A COMPANION TO YOUR STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT batch2/20260907_123053

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## HEADING: A COMPANION TO YOUR STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
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hope in the "arm of flesh" and in "gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron,
wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know" (Dan. 5:23)—that
is, in idols. This I find to be a dominant theme in the Old Testament.
Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most is his god; and if
his god doesn't also happen to be the true and living God of Israel, that
man is laboring in idolatry. (E, June 1976, p. 4.)
5:31 Concerning the capture of Babylon, Spencer W.
Kimball has observed:
The prophets pleaded for repentance. But why should Babylon worry?
Was not Babylon the ruler of nations? . . .
Was not this city impregnable? Who could scale its walls? Who could
crash its gates? But the monster of sin came. Though impenetrable the
walls, and numerous the armed defenders, yet all must fall and crumble as
sin makes impotent, weak, and fat the people who become slaves to it.
(CR, Oct. 1945, pp. 123-24.)
George Albert Smith has commented concerning the
downfall and death of Belshazzar:
The king and others felt perfectly secure, feeling that with food and
provisions, and a river of water running through the city, not anything
could come in to disturb them, and yet on that wall were written the words
which, when interpreted, read, "You have been weighed in the balance and
found wanting, and your kingdom will be divided among the Medes and
the Persians." At that very hour "my servant Cyrus" had diverted the river
that went through the city from its channel and his army entered under the
wall, which wall was so high that it could not be scaled or destroyed with
any means or weapons that they had, and so wide that several chariots
could ride abreast on the top. (CR, Oct. 1948, p. 183.)
6:3 The "excellent spirit" that was evident in Daniel was
undoubtedly the result of the influence of the Holy Ghost.
Pharaoh had detected a similar excellent spirit in faithful
Joseph, and when he was considering selecting Joseph as his
major governor, the Pharaoh exclaimed: "Can we find such a
one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?" (Gen.
41:38.)
6:4-24 The powers and wiles of the earth cannot have
power over a person of integrity such as Daniel, according to
Spencer W. Kimball:
These vicious men conspired to destroy Daniel. Their clever trick would
end his dominion. Knowing the faith and the habits of Daniel, they could
not fail. Preying upon the pride and vanity of the emperor, his conceit, his
egotism, they persuaded him to sign an unbreakable law—a law which

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DANIEL 353
forbade anyone in the ensuing thirty days asking any petition of anyone but
Belshazzar. The penalty was to be consigned to the den of lions. Belshazzar
signed the decree, not knowing it was leveled at his friend. This unalterable
law of the Medes and Persians would have been terrifying to any man, but
the faithful Daniel did not flinch. Was there any question what he should
do? He could save his life by abandoning his prayers to the Living God.
What was he to do? A man of integrity could not fail. Daniel was the soul
of integrity. (BYUSY, Feb. 1964, p. 17.)
6:24 The last clause, "or ever they came at the bottom of
the den," could have been translated "before they came to the
lower part of the den."
6:26 Darius, in accepting "the God of Daniel" as one of
the gods acceptable to the Chaldeans (Babylonians), is follow-
ing the example of Nebuchadnezzar, who accepted the "God of
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego." (See Dan. 3:29.) In
neither case are there indications of real conversion on the part
of the kings.
7:1-28 This chapter is a "flashback" and is out of
sequence chronologically. The four beasts and the countries
represented by them have been identified by most scholars as
follows: Lion—Babylon; Bear—Persia; Leopard—Greece;
Diverse beast—Rome.
Concerning the use of beasts to represent kingdoms, Joseph
Smith has stated:
When God made use of the figure of a beast in visions to the prophets
He did it to represent those kingdoms which had degenerated and become
corrupt, savage and beast-like in their dispositions, even the degenerate
kingdoms of the wicked world; but He never made use of the figure of a
beast nor any of the brute kind to represent His kingdom.
Daniel says (ch. 7, v. 16) when he saw the vision of the four beasts, "I
came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all
this," the angel interpreted the vision to Daniel; but we find, by the inter-
pretation that the figures of beasts had no allusion to the kingdom of God.
You there see that the beasts are spoken of to represent the kingdoms of the
world, the inhabitants whereof were beastly and abominable characters;
they were murderers, corrupt, carnivorous, and brutal in their dispositions.
The lion, the bear, the leopard, and the ten-horned beast represented the
kingdoms of the world, says Daniel. . . .
There is a grand difference and distinction between the visions and
figures spoken of by the ancient prophets, and those spoken of in the
revelations of John. The things which John saw had no allusion to the
scenes of the days of Adam, Enoch, Abraham or Jesus, only so far as is
plainly represented by John, and clearly set forth by him. John saw that