This Is a Tribute to Judyann

Writing is therapeutic to me, and I’m glad it is. The pain from losing my wife will not go away in a couple of days and this helps to get my mind concentrating on something else.

She passed on Sunday (Apr 26^th) about noon quite unexpectedly, and to date, I still do not know what she passed away from. That may be of some comfort, and it may not – we will see. To anyone who has lost a mate, Husband, or Wife, I feel your pain personally.

Our daughter Lindsay and I were closest to her by the fact she lives in the same city and wife and I had been keeping the three grandkids with Judyann tutoring them with their school work.

Now back to Biblical history, which we are going to focus on for a while.

Nebuchadnezzar is a name you probably haven't considered for your children and for good reason. I have a dog name Nebbi. But, Nebuchadnezzar wrote his name in history and I will tell you my degree is in Biblical History and especially covering 400 B.C. - 400 A.D.

We'll call this one "Nebuchadnezzar's Predicament. You'll learn how he affected the Jews and inadvertently Israel. Please read on:

Bear with me here. Asia in general and the entire Middle East, in particular, were being attacked by Nineveh. Sumerian influence in Nineveh and the region exist from the 4th millennium onwards.

It is possible that Nineveh, the later imperial capital of the Assyrian empire, may have begun life as a colony of Sumerian merchants. The archaeological site of Nineveh, Tell Brak, reveals a city as large as a leading Sumerian city, built around a Sumerian-style temple.

So, Nebuchadnezzar is now a young general who is very successful against Nineveh, with his greatest accomplishment being the defeat of Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt at the Battle of Carchemish. (2 Chronicles 35.20-27)

This defeat puts Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon being the ruler of the known world.

What happens, as Nebuchadnezzar is marching back home and laying siege to Jerusalem, his Father, Nabopalazar, passes on. When he hears the news he arrives back at home and assumes his Father's throne, and inherits his Father's advisers in the court.

Nebuchadnezzar has a very disturbing dream one evening, and he decides to use the dream as a way of finding out how well the cronies in the court could perform. The young King wants them to interpret the dream without telling them the details of the dream. The Court cronies point out there is no way they can do that without the King telling them more information.

Nebuchadnezzar gets extremely angry and vows to tear each Court adviser's limb from limb and make their house a dunghill. Not a job we would want to have had. Daniel hears of the plight of the Count advisers and asks for a chance to interpret the dream. Daniel and his fellow Jews hold a prayer meeting asking God for help with the dream.

What happens is an incredible scene in the King's palace. The King's cronies are in the background watching hoping Daniel would fail to tell the King what his dream was either. But Daniel had the God of heaven on his side. And Daniel users the famous words, "And here's what your dream was, and here's what it means."

Thus begins the incredible career of Daniel the prophet in Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed of a giant metal statue.

It had:

• The head of gold
• Golden Arms
• A Gold Chest
• A Silver Belly
• Brass Thighs
• Iron Legs
• Feet Iron mixed with Clay - and the stone grew to fill the entire earth.

We know from Daniel's interpretation from God that the Gold head represents Babylon.

The Silver represented an empire that was to come and succeed Babylon - the Persian Empire.

The Persian Empire would be succeeded by the Greek Empire.

Next in line would be the Roman Empire, but this one in two phases.

But that was not the end of the dream that Daniel was giving Nebuchadnezzar. He told him of the stone cut without hands struck the image at the feet, disintegrating it, and the stone became a mountain that filled the entire earth.

Daniel pointed out to Neb the dream which totally impressed the King, and pointed out the dream was about the end-times. Now in chapters 2 through 7 the language of the original text shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic, the Gentile language of the day.

Hold onto your hats! Usually, we are looking at history from the past-present-future stages and that through the lens of Israel. But here is one place in Scripture where we get a profile of all Gentile history. From Babylon all the way to the end.

Babylon is captured by the Persians, the Persians by the Greeks, and the Greeks by the Romans. The Roman Empire disintegrated into separate elements about A.D. 476.

Chapters 2 through 7 of Daniel describe the "times of the Gentiles," starting with Nebuchadnezzar and ends with a final world leader who will be dealt with by our Lord Jesus Christ at His Second Coming. Israel went into captivity, then out of captivity to the restored nation, but persecuted until the "King of Kings" shows up.

I can just imagine how the Inner Court boys felt when the young captive from Israel gave the King everything in His dream. To get back at Daniel, the staff advisers talk Neb into building an image of himself probably like the one in the dream, except this one all of the gold-six cubits high and six cubits wide and everyone would have to bow to the image.

Of course, Daniel and his Jewish mate refused to bow to the image. Everyone was required to do so, and if they refused, they would be put into a fiery furnace. They refused and were thrown into a special furnace seven times its normal temperature, so hot it consumed the guards standing duty.

When Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace from a distance he saw not three but four people. And who was with them? "The Son of God" The only things that burned that day were the ropes that bound the boys.

I lost my mate of 24/7. She was a Christian. A strong Christian. She is in heaven. Thank God for that. For we who are left behind we have lost a strong presence of grace, silent authority, and love. She is sorely missed.

Of the many figures in the Bible, one of her favorites was Daniel, and this study is dedicated to her memory (8/1/58-4/26/20) Thank you for reading. Join my group at the top of the article and I will do the same for you.