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Ep 131: Babylon Rising - Daniel's Journey Through Ancient Empires
"Have you ever tried to understand Daniel's role in God's larger plan? Today’s episode examines how Daniel’s story connects to Hezekiah, Babylonian stargazers, and the Magi — showing Scripture as one unified, Christ-centered narrative across centuries."
Pastor Teddy, a.k.a Fred Kenney, Jr., explores the fascinating historical context surrounding the Book of Daniel, connecting biblical events spanning hundreds of years through the mysterious Babylonian stargazers who became aware of divine signs in the heavens. This is an exciting further look into what will be the backdrop to Plays On Word's latest play, 'DAN' set for release soon.
• Historical overview of the Babylonian Empire's rise to power in 605 BC
• Exploration of King Hezekiah's miraculous healing and the sun moving backward as a sign
• Connection between Babylonian envoys who visited Hezekiah and the Magi who later sought Jesus
• Daniel's capture as a young nobleman in the first wave of Babylonian captives
• Description of Babylon's impressive architecture and cultural impact on the young captives
• Timeline of Jerusalem's three sieges (605 BC, 598 BC, and 586 BC)
• Biblical interconnections showing how Scripture points to Christ throughout history
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. ~ Numbers 6: 24-26
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Lord, you know You're now listening to Play For.
Speaker 2:Word Radio. It's the best. We'll see you next week. You're the only name. You're the only name. You're the only name.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr, the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. Well, thank you, josh Taylor and Katie Kenny for that introduction. Oh yeah, that welcome and that greeting out of the way. I hope you guys enjoyed the reading of the book of Daniel from the first person as if Daniel was telling the story himself. We know he wrote the book. There is criticism from scholarship that tries to say nah, man, he didn't write that book, he couldn't have written that book.
Speaker 2:The prophecies are too accurate. It is true that the book of Daniel contains the most accurate, detailed prophecies than that. But as far as the detail in the prophecies from the book of Daniel, they are different from the rest of Scripture in their level of detail. So we'll get into those chapters with the prophetic stuff. We'll get into that a little bit later, but for the most part, just you know, we'll get into that a little bit later, but for the most part, the book of Daniel itself speaks with great detail about the empires that would come on the scene, particularly the empire that was already on the scene, the Babylonian Empire, and then the Medo-Persian Empire, both of which Daniel basically straddled or was involved, highly involved in. And then after that, after the Medo-Persian Empire, you had the Greek Empire, the Hellenists, led by Alexander the Great. And then and all these guys are spoken of by Daniel, just for an anchor for those that might not be biblically astute or in depth in their understanding of Scripture the first empire that is dealt with is the Babylonian Empire, and officially, the Babylonian Empire threw off the yoke of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrian Empire basically started crumbling and the Babylonians, the Syrian Empire, basically started crumbling and the Babylonians, and Nebuchadnezzar's dad was leading the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, and leading them. And Nebuchadnezzar officially took over in 605 or 606 BC and he was on a campaign in the Middle East when his dad died. So on his way back he went up against Jerusalem, and that was in 605 BC, and that's when he snatched up in the first wave. There were three waves of captives being taken. The first wave happened in 605 BC and, remember, it kind of goes in reverse as time moves along the timeline. It goes in reverse to year zero and then it starts going forward our period of time. So 6005 is when he grabbed Daniel as a young, young boy or teenager, very young man, part of the noble family, the nobility of the kingdom of Judah. You know, if I actually backed up though and go back maybe a hundred some years. There's some change.
Speaker 2:There is King Hezekiah of Judah and he was extremely sick. He was not doing well. Put it this way, he was going to die. He was at the point of death. You could see this story in Isaiah, chapter 38. He was like sick and Isaiah the prophet came to him and basically told him said yo, man, you need to take care of all your house, man, everything, like take care of all your bills, everything, man, cause you, you are about to check out of here. You're not going to recover it. And Hezekiah, he, he was so bummed out he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord and said oh Lord, please remember how I walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart. I've done what's good in your sight. And it's true he did. Hezekiah was alive. What a character. He reinstated the Passover, everything. So he was a pretty good quality king for Judah.
Speaker 2:And here he was sick. He pleaded with the Lord. He wanted the Lord to remember what he had done. And so the word of the Lord came back to Isaiah the prophet. He said go to Hezekiah and tell him I've heard your prayer, look at that. I've seen your tears and and, uh, I'm going to add 15 years to your life. So he did. He added 15 years to his life and, um, he, the Assyrian empire, was on the world stage at the time. They were gnarly, they were pretty mean to the people they would capture. They transplanted people from their homelands to different lands and they would line the road with spikes with people's skulls on them as a deterrent to let people know don't even think about revolting against us, or this is what's going to happen to you. So yeah, god tells Hezekiah, I'm going to deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. So in the story, the way Isaiah tells the story in Isaiah, chapter 38, he just basically says this in verse 7. He says this will be the sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do this thing he has promised. Behold, I'll make the shadow cast by the sun going down on the sundial. I'll make it go back 10 steps. So the sun turned back on the sundial, 10 steps, by which it had declined. Now there's a parallel version of this story that happens in the book of 2 Kings. It's a parallel version and it's the same story, except we get a little more information here.
Speaker 2:In verse 8 of 2 Kings, chapter 20, hezekiah said to Isaiah. He said well, what's going to be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day? Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? On the third day? Yeah, isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting On the third day? Yeah, isn't that amazing? If you back up in there in chapter 20 of 2 Kings, back up to verse 5, when Isaiah, after he left he's walking away after he first gave Hezekiah the bad news he's leaving and the word of the Lord came to him.
Speaker 2:We get a little more detail in the book of 2 Kings. It says the word of the Lord came to him and said turn back and say and this is the word of the Lord to Isaiah. And he came to Isaiah and said go back and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you On the third day. You shall go up to the house of the Lord and I will add 15 years to your life. I will deliver you in this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant Davidsyria. And I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. And Isaiah said bring a cake of figs and let them take it. Lay it on the boil that he may recover.
Speaker 2:So it's interesting he also uses medicine, the figs. For those of you that want to say, oh, I'm just going to trust the Lord for this, to heal this migraine, well, sometimes the Lord's saying utilize some Motrin or use something man Medicine. He could have healed him, but yet he had him. Bring some figs to lay on the boil that he may recover. That's one of the verses that's used to say hey, sometimes we do need to use medicine. Who made the figs? God made them. So verse 8,. Then Hezekiah says to him but we do need to use medicine. Who made the figs? God made them. So verse 8,. And then Hezekiah says to him but what's going to be the sign that I'm going to be healed and I'm going to go up to the temple on the third day? You can't get beyond that, man for a second. The third day, I mean on the third day, that does point to Christ. It doesn't say after three days, it's on the third day, on the third day, and that's when Christ rose. On the third day. Yeah, a lot of things happen on the third day.
Speaker 2:You go back to our Genesis Joe play. Throughout it, the Genesis Joe play, we emphasize the fact that three days later, on the third day, is when Joseph goes to his brothers and after he had him locked up for three days and on the third day he goes to them and says to them do this and you'll live, for I fear God. And he he lets them go but keeps Simeon with him in in prison. And they go back and get in and they get Benjamin. And you know the whole, the rest of the story. If you don't know the rest of the story, you need to come check out the Genesis Joe play or go read Genesis chapter 37 through 50 and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:But yeah, this is a lot of fun here that he's mentioning we get a little tiny foreshadowing of Christ, the resurrection of Christ. You don't want to read too much into it, but you can't escape it, man, it's just out there, it's right there in front of you on the third day You're going to go up to the house of the Lord and the Lord added 15 years of life to Hezekiah. Yeah, and it was unfortunately. After this event, hezekiah has a and his name is Manasseh and he would reign in Judah for 45, horrible, terrible, long years.
Speaker 2:The church tradition is that Manasseh had the prophet Isaiah. He's the one that's talked about in Hebrews, chapter 11, where it talks about in the Hall of Faith chapter of the Bible, where it lists those great people of faith and, interestingly enough, all went through it, every single one of them. Well, there's one particular in there where it talks about they were sawn in two. You know, they went around in sheepskins and goatskins and they lived in holes in ground and they were sawn in two. Basically, the world was not worthy of them. Well, that sawn in two that's believed to be referencing what happened to the prophet Isaiah under the orders of Hezekiah's son, manasseh. This is after Hezekiah was dead, but manasseh was not feeling the prophet isaiah who served his dad and he, according to tradition, had him saw, sawn in two man.
Speaker 2:And wait, get this. It's not like he went to home depot and got a power saw. They used a wooden saw. Man, oh, come on a wooden, a wooden saw. What are you chopping down with a wood saw? How much work can you get down with a wood saw? How much work can you get done with a wooden saw? Maybe a lot, I don't know. I've never had a wooden saw. All my saws are from Home Depot, are made out of metal, and the tradition is that Isaiah was praying quietly as he was being sawn in two by the evil Manasseh. Yeah, pretty grim. Okay, pastor, what does this have to do with Daniel? Okay, I'm getting to it. I'm getting to it. I'm getting to it. Now.
Speaker 2:The Babylonians were what you could call stargazers. They looked to the skies and they were like what is going on here, man? Because the sun went back on the sundial, it went in reverse and somehow they noticed it had something to do with to the west of them, from Babylon. They knew. They were like wait a second, something ain't right here. What's going on over there? Let's observe this. And they observed it and, interestingly enough, they sent envoys. They were like you need to go find out what's going on, what just happened over there, that direction. And in verse 12 of second Kings, chapter 20,. It says at that time, merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of king of Babylon. Now, keep in mind, this is a hundred, some years before Daniel, before the book of Daniel. So Hezekiah, hezekiah reigned, manasseh took over.
Speaker 2:So, Hezekiah died, I want to say like 687, somewhere around there BC Hezekiah. He was reigning like 716-ish to 687. So in that period of time, and Daniel was taken in 605 BC as a young kid and so easily a hundred years before this stuff went, you know, before the first attack by Nebuchadnezzar, this whole thing went down with Hezekiah. And now listen to this Hezekiah and the Babylonian envoys right, the um, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans that saw this, that were the stargazers like wait a minute, man, let's go find out what's going on over there. So they did, and they sent these guys and envoys were sent letters with a present to the king from the Babylonian king. They were not, they were not the power on the scene at the time. Keep in mind they, the Assyrian empire was the one that had their foot on everybody's necks. They were based out of Nineveh, okay, so the Assyrians, that's a different empire, but you had a band of people that gathered together different groups. The Chaldeans were one of them. They ended up being the leaders and they were from Babylon in that area. And it says Hezekiah welcomed them. Oh, and then it gets worse. Look at this. And then he showed them all his treasure, his silver, his gold, all the spices, the precious oil. He showed them his armory, everything that was in his storehouses. There was not one thing in all his realm. It says that Hezekiah did not show them. Now you might say, ah, he's just whatever, he's just being a, he's being a good host, that's all, okay. Well, in retrospect, looking back, it probably wasn't the smartest thing for him to do because, even though they came in what seemed to be peace and trying to find out what's going on, a hundred years later, the Babylonians were going to besiege Jerusalem. They would not be coming in peace. Nebuchadnezzar did not come in peace. They would not be coming in peace. Nebuchadnezzar did not come in peace. In fact, he took captives out of there and then took articles of gold on three different occasions, and on the last one is when he completely destroyed the temple and the city and everything else. Jeremiah records all that for us. And it's interesting because these Babylonian stargazers okay, they noticed what happened with the sun going back a bunch of steps. I can guarantee none of you have seen that, unless you have flown across country and even then the sun doesn't really go you're the one who's moving. Okay, so when you go across country and you leave from New Jersey and go to California. Okay, wow, it looks like the sun went back. It didn't, but in the case of these guys, it did go backwards and for some reason, they recognized the origin of it or what was going on.
Speaker 2:Now, how did all this play out? I cannot wait to get to glory, because that's part of the DVD I want to see. I'm really looking forward to seeing some of these things that we hear about, like Joshua with the sun standing still. Wait, what? Come on, man, that's some better than sci-fi stuff right there. How did that happen? How did that go down? What did it look like? The scripture tells us that it happened, so I believe it. I'm not in disbelief, I'm just in incredible anticipation on seeing the breakdown of it. I want to see how this went out and how everybody reacted.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting that these Babylonians saw that and they sent envoys. Does that remind you of anything? People? Does that remind you of anything else? Let me give you a hint. We have a play that well, it doesn't really deal with that aspect, but the story that the play is based on does. Okay, let me make this a little bit clearer, because you're like this madman, I don't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 2:Well, from Daniel's position, if you go back a hundred years, you have Hezekiah and Isaiah and the Babylonians coming to see why did the sun go backwards? What's going on here? And from Daniel's position, if you go into the future, 400, some years, 500 years, actually, yeah, 500. And well, it depends on where you mark Daniel from, but let's just say 605, 605. 605 years, it's actually technically let me think on the fly here it's not 605. It's like 601 or 599, 590, 596, somewhere around there.
Speaker 2:Okay, you go forward to the time of Jesus' birth and guess who comes from the east looking at a star? The Magi. Guess where they were from? Yeah, I see light bulbs going off. Now, that's right, the wise men in the Christmas story, the ones that were. They were like stargazers, astrologers, and they understood signs and times and they understood things that the average person does not understand. And they came seeking he who was to be born king of the Jews. Guess who was put in charge of the wise men at a very young age? Daniel, yes, the prophet, daniel, yes. So the magi that we read about and we see are the three wise men in our Christmas story. They go back to the Babylon. Yeah, similarly, these guys, these envoys that came to Hezekiah, were possibly part of that crew, or maybe an early version of those type of guys. Either way, daniel's smack dab in the middle of this whole situation and so I just wanted to back up and go. You know, go.
Speaker 2:The Babylonians were aware, no doubt there was probably legends that grew up, man, you got to see man, hezekiah's fortune man. They got gold and the temple and everything. He showed them everything. And so Isaiah was sent to King Hezekiah after these guys saw everything, after the Babylonians saw everything, and then Isaiah said to Hezekiah listen, man, this is the word of the Lord to you. Look, the days are coming when everything in your house and that everything your fathers have stored up to this day, everything he basically just showed them, it's going to be carried off to Babylon. Now, check that out. That's a prophecy right there in the book of 2 Kings, also in Isaiah, chapter 39 of Isaiah, the parallel version. But he basically says you know everything, everything you have basically shown these guys, nothing's going to be left. Everything you've stored up to this day, and even some of your own sons who will come from you, whom you will father shall be taken away and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. And then Hezekiah said ah, the word that you have spoken is good. Listen to what he thinks to himself. For he thought to himself at least there's going to be peace and security in my days. I'll kick the can down the road, I'll let them deal with it, but at least, thank God, I'm going to have peace, all right.
Speaker 2:So the takeaway, first of all, don't show everybody your stuff, man, your wealth. Don't show them everything. That's one of them. The other is well, there's a bunch of takeaways and I don't want it to make it seem like this is the only takeaways. You let me know what you take away from this section.
Speaker 2:This is important to know before we get into the book of Daniel. All this stuff, it's important background. People that have not connected to dots are like oh, wow, man, I don't realize. The entire Bible is a story, one story that flows through and is tied together, and it is all about Christ. Okay, first and foremost, he is the Word of God and it is about Him. And it is all about Christ. Okay, first and foremost, he is the word of God and it is about him. Cut it anywhere and it bleeds, christ, okay. But this connection, these connections here are extremely important, extremely important and it's important to know we have a little bit better background here. Hezekiah, manasseh, isaiah, all tied to it, all tied to Daniel and tied to Christ.
Speaker 2:Daniel will be a young man, a very young boy, teenager, taken as a young man, and in chapter one we see how he is brought to Babylon. And man, it must have been a culture shock for him when he got over the ridge and saw the city of Babylon. It must have been incredible when he saw that, what the city looked like coming over the hill, there From far away, did he see it off in the distance and go? Oh, my goodness, here he's taken captive. He's taken away from his family, taken to a land where he doesn't know the language, and he's taken with a group of people, his friends Hanani, mishael and Azariahariah, nobles, part of the nobility you know. A few weeks before they, they were probably playing video games, hanging out, thinking man, oh, it's gonna be, isn't this cool being part of the, the royal family, and now they're being taken away.
Speaker 2:One of the tactics, which is an ancient tactic that kings would employ would be listen. They would take the youth and take family members and take them captive back to their land. That greatly reduces the chance of a counterattack or a retribution type of attack. And the Assyrians would also, as I said earlier, they would also. They transplant people. So if you're, you live in the state of New Jersey and then you get transplanted I don't know where. So let's say, you get transplanted to North Carolina. Takes you a little while to get your footing. You don't know what's going on. You don't know the culture. Is that much, even if you speak the same language? You don't know where everything is located. You don't know when somebody says bless your heart, it's really an insult. There's a lot of things.
Speaker 2:So Daniel found himself as a young man, in his formative years, in a foreign land and rolling up to that city. I can just imagine what was that like I know, I think about the time when I first, as a young kid, went to New York City with my dad and I was like what Look? That's when the Twin Towers stood. So that was one of the first buildings that I saw. I was like, oh man, look at that. We were driving to my dad's Lincoln Mark 4, 1974 or 5, I think it was a Lincoln Mark 4. I know that Sweet Power, leather seats, yeah, power windows that was a big thing back then.
Speaker 2:Yep, anyway, yeah, rolling up to New York and then we went through Lincoln Tunnel and I remember looking at the buildings, going what is going on here? Going through this dingy, weird, yellow, dirty tunnel ish, and then coming out and this is the 70s. So you gotta just keep that in mind. This is the 70s. So I don't think squeegeeism was at its height then, but there were squeegee guys and new york was was definitely um, it's almost come back to what it was in the 70s, in many ways Like San Francisco. You think of San Francisco right now, many of you. As soon as I said San Francisco, you went oh, yeah, yeah, because it's a dump. Now it's a great, beautiful city but it's been turned into like some kind of fourth world dungeon. Well, new York was that in the 70s, crime was completely out of control. Anyway, no need for the history lesson there.
Speaker 2:Just some of you might listening, might not know, might not realize, but anyway, we when I remember getting there and it was, it was a culture shock. I was amazed at the architecture. The empire state building blew my mind, absolutely blew my mind. I whoa, look how big that thing is. And the Twin Towers blew my mind when we were driving up the turnpike to it. So I'm sure Daniel had a similar experience. Not that Babylon had tall buildings, but they did have tall and big, very large walls. It was like an interstate going around the whole city Big, very large walls. It was like an interstate going around the whole city and apparently four chariots could turn, make a U-turn on the wall. That's incredible. Yeah, the wall was extremely thick and it was high. They did have Ugarits and pyramid type stuff built for their pagan worship, but it was a hustling, bustling city. Many people lived there and it was really jumping.
Speaker 2:And then Nebuchadnezzar, at the start of his reign, that kind of kicked off when he came back to become the official king because he was the general of the army but his dad was the one who was wrong, but his dad died and so he came back and that really kicked off his reign and officially kicked off the Babylonian empire. Because Nebuchadnezzar was a bad man. He was I mean, I say that Muhammad Ali-ish, I'm a bad man. Yeah, he was the real deal when it came to military battles and things like that. You can read about this. Anyway, that coincides with Daniel being taken and the start of the book of Daniel, and then, and that was basically 605. And then Daniel's elevated, pretty quickly, elevated to a high position, and the Lord is the one who orchestrates this.
Speaker 2:So then you move down the timeline a little bit to the year 598. And Nebuchadnezzar basically comes back and that's when the prophet Ezekiel is taken. Keep in mind, jeremiah is still in Judah the whole time. This whole time. Jeremiah was a young man at the time of Josiah, who died in 609 BC. So four years before daniel was taken, king josiah died and he died basically because he was hard-headed and the egyptian king at the time, pharaoh pharaoh got killed him, told him stay out of it, and he didn't anyway. That's in the bible, you can read about it. Um, but ezekiel was taken in 598. And then, in the year 586 slash 587, nebuchadnezzar finally had enough. That was the final, final revolt, and that's when he destroyed the temple and completely demolished everything, and everything was in ruins. And it wasn't until 70 years later and this is a matter of debate, the 70 years, because 70 years from 605 and the first take from the first is when the Babylonian Empire was taken over by the Medes and Persians, and that's also in the book of Daniel.
Speaker 2:Daniel's book spans this whole period, but much more can be said about this. You know what and we're running out of time because I hear the music. So we, you know what we're going to continue on this, this rundown of the book of daniel, and and all this. But until until next time, what we're going to do, we're going to continue. Then we're going to get into it. Look at the text and maybe you guys can help me make sure that we're good to go with our Dan play, as we are working on that and I'm working on it on the air with you right now. So until next week. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
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