The Life of Daniel - Chapter 1

Background / Context

Verse One:

Daniel's story doesn't begin with much background or context. I suppose if you are rather familiar with the Israelites' (Daniel was an Israelite) story as a whole, you will have more context. However, if you just picked up this book and read it (which I highly recommend), you will find yourself immediately in the midst of a great siege. It's like going to the theatre and after the opening credits have rolled, you are immediately bombarded with a battle. You don't even know who the "good guys" and "bad guys" are yet. All the first verse tells us is that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon has besieged Jerusalem - the homeland of the Israelites.

Verse 2

The opening battle scene soon drifts to a glimpse in the past, an explanation for what is happening and why. In this verse we discover that God Himself allowed Israel to be overtaken by the Babylonians. While it is not clear from the text alone, this was done because Israel had chosen to not follow the commandments of God. Their hearts had drifted away from Him. Don't take this verse lightly. Much of the Old Testament is dedicated to God's chosen people - Israel - fighting for a place to call home. If you know the Exodus story - how Moses rescued the Israelites from hundreds of years of slavery - then you know how blessed these people were to at last have a homeland. They had their own king, their own property, and they were free to worship God however they pleased. Yet, they chose to follow their own path, and not that of their true rescuer, God. So God, in an act of punishment, allowed Israel to lose their freedom once again.

The battle resumes. This is the part where you grip your armrests, you forget altogether of the popcorn in your lap, or even that this is just a movie. The choir sings a lamentation as you watch children taken from their weeping mothers - all in slow motion. It's gripping.

Verse 3

The King of Babylon instructs a man by the name of Ashpenaz (unfortunate name) to a select group of people to bring back to Babylon with him (the rest were allowed to stay in Israel under Babylonian rule). These three groups were:

Make the Sacrifice

This book of Ezekiel's is continuing to amaze me every day. If you get a chance today, read chapter 24. I'm sure it will make more sense if you read the prior 23 chapters, and I would prefer that, but I will do my best just to once again sum up what has occurred up to this point.

To sum up. God is really mad at Israel and is telling Ezekiel why and how He is going to destroy them. Okay, there's more to it, but now you are basically up to speed.

Chapter 24 is no different. Not at first. God is giving judgement to Israel all the way up to verse 15, and that is where we will slow down a bit and attempt to understand what is happening here. Here is what verses 15-17 say (NKJV).

"Also the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'Son of man, behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with one stroke; yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears run down. Sigh in silence, make no mornings for the dead; bind your turban on your head, and put your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips, and do not eat man's bread of sorrow.'"

What in the world is God telling Ezekiel? What is "the desire" of Ezekiel's eyes? What is going to be so sad that God commands him not to mourn or weep? Whatever it is, God commands two things.

1. Don't cry

2. Tell Israel the things I told you

Here's what happens (and don't forget I warned you yesterday that this is a depressing book):

Verse 18: "So I (Ezekiel) spoke to the people (Israel) in the morning, and at evening my wife died; and the next morning I did as I was commanded."

What do you even say to that? What can you say? The desire of Ezekiel's eyes was his wife! God told Ezekiel he was going to lose his wife, and that he wasn't allowed to cry about it in public. All he could do was SIGH in private.

Why? Why why why would God ever require such a thing? Why would God kill the wife of the ONE man on earth who was still following Him? Why would God make Ezekiel continue his work of prophesying the very morning after the dearest person to him died?

Before we answer that question, let's soak in something else first.

Ezekiel had no idea. He didn't know why God killed his wife. He didn't know. But he didn't ask. He didn't complain. He just did EXACTLY as God commanded him to do when He commanded him to do it. Some people say the "heroes" of the Bible aren't really heroes. They are just people like you and me that were placed in significant situations.

I just cannot read the Bible and believe that, especially with this man. I could not do this. I don't care what the situation was. It is hard enough losing a loved one, but how could you honestly expect me to just be okay with knowing that God killed my own wife? It would shake me. Shake my faith.

Ezekiel is one of the greatest heroes of the history of the world.

However, as is always the case. God had a purpose even in this. In verse 19 the people ask Ezekiel (and I'm significantly paraphrasing), "Are you crazy? Why are you acting this way? Why aren't you weeping? Why do you continue to tell us what God says when the love of your life has died?"

You see, here is something that only God would think of. Prophets told the people about God's coming judgement for years and years, but they never listened. They were just words, and the people had more important things to attend to...things like family. Well here was a man who lost his family, and it didn't seem to phase him. What I'm proposing is that the only reason God killed Ezekiel's wife was to get the people's attention. To wake them up. His purpose for this woman's death was to save an entire nation. Whether or not she knew it, she died a very noble death. A patriotic death.

And the important thing to realize here is that this is not about God being a judge. This book and this chapter are COVERED with the mercy and love of Christ. God loved his people so much (even though they were extremely evil people) that he sacrificed his beloved prophet's wife to save them. Sound familiar? Someone dying for the sake of others.

I'm getting off topic. The point is...her death got the people's attention, and they asked Ezekiel what was so important that he would dismiss her death to speak to them. And for the first time in years and years and years something wonderful happened. The people of Israel wanted to know what God had to say.

Ezekiel goes on to tell them about all the judgements to come, but verse 24 really sums up the whole point of this story, this chapter, and really the book. Ezekiel tells the people why God is going to punish them, and why it was so important that He killed Ezekiel's wife, and why it was so important that Ezekiel neglected the mourning process.

Here is what God had to say:

Verse 24: "Thus Ezekiel is a sign to you; according to all that he has done you shall do; and when this comes, you shall know that I am the Lord God."

It was a reminder. All of it. One great big reminder for God's people that He was just that...their God. They had forgotten. They had followed other gods and pleasures. And God wanted them back.

Israel is not the only nation who has fallen away from God. So has yours. So has mine.

I wonder how much we would be willing to sacrifice to remind our nation that God wants us back...

Stand in the Gap

Read the book of Ezekiel sometime. Not some of it. All of it. The whole thing. Start to finish. I’ll warn you. It’s kind of depressing. But that’s never stopped you before. Gladiator is depressing. Nicholas Sparks is depressing. So, you’re used to it.

         The book of Ezekiel (spoiler warning!) is filled with God telling the prophet Ezekiel how He is going to pour His wrath on Israel, because they have stopped following Him. And when I say they “stopped following Him,” I mean they went off the deep end. Off the cliff. Climbed the high dive and plunged too deep for the lifeguard to see.

         The people of Israel weren’t just breaking a few rules here or there. They had completely conformed to the ways of the surrounding countries. To list just a few things, they were: robbing, mistreating the poor, burning their children as a sacrifice to false gods, and to put it lightly…sleeping around with whoever they felt like.

         It got so bad that God Himself said this of the people, “As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst. As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have poured out My fury on you.”

         Chapter after chapter, God condemns His people for their sins. BUT…verse 30 of chapter 22 shows the grace and mercy and love and long-suffering (patience) of God so wonderfully. The first word read: “So...” So what? It seems God finally came to a conclusion. After 21 chapters, has he had enough? Is he going to kill them all?

        

         The verse continues. “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it.”

         Please read that again. Think about it for a long time. These people are slaughtering their own children for false gods. Yet, God is seeking ONE man. One. Just one person. One man who called out on behalf of his people would have saved them all. What mercy. Sadly, the verse continues.

“…but I found no one.”

Don’t read on until that sinks into your soul. No one. An entire people group. All of them fallen away. Every single person. The more I read this book, the more Israel looks more and more and more familiar to me, and it scares me like crazy.

There’s also hope, certainly. After all, this is the United States of America. This is Canada. This is Australia. This is…fill in the blank. Certainly there are believers here willing to call on the name of the Lord. Stand in the gap. Certainly.

         I can’t help but wonder if Ezekiel thought the same thing.