1. Lesson One of the Book of Daniel, Introduction to the Book of Daniel

Geo means the earth, graphy meaning form so geography means the form of the earth.

Geography is the science dealing with the area differentiation of the earth’s surface, as a shown in the character, arrangements, and interations of such elements as climate, elevation, vegetation, population, and land use.

History is inseparably bound by and subject to the limitations of geography. 

Geography is an impelling force that both initiates and limits the nature and extent of political history, what we might call geopolitics.

Factors of geography dictate where and how geopolitics will occur. 

Ancient civilizations emerged on the banks of rivers. 

Ancient Egypt owed its existence to the Nile, Mesopotamia drew its life sustenance from the Euphrates, Habur, and beginning with the Seleucid period, the Tigris.

The Indus valley civilization was located along the river by the same name, the Hittite empire rested astride the Halys. 

Old Indian culture sprang to life in the Brahmaputra and Ganges valleys. 

Ancient China had its Hwang-Ho and Yangtze. 

And European culture emerged on the banks of the Tiber, Danube, Rhine, and Meuse.

Even in our own history virtually all major commercial and industrial cities have outlets to rivers, oceans, or the Great Lakes network. 

Other factors of geography that dictate human activity are earthquake or volcano prone areas. 

Vast areas of the earth have been so deformed by lava flow and surface deformation, deserts, or other inhospitable things as to make human habitation impossible.

Mountains, deserts, caves and oceans always have their say concerning the location or nature of history. 

The Andes mountains have kept much of South America from becoming a blazing desert. 

The Assyrain, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman empires were all bordered in part by impassable mountain barriers or unnavigable desert wastelands.

The peoples of the northern and the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea struggled for political and cultural superiority in the centuries of early history.

But once that barrier was broken by Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama, the rule by those of the Mediterranean was broken and history moved westward.

Where God has place his resources is also a determining factor of civilization. 

Tin came from Iran, Cedars from Lebanon, Silver from Assyria, Copper from Anatolia, and gold and ivory from Spain. 

Today God’s resources of oil play a big part in history and were kept in store until God allowed them to be needed.

So our God given geography actually establishes the boundaries within which history must operate. 

Or at least it establishes many of the needs that must be met in order to populate the environment. 

Are the right animals available to provide the skins to protect against the cold? 

Will the area provide for grazing animals? 

The God given barriers on man’s activity that has been provided by geography have been and are being broken down by man’s development of technology. 

Technology looses man from God’s direction and when that happens the distance away from God’s will grows greater. 

Deserts can bloom by irrigation. 

Oppressive heat can be endured by air conditioning. 

Rivers are tamed by vast hydro-electric dams. 

Distances are erased by air travel. 

Mountain barriers are no longer barriers when man’s power equipment moves mountains not by faith but by might.

So today we do not have the sensitivity to the effects of geography as the peoples of Bible days did. 

In those days geographic limitations were well defined and limited all activities on all areas of life.

We can go anywhere we can afford and at any time we wish. 

We can have all manner of foods at most any time, we can wear any kind of clothing we wish, or have any temperature, hot or cold, in our houses.   

We even know what weather to prepare for, we know when and where a hurricane will strike or when rain is expected or not expected. 

Most geographic limitations have been eliminated or minimized in our time. 

So we may study the Bible with a different mind set. 

We live in a different millennium and on a different continent. 

When we interpret and apply the scriptures we must as much as possible recognize the environment in which the activities recorded in the Bible took place. 

So geography cannot be divorced from Biblical interpretation.

Israel is a definable geographic domain in which even the soil is divinely consecrated and is why it is called the holy “land”. 

The land is contained in covenantal promises and prophesy. 

Much of Old Testament faith was concerned with events that occurred in this world.  

The arena in which God acted was the land. 

The call and the covenant to Abraham concerned the land. 

He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt into the land. 

He brought them back to the land from Babylonian captivity and He will bring them back to the land at the beginning of his millennium kingdom.

There is a bond between God and the children of Israel in which the land is central.

Israel’s identity, security, and prosperity were all the direct results of being in the land.

And for a Jew to be out of the land brings a sense that faith had become meaningless. 

Being out of the land is being out of God’s will. 

In the mind of the Jew landlessness equates with hopelessness.

All God’s acts took place in the land. 
 

God displayed his mighty acts and all his promise were to take place in the land.

So in order to understand the scriptures and God’s dealing with his chosen people, who were people of the land, we must have a knowledge of the geographical realities of Israel and its surroundings. 

What does it mean when we read of the:

former and latter rains,

the strong east wind,

the scorching effect of Israel’s hot sun,

the importance of dew for crop survival,

the implications of no rainfall,

the concentration of Fertility Worship in the land of promise,

the nature of Egyptian, Canaanite, and Mesopotamian deities,

the character of extra Biblical creation myths,

the migrations of Abraham, Moses, and Nehemiah

the close correlation between the terrain Joshua’s forces could conquer but over which the Philistines could not run chariots,

the astounding success of David in eluding Saul’s manhunt,

the ministry of John the Baptist,

the motivation behind Jesus move from Nazareth to Capernaum

and the staggering distances undertaken by the Apostle Paul.

Knowledge of the Geography of the region is a must if we are to accurately understand the scriptures.  

One example concerns the direction that we know of as north.  

The scripture refers to the army of the north, or the enemy of the north. 

We would think of this as a nation north of Israel. 

But at times the Bible identifies such armies of the north as Assyrians, Babylonians, or even Persians. 

These are peoples that lie to the northeast or even due east. 

But this seeming disparity is explained by geography. 

There are physical barriers that prevented an enemy from coming from any direction but the north, mountain ranges, rivers, and deserts.

Accordingly, the Bible’s use of the expression “north” denotes the direction from which a foe would normally approach, and not the location of its homeland.