Daniel 9.22
He reveals the profound and secret things; He knows what is in the dark, and light dwells with Him.
The Book of Daniel gets off to a quick start from the first chapter. Right away the message is there.
Nebuchadnezzar ordered the names of young choice individuals to be changed to assimilate them into Babylonian culture: “Daniel to Belteshazzar, Hananiah to Shadrach, Mishael to Meshach, and Azariah to Abednego.” (Daniel 1:7).
Names are for a blessing in the bible. They help us to understand. Names in the bible are hint of God's calling for the characters in the bible.
Nebuchadnezzar's name is derived from Nabu, the name of the Babylonian god. The one true God is Daniel's judge. Nebuchadnezzar seeks protection from Baal and changes Daniel's name to Belteshazzar.
Meaning of these names before and after:
Daniel - God is my judge
Belteshazzar - Baal protect the king.
The names of the Hebrews taken away by Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 1.
Hananiah - Grace, mercy
Mishael - Who Is Like God
Azariah - Helped by God
Nebuchadnezzar changed their names to:
Shadrach - Tender
Meshach- Guest of the king
Abednego - Servant of Nebo (Babylonian god)
Nebuchadnezzar selected Tender (young) guests to be trained for 3 years to serve him and bow down to a false god.
The Hebrews stayed true to the ONE GOD who is their Judge and they received God's grace and mercy. They went through the fire with GOD. God is their helper.
There is an early connection between the ancient world of Daniel and America. Perhaps no other nation in the world has recieved more grace and mercy than America. Perhaps no other nation has tried harder to be Godly. With the exception of Israel, perhaps no other nation has been helped by God more than the USA.
The Book of Daniel is for the ages and the times!
In Daniel 2, Daniel related a dream of Nebuchadnezzar II, the King of Babylon. The King dreamed of a great statue with a head of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of mingled iron and clay. A great stone, not cut by human hands, fell on the feet of the statue and broke apart. The rock became a mountain that filled the whole world.
In interpreting the dream, Daniel tells the king's dream concerns four successive kingdoms, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar, which will be replaced by the everlasting kingdom of the God of heaven. Hearing this, Nebuchadnezzar affirms that Daniel's god is "the God of gods and Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries." He lavishes gifts on Daniel and makes him chief of all the wise men and ruler over the province of Babylon.
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| Lady Liberty holding a Tablet with English letters and Roman numerals. |
Could America be the nation represented by the feet with ten toes of iron & clay depicted in the statue from the Book of Daniel?
MY REVELATION...A THEORY. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
Recently, while starting a study on the Book of Daniel I had a revelation on how to interpret the feet of mingled iron and clay. I will piece my theory together below. I doubt I am the only person with this theory, but I have never heard or read anything like my revelation which makes a deep connection in the way I do.
For the sake of brevity, I am going to assume my reader is familiar enough with the Book of Daniel and American history to follow my blog post.
How did the great stone not cut by human hands that fell on the feet of the statue fill the whole world?
The Jewish diaspora spread the Word. The fallen empires filled the world. Christians spread the word. Missionaries and those seeking religious freedom -- Jews and Christians -- spread the word. Those seeking the Promise Land spread the word. And the word came to the Americas.
The Book of Daniel is about a Jew forced to leave the promise land who rises to greatness in Babylon. The Jews were forced to leave many lands including England, France, Austria, Spain and elsewhere. The diaspora has been on the move from the time of Daniel!
While the Spanish Inquisition was in full force, in 1492, Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus) sighted Cuba, the "NEW WORLD." America would ultimately become the NEW WORLD EMPIRE. He named it Juana!
Cristóbal Columbus, is very connected to Jews! It is said he was secretly in search of the Promised Land. Salvador de Madariaga argued in 1940 that Columbus was a MARRANO (see this linked article) who was compelled to leave Spain. Scholars such as Jose Erugo, Celso Garcia de la Riega, Otero Sanchez and Nicholas Dias Perez have since concluded that Columbus likely had a Jewish background.
So we have Daniel, a Jew who was compelled to leave his homeland and was made #2 in charge of the Babylonian Empire. After all the empires in Daniel's prophecy collapse along comes Columbus who finds what will be the New World empire, America. Columbus a possible Marrano Jew, whose departure from Spain ("old Rome") is linked to Tisha B’Av, the date of the Spanish Inquisition when ALL Jews in Spain had to either leave Spain, convert or die.
Consider as well the historic relationship between the early Puritans who came to the New World and the Hebrews. This article speaks to the overlooked history of the Pilgrims, Puritans, and the Hebrew Republic of Massachusetts.
"The Hebrew Republic became the original model for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In their political Hebraism, the early New England Puritans saw themselves as “Christian Israel,” King Charles I as Pharaoh, the Atlantic Ocean as the Red Sea, America as the Promised Land, and Boston as the new Jerusalem, or as John Winthrop described it, “the city on the hill.”"
About the name Christobal Columbus gave the land he spotted...Juana is a feminine variation of the Spanish name Juan (John). Juana is a feminine name encouraging appreciation for life's most simple gifts. Its meaning is "God is gracious" resonates with the names of the Hebrews in the Book of Daniel.
The notion of being greeted by a feminine image with a message of God's grace will become relevant later in America's history.
As time moved forward, from the 1500's people came to the early colonies from Britain, France and Spain and other nations that were once part of the old Roman Empire.
Old Rome's population was compromised of 60% servants and slaves. America too had many poor and desperate people who came to our shores, along with many slaves. In addition, Jews from the diaspora caused by the Babylonian and Roman Empire conquests of Israel, came here to the New World, America. Ultimately, America would become home to the largest population of Jews in the world outside of Israel. In Daniel's time Jews rose to prominence. So too in America. There are other parallels.
After the American Revolution immigrants poured in and built America based on Judeo-Christian values. The people who built America came through New York's harbor. York England is a walled city in northeast England that was founded by the ancient Romans. Many Royalty in England is descended from the House of York. America is home to NEW York!
Throughout the Revolutionary War, The first future President (King) of America, George Washington, longed to recapture New York City. He returned on November 25, 1783, the day the British forces evacuated. On that day, Washington marched around 800 troops into the city before throngs of celebrating citizens.
King George of England was famous for two things -- losing the American colonies and going mad. Nebuchadnezzar is famous for losing Babylon and going mad.
NY was the 10th Colony! (10 toes!) New York City was the first capital of the New United States. Immigrants coming by sea to America for the first time entering York City spotted a large feminine statue made of iron - Lady Liberty.
Like Columbus who saw Juana, a feminine image, the new immigrants to America were welcomed by the Statue of Lady Liberty. Her base featured the words of female Jewish poet Emma Lazarus, who was arguably the first Zionist. Lady Liberty is holding a torch in her right hand and a tablet in her left hand with the date of the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776 in English, July and Roman numerals, the year.
What is the clay mixed with the iron?
Daniel 2:43 TLV
"Just as you saw iron mixed with clay, people will mix with one another, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay."
The American Nation and the Indian Nations have never fully mixed.
There are plenty of connections between the old Roman and America. So we have the Iron part of the toes, but what about the clay that is also part of the ten toes. Do they represent the Indian Nations?
I think the Native American Indians are the clay melded with the Roman iron of the ten toes in the statue Daniel interpreted for King Nebuchadnezzar. Here is how they come together.
After forming a Covenant with God and one another, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Soon after the Pilgrims came ashore they were introduced to a Native American man named Tisquantum, who was known as Squanto, who would become a member of the Massachusetts colony.
The Iroquois Confederacy banded several Indian tribes in the early New York Colony together including the Iroquois, Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga and others. [Iroquois "Creation Myth.]
The Iroquois Confederacy was a true federal republic system governed by a council of 50 sachems (supreme chiefs) representing each clan/nation. This included a bicameral (two-house) legislature, much like the British Parliament and modern U.S. Congress.
The framework of government in the Iroquois Confederacy is said to have inspired Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and other founders as they wrote the Constitution. Just as the Iroquois Confederacy brought the separate Indian tribes together, the American Constitution modeled after it brought the first American Colonies together.
The Iroquois dug the clay from the earth and molded it by hand; however, the characteristics are slightly different between ALL the tribes of the America's. Iroquois pottery is black, indicating a low temperature and have rounded bottoms for cooking. It was unusual for those attributes. The blackened rounded bowl bottoms even sorta sounds like the dirty bottoms of toes.
A young Indian woman by the name of Sacagawea was crucial on the Lewis and Clark Expedition which President Thomas Jefferson launched to find a way to open up western America.
The Sacagawea Golden Dollar replaced the Susan B. Anthony Dollar. It showed Sacagawea carrying her baby Jean Baptiste (John the Baptist) on her back. The reverse featured a soaring eagle. All U.S. circulating coins from the 18th to early 20th centuries depicted the mythical figure of Liberty, Lady Liberty in New York Harbor.
There are multitude of other ways that Jews and America are intertwined. There are multitude of ways the old Roman Empire and America are intertwined. There are a multitude of ways that the American colonies/nation and the Indian Tribes and the Iroquois Nation are entwined.
We were "One Nation under God with Liberty and Justice for All" that no longer "trusts in God!"
Daniel 2:31-43 TLV
“You looked, O king, and behold, there before you stood a huge statue—an enormous and dazzling image, whose appearance was awesome. The head of that statue was of pure gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly iron and partly clay. While you were watching, a stone was cut out, but not by hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from summer threshing-floors that the wind blows away. Not a trace of them could be found. Then the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, are the king of kings to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, might and glory. Wherever mankind, beasts of the field, and fowls of the heaven dwell, He has given them into your hand, and made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold. “Now after you another kingdom will arise, one inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over all the earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron shatters and breaks everything—and just as iron smashes everything, so will it shatter and crush all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly potter’s clay and partly iron, so this will be a divided kingdom. It will have some of the strength of the iron, for you saw the iron mixed with clay. As the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. Just as you saw iron mixed with clay, people will mix with one another, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.
