lesson number two book of Daniel
beginners, lesson number two. And as I said last week, we're studying th
book of Daniel as a way of understanding the background information and the
imagery and the symbolism that is contained in the book of Revelation. I
told you last week, a lot of times people go to the book of Revelation, they don't
even bother studying Daniel. They pull out images and language and
symbols, and they attach to them all kinds of meanings according to modern,
the modern political situation, thinking that these refer to modern times, without
ever having looked at the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel is almost like the
foundational book to understand correctly the symbols in the book
of Revelation. So we talked about that last week, just in case this is your
first time in this particular class. As I said, much of the language and the
apocalyptic style of writing found in Daniel is also found in the book of
Revelation. And if we understand the meaning of the symbols: when, how, and why,
this type of language, this type, let's call it a literary style. When this
literary style is used in scripture it'll go a long way to help us
understand the meaning and the lessons contained in the book of Revelation. Also, a
lot of the prophecy in the book of Daniel is fulfilled in the book of
Revelation as well. So it's very hard to study the fulfillment of the
prophecy, but ignore the original prophecy that was made. So
that's why, again, I'm making the argument for studying these two books at the same
time. Also, unlike some other type of studies that we've had, the book of John
for example, the Gospel of John, in that particular class we're studying
line by line, every single line we read it. We take it apart.
Daniel/Revelation, if we were to do that,
we could never finish it in the short time that we have. So it's a bit
of an overview of one book and an overview of the other to grasp the main
ideas, the main thrust of each book, especially understanding the symbolism.
So let's talk about Daniel. Let's talk about Babylon. Daniel, let's talk about
him first. Daniel was a young man from a well-to-do family in Jerusalem who was
carried off into captivity by the newest world power emerging at that time,
Babylon, and it's greatest King, King Nebuchadnezzar. Let's talk
about Babylon, the city and the empire. Very interesting, fascinating study.
Babylon was the greatest city and empire in the pre-christian era. Now, Assyria
ruled before Babylon and it ruled longer, but it was never as great or as
beautiful as Babylon. Babylon had architectural wonders.
The Assyrians were fierce warriors. They would kill you, took your money,
and killed all your people. The Babylonians had a much higher
culture than the Assyrians. It was ruled for most of its domination, it's world
domination, by Nebuchadnezzar, 45 years in all that he ruled. And he never tired
of beautifying and improving this great city. Ancient historians say that its
walls around the city were 60 miles long, 15 miles on each side. The walls were 300
feet high, 30 stories. Think about that, 300 feet high,
80 feet thick, 35 feet into the ground, so enemies could not tunnel underneath.
Everything was made from brick. There was a quarter-mile of cleared space around
the wall where a moat was built, 250 towers, 100 gates of brass, sentries
posted everywhere. It was a fortress, it was a fortress. Nobody
could get in, powerful fortress. Now the city itself was divided by the euphrates
river that flowed through it and there were draw bridges to get across. There
were 53 temples in the city, 180 altars to the goddess Ishtar.
The goddess Ishtar was the goddess of war and love. So it was a kind of a
male-dominated society. Their goddess was a female, but she was the goddess of war
and the goddess of love. Nebuchadnezzar's palace was huge. The walls 50 feet thick.
This is a remn
God bless you
Umn ministry Chennai
