Spring of Hope

After the time of King Nebuchadnezer and Belthshassar, the Persian King Darius invaded and took over Babylon. As a historian puts it, “The sunset of Babylon’s kingdom has now become the dawning of the Medo-Persian empire.” According to scholars, the “Darius” in the 6th chapter of Daniel is Cyrus the Great, the Persian ruler who eventually allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem after about 70 years of captivity. Daniel was probably about 85 years old at this time. He had served three kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar and Darius. King Darius was so pleased that he made Daniel the chief of the governors. Everything was going well for Daniel. Then came the judgment, a plot deviced by jealous colleagues to trap Daniel. They asked the king to make a rule that nobody could worship anyone else besides the king for thirty days. Anyone found disobeying the order would be thrown into a den of lions. After hearing the judgment, Daniel went up to the upper room and prayed three times as he ...

Daniel chapter 3 is called the Fire Alarm chapter by a writer. What are you supposed to do when the fire alarm goes off? We are aksed to run to the exit and get out as soon as you can. As we hear in the air plane announcements, in case of a low pressure, the oxygen masks will drop and make sure you wear yours first before you help your child or someone else. In a fire, we are told to take our safety and run to the exit. Do anything possible to get out. But the three Hebrew boys, Shadrak, Meshak and Abednego, instead of running for the exit, they decided to go to the fire. In 605 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, conquered the Southern Kingdom of Judah and took into captivity a group of bright young men to train them with skills in administration and leadership. The King ordered to change their names from their Hebrew names to those that reflected Babylonian gods. Hannaniah (The Lord is gracious) became Shadrach honoring the sun god, Mishael (God like) was named Meshak t...