Simmons The Books of Ezekiel and Daniel

Visions of Glory
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-4245-6634-1
Verlag: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 320 Seiten

Reihe: The Passion Translation

The books of Ezekiel and Daniel relate dramatic visions of glory, apocalypse, and ultimate restoration. These revelations comforted the prophets' fellow Babylonian exiles amid devastating chaos and upheaval.   The book of Ezekiel bursts with vivid descriptions of heavenly visions, strong judgments, and incomprehensible divine love. Through it all, God's powerful acts of justice and promises of undeserved covenant blessing display his heart for us to know and adore. The book of Daniel recounts timeless stories of heroes exhibiting unshakable faith and integrity amid their culture's moral and ethical pressures. This extraordinary wisdom encourages and guides us today, while Daniel's stunning apocalyptic visions provide assurance that God is at work even in the darkness of end times.   We gain wisdom and confidence for today from these accounts of YAHWEH preserving his people in exile and majestically proclaiming his plan for their, and our, redemption.   'You will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from everything impure within you.' Ezekiel 36:28-29  

DR. BRIAN SIMMONS is a passionate lover of God. After a dramatic conversion to Christ, Brian knew that God was calling him to go to the unreached people of the world and present the gospel of God's grace to all who would listen. With his wife, Candice, and their three children, he spent eight years in the tropical rain forest of the Darien Province of Panama as a church planter, translator, and consultant. Having been trained in linguistics and Bible translation principles, Brian assisted in the Paya-Kuna New Testament translation project. After his ministry overseas, Brian was instrumental in planting a thriving church in New England (U.S.) and currently travels full time as a speaker and Bible teacher. He is the lead translator of The Passion Translation®.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Simmons, Brian

Leseproben

DANIEL

(return to table of contents)

Introduction • One • Two • Three • Four • Five • Six • Seven • Eight • Nine • Ten • Eleven • Twelve

DANIEL

Introduction

AT A GLANCE

: Unknown, but probably Daniel in part

: Universal—Daniel speaks to all those who face confl icting and complex moral decisions

: Israel in exile—605 BC and following

: Heroic literature and apocalyptic literature

: Faithfulness in a hostile culture, YAHWEH’s sovereignty over all kings and empires, YAHWEH’s preservation of his people, an apocalyptic key to current and future geopolitical events

: The book of Daniel can be divided in several ways:

•Genre Divisions:

•Heroic Morality Stories —1:1–6:28

•Apocalyptic Visions —7:1–12:13

•Linguistic Divisions:

•Hebrew —1:1–2:4a

•Aramaic —2:4b–7:28

•Hebrew —8:1–12:13

•Chiastic Structure:

A: 2:4b–49 A dream of four kingdoms replaced by a fifth

B: 3:1–30 Daniel’s three friends in the fiery furnace

C: 4:1–37 Daniel interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar

C1: 5:1–31 Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar

B1: 6:1–28 Daniel in the lions’ den

A1: 7:1–28 A vision of four world kingdoms replaced by a fifth

ABOUT DANIEL

The book of Daniel brings major ethical and spiritual themes into sharp focus. It is literally timeless. One can picture such colorful morality tales being told around campfires for countless centuries before Daniel ever lived. Powerful narrative stories (e.g., Jesus’ parables) do more to shape our souls than any list of sterile rules; they stir the heart and transform behavior. Every so often, someone in history emerges who embodies these timeless values in a way that can only be described as inspired. These heroes absorb these perennial narrative themes and amplify them, and the tales of their exploits reverberate for millennia, empowering the moral compass of all who hear the stories.

Enter Daniel. Precocious and wise beyond his years, this young Israelite man was taken away to Babylon, the oppressor’s seat of power. Jerusalem was headed for destruction, and conquering empires seemed to have more authority than the “defeated” God of Israel.

Daniel’s life and renown prevailed across several “continental divides.” The first generation of exiles spoke Hebrew, but their children preferred the language of the conquerors, Aramaic, which, in the middle of Daniel’s life, overwhelmed the ancient language of King David and the Psalms. Hebrew was never to be widely heard again in normal public conversation until the modern Zionist movement of contemporary Israel revived it. The book of Daniel is the only truly bilingual book of the Old Testament, with several chapters written in Hebrew and the rest written in Aramaic. Interestingly, Jesus spoke Aramaic at home, the language of the Babylonian conquerors. Hebrew, by his time, was reserved for study and the synagogue.

Daniel also survived and thrived during the clash of massive imperial cultures, floating to the top of society among the Babylonian conquerors (the destroyers of Jerusalem in 587 BC) and then to that of their conquerors, the Persians. If Daniel were alive today, he would rise to his rightful place in any society as the adviser to leaders of empires.

The second half of the book is written in the apocalyptic genre. “Apocalyptic” has taken on a disastrous and negative tone in modern English, a tone that would have been foreign to the original readers. This Greek word means, literally, “un-hidden” or “revealed.” Events have no meaning in themselves; it is the narrative (story) that gives significance to facts and understanding to the reader. Apocalyptic literature does exactly that. It uses vivid imagery to help explain what is happening all around the reader. Much like prophecy, which is God speaking truth into a present situation that also has future implications, apocalyptic literature can help us discern what is going on all around us, even thousands of years later.

PURPOSE

The compilers of this book (it is hotly debated among scholars who they were and when they edited) wanted to preserve, in permanent form, the exploits and insights of Daniel for the benefit of all who find themselves in challenging surroundings.

For Daniel, it was never “choose God over the enemy” or “collaborate with the enemy and forget God.” Rather, it was all about finding clever and creative ways, led by YAHWEH’s direct guidance backing up Daniel’s positive and unshakable faith, to honor the complex and seemingly contradictory demands of his position without bowing to the culture’s moral pressures.

We all face such pressures as adults. The morals that we were taught in church, the values of much of our society, the pressures of government and media, and our own inner compass often conflict. Can we bend the rules? Will God provide a way out when we are in a jam (1 Cor. 10:13)? Can we stay loyal to a boss, to a company and its goals, while maintaining the integrity of Spirit-led believers? Heroically, Daniel always found a way, without compromising, to balance competing value systems and even worldviews, languages, and cultures. Daniel was always a “both/and” thinker in a world of “either/or” choices. And he did it all without ever being unfaithful to the God of Israel.

AUTHOR AND AUDIENCE

The authorship of this book has baffled scholars since its first reading. Questionable third-language (Greek) segments have been rejected or embraced by different Christian traditions. Jewish and Protestant believers have canonized only the Hebrew and Aramaic portions of Daniel. Roman Catholic and many Eastern Orthodox believers include the Greek portions.

In the first part of the book (chs. 1–6), Daniel appears, at first glance, to be the protagonist and not the author of the book; it reads more like a biography than an autobiography. The second half of Daniel (chs. 7–12) expresses deeply personal revelatory visions, words, and interpretations given directly to Daniel. Thus Daniel played, at the very least, a generative role in the production of the second half of the book.

How the book came to be in its present form is a great mystery. This is compounded by the language problem. The first part of Daniel is written in Hebrew, the middle is in Aramaic, and the last chapters are again in Hebrew. And these linguistic divisions do not correspond—at all—to the chapter divide between chapters 1–6 heroic tales and chapters 7–12 apocalyptic visions. The truth is that most theories about the formation of Daniel are just educated guesses. The important lesson is that we can apply the unparalleled moral and spiritual wisdom of this fantastically unique man to the challenges every human being faces. The book of Daniel is eminently useful.

In any case, the final chiastic form of the book (see “Outlines” above) is truly a literary masterpiece that makes the previous genre and linguistic divisions pale in comparison. Was this sophisticated structure produced by Daniel himself or a brilliant later editor? The evidence is inconclusive, but the result is magnificent and universally helpful even, or perhaps especially, today.

It is best to read Daniel with a warning label: You won’t be able to forget the stories—their spiritual and ethical tensions live on in every human life.

The original audience was the tiny remnant of King David’s once mighty Israel. They had survived captivity in Babylon and Persia and, through the efforts of Ezra, Nehemiah, and others, were bravely attempting to reconstitute and rebuild their nation. They were not masters of their own destiny and continued to have to negotiate with the foreigners who were in charge. The first readers of Daniel were trying to find creative ways to remain faithful to God without needlessly provoking those in authority around them. They also yearned to understand their place in the continuous tug-of-war between the grand empires that marched through on a regular basis.

MAJOR THEMES

Can I work for a boss who is hostile to my Christian faith? How do I behave as a believing student in a secular university? What do I do when invited to events that are at odds with my world-view? How do I interact with people living non-biblical lifestyles?

These kinds of questions are getting more and more attention as much of the developed world is losing touch with its Christian roots. Daniel himself is an outstanding role model for us as we try to find a creative path between the ditches of (1) disengaging from secular society altogether or (2) blending in with the world. Jesus calls us to be salt and light for a world lacking both. There are seasons in history, like ours and...