Daniel 1:1,2 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, and a part of the vessels of the house of God; and he carried them into the land of Shinar, to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god.
God, having given Israel into captivity to the very speech which spoke so copiously through them when they were in their own land and that speech as well in a foreign king, demonstrates His power through His servants by the complete in-ability of the speech of sin to rule over them even in the midst of God having brought their lusts to Israel as a whole.
Psalm 78:29 And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them.
For the first thing that the speech of sin through the foreign king (who was himself an absolute slave to the speech of sin/anti-Christ) does, is teach the best of the princes of Israel the language of the so-called ’sacred writing’ (hieroglyphics) and attempts to make of the princes of Israel hieroglyphi–sists in order that sin may use the sons of God to further its own speech and language of death which creates nothing. Witness this attempt:
Daniel 1:3,4 And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz the chief of his eunuchs, that he should bring of the children of Israel, both of the royal seed and of the nobles, youths in whom was no blemish, and of goodly countenance, and skilful in all wisdom, and acquainted with knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the language of the Chaldeans.
The learning and the language which attempts to force itself on the princes of Israel, the “sacred writing” of hieroglyphics of the Chaldeans did so on the pre-text of the martial triumph. The God of Israel and all concerning Him were then, based solely on military conquest things to be discounted not only by the supposed victor, the speech of sin in Nebuchadnezzar (but the victor was really God, that is the Christ, the Word of God…) but by the Israelites in captivity.
But the ’sacred writing’ of the Chaldeans was of no avail to the supposed victors as we see shortly as spirit and life in the Word of God (and not the speech of sin…):
Daniel 1:8-9 And Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not pollute himself with the king’s delicate food, nor with the wine which he drank; and he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not have to pollute himself. And God granted Daniel favour and mercy before the prince of the eunuchs.
God then, not giving His servants over to the very thing by which the Chaldeans thought to build strength, but reserved them to Himself for their blessing and His glory as we see as spirit and life:
Daniel 1:19,20 And the king spoke with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: and they stood before the king. And in all matters of judicious wisdom, as to which the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the scribes [and] magicians that were in all his realm.
That is, God so arranged it that His servants did in no way flee from His law and were in no way seditious to the authority to which they had been given. God then brings to pass the circumstances under which His Word is in every way magnified over the speech of sin:
The dream:
Daniel 2:1-6 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep went from him. And the king commanded to call the scribes, and the magicians, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to shew the king his dreams; and they came and stood before the king. And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, O king, live for ever! tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The command is gone forth from me: If ye do not make known unto me the dream, and its interpretation, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. But if ye shew the dream and its interpretation, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour; therefore shew me the dream and its interpretation.
(note: the Chaldeans answered the king in no general language of men but God makes note that sin spoke through them particularly in Aramaic. As well note in your personal reading that Daniel is given a new name of the Babylonian gods. God repeatedly calls him ‘Daniel’ (”God (EL) is Judge”) while sin through the Babylonians calls him both the new name (Belteshazzar “Beltis protect the King!”) and his name given by God…)
God sends a dream. The slave of the speech of sin knows that those who are reputed to be interpreters of dreams are really liars and unable to interpret anything. He therefore says to them in the speech of sin which is itself guided by God by circumstance into public humiliation as being powerless, that they should, without his aid, tell him the dream and the interpretation. They are replied through by the speech of sin that he must first tell them the dream–THEN they will interpret it. But if the dream had been from a source within sin (in its own speech), it would have known itself and the request would have been no issue for concern… it would have known its own voice and been able to simply re-say it in public for political and/or religious effect.
Daniel 2:7-12 They answered the second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation. The king answered and said, I know of a certainty that ye would gain time, because ye see the word is gone forth from me; but if ye do not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you; for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can shew me its interpretation. The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s matter; therefore there is no king, however great and powerful, that hath asked such a thing of any scribe, or magician, or Chaldean. For the thing that the king demandeth is extraordinary, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this cause the king was irritated and very wroth, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
The speech of sin replies to itself through its slaves that supposedly their gods (plural) do not dwell with flesh (thus denying the One God and indwelling Word of God in Daniel and His servants) thus appealing to the ‘common sense’ of the king that an absentee third party over whom none among men are known to have any control must answer him, thereby thinking to indemnify themselves against any wrath while concealing that sin is a speech and not an ‘act’ of ‘free willed’ creatures. Yet they are caught in the ‘personal responsibility’ trap sin had thought to set for others. The Chaldeans were ‘responsible’ for their own actions and their own speech in the eyes of all the Babylonians–those for whom ‘evil’ was just an act or a state. They had said that of themselves to give themselves power and reputations. Now that very lie is coming back to kill them.
But God stirs the anger of the king so that he is angry beyond stopping, demonstrating the need of all men to know the truth of God and that the ‘common sense’ and normal conspiracy of emotional trade among those enslaved to the speech of sin is not sufficient to grant them real safety at all. In acquiescence to this, sin thinks to divert the attention of the king away from his dream and the circumstance by emotional devices and an unbroken chain of emotional experiences in the very anger God has wrought and then appeasement of that anger in the death of the fellow liars. But God thwarts this device through Daniel and not through those whose former reputation was such that the sons of God should learn at their feet.
Daniel 2:17-24 Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions; that they would desire mercies of the God of the heavens concerning this secret; that Daniel and his companions should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of the heavens. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever; For wisdom and might are his. And it is he that changeth times and seasons; He deposeth kings, and setteth up kings; He giveth wisdom to the wise, And knowledge to them that know understanding. It is he that revealeth the deep and secret things; He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee, and I praise thee, O God of my fathers, Who hast given me wisdom and might, And hast made known unto me already what we desired of thee; For thou hast made known unto us the king’s matter. Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus unto him: Destroy not the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation.
God turns Daniel and his companions to Himself and not to the worthless “sacred writing” or language they were supposedly students of in their captivity–the speech of sin in its deepest witchcraft and sorcery. Further, God through Daniel glorifies Himself as making plain that the wisdom was not of Daniel himself, thereby removing any opportunity for the speech of sin to lie either to Daniel in secret or to any other in public that Daniel was simply a superior and exceptional student of the ’sacred writing’ of the speech of sin.(Yet sin attempts to say this very thing later on…)
Daniel 2:25-49 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him: I have found a man of the sons of the captivity of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said unto Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream that I have seen, and its interpretation? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, The secret that the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the magicians, the scribes, the astrologers, shew unto the king; but there is a God in the heavens, who revealeth secrets, and maketh known to king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be at the end of days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these: — as for thee, O king, thy thoughts arose upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter; and he that revealeth secrets hath made known to thee what shall come to pass. And as for me, this secret is revealed to me, not by [any] wisdom that I have more than any living, but to the intent that the interpretation should be made known to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold, a great image. This image was mighty and its brightness excellent; it stood before thee, and its appearance was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass, its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till a stone was cut out without hands; and it smote the image upon its feet of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken in pieces together, and they became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings, unto whom the God of the heavens hath given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory; and wheresoever the children of men, the beasts of the field, and the fowl of the heavens dwell, he hath given them into thy hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all: thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee; then another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth everything, and as iron that breaketh all these, so shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter’s clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron doth not mingle with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of the heavens set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the sovereignty thereof shall not be left to another people: it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, but itself shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, — the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and the interpretation of it sure. Then king Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. The king answered Daniel and said, Of a truth it is that your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, because thou wast able to reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel great, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon. And Daniel was in the gate of the king.
1. The speech of sin attempted to apply its own name to the sons of God.
2. But God calls Daniel ‘Daniel’ (which means ‘God is Judge’), his true name before God and not the name given him by sin in the revelation while calling the three friends the name given them by sin even though He blesses and protects them later.
3. The revelation from chapter two verse four until chapter seven is full of the same aramaic dialect used in Ezra 4.8-6-18 and Jeremiah 10:11.
The dream itself …
Yet after such unavoidable confrontation with understanding the king has not heard the voice of God as spirit and as life but as only as it seems to him the same language of sin (as if God had not spoken through Daniel in His Word that is NOT the speech of sin but as if as well there could only exist in all reality one speech–the speech he ‘knows’ –the speech of sin) accompanied with more emotional punch, being in the sign of the interpretation. (!) That is, while he ‘honors’ the God of Daniel as the ‘God of Gods’, he only does so because of he desires more secrets and more knowledge, not because in any way he actually desires to know God Himself and says this emotional trade in the speech of sin as if God had actually been honored by it and a transaction/covenant had actually taken place.(!) That is, he desires power from God, not God Himself and wishes to use God to further his own ambition and the devices of sin to which he is an unwitting slave. For immediately after he makes a idol and the sin commands through him expressly “all languages”, as well as ‘peoples and nations’ shall worship the idol and to fail to worship the idol by any was to be thrown into a burning fire. Yet those in whom dwells the Word of God are blessed of God and God refuses through them to worship the speech of sin. (Such is the pride of sin that it makes the image all of gold, not just the head as in the dream…)
Daniel 3:1-23 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, [and] its breadth six cubits; he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the justices, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the justices, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And the herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, [O] peoples, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up; and whosoever doth not fall down and worship shall that same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Therefore at that time when all the peoples heard the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages fell down worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Whereupon at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews. They spoke and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live for ever! Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, and bagpipe, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image; and [that] whosoever doth not fall down and worship, shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom thou hast appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego: these men, O king, regard thee not; they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image that thou hast set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Then were these men brought before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said unto them, Is it of purpose, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, that ye serve not my god, nor worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if ye be ready at the time that ye hear the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, and bagpipe, and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, [well]: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast that same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace: and who is the God that shall deliver you out of my hand? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter. If it be [so], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image that thou hast set up. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. He spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their hosen, their tunics, and their cloaks, and their garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Forasmuch as the king’s commandment was rigorous, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that had taken up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Having named them in its own tongue, sin thought to have real power over them and now is enraged that the Word of God in them defies it. So enraged is it it seeks to kill them. Yet God is not mocked but rather has brought about the circumstances (the captivity, the captivity at the very place He first divided the language of men, the abstinence from the devices of sin, the dream, the interpretation, the naming of the three by sin in its own language to be the particular persons thrown into the fire, the obvious evil and ignorance that built the statue at all…) of this very confrontation in order to glorify Himself and His Word in His Word and in front of us and many others in the most public and permanent way possible–His Holy Scriptures.
Not only so but in the particular witness of life and spirit that builds us up into an unassailable assurance of peace and oneness in God, God having given us simultaneous life in the witness of the destruction and humiliation of sin and Satan and his slaves–that life being Himself, His Word and intelligence of the holy. God is perfectly efficient and sufficient. Praise the name of Jesus Christ forever and ever! As well, such understanding took place in us because God confounded the single language of man (which speech of men was in the speech of sin) at the tower of Babel such that multiple languages should exist (in particular, chaldee, hebrew, aramaic and english among many others in which both the speech of sin and God speak but of different spirit…) so that a comparison between languages would be understood in His Word as taking place now in us of ancient events in the very place in which He first confounded and compounded the speech of sin. For Nebuchadnezzar was the human King of Babylon possessed by the prince of darkness: satan/belial/the speech of sin who is king of the children of pride so belittled here.
to be continued…
Isaiah 57:19-21 I create the fruit of the lips: peace, peace to him [that is] afar off, and to him nigh, saith Jehovah; and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, and whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
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Part Two
Notes on Daniel: Jacob/Israel Not Counted as of this World
As we saw in our prior prayer and study of the first few chapters of Daniel, the speech of sin in the very place in which such speech was confounded by God (Babel–Babylon) thinks to take captive the princes of Israel by teaching them its own speech through the device of the so-called sacred writing of the Chaldeans so that it may harness them to its own devices.
Daniel 1:1-8 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, and a part of the vessels of the house of God; and he carried them into the land of Shinar, to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god. And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz the chief of his eunuchs, that he should bring of the children of Israel, both of the royal seed and of the nobles, youths in whom was no blemish, and of goodly countenance, and skilful in all wisdom, and acquainted with knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the language of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed unto them a daily provision of the king’s delicate food, and of the wine that he drank, to nourish them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And the prince of the eunuchs gave them names: to Daniel he gave [the name] Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah, Shadrach, and to Mishael, Meshach, and to Azariah, Abed-nego. And Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not pollute himself with the king’s delicate food, nor with the wine which he drank; and he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not have to pollute himself.
But God blesses them in every way and protects them. Witness this protection and public humiliation of the speech of sin before God:
Daniel 3:1-8 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, [and] its breadth six cubits; he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the justices, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the justices, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And the herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, [O] peoples, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up; and whosoever doth not fall down and worship shall that same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Therefore at that time when all the peoples heard the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages fell down [and] worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Whereupon at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews.
God has sent to the king of those who live in the heart of the speech of sin a dream. That is, the dream was sent not only to Nebuchadnezzar, a king in the flesh, king of what-is-seen in that place but also to the spiritual prince of Babylon: Satan–the god of this world. Daniel is spoken through by God to deliver to both as being one with each other the dream and its interpretation. The interpretation is then twisted (as if it had been mere ‘information’ that must be understood to fit within the rubric of them both as creatures how they already were without in any way changing them –in denial of the new birth in Christ) in the mind of them both that it signifies that everything on the earth will worship them and that everything on the earth has been given into their hand. Quite simply, the Word God sends is not heard in truth, but is formed into a lie in the mind of those not given ears to hear it as spirit and as life. For immediately an image is formed that “all peoples, nations and languages” must fall down and worship.
Subsequently, ALL peoples, nations AND LANGUAGES indeed, on hearing the “the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, and all kinds of music” fell down and worshiped the image of gold. That is, with no exceptions ALL peoples, nations and languages ON EARTH fell down and worshiped the image which was an express command by an act of speech of the speech of sin. Expressly, not only those within the physical environment of Babylon fell down and worshiped, but the spiritual princes of the whole earth, the lords of this present darkness fell down without exception and worshiped the speech which they had ears to hear.
Yet the Jews did not worship the image or the speech of sin. Yet they stood on the earth in close physical proximity to the image itself.
Witness another Jew, (that is, expressly of the tribe of Judah, the same tribe of Israel that those who were preserved by God were of, Jesus Christ) who did not bow to such speech of sin even though the speech of sin had in truth been given express authority over “…all languages…” on the EARTH of the earth.
Luke 4:1-13 But Jesus, full of [the] Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness forty days, tempted of the devil; and in those days he did not eat anything, and when they were finished he hungered. And the devil said to him, If thou be Son of God, speak to this stone, that it become bread. And Jesus answered unto him saying, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And [the devil], leading him up into a high mountain, shewed him all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, I will give thee all this power, and their glory; for it is given up to me, and to whomsoever I will I give it. If therefore thou wilt do homage before me, all [of it] shall be thine. And Jesus answering him said, It is written, Thou shalt do homage to [the] Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve. And he led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the edge of the temple, and said to him, If thou be Son of God, cast thyself down hence; for it is written, He shall give charge to his angels concerning thee to keep thee; and on [their] hands shall they bear thee, lest in any wise thou strike thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said to him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt [the] Lord thy God. And the devil, having completed every temptation, departed from him for a time.
That is, Satan/Belial/sin/the anti-christ tries to make of God’s Word a language of the earth and commands as an act of its own speech that the Word of God should worship him because in its own mind “for it is given up to me, and to whomsoever I will I give it.”
Yet: “…Whereupon at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews…” That is, those who were deceived that they spoke as they pleased and had “freedom of speech” and yet in this so-called freedom “..fell down and worshiped…” at the express command of the speech of sin a piece of gold which had to be fixed in place else it would fall over and through which no sound was to be heard so that a pretense of its speaking had to be represented as replica sounds from a human voice in music and words as to what it might sound like were it to actually speak (these things take place in the world today even to this hour…), came forward after such shame as to bow to an idol to accuse those who didn’t bow to the same idol. That is, the Jews were not accounted as being part of the ALL peoples, nations and languages on the earth yet they existed and that on the earth so as to speak and be spoken to and through in front of the speech of sin in all those who were indeed part of the ALL peoples, nations and languages of the earth. It is not that they did not account themselves as such in self-will, (which was the accusation of the speech of sin..) but that God did not account them as such. For God had formerly spoken as spirit and as life:
Numbers 23:7-10 And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east: Come, curse me Jacob, and come, denounce Israel! How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I denounce whom Jehovah doth not denounce? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: Lo, [it is] a people that shall dwell alone and SHALL NOT BE RECKONED AMONG THE NATIONS. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his!
Numbers 23:18- Then he took up his parable and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear! hearken unto me, son of Zippor! God is not a man, that he should lie; neither a son of man, that he should repent. Shall he say and not do? and shall he speak and not make it good? Behold, I have received [mission] to bless; and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen wrong in Israel; Jehovah his God is with him, and the shout of a king is in his midst.God brought him out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a buffalo. For there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! Lo, the people will rise up as a lioness, and lift himself up as a lion. He shall not lie down until he have eaten the prey and drunk the blood of the slain.
That is, the king and the prince of darkness are immediately confronted with the stone that was cut out with hands that would destroy the image of the true dream. The stone was and is the Word of God, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God and the Lion of Israel whose people and Word are not counted as being of this earth and whose kingdom will never end and who has authority over all creation, even over whom the one to whom ALL the peoples, nations and languages of the earth had been given: Satan/Speech of Sin/Belial. This demonstration of eminent destruction in the face of his own pride drives the king/prince of darkness into a fury.
Daniel 3:14-23 Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said unto them, Is it of purpose, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, that ye serve not my god, nor worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if ye be ready at the time that ye hear the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, and bagpipe, and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, [well]: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast that same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace: and who is the God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter. If it be [so], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver [us] out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image that thou hast set up. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. He spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their hosen, their tunics, and their cloaks, and their garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Forasmuch as the king’s commandment was rigorous, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that had taken up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Ancilliary: note the exact repetition of “…the sound of the cornet, pipe, lute, sambuca, psaltery, and bagpipe, and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image…” four times.
The princes of Judah are spoken through by God to acknowledge Himself through them in the face of the accusation of the speech of sin that ‘because’ all men have ‘freedom of speech’ they are “responsible” for what they say: “…Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter….”. As well, without any certainty of their own fate, whether they be with God in a few moments or still on earth to do His work, God says through them in faith: “If it be [so], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver [us] out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image that thou hast set up.”
Expressly, the speech of sin and all the peoples, nations and languages of the earth together with all their glory and things of value are accounted as nothing to their face even at pain of physical death of the elect Jews in the circumstance.
Plainly, Israel is then not accounted among the nations or peoples or languages as they are not of this earth, being of the seed of faith of Abraham and not of the flesh. This is irrespective of the desire of the Jews God has blinded to be one with the world in every way in order to be the best of the world and to rule over the world in a place of pre-eminence among the “ALL peoples, nations and languages” as if they were in truth part of them. Though they be sore pressed daily and it seems a kind of wisdom to give the world what it wants in order that the world, with its language of sin stop speaking against Israel, this will never be. The speech of sin will never cease to defy and deny God until it is cast into hell and silenced forever and no place found for it in the new heavens and the new earth except in fire of hell it thought to burn Israel and the Word of God within.
But as signifying the need to be baptized with the fire of the Holy Spirit the three faithful witnesses of God are thrown into a fire which cannot hurt them in any way. The fire of this earth in no adds or detracts from them. The smell of such earthly fire does not even cling to them.
Daniel 3:24-30 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste; he spoke and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said to the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the opening of the burning fiery furnace; he spoke and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come [hither]. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came forth from the midst of the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had had no power, nor was the hair of their head singed, neither were their hosen changed, nor had the smell of fire passed on them. Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and who changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God! Therefore I make a decree, that in every people, nation, and language, he who shall speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces, and his house shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that is able to deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the province of Babylon.
But even after seeing with his own eyes, (both the king and the prince of darkness) he is merely amazed as if God works merely to entertain him. That is, the king takes the sign of the four sons of God not being burned as a mere emotionalism, then is immediately spoken through by sin to seem to ‘maintain’ an authority over them which he was never granted because they are not from this world and not of the flesh. He orders them to come forth from the fire–and they do. He then thinks to praise God in the speech of sin as if giving God any real praise at all immediately equating God’s Word with his own speech with the very speech and languages he has been given authority over. Then , in even worse sedition to God, says, “I make a decree…” against himself. But because he has indeed been given authority over ‘ALL peoples, nations and languages’–to include himself, he then destroys himself with the very power he so craved. For he has already spoken against God by not being spoken through in Christ irrespective of the seeming positivism he seems to speak ‘about’ God. He is now guilty.
For between the time of God’s first confounding and dividing of ALL the languages of men/the speech of sin at Babel/Babylon and the time when Nebuchadnezzar was king something rather significant took place: the giving of the law. Sin is now guilty, even as it thought to have restored the single authority over men it once had.
Romans 5:13 (for until law sin was in [the] world; but sin is not put to account when there is no law;
But in denying the grace of Jesus Christ in addition to denying the distinction between Jesus Christ and anti-Christ/speech of sin, the speech of sin and all those in it are still under Law.
Romans 3:19-31 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
to be continued…
In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen