Always read the Scriptures before tackling the question...
Ezekiel 47:1-12. Can this vision of water also be literal?
Yes, I understand the great temptation here to depart from the literal and talk about “living water” and being only ankle deep in the Spirit, and so on. Great messages, if handled properly, but here also, I believe, is an underlying literal fact of life in the Millennial period, and it coincides perfectly with Revelation 22.
The world will be in very bad shape by the time Jesus comes. Even before His judgment on people, men will have poisoned the earth with their own judgments on each other. Wars, rumors of war, bombs of all horrid varieties, atmospheric pollution, water pollution, oh what a nasty place the planet will have become!
But fear not. A stream of literal life in the form of literal life-giving, miraculous water will begin to flow from the valley where Jesus will return. The splitting of the Mt of Olives will create a passageway of watery life that will increase and eventually heal all the waters of earth.
John bears witness: “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river [says John and Ezekiel (47:12)!] was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit…”
Healing has come. The saints will be resurrected, and will not need healing any more. They are spiritual creatures now in spiritual bodies. But the earth will need literal water, holy water from God to transform the putrified waters of the fallen planet.
DANIEL
Daniel 1:8. What was Daniel’s objection to the King’s food?
We are not told, but there could easily have been at least two objections, maybe three:
The meals put before Daniel were on the Jewish list of prohibited foods.
The food had been offered to idols.
Perhaps Daniel did not feel comfortable enjoying such delicacies, when others of his people suffered so.
Daniel 2:2. Who were the “Chaldeans”? Is this not another name for Babylonians?
It is indeed a name for Babylonians, but is used in a secondary way, as Macarthur says, to refer to a “special class of soothsayers who taught Chaldean culture.”
Daniel 2:41-43. We have seen the fulfillment of every prophecy except the “toes” portion. Explain.
Daniel tells us that it is in the days of those kings, that is, the ten kings/kingdoms represented by ten toes, that God will “set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed…” This is the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, which the world has not yet seen. All other Empires, the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the [first phase of] the Roman, have come to the Planet.
The Roman expression of Empire seems to be in its last phases now, and will culminate in that ten-toe Colossus, just as the toes of the body are the final expression of the human form, gazing from top to bottom.
Daniel 3:25. Did Nebuchadnezzar see Jesus, or an angel, in the flames?
Nebuchadnezzar saw what appeared to be “a son of the gods,” as later translations have it. He of course had no concept of the Son of God as we know Him, and would not have said such a thing. But he edited his comment further in verse 28 when he claimed that God had sent “His angel” and delivered His servants.
Nebuchadnezzar was not a theologian and his observations must be taken with a grain of truth. The truth is, we do not know who manifested in that fiery furnace, only that he was indeed heaven-sent.
Daniel 3. Where is Daniel in all of this story?
I believe we can say with certainty that
Daniel knew of the decree.
Daniel did not obey the decree.
From there, speculation leads the way and seems to indicate that he had not yet been reported. Perhaps men were on the way to take care of that piece of business when the new decree went out and they decided they did not want to be torn limb from limb at this time.
Another possibility is that Daniel’s position in the Kingdom kept traitors away from him at this time, though later in the book this will not be the case.
Daniel 3:15, 4:25,30. What is it that Nebuchadnezzar had not yet learned?
4:1-3 shows us a very humiliated Emperor, sensitive to the greatness of Almighty God. The rest of the chapter tells us how he was able to get to that point in his life. He had seen God working before, and honored this God with his lips. But his arrogance surfaces when he sees people in his kingdom daring not to worship him. The question, “…what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?” given to Daniel’s friends was echoed in Heaven, and answered soon thereafter. Nebuchadnezzar’s own answered is in 4:35:
“…He does according to His will… no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have you done?’”
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