Daniel 1:1–2

Whatever the difficulties in the word of God may be, they really arise from a lack of light.

Again and again, warnings came to the people of Israel and the kings of Judah. Their evil and idolatrous ways would bring the chastening hand of God upon them. They took no notice. Then the prophet Isaiah announced plainly that judgment would fall... Despite this message, the evil grew. It reached its height under Hezekiah's son, the wicked Manasseh... At last, in the reign of Jehoiakim, God fulfilled the words He had spoken through Isaiah. The government passed from the Jew to the Gentile. From then on the Jews will be under Gentile rule, until the times of the Gentiles close with the coming reign of Christ.

Daniel 1 opens with a solemn statement. The king of Babylon besieged and took Jerusalem. He carried king and people away captive, and took the vessels of the House of God to Babylon. This is very important to notice, as it gives us the ground on which the prophecies of Daniel proceed. The throne of David was the throne of Jehovah (1 Chron. 29:23), and Jerusalem was the city of God, the city of the Great King (Ps. 48:2, 8). God's intention from the first has been to administer the earth through the people of Israel. Israel is His centre. Jerusalem is His chosen seat of government, and the house of David its earthly rulers.

Here is the startling fact. The government God had set up in Israel was now to continue no longer. With it went the visible sign of His presence. God Himself stripped them of their name as His people. From now on they were "Lo-Ammi," not My people. That was their sentence, as far as He was concerned — whatever His grace might finally intend. For His "gifts and calling" are irrevocable.

Now here began "the times of the Gentiles." Chapter 1 of this prophetic book says that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. In 2 Kings 24 and 25 we read of three separate successful campaigns against Jerusalem by this same Nebuchadnezzar. The last was the complete and decisive one. Since then Israel has been subject to Gentile rule. Its kings have been only vassals.

Look at this state of affairs from nature's point of view. It is quite enough to discourage the heart, dampen the spirit and paralyse all energy. Jerusalem in ruins, the temple trampled down, the Lord's vessels in the house of a false god, and Judah carried away captive. Surely the heart would feel inclined to say there is no use in it. Why hold up the standard of practical discipleship and personal devotion any longer? That would be nature's reasoning, but it is not the language of faith. There is always a path along which the true disciple can run, even if he has to run alone.

The first two verses introduce the Book. They briefly show the ruin of Israel. They show the government of the earth — seen in royal power — passing from the king of Judah to the king of Babylon. These verses describe that solemn act plainly as the Lord's doing, for we read, "The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah" into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

The Lord had given Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. He had abandoned His house in Jerusalem so completely that He allowed the sacred vessels of the temple to be taken into the land of Shinar. The sins of the kings of Judah had already profaned those vessels. So God's lampstand at Jerusalem was removed for a time. It was removed in judgment, because it had stopped giving out divine light to guide and bless people in the moral darkness of this world.

Sadly we read "some of the vessels of the house of God … he brought them to the land of Shinar" (Daniel 1:2). Precious vessels, set apart for the service of God's house, now found in the house of a pagan's god! Scripture first shows us Shinar in Genesis 10, 11 and 14 as a place marked by rebellion. There man challenges the rights of God and makes a name for himself. It is a kingdom of war and conflict. This is the character of the scene where His people were found, under God's governmental dealings.

At once we see the character of this Gentile king, for we read that he "placed the vessels in the treasury of his god." He has no true knowledge or fear of God. He has no real sense of the sacred character of these vessels. This is a warning sign of the godless character of the Gentile rulers during the times of the Gentiles.

There had been three deportations. The last one did the most damage: the temple was burnt, and very large numbers were led captive. But the seventy years of captivity count from the first one, which we would call relatively unimportant. Why was this first one the important one in God's eyes? Well, it's because of the vessels. Nebuchadnezzar had taken the vessels of the Temple to Babylon. He even put them into the house of his idols. Such a thing had never happened before. True, some kings had taken silver from the treasury, and even from the doors of the temple, to buy off the king of Assyria. Ahaz and Hezekiah did this. But the holy vessels had never been touched.

Blessed be God! There is always a wide space where true devotion can grow. There is always a path the true disciple can walk, even if he has to walk it alone. It does not matter what the outward state of things may be. Faith has the privilege of depending on God, feeding on Christ, and breathing the air of heaven — as fully as if everything were in perfect order and harmony.

When Judah was restored, all these objects came back — 5,400 of them (Ezra 1:9-11). That was the most striking feature of the journey home that brought the remnant of the people back to their land. At the start of these seventy years one thing stands out. The glory of the temple, the glory of its service of worship to the Lord, had itself gone into captivity.