Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• D. David's Last Testament 23:1-7
  The combination of David's final song (ch. 22) followed by his last testament (23:1-7) recalls the similar combination of Moses' final song and his last testament (Deut. 32 and 33). This was David's final literary legacy to I...
• The first banquet 5:1-8
  Here we have another remarkable example of how God controls the hearts of kings (v. 2; Prov. 21:1; cf. Gen. 39-41; Ezra 1:1-4; Neh. 2; Dan. 2; 3; 4; 5; Acts 2:23). "To half of the kingdom"(v. 3) is hyperbole and means, "I wil...
• The first oracle against Babylon 13:1-14:27
  The reader would expect that Isaiah would inveigh against Assyria since it was the most threatening enemy in his day and since he referred to it many times in earlier chapters. However, he did not mention Assyria in this sect...
• The certainty of these benefits 62:1-9
  It seemed to Isaiah's audience that the promises in chapter 60 could hardly come to pass since the Babylonian exile was still ahead of them. The Lord assured them that He would surely fulfill these promises."Much of this chap...
• Prophecies about false prophets 23:9-40
  Having given a true prophecy about the future, Jeremiah proceeded to announce God's judgment on the false prophets who were misleading His people with false prophecies (cf. v. 1). This section consists of six different messag...
• I. The oracle against Babylon chs. 50-51
  Jeremiah wrote almost as much about Babylon's future as he did about the futures of all the other nations in his other oracles combined. The length of this oracle reflects the great importance of Babylon in his ministry as we...
• An epilogue to the riddle 17:22-24
  Like the preceding parable (cf. 16:60-63) this one also ends with a promise of hope.17:22-23 The Lord Himself would also snip a tender twig from the top of the tall cedar tree that represented the Davidic line of kings. He wo...
• 3. A judgment speech against the ruler of Tyre 28:1-10
  28:1-2 Ezekiel was to speak an oracle to the contemporary leader (Heb. nagid, prince, ruler, king) of Tyre in the Lord's name, probably King Ethbaal II (also known as Ittobaal II and Ithobalus II, ca. 590-573 B.C.). As usual ...
• A poem extolling Assyria's glory 31:1-9
  31:1 The Lord gave Ezekiel a third oracle against Egypt in 587 B.C., less than two months after the previous one (30:20-26).31:2 The prophet was to speak this one to Pharaoh Hophra and to the Egyptians. Obviously Ezekiel was ...
• Theology
  Theologically the book stresses the sovereignty of God."The absolute sovereignty and transcendence of God above all angels and men literally permeates the book."11"The theme running through the whole book is that the fortunes...
• Message22
  The Book of Daniel contains many unique and significant emphases. I would like to point out some of these first before we organize them into an explanation of what God has given us this book to reveal.Theologically Daniel str...
• Outline
  I. The character of Daniel ch. 1A. Historical background 1:1-2B. Nebuchadnezzar's training program for promising youths 1:3-7C. Daniel's resolve to please Yahweh 1:8-13D. The success of the test 1:14-16E. God's blessing of Da...
• B. Nebuchadnezzar's training program for promising youths 1:3-7
  1:3-5 Nebuchadnezzar's enlightened policy was to employ the best minds in his kingdom in government service regardless of their national or ethnic origin. We do not know how many other Jews and Gentiles were the classmates of...
• E. God's blessing of Daniel and his friends 1:17-21
  1:17 In addition to favor with their overseers, God gave Daniel and his three friends the ability to master the subjects they studied and wisdom in these matters (cf. James 1:5). They may have thought that Nebuchadnezzar had ...
• II. The Times of the Gentiles: God's program for the world chs. 2--7
  Daniel wrote 2:4b-7:28 in the Aramaic language. This literary change gives the reader a clue that this part is a distinct section of the book. The content of this section also identifies it as special. It concerns the future ...
• 2. The failure of the king's wise men 2:4-13
  2:4 The Chaldeans took the lead in replying to the king. They responded in the Aramaic language that was widely used in business and in government throughout the empire. This reference to Aramaic introduces the section of the...
• 1. The worship of Nebuchadnezzar's statue 3:1-7
  3:1 The whole image that the king built was gold. The head of the image that Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream was also gold."Daniel had told him that he was the head of gold (2:38) but that he would be followed by another...
• C. Nebuchadnezzar's pride and humbling ch. 4
  We have seen that in the first three chapters of Daniel King Nebuchadnezzar came to an increasing appreciation of the greatness of Yahweh. In this chapter he learned that Yahweh is sovereign over kings as well as kingdoms (cf...
• 1. Nebuchadnezzar's introductory doxology 4:1-3
  4:1 The fact that Nebuchadnezzar addressed what follows to everyone living on the earth, even though he did not rule over the entire earth, should not be a problem. This was the universal language that he customarily used (cf...
• 2. The king's frustration over his second dream 4:4-9
  4:4 As mentioned above, the time of this dream was apparently later in Nebuchadnezzar's reign. Historians have identified a seven-year period during his reign when he engaged in no military activity (ca. 582-575 B.C.).137This...
• 3. Nebuchadnezzar's account of his dream 4:10-18
  4:10-12 The king described what he had seen in poetic language. His words therefore appear as a prophetic oracle. The ancients frequently used trees to describe rulers of nations (cf. Isa. 2:12-13; 10:34; Ezek. 31:3-17).141Th...
• 4. Daniel's interpretation 4:19-27
  4:19 Daniel's initial reluctance to tell the king the interpretation must have been due to the bad news itself and to the potentially harmful consequences for Daniel for telling it to the king.147Daniel had not hesitated to i...
• 5. The fulfillment of threatened discipline 4:28-33
  4:28 Verse 28 introduces the fulfillment of what God had warned Nebuchadnezzar he could expect if he failed to repent. Perhaps he humbled himself initially, but after 12 months he was as proud as ever.4:29-30 Archaeologists h...
• 6. Nebuchadnezzar's restoration 4:34-37
  4:34-35 The narrative resumes in the first person adding the force of personal testimony to the story that the king had been telling. Raising his eyes to heaven implies that Nebuchadnezzar may finally have come to the end of ...
• D. Belshazzar's feast ch. 5
  Belshazzar came to power some nine years after Nebuchadnezzar had died.165The events of this chapter therefore occurred about 66 years after those in chapter 1 and about 36 years after those in chapter 4.166Daniel would now h...
• 1. Belshazzar's dishonoring of Yahweh 5:1-4
  5:1 Older critical scholars have claimed that Belshazzar was never a king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.167However modern discoveries have shown that Belshazzar acted as king during his father's frequent and prolonged absences...
• 2. God's revelation to Belshazzar 5:5-9
  5:5 Like Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar received an omen from God. In Nebuchadnezzar's case it was two dreams (chs. 1; 4). In Belshazzar's it was a hand writing on a wall. The night of revelry became a night of revelation.176"In ...
• 3. The queen's counsel 5:10-12
  5:10 Normally we would identify the queen as Belshazzar's wife. However, there are a number of reasons to prefer the view that she was really the queen mother or perhaps even the surviving wife of Nebuchadnezzar. Belshazzar's...
• 4. Belshazzar's request of Daniel 5:13-16
  The king had heard of Daniel by reputation even though he had not met him before (v. 13). He recognized him as a person whose extraordinary ability came from some divine source (cf. 4:8, 18). Perhaps it was because Daniel was...
• 5. Daniel's rebuke of Belshazzar 5:17-24
  5:17 Daniel's reply to the king was in every sense a sermon, and a powerful one at that.181The prophet began by declining the offered gifts. This had the effect, whatever Daniel's reason for doing so may have been, of helping...
• 2. The conspiracy against Daniel 6:4-9
  6:4 The text does not say why the other officials wanted to get rid of Daniel. Perhaps his integrity made it difficult for them to get away with graft and political corruption. Maybe since he was quite old they wanted to elim...
• 6. Darius' decree and praise of Yahweh 6:25-28
  6:25-27 This story ends as previous ones in the book did with the king praising and promoting Yahweh. This expression of praise, however, surpasses the others (cf. 3:28-29; 4:3, 34-35, 37). Not only did Darius personally prai...
• 1. The four beasts 7:1-8
  7:1 We have already read of two dreams that Nebuchadnezzar had (2:1; 4:5). Now God gave one to Daniel. It too was a vision from God that came to Daniel as he slept."In referring to the experience as a dream' (sing.) Daniel wa...
• 6. The interpretation of the fourth beast 7:23-25
  7:23 The interpreting angel now granted the prophet more insight about the fourth beast and particularly about the little horn. Here the dual identification of the beasts with kings and kingdoms becomes transparent. The fourt...
• 4. The little horn on the goat 8:9-14
  8:9 Daniel next saw a rather small horn (king, v. 23) grow out of one of the four horns (kingdoms, v. 22) that had replaced the single horn (the first king, v. 21) on the goat (Greece, v. 21). This horn is quite clearly diffe...
• The announcement of doom 11:1-3
  11:1 The prophet announced in vigorous poetic language that Lebanon's famous cedars would perish. The Israelites referred to the royal palace in Jerusalem as Lebanon because it contained so much cedar from Lebanon (Jer. 22:23...
• 1. The prophecy about Bethlehem 2:1-12
  2:1-2 When did the Magi visit Jesus in Bethlehem?74There are several factors that point to a time about a year after Jesus' birth. First, Matthew described Jesus as a "child"(Gr. paidion, v. 11), not an "infant"(Gr. brephos, ...
• 1. Jesus' forerunner 3:1-12 (cf. Mark 1:2-8; Luke 3:3-18)
  It was common when Jesus lived for forerunners to precede important individuals to prepare the way for their arrival. For example, when a king would visit a town in his realm his emissaries would go before him to announce his...
• The purpose of the parables 13:10-17 (cf. Mark 4:10-12; Luke 8:9-10)
  13:10 The disciples wanted to know why Jesus was teaching in parables. This was not the clearest form of communication. Evidently the disciples asked this question when Jesus had finished giving the parables to the crowd (cf....
• The parable of the mustard seed 13:31-32 (cf. Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19)
  The mustard seed was so small that the Jews used it proverbially to represent a very small thing.544When mature, the mustard plant stood 10 to 12 feet tall as "the largest of garden plants"(NIV).545Consequently it became a pe...
• The parable of the mustard seed 4:30-32 (cf. Matt. 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19)
  The third and last parable that Mark recorded Jesus giving to the multitudes stressed the contrast between the kingdom's insignificant beginnings and its final impressively large size. When Jesus came declaring that the kingd...
• The parable of the mustard seed 13:18-19 (cf. Matt. 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32)
  The kingdom of God is the messianic kingdom that the Old Testament predicted. It would be an earthly kingdom over which Messiah would rule for 1, 000 years (Rev. 20:4-6). It is similar to a mustard seed in that it had a small...
• 4. The second coming of the Son of Man 21:25-28 (cf. Matt. 24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27)
  Luke omitted Jesus' warnings about false prophets that Matthew and Mark recorded (Matt. 24:23-28; Mark 13:21-23). Perhaps he did this because he had included similar warnings in his account of Jesus' earlier teachings (17:21-...
• 1. Jesus' requests for Himself 17:1-5
  17:1 "These things Jesus spoke"(NASB, Gr. tauta elalesen Iesous) clearly connects what follows with what Jesus had just been saying (cf. 14:25; 16:1, 4, 25, 33). Lifting up the eyes to heaven indicated prayer, as did Jesus' w...
• 1. Conduct towards the government 13:1-7
  Paul passed from a loosely connected series of exhortations in 12:9-21 to a well-organized argument about a single subject in 13:1-7."Forbidding the Christian from taking vengeance and allowing God to exercise this right in t...
• The sacrifice of the Son 1:7-12
  1:7 The "Him"in view is the beloved Son (v. 6).Redemption (Gr. apolytrosin) means release from slavery (cf. v. 14; 4:30; Luke 21:28; Rom. 3:24; 8:23; 1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:15; 11:35). It involves buying back and sett...
• Activities of the beast 13:5-8
  The notable abilities of the beast are blasphemy against God and deception of people. These activities also marked Antiochus Epiphanes, the prototype of Antichrist (Dan. 7:8, 11, 20, 25; 12:7).13:5 God (cf. 6:4, 8; 7:2; 9:5; ...
• The fall of Babylon 14:8
  The fact that separate and succeeding angels make these announcements stresses their importance and their sequential relationship. A second angel followed the first with the message that Babylon had fallen. This is another pr...