1Belshazzar the king made a great feast to his one thousand nobles and to the one thousand [he was] one drinking the wine. 2Belshazzar said in tasting the wine to bring the vessels of the gold and the silver which Nebuchadnezzar his father had brought from the temple which [was] in Jerusalem and they drank in them, the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines. 3Then they brought the vessels of the gold which they brought from the temple which [was] the house of God which [was] in Jerusalem and they drank in them, the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines. 4They drank the wine and they praised the gods of the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the wood, and the stone.
Some more thoughts on this passage: Jeremiah had prophesied, “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation…” (25:12). Then in 29:10, he said, “This is what the Lord says, ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill My gracious promise to bring you back to this place.’” So, it was clearly prophesied that there was a seventy-year timeline assigned to this period of Babylon and their rule. In fact, Daniel later writes, “I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years” (9:2). Based on that realization, Daniel says, “So, I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer…” (9:3).
Several thoughts. First of all, here again, I am greatly encouraged in my belief that Biblical prophecies are intended to be interpreted literally. Daniel believed in literal interpretation. When Jeremiah said the Captivity would last seventy years, Daniel understood that to mean seventy years. Seventy years. He obviously believed he could look at his calendar, note the year, and say, “Hmmm. I was (say) 16 years old when this all started and now I’m 85. It’s been 69 years. That means the Lord is about to do something great,” and then he resorts to urgent prayers, knowing all of this, and basing it all on the assumption that when the Bible says seventy years, it means seventy years.
In my studies of the Bible, I generally find myself far more comfortable with the old Reformed theologians. They are usually far more careful with the Scriptures than what I would describe today as “willy-nilly, reckless, grab a verse and run” theology. However, when it comes to prophecy, Reformed theology invariably wants to make everything figurative and allegorical, and their conclusions with just about every prophecy are, “You just can’t know.” For instance, in the book Revelation, many specific time periods are prophesied, such as the seven-year Tribulation and the 1,000 year Millennium, etc. Reformed theologians will say, “Oh, that doesn’t mean 1,000 years. It just means ‘a long time.’” As I read my Bible, I want to say, “No. It means 1,000 years. Period.”
What I see here in Daniel is that he agreed. Prophecy should be taken literally. If it said seventy years, he could get out his calendar and do the math. And because he took prophecy literally, when it was time for the Lord to move, Daniel knew to resort to prayer. I’ve never understood why my usually very careful Reformed friends do what they do to prophecy, but Daniel tells me I’m right. I Chron. 12:32 speaks of some men, “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” I want to be someone who “understands the times.” Encouraged by Daniel himself, I will continue to believe a huge part of that is taking Bible prophecies literally.
That said, another interesting note to me is that somehow, Daniel knew exactly when the seventy years started. Today, no one really knows exactly what to do with the period. What I mean is, for instance, if we assume it started in 605 BC, with Nebuchadnezzar’s original conquering of Jerusalem, then 70 years would put us at 535 BC. But it is believed Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon (and decree for the Jewish people’s return) occurred in 539 BC. If we start with the 539 and work backwards, it puts us at 609 BC, which doesn’t seem to us today to include anything monumental. No matter how we look at it, there just doesn’t seem to be any perfect fit. Here is where I want to say, one of our problems may be that no one really understands the ancient timelines. In other words, the dates of 605 BC and 539 BC are based on people’s understanding of ancient writings. As we are sadly too aware today, the government holds no scruples against re-writing history anytime it works in their favor. What I’m saying is you can’t believe the records of ancient governments any more than what our government tells us today. Governments tell people what they want them to hear, not what is true, and anything they record should be considered dubious at best.
Once again, we don’t know. Everyone speculates, trying to align the seventy years with the timeline as we know it. My point to observe, though, is that Daniel didn’t seem to have our problem. He could do the math. Now this is a case where we need to humbly accept that the Lord will give us the understanding of prophecy when we need to know it. Daniel needed to know it and it was apparently quite clear to him. The fact is, we don’t really absolutely need to know exactly when the seventy years started and ended…and so we don’t. This, I would suggest, often happens with prophecy. Even if we do take it literally and believe it will be exactly whatever the Lord says it will be, yet we may not understand exactly what it means. That is because today, we don’t need to know.
This, I would suggest, is the balance us literalists must keep. We need to be careful about going “hog-wild” with our timelines and our interpretations of prophecy. Although we take it literally, although we are quite confident, when it is fulfilled, it will happen precisely the way the Bible said it would, yet, we need to always retain the humility to admit what we don’t know. Jesus even said to His disciples, “I have told you these things beforehand, so that, when they are fulfilled, you will know…” (John 16:4). Note He said, “When they are fulfilled.” Prophecies weren’t given to satisfy our curiosity. They are there in the Bible so that, we, like Daniel, can “understand the times,” and know what the Lord would have us to do.
It encourages me a lot to see that what is playing out in the book of Daniel is clearly and exactly what I believe to be true. Prophecies should be taken literally, and that is very important, yet it is also true they need to be received with an element of humility, realizing, to some extent, the Lord may only grant us understanding when we actually need it.
As I would study the Bible, and as I come across prophetic portions, I find it very encouraging to discover that I’m handling them like Daniel.
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