BibleProject - The Beastly King - Son of Man E5

Episode Date: February 11, 2019

In part one (0:00-6:30), the guys briefly go over the previous conversations from the Son of Man series. Tim explains that in order to fully understand the Son of Man imagery in Daniel 7, Daniel 1-6 needs to first be unpacked. Daniel 7 is significant because it’s a culminating vision of the whole Hebrew Bible imagery told in one very dense chapter. In part two (6:30-25:50), the guys go over the history of the Babylonian Empire and King Nebuchadnezzar. He was a king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, a sort of resurgence of the previous Babylonian rule. Babylon had long been dormant while Assyria was the world superpower, but Babylon had a brief rise to prominence again under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar. He dominated Jerusalem and took their promising youth with him to Babylon. Daniel was in this group. Tim points out a few hyperlinks to other parts of the Hebrew Bible at the beginning of the book of Daniel. Daniel is the "royal seed" carried away to Babylon who replays the test of Adam and Eve and succeeds! Daniel 1:3-4: "And the king of Babylon told his officers to bring from the sons of Israel and from the royal seed… youths...who were good of sight and wise with all wisdom, and knowing knowledge, and understanding knowledge…" Dan 1:5-7: "And the king assigned for them a daily ration of the king’s choice food and his wine, to raise them for three years so they could stand in his service. Among them were sons of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah...but Daniel set it upon his heart to not defile himself with the king’s choice food or his wine…" Dan 1:12: "Daniel said, 'Let there be given to us from the seeds, and we will eat, and water, and we will drink.'" Daniel is depicted as a new Adam, who is brought into Babylon already having great knowledge. He refuses the forbidden food (Daniel ch. 1) and only increases in wisdom! Instead, he adopts an Eden-diet of veggies and water and is elevated to serve in the king’s court. Tim’s point is that Daniel is the forbidden fruit that the king of Babylon has just taken. Daniel has an opportunity to eat the forbidden food of the king and break his kosher diet. He refuses the forbidden food and therefore passes the test. In part three (25:50-end), Tim and Jon go over the two dreams that Nebuchadnezzar has leading up to Daniel 7. In Daniel 2, the king has a dream. Once Daniel gives the interpretation, the king worships Daniel. Daniel 2:46-49: "Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and worshipped (sagid) Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and incense. Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel made request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king’s court." Then Daniel 3 is an inversion of Daniel 2. The king wants everyone to worship an image of him. This is the story of the blazing furnace. Daniel 3:10-12: “You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe and all kinds of music, is to fall down and worship the image of gold. “But whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire. “There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. These men, O king, have disregarded you; they do not serve (palakh) your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.” So Daniel 2 and 3 are inversions of each other, and then in Daniel 4, the king has another dream. In the dream, a "watcher” appears. Tim notes that this is the only time that specific word appears in the Hebrew Bible. However, it also appears in the book of Enoch, a Jewish book written in the same time period. The king calls Daniel again to interpret the dream. Daniel 4:20-25: "The tree that you saw, which became large and grew strong, whose height reached to the sky and was visible to all the earth and whose foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt and in whose branches the birds of the sky lodged— it is you, O king; for you have become great and grown strong, and your majesty has become great and reached to the sky and your dominion to the end of the earth. ‘In that the king saw a watcher, a holy one, descending from heaven and saying, “Chop down the tree and destroy it; yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground, but with a band of iron and bronze in the new grass of the field, and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him share with the beasts of the field until seven periods of time pass over him,” this is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king: that you be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field, and you be given grass to eat like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven; and seven periods of time will pass over you, until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes." Tim notes that when the Babylons of this world acknowledge that God is truly the wise sovereign, then they can become the true human rulers they’re intended to be. But when they do not, when they turn their national power and glory into an idol (as in Daniel chs. 2 and 3), God shows them what they are: beasts. The narrative contrasts the beastly Babylon with the human Daniel who submits to God’s rule and is elevated to rule by God’s wisdom. So to sum up the episode: The king of Babylon’s worship of the divine image of Daniel in Daniel 2 is ironically reversed in Daniel 3, where his friends are forced to worship the false image of Babylon. These twin stories set up the tension of the book: What humanity will be exalted as the divinely appointed ruler of the world? Babylon or the “royal seed” represented by Daniel and his friends? The king’s worship of Daniel becomes a narrative image of the worship of the son of man in Daniel 7. And Daniel 7 is a symbolic and cosmic depiction of a real, historical conflict (Antiochus’ attack on Jerusalem and defilement of the temple in 167 B.C.) that has been depicted as part of an ancient pattern going all the way back to Genesis 1-3. Thank you to all of our supporters! Show Produced By: Dan Gummel, Jon Collins Show Music: Defender Instrumental, Tents Bloc, KV Show Resources: Our video on the Son of Man: https://bit.ly/2URk3BH B. Mastin, "Daniel 2:46 in the Hellenistic World," in Zeitschrift für alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, volume 85 (1973), pages 80-93. Crispin Fletcher-Louis, "Jesus Monotheism" chapter 6, "High Priestly and Royal Messianism,"

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey, this is John at the Bible Project. We're on episode 5 of a conversation about a character in the Bible called the Son of Man. It's an important character that Jesus himself identifies with. And while the apostles call Jesus by the title of the Christ, an odd fact in the Gospel can not says Jesus almost never uses that title to describe himself, instead he very often uses the phrase Son of Man. This is a phrase that he got from Daniel chapter seven, and it's clear that Jesus saw Daniel seven as a symbolic portrait in miniature of his entire destiny, calling and vocation, his identity.

In Daniel seven, there's a dream. In the dream, we meet this character, the sun of man. He rides up on a cloud, sits at God's right hand, and is worshiped alongside of him. This is the human we've been waiting for since page 3 of the Bible, when God promised that a seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. But the son of man is in Daniel 7, which is the culmination of Daniel 136. And so we need to take in Daniel one through six. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Sixth century BC, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, took over Jerusalem, lewits their temple, and recruits men to serve him in Babylon. One of these men is Daniel. We'll look at how he is connected to the son of man, all that and more in this episode. Thanks for joining us. Here we go.

Okay, this is the part you've been waiting for. Yes, in the Son of Man conversations, everything's been setting up for this. This is where the good stuff is. Really? I felt like the conversation had been good. Oh, it's been awesome. But it's all been preparatory to come back to where we started. And to read Daniel 7, I think with fresh set of lenses. Oh, it's been awesome. But it's all been preparatory to come back to where we started. And to read Daniel 7, I think with fresh set of lenses. And then to let that help us reread the gospel accounts of Jesus. Yeah, you've never done it this way.

Start in the middle of the story, go to Jesus. Correct. Go back to the beginning of the story. Yeah. And then come back. Yeah. Okay. So here's the recap. We've said this preparatory conversations

for the Son of Man video we're gonna make. We started with a fact, Jesus, the most common title in the New Testament is Messiah, Christ, people using it to describe Him. However, an odd fact in the Gospel accounts is Jesus almost never uses that title to describe Himself. Instead, He very often uses the phrase Son of Man. This is a phrase that he got from Daniel chapter 7, and it's clear that Jesus saw Daniel 7 as a

symbolic portrait in miniature of his entire destiny calling vocation. His identity. His identity. Yeah. Yeah. And so then what we did was go back to, because Daniel 7 is itself the whole story of the Hebrew Bible. Yeah, Daniel 7 didn't just pop up out of nowhere.

No. It wasn't just some random dream. Yeah. It was a culminating vision of an idea that's been generating since the first two pages of the Bible. Literally, yeah, since the very beginning. So, yeah, Daniel 7 is the whole Hebrew Bible told in one chapter of dense symbolism in dream imagery. The whole Hebrew Bible. Yes, and almost every key character, every key mediator or deliverer figure human

contributes to the portrait. Actually think of this figure, we're going to see in Daniel 7, the son of man, as the like photo mosaics, you know, big pictures that are made of thousands of little tiny pictures. And Daniel 7's like that. The son of man figure rising up above the defeated beast and being enthroned beside God. That figure is, if you zoom in, you'll see a million little pictures of Adam and Joseph and Moses and Joshua and the high priest. and we're gonna see Daniel himself. And you realize all of their stories have been miniature versions of this story. There's just one storyline at work and in all these different. There's one meta story being told over and over and over again through the mini stories

of all the different episodes and characters of the Hebrew Bible. And it's the stories from the early chapters of Genesis. So the character, the Son of Man in Daniel 7, is like an amalgamation. Correct, yeah. Of all of these other stories. Yes. And what you realize when you get there is that we haven't been telling all these separate stories, all these separate individuals.

It's all been one story, one meta story. Yeah. By the time you get to this, you probably already kind of picked that up. You're supposed to have been trained already to know that's what's going on. That seems so significant, and then this is what Jesus calls himself.

Right, yes. And so then why the gospel authors will have woven into every episode of the Gospels, um, design patterns and key word hyperlinks back to stories in the Hebrew Bible to depict Jesus as a new Adam, a new Joseph, a new Moses, a new Elijah, a new David. They'll tell stories of Jesus doing something. Yeah. But then he'll say something that's a little hyperlink or a quote from something Moses said or something that he did.

Because the gospel authors don't like to just straight out just go, I want you to understand, Jesus is a new Moses. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, they almost, no, that's not, they do it the way that he revival does it. By having him do something, you're like, wait, that's something Moses would do

or use a phrase of like, that's a phrase from the story Moses. That's something Moses did. That's something David did. Yeah. This is the weave of biblical literature. Biblical authors advance their claims and arguments and what they want to communicate to you the message, but through narrative patterning to create overlapping characters.

And so the son of man, it's the greatest example of that. But the son of man is in Daniel 7, which is the culmination of Daniel 1 through 6. And so we need to take in Daniel 1 through 6. Real quick, a few minutes. A little set us up. Okay, so first sentence is a Daniel, let's just take this in. In the third year of the reign of Yehoyakim, King of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged.

Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, yeah. Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, yeah. How did you pronounce it? Nebuchadnezzar. And actually, that's a Hebrew pronunciation? Of a Babylonian name. Yeah, the Babylonian name is Nebuchad Drezzar

with an R instead of an N, not Nezzar, but Rezzar. Nebuchadne Drezzar. And Nebuchadne is one of the names. It's a God. It's a deity. Yeah. In the book of Jeremiah, a god. It's a deity. Yeah. In the book of Jeremiah, a couple times in the Hebrew Bible, the spelling Neville-Codd Dretzar is retained even in Hebrew, but most times it's Neville-Codd Nezar, and it's just a pronunciation

variant. Now I can like tomato, tomato, potato, potato. Yeah, but those all have the same letters. Letters. Oh yeah. What's another one then? You know what I always found really interesting is how a British always put kind of an R sound behind words to end with an A.

Oh, okay. Sure. Like a gender, like, or a banana. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's a good example. It's just like this really soft R. In American English, you keep the A really strong and you end with that banana.

Yeah, that's right. Actually, yes, I have a friend actually staying with me because he's about to move to Scotland and he made dinner last night at our house, it was awesome. And but he used something with war-chester-sauce. Oh yeah, war-chester-shier in English. But he's saying in Scotland, they just say Worcester. Worcester.

So, Neville-Codd-Dretzard, Neville-Codd-Netzard. Yeah. Anyway. So his name means Nabu is the name of Babylonian God. I think it's a synonym for Marduk. So it means, so in Babylonian it's Naboo Kuduru Utsar. Naboo Kuduru Utsar. Naboo has protected the sun who will inherit. It's apparently what it means. That's what the name means. In Akkadian. Now it doesn't really matter so much, but what do you know about this guy?

How do you get come to power and what's the whole Babylonian story? He represents a king of what's called the neo-Babalonian Empire. So it's a new, it's a rising from the ashes. So actually before Israel was ever on the scene, Babylon had an ancient powerful empire over the Mesopotamian region, King Homburabi, it's kind of the famous. Oh yeah. King Homburabi's this big ancient stone where he inscribed the lock-code and it was given to him by the gods.

So then the Assyrian kingdom, which was capital and Nineveh, which was up by the Tigris, a little bit north, gained power, and then it was just Assyria all the way for centuries. And so... But Assyria didn't, they took over the Northern Kingdom. They took out the Northern Kingdom and they besieged Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah. Okay. And that's stories told in the Bible multiple times. So Nevocad Retzard essentially was the architect of a renewal of the Babylonian Empire. And he was able to exploit a succession of lots of kings in a row in the Assyrian Empire. It was weak, economically weak. They had spent way too much money taking over the world

and were overextended. And so anyway, he was able to take advantage of a bunch of things. There's lots of details I am forgetting right now. But anyway, he rally Babylon. Yeah, and we're talking, this is ancient. So this is happening in like around 600 BC. Uh-huh.

The golden days of Babylon were in like 1800 BC. So over a thousand years ago. So over a thousand years. It's just kind of been laid down. Babylon's been dormant. Yeah. Under the shadow of Assyria, and now he was the one.

So what was Israel up to when Babylon had its first kind of heyday? Oh yeah, they were Abraham's ancestors. Okay. In that very land. In the land of Mesopotamia. It's pre Abraham. Correct. So yeah, I'll let's say Babylon's ancient, but it's a neo-Bablonian era. Neobablon. And so Nevonadrezzar essentially stormed West and Was asserting his dominance over what used to be the territory of the Assyrian Empire. This neo-Bablonian era didn't last even a century. I mean it just overextended itself.

Just like Assyria. The Persians who came next, Persian Empire, they learned from Assyria and Babylon. What they did was, yeah, all the people that Nebuchadnezzar had exiled and taken prisoner into foreign lands, he let these people go back. Okay. Yeah. And this is why... This is Cyrus. And this is why Israel is able to make this. Yeah, after Ezra Nehemiah's and Zerubbubul's periods, their books of the Bible about this, about. But what Ezra Nehemiah and that whole crew going back to Jerusalem, that was a part of many people groups getting to go back to their homelands after having been taken into exile

by Nebuchadnezzar. But that was just normal. Like we're gonna be the power brokers here in this world and so you're gonna all be under my authority. And I'm gonna march in and you're gonna make this happen. That's right. However, what Nebuchadnezzar did first is he asserted dominance over Jerusalem, he besieged it. That's how the book of Daniel opens.

And as we're gonna see, he took a whole layer of the elite power economic brokers and he took them to Babylon, but he left the majority of the population and he set them to Babylon, but he left the majority of the population. And he set up a puppet king, and then it's the puppet king. Is that a kaya who rebells? And then Nebuchadnezzar comes back, like you guys are done. I gave you a shot.

So there were actually multiple waves of Nebuchadnezzar coming and taking people. So he didn't just come in and just take over. I mean, he did. But he came in, he's like, I'm gonna let you guys keep this. You know, he keeps this, you'll just be under foreign occupation and the guy ruling is under my thumb. That's right. So Daniel is a part of this first wave of exiles.

All of that is told in the book of Second Kings. And Daniel opens with a hyperlink, back essentially back to Second Kings. In the third year of Yehoye Kim, Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem and besieged it. Yehoye Kim being, he was the current, he was the puppet ruler.

Line of David, no. No, he was the guy reigning when Nebuchadnezzar showed up. Oh, for God's time. So, verse two, the Lord gave your holy king of Judah into his hand. Yeah. Just like Jeremiah said, just like the prophet said, Rebel sons of David don't get to rule in Jerusalem for very long.

Yahweh won't allow it. So, here's what happened. The Lord gave the king of Judah, the son of David, into this guy's hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God. So he looted the temple, took all the gold, lampstand, right, the table of showbred. Yeah, which isn't, like, if you're trying to make friends with Israelites, it's not good thing to do.

No, he doesn't care about being friends. He's a certain dominance, yeah. Yeah, it's very macabaliant though, or whatever. Totally, well then, and then look what he does. He's a certain dominant. Yeah. It's very macabre valiant though or whatever. Totally. Well, then look what he does. He empties the temple of all of it's like ritual furniture. And then he brought them to the land of Shinod.

And that's a hyperlink. It means Babylon. It's a regional name for Babylon. Yeah, it, uh, NIV says Babylonia. Oh, wow. OK, it's the land of Shinod. Shinod, yeah, Hebrew Shinod. It's a, it's aah. Shinnah, yeah, Hebrew Shinnah.

It's a glowing blue hyperlite. Yeah. Because this is where the tower and the city of Babylon were built in Genesis 11, it's called the land of Shinnah. That's where the tower of Babylon was built. It's a rare ancient man for the region of Babylon. We encountered it first in Genesis 11. And it's used just a few times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Interesting. And there always meant to be hyperlinks back. So remember what was Genesis 11 about? What's that tower of Babylon that has its heads up in the heavens? It's a temple structure. Oh, look at. And so he's taking them back to the Babylonian cosmic mountain temple, and he's taking what used to be in the temple in Jerusalem, and he's putting it in his temple to his god. Devastating. Devastating. Yeah, he's thrown his weight around. So verse three, then the king ordered Ashpinaz, the chief of his officials, to take some

of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal seed, literally the seed of the kingdom. And by now the word seed is loaded. Yeah, the seed of the woman, seed of Abraham, seed of David, part of the messianic portrait is the royal seed. Yeah, within the seed is the future hope of the holy. Snake Crusher of the one who will bring God's kingdom and bring blessing to the nation, see the Abraham, all that. Yeah, so that's interesting. It's like this detail of taking the royal seed.

Yes. First, he takes all of these like the really important artifact, like the important, he empties the temple. All the temple worship stuff. Yeah. It's like going in and rob the temple worship stuff. Yeah. It's like going in and robbing God's house.

But even more than that, the most valuable thing. Yeah, the future of their kingdom. Is the future of the kingdom symbolized in the seed, the promise that God would use, and he's taken that. Taken that to Babylon too. Yeah. Let's think about these royal seed. Their use in whom there was no blemish.

Mmm, like their priests. Ah, like their priests and like the sacrificial animals. Oh. It's a phrase used to describe like Passover, take a young yearling with no blemish. Yeah. We're in all the sacrifices in Leviticus. Yeah.

Take an animal. Yeah. with no blemishes. Why are they being described as if they're sacrificial animals? Hmm, interesting. Animals get consumed by the flames on the altar. Yeah, but it also is the description of a priest, right? Correct. The priests are to have no blemish, but also the animals. Correct.

Yep. They were also good of sight. Good on the eyes. Good on the animals. Correct. Yep. They were also good of sight. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Good on the eyes. Good on the eyes. Which was said of both David and of Joseph, the same phrase. Yeah. And also, it's what that forbidden fruit looked like to the one. Oh, really? It's the same phrase. Good of sight. Good of sight. Oh, I don't know. Interesting. And you know what? And I've you just as handsome. Oh, okay. You know what else is interesting? They had knowledge in every kind of wisdom, endowed with understanding, discernment, and knowledge to serve in the King's Court.

So we have the royal seed going into the heart of Babylon, and they are described in the language of priests and sacrificial animals. And they have wisdom and they look good, which is just like that fruit in the garden that would bring wisdom if you take it. Remember? Yeah. Women saw that the fruit was good of sight and desirable for gaining knowledge to become

wise. So you think that's all in here? Oh, absolutely. No, really? Absolutely. Is that it? Totally. Totally.

That's a lot. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but by this point, he's already pre-programmed specifically from the Joseph story. This is all a language from the Joseph story, where Joseph is the Fribid and Frute, that's what the potifers wife sees and desires and takes. So these guys are now the fruit that Nebuchadnezzar is taking? Yeah, Nebuchadnezzars just taken the... That's why they're described this way.

The Fribid and Frute of the chosen royal seed, And it's going to come back to Biden in the major way. Okay. But anyway, just to... All right. Yeah. Okay. So here's what happens. By now in the Hebrew Bible, these authors are very creative, and they'll be using imagery

and language from earlier stories. But in new combinations. Okay. They're not beholden to the earlier stories. They use them as treasure troves of imagery to make the point that needs to be made here in Daniel. So here's what happens is that the king appoints that these guys eat from the king's choice food

and from his wine, and to get schooled in Babylonian astronomy and math and language for three years before they enter the service. Not a bad gig. Among them were four sons of Judah, four of the royal seed. Daniel, Chananya, Misha El and Azaria. So Daniel means God is my judge, the one who judges on my behalf.

Hananya means Yahweh shows mercy. Misha El, Misha El, who is like El, Who is like God? And Azaria is Yahweh is help. So they all have really great Hebrew names. They all have awesome Hebrew names. And what he does is they get assigned new Babylonian names. Belches are... For Daniel. Yep. Shadrock. And again, so Belches is our hero. I'll just look these up real quick. Beltsych's are. So Daniel goes from God is my judge to Balat Sari Utsur.

May the king's life be protected. Oh wow. So his name goes from God as my protector and judge. To I protect the king of Babylon. May the life of the king of Babylon be protected. Wow. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, cool stuff like this.

Okay, so here's the thing. All right, Daniel's got a new diet and a new educational track in front of him. Yeah, the new name. But here's the thing. He already has wisdom. That's right. That's neat. Yeah.

So next, verse 8, so Daniel made up his mind, I'm not going to defile myself with this Babylonian food or the wine. And for him, because it's not kosher, right? Almost certainly. That's what's going on. That's right. We have a figure here, the king of Babylon, treating these royal seed, like they're like the forbidden fruit that he's taken.

He's going to plump him up. Yeah, totally. But from another perspective, here's Daniel, as the royal seed, a human being taken and planted in Babylon, and he won't eat food that's forbidden to him. So it's his contrast. The king of Babylon will take what doesn't belong to him. Like the humans on page one, taking the fruit,

and they're described like the fruit. But Daniel won't. But Daniel won't eat the forbidden food He becomes a reversal of a Adam. Yeah, he's the Adam. We're looking for yeah totally. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, never can has her becomes oh, we know human we know this story We know humans who desire and take what they want for themselves. Yeah, that's We're using that all over yeah, but Daniel all of a sudden we're like, well, this guy, he didn't do it. He doesn't take what is forbidden to him. And his life is at stake.

All of a sudden, the king gets angry that he and his friends won't eat the royal food. And so Daniel says, wait, okay, if you can kill me if you want, but just give us some time, 10 days. And if we're more healthy and our brains are working better, then anybody else here, after 10 days of only eating seeds, he says, give us 10 days, I think it's good. Which is what the God wanted Adam and Eve to eat in the garden?

Yes, yes, yes, exactly. So Daniel says, he says, I don't want the king's food, then he strikes a deal down here. In verse 12, he says, test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given some vegetables. It gets translated. The word is Zeruleem, a plural of the Hebrew word, Zerra, which is seed. So here's the royal seed, who's asking to eat only seed and this was the diet given to the humans in Genesis 1. The seed bearing plants. And so he says, let us so he's like, he wants to eat. Daniel's a vegan. We're like, he's a new Adam. This is awesome.

This is the new, oh cool. You won't eat the forbidden food instead. He'll eat what gods assigned him, which is the seed-bearing plant. And then after 10 days. But he's not in the Garden of Eden. No, no, he's in the anti-Eden. He's in the anti-Eden. He's in Babylon, which in Genesis 3 to 11. He's the anti-Eden.

Is where expulsion from Eden landed humanity, was in the plains of Shinnon, which all connected it. So awesome, how these stories work. Okay, 10 days pass, and their bodies are healthy, they're smarter, for 17, God gave them knowledge and intelligence, and Daniel even understood all kinds of vision and dreams, and then they enter into the King's service.

That's Daniel, chapter one. Correct. So we're already set up to see Daniel as a royal son of David who's a new Adam. He passed his test. Yeah. Just like that. He didn't take. Yeah. The royal priest on Genesis one, Adam and Eve's, right? They failed the test. Yeah, and they had everything going for them. Yeah, totally. Right? Yeah. They're in the garden. Actually, in Eden. Yeah. Yeah. Everything's awesome. They're walking with God. The temple garden. They're in Eden. Yeah. Everything's awesome. They're walking with God. The temple garden.

They're living there. And they screw it up. Yet Daniel, he's pulled out of the temples destroyed in Jerusalem or ransacked. Yeah, that's right. He's pulled into the anti-Eden. He's now essentially the slave of a guy who thinks he's God. His name has been changed. And he's got to protect this guy now. Yep.

And a test is put before him regarding forbidden food. Forbid. Yeah. And the kosher diet's so important. And to the storyline and even an axe. Yes. Yeah. We.

How. Forbid and food. It's such an important part. And like when the Jerusalem Christians told the Gentile Christians, like, we it's right how for bitten food. It's such an important part in like when the Jerusalem Christians Told the Gentile Christians like I just do whatever. Yes. Yeah, just these two things here It's what sets Daniel apart as faithful to God. Yeah, yeah, and they say just don't eat food sacrifice No, what did they say? I don't and with blood in it right correct. Yeah, we're strength. That's been strangled That's been strangled. They still cared about the diet.

Yeah, they did. That was really still important to them. That's right. It was such a symbol. Huge. Huge. Yep. 1,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5, new Adam passed his test, and now he's super smart, super wise. And then we're told he can understand visions and dreams.

Yeah. He'll be hold. What is Daniel chapter 2 all about. A dream. A dream that the king of Babylon has. He has this dream of a great statue made up of multiple kinds of metals. And it's but it's a big statue representing the empires and kingdoms of the world. And it gets struck by a meteor meteor and then he wakes up and he's freaked out Mm-hmm, and no one he calls all his wizards and dream interpreters and no one no one could figure it out Yeah, so he says I'm gonna kill you all you just issues need it all my staff I'm gonna kill all my staff and hire new people All my staff, I'm gonna kill all my staff and hire new people. Do you imagine?

No. If it's good to let that sink in for a second. This is human nature right here. We live in such a unique time of history because that seems outlandish to us, but probably in most times in human history, that was part for the course. Yeah, heads are gonna roll.

Growing up, I've watched, I remember watching this movie about the city that had all this gold and there's this one scene in it. It's a very old movie. It's one scene in it, the ruler, which is mad at this guy, so he just dropped him in this boiling cauldron of gold. Yeah. And then the guy's just dead and I'm just like, I remember as a kid just watching me like, oh, that is so gnarly. Yeah.

He just killed that dude. Yeah, yeah. It is pot of gold. kid just watching me like, wow, that is so gnarly. Yeah. You just killed that dude. Yeah, yeah. It is pot of gold. Yeah. And for whatever reason, that's kind of like the same feeling I'm getting. I've become the icon.

Yeah. Of the like, never chance of just being like, you guys can't do it. All right, you're all dead. Yes. Bring me a new crew. Yep. Yeah, dude. Put them in the pot of gold.

Yes. Human beings, man. Animals. Yeah. That's what this video is going to be about. The animal nature on the least in humans when we don't submit to a definition of good and evil greater than my definition. So Daniel asks for a couple days to pray to his God, because he's like, I know I can come up with the interpretation of the dream.

And so he does. And he goes to Nebuchadnezzar and he says, listen, I know I can come up with the interpretation of the dream. Yeah. And so he does. And he goes to Nebuchadnezzar and he says, listen, the statue that you saw or the kingdoms of this world, there's four layers, it's a succession, succession of four kingdoms, you and the ones coming after you. And you know what you should do is you should honor the God of all nations and be a good ruler, be a good king.

Yeah. You know? And Nebuchadnezzar's... By the way, this is not, if Daniel is being smart, he wouldn't have brought that interpretation, right? Oh, yeah, sure. In other words, to say that your kingdom's eventually gonna fall. Yeah, that's right.

It's not getting summoned by... Totally. Yeah. And eventually, the whole chain of kingdoms is going to collapse and God's Kingdom comes, the media comes, strikes. You're not bringing good news, that's what I'm saying. Tolly. Yeah.

So think the images of a great statue reaching up into the skies. It's head is in the skies, I was thinking. Just like the Tower Babylon, let's build a tower with its head and the sky. This is the dream that the head bows in. Then the media comes, that the rock that represents God's kingdom, we have interprets it. And then all of a sudden that rock

grows into a cosmic mountain. Yeah. That's what he says, a mountain. So in place of the human mountain, so to speak, or the image that goes up to the sky. So the anti-Eden becoming eaten again. The anti-Eden is destroyed in God's cosmic mountain. Which is not what happens when a meteor hits the earth,

you get an upside. You get a crater. So I know, yeah, it's not interesting. You don't get a mountain. Yeah, it's a good point. Yeah, this point, again, so it's a dream. Yeah. It's all symbolic.

Yeah. Meteors can become mountains. Meteors become mountains. In your dreams. So it's very important. The King's response to Daniel is in chapter 2 verse 46. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and New American standard has did homage to Daniel. Are you looking at NIV translation?

Pay the honor. Pay him honor and gave orders to present him in offering and sweet incense, fragrant incense. This went well for Daniel. This went well for Daniel. Okay, but just stop. So the king of the nations who just plundered you and your people is now on his face before Daniel. And paying honors, it's the word for worship. Oh, that phrase and paid him honor. He re there is worshiped. Yep. So the king who just had a dream about a statue of

representing the empires, when he realizes that Daniel can interpret the dream, he he prostrates himself and he worships Daniel and offers sacrifices to him before him. Do you see this? To present him in offering an incense means this is the language of worship in the book of Leviticus. This is what you do at a temple. You kill an animal, you burn it before the altar, before the holy of Holies, and you offer incense as an act of worship. He's reading Daniel like a king. The king who thinks he's a god is bowing

and worshiping Daniel as if he's a god. What's this crazy? This is total inversion of the storyline. And you're also a little scandalized. I mean, you're like, he's a pagan. He's a Babylonian. He worships all kinds of things. Yeah.

But, you know, in biblical imagery, this is very stark. Daniels, and Daniel, the king says to Daniel, surely your God is the God of gods, the Elohim of Elohim. The Lord of Lords, the reveal of mysteries. So you're like, wait, so he's worshipping Daniel. Yeah. But then he, the one he's also honoring, yeah, his worship to Daniel is a form of worship to Daniel's God. Yeah. But the text is very clear. He laid down prostrate before Daniel and presented to him. For Nebuchadnezzar, yeah, something special about Daniel, it knows that behind Daniel is Daniel's God. But we also know from the biblical narrative

that Daniel's God has anointed humans as his image. As his image. And we've been presented already as Daniel as kind of this true human. A true human image, a true image of God who passed the test. Yeah, he passed the test. He passed the test. And then here are the nations, the representative of the nations bowing before the faithful image of God and offering him worship.

I'm just saying. What are you saying? Remember, Daniel 7 is the culmination of both the biblical, whole biblical story and also of the lead up of Daniel. This is a son of man picture. Yeah, here's a son of Adam who's passed the test and the nations are bowing before him. Yeah.

So the next chapter is Daniel chapter 3. This is one of the most famous stories in the Bible. And it's an inversion of what just happened. It begins, Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, the height of which was 60 qubits, if the qubits were 18 about a foot and a half. 90 feet high by 90 watts. Yeah, I miss.

That's a statue of liberty sized. How big is a statue of liberty? 305 feet tall. Oh, it got it. So it's a statue of liberty sized. How big is a statue of liberty? 305 feet tall. Oh, it got it. So it's a third. A third. Which is still big. Yeah.

It's still really big. Yeah, totally. Okay. Nebuchadnezzar just fell down and worshiped the God of Israel by worshiping his image, represented by Daniel. And now we're looking at himself. Yeah, Nebuchadnezzar, making in reality what he just had a dream about, image.

Yeah. Is he stores or something? Old habits die hard. Old habits die hard. So he's like, you know, I had a dream about this really cool image. Yeah, let's see if the guy can really knock the head of his head. I was the head of gold. So I'll just make the whole thing gold.

Yeah. When you have that much gold to your name, I mean, why not make a statue yourself? I guess it's kind of like, never Solomon's thrown with the lions on the steps. Yeah. You were enjoying that throne when we talked about it. Totally. You're like, I would make one. I would make that throne. Oh, man. Okay. All right. So Oh, man. Okay. All right. So, Nebuchadnezzar makes this image and he also makes an edict, passes an edict through the land. Uh, in verse four, he says, to you, the command is given, all you peoples and nations and languages. He summons them all before the image. Sorry, the image. Yeah. It's the same Hebrew. Well, actually,

now we've written the Aramaic. Oh, an Aramaic. Section, but it's Salama. It's the same three letters. Oh, that's an Hebrew cell. He says, at the moment, you hear the sound of all these instruments, the horn, the flute, they have a whole symphony. Yeah. In the orchestra pit in front of this section. What you are to do is to fall down and worship the image of gold. This is an inversion of what just happened at the end of chapter two. Yeah, and that because there was a Daniel. It's exactly the same vocabulary. So after the dream about the image, why is it translated worship and

and I have a here and not in the last chapter? I know. I think because it's describing Daniel as the object of the verb. And I think our translator just think like we can't translate that worship. He's not worshiping Daniel. Yeah, somebody's supposed to be doing it. But he is. Yeah.

Like at the end of the dream about the statue, straight up says it. He worshiped Daniel and offered sacrifices to him. Yeah. Straight up. So, and actually here, I'm going off the work of a couple scholars here who have thoroughly studied this out here, and it's totally what's happening. I love how Daniel two and three are inversions of each other. Daniel two, the king, has a dream about an image of his empire, and then he worships Daniel as the image of God for interpreting the dream. Now, the king of the empire, and then he worships Daniel as the image of God for interpreting the dream. Now, the king of the nations is summoning the nation to worship an image of him in the

same vocabulary as what he did to Daniel. But he says, anybody who doesn't fall down and worship the image like he did to Daniel will be thrown into the blazing fire. And then you're like, oh no. And this is a famous story. Yep. And then that hyperlink from chapter one of Daniel and his friends described as people in whom there is no defect or no blemish. You're like, oh yeah, they are sacrificial lambs, after all. Yeah.

Being burned before the image, so to speak, for not worshiping the false image. I see what's going. Yeah, totally. So, there you go. The story happens. They don't, you know, the three friends, they don't worship the image. They don't worship.

They are offered as a sacrifice. Yeah. Before, right? The altar of Babylon, so to speak. And then all of a sudden, a fourth person that looks like a son of the gods appears next to the friends in the furnace. This is verse 25, verse 24 and 25, it says, Nebuchadnezzar was astounded that fire was burning, but they were not incinerated. And an official says to him, verse 24,

"'Wasn't it three humans? We bound and cast into the fire?' Yes, yes, okay. Well, I see four humans walking around in the fire, not being harmed. And you know what that fourth look like? He looks like a son of Elohim." And you know what that forest looks like? He looks like a son of Elohim. Which that phrase can refer to a human, right? Son of Elohim? Oh, got it. Got it. The king, the son of David, is adopted as a son of God.

Yep. And that's what these guys are. They're part of the royal seat of David. Yeah. And also Israel as a whole, like in the ex-story, can be called the son of God. Okay. But it's a a whole like in the as a story can be called the Son of God. Okay, but it's a royal title. It's like a royal title. Yeah. Yeah. And spiritual beings are cults of the dedicated authorities over the nations. So here you see now there's a there's a spirit being in there. Yeah, there's a supernatural being in there with with them. Yeah. So that's significant, obviously. But then when he invites them to come out, only three come out. Unsandged, not even their hair smells like smoke and nothing's damaged.

It's amazing. And so what he does is he says, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Hvednego, who sent his angel, his malach, his messenger. His messenger, yeah. So he interprets that as an angelic or supernatural being, who saved the servants, who put their faith in him. They violated the King's command and gave up their bodies to not bow down in worship. Anyone except the wrong God. So he says, I make a decree that anybody who says anything bad about the God of these guys will be torn limb from limb and their houses are reduced to rubbish sheets.

All right. Okay, yeah, all right. Okay, there's that story. Daniel 4. Okay, another dream. The king, he says, chapter 4 of 4. You know, I was at ease in my house, flourishing in my palace. Yeah, they have a king.

Yeah, so good. And I had a dream and it freaked me out. And here's what it was. He has this dream about a tree, huge tree, and it's beautiful. It has all this fruit and all of the beasts of the field. And the birds of the sky and the living creatures come and they eat the fruit and they have shelter, shade, and sauce them. But then, verse 13, a watcher, a holy one, descended from the heavens.

13. Watcher. A watcher. I have a little note here. And I've used messenger, and then it says, or watchman. Yeah. A watcher. That name has very creepy connotations in kind of modern English. Like the watchers, I feel like in different stories, they're always a little watchers. Watchers, yeah. There was this kind of like X-Files reboot kind of thing called, what was it called, Fringe or something and the whole storyline of these watchers characters. They were just kind of like the exact same kind of characters.

Yeah. They just observe. Yeah. They come in to like make sure certain things don't go awry, but they're just kind of like these kind of, yeah, sorry, and kind of characters. Yeah. So, okay. So, that's part of the heritage of the biblical watchers in the biblical tradition. The idea of

these super super beings, super beings, super beings who represent the eye of the heavens on the events of humanity of the universe and so on. So that's all a heritage from the biblical watchers. This is the only time that this word is used to describe these creatures in the Hebrew Bible. However, in a work contemporary with Daniel in its final shape and its final shape of the Hebrew Bible in the book of 1st Enoch, the Watchers is the name of the sons of Elohim from Genesis 6. Okay, so the angels are the watchers. So the, well again, the sons of Elohim, the spiritual beings that God appointed to rule over the heavens, who violated the boundary and came down.

You don't want me to use word angel. Not yet. Even though angel is what they will come to be called, but that's a later blurring of an original distinction. Blurring. Yep. Essentially, in the Hebrew Bible, the sons of Elohim, here, one of them called a watcher, represents the spiritual beings that God delegated to rule on his behalf over the heavens. rule on his behalf over the heavens. And that's distinct from the category spiritual beings called Malak or Anglas angels. Because those can be spiritual or human. Yeah. That's a human or spiritual being role. And what they're errand, they're errand people. They just they run errands and send angels.

Angels are angels a way to describe the what someone's doing more than what they are correct. Yeah, so what happens though in post biblical literature Jewish literature is that they're stop calling sons of God or actually they keep doing it but the word angel developed its meaning to cover both categories. Okay, so by the New Testament you get Michael or Gabriel showing up to somebody and there's called an angel and he's called in on gloss. Yeah, so the these watchers And this is all back to babble the scattering of Babylon and do you know me 32? Yeah, the Sun's a little he yeah, when we talk about this in our God

Correct series conversation correct. So the dream here is essentially that the watcher comes down. He's called a holy one. He descends and he shouts, chop down the tree, cut off the branches, strip all the leaves, scatter the fruit, all the beasts and birds need to flee and just leave that stump in the ground. Oh, and then put a big iron bronze prison shackle around the stump. This guy doesn't like this tree.

Yeah, totally. And in the new grass that will grow up after the chopping down, let him be drenched with the dew of heaven. You're like, who's the him? So apparently this chop down tree has morphed into a human. Oh. And that's what it is.

It's going to be Nebuchadnezzar. The tree represents Nebuchadnezzar. The tree, he's having dreamed about himself, represents the tree, but the moment he's cut down and falls on the ground, he becomes a human laying in the wet grass. Got it. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven

and let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let him eat grass. Let his heart be changed from that of a human and let the heart of a beast be given to him. Heart? Yeah. That beast has mind. Yes. Right. But remember, there's no word for brain or mind in Hebrew. Yeah, okay. So a human, this is in his dream, King Nebodeza, represented as the tree of life to all the world. But he's going to be chopped down

and then that tree is going to morph into a naked human laying in the wet grass, and then the naked human becomes a beast. That's the dream. And we're told that this is a sentence decreed by the watchers. And the watchers represent their God's delegate. So this is God's decision, but that he passed on and left the watchers make To let Babylon fall

It's the decision of the holy ones so that all the living may know that the most high Above who commissioned the watchers that he is the ruler over the realm of humans He bestows rule on whom he wishes and he loves to set rule over the loliest of humans. This is the dream that I never can ever saw. And he gets Daniel and Daniel interprets the dream. Sounds like he just interpreted his own dream. He just recounted the dream. Daniel's going to go on to say, you were the tree.

But what was the whole thing I lost you when you were reading about God likes to diverse with something about? Verse 7, chapter 4, verse 17. This is the decree of the watches, so that all the living may know that the most high rules over the realm of humans. And he bestows rule on whomever he wishes, and he sets it over on the loliest of humans. This is the last line of verse 17. Yeah. What is he talking about? So he just brought down the arrogant and proud. Babylon. And God is the one who assigns kingdoms rising and falling. And you know what God

takes particular to lie in is chopping down big arrogant kingdoms that think they're awesome. And he loves to set the opportunity to rule on the humble no names. And this is all from Abraham, the no name Abraham was given a name to David, theth forgotten one out the out with the sheep Hannah right the one who has no children being exalted over penina given birth to Samuel the major motif yeah when humans exalt themselves they activate the inner animal and become beasts that God will chop them down and become beasts that God will chop them down, exile them to the wilderness, to be with the beast that they act like. And he loves them to replace them

by exalting the humble, no name, to rule in the place of the kingdoms. So we get to do. That's so interesting. I mean, we've talked about this a lot, this upside down kingdom, stuff, Jesus rifts, I mean, he's all about this. He's all about this. And when it starts to get very practical, it's a very strange, you just don't see any

like self-help type books that are like, hey, look, just be weak. Yeah, totally. God wants to like, or the true way to honor God with whatever privilege or authority Influence that you have is to give That influence and authority away to others and include them and exalt them. Yeah, in some way There's different ways to embody that ethic. Yeah, it's the upside down In some way, there's different ways to embody that ethic, but it's the upside down ethic.

And if you're gonna keep it all to yourself, he's gonna just chop you down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, God exalts. But this tree in the dream is a pretty rad tree. Yeah, it's, yeah, okay, let's talk about this. Yeah. It's the tree of life. It's an image of Eden and the tree of life.

Yeah. So it's as if Babylon could, if it wanted to, it could become an expression of God's rule over the nations. It reminded me of when God told Adam and said, hey, they're, they know good and evil now, they're like us. They're going to send out their hand and take from the Tree of Life. Yeah. Yeah.

It's kind of the sense of like we're capable of so much. Yeah. But if we do it on our own terms, it's gonna get really ugly. Totally. That's right. But it might even look really beautiful. It might look beautiful.

Yeah. Just like the hanging gardens of Babylon. Yeah. Little Eden's. I'm sure it looked beautiful. Mm-hmm. But underneath it was. Babylon from one perspective looked like the tree of life.

Correct. Yep. Because it has the possibility to, just like every human life, has the possibility to be truly human. And every human institution made up of lots of humans, has the chance to represent the reign and rule of God. But it all is about who gets to define the knowledge of good evil and whether the tree will bear fruit that really just benefits everybody else.

Yeah. That's the idea. But this tree is benefiting. It's benefiting everyone else in the vision, right? The bird, the bird, the animals. Okay, yeah. So the point is whether the tree represents Babylon as it was or Babylon as it could be.

Because the point is, here's a tree and then it's chopped down. I guess the question is like, what's wrong with this tree? Why not just let the tree go and just prune it as you need to. Yeah. Why come and chop it down? Like at this point, and it's not true because Nebuchadnez is out there throwing people in fiery furnaces and stuff.

Yeah, don't worry. So there's some gnarly stuff happening under the shade of this tree. But in the dream, is it because... Actually, here, the tree represents what Babylon could become based on what Nebuchadnezzar does in response to this dream. Oh, interesting.

Because look, and after he gets Daniel in the room, tells him the dream, Daniel interprets the dream. And he says, listen, you know, the tree is you, and you're going... It's a future, him. Correct. He says, the tree's going to be chopped down, and you're, this is chapter four of his 25,

you're going to be driven away, exiled, just like Adam and Eve, and you're gonna live with the beast and eat grass. Do you remember this is so cool? Yeah, this is what the animals were given to eat. In Genesis 1. So Daniel refuses to eat the forbidden food of Nebuchadnezzar. And he eats the food a lot of time.

And he eats the food assigned to the humans in Genesis 1. Nebuchadnezzar now, because he's gonna be a rebel, Adam Fickier, is going to be exiled with the beast and eat the diet of the animals, like the animal that he is. But then the ultimate him comes in verse 27, he says, now, therefore, okay, may my advice be pleasing to you.

Break away from your sins, do righteousness. Break away from your niceties by showing mercy to the poor so that there may be a Prolonging of your abundance. Hmm. So that's the idea God can use this kingdom. Yeah, he could he could use it Could yeah, this is as if it's almost this becomes nebuchadnezzar's test Hmm in the garden. Yeah, I've never quite put it that way to myself But that's exactly his dreams about the gardening, how he could be. This is his garden of Gethsemane moment and like, not my will, but your will kind of

think, like this is the task at hand, are you going to handle it? You let your life and the kingdom you rule bear fruit for the nations, which here is equated by showing mercy to the poor. He just does it. Yeah. And that's Amos and Micah ringing in our ears, the true worship of the true. Yeah, when this all gets practical,

it's about taking care of other humans. That's right. That need it. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you know an institution that apparently represents God's way of ruling the world

when it takes care of and gives itself away for the well-being of others, especially people who don't usually get access to the goods. Yeah. Yeah, he says, you have a chance. So. Pretty different than just throwing people and boiling pots of gold. It's the opposite. Exactly opposite.

It's exalting people to opportunities to... Yeah, yeah, that's right. Well. Okay, the story goes on, verse 29, 12 months later, Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of his royal palace in Babylon. Then the king... I forget the idiom. Yeah, the king answered and said, "'Isn't this Babylon the great which I myself have built as a royal residence for the

might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?' Yeah, it's getting to his head. There you go. So here's, this is his Adam and Eve moment. While the word was in the mouth, his mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, your sovereignty is removed, you're driven away, exiled from humankind. Wait, but he's just, wait, he's just impressed with himself for a moment. But come on, come on. It's clearly this is. You've never done that, you've never walked through your room and you're just like, look at this.

This is nice, I've got some nice stuff. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Sure, sure. But this is the culminating moment. Yeah, I mean it's the test, it's the moment, the test. What do you mean it's the test? Well, he just had the dream and he just... Yeah, what are you gonna do?

What are you gonna do? How are you gonna rule? The next story is about he's going on saying, it's all mine. It's all mine. For my power and my majesty and my glory. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it is interesting how in one sense that should ring is like this. Ah, what a... You know, he did it, he blew it, but in other sense it's like, who hasn't done that? Yeah, of course, yes. He's a human. He's human, yeah.

Yes, yeah. And so the dream comes to pass. He goes crazy, wanders out into the dewey grass, eats the diet of the animals from Genesis 1 for seven periods of time. And then we're told in verse 33, his body was drenched with dew until his hair grew like that of an eagle's. It sounds like awesome hair.

Eagle hair? Eagle hair. Eagerness of feathers. And his fingernails were like that of a bird. Yeah. So weird. He's becoming a beast out there. Yeah.

He's growing feather fur and claws. Yeah. Yeah. Something's happening here. In the narrative portrait, he's becoming a mutant. He's depicted as a mutant. A human become an animal mutant. Yeah. Which again, it's all leading us up to Daniel 7. Okay. All right. So that's enough.

We could do Daniels 5 and 6, but it just be the same things going forward. Okay. Daniel 5 is Nebuchadnezzar's son has the same test put before him. He fails. Daniel 6 is another test for Daniel whether he's going to pray to the King of the Meads as if he's a God He's he doesn't and he's thrown into a pit of beasts who usually crush bones But instead they just sit there peacefully with Daniel. Daniel 6 Daniel 6 is our new happiness sitting in a pit Yeah, at peace with the animals.

Daniel said, at peace with the violent beasts. Yeah. Come on. Come on. So then we walk into the mighty chapter. We haven't talked about the literary design. And the literary design of Daniel 7's. It's a big, yeah, it's a big chias and leonus.

It's the center point of the whole book. Yeah. Everything leads up to it, and the rest of the book flows out of it. And this was the most important chapter for Jesus in understanding his identity, his vocation. It's where he got the phrase, Son of Man. This is the hotspot. We need to put on radiation six. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Bible Project Podcast.

If you've been enjoying this series and you have questions, we'd love to hear them. Feel free to send it to us at info at jointhebibletproject.com. We'll compile these questions for an upcoming question and response episode that we'll do at the tail end of the series. Again, that's info at jointhebibletproject.com. Send us an audio file of yourself asking the question and also tell us your name and where you're from. Try to keep it around 20 seconds or so.

Also our website's been updated, so it's easier to use, has a really cool design, check it out, thebibletproject.com. On it, you'll find all of our free resources, including the podcast show notes of this series and all the series we've done. They're really helpful to follow along with, since these conversations get really dense. Also our Son of Man video is up on that website as well. Today's episode was produced by Dan Gummel, theme music by the band Tents. We're a crowdfunded non-profit in Portland, Oregon, and all of this is made possible

through the generous support of many people around the world, people like you, so thanks We're a crowdfunded nonprofit in Portland, Oregon, and all of this is made possible through the generous support of many people around the world, people like you, so thanks for being a part of this with us. Hi, my name is DeFernand, this is Anan from Mexico. My favorite thing about the Bible project is that I can learn about the Jewish roots of the Scripture and see it through a new lens. We believe that the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. We are a crowdfunded project by people like me. y se vea en la vida de la vida. La historia de la historia de la vida es que estamos en el proyecto de la gente como mí.

Fue videos de estudios, podcasts, y más resources en la www.bibelproject.com. Hola, mi nombre es Tefernández y soy de México. Mi parte favorita de la idea de la idea es que puedo aprender mucho más de las raíces debreas de nuestra fe y pueden entender la biblia desde una perspectiva nueva. Creemos que la biblia es una historia unificada que guía Jesús. Somos una organización financiada por gente como yo, encuentra videos gratis, notas de estudio, podcast y mucho más

recursos ad de BALBOOB Project.com Now. you