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Commentary Daniel 2 Gospel Old Testament Scripture

Living with Kingdom Distinctiveness

There is something significant that happens in Daniel 2 that the English reader typically misses.

When Daniel 2:4 says: ‘The Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic’, the entire text thereafter shifts from Hebrew into Aramaic all the way until Daniel 7:28. Why? Aramaic was the language of the international world of the time (as Latin later became and as English is today).

It was the language that the elites of every country could speak.

Daniel is the only book of both the Old and New Testaments that is written in two languages. It is intentionally a bi-lingual book. What does this tell us? Well, it tells us that the message of Daniel is not just intended for believers/Jews but for all the nations of the world. The book of Daniel is very much a book about how believers are to live “life in the real world”. It is meant to show the entire world through narrative what kingdom distinctiveness (Christian distinctiveness) looks like.

Read Daniel 2:1-49

Notice the two things we must come to terms with if we are to live with distinctiveness:

1) The Location of our Identity

2) The Depth of our lack

Question: Why was Nebuchadnezzar so anxious and troubled? We know that his inner turmoil was great because he’s losing sleep over it. So why was he so troubled in spirit?

It is important to remember that whenever we have negative emotions like this it is usually because we have exalted something finite to a pretended ultimacy. Tim Keller writes,

One of the signs that an object is functioning as an idol is that fear becomes one of the chief characteristics of life. When we center our lives on the idol, we become dependent on it. If our counterfeit god is threatened in any way, our response is complete panic. We do not say, ‘What a shame, how difficult,’ but rather ‘This is the end! There’s no hope!’

Another quotation is very insightful and helpful. Thomas Oden says,

When I interpret some particular possibility as a threat to some value I consider necessary for my existence, I experience anxiety . . . Anxiety becomes neurotically intensified to the degree that I have idolized finite values that properly should have been regarded as limited. The more I worship finite gods, the more I make myself vulnerable to intensified anxiety (Two Worlds, p. 97).

What Thomas Oden is saying is that when something that we consider essential to our existence (i.e. something that we believe we can’t live without) is threatened, we become anxious. And the more our confidence is placed in that finite value (god) the more anxious we become. This is why Nebuchadnezzar is losing so much sleep.

He has placed his confidence in a finite god.

Question: So what is Nebuchadnezzar’s finite god?

Power and Success

Nebuchadnezzar was finding his identity in his achieved power and success as a leader, and he ultimately became unreasonable in his requests (Daniel 2:12).

Usually anxiety comes directly from having our identity in the wrong place

Where might your identity be if you are experiencing intense anxiety at the thought that you might have done very poorly on a test?

Where might your identity be if you are experiencing intense anxiety at the thought of having to speak in front of a group of people?

Where might your identity be if you are experiencing intense anxiety at the thought of not being able to fix something you think you ought to be able to fix?

Where might your identity be if you are experiencing intense anxiety at the thought of your political party losing an election?

You see if you are seeking your identity in anything other than Christ, you will not be able to live in a secular culture with kingdom distinctiveness

The location of your identity is absolutely crucial if you are to live with kingdom distinctiveness. When we build our lives on earthly success, relationships, approval, comfort, popularity, political power, and the like, we lose our distinctiveness though we may engage in a million different Christian activities. Christian distinctiveness is not really seen in what you do.

Christian distinctiveness is seen in where you find your identity

In other words, the distinctiveness of your Christianity is seen at the motivational level because you do not become anxious when you lose power, success, approval, acceptance, comfort, or whatever. That is what shows us to be different and it is what demonstrated Daniel to be different.

Daniel 2:9 If you do not tell me the dream, there is just one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.” 10 The astrologers answered the king, “There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. 11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.” 12 This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.

What does the word “this” reference? I think we find what “this” references in verse 11.

Daniel 2:11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.”

I believe that it is this statement that enrages him (in verse 12) and leads to the death decree. What does this tell us?

Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful man on earth, but now he is being brought up against the fact that he is still just a man

The dream was bringing him to terms with his limits and finitude. The wise men in v.12 bring up a very sore subject with a powerful person–”you are just another human being”–there are limits to what human beings can actually accomplish. Nebuchadnezzar knows this dream as something to do with his own fall from power, but his inability to discover the meaning is driving the nail deeper with the additional reminder that he is not God.

We must be careful not to think that we are any different than Nebuchadnezzar. Our own desire to be God is seen in numerous ways. Our worry and anxiety often reveals that we are sure we know better than God how our life should go. Much of our drive for beauty or success is a desire for a ‘glory’ and importance that only belongs to God.

People who live with kingdom distinctiveness are well aware of their lack and limits

Anytime we get overly upset at the loss of control in a situation, or the interruption of our plans or schedule, we are demonstrating that we have the same problem as Nebuchadnezzar.

How are you when someone interrupts your plans for a nice leisurely day?

How are you when your political party loses an election?

So if we are to live with kingdom distinctiveness we must come to terms with the location of our identity and our own personal lack. When we do, we hold everything in this world loosely. Nothing really rattles us.

How did kingdom distinctiveness play out in Daniel’s secular context?

I want you to notice the similarities and differences between Daniel’s behavior in chapters 1 and 2.

Similarities:

In chapter 1, Daniel was very tactful. We see this again in chapter 2:14. He is very “tactful” with a pagan (Arioch) who had power over him. He must have been a very winsome, persuasive man, since he knew how to talk attractively to people who should not have been inclined to listen.

Also, we again see Daniel depending on God to reveal that His wisdom is greater than their wisdom. Both chapter 1 and chapter 2 is a ‘wisdom contest’–of God’s wisdom against the Babylonians. In both situations, Daniel literally ‘stuck his neck out’, and if God had not answered or intervened, he would have been lost.

Both times there is both a compliance-and-yet-defiance balance. On the one hand, he is simply doing what the king has demanded–interpreting the dream as a wise man. He is doing his job. Yet on the other hand, he lets it be known very clearly that it is God who is the sole source of what he is doing. “no wise man, enchanter, or magician can explain to the king this mystery.” (v.27)

Daniel is giving God public credit

Differences:

In chapter 1, Daniel does not ‘make a federal case’ out of his conscience problem with eating the king’s food. He does everything he can not to publicly, dramatically profess his faith. He is not needlessly ‘showy and loud’ about his faith. In chapter 1 he only talks to the chief official about it. He does not crow, ‘We are believers! We will not eat defiled food!” There is no note of anything like that.

But here now, in chapter 2, the situation calls for tremendous boldness. He certainly could have told the king the dream without making such a strong statement as he does in v.27-28. He could have easily said, “King, here’s the dream and the interpretation”, instead of loudly saying, “what I am about to do should show you that my God is superior to all the learning and philosophy and religion of your Babylonian civilization!”

It is breath-taking to compare v.27 and v.12. When he says, “no human being can answer your question—only God” in v.27, he is saying exactly what the astrologers said in v.11 that set him into a rage. So Daniel, though he does not have to make such a bold public witness here–does so. While in chapter 1, when he could have done so—he did not.

Why not?

Daniel 2:17 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 18 He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven 20 and said: “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. 21 He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. 22 He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. 23 I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.”

I think the answer is that he was a man who sought for mercy and wisdom in prayer (ala Proverbs 26:4-5).

Daniel 6:10 tells us that he prayed three times a day. Daniel was a man of prayer and you can be sure that every time he prayed he was asking God for mercy and wisdom.

It’s important to realize that Daniel did not only seek for mercy and wisdom in prayer. He was also a man who prayed with a spirit of worship and adoration. His prayer of praise in vv.20-23 shows that in prayer Daniel did not only make petitions and requests, but he sought fellowship with and experience of God’s presence. It is not ‘petition’ but adoration that makes a person into the kind of greathearted courageous person that Daniel shows himself to be before the king.

What must we do to pull it off ourselves? How do you actually live with distinctiveness? How do we become people like this?

The answer is found in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The important thing to understand is what the head of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue represents.

Daniel 2:36 “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.

So the gold head is Nebuchadnezzar. The point of the gold is to say that this kingdom of the world is considered a dazzling and awesome kingdom. It’s attractive and powerful. It’s where dreams can come true and life can be lived to the fullest. That is some of what the symbolism of the gold points to.

But notice what the feet are made of.

Daniel 2:32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.

Question: What does this tell us? The very foundation of this dazzling kingdom of man is
weak and fragile. It has no lasting or abiding quality. It will crumble and fall. It’s just a
matter of time.

But notice what we learn in verse 34.

Daniel 2:34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.

Verses 44-45 tell us more about this cut out rock.

Daniel 2:44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands– a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.”

Notice that . . .

This stone is “cut out, not by human hands” (v.34). This is in complete contrast to the statue, which is a work of the greatest human art, skill, and craftsman ship.

Stone is the least valuable of all the substances. So the kingdom of God is considered (by the world’s standards) to be something small and insignificant.

In actuality, the kingdom of God is eternal and unconquerable.

But here is the most significant thing we must recognize:

Matthew 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

Jesus is the stone that (1) the kingdom of God is built upon, and (2) crushes the kingdoms of this earth.

If we are to live with kingdom distinctiveness, we must daily remember that there is no salvation to be found in the world—no lasting identity, no lasting satisfaction, no wholeness.

These things are only found in Jesus.

Categories
Commentary Eschatology Hermeneutics

Do The Promises Made To The Nation of Israel Still Stand?

The heart of all theology revolves around this question,

“Do the promises made to the Nation of Israel still stand?”

As my friend, Bobby Grow expresses it,

“I would say yes, … But qualified in a way that sees Jesus as the ground and fulfillment of what it means to be Israel. The Nation of Israel has the same purpose, in Christ (cf. Eph. 2:11ff) as every other nation. The promises made to Israel are indeed irrevocable (cf. Rom. 11:29), but Israel was always intended to be understood through her ground and purpose and fulfillment, ‘in Christ’. This is the key, that is, Christ is the key to sourcing an understanding of a properly constructed ‘literal’ method of biblical interpretation. The New Testament authors thought so, and thus; so should we. … this is where this whole debate really dwells. That is, how it is that we conceive of our philosophies of biblical interpretation?”

Guy Davies shares this about the Gospel of Matthew:

“Time and time again, the First Gospel bears witness to the fact that Jesus is the true Israel. He is the seed of Abraham and David, Matthew 1:1-17. The exodus is reenacted when he returns from Egypt to the Promised Land, Matthew 2:13-15. His temptation for forty days in the wilderness echoes Israel’s temptations during the forty wilderness years, Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus is the Servant of the Lord who brings light and salvation to the nations in a way that Israel failed to do, Matthew 12:18-21 cf. Isaiah 42:1-4, 18-20. In the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus recapitulates Israel’s history and as he does so, fulfils Israel’s destiny.”

Others have seen a similar undercurrent of meaning in the Gospel of Matthew. Kim Riddlebarger explains it this way:

First, in Matthew 12:15-21, for example, when Jesus withdrew from the crowds who had followed him, Matthew reports that this event fulfilled what had been spoken in Isaiah the prophet. This event serves to demonstrate that Jesus is the true servant of the Lord.

Second, as Jesus cast out demons and healed the sick, Matthew saw in this the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies of a suffering servant who would take upon himself our infirmities and carry our diseases (Matthew 8:17 with Isaiah 53:4).

Third, in Luke’s gospel, Luke speaks of both Israel (cf. Luke 1:54) and David as the servant of God (Luke 1:69). Yet in Acts, Luke pointedly speaks of Jesus as the servant of God (Acts 3:13). After his crucifixion, God raised Jesus from the dead so that people everywhere might be called to repentance (3:26).

Fourth, when the Ethiopian eunuch hears a reading from Isaiah 53:7-8 and asks Philip about whom this prophecy refers, Luke tells us that Philip informed the Ethiopian that this passage does indeed refer to Jesus (Acts 8:34-35).

But this is not all that is in view here. In Hosea 11:1, Hosea predicted a time when “Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” But in Matthew 2:15, the evangelist tells us that Hosea’s prophecy was fulfilled when his parents took Jesus to Egypt to protect him from Herod’s “slaughter of the innocents” (Matthew 2:3-18). Yet, after Herod had died, God called Jesus and his family to return to Nazareth. Matthew takes a passage from Hosea, which clearly refers to Israel, and tells his reader that this passage is now fulfilled in Jesus Christ! He does this to prove to his largely Jewish audience that Jesus is the servant of the Lord, foretold throughout the Old Testament (especially Isaiah).

By now it should be clear that according to many New Testament writers, Jesus is the true servant, the true son and the true Israel of God. Recall too that it was Isaiah who spoke of Israel and the descendants of Abraham as the people of God. It as through the seed of Abraham that the nations of the earth would be blessed.

Therefore, even as Jesus is the true Israel, he is the true seed of Abraham. This is the point that Paul is making in Galatians 3:7-8, when he says “know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, `In you shall all the nations be blessed.’”

Paul’s words here, are important for several reasons. First, Paul tells us that Abraham believed the very same gospel that he preached to the Gentile Galatians. There has only been one plan of salvation and one gospel from the very beginning. This, of course, raises very serious questions about the dispensational notion of “clearly distinct” redemptive purposes for national Israel and the Gentiles, as is evident when Paul goes on to say in Galatians 3:29, that “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

Second, the one gospel promise from the very beginning of redemptive history is that the true children of Abraham, whether they be Jew or Gentile, are heirs of the promise, if they belong to Jesus Christ, the true seed of Abraham. But as Robert Strimple points out, an important word of clarification is certainly in order. “We [amillennarians] say: `Yes, the nation of Israel was the people of God in the old covenant. Now in the new covenant the believing church is the people of God.’ And thus we quickly run past (or we miss the blessed point entirely) the fact that we Christians are the Israel of God, Abraham’s seed, and the heirs to the promises, only because by faith, we are united to him who alone is the true Israel, Abraham’s one seed.” (See Strimple, “Amillennialism,” in Bock, ed., Three Views of the Millennium and Beyond, 89).

The ramifications for this upon one’s millennial view should now be obvious. If Jesus is the true Israel of God, and if the New Testament writers apply to Jesus those Old Testament prophecies referring to Israel as God’s son or servant, then what remains of the dispensationalist’s case that these prophecies remain yet to be fulfilled in a future millennium? They vanish in Jesus Christ, who has fulfilled them!

Martin Downes concludes his thoughts on Matthew 2:

“He [Matthew] is saying that Jesus, God’s Son, is Israel, the true Israel. And that Jesus will retrace Israel’s steps. They went down to Egypt and so will He. They were tested in the wilderness and so will He be (Matt. 4:1-11). But where the nation of Israel failed, Jesus the true Israel, the obedient Son, will prevail. This is the biblical background to the doctrine of the active obedience of Christ. He was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. Whereas Adam and Israel were law-breakers, Christ was the true law-keeper and this not for His own sake but for ours.”

Read all of Downes’ The Great Escape: Matthew 2 as the Remake of a Classic Story.

Justin Taylor shares a good, concise summary of the Israel/remnant theme from a New Testament perspective in Jesus as the New Israel:

“The New Testament authors understood Jesus to be the culmination of the Old Testament. He is the Last Adam, true Israel, the suffering servant, the son of David, the faithful remnant, the ultimate prophet, the reigning king, the final priest.

“. . . Jesus had become a remnant of one. He was the embodiment of faithful Israel, the truly righteous and suffering servant.

Unlike the remnant of the restoration period, he committed no sin (Isa. 53:9; 1 Pet. 2:22).

As the embodiment of the faithful remnant, he would undergo divine judgment for sin (on the cross), endure an exile (three days forsaken by God in the grave), and experience a restoration (resurrection) to life as the foundation of a new Israel, inheriting the promises of God afresh.

As the remnant restored to life, he becomes the focus of the hopes for the continued existence of the people of God in a new kingdom, a new Israel of Jew and Gentile alike.

As the nucleus of a renewed Israel, Christ summons the “little flock” that will receive the kingdom (Dan. 7:22, 27; Luke 12:32) and appoints judges for the twelve tribes of Israel in the new age (Matt. 19:28; Luke 22:30).

The church is viewed as the Israel of that new age (Gal. 6:16), the twelve tribes (James 1:1), “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” (Ex. 19:6; 1 Pet. 2:9).

A sinful nation, Israel could not suffer vicariously to atone for the sins of the world. The sinfulness of the nation made it unacceptable for this role, just as flaws would disqualify any other offering. Only a truly righteous servant could bear this awful load.”

—Tremper Longman III and Raymond B. Dillard, “Isaiah,” An Introduction to the Old Testament, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 315.

The two best books I’ve read on this fulfillment theme are Hans LaRondelle’s The Israel of God in Prophecy: Principles of Prophetic Interpretation and David Holwerda’s Jesus and Israel: One Covenant or Two? (Keith Mathison has a good review of Holwerda’s volume here.)

Jesus is the true Israel, and the church becomes the Israel of God as it unites to True Israel. The same is true for ethnic Israel, whom God has not abandoned. But their only hope is to be united with Jesus, the ultimate suffering servant.”

RT France explains:

“Matthew also seems to present this idea that Jesus himself is the true Israel. Perhaps it is already implicit in his presentation of Jesus as ‘King of the Jews’, but it comes to more obvious expression in some of the typological references to the Old Testament. The use of Hosea 11:1 in 2:15 makes sense only if Jesus, as God’s son, is equated with Israel as ‘God’s son’. The same typology underlies the references to Deuteronomy 6-8 in the account of Jesus’testing in the wilderness (4:1-11). The parable which most clearly speaks of the failure and replacement of Israel (21:33-43 concludes with Jesus’ reference to Psalm 118:22, a passage about Israel’s unexpected vindication but now transferred to Jesus in his vindication over against Israel’s rebellion.

In discussing Matthew’s typology above we noted his remarkable concentration in chapter 12 of Jesus’ sayings about ‘a greater than the temple/Jonah/Solomon’, the effect of which is to place Jesus as the ‘fulfillment’ of the main pillars of the institutional life of Old Testament Israel. The implication is that the focus of the true Israel is not now in the cult, the prophet, or the king, but in Jesus.

But the theme of Jesus as the true Israel is not the dominant one in the Gospel. For the result of Jesus’ ministry was the creation of a community of those who responded to his message. There is evidence in Matthew that it was not only in Jesus himself, but also in this disciple group, in distinction from unbelieving Israel, that the true people of God was now to be found.

Jesus seems to have thought of them as a sort of ‘righteous remnant’ of Israel, such as the prophets often spoke of. Thus in 13:10-17 he speaks of the majority of his hearers in words taken from Isaiah’s call to preach to unresponsive Israel, but contrasts them with his disciples, to whom the privilege of understanding God’s secrets has been given. They are the ‘meek’ who in the Psalms represent God’s true servants (5:5). They are called to fulfill the special calling of Israel to be holy, as God is holy (see on 5:48). They are the true flock of God as described in Zechariah (26:31). They will constitute Jesus’ ekklesia, a prominent Old Testament word for the congregation of God’s people (16:18).

The focus of Israel’s national life in the Old Testament had been the covenant made at Sinai, but now Jesus’ blood will seal a new covenant such as Jeremiah had predicted (26:28); and a new covenant means a new basis of existence for the people of God. In speaking of the temple destroyed and rebuilt (see on 26:61, and cf. the implications of the saying of 12:6 and the repudiation of existing temple worship in 21:12-13) Jesus looked forward to a new basis of worship for the true people of God, and one which envisaged the literal destruction of the old order (24:2).

Such pointers towards a new people of God are given further substance by Jesus’ deliberate choice of twelve disciples as the leadership of his new community, and the implication is spelt out in 19:28, which envisages them sitting ‘on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’.

Matthew records no explicit description of the disciples as ‘Israel’, ‘the true Israel’ or the like, but the indications listed above point unmistakably towards the idea, as do a number of passages where Old Testament prophecies relating to Israel are applied to the disciples of Jesus (8:11;24:31).

Through its rejection of God’s final appeal the nation as such has forfeited its claim to be the people of God. Jesus now represents all that Israel should have been, and in those who belong to him the purposes of God for Israel find their fulfillment.”

“Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” Colossians 2:16-17.

This is why the promises made to the nation of Israel still stand. Jesus (literally) fulfills the promises and is the True Israel. And any ethnic Israelite (or gentile) who believes in Jesus takes part as joint heirs of Christ.

“Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” Ephesians 2:11-22.

Categories
Commentary Gospel

Culture Wars (The Gospel’s Trans-Cultural Counter-Culture)

Is Christianity a subculture?