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February 10 Bel and the Dragon Daniel 14:1-31 As We Begin Today I

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February 10 Bel and the Dragon Daniel 14:1-31 As We Begin Today I February 10 Bel and the Dragon Daniel 14:1-31 As we begin today I need to explain just a little about the scripture that I am using and why. This fall, as part of Trinity U, I did a class on how the Bible came to be in the form we now know. One of the sessions talked about the apocryphal books of the Old Testament. They are sometimes called the inner testamentary books. They first became a part of the Bible we know when it was translated from Greek into Latin. They resided there as an official part of the Bible for many centuries. Then, around the time of Martin Luther, serious Bible study in the original languages began and when these scholars read the Jewish Bible they found that our Bible had all of these additional writings. Books such as the Maccabees, and Judith and additional material added to the book of Esther and Daniel were not present in the Hebrew Bible. Many Protestant scholars gathered them together and put them in the middle of the Bible, between the testaments, hence the nickname. Others, particularly the Catholic Church kept them in their historical place. Over time, since they were rarely used or referred to, Bible publishers quit publishing Bibles with the Apocrypha. In my class I told them that some Bibles have a story about a dragon and read to them this scripture from the apocryphal part of Daniel. They got a good laugh and challenged me to preach a story about Bel and the Dragon. To help us understand these two stories I am going to read a portion of the scripture and then talk about it, read more scripture and talk about it and so on. It will be a bit of a mini Bible study. At the end I will give you a couple of things that we can take from this story for today. It really does have something to teach us who live in a multi- cultural and multi-faith world. Both stories deal with idolatry. In one case the idol is fashioned by human hands. In the other it is a living animal. Both stories, even more, deal with the worship of idols while in exile. 1 When King Astyages was laid to rest with his ancestors, Cyrus the Persian succeeded to his kingdom. 2 Daniel was a companion of the king, and was the most honored of all his Friends. 3 Now the Babylonians had an idol called Bel, and every day they provided for it twelve bushels of choice flour and forty sheep and six measures of wine. 4 The king revered it and went every day to worship it. But Daniel worshiped his own God. So the king said to him, "Why do you not worship Bel?" 5 He answered, "Because I do not revere idols made with hands, but the living God, who created heaven and earth and has dominion over all living creatures." The stories begin, after giving us a bit of historical data, with the king saying, “Why do you not worship Bel?” From the lips of a man who can dispatch death in seconds, the implied threat is obvious. Bel is a nickname for Marduk the great national god of the Babylonians. Daniel contrasts the idol with the living God. The writer, right at the beginning of the stories, is asking his/her audience to answer the question about idols as well. It is no longer a question of your god vs. our God but the living God vs. mere idols. Daniel’s refusal to honor Bel sets the stage for the coming challenge. We need to understand that Daniel must respond. There will be no evasion. 6 The king said to him, "Do you not think that Bel is a living god? Do you not see how much he eats and drinks every day?" 7 And Daniel laughed, and said, "Do not be deceived, O king, for this thing is only clay inside and bronze outside, and it never ate or drank anything." 8 Then the king was angry and called the priests of Bel and said to them, "If you do not tell me who is eating these provisions, you shall die. 9 But if you prove that Bel is eating them, Daniel shall die, because he has spoken blasphemy against Bel." Daniel said to the king, "Let it be done as you have said." The king responds to Daniel’s challenge that Bel is not alive with a reasoned argument. If Bel does not live, how then does Daniel explain Bel’s appetite? To which Daniel laughs. One of the important details of this story is that in the Apocrypha Daniel has developed a dangerous sense of humor. Laughter in the Hebrew Bible is usually an act of derision and mockery and of scorn. He knows what God is going to do. Daniel warns the king not to be deceived. The idol is made of clay and bronze, two materials that the reader of the book of Daniel is familiar with in association with handmade gods. The king’s response is anger and emphasizes the serious challenge that is to begin. Someone is going to die. 10 Now there were seventy priests of Bel, besides their wives and children. So the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel. 11 The priests of Bel said, "See, we are now going outside; you yourself, O king, set out the food and prepare the wine, and shut the door and seal it with your signet. 12 When you return in the morning, if you do not find that Bel has eaten it all, we will die; otherwise Daniel will, who is telling lies about us." 13 They were unconcerned, for beneath the table they had made a hidden entrance, through which they used to go in regularly and consume the provisions. 14 After they had gone out, the king set out the food for Bel. Then Daniel ordered his servants to bring ashes, and they scattered them throughout the whole temple in the presence of the king alone. Then they went out, shut the door and sealed it with the king's signet, and departed. 15 During the night the priests came as usual, with their wives and children, and they ate and drank everything. 16 Early in the morning the king rose and came, and Daniel with him. 17 The king said, "Are the seals unbroken, Daniel?" He answered, "They are unbroken, O king." 18 As soon as the doors were opened, the king looked at the table, and shouted in a loud voice, "You are great, O Bel, and in you there is no deceit at all!" 19 But Daniel laughed and restrained the king from going in. "Look at the floor," he said, "and notice whose footprints these are." 20 The king said, "I see the footprints of men and women and children." 21 Then the king was enraged, and he arrested the priests and their wives and children. They showed him the secret doors through which they used to enter to consume what was on the table. 22 Therefore the king put them to death, and gave Bel over to Daniel, who destroyed it and its temple. The contest is dangerous in its simplicity. Put the food out for Bel as you have always done, seal the door with the king’s seal and see what happens. To emphasize their belief that they can fool the king the priests invite the king to view the contest and to participate himself. The king is to seal the door with his symbol of authority. Daniel is also invited to oversee the preparations. Daniel takes one further precaution. After the priests have left but before the king seals the door Daniel has his servants spread ash on the floor. The spreading of ash is not saying Daniel knew the entrance location but knew the priest had to gain entry somehow. Only the king witnesses the placing of the ashes and then seals the door. In the morning the sealed doors are opened. It appears that Daniel has been defeated. All of the food has been consumed. According to the rules of the contest Daniel has lost and will forfeit his life. The king commits a foolish act by saying in a loud voice “You are great O Bel and in you is no deceit.” That last word is key because the writer is putting forth an argument asking, “Is your faith based on deceit enforced by power or on truth?” In response to the king’s claim to power, to truth and to religious wisdom, Daniel laughs and tells the king to look at the footprints in the ashes. We can assume it is the laugh of sarcasm and of triumph. The priest of Bel’s have based their faith on deception but Daniel’s faith is based on what is open and can be seen. The king punishes the priests with death. Daniel rather than participate in the killing, as happens in other contest between the prophets of God and pagan priests, destroys the idol and its house. Many scholars have noted that the temple of Bel was actually destroyed by the Persian ruler Xerxes and that occurrence must have been in the background of the events described in this story. One can hardly miss the significance of placing a Jew at the center of the destruction of the temple of Bel, the very religious symbol of power for the conquering Babylonians.
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