Scripture Reading: Dan. 1—6
Ⅰ
The principle of the Lord’s recovery is seen with “Daniel and his companions” (Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah), as overcomers who were absolutely one with God in their victory over Satan’s devices—Dan. 2:13, 17; cf. Rev. 17:14; Matt. 22:14:
A
In his devilish tempting of Daniel and his companions, Nebuchadnezzar changed their names, which indicated that they belonged to God, to names that made them one with idols—Dan. 1:6-7.
B
The name Daniel, meaning “God is my Judge,” was changed to Belteshazzar, meaning “the prince of Bel,” or “the favorite of Bel”—Isa. 46:1.
C
The name Hananiah, meaning “Jah has graciously given,” or “favored of Jah,” was changed to Shadrach, meaning “enlightened by the sun god.”
D
The name Mishael, meaning “Who is what God is?” was changed to Meshach, meaning “Who can be like the goddess Shach?”
E
The name Azariah, meaning “Jah has helped,” was changed to Abed-nego, meaning “the faithful servant of the fire god Nego.”
Ⅱ
Daniel and his companions were victorious over the demonic diet—Dan. 1:
A
Nebuchadnezzar’s devilish temptation was first to seduce the four brilliant young descendants of God’s defeated elect, Daniel and his three companions, to be defiled by partaking of his unclean food, food offered to idols.
B
For Daniel and his companions to eat that food would have been to take in the defilement, to take in the idols, and thus to become one with Satan—cf. 1 Cor. 10:19-21.
C
When Daniel and his companions refused to eat Nebuchadnezzar’s unclean food and chose instead to eat vegetables (Dan. 1:8-16), in principle they rejected the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (cf. Gen. 3:1-6) and took the tree of life, which caused them to be one with God (cf. 2:9, 16-17).
D
The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the eating of Jesus for the building up of the church—vv. 9, 16-17; Rev. 2:7, 17; 3:20.
E
We can eat Jesus by eating His words and by being careful to contact and be with those who call on Him out of a pure heart—Jer. 15:16; 2 Tim. 2:22; 1 Cor. 15:33; Prov. 13:20.
Ⅲ
Daniel and his companions were victorious over the devilish blinding that prevents people from seeing the great human image and the crushing stone as the divine history within human history—Dan. 2:
A
The corporate Christ as the stone and the mountain, the Bridegroom with His bride, the corporate man of God with the breath of God, will crush and slay Antichrist and his armies by the breath, the sword, of His mouth—vv. 34-35, 44-45; 2 Thes. 2:8; Rev. 19:11-21; Gen. 11:4-9; cf. Isa. 33:22.
B
Christ, as the living and precious stone, foundation stone, cornerstone, and topstone of God’s building, infuses us with Himself as the preciousness to transform us into living and precious stones for His building—1 Pet. 2:4-8; Isa. 28:16; Zech. 3:9; 4:7, 9-10.
Ⅳ
Daniel and his companions were victorious over the seduction of idol worship— Dan. 3; cf. Matt. 4:9-10:
A
Whatever is not the true God in our regenerated spirit is an idol replacing God; whatever is not in the spirit or of the spirit is an idol—1 John 5:21.
B
The enemy of the Body is the self that replaces God with its self-interest, self-exaltation, self-glory, self-beauty, and self-strength; in and for the Body we deny the self and do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord—Matt. 16:24; 2 Cor. 4:5.
C
Daniel’s companions had a true spirit of martyrdom; they stood for the Lord as the unique God and against idol worship at the cost of their lives, being thrown at the command of Nebuchadnezzar into a blazing furnace—Dan. 3:19-23.
D
When Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace, he saw four men walking in the midst of the fire (vv. 24-25); the fourth one was the excellent Christ as the Son of Man, who had come to be with His three suffering, persecuted overcomers and to make the fire a pleasant place in which to walk about.
E
The three overcomers did not need to ask God to deliver them from the furnace (cf. v. 17); Christ as the Son of Man—the One who is qualified and capable of sympathizing with God’s people in everything (Heb. 4:15-16)—came to be their Companion and take care of them in their suffering, by His presence making their place of suffering a pleasant situation.
Ⅴ
Daniel and his companions were victorious over the covering that hinders people from seeing the ruling of the heavens by the God of the heavens—Dan. 4:
A
As those who have been chosen by God to be His people for Christ’s preeminence, we are under God’s heavenly rule for the purpose of making Christ preeminent—vv. 18, 23-26, 30-32; Rom. 8:28-29; Col. 1:18b; 2 Cor. 10:13, 18; Jer. 9:23-24.
B
“He is able to abase those who walk in pride”—Dan. 4:37b.
Ⅵ
Daniel and his companions were victorious over the ignorance concerning the result of the debauchery before God and the insult to His holiness—ch. 5:
A
Belshazzar’s taking the vessels that were for God’s worship in His holy temple at Jerusalem and using them in worshipping idols was an insult to God’s holiness (v. 4); he should have learned the lesson from Nebuchadnezzar’s experience (4:18-37); however, he did not learn the lesson and suffered as a result (5:18, 20, 24-31).
B
“An excellent spirit and knowledge and insight, and the interpretation of dreams, the declaring of riddles, and the resolving of problems [lit., knots] were found in this Daniel”—v. 12a.
C
“You…, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this; but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of the heavens; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and of gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see nor hear nor know. But the God in whose hand is your breath and to whom all your ways belong, you have not honored”—vv. 22-23, cf. v. 20.
Ⅶ
Daniel and his companions were victorious over the subtlety that prohibited the faithfulness of the overcomers in the worship of God—ch. 6:
A
The center of Daniel 6 is man’s prayer for the carrying out of God’s economy; Daniel depended on prayer to do what man could not do and to understand what man could not understand; there is no other way to bring God’s economy into fullness and into fulfillment except by prayer; this is the inner secret of this chapter.
B
Daniel prayed three times daily with his windows open toward Jerusalem; through his gracious prayer God brought Israel back to their fathers’ land (v. 10; cf. 1 Kings 19:12, 18); God will listen to our prayer when our prayer is toward Christ (typified by the Holy Land), toward the kingdom of God (typified by the holy city), and toward the house of God (typified by the holy temple) as the goal in God’s eternal economy—8:48-49.