Week 36
Ezekiel 29:17-21, Daniel 4, Jeremiah 52:31-34, 2 Kings 25:27-30, and Psalm 44
In the 27 th year of the captivity Ezekiel speaks his final prophecy from God,
telling that Nebuchadnezzar will despoil Egypt.
Daniel 4 is an interesting chapter because it is the only chapter in the Bible
that is written by a pagan Gentile, which is also written in the Aramaic language.
It is the testimony of Nebuchadnezzar, who God humbled in his pride. He was
given a dream that Daniel interpreted, where God foretold that he would lose his
mind for a period of 7 years, and then be restored to his majesty as king of
Babylon. This happened as God said, and tradition has it that Daniel cared for
him during those years. We may well see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven.
King Jehoiachin had been in prison in Babylon for more than 30 years when
he was released by the king Evil Merodach, and given a place of some
prominence in the kingdom. This king is believed by some scholars to have been
the same as Belshazzar, descendant of Nebuchadnezzar.
It is not certain when Psalm 44 was written, or by who it was written, but we
get the sense of the Babylonian captives in its narrative. It is a prayer to God for
mercy and action.
Psalm 74, 79, 80, and 89
74 - A prayer to God for Zion, and the destruction that had occurred to the
Lord’s temple. A prayer for God to remember His people, and deliver them from
their adversaries.
79 - Like chapter 74, a prayer for God to remember His people and be
merciful, who have experienced His wrath at the hand of their enemies,
destroyed the temple, and left Jerusalem in ruins.
80 - A prayer for God to extend His mercy to Israel, who has suffered His
discipline, asking Him as their Shepherd to hear and act on their condition.
89 - This is a prophetic psalm penned by someone named Ethan, although
nothing is known about him. This psalm is written as a dialogue, with the
psalmist speaking praises to God, and then God responding. The Lord promises
to remain faithful to His promises to David, even though He brings discipline
against his descendants for a time. His promise to David will be ultimately
fulfilled when his descendant and Lord, Jesus Christ, sits on His throne forever.
Psalm 85, 102, 106, 123, and 137
85 - The timing of the psalm may have been in the early years following the
release of Israel from Persia, where some had returned to Israel, and many had
stayed in the land of Cyrus. It’s a psalm of prayer and praise to God, Who is
faithful, but Who also exercises justice. The final verses describe Jesus, Who is
the marriage between mercy and truth, between righteousness and peace.
102 - A prayer of the afflicted who wait upon God for their relief and
deliverance
106 - This is a recitation of Israel’s history in continuously being saved by
God, and then turning around and rejecting Him, yet the mercy of God continues
to respond when His people turn to Him in submission. He saves for His Name’s
sake, and not for the sake of anyone’s righteousness or goodness.
123 - A cry for mercy from the Lord
137 - A song of mourning among those who were slaves in Babylon, who
suddenly had fond memories of Zion and Jerusalem.
Daniel 7, 8, and 5
The book of Daniel is divided equally between the history of Daniel (chapters
1-6), and the prophetic visions of Daniel (chapter 7-12). Chapters 7-8 relates
visions of Daniel during the reign of the Babylonian king Belshazzar (the son, or
grandson of Nebuchadnezzar), and chapter 5 relates the last night of his reign,
when the city is overrun and conquered by the Medes and Persians.
The vision of chapter 7 is (in many ways) parallel to the interpretation of
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2, which provides a broad view of human
history, and the kingdoms of the world from that time until the end. Babylon is
the first beast, the Medes and Persians are the second beast, and the Greeks
are the third. The fourth beast is the Roman empire, and it will be a remnant of
that empire in the last days, when the antichrist will appear on the scene and
make himself great for a short time, but he will be judged, and Christ will be
victorious on behalf of the saints forever.
The vision of chapter 8 is parallel to that of chapter 7, again focusing on the
evil one who will appear in the last days, but who will be judged and destroyed by
the Lord.
In chapter 5 we have the story preceding overthrow of Babylon by the Medes
and Persians, where God delivers a message to Belshazzar, saying that he had
been weighed in the balance and found wanting. The general of Darius, the
Mede, engineered a diversion of the Euphrates river, and his army walked into
the city under the walls (where the river had previously flowed through), and took
the city that very night without a fight, just as Daniel told Belshazzar.
Daniel 9 and 6
Under king Darius the Medes conquered Babylon, and Daniel was given
honor and authority under this new rule, which is quite extraordinary, since he
had already been a counselor, administrator, and friend of king Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel’s rival leaders under Darius conceived a plan to kill him, but God was
faithful to protect him, and Daniel never compromised his integrity or service
before God in the process.
About this same time Daniel recalled the prophecy of Jeremiah, which said
that Israel would be slaves in that land for 70 years, so he begins to pray to God
for Him to act on that promise, and bring about the release of Israel. That prayer
in Daniel 9 is incredible, and worthy of much study and emulation. At the end of
that prayer the angel Gabriel comes and tells Daniel about the future, giving him
another very wide scope of prophetic insight, covering God’s calendar between
that time and the end of the age.
The last verses of Daniel 9 have been much studied by students of prophecy,
which has been called the 70 weeks of Daniel. Those 70 weeks represent 70
weeks of years, or 490 years, with the first 69 of them being fulfilled on the day
that Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the shouts of Hosanna, and was then killed
(cut off). The final week of this prophecy has yet to be fulfilled, which will occur in
the future during the 7 years we refer to as the great tribulation. During that time
the devil will set up the abomination of desolation in the temple in Jerusalem,
which Jesus directly refers to in Matthew 24.
2 Chronicles 36:22-23 and Ezra 1-4:5
When Cyrus, king of Persia became the ruler of the Medes and Persians,
tradition has it that Daniel met with him, and showed him the prophecy of Isaiah,
where God called Cyrus by name more than 150 years earlier. Cyrus was so
impressed that he not only issued the decree that allowed the Israelites to return
to Jerusalem, but he gave back all the temple treasures, funded the costs of the
trip, and gave his protection over all who went back to Israel.
The book of Ezra covers a period of around 70 years of Israel’s history,
starting with the declaration of Cyrus to free the exiles, and to provide support for
those who desired to go back to Israel and rebuild the temple. Ezra wrote this
book, but was probably not alive when the decree of Cyrus was made, so the first
6 chapters were written as history, but then he participates in the story beginning
in chapter 7. Some 50,000 exiles responded to the invitation of Cyrus to return to
Jerusalem, where they rebuilt the alter of God, and laid the foundation for the
temple. However, work on the temple would stall at that point because of
opposition to their efforts from the locals in that region.
Daniel 10-12
In chapter 10 Daniel is fasting for 3 weeks, and then the messenger of God
appears to him by the Tigris River. The messenger was sent from God to Daniel
when he started praying, but there was spiritual war going on with satan’s ruler
over Persia, and after 3 weeks the Archangel Michael came to his aid. This story
gives us a picture of the spiritual warfare that goes on around us, which we
cannot rightly see with human eyes, which Paul makes reference to in Ephesians
6:12.
Daniel 11 provides a very detailed description of historical events in the
middle east following the reign of Alexander the Great. The details of these
chapters are so specific that historians have contended that they were written
hundreds of years after Daniel, describing events that had already happened.
However, the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible was created by 70
Rabbis some 60-100 years before some of the events described in Daniel 11,
and that version was included in the books found among the Dead Sea scrolls,
dated to before these events. The latter half of chapter 11 describes the
activities of one Antiochus Epiphanes, who lived in the 2 nd century BC, and who
caused the uprising of the Maccabees. This same man is prophetic of the anti-
christ, and there is a shift in the scope of this prophecy to the last days beginning
around verse 36.
The messengers finishes up in chapter 12, briefly describing the time of great
tribulation that will come upon the earth in the last days.