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Thus Say The Prophets
Prophet Daniel

Nebuchadnezzar becomes King of Babylon

Following the global flood, the One God granted the political and spiritual authority of the earth to the descendants of Noah's son Shem (Genesis 9:8-18). The descendants of Noah's son Japheth, including the Medes, Persians, Cimmerians, Cimbri, Celts, Scythians, Russians, Greeks, Anglo-Saxons, Syrians, Thracians, Armenians, many peoples of Asia Minor and Major, the Sicilians, Cypriots, etc., were directed to "dwell in the tents of Shem" and assist them in their work of purifying and elevating the earth back to the lost state of Gan Eden (Genesis 9:27). The descendants of Noah's son Ham were to care for the earth and support the other two groups' spiritual development as farmers and caregivers of the planet. But that's not what Noah's sons did.

The initial lineage of Shem included the Semitic Hebrews through Sarah and the Semitic Arabs through Hagar, the Akkadians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, the diverse people living to the east of Babylon and the Persian Gulf (the Persians themselves were not Semitic), the Assyrians, the Northern Arabs, and others. The evil King Nimrod, builder of the Tower of Babel, was Semitic. His name derives from the Semitic root מרד (mered), meaning "to rebel," so Nimrod likely means "rebel" or as Genesis says, "A mighty hunter in opposition to Adonai." His name relates to the Sumerian name "Ninurta," the Assyrian god of hunting and warfare.

Eventually, because so many of these Semitic people bent their knee to the Globalist Nephilim and their ba'alim gods, including Avraham's own father Terra, the specific blessings God had granted to the entire Shemitic lineage were narrowed by HaShem to the descendants of Avraham and Sarah. Because of this, we see so many of the biblical and current conflicts occurring between the diverse Shemitic communities, all claiming the Covenant rejected by their ancestors. The Medes and Persians featured prominently in Daniel lived in what is now Iran (the Medes to the north) and were Indo-Europeans, descendants of Japheth. With this divine proclamation, the Shemitic Covenant excluded the line of Ishmael, including the Arabs and others, as described in Genesis 17:20,21:

God said, "Nevertheless, Sarah, your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Yitzhak [Isaac], and I will maintain My Covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring to come.

As for Ishmael, I have heeded your request. I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and exceedingly numerous. He shall be the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation.

But My covenant I will maintain with Yitzhak, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year."

Later, Yitzchak fathered our father Ya'akov (Jacob), who fathered the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

In this way, because of the sins of the Shemites, God narrowed the specific blessings granted to the Shemitic lineage to the descendants of Avraham and Sarah. The Covenant now excluded the line of Ishmael as described in Genesis 17:20,21.

In time, the ten Northern Tribes of Israel also turned their backs on HaShem. They chose to abandon His Covenant and assimilate with the enemies of Judah, so HaShem "divorced" them, as recorded in II Kings 17:18 and Jeremiah 3:8. This left only the Southern Kingdom of Judah and Benjamin in the Covenant. But they also rebelled, so God sent them into the Babylonian captivity, where we find them as we begin our study of the Book of Daniel.

Because of Judah's sins, God gave the known world to the Shemite Nebuchadnezzar, a descendant of Nimrod and Semiraimis of Babel. Because of Isreal's current sins, God will soon give the known world over to the "One More Cruel Than Haman," a man of Nimrod would approve of. The Holy Prophets describe both, so it behooves us to understand what has happened and what is now happening. And that it was all ordered by HaShem because of our ongoing rebelliousness:

Jeremiah 27
At the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from GOD:
Thus said GOD to me: Make for yourself thongs and bars of a yoke, and put them on your neck.
And send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, by envoys who have come to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem;
and give them this charge to their masters: Thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Say this to your masters:
"It is I who made the earth, and the humans and animals that are on the earth, by My great might and My outstretched arm; and I give it to whomever I deem proper.
I herewith deliver all these lands to My servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon; I even give him the wild beasts to serve him.
All nations shall serve him, his son and his grandson—until the turn of his own land comes, when many nations and great kings shall subjugate him.
The nation or kingdom that does not serve him—King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon—and does not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will visit—declares GOD —with sword, famine, and pestilence, until I have destroyed it by his hands.
As for you, give no heed to your prophets, augurs, dreamers, diviners, and sorcerers, who say to you, 'Do not serve the king of Babylon.' For they prophesy falsely to you—with the result that you shall be banished from your land; I will drive you out and you shall perish. But the nation that puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serves him, will be left by Me on its own soil—declares GOD —to till it and dwell on it."
I also spoke to King Zedekiah of Judah in just the same way: "Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and live!
Otherwise you will die together with your people, by sword, famine, and pestilence, as GOD has decreed against any nation that does not serve the king of Babylon.
Give no heed to the words of the prophets who say to you, 'Do not serve the king of Babylon,' for they prophesy falsely to you.
I have not sent them—declares GOD —and they prophesy falsely in My name, with the result that I will drive you out and you shall perish, together with the prophets who prophesy to you."
And to the priests and to all that people I said: "Thus said GOD: Give no heed to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, 'The vessels of the House of GOD shall shortly be brought back from Babylon,' for they prophesy falsely to you.
Give them no heed. Serve the king of Babylon, and live! Otherwise this city shall become a ruin.
If they are really prophets and the word of GOD is with them, let them intercede with GOD of Hosts not to let the vessels remaining in the House of GOD, in the royal palace of Judah, and in Jerusalem, go to Babylon!
"For thus said GOD of Hosts concerning the columns, the tank, the stands, and the rest of the vessels remaining in this city, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take when he exiled King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem; for thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels remaining in the House of GOD, in the royal palace of Judah, and in Jerusalem:
They shall be brought to Babylon, and there they shall remain, until I take note of them—declares GOD of Hosts—and bring them up and restore them to this place."

When Israel obeys God, we are blessed and protected from our enemies. When we disobey God and support evil as we collectively are today, HaShem removes His blessings, allows our enemies to harm us, and takes back what He has given us. BUT His wrath does not burn forever. He forgives and restores us when we make teshuvah and return to Him. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, was "divorced" by God and erased from His sight. But God will restore the Ten Houses in the time of the Mashiach. Through their teshuvah, Judah will welcome Ephraim back into the restored Commonwealth of Israel.

HaShem never divorced Judah, but He did set her aside for a time, as Daniel describes in his second chapter (the Statue), fourth chapter (the Tree), seventh chapter (the Four Beasts), and elsewhere when he foretells of the future Gentile Empires that will rule the over us (see also Jeremiah 25:11).

Then, in 1948, Judah returned to the world scene as the modern nation of Israel, but with an increasingly rebellious spirit of secularism. Rabbi Meir Kahane and others tried to warn them, but they refused to listen. For this reason, HaShem is allowing other nations to harass and oppress Israel to this day. The Hitlerian chant echoing around the world today, "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free," means free of Jews from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean. Complete genocide is their goal. According to the Rabbinic Sages:

Sanhedrin Folio 97a and b: ...Thus has Rabbi Johanan said: in the generation when the son of David [i.e. Messiah] will come, scholars will be few in number, and as for the rest, their eyes will fail through sorrow and grief. Multitudes of trouble and evil decrees will be promulgated anew, each new evil coming with haste before the other has ended.'

Rab replied: All the predestined dates [for redemption] have passed, and the matter [now] depends only on repentance and good deeds. Rabbi Eliezer said: if Israel repents, they will be redeemed; if not, they will not be redeemed. Rabbi Joshua said to him, if they do not repent, they will not be redeemed! [i.e. not so] But the Holy One, blessed be He, will set up a king over them, whose decrees shall be as cruel as Haman's, whereby Israel shall engage in repentance, and He will thus bring them back to the right path.

The Global government of this coming despot is now being set up as Daniel and others foretold, and all the nations are now bowing before its coming despot. But these days, too, will pass once our King, Mashiach ben David, takes to the Throne of David, his father. May that day come soon. The Book of Daniel reveals how this great redemption will happen.

We begin.

1:1 In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it.

This was foretold by Prophet Isaiah and yet Judah did not make teshuvah (repent) which would have prevented it. As is written:

The Prophet Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, "Hear the word of Adonai Tzevaot ["the Lord of Hosts"]: Behold, the days come, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers laid up in store until this day, will be carried to Babylon: Nothing will be left, says Adonai. And of your sons that will issue from you, which you will birth, they will be taken away from you. They will be eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon" - Isaiah 39:5-7.

Jehoiakim was the eighteenth King of Judah. He reigned from 609 to 598 BCE. Although Daniel is primarily a book of prophecy, it is historically accurate in its telling of the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. Scholars sometimes debate the timeline and dates, but what is known historically places Daniel well within known history and these events as he presents them.

1:2 Adonai delivered King Jehoiakim of Judah into his power, together 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; he deposited the vessels in the treasury of his god.

Rashi notes: God took [them], and some of them remained, as is stated [in Jeremiah 27:19]: "So has Adonai Tzevaot said concerning the pillars, concerning the sea, concerning the bases, and concerning the rest of the vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar did not take into exile."

When we turn away from His Derech (Way), Adonai punishes us in various ways to bring us back into harmony with Him, which is why Adonai took the Kingdom away from Jehoiakim and sent Israel into exile. The stream of prophecy demonstrates how HaShem is always leading us back to Him to eventually establish us in eternal devekut or attachment to Him.

Note that according to Jeremiah 25:8-11, this captivity occurred in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Still, Daniel places it in the third year, apparently because Nebuchadnezzar set out on his expedition near the close of the third year of Jehoiakim's reign-from which point Daniel reckons-but he did not accomplish the subjugation of Jerusalem until about the ninth month of the following year. Jeremiah reckons from this point. This historic event marks the beginning of what some call "the Times of the Gentiles" and the beginning of the Diaspora, as we will discuss shortly. This conquest marked the end of Jewish self-rule until 1948.

1:3,4 Then the king [Nebuchadnezzar] ordered Ashpenaz, his chief officer, to bring some Israelites of royal descent and of the nobility—

youths without blemish, handsome, proficient in all wisdom, knowledgeable and intelligent, and capable of serving in the royal palace—and to teach them the writings and the language of the Chaldeans.

Note that not all of the Judaites were brought into Babylon. It was primarily the higher classes, the better educated, and those of royal noble lineage and wealth. Many Jews remained in Israel as politically impotent vessels of the global Babylonian Empire.

1:5 The king allotted daily rations to them from the king's food and from the wine he drank. They were to be educated for three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king's service.

1:6 Among them were the Judahites Daniel, Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya.

1:7 The chief officer gave them new names; he named Daniel Belteshazzar, Chananya Shadrach, Mishael Meshach, and Azarya Abed-nego.

1:8 Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the king's food or the wine he drank, so he sought permission of the chief officer not to defile himself,

1:9 and God disposed the chief officer to be kind and compassionate toward Daniel.

1:10 The chief officer said to Daniel, "I fear that my lord the king, who allotted food and drink to you, will notice that you look out of sorts, unlike the other youths of your age—and you will put my life in jeopardy with the king."

1:11 Daniel replied to the guard whom the chief officer had put in charge of Daniel, Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya,

1:12 "Please test your servants for ten days, giving us legumes to eat and water to drink.

1:13 Then compare our appearance with that of the youths who eat of the king's food, and do with your servants as you see fit."

1:14 He agreed to this plan of theirs, and tested them for ten days.

1:15 When the ten days were over, they looked better and healthier than all the youths who were eating of the king's food.

1:16 So the guard kept on removing their food, and the wine they were supposed to drink, and gave them legumes.

1:17 God made all four of these young men intelligent and proficient in all writings and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding of visions and dreams of all kinds.

As discussed previously, Daniel was granted an "understanding of visions and dreams of all kinds," and he was undoubtedly a prophet. The other three men with him were righteous but not prophets. God grants wisdom and insights to everyone to varying degrees. However, prophecy is a specific gift of God through which the prophet reestablishes the people's connection with HaShem's Torah, as we discussed previously. A biblical prophet, when speaking in their office, always reveals HaShem wisdom and guidance and is never wrong (Deuteronomy 18:20).

The Talmud teaches that although all truth is contained in the Five Books of Moshe (the Written Torah), due to human fallibility, God established a continuous series of legal and interpretative authority through the Levites, Judges, Kings, and Prophets. As a prophet, Daniel's job was to draw his people back to HaShem and His Torah. The revelations in his book are, therefore, authoritative like all the other prophets, and rejecting his status as such is baseless.

1:18 When the time the king had set for their presentation had come, the chief officer presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.

1:19 The king spoke with them, and of them all none was equal to Daniel, Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya; so these entered the king's service.

1:20 Whenever the king put a question to them requiring wisdom and understanding, he found them to be ten times better than all the magicians and exorcists throughout his realm.

1:21 Daniel was there [i.e., in the Royal Palace] until the first year of King Cyrus.

King Cyrus "the Great" permitted the Jews to return to Eretz Y'israel and rebuild the Holy City and Temple; however, other than for a brief period under the Hasmonians as described in the non-canonical Books of the Maccabees, the Jews did not reestablish political autonomy.

By this point, the Ten Northern Houses of Israel (known collectively as Ephraim) had been "divorced" by God, as stated in II Kings 17:18, for assimilation and spiritual adultery. This spiritual divorcement of 83% of Israel happened circa 721 BCE and Ephraim was carried off into Assyria by King Sargon and disappeared from history. These are the "Lost Tribes of Israel." Only the Jews (Judah and Benjamin) remained, as stated in Jeremiah 3:8.

One hundred and fifteen years after Ten Houses were "lost," Judah's seventy years of captivity in Babylon began circa 606 BCE, as foretold by Prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 24:11. Again, this is all historically collaborated fact.

Continue to Chapter Two

* © This series is by John of AllFaith, © April 12, 1997 (last updated April 21,2024)



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