The Regular Guys Bible Study

Daniel 1

• Ken Strickland • Season 9 • Episode 1

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We launch our study of Daniel with a candid look at exile, identity, and courage in the small choices that shape a life. We read Daniel 1, unpack the royal training program, and explore how quiet resolve can outlast an empire.

• context of Babylonian exile and the temple vessels
• why assimilation was strategic and subtle
• Daniel’s food test as a boundary of worship
• obedience and God-given wisdom over three years
• names, identity, and serving without absorption
• “ten times better” competence rooted in character
• timeline note from Nebuchadnezzar to Cyrus
• what this teaches us about God’s faithfulness

Go to Regular Guys Bible Study on Buzzsprout and leave us a fan mail message to make Ken feel better

Steve's Reference Links:




SPEAKER_01:

You are listening to the Regular Guys Bible Study Podcast, the Bible study for regular guys by regular guys. We are your host, Ken and Steve, and we are just regular guys studying the Bible together. Not theologians. Alrighty, Steve. Alright, apparently. We're back. Yeah, we're back. It's been forever. For it has ever.

SPEAKER_02:

It has been a long break.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And I'm, you know, I'm going to blame you.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm pretty sure at least one of those was all you, and one of those was both of us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I I didn't say whose fault it was, Steve. But what I was saying is I was going to blame you. Oh. I think you're confusing the two. Um, it's, you know, what I've discovered is when you blame someone else, it's really cool because then people think it's not your fault. You see how that works?

SPEAKER_02:

That's why you're such a good manager. That's right. You just blame your employees to your upper management space. And then when you're talking to your employees, you blame upper management.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. Exactly. That's the way you handle management right there. You manage up and you manage down, and then I just twiddle my thumbs. Sounds about right. Yeah. All right, well, guys, uh, this is our very first podcast for Daniel. We are this is only our second attempt at an old testament book. Our first one was Ruth. Um, check it out if you haven't. Uh, and we are going to Daniel now.

SPEAKER_02:

Um and our next one will be numbers or Deuteronomy.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, Deuteronomy. Yeah. No, we're not. We're not doing that. Steve's Steve's going on out on a solo career on uh Deuteronomy.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, our podcast is so popular. I'm gonna do a spin-off podcast on the Bible uh books that no one wants to read.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh man. Hey, Steve, you know, God put those there for a reason.

SPEAKER_02:

He sure did. And there are valid reasons, they're just not fun to read.

SPEAKER_01:

They aren't fun to read. But that being said, I have read all the books of the Bible, and they are all and I I will say, as Paul says in one of those letters, all scripture in one of those books. In one of those books, one of those letters he wrote, he says, All scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching and something.

SPEAKER_02:

Teaching and uh is it rebuking or teaching and um teaching?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. Dang it anyway. Now I'm gonna wonder that that's my paraphrase. I didn't quite finish it. Uh, you know what? Oh no, it says teaching uh all scriptures, God breathe, and useful for teaching. Dot dot dot. That's what it says.

SPEAKER_04:

I thought for sure you just did a chat GPT search while you were waiting.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I did not. Um all right. Well, uh, if you haven't read Daniel chapter one, uh please go ahead and do that um and then come back and you'll be able to discuss it with us. Discuss it with us. No, you can't. You can talk all you want.

SPEAKER_02:

No, you have a place to leave a message.

SPEAKER_01:

There is a place for you to leave a message. Um if you go to hold it. What do we do? If you go to Buzz Sprout, um there is a fan mail place there.

SPEAKER_02:

Um how many how many fan mail letters have we gotten, Ken?

SPEAKER_01:

We have gotten a number that I will I'm not at liberty to say at the moment. Um actually you haven't checked? No, I have actually I haven't checked in a little bit, actually, in a couple of weeks. But the reason why is because we haven't gotten any. And you know what? That makes me sad. When I go and check it and there's no messages there, that makes me a little bit sad. Um, I know people are listening, so you're if you're listening, going, oh, am I the only one listening? No, you're not the only one. There's not, we're not, but you might be. That's not true. That is not true. Uh, but you know, if we charged a dollar per podcast for this, we would still be completely broke.

SPEAKER_02:

That's you know what, guys, if you're listening or gals, I think you should reach out and make Ken feel better and leave a little note. Uh, give us some feedback and tell us how great we are.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so go to regular guys Bible study on uh um on uh Buzz Sprout. Actually, if you go look at any of the descriptions, um any modern description of our podcast, it will have a link to our fan mail uh space. And so you can uh you can click on that, follow it, and leave a message. And I would really would like it. Um, especially if you said something negative about Steve.

SPEAKER_02:

That's oh sweet. I'm always open for uh constructive criticism.

SPEAKER_01:

Um no one said anything about constructive, um, but criticism is you know a blessing. No, I okay, I'm being mean now. No, I'm I apologize, Steve. You always are I apologize. Um I have a buddy that tells me I'm too mean to Steve, um, and I am sometimes too mean to Steve, but it's because he can take it.

SPEAKER_02:

You know what, Ken? Just because of that, yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna bless you with letting you read the shorter section, which is verses one through seven. All right, and I'll read eight through twenty-one.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Wow. Is that a is there I feel like you're you're setting me up here. Is this because of the names? Oh no. Is this because of the names? Okay, that's that's fine. That's fine. That's not a problem. All right, I am gonna read ESV. Is that okay? Is that what you have been reading?

SPEAKER_02:

That is what I am on at the moment.

SPEAKER_01:

I read both. Let's get let's get going. This is Daniel chapter one. In the third, uh I'm sorry, in chapter one, verse one through seven. In the third year of the reign, hold on, I'm gonna stop right there already. Um, should we continue and read the whole thing first? Or like so I finished and then you read and and then we go and talk about the whole thing, or do you want to talk about sections individually?

SPEAKER_02:

I figured we'd talk about the first section and then jump to the second. All right. But so that's our usual mo.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, but uh you never know. Uh Old Testament's just different. It's it is it's stories instead of instruction. Um, and so we we get instruction from the stories, but you know, and and we learn about who God is. So let me get start again. First Daniel chapter one, verse one through seven. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 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. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, the 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 the teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. 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. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Meshael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names Daniel he called Beltashazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mesh Meshal he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

SPEAKER_03:

You did pretty well.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I should But is it Cal Chaldeans or Chaldeans?

SPEAKER_01:

I've always heard Chaldeans, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

It's spelled Chaldeans, but I've always heard Chaldeans, so that's what I said. Who knows?

SPEAKER_03:

Um should we have done an introduction first to the book? Uh it's too late now. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

We can't do it first.

SPEAKER_01:

Should we do an introduction now and like say a little bit about when this book was written?

SPEAKER_02:

If you have something to say, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Well you can say it. Let me just say this. This book was written after David was king, after David and Solomon and all those. I I don't know how far after. I did not go into that much detail. But I do have a short little book intro here that I would like to read.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, and this is yes, so it has to be written after David was king because the temple. Well, after Solomon, this was occurred in time way later than all of that.

SPEAKER_01:

True. That's why it happened afterwards.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, I just don't know why you pointed it out.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, some people don't know. Uh, you know, don't make fun of our listeners, Steve.

SPEAKER_02:

You're my I'm not. I'm making fun of you.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. I was just being all right. Anyway, this is a book intro. I'm gonna read this book intro. It comes from the um the NLT study bible. Um, it says, When Daniel came of age in Babylon, Jerusalem, the holy city, lay in ruins. Babylon was flourishing, but it would soon also soon wither and die. God's people, the children of Israel, were living as exiles in Babylon. Uh, that's not really that's not an intro. Uh hold on.

SPEAKER_03:

All right. This was written.

SPEAKER_01:

This is not the intro that I originally read. Okay, here's the setting. This is what I read. In 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem and captured some Israelites, including some of the young men of Judah. So this is from 605 is when this is occurring.

SPEAKER_03:

Um let's see.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, the question is, uh no, go ahead. That's enough of the intro. It happened in 605.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

That's all we need to know.

SPEAKER_03:

Right now. Right now. Yeah. All right. What do you got, Steve? So in verse 2, it says with some of the vessels of the house of God. Like that should ring of importance for us.

SPEAKER_02:

Or perhaps it's a little bit of foreshadowing.

SPEAKER_03:

Dun dun dun.

SPEAKER_01:

Is it is it foreshadowing?

SPEAKER_02:

I think so.

SPEAKER_01:

What is what is it? Why in what way? What are the vessels?

SPEAKER_02:

Um when we get to the part, and I this is for memory, so don't shoot me if I'm wrong. But why would I recall that what what kind of person does that?

SPEAKER_01:

The stupidest thing I've ever heard. Don't kill me. Don't shoot me. What an idiot. Dang it, I'm being mean again. I'm sorry, Steve.

SPEAKER_02:

There's a lot of things I could say, but the current political climate right now is such that I do not want to even comment on that one.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's probably smart.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh, anyway, so when uh the writing on the wall appears, it is when um Cyrus, I think. Is that right? Is partying and stuff, and he is drinking out of these vessels from the temple of God.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02:

I think.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, that's interesting. All right, let's see.

SPEAKER_02:

But that's not that's not for our like six more chapters or something.

SPEAKER_01:

But that's something to remember. Um, these vessels. So um, you know, there's other translations that use other words. Uh let's see, what does NIV say there instead of vessels? It says um some of the articles from the temple.

SPEAKER_03:

So just like magazine articles?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, Steve. Um just holy items is really what it's talking about. Um now ESV has the literal translation, by the way, of vessels. So it's likely these religious relics are in some kind of bowls or or something.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, the the strongest definition for that uh word is any apparatus as an implement, utensil, dress, vessel, or weapon, it goes on to list a bunch of other stuff.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, well that's interesting, Steve. Let me ask you this. Um why do you think God would allow the Babylonian king to besiege his nation?

SPEAKER_02:

Because they were sinning and not following the law.

SPEAKER_03:

All right.

SPEAKER_02:

He was using Babylon to get Israel back into shape.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Which if if we did a a thorough study of the Old Testament, you would see a repeated cycle over and over and over where they they came close to God and then they fell far away from God, and they came close to God and then they fell far away from God, and then they fell close to God and they fell far away from God.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Good thing we don't do that ourselves.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, never. Alright. Only every day.

SPEAKER_03:

Really? Oh, well, not quite every day. Wow. All right.

SPEAKER_02:

Um I didn't realize that Daniel and his friends were of the nobility.

SPEAKER_01:

That, you know what? I did not either. This is the first time I've ever read this and realized, oh, these guys were either of the royal family of the royal family in some way. Maybe some of them were of the royal family, or of the nobility of the Israel. So they were these were well off, well-educated um uh kids from Israel that were taken taken by the king to be educated um in the Chaldean way.

SPEAKER_02:

But only if they were good looking, because that's important.

SPEAKER_01:

They did have to be handsome.

SPEAKER_02:

It says youths um do you think that with without blemish blemish?

SPEAKER_01:

Youths without blemish, so they could not have any acne scars.

SPEAKER_02:

Or birthmarks.

SPEAKER_01:

Or birthmarks, or um I don't know, other things. This is what your definition of a blemish is, I guess. That's true. But um so it does not say boys.

SPEAKER_03:

But the the people mentioned here are males. Do you think that girls were included here?

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know for sure, but I suspect not.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I agree. I I expect these are male youths. Um because the girls would have been maybe put into the unfortunately into the harem of the king.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. Which if we choose to do um oh, what's her name?

SPEAKER_02:

Such a time as this.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh oh, that is um that's um uh dang it.

SPEAKER_02:

I hate it when I can't remember names.

SPEAKER_01:

That's ridiculous. It's ridiculous that I don't know this.

SPEAKER_03:

Um uh Ezra not Ezra. Um Dang it. Is it not Ezekiel? Not uh Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01:

Naomi Oh, Naomi was in the story of Ruth.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh dang it, what is wrong with this? Why can't is the book not named after her?

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's not.

SPEAKER_01:

It's in like first Samuel or 2nd Samuel or something. Uh anyway, I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, it's gotta be much later than the Samuel.

SPEAKER_03:

Really? I think Esther. It is a book after her. Ah, it is. Yes, Esther.

SPEAKER_02:

In my app, in my app it just says EST, and I'm like, Eastern Standard Time? What?

SPEAKER_01:

I saw something exactly like that and could did not know what it said. Oh, okay. All right. I'm glad that we're showing our stupidity today, Steve.

SPEAKER_02:

We're doing great at that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. All right. So um I'm sorry, I don't even know what you were saying. What was your point? Did you have a point other than the one on your head?

SPEAKER_02:

Just that Esther was put into the harem.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, right, right, right. Yes. And um, and it was God's will, and God saved his people through it. Um, all right. Uh and in the same way, um God had this happen for a reason. Um all right, so let's see. What did he do? He uh he got these so why do you think he's uh wanting to teach these kids? What is what would be the goal of this? What is his goal?

SPEAKER_02:

I suspect that um this was a method of trying to keep the peace if you uh absorbed people into your culture that were of the uh defeated land, and the defeated people perhaps saw this, or these uh trained Jews became the emissaries back in Jerusalem at a later time or something. I think it's just a a smart method of trying to bridge gaps.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. I think I'm gonna relate this to two, I've been a part of two companies that had a let's say a company take over or you know, another company buy them. And in both cases, they did not really um they didn't do enough to undo the culture of the company that they bought. And so the company that they bought never fully embraced the parent company, right? Um, because why would they? They're the enemy. Um and so in my opinion, it's uh it is a way to kind of meld the Jewish community in with the the Chaldeans and hopefully create because you know they overthrew them, they're wanting them to be the same society, just one society, right? Um because that's the only way it'll last. And so I think their goal is to create this um uh you know, change the Jewish culture into the Chaldean culture, uh, or at least melt, you know, modify it enough so that they become one.

SPEAKER_02:

I have some really bad news for you, Ken. Yes. I was part of one of those uh takeovers.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

They only pulled in the attractive people to pull them into the new culture, which is why you you didn't get to partake in it.

SPEAKER_01:

That uh that's hilarious. Yeah, okay. I I didn't realize some of you, some of you privileged, uh, had undergone culture training. Um all right. I deserve that. That was good. Um that was a m you know what your dig was much better than than all of mine put together. So congratulations.

SPEAKER_02:

I win.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

SPEAKER_02:

I guess that's it for the podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Um let's go on. Uh let's see. Uh do you have any other comments about this?

SPEAKER_02:

Um I have one more, but it's toward the end. So if you have something before like verse six, then please speak up.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. So he does all this name changing. And so I looked up what the names meant, both their original name and their new name. I don't know if it's of any real interest, but perhaps it'll spark a conversation. So Daniel means God is my judge. Beltishar means Lord of the Straiten's treasure. Hananiah means God has favored, and Shadrach means royal or the great scribe. Meshal means who is what God is, and Meshach means guest of a king. Azariah means Jehovah has helped, Abednego means servant of Nebo.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So, you know, maybe um it says the chief unit gave them these names. That does not necessarily mean he gave them. Oh, uh, let's see. Uh we don't know exactly if he gave them those names when he first met them or after they had been training for a while. And that's true.

SPEAKER_02:

The Old Testament is very bad at chronologic, chronologically telling a story.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And and you know, some of the chronology actually can get mixed up over time. Um, and I mean of the especially of the details that don't really matter that much. But it sounds like by the names of those that they were given, they were given names based on the their talents or what what how they would serve in the in the king's court.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it does seem that way.

SPEAKER_01:

But what was Daniel's again?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh Beltashazzar is Lord of the Straton's treasure, and Daniel is God is my judge.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, yeah, Beltashazzar. Um, and you know what's interesting about Daniel, we often tell stories, or kids' stories, we talk about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We don't talk about uh what are their names? Uh Ananiah, Meshel, and Azariah.

SPEAKER_02:

But we always use Daniel's original name.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. We don't ever tell stories about Beltashazzar or Belt, whatever. We always talk about Daniel. So, Daniel, we always use his Hebrew name. Um, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednega, we always use the Chaldean name.

SPEAKER_02:

Did you know that the this chapter, and I believe the last chapter, are written in Hebrew, and the rest is written in Aramaic or something like that. I don't remember exactly. But they're in two different languages. It's written in two different languages.

SPEAKER_01:

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02:

You should go watch the YouTube video where the they do the little drawings, um, it's like Bible story or something like that.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll do that.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh that's really because it also it it draws a lot of other poetic sort of symmetries that I would have never caught on my own.

SPEAKER_03:

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

Alright. That's good. I'll do that. Can you send me a link, Steve?

SPEAKER_02:

Sure. I can do that. Yeah. You could even post it, post it with the podcast, right?

SPEAKER_01:

I could, yeah. Yeah, why don't you do that? If you send me the link, I'll post it in the notes uh for the description of the podcast. It'll be right under where the fan mail link is that you could click on first, and then you could click on this to see this little video. All right.

SPEAKER_02:

All right. Are we ready for me to read the rest?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh yeah, let's go on. Um so yeah, read the rest.

SPEAKER_02:

Verse 8. But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear the Lord the king who assigned your food and your drink. For why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king? Then Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Ananiah, Meshael, and Azariah. Test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see. So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. So the steward took away their own took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Meshel, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king, and in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. So um so one thing uh the one thing I notice here is that Daniel doesn't say, hey, me and these other guys, we don't want to defile ourselves on your with this food. Daniel says, I don't want to be defiled by this your food. But it ends up when uh when he approaches, it sounds like when he approaches him, Hananiah, uh Mel and Azariah are also there. And he goes, Oh wee. And I just wonder if Hananiah, Mel, and Azariah agreed with him. So I uh I think that the food that they were offered probably included things like pork and I don't know, shellfish, meat sacrifice to idols, uh too.

SPEAKER_02:

All that stuff that they're not supposed to eat.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

Um and if if the other three were also, which we we know that they are, devoted to God, they would feel the same way.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I agree. I think they agreed, um, or they wouldn't have been there with uh with Daniel. Uh but Daniel's the one that had the courage to speak up um first, anyway. It doesn't mean they won't be able to. It's his book.

SPEAKER_02:

It's his book. He's the leader.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh that's a good point. Um yeah, uh we could if Azariah had spoken up first, this book might be called Azariah. Yep. Yeah, that's a good point. Um so anyway, um, yeah, I so what do you think? Um some people, like Steve, take this to mean that we should eat vegetables.

SPEAKER_03:

I could see where they might take this one passage and make that claim. Okay. But if you go to the New Testament, uh everything is good for eating.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I mean, even um, and they even uh definitely ate meat at the Passover and other feasts, and right and they were not vegetarians, and this is not a story about saying uh you should be a vegetarian. This is a story about being obedient to God.

SPEAKER_02:

Um yeah, upholding upholding the the laws of um what is it, kosher laws or something like that?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, the kosher laws, I guess. Um and so you know, God had called Israel to eat no unclean thing. Um and those things, certain meats and the way they were prepared are considered unclean.

SPEAKER_02:

So here's a question for you.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

SPEAKER_02:

How many fat, healthy looking vegetarians do you know?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, when you say you said fat and healthy looking.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, so they're fatter in appearance, right? And healthier looking. I most of the vegetarians I know tend to be a little pale and pretty thin.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, uh but most I will say this, most vegetarians uh or a lot of vegetarians don't get enough protein in their diet. Um but uh so I'm I'm actually assuming um they had a good amount of things like legumes and nuts and and are lentils, are lentils a uh lentils are like a high protein thing, right?

SPEAKER_03:

I think so.

SPEAKER_01:

Um anyway, I I assume they got protein from other areas. Um but you know, when we call somebody fat um in our modern culture that has way too much food and way too much really bad for you food, it is not necessarily, it's never a good thing. Oh, you have a nice nice layer of fat on you. Um you're 400 pounds. That's great. Um, but that's that's not the case in the old testament. I mean, um, you know, fat means they're just not skin and bones. They've they've got some meat on them.

SPEAKER_02:

But there have been time periods where being obese or larger than healthy was considered a sign of wealth.

SPEAKER_01:

That's true. That is true, especially in Asian communities. I know my father was uh uh in the Korean War, and he was stationed in um uh uh what Greenland?

SPEAKER_02:

And was he unemployed in Greenland?

SPEAKER_01:

You didn't say it right, Steve. Inconceivable. Unemployed in Greenland! There you go. All right, um, anyway, uh he would say that the the Koreans would come there and the Korean generals when they would come and would want to stop, and uh they were on like something like two and a half rations because it was so cold and stuff. But it he said that was ridiculous. You can't eat that much food, but the Koreans would come and try to get as fat as possible to go back and because it was a status symbol to have uh to be fat. Um and yes, but that's not what we're talking about here, I don't believe.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, and as we continue on this rabbit trail, and the if you look at the uh European European paintings of like I don't know, the Renaissance period, I think.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

A lot of the paintings are of fat women.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, I think we gotta change the subject now.

SPEAKER_02:

Let's say non-athletic.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Um I think that was a sign of wealth, uh, because they don't they don't work with their hands, right? They're they're can sit around, do nothing.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Oh my goodness. Um, all right, so um Daniel and uh Daniel convinced the eunuch that was in charge, give us 10 days, see if we look better, right? And they did it, and they they did look better, right? Than all the others. Um, you know, I don't know if it's because the food was healthier that they were eating or not, um, but I do know that it's big that it had to do with being obedient to God.

SPEAKER_02:

I just had a question coming into my mind as you mentioned the chief of the eunuchs. Okay. Were these four guys turned into eunuchs?

SPEAKER_01:

So I did think uh wonder about that. I think not.

SPEAKER_02:

But the chief of the eunuchs, chief of the eunuchs is the one looking over them.

SPEAKER_01:

But I think weren't the eunuchs used as guards, or were they also all the servants in the in the kingdom?

SPEAKER_04:

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02:

Um so I know it's used as an operating system.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh that's a different eunuchs. That is U N I U N I X. This is U No. Uh U. Where is it? What is this? U N O C H, is that right?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh where is E U N O C H.

SPEAKER_01:

I think. If I can why can I not find this thing? Uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

It's all over the place. And now I suddenly can't find it.

SPEAKER_01:

E U-N-U-C-H-S. There it is. Unix. All right. Gosh, talk about a stupid rabbit trail. All right, we need to get moving on this, Steve.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I don't have that many more notes here.

SPEAKER_01:

That's fine. All right, that's fine. So they tested them for 10 days. They looked better. Um, and so he said, All right, you win. I'm just gonna give you this this food that you've asked for. Um and you know, it's actually they're making the this eunuch look good, right? Because he's their res uh he they are his responsibility. Um, and so he's they are actually making him look good. Um okay, and then it said that um, and while they also looked good, um, over this time, and how long was the time they were being trained? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_02:

I don't.

SPEAKER_01:

Three years. Three years they were to be trained. Um, and you know, Daniel gained understanding and visions and dreams, um, and then at the end of the three-year period, he brings them back together and says, All right, let's see what everybody knows. Um, and you know, he finds that they are better ten times better. I don't know what that means.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh it's like they that means you take like if you take the number one times ten, yeah, you get ten. But if you take ten times ten, you get a hundred.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, I got it. So, in other words, if somebody could um could uh interpret a dream halfway, then Daniel could interpret a dream five times.

SPEAKER_03:

Right? Yes, because that's ten times as good.

SPEAKER_02:

Point five, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, okay, I got it. All right, that makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_02:

Now I think a lot better. They're a lot better, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, all right, let me see. I have another note here in 17. I say, I'm just gonna read my note. I haven't read my note in a while, so I hope it makes sense. I noticed here that it says God gave them these things, these things of learning and wisdom. While I try to take credit for everything in my life, I often find myself patting myself on the back for something I did well, or my uh my wisdom or my skill.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I see feeling a little uh convicted, are you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I was I was feeling a little convicted when I read that um about um so you know God gave them these abilities, and God gives us our abilities, Steve. Um so I think we often I know I often like to take credit for the things uh for my abilities, like even uh it's easy to give God credit for things that just happen.

SPEAKER_02:

But often we like things you work for, but things you work hard for, you act like oh I did that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, um, but the truth is God still did that, and he gave you um everything uh to be able to do that. All right, so first of all, I want to summarize this chapter. Or do you want to summarize the chapter?

SPEAKER_03:

No, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, I'm gonna summarize the chapter and then I'm gonna ask a question. All right, so here's my summary. Um the Babylonian king comes, uh defeats um the Jewish king, takes a bunch of nobles, uh kids, and back, trains them up, um, feeds them well. Daniel and his friends they decide, nope, we can't eat that stupid garbage. That's not uh what God wants us to eat. We'll just eat vegetables and drink water. Um they do that, they look really healthy and they learn a lot, and they're really some of the best ever kids in learning and all that. And the king, after three years, tests them all, and he finds that these four kids, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are all superior to all the rest of his uh of his enchanters and and every all of his servants.

SPEAKER_03:

That's it.

SPEAKER_02:

What can you tell me about King Cyrus? And why do you think the author points him out in the last verse of the first chapter?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. I think he's the next king that takes over for uh who is this Nebuchadnezzar? Is he uh Nebuchadnezzar's son?

SPEAKER_02:

I believe that is wrong. Okay, he is the Persian king that takes over. Oh um, but he shows up in Second Chronicles, in Ezra, in Isaiah. Oh, lots of places then, lots of places, and so you know this kind of prompted me to go look at the timeline of Kings, and it was interesting because I came across this article that talked about how for the longest time the the uh skeptics would criticize the book of Daniel because it they said such and such never existed, yada yada. Um and then later archaeology would reveal something and prove them wrong. Um so like Nebuchadnezzar, I think there was some question about the rule between him and when his son took over. And his son, I don't think his son ruled very long, which we'll get to that. I'm not gonna do a spoiler. Um anyway, it was just an interesting article. I will send that to you as well, and you can put that in the thing for people to read.

SPEAKER_01:

I will. Um, all right, so I have one more question, Steve. So from this chapter, what do we learn about God?

SPEAKER_02:

If you're faithful to his uh demands of us, he will be faithful to us.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, that's a good one. Yep. How did you learn? Okay, uh, no, that's one thing. Um one thing that I learned about God, and it's not that I didn't know, but it's one thing that I this story tells about God is that God will put us through situations that look bad. Um but any any situation that God puts us in, we are called to be his children. Um it's not necessarily bad, it's just the situation that we are in.

SPEAKER_03:

So that's what I think. So God puts us in these situations, and they're not necessarily bad.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, that's all I got.

SPEAKER_02:

They're off those situations are often there to uh hone us, to hone us and to teach us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes. All right, guys, that's all I got. You got anything else, Steve?

SPEAKER_02:

No, this was kind of a long one.

SPEAKER_01:

It was a long one. Um, a lot of that was our own stupidness, but you know, yeah, it's alright. Um, so alright, next week, guys, uh Daniel chapter two. I don't know if we'll do the whole thing. I think it's a longer chapter, um, but we'll see. We'll get uh through what we get what we get through. Study is a chasm LLC production. All rights reserved.

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Ken Strickland

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Steve

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