel was probably around the age of 15 when he was taken, and they all came from noble families and they were being educated in affairs of state. They were being educated at the palace of the king. By taking these young men, nebuchadnezzar wasn't only improving his own kingdom, but he was demoralizing and impairing the nation of Judah, which he would later completely conquer. And then Nebuchadnezzar had these young boys brought back to Babylon so that they might be indoctrinated into his education program and into the ways of Babylon, so that they might serve him in his kingdom. As I researched this, I found that some scholars believed that Nebuchadnezzar had a similar thinking to Alexander the Great, who would take the best minds from any kingdom and bring them into his for his purpose, while other scholars believe that Nebuchadnezzar wanted rulers from Judah trained as leaders, so that when he would eventually conquer Judah, he'd have leaders who could relate and rule the nation of Judah that he would conquer. Perhaps both of those are true.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Verse 5. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. In verse 5, we see that the king assigned these noble boys from Israel a daily portion of the food that he himself ate and the wine that he himself drank. The Hebrew word for food here means rich food. This was delicacies. The best of the best is what the king ate. Of course he did, and he was giving the best of all of the land, the richest delicacies in all of Babylon, to these young noble boys Now in Babylon.

Speaker 1: 15:09

Surely it must have been considered a great honor to eat the food that the king ate, but this brought an immediate temptation for Daniel and his companions to begin assimilating into this idolatrous and self-indulgent culture. This was in fact part of the indoctrination into Babylonian royalty that was being taught to Daniel and the other Jews, and the training that Daniel was about to receive would last for three years of his life, learning Babylonian culture and the Babylonian language. And at the end of those three years all of these young students would come to stand before King Nebuchadnezzar and they would have to present themselves and be approved by the king. One can only imagine what kind of pressure that must have put on these young men. Verse 6 and 7. Among them were Daniel, hananiah, mishael and Azariah of the tribe of Judah, and the chief of the eunuchs gave them names Daniel, he called Bilchitzar. Hananiah, he called Shadrach. Mishael, he called Meshach. And Azariah, he called Abednego.

Speaker 1: 16:40

In our last two verses for the day, we see that a major part of this indoctrination into Babylonian culture was to change the names of these young boys. In fact, changing their names was quite significant because their names used to link them back to Yahweh, the one true God of Israel, but now these new names link them to the gods of Babylon. As we finish up today, I'm reminded of the great pressure that comes with being indoctrinated into an idolatrous culture with expectations of performing for authority, and I'm also encouraged in my heart by what I know. I'm going to read in the next few verses about Daniel's faithfulness. Until next week, my friends, my brothers and my sisters. God bless you this week.