Day 241: Daniel and the Den of Lions

Jeremiah 24:1-10 In the vision of the baskets of figs, the good figs are the faithful people in exile who would be brought back home someday, while the unfaithful ones remaining in Judah and in Egypt would face many punishments.

Ch 25:1-14 Judah deserved its punishment and exile, but this would only last for a relatively short time. God would also punish those nations that rose up against Israel, forcing them (in the symbolic vision of Jeremiah) to drink the cup of his wrath. These verses show clearly God’s power over all people. 

Ch 25:31 At the end of time, Christ will return to judge the living and the dead in the Final Judgment. The blessed will enter eternal life, while those who reject God will be separated from him forever. (CCC 1059-1060)

Daniel 6:1-18 Various leaders who were jealous of Daniel tricked King Darius the Mede into proclaiming an edict that prohibited the worship of the God of Israel. When Daniel was caught praying, the king sought a way to pardon him but had no legal recourse. The king spent a wakeful night in fasting, a form of self-denial from food, which was more in line with the Jewish tradition than pagan ascetical practice. Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right upon which no civil government ought to infringe. (CCC 1434, 1738, 1747, 2107, 2211)

Ch 6:10 Three times a day: Daniel set aside time for prayer as part of his daily schedule-an exemplary practice that the Church recommends to all the faithful. “Christ taught us: ‘You must pray at all times and not lose heart’ (Lk 18:1)...The Church fulfills this...especially through the liturgy of the hours…[which] consecrates to God the whole cycle of the day and the night” (General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, 10). (CCC 2726)

Ch 7:1-12 Daniel’s dream is rich in symbolism, which was also reflected in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. The eras of history are represented by beasts that arose out of the sea, symbolizing evil and darkness. The winged lion represents Nebuchadnezzar; the bear is the Medes; the leopard is the Persians; and the iron-toothed beast is the Greek Empire. The small, blaspheming horn on this latter beast is Antiochus IV Epiphanes. God would pass harsh judgment on all these beasts and destroy all the sinful kingdoms signified by the beasts. In a more immediate way, Antiochus would be annihilated. (CCC 678)

Ch 7:13-14 One like a son of man: In Daniel’s vision, “son of man” refers to the one who brings salvation to the world, which is a clear prophecy of the coming Messiah. Jesus used this term in reference to himself (cf. Jn 3:13; Mt 20:28). Christ, the eternal King whose kingdom is not of this world (cf. Jn 18:36), sits at the right hand of the Father, as we proclaim in the Nicene Creed. This article of faith also confirms Daniel’s vision of the son of man. These verses comprise the First Reading at Mass on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year B. (CCC 440, 664)

Ch 7:15-28 In addition to foretelling future events, the intent of the apocalyptic writing is to give hope to the afflicted. This account was written during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes when his persecutions against the Jews were extreme. Besides desecrating the Temple, he imposed Greek religion, customs, education, and culture on the Jews in an effort to prohibit their freedom to worship and the practice of their traditions. Those Jews who succumbed to this enculturation were sometimes called Hellenized Jews. Through the use of symbols, the author of this book urged the Jews to remain faithful to their religious traditions in the firm hope that God would triumph in the end. 

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)

• In the “night vision” of Daniel 7, the prophet sees four beasts arising from the sea, each corresponding to a Gentile nation that will rule over God’s people.

• None of these nations lasts forever.

• When the courtroom of Heaven opened to reveal the throne of God, Daniel saw “one like a son of man” (that is, a human being) receive from God an everlasting kingdom “which shall not pass away (Dn 7:14).

• Who then, is this “one like a son of man”?

• Understood within the system of Jewish symbols, this is either Israel or “the saints of the Most High” (Dn 7:18).

• Recall that in this system of symbolism, the Gentiles were seen as beasts and Israel as a human being, just as Daniel represented Judah in the earlier stories and the lions represented the Babylonians.

• The vision, then, tells a story in which Israel will eventually be free from the tyranny of Gentile nations.

• Not only that, but God will establish his kingdom on earth through his people, “the saints of the Most High.”

• While Daniel’s prophecy speaks to Israel of a temporal fulfillment, Daniel’s words will find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, who will receive everlasting dominion and a kingdom that will not pass away.

• In fact, Jesus will use the title “Son of Man” to refer to himself more than all other titles combined.

• Although the kingdoms represented by the materials in the statue of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dn 2) and the beasts in Daniel’s vision (Dn 7) were not fully identified in the narrative, many groups in Jesus’ day-that is, first-century Judea-believed the four kingdoms to be the following: the first was Babylon, under whose rule Daniel lived; the second, Persia; the third, Greece; and the fourth, Rome, which was still occupying the land in the first century.

• These Jews believed, therefore, that Israel’s deliverance and hour of glory was at hand, since they were living under the reign of the fourth beast.

• Hence, the stage was set for Messianic speculation, and it was into this charged atmosphere that Jesus entered, proclaiming himself as “the Son of Man” who would soon be “seated at the right hand of the power of God” (Lk 22:69).

• By using this symbolic language borrowed from Daniel, Jesus portrayed himself as the people’s vicar and king who would soon be vindicated by the God of Israel from the hands of the fourth beast.

(*Walking With God: A Journey Through The Bible by Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins)

• No GOSH! today? Wow, you think you know someone and they come out and surprise you like this 😉

• Fr. Mike neglected to mention this a few days ago

• When we transitioned from Jeremiah Ch 20 to Jeremiah Ch 21, we made a time jump of roughly 20 YEARS!!

• As for this point in the space between those chapters, here’s a little tip

• Jeremiah is not necessarily writing CHRONOLOGICALLY

• Jeremiah is writing PROPHETICALLY

• So even how the Book of Jeremiah is assembled, it kind of goes back and forth, jumps ahead, etc.

• We have jumped ahead

• Jeremiah Ch 24 talks about Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah

• Remember the THREE WAVES of Babylonian Exile?

• The LAST WAVE happened under King Zedekiah

• Jeremiah goes from talking about Josiah, who was the FIRST KING he served as prophet, to Zedekiah, who was the LAST KING Jeremiah served as a prophet

• This is a long stretch of time here

• We are kind of all of a sudden in the age of the LAST WAVE of Babylonian Exile

• We are in this time period right before Zedekiah, whom Jeremiah is prophesying about

• Jeremiah 24:8, “But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs which are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.”

• So here we are in this space between the SECOND DEPORTATION and the FINAL DEPORTATION

• But it’s happening in kind of “real-time” here in Jeremiah’s life, so that is the context

• Now, we have these two baskets

• THE GOOD FIGS

• THE BAD FIGS

• Jeremiah sees these and we don’t know where he sees these, if they’re a vision or if he literally sees them

• The Lord says to Jeremiah, “Ok you need to understand the difference between the good figs and the bad figs.”

• We might look at this and say, “Well the good figs are those that got to stay in Jerusalem. The bad figs were those that were EXILED.”

• BUT GOD SAYS THE EXACT OPPOSITE

• God says, “The good figs are the ones that were exiled. The good figs are the ones that were brought to Babylon. The bad figs are the ones that stayed in the Promised Land. The bad figs are the ones that stayed in Jerusalem.”

• THIS IS SO INCREDIBLE!

• Not only the ones who stayed in Jerusalem, but also the ones who had to go to Egypt

• THIS IS HORRIBLE!!

• The horrible part about this is that Jeremiah was among those who HAD TO GO TO EGYPT

• He wanted to stay among God’s people

• Jeremiah elected to essentially be amongst those as bad figs

• JEREMIAH WAS NOT A BAD FIG

• But he elected to be AMONG THOSE BAD FIGS that went to Egypt

• Now why would it be the case that God described the people that went to Babylon as the GOOD FIGS and those who had remained as a remnant in Israel and over to Egypt as BAD FIGS?

• Well, this is an INCREDIBLE THING!

• Fr. Mike doesn’t want to give away too much of what is going to happen

• What’s going to happen is that God is going to do “surgery” on his people 

• The “surgery” is basically that he will remove them from Israel and they are going to Babylon

• In Babylon, their hearts are going to be made RIGHT

• God is going to use King Nebuchadnezzar, as we see in Jeremiah Ch 25

• Nebuchadnezzar is NOT a good king

• He is a bad king

• He has conquered the entire known world

• He enslaved a lot of people

• He killed a lot of people

• He is NOT a friend of the Jews

• So how can the God of the Universe say, “Nebuchadnezzar is my servant”?

• Because God is able to use EVEN BAD PEOPLE TO ACCOMPLISH HIS ENDS

• WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN THIS!!

• BAD PEOPLE

• BROKEN PEOPLE

• PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND ME

• God can use people like this to ACCOMPLISH HIS ENDS

• Jeremiah is pointing out, “Yep. Nebuchandezzar is going to be a servant, a tool, of the Lord God.”

• We can say this in a similar way in terms of JUDAS

• We know that Judas was TRULY A BETRAYER

• Judas was NOT THE HERO OF THE STORY

• BUT…

• God was able to USE Judas, this broken man, to ACCOMPLISH THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD BY HIS BETRAYAL OF JESUS

• NOW IT WAS NOT SOMETHING THAT GOD WANTED!!

• GOD DID NOT WANT NEBUCHADNEZZAR TO BE EVIL

• NOR DID GOD WANT JUDAS TO BE THE BETRAYER

• GOD WAS ABLE TO USE NEBUCHADNEZZAR AND JUDAS FOR A GREATER GOOD!!

• THIS IS AMAZING!!

• Part of that is when the people of Israel come back to Israel, up to this point they are CONSTANTLY TURNING TO FALSE GODS

• They are constantly building their asherim

• They are constantly worshiping Baal

• They are constantly worshiping Molek

• They are constantly turning to ANY GOD other than the TRUE AND LIVING GOD

• BUT…

• After this EXILE, something you are going to see is a LACK OF IDOLATRY (FINALLY!!!! BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, EH PEOPLE OF GOD??!! 😉🤪)

• Now they won’t be perfect when they go back to Israel

• They are still human beings

• BUT…

• ALL OF THE IDOLATRY WE SAW FROM JUDGES, SAMUEL, KINGS, CHRONICLES, ETC. IS NOT GOING TO BE AS PRESENT

• IT IS AS IF GOD HEALED SOMETHING IN THEIR HEARTS BY SENDING THEM TO EXILE IN BABYLON!!

• Part of that is what we see here in Daniel Ch 6

• What do we see?

• The same thing we saw in Daniel Chs 1-5

• Daniel REFUSES TO BE CONFORMED TO THE PEOPLE AROUND HIM

• Daniel REFUSES TO BE CONFORMED TO THIS PRESENT AGE

• St. Paul said, “Do not be conformed to this age. Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

• Basically, DO NOT BE LIKE THE WORLD AROUND YOU!!

• BE LIKE THE LORD GOD!!

• BE LIKE THE SAINTS!! (My personal favorite Saint is St. Joan of Arc in case you were curious 😉)

• This is the KEY THING for ALL OF US TO REALIZE

• Daniel and his buddies are being FAITHFUL in the face of UNFAITHFULNESS

• It doesn’t matter what people around him are doing

• Daniel says, “I know what God is asking me to do, so I am going to do that.”

• So we have the story of Daniel in the lion’s den

• Hopefully we can see that this is what can happen to us

• We can be INCREDIBLY FAITHFUL when it comes to the Lord

• We can be INCREDIBLY FAITHFUL when it comes to our own work and doing it excellently

• AND WE WILL STILL HAVE PEOPLE CONSPIRE AGAINST US

• WE CAN STILL BE IN SOME WAYS POWERLESS

• AND YET…

• In the midst of being POWERLESS we can always be FAITHFUL!!

• We can always LEARN HOW TO LIVE IN EXILE

• That is what Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael are giving an example of

• HOW TO LIVE IN EXILE

• BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE WE ARE!!

• As Christians, we know this is the REALITY

• God made this world and he made it good and he put us here

• BUT…

• THIS IS NOT, ULTIMATELY, OUR HOME

• WE ARE IN EXILE WHENEVER WE ARE FAR FROM THE LORD

• WE ARE IN EXILE WHENEVER WE ARE FROM HIS ULTIMATE PLAN FOR US

• You are where you ought to be, most likely, as we listen to the Lord’s voice and try to follow his will

• BUT…

• THIS IS NOT OUR ULTIMATE HOME!!

• On to Daniel Ch 7

• Daniel Chs 1-6 were NARRATIVE 

• All these incredible things were happening to Daniel and his buddies

• Now, we move onto the second half of Daniel which are REVELATIONS, essentially

• Daniel sees these FOUR BEASTS

• Just like the dream of the statue by Nebuchadnezzar, these four beasts that represent different kingdoms

• The lion with eagles wings is an image of BABYLON

• Majestic, powerful, beautiful, glorious

• But then it is going to get its wings plucked off and a human heart was given to it

• So the second beast is like a bear, which is an image of the MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE

• Slower, stronger, and more devastating that a lion

• It did a lot of destruction

• The next beast is a leopard, an image of the GREEK EMPIRE (Now at this point, Fr. Mike’s explanation is a bit different from the notes in the Didache Bible above so just know that the four beasts represent four different ancient empires symbologically. Go read deeper in other sources if it helps 🤓)

• Alexander the Great conquered the known world by the time he was 30

• The fourth most terrifying iron-toothed beast is an image of the ROMAN EMPIRE

• So we have this image like the statue of Nebuchadnezzar 

• The head of GOLD

• The chest of SILVER

• The BRONZE, IRON, and CLAY

• So it is important for us to recognize that the LAST BEAST, which was terrifying, was NOT THE FINAL THING THAT DANIEL SAW!

• What Daniel saw was the ANCIENT OF DAYS

• What he saw after this was…

• Daniel 7:13-14, “I saw and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.”

• THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!

• What it reveals to us is that in this world, we have kingdoms, nations, kings, princes, presidents, and all these things

• THEY COME AND THEY GO

• THEY RISE AND THEY FALL

• And then there comes the ONE LIKE A SON OF MAN

• THIS KINGDOM DOES NOT FALL!!

• THIS KINGDOM ONLY RISES!!

• SO WE GIVE GOD PRAISE BECAUSE THAT IS HIS KINGDOM ON EARTH!!

• THAT IS THE CHURCH!!

• GOD HAS INVITED US TO BE PART OF THIS!!

• GOD HAS INVITED US TO BE PART OF THE CHURCH!!

• EVEN THOUGH WE ARE IN UNCERTAIN TIMES

• EVERY TIME IS UNCERTAIN!!

• EVEN THOUGH WE LIVE IN UNSTABLE TIMES

• THIS LIFE IS UNSTABLE

• WE KNOW….

• THERE IS THE ANCIENT OF DAYS WHO CONQUERS ALL

• HE HAS INVITED YOU

• HE HAS INVITED ME

• TO BE PART OF HIS KINGDOM!!

• So we just say today and every day, “YES! THY WILL BE DONE!!”

• PRAY FOR FR. MIKE

• PRAY FOR EACH OTHER

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for reminding us of your truth, and for reminding us of the pieces of wisdom that we need to never ever forget. Help us to always remember not only the wisdom we need to make it through this life, but also help us to always remember what you’ve done in our lives, what you’ve done in the lives of your people and what you’ve done in this world. Lord God, help us to belong to you more than we belong to anything else. Help us to be yours more than we are anything else. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”