Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Sunday afternoon Bible study. Today is study #3 of Daniel, chapter 1, and we will begin by reading Daniel 1:3-7:

And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes; Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.

I will stop reading there. In our study of the Book of Daniel we have already seen that in the “third year of the reign of Jehoiakim” Nebuchadnezzar took captives to Babylon. This was part of the judgment of God upon the people of Judah for their rebellion against Him and their failure to keep the commandments of God. They had fallen into the worship of idols and they developed “high places.” We have also seen how that relates to the falling away of the churches at the time of the end during the Great Tribulation period.

In this passage we discovered that Daniel and his three friends were given over to the prince of the eunuchs. This man now had control over them and, of course, that would mean that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were become eunuchs themselves. Once Judah had been overcome and the captives were taken, certain of the captives were signaled out and it was determined they would do service to the king and they were made eunuchs. They underwent a procedure the Babylonians forced upon them, turning them into eunuchs.

We are going to look at the word “eunuch” and see how God uses it in the Bible in order to get a better understanding of why it is that this faithful man Daniel and his faithful friends (pictures of God’s elect) were made “eunuchs.”

The Hebrew word “eunuch” is Strong’s #5631 and it is also translated as “officer” or “chamberlain.” Surprisingly, this word is used of a person we would not think of as a eunuch, in Genesis 37:36:

And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, ,em>and captain of the guard.

The word “officer” is the same word translated as “eunuch” in Daniel and other places in the Old Testament. It is also used in speaking of Potiphar in Genesis 39:1:

And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.

This is saying that Potiphar was a eunuch of Pharaoh or it could be that this word has taken on the connotation of being an “official.” Often those that were made eunuchs were officials of the king. In the New Testament there was the Ethiopian eunuch that was in his chariot and reading the prophecy of Isaiah and he was said to be an “official,” a man of great authority under Candace the queen. We will read more about that later, but the idea is that he was a trusted servant or official of the queen. Those that were made eunuchs were often in positions of authority, like the Ethiopian eunuch. It may not be true in every case of someone made a eunuch and it could, perhaps, be referring to someone who is an official. I am saying “perhaps” because I am not too sure because we know that Potiphar had a wife and that became a problem for Joseph because his wife cast her eyes upon Joseph. I suppose it is possible for a eunuch to be married, but it would seem that in Potiphar’s case it is indicating he was an official of the king.

But let us keep looking at this word “eunuch.” It says in Esther 1:10:

On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king,

The word “chamberlains” is the same word translated as “eunuchs.” We can see here that they were definitely officials and men of authority in the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. It is likely in this case that they were “made eunuchs” in order to serve in that capacity. It says in Esther 2:1-3:

After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king: And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them:

In the case of Hege, the keeper of the women, it is obvious that he would have been made a eunuch.

So we see that this word is translated as “officer” and “chamberlain,” but it is the same word translated as “eunuch.” Also, it says in Esther 4:4-5:

So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not. Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was.

Here, Hatach has the ability to meet privately with Esther the queen. He is a chamberlain or eunuch and, therefore, you could trust him and there would be no appearance of evil in regard to the queen and her chamberlain because he has been castrated. They have performed that surgery upon him and, therefore, the king can trust these officials to work in his house and he would not have to be concerned in that area in regard to the queen or other women he might have in his house.

Let us look at this word as it is used in other Books. In Isaiah, chapter 56 we start to get some idea for the spiritual reason for “eunuchs” and why God refers to “eunuchs” in the Bible. It says in Isaiah 56:3-5:

Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to JEHOVAH, speak, saying, JEHOVAH hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith JEHOVAH unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

When someone is made a eunuch they cannot have children. They cannot have a son. They cannot have a daughter. It is impossible for them to have children, so God is encouraging the eunuch and telling him of the great blessing of being a child of God. He tells them they will have an everlasting name. They will have in His house a “place and a name better than of sons and of daughters.”

In this life, a man can have children and the children carry on the name and prolong the name of that person and it may go on for generations. The name is continued and it is a form of lengthening the person’s name and who they were. Of course, men are very concerned about that. They want to leave a lasting impression. They really want an eternal impression which is impossible in this world, but they seek to cause their name to endure. This is why men seek fame and seek to have their name known to everyone. They want their name to endure, so they have children that carry their name forward, but the problem is that this world will not endure forever. No unsaved person’s name will endure forever. An unsaved person or their (unsaved) descendants will have their names cut off and will have an end.

With eunuchs, they cannot have a descendant. Their family name cannot continue after them. They cannot have a son that bears their name. In that way a eunuch is really a good picture of an unsaved person because their “line” is cut off, as God cut off the line of the kings and ended that line after the 23rd king of Judah. There would be no more kings of Israel or Judah that would be viewed as kings in God’s sight because He cut off their line.

The eunuch is really a picture of an unsaved person because their line is cut off and they cannot have children and, yet, God is able to give them an everlasting name as He grants eternal life to those He has saved. In giving eternal life to the sinner, God makes their name last forever. That is what the Lord is saying when He speaks to the eunuchs that say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” God said, “For thus saith JEHOVAH unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths,” and how does one keep God’s sabbaths? It is by doing no work in regard to salvation. The Bible tells us that we cannot do any work that would be acceptable in God’s sight to get ourselves saved, but when God saves His people they enter into His rest. They trust completely in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of His faith. So the eunuchs that keep God’s Sabbath enter into His rest and choose the things that please Him. This reminds us of what God says in Isaiah 58:13-14:

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of JEHOVAH, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in JEHOVAH; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of JEHOVAH hath spoken it.

This is what the Lord is making reference to in regard to a eunuch. He has entered into God’s rest and chosen the things that please God and this can only be accomplished through God’s salvation. It goes on to say of the eunuch, in Isaiah 56:4-5:

…and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

Here, without question, the Lord is making it clear that a eunuch can be someone in the Bible that God views very favorable as a child of God and someone with an everlasting name, despite the fact that he has been made a eunuch.

We read in Matthew 19:12:

For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

Examples of eunuchs made of men would be Daniel and his friends. There are those that have “made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.” There are some people that devote their lives to service of God and they never marry or have children. They remain in their single condition and serve God. Since God says that outside of marriage there is not to be sexual relations, it is not an odd thing or crazy idea as our modern society would have us to believe. There is nothing wrong with that. Someone not in a marriage relationship should not have a sexual relationship and the child of God would not be involved in any sort of sexual activity outside of marriage. If that person is doing so to serve God they have made themselves a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. It could even be that someone has been married but is now divorced and now they understand that the Bible says they are not to marry someone else. According to the Bible that person is to stay celibate. They are not to seek marriage and, therefore, they are like a eunuch in that sense for the Word’s sake and for the sake of being obedient to the Bible. They will live without sexual relations of any kind. And they can live happily in that state.

Just look at Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. We look at peoples’ lives in the Bible. What do we look at when we are looking at and evaluating their lives? Are we reading how much “fun” they are having? Is that what finally forms our opinion of whether they had a good and worthy life? Do we look to see how much fun they had and how much pleasure they were able to derive from living their lives? Or, do we look at the possessions they have? How do we come to form an opinion about someone’s life in the Bible? Do we have a good opinion of Daniel the prophet? When we read of Daniel we have a very high opinion of him? What about his life? We would recognize that he had an extremely difficult life while he lived in this world, did he not? At first his life may have seen privileged. He may have been of royal blood. He may have been a child of a prince or king of Judah. God does tell us in his prophesy to King Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 39:5-8:

Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of JEHOVAH of hosts: Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith JEHOVAH. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of JEHOVAH which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.

The Lord told Hezekiah that his sons would be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. And where do Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego end up? They end up as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. As far as we I can tell, we cannot tell for sure if they were descendants of royalty. It could be that they were sons of some of the princes of Judah, but they would certainly have had a much different life in their early days in Judah. They would have had a much easier life that was filled with greater ease than when they were taken as captives and viewed as very lowly by the Babylonians. Just imagine that ruthless king and the army of the Babylonians having complete control of them and carrying them away into a foreign land where they would have to serve the king. But, before that happens, the Babylonians are going to make them eunuchs. That would have been grievous in its own right and there goes any plans they had for marriage or children and the future they may have hoped or dreamed. Now they are in a far country and they are in a strange place with a people that speak a strange language and they have operated on them and turned them into eunuchs.

Then we read in Daniel, chapter 1 that they gave them strange food and they had to learn all these things in order to serve the king of Babylon. Can you imagine how hard it would have been? Just place yourself in that position of serving the king of Babylon who had done all these things to your people. Maybe your parents had been killed or maybe friends and neighbors had been killed. Perhaps, other were treated even more cruelly than you were treated. You would have had to fight a natural tendency to be angry and to despise the king of Babylon and to despise your situation and predicament. You would be depressed, cast down and sorrowful. You may have felt sorry for yourself: Poor me! Look what has happened to me. Where is God? Where is the God of our fathers that we trusted in? How could He allow this evil King Nebuchadnezzar to conquer Judah? Then later on you find out from other captives that Jerusalem was finally besieged and the temple was burned to the ground. We just do not have a good understanding of how incredibly grievous this historic destruction of Judah and the temple and the carrying away of the captives was for the people of that time. They were people like us. They had thoughts and feelings, but these are the circumstances that this young boy Daniel and his three young friends find themselves in and it would have been easy to just give up to depression and to feeling sorry for yourself for the rest of your life and to give up on God and cease to serve this God that had, seemingly, abandoned you and turned you over into the hands of an evil king. Yet, when we read the account in the Book of Daniel, we do not read of people that have given up on God and life. We do not read of young men that were hopeless and full of angry or self-pity. Instead, we read some of the most inspiring and God-glorifying events recorded in the Bible. These men were found to be faithful and they continued to trust in God and wait upon God and look to Him. They refused to give in to the king of Babylon and their circumstances and they refused to give in to the tribulation and the affliction that grieved them. They did not give in to self-pity. It would have been so easy to allow their minds to feel sorry for themselves: “Oh, poor me! Look at where I am. I had it all. I was the child of royal blood and I was well respected and honoured in Judah.” Judah was the place to be and it had been the “apple of God’s eye.” Now they are among savages in the land of Babylon under a king that had done such horrible things to them and to their people. They could say, “Oh, poor me! I cannot have a wife or a family. I have no one to carry on my name. I am a dry tree.” You can see there would be a tendency to feel sorry for themselves and there would be the perfect circumstances for a “Pity Party,” if ever there were any.

Yet, we read that the king of Babylon made a golden image and he commanded everyone to bow down to that image. If they would not bow down to the image in the same hour they would be cast into a burning, fiery furnace and be destroyed. Who refused to bow down to the image but three young Hebrew men known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? It was these eunuchs that had been taken from the land of Judah. All the rest of the captives (apparently) did bow down to the image, but these eunuchs refused and they were thrown into the burning, fiery furnace. What a terrible threat that would have been, on top of everything else they had been through. Now in order to stand faithfully and to stay true to the Word of God, they had to face the threat of being thrown into the burning fiery furnace and, yet, they did stand by God’s grace. They were able to continue to be faithful in the most difficult circumstances possible and they were “faithful unto death” as they were thrown into the fiery furnace. It was a sure death. If that happened a billion times, you would burn to death a billion times, but not this time. God intervened and protected His servants. He protected His eunuchs. He has given them an everlasting name that cannot be cut off. No matter how the king of Babylon tried to cut off their names by making them eunuchs and now casting them into a burning, fiery furnace, they will not be cut off because “one like unto the Son of man” entered into the fire and protected them.

Later on, we will see Daniel’s situation in the lion’s den. As we read the Bible and we read about the lives of these young men we read that they had a “good” life, a life that we respect and acknowledge as an honorable life. They lived faithfully and uprightly in the most extreme and difficult circumstances we can think of and they honored and glorified God. They served God from the very beginning and they endured to the end. We look upon Daniel and his three friends and we recognize that it was a very hard life and they certainly did not have the pleasures and conveniences we have today. They did not have the technology. They did not have as much fun as we have today, did they? No, they did not. They lived a very hard life and, yet, when we look at their lives we see the way they trusted God and we acknowledge that Daniel was one of the greatest men of faith presented in the Bible. We would like to be like Daniel. We would like to be like the other three young men.

It really helps for us to look at our own lives and we see that we lack things. When we have the things of the world and all the earthly things that make life “easy” and we do a lot of laughing, what real value is in those things? If our lives were written out on the pages of the Bible, would anyone look at our lives and have respect for how we lived in the same manner as they would have respect for the way in which Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego lived their lives? Often the answer would be, “No.” We may have more ease from one day to the next and we might evaluate our life on the level of ease or discomfort that we experience each day, but we really have a wrong understanding if we think that a “good” life means living without discomfort or living without trials, troubles and afflictions. That is not the determination of a good life. A good life is one in which we have been faithful to the Word of God, the Bible, and faithful to the end. If you endure to the end, it can be said you have had a “good” life. You may have had all kinds of people against you and all kinds of things said about you and many may even have said to you, “Get a life!” They mean that you should stop reading the Bible and stop waiting on God and serving God and start living! Start sinning. Start seeking pleasure. Start doing what everyone else is doing and be like them, but if you do, you will lose your life and you will not have that “good” life. It may be an easy life, but the broad way that leads to destruction is an easy way to travel, but that straight gate is not an easy way to travel. Well, I got a little off course there. We were talking about eunuchs. I did want to talk about Ebach, so let us first go to Acts, chapter 8 and read about the Ethiopian eunuch. It says Acts 8:26-40:

And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.

Here, we find the Ethiopian eunuch, a man of great authority. We are not surprised by that because many officials in kings’ courts were chamberlains or eunuchs. He was under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, so it would have been in keeping with the times that in order for kings to have trust in someone attending to his queen, they would be made eunuchs. We find that this eunuch had a copy of the prophecy of Isaiah. Is that not something? He was from Ethiopia, which is near Egypt and, yet, he has the Word of God. We tend to think that in Old Testament times the Word of God was only in Israel. That is where God’s Word was centered as God gave His prophets the Oracles. They prophesied there and the Word of God was mostly found there, but the Word of God was also able to spread out, but not like it was able to spread in the New Testament era. The disciples were sent out into the world with the Gospel, so the Gospel would spread far and wide, but in the Old Testament God had certain people in other nations that were elect. There were not many because it was not His program to send forth the Gospel into all the nations at that point and, therefore, God did not have elect that were born into far and distant lands. Since God was not sending the Gospel into North or South America during the Old Testament times (after the continents were divided), it meant He had no elect in those nations and there was no need to get the Gospel to the people that were in North and South America or other distant places of the world. It would only happen when God would send forth the Gospel that elect would be born into different parts of the world.

So, here, was this man of Ethiopia that had the Word. The Bible tells us that God’s Word also reached Ruth, the Moabitess and it reached Naaman, the Assyrian and it reached the people of Nineveh, so there were others outside of Israel that were God’s elect, but God would always make arrangements (for the Gospel to reach them). But, here, we see that the Book of Isaiah (or portions of it) were available to people and maybe the Ethiopian eunuch received this portion of the Book of Isaiah while in Jerusalem and he is returning back to Ethiopia with God’s Word. Maybe he gave it to Candace the queen or to other members of his family or others. We do not know what God will do with His Word, but we do know that His Word always accomplishes the purpose for which God sent it forth to do.

It is very encouraging to read that the Ethiopian eunuch was in possession of the Word of God and then he sought that some man should guide him. In this case, God sent Philip to guide him and instruct him into truth. God the Holy Spirit guides us into truth, does He not? The Holy Spirit leads His people into truth, as we are told in John, chapter 16: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” However, God the Holy Spirit does not always work within the individual alone. What I mean by that is that there may be an individual reading his Bible (like the Ethiopian), but he may lack understanding. I think the Ethiopian was one of the elect and, yet, he lacked understanding of what he was reading and the Holy Spirit guided him into greater understanding, but not by giving him instant knowledge as he read all by himself, but the Holy Spirit directed Philip, another child of God, to help him. Philip understood more than this Ethiopian because he had spent some time with Jesus and the Holy Spirit used Philip to instruct the Ethiopian eunuch about what he was reading. This is often how the Holy Spirit guides people into truth. The Lord Jesus multiplied the bread and fed the multitude, but He first broke the bread and gave it to His disciples and then He gave the disciples to the multitude. That is the process that God determined to use.

I will put this in familiar terms. God gave understanding to a man like Mr. Camping and God gave him a platform and an audience in the world, but God had to first open his understanding and then Mr. Camping turned around and gave the “bread” to all those he reached. Then the listeners of the Open Forum or the Family Radio Bible studies could listen to Mr. Camping as he shared what he had been shown by God and the Holy Spirit worked to guide the listeners into truth as God uses His people to teach.

Of course, today we have people that do not want any human teachers. They have a complete misunderstanding of how God has worked throughout time in Biblical history and this is a good example of how God guided the eunuch into truth through the use of a man like Philip to teach him something about a portion of the Bible. There may have been other people that God used to teach the Ethiopian eunuch about other Scriptures, but God the Holy Spirit is the consistent force behind it all and He instructs His people into matters of truth.