131 - A Furnace and A Tree

The Fiery Furnace. 

The stories in the book of Daniel are so familiar to most of us that I want to mention only a few, out of the way, thoughts in each of the stories.

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, and its breadth six cubits.  The height to width ratio is ridiculous.  

If its thickness was only six [cubits], how could it stand at a height of sixty cubits? Said Rav Bibi: They would set it up and it would fall, until they brought all the gold of Jerusalem and poured a base around its feet. Rashi's Commentary.  

Since there is so great a disproportion between the height and breadth, some have thought that the height includes the pedestal on which it stood. Gill.

Then a herald cried aloud, ... at the time you hear the sound of ... all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the golden image. 3:1-5.  The three Jewish men around whom this story revolves did not obey the king's command and they were brought before the king to make their defence.  

The king asked, Do you not serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?  In the Jewish Bible, it reads like this, Are my decrees void and desolate and an empty thing in your eyes? Rashi's Commentary.  

But if you do not worship, in that moment you shall be thrown into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. 3:15.  immediately, without any delay; no reprieve will be granted, and much less a pardon: Gill.  

Even your God can't deliver you from that furnace.  Has this king got a short memory, or what?  In the previous chapter, he had said to Daniel, It is true that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings. 

Even though they were given a chance to recant and worship the image, the three heroes refused, so the king spoke and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.  

It is good to remember that in Jewish thinking "seven" represents the ultimate.  Things pertaining to "holiness" or "God" are numbered "7", so are some scheduled events which are said to be directly in God's hands.  With that in mind, it is easy to see that this could simply mean that the furnace was made as hot as possible, maybe not exactly 7 times as hot.

After this ordeal, the king made Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego prosper in the province of Babylon. 3:30.  

The Gigantic Tree

I saw a dream and it terrified me. Dan 4:5.  But at last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar. 4:8.  Finally, Daniel came to the king to explain the dream to the king.  Here is an interesting note on Daniel's heathen name: The deity of Babylon was named Bel. Teshazzar is the name of an expression of wisdom in Aramaic. Rashi's Commentary.  From this, of course, we get Belteshazzar.  One could read this as if the Babylonians called Daniel, "a wise god".

Then Daniel ... was stunned for one hour. Dan 4:19.  It is not possible to designate the exact time denoted by the word “hour”. According to Gesenius (“Lex.”), it means moment of time; properly, a look, a glance, a wink of the eye”.  In Arabic the word means both a moment and an hour. Barnes; see also Strong H1860.

The tree that you saw, which became great and strong, whose height reached to the heaven, into the sky, according to Strong, H8064, this is where the birds fly. 

and the sight of it to all the earth. 4:20.  In dreams, the weirdest things can happen.  

Cut the tree down and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots of it in the earth.  Let his portion be with the animals of the field, until seven times pass over him. 4:23.  King Nebuchadnezzar will be cut down, lose his sanity for 7 years, live with the animals and after 7 years return to the stump that was left of his kingdom.  Again the 7 might simply be a reference to the time appointed by God.

seven periods shall pass over you: We may say that this is the recompense for the Temple (Solomon's temple in Jerusalem), which he destroyed, which was built in seven years. Rashi's Commentary.  People who use that kind of reasoning may say that.  I happen to be a strong believer in coincidence.

Even after this message of hopelessness, Daniel tells the king that there is a chance to repent and make things right with Jehovah by helping the needy.    Therefore, O king, let my advice be pleasing to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.  

Perhaps he can prolong his sovereignty, maybe there will be duration to your prosperity. 4:27.   One can surmise that he did not pay attention to that advice for the Bible tells us that the king's insanity actually happened and that he was not restored until after he finally learned true humility.

130 - The King's Historic Dream

The Book of Daniel

The Book of Daniel is the fifth, the last, book on the shelf called The Major Prophets.  The Jewish scriptures do not include Daniel among the prophets.   In most Protestant Bibles the book has only twelve chapters but in The Apocrypha and in the Roman Catholic Bible it has fourteen.  The first 12 chapters are basically the same. in all Bibles.

Daniel was one of the captives taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar's army.  He soon found favour with the royal court and was promoted to be prime minister.

In the Bibles that have 14 chapters, Chapter 13 is about Susanna, a virtuous Jewish wife, who, because of what happened to her is condemned to death.  Daniel, a shrewd lawyer, proved her to be innocent and so saved her life.

Chapter 14 is about the Babylonian god named "Bel" and how Daniel proved to the king that Bel was not a real God.  The end of chapter 14 makes a feeble, and unconvincing attempt at explaining why it was that the lions did not eat Daniel while he was in the lion's den.

The Final Kingdom

In chapter two is the story of the dream that the king had and he threatened death to his wise men if they could not tell him what he had dreamed and the meaning of the dream. Daniel was included in that group of men. Some of the wise men argued that such a thing was not possible. Daniel requested the king for some extra time. That night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Dan. 2:19.

Daniel tells the dream to the king. This image's head was of fine gold; his breast and his arms were of silver; his belly and his thighs were of bronze; his legs were of iron; his feet were part of iron and part of clay. You watched until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image upon its feet which were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces.

Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together. And they became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 2:32-35.

The following is not the only interpretation of the dream but it seems to be the most prevalent.  Daniel explains the dream to the king:

1.  You are this head of gold. Nebuchadnezzar represents the kingdom of Babylon.

2. after you shall arise another kingdom lower than you. The chest with two arms represented the split kingdom of the Medes and the Persians.

3. another third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth; the Grecian kingdom led by Phillip and Alexander.  It is not at all uncommon for Bible writers to speak of the then known world as being all the earth.  Alexander did have dominion over all the earth, at least in his own opinion; who thought he had conquered the whole world, and wept because there was not another to conquer. Gill.

4. the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron. The two legs represented the Roman kingdom which was founded by Romulus and his twin brother Remus.

5. as to that which you saw: the feet and toes, part of potters' clay and part of iron;  The reference, therefore, seems to be to the blending of the Christianized Roman empire with the pagan nations, a deterioration being the result. Jamieson, Fausset, Brown.  

Or, in other words, the church of Rome allowed pagan and Greek myths to infiltrate the church's creed.  For example, the doctrine of the Trinity.  This stemmed from the Greek's idea that there were many gods.

the kingdom shall be divided.  After the kingdom has been made weak by mixing the truths of Christ with the myths of the Greeks, the kingdom shall be divided between the Western Roman Catholic world and the Eastern Muslim countries.  It has been said that if Christianity would not have preached the pagan doctrine of the Trinity, Mohammid might not have left the Christian church at all.  

But there shall be in it the strength of the iron, the Roman church and the Muslim religion certainly have strength.  They both claim to follow Christ's teaching but they have both often wielded their strength in very unchristlike ways.

because you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. ... they shall be mingled with the seed of men:  The common interpretation says, This may either refer to the attempts to bring about unity by marriages among different races, or to other vain efforts to the same end. but they shall not cleave together, as the iron does not mix itself with earthenware. To obliterate nationalities has always been the conquering despot’s effort, ... and it always fails. MacLaren.

I am inclined to believe that the phrase, the seed of men, refers to the non-Christian theological teachings of the Roman Catholic church and the false teachings of the Muslims. However, iron does not mix with clay and when such a combination is attempted the mixture loses its strength and the statue crumbles.  All manmade dominions will crumble when Jehovah comes to set up His kingdom.

6. in the days of these kings, (the rulers of various countries, the man appointed rulers of the earthly church, and the leaders of the Muslim community) the God of Heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.  The kingdom of the Holy One, blessed be He, which will never be destroyed, is the kingdom of the Messiah.  Rashi's Commentary.  

In our studies of the Major Prophets, we have repeatedly come across this teaching: there will be an unconquerable earthly kingdom set up by Jehovah and administered by Christ.

the kingdom shall not be left to other peoples.  as the Babylonian monarchy to the Medes and Persians; the Persian monarchy to the Greeks; and the Grecian monarchy to the Romans; but this shall not be left to a strange people, but shall be given to the saints of the most High; Gill.  

And the kingdom and rulership, and the greatness of the kingdom under all the heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, (those whom Jehovah sees as saints, not necessarily all those, and not only those, who have been canonized by the Roman Church) whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. 7:27. 

but it, the new kingdom, shall crush and destroy all these previous kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Because you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain (some say, Mt. Zion) without hands, not like all former kingdoms and religious denominations, which were man-made.  The man-made, aspect of the Christian church will be pulverised together with all other kingdoms of the earth.

and that it crushes the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. And they became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them. 7:39-45.  At Christ's return, all former political devices and all other forms of government will be blown away like chaff on a very windy day.

the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.  After Christ's return, there will be only one government and only one system of belief and that government will not be a democracy.

It is fascinating that the Church of the Latter Day Saints claims that they are the stone cut out of the mountain and that their system of belief will, in the end, destroy all other kingdoms and systems of belief.  Such egotism!

129 - Dem Bones; Dem Dry Bones

A Valley of Bones

The hand of Jehovah was on me, ... and made me rest in the midst of a valley.

We ask, "which valley" and end up with several answers: 

1. The Jewish Targum in place of a valley has this valley.  This indicates the valley carved by the River Chebar because that is where Ezekiel was at that time. 
2. Some say it was the "Valley of Dura" where Nebuchadnezzar's army killed many Israelites.
3. I had always imagined it referred to the land of Israel; in Hebrew, "valley" is The same word as “plain”. Barnes, see Strong H1237.
4. However, verse 11, and many other portions of scripture indicate that "valley" is a symbolic word for "the world".  Earlier we noticed this phrase, I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Do not keep back; bring My sons from far and My daughters from the ends of the earth. Isaiah 43:5.  

Souls, come from all parts where ye are scattered; and reanimate these bodies from which ye have been so long separated. The four winds signify all parts - in every direction. EBC

and it was full of bones (many Jews have died over the years) ... they were very dry. Ezekiel 37:1-2.  Seemingly, there was no chance, that they could ever come back to life.

We recall that Ezekiel drew a picture of Jerusalem on a tile for his object lesson.  He also compared his listeners to the useless wood of a vine and to the scum at the top of a boiling pot of meat.  Now he compares the deceased Israelites to a valley of bones.  We need not suppose that he actually saw the bones, he was just painting a verbal picture.


The captive Jews in Babylon then take up this dirge, Our bones are dried and our hope is lost; we are cut off by ourselves.  We are forever estranged from the country our God gave us.  Once we hoped for a coming Messiah, now that hope also is gone.  We were the last hope, of all the tribes of Israel, but now we are cut off by ourselves.  Even if the Messiah could come now He would have no country over which to reign.

A Great Ressurection

However, what seems like the absolute end is not the end - there was a noise. And behold, a shaking! And the bones came near, a bone to its bone.  And I watched. And behold! The sinews and the flesh came up on them, and the skin covered them above. 

But there was no breath in them. ... So says the Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds (the four points of the compass). O Spirit, and breathe on these dead ones so that they may live. ... and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.  

Surely this is nothing less than a picture of the great resurrection at the return of Christ. When every knee shall bow to Me (Jehovah) and every tongue shall confess to God. Rom. 14:11.  Some against their wishes, but still, they will bow and recognize Jehovah as the supreme God!

And He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. vv.7-11.  Ezekiel then makes an issue of the fact that not only will the dead Jews of Judah come back to life but that the Northern tribes of Israel will also be revived and that those that had been two separate people, geographically and religiously, will become one nation and their king will be David; not literally but someone from the lineage of David.


Together with the Israelites, Christians are also looking forward to that resurrection day. 

However, in the careless spiritual attitude of many Christians in our times it is hard to see that anticipation.  Many say they believe that Jesus died for them, that He rose from the tomb and will come back from heaven, but their lifestyle says the exact opposite.  They also will be face to face with Jehovah at His judgement bar.  On that resurrection day you shall know that I am Jehovah when I have opened your graves, O My people, and have brought you up out of your graves. 37:13.  

Things will be different then than they are now.  Nor shall they be defiled with their idols, even with their filthy idols, nor with all of their transgressions. But I will save them out of all their dwelling places, (foreign countries) ... where they sinned, and will cleanse them. And they shall be to Me for a people, and I will be to them for God. 37:23.  This is the tremendous hope also of the Christian Church.