An Exposition of Daniel

Introduction

1.1-21

Daniel is a book of prophecy, so it is appropriate to begin our study with a consideration of what prophecy is. The word itself, in its verb form, means “to speak before,” and the word “before” can be either temporal or spatial. If taken temporally, it refers to the predictive element of prophecy, the telling of events before they take place. Spatially understood, the word means simply to speak before people, that is, in front of them. In this case, the prophecy may or may not be predictive, but is the declaring of the word of God for that moment. It is not just that what is said is the word of God, but that it is the word that God wants spoken to those people at that moment. The prophet is not just speaking the word of God, but he is doing so under divine anointing.

The book of Daniel partakes of both these elements of prophecy. The predictive is obvious, but the book is full of the living word of God applicable to any people at any time the Lord chooses to use it prophetically again.

Why did God give the predictive element of prophecy? We live in a day, as has always been the case, when people are curious about the future. Many live in fear or uncertainty and want to know what will happen so that they can either breathe a sigh of relief because it is good or try to prepare to head off what is bad. That is why the occult is so popular. Many go to palm readers or astrologers and consult horoscopes or Ouija boards or the like to try to fathom the future. The problem with these methods is that they are not just harmless wastes of time and perhaps money, but they involve contacts with evil spirits. The occult is real. Those who delve into it open themselves to influence and possession by demons.

Did God give prophecy to satisfy the desire of man to know the future, to cater to curiosity? No, he did not. If he had done so, he would have given a more complete picture. As it is, there are still many unanswered questions. We have a general idea of the course of history at the end, and are given some details, but no one is able to construct an exact timetable or detail everything that will take place. Anyone who says he can is deceiving himself and others.

The reason God gave the predictive element of prophecy is twofold. First, it was for our encouragement. Life is often hard, disappointing, and discouraging. If we did not believe it would be worth it all in the end, perhaps we would not be able to go on with the Lord. Sometimes it just does not seem worth the trouble, but “seem” is the key word. God says it is worth the trouble, and declares what will take place at the end to encourage us to go on when the trials are most difficult. The Lord will prevail, and those who are faithful to him now will prevail with him. That is encouraging.

The second reason God reveals things to us through prediction, is shown by two verses in the New Testament. One is 2 Pt. 3.11, which reads, “All these things being thus destroyed, what kinds of persons is it necessary for you to be…?” The world as we know it is doomed. If that is true, and if it is true that God will establish a kingdom of righteousness in which people will dwell while those who reject him will suffer eternally, what kind of people must we be? That is why God predicts, to cause us to ask that question. To put it in old-fashioned terms, it is to cause us to get right with him.

The second verse is 1 Jn. 3.3. Having just told us that when Christ will be revealed we will be like him, John says, “And everyone having this hope in him [Jesus] purifies himself just as he is pure.” If we really believe what prophecy predicts, we will purify ourselves so as to be ready for what is going to take place. Christ is going to prevail over Satan and rule the universe forever. Does it not make sense to take his side? That is the real purpose of prophecy, not to satisfy our curiosity, but to cause us to be ready to go at death or to be ready for the events of the end of this age if we are alive then.

When we turn to the book of Daniel, let us keep these thoughts in mind. Let us not study it simply to satisfy our curiosity about the future. That is idle and evil and God is not interested in it. Rather let us allow the prophecies of Daniel to encourage us to go on to the end with the Lord, no matter how hot our fiery furnaces or how ravenous our dens of lions may be. Let us ask ourselves in the light of Daniel what kind of people we must be, and purify ourselves so as to be ready for the coming of the one seen by Daniel in a vision, the one like a son of man.

Daniel is actually a dual book. It is prophetic, predicting the future and declaring the word of God. The prophecies of Daniel are concerned with the course of human history from his lifetime on to the end, and they interpret history as a conflict between the kingdom of God and the rule of Satan in the world. The word “Daniel” means “God is my judge,” and that meaning is significant in the content of the book. It was no accident that God chose a man named Daniel to have these experiences and write this book. In this history-long conflict between the kingdom of God and the rule of Satan, God has already judged. He has decided that the Lord Jesus will be King of kings and Lord of lords. There is judgment to come to the kingdoms of this world because they are under the control of Satan.

The judgment of God is also positive. The judgment on Satan and the nations is negative, but the purpose of judgment is to render justice. Judgment is negative only for the guilty. For the offended party it is positive. The offended party is declared to be right and is compensated, or if a person who is not guilty is tried, he is found not guilty, acquitted, and released. That is what will take place in the end. Though evil nations rule the world now, and those who follow the world are persecuted, in the end justice will be rendered. The persecutors will be judged and the persecuted will be vindicated. God has already made these decisions. It is only a matter of time, and that is what the book of Daniel shows. “God is my judge,” and the judge of all, the guilty and the innocent.

The second element of the dual nature of Daniel has to do with the character of a person of God. The man Daniel answered the question, “What kind of people must you be?” He purified himself. Thus he is an example of what kind of people we must be. All through the book we see not just predictions of the future, but examples of what kind of people we must be, both positive and negative. We see godly character in Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (better known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego) in chapters 1, 3, 6, and 9. We see godless character, the kind of people we must not be, in Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar in chapters 4 and 5, and in the officials who tried to have Daniel killed in a den of lions in chapter 6.

The book of Daniel deals with both aspects of prophecy, the predictive element and the declaration of the word of God. It tells the future, but it also asks what kind of people we must be and challenges us to purify ourselves, even as Daniel and his friends did. We said that we should study Daniel more for encouragement and challenge than for satisfaction of curiosity about the future. The man Daniel and his three friends encourage us by their experiences and challenge us by their example.

Daniel, of course, prophesied during the Babylonian exile of the Jews. After the reigns of David and Solomon, Israel started turning away from God to idolatry and injustice. The kingdom split into two nations with Solomon’s successor, the northern tribes keeping the name Israel and the southern, taking the name Judah from its dominant tribe. Judah continued to be ruled by the house of David and maintained some faithfulness to God, but Israel broke the command of God by having rulers from tribes other than Judah, the royal tribe, and by having priests from tribes other than Levi, the priestly tribe. These rulers and priests led Israel into gross idolatry. Their kings married foreign women, Jezebel for example, who brought their pagan worship among the people of God. While Judah did not entirely abandon God, idolatry did come alongside the worship of God, and injustice took hold as well.

With such conditions, God raised up prophets who exposed the evil, urged a turning back to God, and predicted judgment if this did not occur. Elijah and Elisha were such prophets, as were Isaiah and Jeremiah and most of what we call the Minor Prophets (minor because their books were short, not because they were not important). Their predictions of judgment finally came true with the carrying off of Israel into exile in the eighth century B.C. by Assyria, and of Judah by Babylon in the seventh and sixth centuries. The tribes that made up Israel more or less disappeared, but Judah and Benjamin, and some of the Levites, who made up the nation of Judah, managed to maintain their identity in Babylon. It was during the exile of these people of the nation of Judah that Daniel prophesied.

There was another exilic prophet, Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s prophecies concern the judgment of Judah and her restoration, and thus he lived and worked among the Jews. Daniel’s prophecies, though, concern the course of history under the Gentile world powers. His book has to do with the beginning of what the Lord Jesus called in Lk. 21.24 “the times of the Gentiles.”

What is meant by “the times of the Gentiles”? God chose Israel to be his people, with the intention that they would be faithful to him and would be a light to the nations, bringing the world to God. They were to be the greatest among the nations. God promised Israel in Dt. 28.1, “And it will come to pass if you listen diligently to the voice of I AM your God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that I AM your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth.” Again in v. 13 he promised, “And I AM will make you the head and not the tail, and you will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of I AM your God which I command you this day, to observe and to do them.”

God also warned her in Dt. 28.44 that if she was disobedient, “He will be the head and you will be the tail.” The latter, of course, is what took place. Israel was not faithful to God, so he finally rejected her from being the head of the nations and turned the rulership of the world over to the Gentiles to chasten and purify his people. Thus, ever since the Babylonians conquered the city of Jerusalem, the world has been living in the times of the Gentiles, under Gentile domination of the world. This is what the Lord Jesus was referring to in Lk, 21.24 when he said that Jerusalem would be trodden underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

The treading on Jerusalem began with Babylon and continued with the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, and their successors, and the Romans. In A.D 70, during a Jewish rebellion, Rome destroyed the temple, and there has not been one since. In A.D. 135, in another rebellion, Rome had had enough of the unruly Jews. They destroyed the city of Jerusalem, deported the Jews, and made it illegal for a Jew to live in the land of Canaan. Ever since, the Jews have been scattered all over the world, and persecuted as well. Jerusalem continued to be trodden underfoot, eventually falling under the sway of that abomination to God, Islam. Indeed, at this moment a Moslem mosque stands on the spot where the Jewish temple once stood, the place where God himself has chosen for his dwelling on earth. In one of the most exciting developments in history, in our day the Jews have returned to their land and retaken Jerusalem. It is no longer trodden underfoot by the Gentiles. Have the times of the Gentiles ended? Can the return of the Messiah be far off? Not just yet. There will be a final trampling of Jerusalem, as seen in Zech. 14.2.

Because his prophecies were concerned with the times of the Gentiles, with the course of Gentile world rule, under the influence of Satan, of course, Daniel did not live among the Jews, but at the court. His work was done among the Gentile rulers. Indeed, the first prophecy in the book was not seen by Daniel, but was revealed to the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar in a dream. Thus God gave Ezekiel, among others, to reveal the future course of God’s dealings with Israel, and Daniel to show the course of history under the Gentiles. The two together give us a complete prophetic picture.

As we turn now to the book of Daniel itself, may the Lord himself indeed encourage us to be faithful to him to the end and challenge us to purify ourselves as he is pure.

The first chapter of Daniel serves as an introduction to the book, setting the stage for what follows. It tells us how Daniel came to be in Babylon and how he came to be involved with the affairs of court.

Josiah was the last king of Judah under which the nation had any sort of independence. He was killed in battle with Egypt, at which time Judah came more or less under the control of Egypt. Josiah’s son Jehoahaz succeeded him at the age of twenty-three, but he reigned only three months before Pharaoh removed him from the throne, took him to Egypt where he died, and replaced him with his brother Eliakim, changing his name to Jehoiakim. Then Pharaoh himself was killed in the battle of Carchemish with Babylon, when Egyptian power was broken and domination of the area passed into the hands of Babylon.

It was during the reign of Jehoiakim that Nebuchadnezzar, not yet king, but the son of the king, first came against Jerusalem. He did not destroy the city, but the nation of Judah became a tributary state of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar took some of the vessels of the temple back to Babylon and placed them in the house of his god, and ordered his chief official Ashpenaz to take some of the best young men of Judah to Babylon to be trained for the king’s service. Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Meshael, and Azariah, were among these exiles.

The taking of the vessels from the temple to the house of the god of Babylon had great symbolic significance. Nations of that time were all religious, and their belief was that victory in battle demonstrated the superiority of their gods to those of the conquered people. Thus the triumph of Babylon over Judah showed that the gods of Babylon were stronger than the God of Israel, so they thought. The taking of the vessels was the evidence. Were they not proof that the God of Israel had been unable to keep them in his house?

In addition to this taking of vessels from the house of the defeated God, there was the changing of the names of the captives. The four Hebrews who appear in this book all had names significant for their spiritual meaning. Daniel, as we have seen, means “God is my judge.” Hananiah means “I AM is gracious.” Mishael means “Who is what God is?” Azariah means “I AM has helped.” Daniel was given the name Belteshazzar. The meaning of this name is unknown, but Bel was the chief Babylonian god. The name that identified Daniel with his God was changed to one that claimed power over him by Bel. The meanings of Shadrach and Meshach are also unknown, but Abed-nego means “slave of Nego” (or Nebo), another Babylonian god. It is obvious that the names given to these four were evidence of the superiority of the gods of Babylon, Had they not triumphed over the God of Judah, thus gaining the right to his subjects?

Against this background we see the story of Daniel emerging. The character of this godly man comes out. We say man, but Daniel must have been a young man indeed. He was still living when Cyrus ruled seventy years later, so he must have been a youth of perhaps fourteen or fifteen when he was taken to Babylon. Whatever his age, he was devoted to his God, and Dan. 1.8 tells us that he set his heart not to defile himself in Babylon. The young men of Judah who were to be trained to serve the king were to be fed from his table. The problem was not so much that the food might break Jewish dietary laws, though that was probably a factor, but that a symbolic portion of each day’s food was offered to the gods, indicating that all was given to him. Thus to eat of it was to eat of food offered to pagan gods. This Daniel was unwilling to do, for he had set his heart on God.

This matter of the heart is vital, for from it flow the springs of life (Prov. 4.23), and this devotion of the heart to God is the foundation of the godly character of Daniel. As young as he must have been, God was already giving him wisdom, for he devised a plan to avoid eating the king’s food. Daniel’s supervisor was afraid not to give him the king’s food, for that was the command, but Daniel asked for a ten-day trial on vegetables and water, agreeing to abide by his master’s decision at the end of that time.

In addition to blessing Daniel with wisdom, God also blessed him with good health as a result of his commitment. At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his friends looked healthier than all those who had been easting the king’s food, so they were allowed to continue eating vegetables and water.

In addition, God enabled them to do well in their studies, and went beyond helping them to master what they were taught by giving Daniel understanding of dreams and visions.

At the end of their three years of training, the youths appeared before the king himself. Nebuchadnezzar talked with them and found none to compare with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They entered his service and were found to be superior even to the experienced wise men of Babylon. The last verse of the first chapter tells us that Daniel continued in this position until the reign of the Persian Cyrus seventy years later.

The blessing of God on Daniel and the three was immediate and material. Because of their commitment of their heart to him and their willingness to risk even their lives to carry out that devotion, they were given favor with their superiors, health, wisdom, and even miraculous insight. Later in the book they are delivered from certain death. This is a lesson for us, yet we cannot take it the same way. They lived under the law of God when God had promised that obedience to him would bring material blessing. That is exactly what took place in the case of these four. We live under grace. Our blessings are spiritual. God has not promised that we will be physically healthy, materially prosperous, or always victorious over our enemies outwardly, though he has promised to meet our needs (Phil. 4.19). Many have died for the Lord. Nonetheless, we have God’s assurance that if we, like Daniel, set our hearts on him and determine not to be defiled in this world, this Babylon, in which we live, we will be blessed. We will have spiritual favor, health, wisdom, and deliverance. That answers the question, What kind of people must we be? We must have hearts set on God, no matter what the cost in this world. If we do our blessings are sure and eternal.

We began our thoughts on this chapter of Daniel by noting the superiority of the gods of Babylon over the God of Judah. That was only the outward appearance. It was God who was behind the victory of Babylon. He was using them to chastise his sinful people, and would judge them in turn. The rise of Daniel and the others to the top demonstrates the superiority of the God of Judah, for it was he who put them in that position. God is not so concerned with temple vessels and names as he is with hearts. There were many Jews still living in Jerusalem whose hearts were far from God, and they did not know his blessing. Indeed, in only a few years they, too, were killed, carried off to Babylon, or left destitute in a destroyed land when the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar came down on them for their rebelliousness. But Daniel and the three, though at the heart of paganism, were devoted to their God and knew blessing. God has indeed been judge, not only between his King and the kings of the world, but between those whose hearts are his and whose character reveals it and those whose hearts are not his whose character reveals that.

Thus the stage is set. There is a godly man in service in the court of the first king of the times of the Gentiles. He will soon rise to high position because of his ability to interpret the prophetic dream of that king, from which place he will continue for many years to serve his God faithfully and to be the instrument of prophetic revelation. Let us now turn to the first predictive prophecy in the book of Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream 

2.1-49

The second chapter of Daniel begins with the statement that Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, had dreams, and that his spirit was troubled so that his sleep left him. Virtually all people of that day were religious and believed in a spirit world. Great store was set by dreams and the like, and the king’s dreams were such that they troubled him greatly. He did not know their meaning, but he did know they were meaningful. Before getting into the nature of his dreams, Daniel tells us the king’s reaction to his situation. He gave orders that his men learned in sacred and magical literature, his conjurers, his magicians, his priests, and his astrologers, be brought to him.

Babylon was the home of these magical and occult arts. The Babylonians were among the developers of ancient astronomy and astrology. Their observations of the stars and other heavenly bodies resulted in remarkable accuracy in astronomic calculations and even predictions. In addition to the science of astronomy, they originated the astrology that is still followed by so many to this day.

With this kind of both scientific and occult learning so highly developed, King Nebuchadnezzar had a multitude of wise men available to interpret his dreams for him. But his requirement of them had an unusual twist in this case. Instead of telling them his dream and hearing their interpretation, he demanded that they tell him both the dream and the interpretation. This fact has caused many students of the book of Daniel to think that the king had forgotten his dream. Others think that he did not trust his wise men and wanted to put their ability to interpret to the test: if they could tell the dream, their interpretation would be reliable. If not, they could be trusted only to make up an interpretation. The book of Daniel itself does not tell us which reason for his demand is correct, or if either was, and speculation is of little value. Whatever his reason, this was the situation.

Of course, the wise men could not tell the dream, so they politely told the king to tell them the dream and they would interpret it. He then politely replied to them that his command was firm: if they did not tell him the dream and its meaning, they would be torn limb from limb and their houses made a rubbish heap. If they met his requirement, they would be well rewarded.

Again they asked the king to tell them the dream, and again he made his demand clear, this time expressing his distrust of them. When the wise men responded by declaring that no other king had made such a demand and that it was impossible to meet, except by gods whose dwelling is not with flesh, this reply brought out the king’s fury, and he gave the order that all the wise men of Babylon be killed. Daniel and his three friends were among the wise men.

When Daniel heard what was taking place, he went to the king and asked for time to interpret the dream. His request was granted and Daniel went to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah and called on them to pray with him that God might reveal the mystery to him. As a result God did so, and Daniel, after praising God, sent word that he knew the dream and its meaning. He was taken into the king’s presence, where he declared that it was God who had revealed the matter, and proceeded to declare to Nebuchadnezzar the dream and its interpretation. When he had heard the words of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar, the mightiest king in the world, fell on his face before one of his slaves and gave honor to the God of Daniel. He made Daniel ruler over the province of Babylon and chief prefect of the wise men.

That is the story of Daniel 2. Let us now examine the king’s dream and its interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream a great statue with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron and clay. While the king looked on this statue, a stone was cut without hands and it struck the statue on its feet, crushing them. Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were crushed, became like chaff, and were blown away by the wind. The stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that four empires would rule the earth during the rest of human history. The rule of these empires was the times of the Gentiles we considered in the first chapter. “You are the head of gold,” Daniel said to the king, indicating that his was the first of the empires. After him came a second, the Medo-Persian, as we learn from Dan. 5.31 and 8.20, and then a third, the Greek, as Dan. 8.21 says. The fourth empire is not named, a fact of significance that we will see presently. There is hardly any question, though, that the fourth empire was Rome in that ancient day, as other biblical passages, such as the gospel stories, and secular history indicate. This fourth empire would exist in the last days of human history, and would be the one directly destroyed by the stone, though it would include the other three, as Dan. 2.35 makes clear.

We know from secular history that the Roman Empire of ancient days came to an end. Thus the question naturally arises as to the meaning of the prophecy that it would rule in the last days. Many interpreters believe that the land area, or some of it, of the old Roman Empire will be included in some sort of new empire headquartered in Rome. Because of the rise of the European Economic Community in our day, many see it as the beginnings of the revival of the Roman Empire. A problem with that view is that the dream clearly indicates that the ten toes of the feet of the statue are ten kings (Dan. 2.42-43), and there are currently more than ten nations in the community, with others waiting to join. Only the future will tell us if these nations will indeed make up a revived Roman Empire.

Another problem with this view is that it centers on Europe, while the ancient Roman Empire ran from Scotland thorough England, France, and Spain, and all the way around the Mediterranean Sea back to the Atlantic coast of what is now Morocco. Most of the rest of Europe was never in the Empire. It was really more Mediterranean than European.

Other students of prophecy believe that the revived Roman Empire will not be in Europe at all, but in the Middle East, with its center back in Babylon or another city of the area. The obvious problem with this view is that such an empire would not be Roman unless there were some link with Rome. Some see that link in Roman Catholicism, which they think will be allied with the world-ruling state of that day. Rev. 17-18 might lend credence to this view.

Whatever the correct understanding of the coming empire, and we will suggest a possibility a bit later, the dream prophesies that it will be destroyed by a stone cut without hands. There can be no doubt that the stone is the Lord Jesus Christ at his second coming. Some have tried to say that it pictures the Lord Jesus at his first coming, and that its growth into a mountain that fills the earth is prophetic of the gradual emerging of the world into the kingdom of God through the preaching of the good news and the subsequent enlightenment of man. This view was based on the Darwinian evolutionary theory of the nineteenth century. The idea that nature had evolved was applied to morality and religion as well, with the result that some thought that the kingdom of God would come by evolution. Men would just gradually get better until they became perfect.

But there was no crushing of the kingdoms of the world by Christ at his first coming. Indeed, just the opposite took place. The world empire of his day, Rome, crushed him. And there has certainly been no gradual evolution of the morals of man. However optimistic the thinkers of the nineteenth century were, two world wars and their subsequent history in the twentieth century have thoroughly discredited that view. That has continued in the present century and we are living now in days of great evil.

No, the crushing by the stone comes at the return of Christ to destroy the armies of the world gathered against Israel and to take the rulership of the earth with a kingdom that will fill the earth and never be destroyed, a kingdom that will last forever.

What are we to make of this story? In the first place it shows the sovereignty of God in the circumstances of Daniel. We saw in the first chapter that the fact that Babylon had conquered Judah and taken some of the vessels of the temple of God to the treasury of the pagan god was evidence that the gods of Babylon were stronger than the God of Judah. This story, though, shows that just the opposite was the case. It was God who gave the dream to Nebuchadnezzar. It was God who gave Daniel knowledge of the dream and its interpretation. He was the only God who could do such a thing. If he could do this thing, it was plain that he was using Babylon to discipline his sinful people and was fully in control of the exile. It was God who made Nebuchadnezzar the head of gold, and it was God who judged Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome in turn. All of them fell, and the Jews occupy the promised land today. God is sovereign.

Nebuchadnezzar did not become a monotheist as a result of Daniel’s relating and interpreting of his dream, but he did acknowledge the greatness of the God of Judah.

We also see in this incident an example of God turning the tables on Satan. Who was behind Nebuchadnezzar’s determination to kill his wise men if they could not tell him the dream? Satan. He knew that Daniel and his friends would be killed along with the rest of the wise men of Babylon, and thus he incited this pagan king to make an impossible demand on them and then kill them. It was no problem to destroy his own wise men in order to remove four men of God. He could raise up many substitutes.

But God used this situation to achieve his own purposes. The demand of the king was impossible for men, but not for God. He revealed the dream to Daniel, a man whose heart was set on the Lord and who had not defiled himself, and he revealed the interpretation. Because of this, instead of being executed Daniel was exalted to a high position, one which he held for over sixty years, and he was able to secure good positions for Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, too. One of the great truths we can learn for our own benefit today is that Satan is only a tool in the hands of God for those who trust in him. Whatever Satan may try to do to us, if we set our hearts on the Lord, he will use Satan’s devices for our good. This incident in the life of David is a living illustration of this truth.

The third fact we should note is that the statue was one, “a single great statue,” as Dan. 2.31 says. That is, there was only one world power, though it was expressed through different empires, and indeed it has been expressed through a multitude of lesser nations throughout history. That one world power is Satan’s. The whole world lies in him (1 Jn. 5.19). He is the ruler of this world (Jn. 12.31) and the god of this age (2 Cor. 4.4). Kings in their pride may think they rule, but in fact they are only expressing the rule of Satan. The statue pictures Gentile world rule from the time of Jerusalem’s fall to the second coming of Christ. That rule is nothing other than the rule of Satan. Let me say, though, that God is Sovereign over all and Satan cannot operate outside of his boundaries.

Then we should consider the foundation of the statue. Though its head was of gold, and it consisted of sliver, bronze, and iron as well, its foundation was of iron mixed with clay. That is, the foundation was weak and would not support the statue, however great it was. The statue will ultimately fall, unable to withstand the blow it is to receive from the Stone.

We live in the days of iron mixed with clay. There is great military might, the iron, but the institutions of society are weak as clay. The underlying reason for this weakness, of course, is the sin of man in rejecting God and relying on his own intelligence and ability. One of the outward expressions of that fundamental reason is the nature of governments. The head of the statue was gold, and the preciousness of the metals declined as one empire succeeded another, from silver to bronze to iron, and finally to clay, not a metal at all. The point seems to be that there is a decline in the authority of government. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the first empire, was an absolute monarch. His word was law and he was answerable to no one. Indeed, Dan. 5.19 tells us that “whom he would he killed and whom he would he kept alive.”

The rulers of Medo-Persia, while strong, had to answer to a noble class and were bound by laws. When King Darius was tricked by Daniel’s jealous rivals into decreeing that anyone who prayed to any other god or man other than Darius himself for a period of thirty days should be thrown to the lions, Darius was unable to reverse the ruling, but was bound by “according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be altered” (Dan. 6.12). There was a lessening of governmental authority from Babylon to Medo-Persia.

The decline continued with Greece. Alexander the Great had a much larger empire than either Babylon or Medo-Persia, but he was really a military commander dependent on the generals under him. In fact, when he had led his army in victory all the way into India and wanted to go on, it was his soldiers who refused to go any further, wishing rather to turn toward home. His authority was great, but not so great as that of the Medo-Persian kings.

Rome had the least authority of all in the beginning, and in theory, for though Rome was of unrivaled military strength, the government at first was supposed to be a popular one, a republic, and had a senate of the people. Though dictatorship eventually emerged, there was always the element of dependence on the will of the governed, at least some of them. 

Thus the decline in preciousness of the metals is not a matter of territory, for the empires of Medo-Persia and Greece were each larger than the one before, or of military strength, for that seemed to grow with time, but of governmental authority. The decline was from absolute authority toward democracy.

That is the meaning of the feet of clay. Democracy appears to all in this world to be the best form of government, and under the world’s circumstances it probably is, but it is not ideally the best form and it will not ultimately work. The masses cannot rule themselves. They are ignorant of affairs of state, are untrained to govern, and are themselves guided by emotion and self-interest rather than reason. Many examples could be cited of popular majorities demanding of their governments what they wanted rather than what was best in the situation.

In addition, man has the inherent tendency of sin to abuse freedom. Where there is democracy, there is decline in the institutions of society because man becomes undisciplined and uses freedom as a license to do whatever he pleases. The growth of crime in modern-day western democracies, and not just violent crime in the streets, but so-called white-collar crime and crimes of greed in high places, are sufficient testimony to the truth of this statement. All of the institutions of western democracy in our day are crumbling: the educational, judicial, legislative, environmental, economic, marital. The drug problem is eating away at the very foundations of society. We cannot even dispose of our garbage!

The move toward democracy in our day is growing. The aspirations for freedom in China were headline news in 1989, though that was brutally put down. It was with mouths hanging open that the western world witnessed the failure of communism in the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent, and consequent, freeing of the nations of eastern Europe. Everywhere governments are failing to solve society’s problems and people are demanding greater freedom. Our own country is bitterly divided into warring camps for political power.

One of the great writers on prophecy of more than a hundred years ago made a most remarkable statement in dealing with this matter. G.H. Pember thought that God’s judgment on man was delayed because man could use government authority as an excuse. Men could say that what they did was not really their fault, for they were controlled by authoritarian governments. But with each succeeding empire that authority, and with it the excuse of man, has declined. Pember believed that a time would come when the masses would rule, governments doing only what the masses demanded, and then the corruption of society could not be blamed on the government. It would be the fault of the majority, and God’s judgment would come. It is not for us to say whether or not this is a true assessment, for only time will tell, but it is remarkable in light of what is going on in our day, especially when we remember that Pember wrote over a hundred years ago.

We said above that we would offer a suggestion as to the correct understanding of the revived Roman Empire. We do not believe it wise as to the geographical location. Some of the great students of prophecy have disagreed on this matter, and have even been led by events of their own times into speculating based on those events, only to be proved wrong. Events of our day certainly lend themselves to speculation, but we will resist the temptation. Rather, let us say that whatever the geographical location of the revived empire, the correspondence between the ancient and modern empires seems to be in this matter of the iron mixed with clay. We said above that the fourth empire was never named in Daniel, though the other three were, and that this fact had significance. The significance is that the correspondence is not that the ancient and modern empires are Roman, but they are characterized by iron mixed with clay, great military strength mixed with weak institutions of society. Order was maintained in the autocratic societies of Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece, but ancient Rome’s fall came not because of outward conquest, but because order was not maintained internally. Corruption became rampant. The demand of free entertainment, satisfied by the bloody gladiatorial combats and contests between criminals and lions, fed the malaise of society. Rome decayed from within and was an easy mark for the barbarian hordes that kept nipping at the edges of the empire until they finally entered Rome itself. The iron of military power was undermined by the clay of society.

That is exactly the case today. The world has never known greater military power than it does today. The arsenals of the nations are fearful to consider. Yet society is crumbling. There is little morality, sometimes little willingness to work and sacrifice, widespread lack of responsibility for oneself. Many demand that the government provide for them, but that is an impossibility. Governments produce no wealth, but can only take it from those who do. Governments are in an impossible situation, desperately scrambling to meet demands that cannot be met.

In such circumstances, the times are ripe for a dictator who can bring order and satisfy the demands of the masses. Thus it is quite conceivable that a new empire will arise that will correspond with the ancient Romans Empire, not in being Roman, though it could be, but in being characterized by iron mixed with clay.

We said that democracy is not the best form of government. What is? Absolute dictatorship. The problems of society are so complex and the competing interests so opposed to one another that the best form of government is for one wise person to decide what is best and do it. The problem is that man is evil in heart, and thus human dictators are invariably wicked. They abuse their power and use it, not for the good of the people, but for their own enrichment. Such a dictator will rise in the final form of the fourth empire. The chaos of society will become such that governmental authority will have to increase to restore order. That dictator will probably be able to solve many of man’s problems, and will therefore be welcomed with open arms, but when he has consolidated his power, he will reveal his true colors as the antichrist. He will be a dictator as evil as any before him, and more so.

There is only one who is qualified to be the absolute dictator of the world, and that one is the Lord Jesus Christ. What is needed is one who is wise enough to know what to do, powerful enough to do it, and good enough not to abuse his power. The Lord Jesus knows everything, loves everyone, and is incorruptible. He is the dictator the world needs, and when Gentile world power has reached its zenith, not only in strength, but in evil, the Stone will be cut out without hands and will crush the feet of the statue, and the rest of it, too. Then it will become a great mountain filling the whole earth. It will become the King of God’s choice for the world, ruling in righteousness for a thousand years in the kingdom of God. 

If all this is true, what kind of people must we be? The second chapter of Daniel not only reveals the course of Gentile world power, but it also shows us the godly character of Daniel. When Daniel heard about Nebuchadnezzar’s demand that his dream be revealed and his command that the failed wise men be killed, his immediate response was confidence in God. He told the king that he would make known the interpretation. Daniel was a man of faith.

Next, he asked his friends to join him in prayer that God would reveal the matter and spare their lives. He prayed himself, but he also believed in corporate prayer, in the exponential increase in power of a body of the Lord’s people praying together (Lev. 26.8). He called on God for the answer. Daniel was a man of prayer.

When God gave the answer, Daniel’s first act was to thank God and to worship him. He did not immediately forget God, as so many of us do when our prayers are answered. He thanked him. He did not see his understanding of the matter as his own wisdom. He knew that it was a revelation from God and he worshiped him. Daniel was a man of thanksgiving and worship.

Finally, when Daniel appeared before the king and was asked if he could indeed declare the dream and its interpretation, he did not take the credit. He made it clear that he could not understand dreams, but that there was a God who could reveal them to men, and he gave God the credit. Daniel was a man of public witness to God.

That is the kind of people we must be in light of what is taking place in the world. We must be like Daniel, people of faith, prayer, individual and corporate, thanksgiving and worship, and public testimony to God. It is important that we know the course of Gentile world power, or God would not have revealed it through Daniel, but it is of greater importance that we be the right kind of people, purifying ourselves as our Lord is pure, looking for and hastening his coming, always watching. God grant us the grace to be such people.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Image

Dan. 3.1-30

We saw in the second chapter of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar was told by the prophet that he was the head of gold of the statue in his dream. That is, he was the greatest of the kings of Gentile world rule. While Nebuchadnezzar was amazed at Daniel’s ability to tell the dream and its meaning and gave the God of Daniel recognition as “the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets,” his pride was nonetheless fed by the likeness to the head of gold, as we see in chapter three which records his making of an image all of gold and his requirement that all his officials bow down and worship it. It seems that this image was in reality almost a self-deification by the king.

The image was a wonder in itself. It was about ninety feet high and nine feet wide and made of gold. What an expression of the wealth of Babylon! Nebuchadnezzar, of course, took it as an expression of his own greatness. The wealth of Babylon was his, and he took it as his due to demand recognition for it.

When the occasion came for the image to be dedicated, the music was played and the officials of the kingdom bowed to it as they were commanded, but there were some who did not. We are not told where Daniel was in this incident, and speculation is of no value, but we are told that certain Chaldeans, among Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men, reported to him that some of the Jews had not bowed down to his image. These men were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, the three friends of Daniel whom he had appointed to high positions over the administration of the province of Babylon.

It appears that the motivation of these Chaldeans was jealousy. They were the natives, so to speak, and here were these exiled, enslaved Jews exalted to a position over them. What better way to gain revenge than to report them for breaking the king’s command, the penalty of which was burning in a fiery furnace?

It is interesting that when Nebuchadnezzar heard the report he flew into a rage. He did not bother to get the facts or hear the other side of the story, but immediately acted in great anger. He ordered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego to be brought before him and demanded that they bow before the image at the sound of the music. If not, they would be thrown into the furnace, “and who is that god that will deliver you out of my hands?” Nebuchadnezzar asked. Instead of quaking with fear and caving in before the mightiest king in the world, these three, fearing a mightier King, told him that there was no need to discuss the matter. Their God, to answer his question, could deliver them, and would do so, but even if he did not, they would not serve his gods or worship his image.

The king was already in a rage. Now, if possible, he became even angrier, so much so that his facial expression changed. He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual. Then he had the three bound and thrown into the furnace, but it was so hot that it killed those who carried them to it and the three fell into the furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar saw a most remarkable thing. He had thrown three men into the fire, but he saw four walking around in it, and one of them looked like a son of the gods.

We do not know exactly what the king meant by this term, “a son of the gods.” He may have meant an angel, as he called him in v. 28. The Bible itself does not make clear who the fourth person was. It may very well have been an angel. Job 1.6 and 2.1 speak of the sons of God appearing before him, and these are generally considered to be angels. Satan is among them, and he was a fallen angel. The word for “God” or “gods” in Hebrews is plural whether it is God, which as stated is plural in Hebrew, or gods, which is also plural, so the king may have meant a son of a god or gods, or a son God. Or it may have been not just a son of the gods, but the Son of God. I think most conservative students of the Bible see him as the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. However it is to be taken, God sent a deliverer. Nebuchadnezzar had asked what god was able to deliver the three from his furnace. Here was his answer: the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

It is to the king’s credit that he recognized reality and bowed to it. Instead of trying other means of killing the three, he called them out of the furnace, recognized their God by calling him the Most High God and saying that “there is no other god who is able to deliver like this,” and caused Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego to prosper in Babylon. At the end of chapter 2, after Daniel’s remarkable revelation of the dream and its interpretation, Nebuchadnezzar had accepted the greatness of the God of the Jews as a revealer of mysteries. Now he calls him the Most High God and declares that he can deliver in a way that no other gods can. This understanding of this God that he has taken captive to his temple is growing.

In addition, we see another example of God turning the tables on Satan. Just as in chapter 2 Satan tried to destroy Daniel and his friends through the king’s demand that the wise men reveal his dream, so now he tried to kill the three through the king’s command to worship his image. In both cases, though, not only did God deliver his servants, but he used the effort of Satan to exalt them. That is a spiritual lesson for us in itself. If we will be faithful to God as these four were and trust him in hard places as they did, he will use Satan’s efforts at our destruction for our good. Even if Satan succeeds in bringing about our death, that will be only with the permission of God and we will be with him in Heaven. What better “good” could we want? We serve a great and mighty God.

There are several truths we may point out as we seek to understand the message of this chapter for us. First, let us note that it does not deal so much with predictive prophecy, as chapter 2 does, as with the kind of people we must be, but there is a prophetic element. We are told in Rev. 13.14-15 that at the very end of the times of the Gentiles, just before the return of Christ, the false prophet of the last Gentile ruler, the antichrist, will set up an image of the antichrist and require all to worship the image under penalty of death. The point is that the correspondence between these acts of Nebuchadnezzar and the antichrist shows that the nature of Gentile world rule does not change, no matter what king or kingdom rules. The end will be like the beginning, for it is all of one nature, and thus the beginning is prophetic of the end.

The matter of the revelation of the matter of Gentile world rule is at the heart of Dan. 3. The first fact we see about this rule is that it is suffused with pride. Nebuchadnezzar, instead of being humbled before the God who revealed his dream and its meaning to him, was made so proud by the thought of himself as the head of gold that he made an image of gold and demanded worship. That is the nature of Satan, and unredeemed man, and of the world, and thus of world rule under man. If an orange is squeezed orange juice comes out, for that is its nature. If the world is squeezed pride comes out, for that is its nature.

How obvious this is in the affairs of nations. No politician will ever admit that he is wrong or has made a mistake. No nation will ever do so. Nations will go to war and slaughter thousands or millions, not only of their young men, but of civilians populations as well, to avoid admitting they were wrong or giving an apology. And it is not just nations. It is difficult for all of us as individuals to admit we are wrong and to give an apology. How embarrassed we are when we have to swallow our pride and admit error. It is our nature.

Pride is one of the most deadly enemies we have. The Bible says that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Prov. 3.34, Ja. 4.6, 1 Pt. 5.5). There is no basis for pride. God is the only one who has never made a mistake or done wrong. He is the only one worthy of worship. We have nothing that was not given to us (Jn. 3.27, 1 Cor. 4.7). How can one be proud of something that was given to him? Yet we are proud anyway! When we take a position of pride, we put ourselves in the place of God, saying that we are worthy, and that is spiritually deadly. How true it is that we need humility.

In addition to pride, but hand-in-hand with it, is the idolatrous nature of nations. Nations tend to deify themselves, and that is nothing more than an outgrowth of pride. There have been many examples down through history, from Egyptian Pharaohs to Roman Caesars to Japanese Emperors, of rulers claiming divinity. Even where nations are more secular, there is a kind of secular religion of the state, a glorifying of the state and a subordinating of all else to it. Gentile world rule is inherently evil, proud, and idolatrous.

In contrast to this nature of the rule of man is the character of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. We have stressed that Daniel deals not only with predictive prophecy, but also with the kind of people we must be in light of prophecy, and we have seen this emphasis in both of the first two chapters of the book. Now here it is again in chapter 3.

Since the world is evil and requires that men give it what is due only to God, with death sometimes the penalty for disobedience, what kind of people must we be? We must be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, preferring death to disobeying God.

That is the attitude that Jesus had. He came to earth as a man only to do the will of his Father. When that will included death, he laid down his life. As he hung on the cross and heard those taunts, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross,” what a temptation it must have been to do so, but he would rather die, and die in shame, than disobey God. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego prefigured that. That is the proper response to prophecy, not curiosity, but the fear of God and devotion to him.

Another realm of thought that Dan. 3 brings up has to do with the relationship between the state and the things of God. It is the proper task of states to keep order, defending their people from external assault and maintaining orderly life within. Paul shows us this fact in 1 Tim. 2.2 when he says that we should pray for those in authority that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives. But states, because of their inherent pride, often go beyond those proper duties, exalting themselves as something glorious and demanding that their citizens do what a Christian cannot do, virtually worshiping the state. We have all heard of “the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome,” and the same kind of thought is not lacking in our day.

The Lord Jesus said, “Give then the things of Caesar to Caesar, and the things of God to God.” What is Caesar’s and what is God’s? A state is due obedience to its laws when they do not require us to disobey God. Only God is due worship and only God is due obedience when the state violates his laws. The Christian is obligated to obey the state so long as it does not require him to disobey God, no matter how wrong the state may be inherently. In the case of taxes, for example, even though the state may use tax money wrongly, as it often does, Christians are nonetheless required to pay their taxes.

When the state does require the Christian to disobey God, then the case of what we call civil disobedience comes up. Is civil disobedience admissible? Of course it is! That is exactly what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego did. But civil disobedience does not mean that one simply does not comply with laws he does not like, and hopes not to get caught. Christian civil disobedience can occur only when obedience to God is required, not just when a Christian does not like a law, and the one who does it is willing to take the consequences. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were standing before a fiery furnace when they disobeyed Nebuchadnezzar. They knew the penalty for obeying God and they were willing to pay it. That is Christian civil disobedience and it has its place.

We are not living in a day and time in the United States when the government requires us to disobey God, but the trends of recent years indicate that it is possible that we are moving in that direction. With the humanistic philosophy taking over all our national institutions, coupled with such realities as the advances in medical science that make possible genetic research, abortion, euthanasia or artificial prolonging of life, and the like, how far are we from government dictating that we do away with the terminally ill or defective fetuses, not just by choice, but by law? It costs great amounts of money to care for the terminally ill. They are a burden on society. Why not just kill them mercifully? The same is true of physically or mentally defective babies. Why not just abort them? That is the kind of thinking that is out there. What is a Christian to do when the law requires her to abort her unborn baby because it is known to be defective? Those kinds of things could happen in the not too distant future in our society. If they do, what kind of people must we be?

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were men who had set their hearts on God and resolved not to defile themselves, men of faith, prayer, thanksgiving, worship, and public testimony to God, and when the choice came, they said that they had to obey God rather than men and were ready to lay down their lives for the Lord. That is the kind of people that we must be in these days of evil Gentile world rule.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream of the Tree

Dan. 4.1-37

A second dream of King Nebuchadnezzar is presented to us in the fourth chapter of Daniel. Vs. 1-3 show us the king’s attitude after the dream and its fulfillment. Then vs 4-36 go back and relate the dream, its fulfillment, and the king’s response. Finally, v. 37 repeats the thoughts of vs. 1-3.

In vs. 1-3 Nebuchadnezzar praises God as the Most High God and recognizes the greatness of his work and the eternity of his kingdom. Vs. 4-36 are the explanation of how he came to that position.

As in chapter 2, the king had a dream that he knew had significance, but that he could not understand. Again he called in his wise men, but they could not tell him the meaning. Then Daniel came in and the king told him the dream. In the dream he saw a tree that became large and strong. “Its leaves were fair, and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all.” The beasts took shade under it, the birds dwelt in it, and everything fed from it. Then a watcher descended from the heavens and gave command to cut down the tree, but to leave the stump, with a band of iron and bronze around it.

Then the figure changes from that of a tree to that of a man, for the watcher says to let him be drenched with dew, let him eat grass, let his mind be changed from a man’s to a beast’s. This judgment was to last for seven times (apparently years) until the subject of the dream recognized “that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will, and sets up over it the lowest of men.”

This was the dream related to Daniel. Daniel was obviously disturbed by it, but Nebuchadnezzar told him not to let the dream or its interpretation alarm him. Then Daniel revealed that the dream was about the king himself. Nebuchadnezzar was the tree. He had become great and indeed was the greatest king on earth. There was majesty in his reign and all his empire fed from his wealth. But there was a problem: the king attributed his glory to himself. Instead of being humbled by his state of blessing, his pride was fed by it. Thus the sentence was passed on him.

He was to be cut down, to lose his kingdom, until he learned that his authority had been given him by God. He would learn this truth, so the sentence was limited to seven years, after which the kingdom, reserved as the stump had been, would be restored to him. The exact nature of his judgment was insanity. Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest and most glorious of all kings, would lose his reason and become like a wild beast, living outdoors, eating grass, not shaving or cutting his hair or nails. At the end of the seven years, he would recognize God as the giver of sovereignty and glory, and would regain his throne.

It took place just as Daniel said. One year after the dream, the king was walking on the roof of his palace. As he looked out over the great city he had built, he congratulated himself for all he had done: “Is this not great Babylon which I have built for a royal house by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” As he was speaking the sentence fell. After he had interpreted the dream, Daniel had exhorted the king to repent of his pride, do righteousness, and show mercy to the poor, thus averting the judgment, but the king had failed to heed the warning. His pride only grew in the year that followed, and the time came for the sentence to be carried out. The great Nebuchadnezzar lost his reason and went out to live as a wild animal for seven years.

Also, as the interpretation by Daniel predicted, after the seven years Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged God and regained his reason and his kingdom: “And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to the heavens, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever…. And the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and brightness returned unto me.”

What are we to make of this remarkable story? The first meaning is obvious. The self-congratulation recorded in Dan. 4.30 is the full flowering of the pride of Nebuchadnezzar seen in chapters 2 and 3. In chapter 2, Daniel had told the king that he was the head of gold, the greatest of Gentile world rulers. This revelation had so enlarged the pride that chapter 3 tells us of an image, not just with a head of gold, but all of gold, and ninety feet high at that, which the king built and required his officials to worship. The Bible does not say that the image was of Nebuchadnezzar himself, but there can be little doubt that the king was requiring worship of himself, or at the very least, a recognition that the greatness of Babylon was his doing.

Now in chapter 4 the king expressly states that it is all his doing. Instead of recognizing that God is the giver of all things, including wealth and power, sovereignty and majesty, he accepted the credit himself. The Lord will not share his glory (Is. 42.8), so judgment fell.

The lesson is twofold. First, it is God who gives rulership to men, and he gives it to whomever he wishes. Dan. 4.26 states plainly that the heavens rule. How important this truth is. God is sovereign over all the affairs of men. Second, there is no room for pride. Pride leads to judgment.

As was the case in chapter 3, this chapter is generally rather than specifically prophetic. It does not prophesy specific events in the future, but does show the judgment on Gentile world rule because of its pride. The first judgment is insanity, and that judgment is even now being carried out. Perhaps the prime example of that truth in our time is the continued hatred of and attack on Israel by the Palestinians and other Muslim people, especially in Gaza. They keep firing rockets into Israel without much success, but the Israelis fight back with much more effect on Gaza. Few Israelis die, but many in Gaza do, and many of them are women and children whom the Palestinians use as shields. They always lose, but they keep doing it. Why do they keep it up? It is insane, is it not? It is the judgment of God on the pride of human rulers. Men will not acknowledge him, so he allows them to do insane things, and they glory in it.

There is no good reason for Arabs and others to hate Jews and to wish to do away with the Jewish state. There is enough land and wealth for everyone. Yet instead of getting on with the business of living, the Muslim leaders waste the energy of their peoples with the insane vendetta against Israel. All of that energy could be channeled into developing a prosperous way of life for all the Palestinians and others. The wealth is there. Israel would help them. Why do they persist? It is insane. It is the judgment of God. They refuse to acknowledge him, and so they are allowed to practice insanity in international relations. And they glory in it, too!

The second one is the final one of destruction. Gentile rule will never acknowledge God and will ultimately be destroyed by the Stone cut without hands. There will be nations that will continue in the millennium, but Gentile world rule will not continue. The Lord Jesus Christ will take the rulership of the world in an everlasting kingdom.

The purpose of rulers is to serve their people, yet the tendency of every government has been to reverse the proper order and cause the people to serve the government. The rulers enrich themselves at the expense of the governed. That fact goes from the extreme cases of rulers of impoverished countries possessing hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in overseas bank accounts to the relatively mild situation of the increase of well-paying bureaucratic jobs. Whatever its degree, there is no denying that people exist to serve governments, not the other way, as God intends. I am not saying that there are no honest public servants who do their jobs well, but the tendency is in all of us take advantage of a position of power.

There is a parable in Jud. 9 that is relevant to Dan. 4 because it also pictures the truth that we are considering in terms of trees. When the trees considered making a ruler over them, they looked first to the olive, then to the fig, then to the vine. All were content with their service by producing fruit, so all refused. Then the trees turned to the bramble. The bramble was useless, so it agreed to rule. The point is that the olive, fig, and vine were already doing what governments are supposed to do, serving, so why should they take a position over the ones they were serving? But the bramble, useless, was willing to take the exalted position and let the others serve it. That is what governments outside the will of God often do. That is what Nebuchadnezzar did. Instead of serving his people as an olive tree, a fig tree, or a grape vine, he was using them to serve himself. He was acting like a bramble, and God judged him.

In that way Dan. 4 and Jud. 9 are prophetic of the course and end of Gentile world rule. It exists largely for its own self rather than to serve and God will judge it.

Dan. 4.13 reveals another aspect of this truth to us. It says that a watcher came from the heavens during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. What is the meaning of this statement? We have already quoted v. 17, which tells us that it is God who gives rulership to men. When we consider vs. 13 and 17 together, we see that the bestowal by God of rulership is a stewardship, and that he is watching to see how it is discharged. The failure to discharge it properly results in judgment. That is what happened to Nebuchadnezzar and is what will happen to Gentile world rule in general.

This matter of stewardship applies to the individual also. We do not have anything that was not given to us. Whether it be things we are born with, such as good looks, talent, or intelligence, or things we acquire, such as wealth, all were given to us. They are all the gift of God, and that is true for unbelievers as much as it is for Christians. God sends the rain on the just and the unjust. Everything is a gift.

That gift requires stewardship, and there is a watcher. God is watching to see what we do with what is given to us. We may knowingly and smugly sit back and gloat over the coming judgment of Gentile world rule for its abuse of power, but that is not the point. Daniel was not written to give us cause for self-congratulation for our spirituality, any more than Nebuchadnezzar’s majesty was given to him to feed his pride. It was written to cause us to ask ourselves what kind of people we ought to be in light of what is going to take place. We are just as accountable to God for our abilities and possessions as Nebuchadnezzar was for his sovereignty.

This truth leads us to the final aspect of the meaning of Dan. 4. We have seen all through the book of Daniel that the emphasis is just as much on godly character as it is on predictive prophecy, and this is no less the case in Dan. 4. Nebuchadnezzar portrays the opposite of godly character, pride, and thus highlights two other aspects of godly character, humility and stewardship. The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth.” That does not appear to be the case now. The proud in this world control the earth. But there is coming a day of reckoning when not the proud, but the humble, will gain control of the earth under the rulership of the most humble one of all, King Jesus. The proud Gentile world rulers will not retain control of the earth in the millennium. The humble servants of the Lord Jesus Christ will inherit the earth.

Prov. 4.34 is quoted in Ja. 4.6 and 1 Pt 5.5 and tells us that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God,” says Peter, “that he may exalt you in his time.” The one who is humble will not congratulate himself for what he has, but will see it as a gift from God to be used in his service. He will exercise good stewardship over it. Thus humility and stewardship go hand in hand.

The godly characteristics we have seen so far in Daniel are a heart set on God, an unwillingness to be defiled, faith, prayer, thanksgiving, worship, public testimony to God, a willingness to die rather than disobey God, and now humility and stewardship. 

As we learn from the book of Daniel what is going to take place in our world, may God give us the grace to ask ourselves what kind of people we ought to be, and to look to him for the formation of Christ in us, for he it is who embodies all these aspects of godly character.

The Handwriting on the Wall

Dan. 5.1-31

The fifth chapter of Daniel contains the origin of a proverbial statement that has persisted to his day, “The handwriting on the wall.” By it we mean that judgment or doom is about to fall. We have seen that the book of Daniel not only contains predictive prophecy of specific events, but also details the character of Gentile world rule, and in contrast shows us godly character.

The story before us at present is that of Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and son of Nabonidus. Nabonidus was actually the king, but was away on military campaigns for much of his reign and entrusted the rule of Babylon to his son, so that he is called king in Daniel.

Belshazzar was holding a drunken party with his nobles, wives, and concubines. During the revelry, he gave orders for the vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem to be brought in that they might drink from them. As they drank they praised their gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

Immediately and suddenly Belshazzar and his guests saw a hand appear and begin writing on the wall. They could not understand the meaning, but they knew it was ominous: the king’s face grew pale, his thoughts distressed him, his hip joints became slack, and his knees knocked together. He called for the wise men of Babylon to come in and interpret the writing on the wall, but they could not do it.

The queen, apparently the queen mother, for Belshazzar’s wives had already been mentioned in v. 2, came in and told the king of Daniel, a man in whom was a spirit of the holy gods. She did not realize how truly she spoke: the Holy Spirit of the only God was indeed in Daniel. She said that he could interpret the writing, so the king summoned Daniel.

When Daniel appeared the king offered him rich gifts and authority in the kingdom if he could interpret the writing. After a few remarks to Belshazzar, which we will return to, Daniel did interpret the writing. As a result the king gave Daniel the gifts promised, a purple robe, a gold necklace, and the third place in the kingdom.

Before dealing with the meaning of this story, let us look for a moment at a few factual matters. We should note first the date. Recall that Daniel had been taken to Babylon in about 604 B.C. The date of Dan. 5 is 539 B.C., sixty-five years later. Daniel must have been very young when he was taken captive, so by now he was approximately eighty, very old indeed for that day. It is evidence of the protection and purposes of God that Daniel lived so long in a place of continual political intrigue, not to mention the long life itself.

Belshazzar’s promise of third place apparently refers to the fact that his father Nabonidus was actually first, with Belshazzar ruling only in his place and thus second, so that the third place was the highest he could give. We may suppose that had Belshazzar been the king himself, he would have given Daniel second place in the kingdom.

The handwriting on the wall consisted of three words with one of them repeated: “Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.” “Mene” comes from a verb meaning “to number,” and the thought covered, as Daniel’s interpretation in v. 26 shows, is that the days of Belshazzar’s kingdom were numbered. They were numbered by God, who had put the kingdom to an end. We will see the reason generally in the next verse, 27, and more specifically a bit later.

In v. 27 we have the meaning of “tekel.” It comes from the verb “to weigh.” Belshazzar had been weighed by God and found wanting. That is the reason why his days had been numbered. Why he was found wanting we will soon see.

“Upharsin” is the plural and “peres” the singular of the verb “to divide.” Belshazzar’s kingdom had been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Apparently the meaning of the thought of division is that the Medes and the Persians were two peoples who worked together in alliance, with one or the other dominant from time to time. The kingdom was divided between them, though they actually ruled as one.

That is the meaning of the handwriting on the wall. Daniel’s interpretation was literally fulfilled that very night. The Medes and the Persians had been besieging Babylon unsuccessfully for some time, but they hit upon a stratagem that brought victory. The river Euphrates flowed under the walls of Babylon and through the city. The Medes and Persians dug a ditch, diverted the river, and went under the wall into the city in the dry river bed while Belshazzar and his nobles were holding their drunken party. Babylon fell with hardly a fight and Belshazzar was killed.

How are we to understand this story? We should look first at Belshazzar himself. First, his act of using the temple vessels at his party was a desecration of holy things. Not only did he use them for drinking wine at a drunken revelry, but he also praised his pagan gods, gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, while drinking from them. He subjected the only true God to human drunkenness and idolatrous worship.

Gold and silver are biblical symbols. Gold speaks of the divine nature of God, and silver, of his redemptive nature. These temple vessels were made of gold and silver for a reason, to reveal God as divine and redemptive. Belshazzar took these vessels that portray God’s nature and used them in human degradation. Worse than that, he praised false gods made of the very precious metals that were intended to bear testimony to the true God.

The underlying sin of Belshazzar, though, is revealed in v. 22. The problem was that he knew better. Nebuchadnezzar his grandfather had been an evil man, but in a sense he did not know any better, and when God revealed truth to Nebuchadnezzar he responded to it. In chapter 1 he had no regard at all for the God of the Hebrews. Was he not too weak to defend his people against the gods of Babylon? But in chapter 2, after Daniel had revealed the king’s dream and its interpretation, he acknowledged God as “the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets.” His grasp of this truth did not extend to his behavior, as we see in chapter 3, where he made the golden image, apparently in pride that he was the head of gold, and commanded his officials to worship it. But when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were delivered from the fiery furnace by the one like a son of the gods, he called him the Most High God. Then when he was humbled by God in chapter 4 and learned that it is God who gives sovereignty to kings, not they themselves, he spoke of God as the one whose kingdom is everlasting. He adjusted his beliefs and behavior as he learned more of the God of Israel.

The telling words of Daniel strike at the very heart of Belshazzar’s sin: “though you knew all this.” Belshazzar knew the experiences of his grandfather and knew better than to mock God and hold him in contempt, but he chose to do so anyway. Christians often use the phrase “sinning against light.” That is what Belshazzar did. He did not sin in ignorance, as Nebuchadnezzar had done, but against light. The result was the immediate and sudden judgment of God. (See Acts 17.30-31).

Lev. 4 sheds light on this matter. Lev. 1-5 sets forth the five types of offering in the Jewish sacrificial system. Chapter 4 deals with the sin offering. In it we learn that there are different sacrifices required for sins committed by those of differing levels of responsibility in Israel. Sacrifices are prescribed for sins committed by priests, the whole congregation, leaders, and individuals, and the worth of the sacrifices varies. The point is that sin is sin, but guilt differs depending on the sinner. Nebuchadnezzar committed the same sins as Belshazzar, but he did so in ignorance and he changed when he learned better. Belshazzar sinned in full knowledge of the truth, so his guilt was greater.

The Lord Jesus pointed out the same truth in Lk. 12.47-48 when he said that the slave who knew his master’s will and did not do it would receive many lashes, while the one who did not know committed deeds worthy of flogging would receive few lashes. He would still be punished, but not so severely. Belshazzar knew the will of God and held it up to contempt.

Gal. 6.7 says that God is not mocked. A man may mock God, but he will not get away with it. Belshazzar mocked God and judgment was swift and sure.

We have been seeing that Dan. 2 prophesies the historical course of Gentile world rule, and that chapters 3 and following show the nature of Gentile rule and the ultimate result of judgment. The central features of that nature are pride and abuse of power, that is, poor stewardship of the gift of sovereignty given by God. In that sense these chapters of Daniel are generally, rather than specifically, prophetic. They do not tell us of specific events, as chapter 2 does, and as some later chapters will also, but they show what Gentile world rule will be like and that the end will be judgment. In that way the experience of Belshazzar is prophetic. All Gentile world rule will be like him in mocking God.

Is that not true? Has there ever been a government in Gentile hands that honored God as he is and served him? All governments have served themselves, acting in pride, often abusing power, and usually trying to use God to further the ends of the state. Over the course of history, this attempt to use God has been the common practice of states. The doctrine of the divine right of kings tried to ensure the security of evil kings on their thrones, convincing the abused populaces that God had put them there. Actually, God has put them there, as Dan. 2.21 and 4.17 say, but not so that they may abuse power and use their subjects to enrich themselves. Or religion has been used as a unifying principle to bring people together in backing the aims of the state. The idea of holy war in Muslim countries is an example of this practice.

Even where rulers have accepted Christianity as a religion, it is rare that there has been a real understanding of God. It has been more a matter of practicing religious rites in order to invoke God’s blessings of the affairs of the state than of knowing God, discerning his will, and doing it.

In our day we are seeing not only the attempt to use God, but the open denial of God. Atheism has always been the official belief of communism, and the humanistic philosophy that is controlling the world’s institutions now, including its governments, is godless. God is not just being mocked under a cloak of religion. He is being openly mocked.

Ps. 2 is the prophetic psalm dealing with this issue. The kings of the world have decided against God and his anointed King and are attempting to throw off his rule, but the result of such behavior is judgment. God will establish the Lord Jesus on the throne of the universe. All those kings who have rejected him will be broken and shattered and will perish. Take warning, rulers of the earth. Recognize that it is God who gives sovereignty and who holds accountability for it and bow to him now. Do not suffer the destiny of Belshazzar. That is the ultimate end of Gentile world rule, for it is proud and contemptible of God, but there are individuals who will honor God and know his blessing in the end.

This revelation of the character of Gentile rule has also shown us godly character by contrast. All through Daniel we have seen aspects of godliness set against the background of the wickedness of the rulers of Babylon. The same is the case in this chapter. If Belshazzar’s contempt of God is an evil characteristic, then respect for God is the opposite. There is a word in the New Testament that will help us understand this aspect of godly character.

The usual Greek word for “holiness” is agios. Its basic meaning is “different” and refers to God himself. God is different. There is no one else like him. He is unique. We are told in 1 Sam. 2.2 that “there is none holy as I AM.” God is the only one who is holy. But he calls us to be holy! This is one of the remarkable statements of the Bible, that we are called to be made like God! Impossible with man, but with God all things are possible. As applied to us, the primary connotation of this word is “set apart.” We are to be set apart from the world for service to God.

There is another Greek word though that is often translated “holy,” but its basic meaning is different from that of agios. It is the word osios. Osios refers to the recognition that there are eternal truths, and especially to respect for those truths. In the Bible it is respect for God and the things of God. I will translate the word osios in these paragraphs with words dealing with respect.

One of the fundamental teachings of the humanistic and relativistic thought that is so prevalent in our day is that there are no absolute truths. There really are no such things as right and wrong. Since there is no God everything is relative. The grip that this thought has on modern man is one of the reasons our social institutions are crumbling. How can a criminal be held responsible for his actions when there is no such thing as right and wrong? Humanism and relativism say that a criminal is a victim of society and is not really evil. Premarital and extramarital sex are not wrong. One just needs to be careful. That is why AIDS, venereal diseases, pregnancy out of wedlock, and abortion are epidemic in our society.

Osios says that there are right and wrong and that they originate with God. Rev. 15.4 says, “Who would not fear, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are worthy of respect.” Rev. 16.5 says, “Righteous are you, who are and who were, the one due respect.” These verses show us that the concept of eternal things that deserve respect begins with God. God is the ultimate eternal “thing” that deserves respect.

Heb. 7.26 shows us that the concept of osios extends to the Lord Jesus in his humanity: “For such a High Priest is also fitting for us, worthy of respect….” The Lord Jesus lived on earth as a man with respect for God and his truth, and thus is due respect himself, and continues that approach as our High Priest in Heaven at the right hand of God.

We, too, are called to be osios as well as agios. In 1 Tim. 2.8 Paul writes, “I desire therefore the men in every place to pray, lifting up respectful hands without anger and dissension.” We are called to have respect for God and the things of God. Anger and argument are the opposite of this command. God has called his people to love one another and to be one. That is part of his eternal truth. Anger and argument do not show respect for God, but contempt for him. Prayer is to be offered by people who respect God and his commands, not just with their lips, but with their lives.

In Eph. 4.17-24 Paul contrasts the old man, especially as seen in the futile way of life of the Gentiles, with the new man, who actually is Christ within. It is very instructive to us in light of our study of Gentile world rule that the negative part of what Paul is saying is illustrated by the Gentiles. They have become callous toward God, he says, giving themselves to impurity. But Christians are to “put on the new man, which is being created according to God in righteousness and respect of the truth.” The new man is created in osiotes, the noun form of the word osios. When a person is born again the new life that comes into him is characterized by respect for God and the things of God, for indeed it is the life of God himself.

Perhaps the most telling passage in this connection is 2 Tim. 3.1-2: “But know this, that in the last days there will be difficult times, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unrespectful….” Is this not a description of the day we live in, possibly the last days of Gentile world rule? The times are indeed difficult, with society falling apart. Never before has there been such a time of self-centeredness, greed, arrogance, blasphemy of God, disrespect of parents and of all authority, and mockery of God. God is not just used or ignored in our society. He is hated by some and there is an active campaign to do away with him entirely. Our day is characterized by a lack of respect for God and the things of God.

Against this evil characteristic of society, the people of God are to hold him in respect and treat spiritual truth with reverence. Belshazzar, though he knew, treated God with contempt. That has ever characterized Gentile world rule and judgment will be the outcome. The opposite is to characterize the people of God.

Thus we have a growing list of aspects of godly character: a heart set on God, which is the foundation of all the others, an unwillingness to be defiled, faith, prayer, thankfulness, worship, public testimony to God, willingness to die rather than disobey God, humility, stewardship, and now respect for the eternal God and his truth. Gentile world rule portrays character just the opposite of that exhibited by these traits, and the handwriting is on the wall for that truth. May God give us the grace to discern this handwriting and its message, and to follow the example of Daniel and his friends in allowing God to develop godly character in us, that we might be a testimony to him now and that we might be ready for his appearing.

Daniel in the Lion’s Den

Dan. 6.1-28

The story recorded in the sixth chapter of Daniel is largely a repeat of that of chapter 3 insofar as its meaning is concerned. In the third chapter Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego disobeyed a command of the king because it violated their obedience to God and were thrown into a fiery furnace because of it, but were delivered by God. In chapter 6 Daniel also violates a command for the same reason and is thrown into a den of lions, but is also delivered by God.

The reason for Daniel’s punishment goes back to the affairs of state of the time and to the jealousy and corruption of other officials. Babylon had been overthrown by the Medo-Persians. Darius, now the king, had appointed 120 satraps over his kingdom, with three commissioners to oversee them, one of whom was Daniel, “that the king should have no damage.” That is, they were to prevent the satraps from engaging in corruption at the king’s expense. Daniel carried out his duties with distinction, but the other commissioners and the satraps were both jealous of his favor with the king and desirous of removing him so they could get away with corruption. Thus they tried to find some grounds of accusation against him.

None could be found with regard to Daniel’s duties, for he was without corruption or negligence, so his opponents decided that their only hope came in Daniel’s relationship with his God. They knew he was faithful to his God, so they devised a scheme that would require Daniel to choose between God and the king.

Their plot was to have Darius sign a decree that would prohibit anyone from making a petition to any god or man other than Darius for thirty days. The penalty was to be thrown to the lions. The king signed the decree.

When Daniel learned of it, he went as usual to his place of prayer in the roof room of his house and prayed with the windows open to Jerusalem, as he did three times a day, thus violating the king’s decree. Immediately his enemies accused him before the king, who had no choice but to condemn Daniel, though he tried mightily to find a way out, because the law of the Medes and Persians could not be revoked.

Darius thought highly of Daniel and apparently had some belief in Daniel’s God, for when he was about to throw him into the lions’ den he said to Daniel that his God would deliver him. This must have been more hope than faith, for after Daniel was thrown to the lions and the den sealed shut, Darius spent a night with no food, entertainment, or sleep.

In the morning he rose early and hurried to the den. When he called to Daniel to see if he had been delivered, Daniel answered that he had indeed, for he had done no wrong toward God or the king. Then Darius had Daniel released and his accusers thrown in in his place along with their wives and children. They were not delivered.

Finally, Darius issued a decree that everyone in his kingdom was to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel, and he said that God was living and eternal and that he was a deliverer and a worker of signs and wonders. “So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”

What are we to make of this story? First, as noted above, it was very similar to that of  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, but there are a few differences that we will draw out. We have seen that Daniel deals with both predictive prophecy and godly character, the kind of people we ought to be in light of what is going to take place. Chapter 2 contains very definite predictive prophecy about the course of world history from Daniel’s day to the end, but chapters 3-6 deal more with godly character. They do, however, have a general element of prophecy, and in the present story, the prophecy, while still somewhat general, is a bit more specific.

In chapters 3-5 we saw that pride characterized Gentile world rule, resulting in God’s judgment at the end, as well as along the way, and that is the case in chapter 6. What was Darius’s decree that no one could petition any god or man but himself but pride? Was that not taking the position of God? This pride is always present in any kingdom and will be to the end.

Thus far this chapter repeats chapter 3, but there is an additional note in the present story. Darius appears to be what we would call a good man. He had some belief in God and he held Daniel in high esteem, even before the miraculous deliverance of Daniel. Yet he was part of a system that was inherently evil and which he could not go against successfully. We learn an important lesson from this fact. Not every Gentile ruler is evil. Many are Christians. But all are part of a system that opposes God, and the system is stronger than individual rulers. They may slow the trend toward evil a bit, but they will not stop it.

A good example is the nations of our world in which a group of families controls the wealth with probably 95% of the people in poverty. If a ruler in that system tries to reform, he will be resisted by the controlling families. If he persists and shows signs of success he will be removed or assassinated. After the overthrow of the Duvalier regime in Haiti, for instance, the same families retained control. When popular elections were attempted, candidates were murdered. Little has changed other than the name of the chief executive. This system will not allow a good man to reverse it. Such was the case with Darius.

The more specific element of the prophecy of Dan. 6 is revealed by 2 Thess. 2.4, where we learn that in the last days the antichrist will set “himself against and exalt himself over everything called god or object of worship, so as to sit in the house of God, showing himself that he is God.” The pride that characterizes Gentile world rule will climax in the antichrist, who will take pride to its limit of claiming divinity and worship (see Is. 14.13-14, where Satan is the subject). The antichrist will be the intense culmination of a principle that has been at work in the world ever since Adam’s fall, as 1 Jn. 2.18 shows: many antichrists have arisen. We see that principle in Darius’s claim of the right to be prayed to, and thus he prophesies the antichrist, who will claim to be God.

In the same way that Darius prefigures the antichrist, Daniel foreshadows those faithful to God at the end, during the persecutions of the antichrist, whom God will deliver. Not all will be delivered from physical death, but those who do thus die for the Lord will be found under the altar in Heaven waiting for vindication by God, vindication that will surely come when the Lord returns and the antichrist and his prophet are thrown alive into hell. Those who escape physical death and endure to the end will be saved, delivered by God from unfaithfulness to him in the most difficult of circumstances the world will ever know.

As was the case in chapters 1-5, the matter of godly character stands out in this chapter. Daniel shows the same commitment to prayer that he showed in chapter 2. There his immediate response to King Nebuchadnezzar’s command to kill all the wise men of Babylon for their inability to reveal and interpret his dream was to pray to God for the answer, and to call his friends to prayer. Prayer, of course, reveals faith. Daniel trusted in his God and knew the value of prayer, and he was unwilling to turn from it even at the risk of his life.

That is a second element of godly character that we saw in chapter 3 and we see again in chapter 6: the willingness to die rather than disobey God. But we see this willingness with a different emphasis now. In chapter 3, when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were willing to be thrown into the fiery furnace rather than worship an idol, they were very young men, possibility still in their teen years. Their refusal to obey the king could be interpreted as youthful enthusiasm or even foolishness rather than real devotion to God. But when Daniel refused to give up prayer, the date was the 530’s B.C., over sixty years later. By the time of chapter 6, Daniel was an old man of at least 80, and probably 85 or more. His decision was not that of hotheaded youth, but the mature, sober judgment of a life lived with God. Daniel had been faithful to his God for eighty years or more, and his conclusion after all that time was that God was worth living for and he was worth dying for. He was mature in God and knew what he was doing.

If someone argues that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego displayed only youthful enthusiasm, one could counter with Daniel, who did the same thing in old age. If someone argues that Daniel was an old man who did not have long to live anyway, and perhaps was growing senile, one could counter with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who did the same thing as young men. Both had learned a very important lesson in life: if there is nothing worth dying for there is nothing worth living for. And they had learned that God was worth living and dying for. It was not the enthusiasm of youth or the resignation of old age: it was the knowledge of God that motivated the willingness of these four to die rather than disobey God.

A final aspect of godly character is added to our list in a negative way, through the poor example of Darius. As we saw above, he was a good man who believed in God, yet he allowed himself to be talked into signing a very foolish decree, one that exalted himself, endangered Daniel whom he esteemed, and led to great trouble and agony. Darius was not careful in his decisions. He did not pray. He did not seek wise counsel. He rashly signed the decree. We learn from this example that its opposite characterizes godly character. A godly character will be careful in his decisions. He will seek the Lord. He will seek the counsel of other godly people. He will take his time and consider the consequences of what he is doing. Care in decision-making is an aspect of godly character.

Then we see presented in Daniel all these characteristics of a godly person: a heart set on God, an unwillingness to be defiled, faith, prayer, thanksgiving, worship, public testimony to God, a willingness to die rather than disobey God, humility and stewardship, respect for God and the things of God, and now, care in decision-making. There is a dark day coming, a day of persecution of God’s people and of God’s judgment of the world and its evil rulers, and above all, of Satan, who is behind it all. Beyond that is the millennial kingdom of righteousness for those who are the Lord’s, and then eternal Heaven. What kind of people must we be in light of the coming events? The kind set forth in Daniel through the stories we have studied. May God lead us into the development of godly character, character that will see us through dark days as we await the light of his presence.

Daniel’s First Vision

Dan. 7.1-28

In the first year of Belshazzar Daniel had his first vision. This is a remarkable fact in itself, for Daniel must have been about 65 years of age at that time. We think of him as the great prophet of the exile, but in fact the first vision recorded in the prophecy of his name was seen by the pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar, and was revealed to Daniel only secondarily that he might reveal and interpret it. Most of Daniel’s life, like ours, was spent in the ordinary discharge of his daily duties. True, he was in a high government position, but his time was not taken up with “being spiritual,” though he was certainly a spiritual man, but with doing his job. He did his job well and was unusually faithful to God, but he lived to be about 65 before he ever had a prophetic dream. There is a lesson for us in that fact, the value of faithfulness to God. God often works slowly, as we reckon time, but he works surely. A lifetime of faithfulness to him will result in a rich harvest, not necessarily material, but certainly spiritual.

Daniel’s vision in his dreams was of four beasts, followed by a heavenly scene, a heavenly scene with results on earth and in the spiritual realm in general. Those four beasts arose from the sea when it was stirred by the four winds of the skies. The first was like a lion with eagle’s wings, the second like a bear, the third like a leopard, and the fourth like nothing Daniel had ever seen. It had iron teeth, bronze claws, and ten horns. It devoured its victims and crushed underfoot whatever remained. As Daniel looked, another horn, a little one, came up and three of the first ten were uprooted before it. It had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke great things.

While this was going on, thrones were set up. God took his place, passed judgment on the fourth beast, had him destroyed, and gave the kingdom to another who appeared in the vision, one like a son of man. The kingdom of that one would never end.

There were angels standing by. Daniel, being troubled by the vision, asked one of them what it meant. The angel revealed that the four beasts were four kingdoms that would arise from the earth. But their reigns would end, and the saints of the Most High would receive sovereignty eternally.

Daniel wanted to know more about the fourth beast, especially about the little horn. The angel revealed that the fourth kingdom would be different from all the others, very strong, devouring the whole earth. The ten horns were ten kings that would arise from this kingdom, and the little horn was another king who would arise in their midst, subdue three of the kings, and wage war against the saints of God. But he would ultimately be judged by the court of the Ancient of Days, God, and the saints he oppressed would receive the kingdom that would not end.

There are two primary interpretations of the four beasts. (Many views do not merit serious consideration.) The first and most obvious, and most widely accepted, is that the four beasts are the four kingdoms revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream of the statue: the first beast is Babylon, the second, Medo-Persian, the third, Greece, and the fourth, and empire of mixed strength and weakness, not named in Daniel, that began with Rome and will end at the end of history in a renewed form. The reason these four world empires were revealed twice, first to Nebuchadnezzar and then to Daniel, was to make known different aspects of their nature. 

Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest of Gentile kings, because he was such, saw a great statue made of precious or useful metals, and thus saw the great glory of Gentile rule throughout history. Daniel, a man of God, saw the true character of Gentile rule, its beastly nature. No matter how glorious Gentile rule may appear from time to time, inwardly it is a beast that will oppose God, oppress its own people, try to conquer other nations, and wage war against the people of God.

In favor of this view is its obvious nature: it does correspond so well with the revelation through the statue that there will be four Gentile world empires. An opposing view, though, starts with the fact that the beasts rise up from the sea. Dan. 7.2 actually says that the four winds of the skies were stirring up the great sea. In every occurrence of this term “the great sea” in the Old Testament, the reference is to the Mediterranean Sea and the words should be capitalized, The Great Sea. Because it always does so elsewhere, some students of Daniel take the position that The Great Sea must also mean the Mediterranean Sea in Dan. 7.2. But Babylon and Medo-Persia did not arise from the Mediterranean Sea, indeed are hundreds of miles from it. Thus the first two beasts could not be Babylon and Medo-Persia, with the result that we must look elsewhere than Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue for an interpretation of the four beasts. The view put forth is that they refer to four kingdoms that will arise at the end and will contend with one another for supremacy, with the fourth gaining it.

It is agreed by both groups that the ten horns refer to ten kings who will arise at the end, corresponding to the ten toes of the statue, and that the little horn is the antichrist.

Since it is a fact that two groups of equally godly students of Scripture, who believe that Daniel is the prophetic word of God, cannot agree on the meaning of the four beasts, the question seems insoluble at this point. Instead of trying to determine which is right (perhaps both are wrong!), let us simply emphasize once again that the primary purpose of prophecy is not to give the Lord’s people a detailed timetable of future events, but to reveal to them that there will be times of great evil and hardship that will end in the eternal reign of righteousness of God and of his Christ, and thus to encourage them in trial and to challenge them to develop the godly character revealed in prophecy and to be faithful to the end.

Whether the four beasts are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the iron-clay kingdom or four kingdoms that will arise at the end, Dan. 7 does make several revelations about the antichrist, Satan’s answer to God’s choice to rule, the Lord Jesus Christ. We learn first in v. 8 that he will have eyes like a man and will speak great things. While he will control military power, the iron of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and the iron teeth of Daniel’s, he will nonetheless apparently rule as much by his great ability and force of personality as by brute force. That possibility is easy to see in light of the intransigent problems that besiege society in our day. Man’s best efforts simply cannot solve the problems of economic deprivation in the face of great opulence, the threat of nuclear war, crime, drug abuse, sexual disease – on and on we could go. If a ruler arises with the ability to solve these problems, he will certainly gain a great following who will willingly submit to him for answers. He will speak great things and find a ready response. Let us hasten to add that this is a possible meaning of Dan. 7.8. Perhaps actual events at the time of the antichrist will reveal that the eyes of a man and the mouth speaking great things mean something other than force of personality and great ability. Our purpose is not so much to discern every detail as to show the credibility of Scripture. What it prophesies is not far-fetched, but very possible.

We learn in vs. 21-22 that the antichrist will wage war against the saints and prevail over them for a time, before God intervenes on their behalf. V. 25 tells us that he will speak against God, a fact that we saw in Dan. 6 is also prophesied in 2 Thess. 2.4. He will try to change times and laws. It is of great interest that during the French Revolution, those in control did away with God’s order of four weeks and seven days with one day of rest and replaced it with a decimal system: months consisting of three decades of ten days each, with one day’s rest in ten. The antichrist will do the same sort of thing. The reference may also be to his interference with Jewish Sabbaths and festivals. We will learn more of this in chapter 9. His war against God’s people will go on for a time, times, and half a time, that is, 3 ½ years, as we learn from Rev. 11.2, 12.6, and 13.5. This is the great tribulation. Again, we will deal with this period more thoroughly in chapter 9.

With this great scene of opposition to God vivid in his mind, Daniel then saw thrones set up. Recall that the name “Daniel” means “God is my judge,” and that one of the primary lessons of the book is that God has judged between the rule of man, inspired by Satan, and the rule of his Son, and his judgment is for his Son. That is exactly what is taking place in Dan. 7. The antichrist is the final intensification of the evil nature of Gentile rule that has always been the case, so that God finally proclaims, “Enough!” and has the thrones of judgment set up. He judges against Gentile rule in general and the antichrist in particular, and for the Son of Man. The antichrist is destroyed and the kingdom is given to the Son of Man, and his kingdom, unlike those of all predecessors, will not be destroyed. The Jews and the Gentiles did not exercise proper stewardship of sovereignty, but abused it and used it for selfish purposes. Thus it is taken from them. The Lord Jesus will not abuse sovereignty, but will exercise it in perfect obedience to God the Father, just as he lived his life on earth. That is why God gives the kingdom to his Son: he knows he can trust him with it.

In vs. 13-14 we are told that the kingdom was given to one like a son of man, but in vs. 18, 22, and 27, the kingdom is given to the saints of the Most High. How are we to explain this apparent discrepancy? The starting point is an understanding of God’s purpose in making man. It was God’s intention that man exercise dominion over his creation for God (Gen. 1.26-28). The word “Adam” means “man,” so that the individual man Adam represents all of us. It was not just that God wanted Adam to rule, but that he wanted all men to rule. Adam, and all men, of course, sinned and forfeited the rule to Satan, who is now ruler of this world and god of this age (Jn. 12.31, 2 Cor. 4.4). But God has not given up his purpose. He still intends for man to rule his creation for him.

With this in mind he sent a second Man, one Paul calls the last Adam, who is a representative man, Jesus, just as Adam was a representative man. This one did exercise dominion properly without sin and in complete obedience to God. Thus he will receive the sovereignty over the universe, as we see in Dan. 7-13-14.

But he is a representative man. He includes all who have faith in him. It was not God’s plan for one man to rule, but for all men to rule. An additional part of God’s purpose is that his Son, his last Adam, have a bride to rule with him as together they make up a corporate man who will fulfill God’s design of exercising dominion. Thus the picture of the Son of Man receiving the kingdom shows the Lord Jesus as the only one who could make the way, but the picture of the saints receiving the kingdom shows us the grace of God in including us. God’s purpose will be fulfilled and we will enjoy the blessing of reigning with Christ (2 Tim. 2.12).

We see a parallel in the book of Revelation. In 19.15 we read that the Lord Jesus, at his return, will rule the nations with a rod of iron, a quotation of Ps. 2.9. In Rev. 2.26-27 we find the same passage from Ps. 2 applied to the overcomers: they, too, will rule the nations with a rod of iron. Jesus Christ is to be the King of the universe, but he is calling and training a people now to be overcomers, to overcome the enemy in Christ, and to reign with him when he comes into his kingdom.

Daniel’s Vision of the Ram and the Goat

Dan. 8.1-27

Beginning at chapter 2 and verse 4 and continuing to the end of chapter 7, the language of Daniel is Aramaic, the language of Babylon, but at chapter 8 verse 1, the book returns to the Hebrew language, that of the Jews, and the rest of the book is in Hebrew. There is a lesson for us in this fact. With the change of language goes a change of emphasis. Daniel, as we have seen, is about Gentile world rule, but up to this point it has been about the fact of Gentile rule, its nature, and its end. When the book changes to the Hebrew language in chapter 8, the emphasis shifts from facts about Gentile rule itself to its effect on the Jews, the people of God.

We learn that while Babylon still ruled under Belshazzar, its last king, Daniel had a vision in which he was transported to a city, Susa, of Babylon’s successor, Medo-Persia. Thus the vision was to begin with a prophecy of an event to take place, the rise to world power of the Medo-Persian Empire and its replacement of Babylon. While he was in Susa in his vision, Daniel saw first a ram with two horns, with one horn longer than the other and the longer coming up last. Daniel saw a symbolic representation of the conquests of Medo-Persia in the butting westward, northward, and southward of the ram, with none able to stop it.

Then Daniel saw a goat racing from the west without touching the ground. The goat had a very noticeable horn between its eyes. The goat rushed at the ram, shattering its horns, throwing it to the ground, and trampling on it. Then the goat magnified itself, but as soon as it had gained its great position, the large horn was broken and replaced by four horns.

Out of one of these four horns came a small horn which grew great toward the south, the east, and the land of Israel. This horn did deeds of great evil which we will return to presently.

As Daniel was wondering what the vision meant, someone who looked like a man appeared and gave the angel Gabriel instructions to tell Daniel the meaning. Gabriel explained that the ram with the two horns represented the kings of Media and Persia, and that the goat was Greece, with the large horn being its first king, whom we know to be Alexander the Great. The breaking of the large horn was the death of Alexander, and the four horns were four kingdoms into which his empire was divided after his death. Four of his generals fought over his empire and eventually gained control over different parts of it.

Thus far, the vision and its meaning are straightforward, but the identity of the small horn that arose out of one of the four horns is not specifically revealed in the chapter, and thus raises questions that we must address.

Two of the four kingdoms into which Alexander’s empire was divided were important in the subsequent history of Israel. Seleucus gained control of eastern Asia Minor, Syria, and the eastern portions of the old empire. Ptolemy ruled in Egypt. These two kingdoms constantly fought each other for the next 150 years, and Israel, located geographically between the two, was subject to first one and then the other according to which was in the ascendancy at a given time. Finally, in 175 B.C., Antiochus IV, a descendant of Seleucus, took the throne of the Seleucid Empire.

Antiochus was a very wicked king indeed. He decided that he must force all of his subjects to his Greek ways in order to have a unified empire. This included Greek religion. He began to require the Jews to accept Greek religion. Their resistance brought severe reprisals on his part. The final insult to Judaism came in 167 B.C. when Antiochus desecrated the Jewish temple by erecting an alar to his Greek God, Jupiter in the temple and by sacrificing a pig on the Jewish altar. Thus Jewish sacrifice and worship were stopped because of the lack of an undefiled temple.

These acts of Antiochus led to the revolt of the Jews led by the Maccabees, a revolt which proved successful. The forces of Antiochus were driven out, and in December 164 B.C. the temple was cleansed and sacrifice was restored. An annual festival was begun to celebrate this restoration of the temple. We know it today as Hannukah.

The wicked deeds of Antiochus seem to fulfill the prophecies of Dan. 8.9-14. Antiochus grew out of one of the four kingdoms which succeeded Alexander’s, and became great toward the land of Israel, ruling over it. V. 10 is difficult to understand as applying to Antiochus. It says that the small horn caused some of the hosts of the heavens and some of the stars to fall to the earth, where he trampled them. The word “host” in the Old Testament actually means “army,” and is used to refer to the angelic armies of God and to Israel as his earthly army. It is hard to see how v. 10 could refer to Israel since it specifically says army of the heavens. We will delay interpreting this verse for the moment and return to it.

V. 11 says that the small horn magnified himself to be equal with the Prince of the army, that is, God. Antiochus did just that. He took for himself the title “Epiphanes,” and is known as Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Epiphanes means “God manifest.” Antiochus claimed for himself that he was God manifest, equating himself with the prince of the army.

V. 11 also says that the small horn would remove the regular sacrifice and throw down the place of the sanctuary. That Antiochus did by desecrating the temple.

We learn in v. 12 that transgression on the part of the army (here clearly a reference to earthly Israel) was the reason that the small horn was able to persecute the Jewish people and to interfere with their worship. The Jews were being judged by God for sins, and his instrument was an evil king, just as when Babylon had first conquered Judah. In addition, the small horn would fling truth to the ground, probably a reference to the attempt to substitute a false religion for the revelations of God. In these activities the horn would prosper.

Then Daniel heard two holy ones speaking about the duration of the horror he was witnessing, and heard that it would be for 2300 evening-mornings, or days. Again, the meaning of this time reference is not clear. Antiochus desecrated the temple in 167 B.C., and it was restored three years later, a period of about not quite 1100 days. Let us once more delay considering this part of the vision.

It appears from the correspondence of the revelations to Daniel with the actions of Antiochus IV that this king was indeed the small horn of Dan. 8.9. When we read, though, in vs. 15-17 of Daniel’s wondering about the meaning of the vision and Gabriel’s explanation to him, we find that the vision pertains to the time of the end. Thus, while we believe that Antiochus IV did indeed fulfill the vision in his day, he was not the end of the matter. Instead he was a type of another king who is yet to arise and who will do the same things Antiochus did, but on an even higher scale of evil. The small horn is the same as the small horn of Dan. 7, the antichrist.

It seems clear from what we have seen all through Daniel as to the nature of Gentile world rule that the antichrist will not be different, but will be the ultimate, the climax, of the evil nature of Gentile rule. His rule will be the time of the greatest intensification of the evil that has always characterized the rule of man. The Apostle John in 1 Jn. 2.18 says that just as his readers had heard that the antichrist would come, even so many antichrists had already come. That is, the evil spirit that the antichrist would embody has always worked through men under Satan’s control. Gentile world rule, despite whatever outward splendor it may have had, has always been a beast at heart. The antichrist will be the final revelation of that beastly nature. It was present in Antiochus IV. It will reach its ultimate level in the antichrist.

The last verses of Dan. 8 show us the correspondence between the two. In Dan. 8.9 we saw that the small horn would arise out of one of the kingdoms that would arise out of Alexander’s empire. The kingdom turned out to be that of Seleucus, if we are correct in understanding Antiochus as the original fulfillment of the vision. This may well mean that the antichrist will also arise from this region. We learned in Dan. 7 that the antichrist would come from the area of the fourth empire, and now we see his location narrowed to one of the four Greek kingdoms. If this is true, it would still be difficult to pinpoint where the antichrist will arise, for the Seleucid Empire was vast, covering much of what is now Turkey and Syria, and on into what are now Iraq and Iran, and including Israel at times. Some have thought that the antichrist will be a Jew: the word means “against Messiah.” He will make a covenant with the Jews. If they receive him as their Messiah he would have to be a Jew, for they would certainly not receive a Gentile as such. However, it is not certain that he will be received by the Jews as their Messiah. The name does not require it, meaning simply that he will be against God’s Messiah, not necessarily that he claims to be the Jewish Messiah. So it does seem that the antichrist will arise from the area of the four kingdoms succeeding Alexander, and perhaps more specifically from the area of the Seleucid Empire, but beyond that we cannot go with certainty.

Dan. 8.23 says that at the latter time of their rule (that of the four successors of Alexander), a king would arise. This was fulfilled in the past by Antiochus IV, but the revelation that the prophecy refers to time of the end would seem to indicate not that these four specific kingdoms would again be distinct at the end, but that Gentile rule will still govern their area: what is going to take place will come near the end of Gentile rule. At that time, when the transgressors have come to completeness, a king will arise. This reference to the fullness of transgression corresponds with v. 12, where we saw that the antichrist was able to persecute the people of God because of their sins. It will be the same at the end. The Jews have been under the judgment of God since 606 B.C., when Babylon first took captives into exile. They are still in rebellion against God, rejecting their Messiah. Many are atheists, and many practice a religion of law with no life. Their judgments down through history have been the effort of God to purify his people and turn them to himself. Just as evil will be intensified at the end, so will judgment on the Jews. It will result in the fulfillment of God’s purpose for them: their turning to him and their acceptance of their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because of this completeness of transgressors, a king will arise. The king is the small horn, the final answer to Antiochus IV and all the other antichrists referred to in 1 Jn. 2.18. As evil as he will be, he will be used by God to turn his people to himself.

This king will be insolent, as v. 23 says, corresponding to the attitude of Antiochus in v. 11. He will be skilled in intrigue.

V. 24 reveals that he will be powerful, but not by his own power. That is, he will be energized by Satan, and this fact has always been true of Gentile rule. Antiochus did not rule by his own power. Under the sovereignty of God, Satan was allowed to empower him to persecute the Jews. It will be the same with the antichrist, Satan’s ultimate ruler.

We learn further in v. 24 that this king will destroy greatly. Perhaps this statement corresponds with v. 10. There we saw that the small horn would grow up to the army of the heavens and cause some of the army and some of the stars to fall to the ground. One of the ancient writings which some include in the Old Testament, but which conservative Protestant Christians do not, is the book of 2 Maccabees. In 2 Macc. 9.10, in reading of the final illness of Antiochus, we find that he thought he could touch the stars of the heavens. Then in Rev. 12.4 we read that the tail of the dragon, Satan, will sweep away a third of the stars of the sky. It is not entirely clear what these references mean, but they remind us of the prophecies of the Old Testament, repeated by the Lord Jesus in Mt. 24, Mk. 13, and Lk. 21, that at the end the sun, moon, and stars will be shaken and will fail to give their light. Just as all creation fell with the fall of man and reacted to the death of the Lord Jesus, so it will be involved in the terrible events of the end before it, too, is redeemed from the curse (Rom. 8.19-22). Antiochus IV thought he could touch the stars, such was his pride; there will be signs in the skies when the antichrist is on the scene.

Deceit will be rampant, v. 25 tells us, reminding us of v. 12, where Antiochus flung truth to the ground. Virtually all the world will worship the beast at the end, and those who refuse will suffer great persecution. Truth and the worship of the true God will be in short supply.

V. 25 continues with the observation that the antichrist will magnify himself. Again this fact parallels with Antiochus IV in v. 11. Antiochus took for himself the name “Epiphanes,” “God manifest.” Paul tells us in 2 Thess. 2.4 that the antichrist will show himself forth as God. It is ironic with all the secularism of our day, all the denial of the existence of God, that at the end the leaders will demand not just obedience, but worship.

The statement in v. 25 that the antichrist will destroy many while they are at ease has its parallel not in Dan. 8, but in 9.27, where the antichrist lulls the Jews into a false sense of security with a covenant, which he will suddenly break. We will consider this aspect of his rule in chapter 9.

His opposition to the Prince of princes continues the action of Antiochus recorded in v. 11: not only did Antiochus stop the Jewish sacrificial system, but so will the antichrist, as we again will see further in chapter 9.

Finally, v. 25 tells us that the antichrist will be broken without human hand. Dan. 8 does not tell us of the end of Antiochus, but he did in fact die of natural causes. He was dealt with by God, not man. So it will be with the antichrist. We saw in Dan. 2.34 that the final king of the fourth empire, the antichrist, will not be destroyed by human hands – he will not be assassinated – but by a stone cut out without hands. That stone is Christ, who will crush the kingdom of the antichrist at his coming, and throw that evil king alive into the lake of fire (Rev. 19.20).

Thus we see that the effect of Gentile world rule on the Jews will be continual persecution, but it is God’s effort to turn them to himself, and that the ultimate effect will be a persecution such as the world has never known that will finally achieve the purpose of God for the Jews.

We said earlier that the 2300 days did not seem to fit into the reign of Antiochus, and Dan. 8.26 indicates that they refer to the end. It still is not clear just what they mean. Any number of godly interpreters come up with different understandings. Daniel himself did not know what they meant. Perhaps God will reveal their meaning only to those who live when they occur. Whatever their exact reference, at the end the holy place will be put right. All defilement of the things of God will end and there will be an everlasting reign of righteousness.

In v. 27 there is an important lesson regarding the godly character we have emphasized all through Daniel. We are told that Daniel was exhausted and sick for days after the vision, then got up and carried on the king’s business. We noted in our study of chapter 7 that Daniel, the man so heralded for having revelations from God of the end, had his first vision when he was perhaps 65 years old, and we made the point that his lifetime of faithfulness to God had prepared him for such revelations. Now, in chapter 8, after he has another vision, what does he do? He returns to his regular job. Daniel did not spend all his time having visions or preaching or “being spiritual.” He was a government official. The point is that it was God’s will that he be a government official, and he did that job to the best of his ability in faithfulness to God. A vision from God did not require him to change his way of life. He was already doing the will of God.

We often hear someone ask what people would do if they knew Christ was coming back tomorrow. People list all the changes they would make, but of course the answer should be they would do what they have been doing all along. We should always live as though Christ would come back tomorrow, or today! No change in our life should be necessitated by the imminence of his return. That was the case with Daniel.  He lived in obedience to God all his life and a great encounter with God did nothing to alter that fact, other than to reveal it and deepen it. The passage says that he carried on the king’s business, but at the same time he was carrying on the King’s business, for at the same time Daniel was serving whatever Gentile king happened to rule the world, he was also serving the King of kings.

As we learn about the effect of Gentile world rule on the Jewish people, let us also learn godly character from their negative example and from Daniel’s example. Let us not resist and rebel against God, but yield to him in every experience, and let us, like Daniel, be found faithful in carrying out the King’s business all the time, whatever our daily occupations may be. Col. 3.23 says, “Whatever you do, work from the soul, as to the Lord and not men….”

The Seventy Sevens

Dan. 9.1-27

We noted at the beginning of the last chapter that the current part of the book of Daniel was written in the Hebrew language, indicating a change of emphasis in the book. It still deals with Gentile world rule, but in chapters 8-12, specifically how it affects the Jews. This fact should be kept in mind as we continue through Daniel.

Chapter 9 begins with the statement that its events took place in the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, a Median king. Ther are no other historical records of this Darius. Cyrus was the Persian Emperor, having gained the rule of Persia in about 559 B.C., and he himself entered Babylon a few days after it had been conquered by the Persians. The Medo-Persian consisted of two peoples, the Medes and the Persians. The Medes had dominated until Cyrus, who had led the Persians to dominance. Perhaps the facts are that Cyrus, the Emperor, had made an otherwise unknown Darius ruler in Babylon for a period of, then taken rule of Babylon himself at some point. Whatever the facts, it appears that Daniel’s final vision, which occurred in the third year of Cyrus, took place three years after the king’s degree allowing the Jews to return to their land. We will say that Cyrus was the first ruler of the Medo-Persian Empire and the time was 539 or 538 B.C. Daniel was now probably between 75 and 80 years of age. During this year Daniel noticed in the writings of the prophet Jeremiah that the captivity of Judah was to last seventy years. Since Daniel himself had been exiled in 606 B.C., that meant that 536 was the year for the exile to end, a date only two or three years after Cyrus’ conquest. As a result of this discovery, Daniel began to pray, and what great lessons about prayer we learn from his talk with God.

Before dealing with these lessons, let us first look at the seventy-year period itself. In Lev. 25.1-4, God had told Moses that when the people came into the land, the land was to have a sabbath rest. The crops were to be sown and harvested for six years, but every seventh year the land was to be allowed to rest. Scientific agriculturists today know that this is only good farming practice to keep from depleting the soil. The Jews of ancient Israel had no scientific means of knowing that, but their God did and he gave them a command that was for their good. (By the way, all of God’s commands are for our good, not to take the fun out of life.) In Lev. 26.34-35, God told Israel that if they did not give the land its sabbath rest, he himself would see to it by judging and leaving the land desolate until it had enjoyed all its sabbaths.

Jeremiah’s prophecies that the exile would last seventy years occur in Jer. 25.11-12 and 29.10. Finally, 2 Chron. 36.21 notes that what Jeremiah prophesied is exactly what took place: the land enjoyed its sabbaths for seventy years. It is also a historical fact that Cyrus, king of Persia, issued the edict in 536 B.C., seventy years after the exile began in 606 that allowed the Jews to return to their land.

We are told why the exile was to last seventy years. If over a 490-year period the Jews did not let the land rest for a year out of seven, that would mean that the land should have been left fallow 70 times – 7 times 70 is 490 years. So we can conclude that the Jews did indeed not leave the land fallow for that period. Let us now turn to Daniel’s prayer. Let us now turn to Daniel’s prayer.

In the first place this prayer of Daniel’s was one of confession and of throwing the Jews onto the mercy of God. Daniel himself was not personally guilty of the sins he confessed, having been faithful to God all of his long life, but he identified himself with his nation. He had a deep sense of the corporate nature of what God is doing among his people and confessed the sin of his nation as his own.

Daniel notes that God is perfectly righteous in his judgment of the Jews: they deserved it for their sins. They had only shame, and no position before God other than a plea for mercy. They had rebelled against God. Yet God is the God of compassion and forgiveness, and a repentant people could throw themselves on that mercy. That is what Daniel did on behalf of his people.

We see our first lesson on prayer in this very fact. Some of us may be tempted by our lives of commitment to God to think that we may have some position of merit before him. We deserve acceptance by God because we have not engaged in gross sin and have tried to serve the Lord. Never did a more godly may than Daniel appear before God, but he did so with nothing but a confession of sin and a cry for mercy. How we need to grasp firmly the truth of our utter unworthiness before God and of his great grace. “All our righteous acts are as a polluted garment” (Is. 64.6). Our only standing before God is his mercy, his grace, based on the shed blood of the Lord Jesus. Let us always approach him with confession and repentance. Thank God we can approach him because of what Christ has done, but it is exactly that, what Christ has done, not what we have done.

Daniel’s prayer was also based on a knowledge of God’s word, and thus was in agreement with the will of God. How often we pray in ignorance of what God is doing and have to add to our prayers, “If it be your will.” Certainly we should always pray that God’s will would be done, even if it does not agree with our will. That is how the Lord Jesus prayed in the garden. He had no desire to go to the cross and asked to be delivered from it, but added, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.” But what a wonderful experience it is to hear from the Lord and to know what his will is. Then we can pray in real faith, for faith is believing what God says and standing on it (Rom. 10.17). Where God has not spoken there can be no faith. God has spoken, of course, so that we can believe him in any situation, but if he does not speak about his will in a given matter, we cannot speak a word of faith, other than in general. But when God does speak we have something to stand on that will not fall.

Such was the case with Daniel. He learned from his study of Scripture that Judah’s captivity was to end after seventy years, and he knew that date was near. Thus he was able to appeal to God on that basis for the release of his people from captivity. He started with the confession that the captivity was just because of Judah’s sin, but he then moved on to calling on God for fulfillment of what he had revealed to be his will.

This matter of praying in accordance with the purposes of God is of tremendous importance. How often we pray little, selfish prayers. Our only concern is that God give us what we want, and that usually involves our comfort and deliverance from any trouble. Sometimes God’s purpose involves his use of trouble to deal with us and bring about what he has in mind. Look at Daniel himself, taken from his homeland as a young man, probably a teenager, but used greatly by God to reveal the course of world history and its end. We need to learn that God’s purposes include our good, and that if we will concern ourselves with praying, not for our own interests, but for those of God that we will have all we need. If we will concern ourselves with God he will concern himself with us. That is a better exchange than we have any right to!

Daniel perceived that God’s purpose was to end the captivity of his people in two or three years, and he began to call on God mightily for the fulfillment of that purpose. Look at the cry he makes: he calls Jerusalem God’s city in v. 16, and adds that the real problem is not that the Jews are suffering, but that they have reproached God’s name by bringing his judgment on themselves. It was God who looked bad because of the exile of Judah: we noted in our first chapter that the obvious inference from the exile was that the gods of Babylon were stronger than the God of Judah, for they had enabled their people to conquer his. Daniel is calling out for God to clear his own name by returning the people to the land.

In v. 17 he asks God to let his face shine on his desolate sanctuary for his sake, again to clear his own name of reproach. He pours out his heart in v. 18 for the city which is called by God’s name. God’s name is eternally bound up with the city of Jerusalem, and it lies in ruins. V. 19 closes the prayer with the petition, “Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and act.” Why? For God’s own sake, because the city and the people were called by God’s name. “Do not delay, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” Daniel was praying for the interests of God to be realized. How vital that is!

Watchman Nee of China prayed a prayer that beautifully illustrates Daniel’s concern about God’s interests. The Japanese had invaded China in the 1930s. In 1938 Nee was at the Keswick Convention in England. Those gathered were much concerned about the fighting in China. When Nee spoke, he led the congregation in prayer as follows:

The Lord reigns: we affirm it boldly. Our Lord Jesus Christ is reigning, and he is Lord of all” nothing can touch His authority. It is spiritual forces that are out to destroy His interests in China and Japan. Therefore we do not pray for China, we do not pray for Japan, but we pray for the interests of thy Son in China and in Japan. We do not blame any man, for they are only tools in the hand of thine enemy. We stand for thy will. Shatter, O Lord, the kingdom of darkness, for the persecutions of thy church are wounding thee. Amen. [Angus Kinnear, Against the Tide, p. 202]

Nee’s concern was for God’s interests. Daniel’s concern was for God’s interests: the Israelites had reproached God’s name by bringing his judgment on themselves. It was God who looked bad because of the exile of Judah. He asked God to let his face shine on his desolate sanctuary for his sake, again to clear his own name of reproach. “Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and act.” Why? For God’s own sake, because the city and the people were called by God’s name. “Do not delay, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” How vital it is that we turn away from concern about ourselves and turn to concern about God’s name and interests.

It was Zerubbabel, Joshua, Ezra, Nehemiah, and others who actually went back to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple and the city. So far as we know, Daniel himself never went back to the land. But even though it was these men who did the physical labor of going back and rebuilding, it was Daniel who paved the way in prayer. It was Daniel who won the battle in the heavenlies before the work on earth was done, and that is God’s way. When God is about to do something on earth, he first calls his people to prayer, and it is in response to their doing battle in prayer in the spiritual world that he acts on earth. The work on earth is not done until the battle is won in the heavenlies. Is anyone ever saved that no one has prayed for? So far as I know no revival has ever occurred that was not the result of prayer. No evil has ever been turned back that was not first encountered in prayer by the Lord’s people. How we need Christians today who understand the importance of prayer, who know that matters must first be dealt with in the spiritual world before they can be accomplished in the material. How we need Daniels who will find out what God is about to do and will assault the heavens for it to come about!

What was the result of Daniel’s prayer? The angel Gabriel appeared to him! Perhaps if we would pray as Daniel did, with genuine confession and deep desire for the purposes of God to be realized, we might hear more from God ourselves! Gabriel said to Daniel one of the most wonderful things that could ever be said to a man: in reporting on the response of Heaven to Daniel’s prayer, Gabriel said that Daniel was “desired,” that is, pleasing to God. God said of his own Son, “in whom my soul delights.” Though it is a different Hebrew word, God was saying essentially the same thing about Daniel. What more could any of us desire than to hear that God’s attitude toward us is that we are desired by him? God give us grace to hear those words one day.

Gabriel explained that he had been sent to reveal certain matters to Daniel as a result of his prayer. Daniel had been praying for the return of his people at the end of the seventy years, but God revealed to him that there would be a further return in the future that would bring all things to the final realization of God’s purpose. It was God’s purpose for the Jews to return to their land in Daniel’s time, but that would not be the ultimate fulfillment of God’s purpose, for evil would not have been fully dealt with and his people would not have been brought to genuine righteousness.

Thus it was revealed to Daniel that seventy sevens had been severed off from all other time for the Jews and for Jerusalem, “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and for your holy city to finish transgression and to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the most holy place.” Evil had not been fully dealt with nor had righteousness been fully brought in by the seventy years’ exile in Babylon, so there would be a further seventy sevens that would accomplish these objectives. It is virtually certainly that these “sevens” are sevens of years, so that the entire period is 490 years. This fact will become evident later as we point out one or two dates.

Vs. 24-27 comprise one of the major keys to understanding prophecy in the Scriptures. The fact that the seventy sevens deal with the people and the city show that Bible prophecy has to do primarily with God’s dealings with the Jews in their land, and specifically in their city. The seventieth seven of years is the last period of history as we know it and it cannot occur unless the Jews are in their land and in Jerusalem. The Jews were exiles from their land and city from A.D 135 until 1948, the land, and 1967, the city. During that time the end could not have occurred. Today they are in their land and in their city. There is nothing in prophecy preventing the beginning of the end.

Gabriel revealed to Daniel that from the issuing of a decree to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there would be a total period of sixty-nine sevens, consisting of seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. At the end of that time, Messiah would be cut off and have nothing. The decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem is recorded in Neh. 2. The date of this decree cannot be fixed exactly, but it was about 445 B.C. If we add the sixty-nine sevens, or 483 years, to 445 B.C., we get A.D. 38, a date too late for the cutting off of Messiah, who was almost certainly rejected and crucified in the early thirties. How are we to reconcile the discrepancy?

The Jewish year in the Old Testament was based on the cycles of the moon and consisted of twelve months of thirty days each. Thus the Jewish year had 360 days. Because of the disagreement between this reckoning of a year and the time it actually took the earth to travel around the sun, 365 ¼ days, they found it necessary to add an additional month from time to time, but they did not alter their scheme of twelve months of thirty days each. Thus the Jewish year consisted of 360 days.

If we multiply 483 years by 360 days each, we get 173,880 days. If we divide that number of days by the actual length of a year, 365 ¼ days, we get 476.06 years. When we add this 476 and a fraction to 445 B.C, we get A.D. 31 or 32, or perhaps 33 since the beginning date is not known exactly, the probable date of the rejection and crucifixion of Christ, Messiah the Prince. Thus we see first that the “sevens” referred to in the prophecy are sevens of years, and second, that Bible prophecy is accurate. The Lord Jesus came when Gabriel, speaking 476 years earlier, said he would. We may certainly believe the word of God, though this is only one evidence of its truth.

We are not given an explanation of the division of the sixty-nine week period into sixty-two and seven. One or two good possibilities have been suggested. Some believe that the first seven, forty-nine years, comprised the time for the rebuilding of the city. Others think that these forty-nine years take us to the end of Old Testament prophecy with the book of Malachi.

After this total period of sixty-nine weeks, Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. The Messiah is the King of Israel. When did the Lord Jesus present himself as Israel’s king? Certainly not at his birth, for he was not born in a palace, but in the obscurity of a stable in a small town outside the capital. Not during his ministry, for then he forbade the recipients of his benefits to make it known and turned back the efforts of the crowds to make him king by force (Jn. 6.15). Not through his teaching in parables, which hid the truth from those who had rejected him already. The only time that the Lord Jesus presented himself as king was at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

The prophet Zechariah had predicted that Israel’s king would come to her in humble fashion, riding on a donkey (Zech. 9.9). When the Lord Jesus made his entry into Jerusalem at the end of his ministry, he acted in deliberate fulfillment of this prophecy, thus presenting himself to the nation as its king.

When those who went before him and cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest,” he did not reject their praises, and when the priests and scribes objected, he said to them, in quotation of the messianic Psalm 8, “Out of the mouth of babies and nursing ones you have prepared praise for yourself.” In accepting praise, the Lord was claiming to be more than a king to be sure, but he was certainly presenting himself as the King of Israel.

If the Jews had been more mindful of their own prophetic Scriptures, they might have recognized their King as he rode in on the donkey, but they had become so obsessed with the idea of a Messiah who would ride great horse and lead them to victory over the hated Romans that they were blind to what God had plainly revealed to them. Thus they rejected their King, and soon thereafter crucified him. Messiah was cut off and had nothing, just as the angel revealed to Daniel. The first sixty-nine sevens had ended, leaving only the seventieth to complete God’s dealings with his earthly people.

But the final seven years did not occur at the end of the sixty-nine sevens, nor has it yet. How are we to explain this fact? The only explanation is that there is an interruption in the period of seventy sevens, a gap between the sixty-nine sevens and the seventieth. We noted above that seventy sevens have to do with God’s dealings with the Jews in their city. When they rejected their Messiah, God rejected them as Paul makes quite clear in Rom. 9-11, and ceased to deal with them, other than to preserve them as a people and to allow them to suffer persecution under Gentile rulers. When they rejected their King and cried out to Pilate, “We have no king but Caesar,” God took them at their word and allowed them to experience the misery of Gentile rule for nearly two millenniums now.

But God has not given up Israel forever. He will yet accomplish his purposes for them. Moses prophesied long ago that the Jews would be scattered throughout the world, but at the end they would be called back to their land by God (Dt. 30.1-3). That has taken place in our day, and that is why we said above that the condition for the beginning of the seventieth seven has been met. The final seven years of history as we know it could begin at any moment.

It is not dealt with in Daniel, so we will only mention it in passing, but the gap between the sixty-nine and the seventieth sevens constitutes the age of grace or the church age, in which God is calling out a people from  every tribe and tongue and people and nation to be his spiritual people, the church (Acts 15.14). When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Rom. 11.25), God will again deal with his ancient people and bring them at last to belief in their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. May that day hasten!

After saying in v. 26 that Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, Gabriel adds that “the people of the prince who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.” The fulfillment of this prophecy is open to question. In A.D 70, after a Jewish revolt, the Romans overran Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. Many believe that this event fulfilled the prophecy of Dan. 9.26, but there is one problem with this view. It is that it would require the fulfillment to have taken place outside the seventy sevens, for the first sixty-nine ended in about A.D. 33, and the seventieth has not yet begun. Thus it may be that this prophecy has yet to be fulfilled, and I am certain that that is the case. Zech. 14.2 predicts a destruction of Jerusalem at the end, and it may be that Dan. 9.26 refers to the same event.

Whatever destruction of Jerusalem the prophet refers to, it is to be done by “the prince who will come.” The prince who will come is the antichrist. His people could have been the Romans of A.D. 70, for they destroyed much of Jerusalem and the temple in that year, foreshadowing another destruction at the end of this age. The antichrist is to be the ruler of the continuation of Gentile rule in the form of the fourth empire of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Dan. 2.

Whether the destruction is past or future, the coming prince will meet his end in a flood, not of water, but of war and desolation. Just as the Lord Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars until the end, so Dan. 9.26 says that even to the end there will be wars and desolation, but in these the coming prince will meet his doom.

Dan. 9.27 adds the note that the antichrist would make a covenant with the many for one seven, that is, for the final seven years, but in the middle of the final seven years he would violate the covenant, putting a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. This fact, by the way, indicates that there will be a Jewish temple and sacrifice where the Dome of the Rock now stands. How this will come about is a matter of great interest! Just as Antiochus did in 167 B.C., so the antichrist will not only stop Jewish sacrifice, but he will also set up the abomination of desolation: he will desecrate the Jewish temple. We are not told exactly how, but 2 Thess. 2.4 does say that he himself will take his seat in the temple, setting himself forth as God. This in itself would be a desecration of the temple, an abomination of desolation.

This horror will occur in the middle of the seventieth seven, that is, after the 3 ½ years. The final 3 ½ years are the period known as the great tribulation or the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer. 30.7). It will be the greatest time of suffering the world has ever known or will know, but it will end in the destruction of the antichrist and the turning of the Jews’ hearts to God and his Messiah. The Jews have always been a stubborn people: only the severest dealings by God will bring them to him, but he will do what is necessary and they will own their Messiah and come into God’s fullest blessing in their land.

This period of 3 ½ years is referred to elsewhere in Scripture, though it is enumerated in different ways. We will not examine the various passages in connection with Dan. 9.27, but will only leave them for the reader to study on his own. The period of 1260 days is referred to in Rev. 11.3 and 12.6; the time is called 42 months in Rev. 11.2 and 13.5; and it is given the name “a time, times, and half a time” in Dan. 7.25 and 12.7 and Rev. 12.14. The comparison of all these verses is interesting and instructive.

Thus we come to the end of Dan. 9, where we learn of the seventy sevens, a key to prophecy. All is ready for the beginning of the final seven years that will end in the return of Christ to rule in righteousness and the turning of Israel to him. Paul tells us in 2 Pt. 3.12 to look for and hasten the coming of the day of God. May we examine our hearts before God, seeking to be the kind of people set forth in the book of Daniel as godly people, and praying as Daniel did in chapter 9 for the purposes of God to be realized, and thus hastening the coming of our Lord.

Daniel’s Final Vision

Dan. 10.1-12.13

Dan. 10.1 tells us that in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, Daniel had another vision, and this one turns out to be the final one recorded in Daniel’s prophecy. The Medo-Persians conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. Dan. 9.1 says that Darius the Mede was king at that time. There are no other historical records of this Darius. Cyrus was the Persian emperor, having gained the rule of Persia in about 559 B.C., and he himself entered Babylon a few days after it had been conquered by the Persians. The Medo-Persian Empire consisted of two peoples, the Medes and the Persians. The Medes had dominated until Cyrus, who had led the Persians to dominance. Perhaps the facts of the case are that Cyrus, the emperor, had made an otherwise unknown Darius ruler in Babylon for a period of time, and then taken rule in Babylon himself at some point. Whatever the exact facts, it appears that Daniel’s final vision, which occurred in the third year of Cyrus, took place three years after the king’s decree allowing the Jews to return to their land.

After telling us in v. 1 that he had a vision, Daniel goes back in v. 2 to tell us the circumstances surrounding it. He had been fasting and mourning for three weeks when the vision occurred. He does not tell us why he had been mourning and fasting, but the reason is probably related to what we wrote in the first paragraph about the date of the vision, and that is why we went into the matter. Cyrus had issued his decree for the Jews to return to their land, but only a small percentage had done so. In all likelihood Daniel was mourning and fasting over this small interest on the part of God’s people in returning to the land God had given them. All the promises of God to Israel are based on the land, yet they had become comfortable in a pagan land and had no desire to go back.

As Daniel prayed a vision began. He saw a man. This man was dressed in linen with a belt of pure gold. His body was like beryl, his face like lightning, and his eyes like flaming torches. His arms and feet were like burnished bronze, and the sound of his words was like the sound of a roaring.

Who was this figure Daniel saw? We are not told. It is so similar to John’s vision in Rev. 1.13-15 that many think it was indeed a vision of the Lord. Daniel’s response in vs. 8-9 is very much like John’s in Revelation. John fell at the feet of the Lord Jesus as though dead, and Daniel lost his strength and his color, then fell into a deep sleep at the sound of his words.

There is no reason given, however, why the man who appeared to Daniel would have been the Lord Jesus. Nothing happened or was said that would indicate such a singular occurrence. Also, the one who appeared was called a man, not one like a son of man, as we would expect Daniel to call the Lord. Thus others think that the vision was of an angel, perhaps reflecting the glory of the Lord. We take this to be the case, though certainly not dogmatically.

As Daniel lay sleeping with his face to the ground, a hand touched him and set him trembling on his hands and knees. So great was his loss of strength that he was not able to stand, nor even to kneel steadily. He trembled, though on all fours. The angel spoke to Daniel, again calling him a man to be desired, as Gabriel had done in 9.23, and telling him to understand what he was about to tell him and to stand up. Daniel was then able to stand, but he still trembled.

In v. 12 the angel began to make his revelations to Daniel. Before going into those, let us first note one or two truths about prayer that come out in his comments to Daniel. The angel said that Daniel had set his heart on understanding and had humbled himself. This matter of the heart is vital. So many of our prayers are selfish and half-hearted. Our main concern is to get what we want and to be made comfortable by God, and we do not devote ourselves to prayer. How many of us have fasted and prayed for three weeks? Daniel’s heart was set, and it was not set on getting what he wanted for himself. It was set on God’s getting what he was after. Daniel knew that God had great purposes, and that he called on his people to pray before he acted. Thus Daniel gave himself to be the prayer instrument of God who would win the battle in the spiritual world before the work could be done outwardly, as we saw in chapter 9. He had great power in prayer because his prayers were not selfish, but were devoted to the interests of God.

Daniel was also humble. We saw also in chapter 9 that, though Daniel was perhaps the godliest man in Israel at that time, he did not approach God in pride, but with deep confession of his own sin and that of his people. Daniel knew grace. He knew that he had no standing before God whatsoever in himself. His only plea was the mercy of God. The Bible says that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Prov. 3.34, Ja. 4.6, 1 Pt. 5.5). Daniel, a godly man, humbled himself, and he got through to God.

How easy it is for us to think that because we have been Christians for many years, have always tried to serve the Lord, and are not engaging in gross sin, we have some merit before God. We can approach God in our goodness. This is very subtle. We would never say such a thing, but it is so easy to do it without realizing it. But it does not matter how “good” we are: all our righteousness is filth before God (Is. 64.6). Our only standing before him is by grace and in Christ. Let us not come to God with protestations of our goodness, like the Pharisee of Lk. 18.11, but with confession and humility, even as godly Daniel did.

The angel said that Daniel had set his heart on understanding. On understanding what? We noted in vs. 1-3 that Daniel was probably praying about the small response of the people of God to the opportunity to return to their land, and this is what Daniel was trying to understand. The answer was that God had not completed his dealings with the Jews that would turn their hearts fully to him. The dealings of God during the seventy sevens and the great tribulation must take place before they would turn to God. Details of this truth are revealed to Daniel in what follows in chapters 11 and 12.

Often the Bible reveals a truth somewhat on the side as it deals with another matter. Some great truth is being set forth, and something else that is not the subject of the passage emerges as well. Such is the case in Dan. 10.13. The subject of the passage is God’s revelations to Daniel about what would happen to the Jews at the end, but another truth comes out in v. 13. The angel says that when Daniel first began to pray he was heard, and he, the angel, had been sent with the answer. But it had taken him twenty-one days to get there because he had been withstood by the prince of the kingdom of Persia. That explains why Daniel continued mourning and fasting for three weeks: it took that long for the answer to arrive. The new truth that emerges has to do with this prince of the kingdom of Persia. Who was this prince?

It seems obvious that a human prince would not withstand an angel on a mission from God. He would not even know of his presence unless it was revealed to him. This prince, then, must be an evil spirit. The Bible makes it quite clear that there is authority in the universe, both physical and spiritual, and that it is organized. Physical authority is obvious to us. All the earth is ruled by various governments. But the Lord Jesus tells us in Jn. 12.31, 14.30, and 16.11 that Satan is the ruler of this world. In 2 Cor. 4.4 Paul calls him the god of this age, and in Eph. 2.2, the ruler of the authority of the air. Paul then goes on to write in Eph. 6.12 of the rulers, the authorities, the world powers of this darkness. In Col. 1.16 he writes of thrones, lordships, rulers, and authorities in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible.

The prince of the kingdom of Persia who withstood the angel was the evil spirit who was assigned by Satan to rule Persia for him. This fact indicates that other areas or nations, perhaps all of them, have an evil spirit assigned to them by Satan. The unseen world is organized by Satan in a hierarchy of evil designed to subvert the world from God.

But God also has his forces organized. The angel revealed to Daniel that Michael, one of the chief princes, came to his aid in his battle with the prince of Persia. Jude 9 tells us that Michael is an archangel, a ruler of angels. How little we know of the unseen world, but how full of beings good and evil it is.

And the battle in this unseen world is real. It would not seem as though an evil spirit could withstand an angel of God on a mission from God, but he could. It took the intervention of an archangel for the lesser angel to accomplish his purpose. God is indeed almighty, and he has won final victory over Satan through Christ on the cross, but the war in the heavenlies is not a phony war. The fighting is real.

We need to realize as Christians that we inhabit both worlds. We have physical bodies and live in the physical realm. We are all too aware of that fact, and physical needs demand most of our time. But we are also spiritual beings and dwell in the spiritual realm. The problem is that our spirits are undeveloped and are overshadowed by our souls and bodies, and we are in a fallen condition. In addition, God calls on us to live by faith, not by sight. Thus we simply do not have as strong an awareness of the spiritual as we do of the physical. But we live there nonetheless. Our physical eyes, for example, cannot see the spiritual, but Paul prays in Eph. 1.17-18, “… that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened.” We “see” in the spiritual world with our hearts, not our physical eyes. We are engaged in a war that rages there at every moment. Not only do angels do battle with evil spirits, but so do we.

The truth we need to grasp is that the spiritual realm governs the earthly, as Dan. 4.26 makes clear. That is what we saw in chapter 9, with Daniel doing the prayer work before Zerubbabel and the others could do the physical work. Daniel won the battle in the heavenlies before they won it on earth. In all the affairs of our lives, where we feel so opposed and oppressed, we need to understand that we are indeed opposed and oppressed, by evil spiritual beings. We must fight back, and the battle is real. Praise our God, however, that he has already won the victory and if we will only fight on in faith, not trying to gain victory, but trusting in the victory already won, then the outcome is certain. It is difficult. Satan’s lies are so convincing, especially as he plays on emotions and circumstances. Our hurts and heartaches are real. Our trials are hard to bear. The battle is real. But victory is sure, if only we rely on the Lord. He does give the grace to prevail, even when we feel that we are only holding on by our fingernails. In truth God is holding on to us with a grip that cannot be loosened by all the powers in the heavens and on the earth, and he will not allow us to go through more than we can bear. He only designs to refine the gold of his own nature that he has placed in us by his indwelling Spirit. He means only to fit us for the throne of eternity, even as his own beloved Son was matured through suffering (Heb. 2.10).

That is the truth that comes to us by the way in Dan. 10.13. We inhabit a spiritual world that is organized by good and evil and is locked in mortal combat. Let us seek the Lord that he might show us how to fight as good soldiers of the Lord Jesus and to prevail.

Then the angel reveals to Daniel in v. 14 that what he is about to show him relates to “your people,” that is, the Jews, at the end of the days. Thus we are told the subject of the passage. It deals with the Jews and it deals with the end of this age.

Just as vs. 8-9 showed Daniel’s response to the beginning of the vision, so do vs. 15-17 show his response to its continuation. He lowered his head and became speechless. He confessed that he was in anguish and had no strength, or even breath. Then the angel touched him again and strengthened him and began to speak to him again. Before getting to his main point, he made one more statement to Daniel that sheds a bit more light on what we have been saying about the battle in the heavenlies and about the spiritual realm governing the earthly. In v. 20 the angel said, “I will return to fight with the prince of Persia, and when I go forth, look, the prince of Greece will come.” In other words, God’s time for the end of Persian rule and the beginning of Greek rule would come, and when it did, he would have his angel contend with the prince of Persia, not the human prince, but the spiritual, taking him out of the way so that the prince of Greece could make way for the human armies of Greece to conquer the Persian Empire. The heavens do indeed rule the earth (Dan. 4.26).

Dan. 10.21b-11.1 is a parenthesis that continues the same line of thought. We find that the archangel Michael is the prince of Israel, and thus that God has assigned an archangel to look out for his earthly people. Then we see in 11.1 that the angel who is speaking with Daniel has encouraged and protected Darius the Mede in his first year of rule. It was the Persians who allowed the Jews to return home. The Babylonians did not. When God’s time for the Jews to return came, he removed the Babylonians and brought in a kingdom that would deal kindly with his people. But Darius was ruling in Babylon, a conquered city where there would be hatred and intrigue. The angel made sure that the ruler of this people who would issue the edict allowing the return was safe on his throne. The heavens rule the earth.

At the beginning of v. 21 the angel said to Daniel that he would reveal to him what was written in the writing of truth. Then we have the parenthesis of 10.21b-11.1, and then 11.2 takes up the thread of 10.21a, and 11.2-45 deals with the course of history on to the end. There is disagreement, though, on just what segments of that history are covered. Most interpreters agree that vs. 2-4 deal with Persian rule from the time Daniel had this vision through the passing of the empire of Alexander the Great to his four generals. V. 2 says that there will be four more Persian kings, the fourth of which will stir the empire against Greece, and that is exactly what took place historically. Xerxes, the fourth Persian king from the time of Daniel’s vision, led an attack on Greece, but was defeated at the battle of Salamis in 480 B.C. There were other Persian kings after Xerxes, but Daniel’s vision included only the four who would lead up to Xerxes. Perhaps the reason for mentioning only these four is that it was the attack on Greece that was later used by Alexander as an excuse for attacking Persia, the ancient motive of revenge.

V. 3 speaks of Alexander. He was indeed a mighty king, but as v. 4 says, his reign did not last long. Alexander was truly one of the remarkable men of history. He began his military conquests at the age of only twenty, and by the time he was thirty-three, he ruled all the area from Greece to India, by far the largest empire in the world up to that time. But Alexander died in Babylon at the age of thirty-three. No one was able to gain control of his vast empire, and eventually it was divided among four of his generals after about twenty years of strife. Just as Dan. 11.4 says, it did not go to his descendants, nor did his successors have his authority.

The disagreement begins at v. 5. One group thinks that Daniel’s vision deals with the time of the end from this point on to the end of the chapter. If that is the case, then vs. 5-20 tell of battles that will lead up to the appearance of the antichrist, who comes on the scene in v. 21, with vs. 21-45 covering his rule. The other group believes that vs. 5-35 prophesy history that has now happened, namely, the period from the division of Alexander’s empire in v. 4 through the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes that we dealt with in chapter 8. The abomination of desolation in v. 31 would then be his desecration of the temple in 167 B.C. Since Antiochus prefigures the antichrist, once the history came to him, the vision of Daniel passes at that point to the end, with the antichrist appearing in v. 36. Both groups are agreed that vs. 36-45 are concerned with the antichrist. In favor of the first view is Dan.10.14, where the angel tells the prophet that the vision has to do with the end, but this verse does not preclude the other view, since, in its interpretation, the vision passes on to the end when the type of the antichrist appears.

It is probably not possible, or necessary, to resolve this question. Godly men who believe the Bible hold both views. How are we to decide between them? The real point, whatever the exact details may be, is that the antichrist will indeed arise and have a definite effect on the Jews. We have noted that the language of Daniel changes from Aramaic to Hebrew in chapter 8, indicating a change of emphasis in the book from the fact of Gentile rule to its effect on the people of God. That is what we see in Dan. 11.

We can scan through the chapter from v. 21 and see some of the characteristics of the antichrist. We need not dwell on these at length, having done so in other chapters, but will simply mention them. V. 21 says that he will be despicable. Also, in keeping with his being called a little horn, we see that he was not born a king, but will rise slowly through intrigue.

V. 23 speaks of his deceptiveness through breaking alliances. He will plunder his lands, v. 24 says. In v. 25, and all through the passage, we see that he will be a man of battle, always bringing the misery of war to his and other people.

His opposition begins to be seen in v. 28. The holy covenant has to do with God’s requirements of the Jewish people. The antichrist will be against the law of God and will try to force the Jews to abandon it. V. 30 stresses the same point. The ships of Kittim of that verse, to which Num. 24.24 should be compared, may refer to ancient Rome, if the view is right that the passage deals with ancient history up through v. 35. Kittim is originally the Old Testament name for the island of Cyprus, and came to be applied to all the islands and then the coastlands of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and probably also to Rome, which would have had to pass through the eastern Mediterranean to reach the middle east. It did in fact take place that in 168 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes invaded Egypt, but was turned back by a Roman fleet, to whom the Egyptian rulers had appealed for help. Of course, if the view that as yet unfulfilled prophecy begins in v. 5 is correct, then the ships of Kittim will refer to a navy not presently identifiable.

The opposition of the antichrist to God is continued in v. 31, where we again see the abomination of desolation, the destruction of the Jewish temple and the stopping of sacrificial worship there.

The pride and self-exaltation of the antichrist become especially prominent in vs. 36-37. Even though he will exalt himself as God, vs. 38-39 tell us that he himself will have a god, a god of fortresses. Who is this god of fortresses whom the antichrist will worship? In Mt. 4.8-9, we read of the temptation of the Lord Jesus in the wilderness by Satan, and specifically, of Satan’s offer to the Lord of all the kingdoms of the world in return for his worship. Satan knew that the Lord Jesus had been chosen by God to rule the world, and his temptation was an attempt to get the Lord to come into what God had planned for him by a way other than God’s way. Satan has always craved the worship that is due to God alone, and one way of looking at the history of the universe, including eternity past, is to see it as a battle for worship. Satan wants more than anything to displace God and be acknowledged as the one worthy of worship. Thus he made this offer to the Lord Jesus, an offer he could have made good on. Our Lord refused the offer.

As the end of history as we know it approaches, another will arise who will receive the same offer, and he will accept. That one will be the antichrist, the one who will worship Satan, the god of fortresses, in return for rulership of the kingdoms of the world.

Why is Satan called a god of fortresses? He always sets up strongholds of evil, whether it be the spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and volitional that Paul refers to in 2 Co. 10.4-5, or physical forts that men build in pursuit of the Satan-inspired wars. Who is behind all the wars that have plagued human history from the beginning and will last to the very end? Not God! Satan is the instigator of men killing each other for selfish gain, and the prophets tell us that when Christ rules, men will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks, and men will no longer learn war. Satan is the god of fortresses that the antichrist will worship.

V. 41 says that when the antichrist makes his final invasion of the Holy Land, Edom, Moab, and Ammon will be rescued from him. These peoples have always been bitter enemies of the Jews, even helping Nebuchadnezzar in his conquest of them and rejoicing over it. So perhaps they will actually be allies of the antichrist against the Jews, and thus will escape his wrath. But God has spoken judgment against them for their opposition to his people. They may escape from the antichrist, but they will not escape from God.

Despite all his greatness and conquests, v. 45 tells us that the antichrist will come to his end with no one to help him.

What is the effect of Gentile rule, brought to a climax in the wicked ruler, on the Jews? In the first place, whatever interpretation of Dan. 11 is correct, all are agreed that the kings of the north and the south so often referred to, are the rulers of Syria and Egypt, not necessarily the Syria we know today, but the area north of Israel, including perhaps parts of Asia Minor (what we know as Turkey), modern Syria, and Lebanon, and stretching on to Babylon in modern Iraq, that is, roughly the empire of one of Alexander’s successors, and that of his descendant Antiochus Epiphanes. The effect on the Jews simply is that the Holy Land that lies between Syria and Egypt will be the highway and battlefield of these two warring nations. They will be enemies at the end, and the Jews will be caught in the middle. Much destruction and suffering will result.

We read in Dan. 11.14 that during one of the battles between Egypt and Syria, violent men among the Jews will aid the king of the north in an effort to fulfill the vision, but they will fail. One effect of Gentile rule will be that many Jews will trust in men to deliver them, but the Scriptures make it clear, as does this verse, that the hope of the Jews is not in their own violence and intrigue, or in any help of men, but in God. The Jews will not be delivered by their own efforts, but by the intervention of their God.

We noted above that we see again the abomination of desolation in 11.31. It is not clear today how it will come about, since there is a Moslem mosque on the temple site, but the Bible indicates that there will be a Jewish temple at the end, and that this is the only possible site for it. The Jews will apparently be offering sacrifices to God in their temple at the end, but the antichrist will stop the sacrifice and desecrate the temple, just as Antiochus IV did. The Lord Jesus himself referred to this future abomination of desolation in Mt. 24.15 and Mk. 13.14.

In 11.32 we see both apostasy and faithfulness in Israel during the great tribulation. The antichrist will be what we call a smooth talker and will turn many Jews away from God to godlessness, but at the same time there will be faithful Jews who know their God and take action. They will stand against the evil of the antichrist.

Finally, in vs. 33-35, we read of men of understanding who will arise during these troubled times to teach the Jews the way of God. They will help many follow the Lord, even though they themselves will be persecuted and many will give their lives. God has always had a faithful remnant, even in the worst of times, and that will be the case in the great tribulation. Often it is the worst of times that brings out the best that God has built into his people. The most precious metals are those tried by fire.

So we see many effects of Gentile rule on the Jews in this chapter, but the ultimate effect is that it will purify the remnant who are faithful to God. The antichrist will meet his end with none to help him. The faithful Jews will meet their God.

What we call the twelfth chapter of Daniel continues the vision begun in chapter 10, but it goes back a bit. The end of the antichrist is reached in 11.45, and 12.1 describes the situation of the Jews during the last 3 ½ years of his rule. It will be a time of great distress such as never will have taken place up to that time. We know this period as the great tribulation.

The angel reveals to Daniel that Michael, the prince who stands over Israel, will arise at that time. He does not say why, but the reason appears to be that the great tribulation will bring Israel to the brink of extermination, but that Michael, who watches over them, will prevent that from taking place. The Jews whose names are found written in the book will be rescued. God will preserve a faithful remnant, as he always has, and they will be saved from those terrible times. Zech. 13.8-14.3 tells us that two-thirds of the Jews will be killed, Jerusalem “will be taken and the houses plundered and the women ravished, and half of the city will go into captivity.” But the remaining third will be perfected by the flames of tribulation, and the Lord himself will fight for Israel against the nations gathered against her.

V. 2 of Dan. 12 is of great interest, for it tells us of a resurrection of the Jews, and this appears to be a post-tribulation resurrection. It seems that after the great tribulation and the final battle of this age, the faithful Jews who had died over the centuries will be raised to new life and their share in the millennial kingdom. The aspect of this prophecy that is most interesting is the fact of resurrection itself. The doctrine was unknown to many in the times of the Old Testament. There are only glimmers of it in the Old Testament and it is not a developed doctrine. Most Old Testament Jews believed that this life was all one had and that his rewards and punishments came in this life. That is the underlying reason for David’s cries in the psalms as to why the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper. The righteous should be rewarded in this life and the wicked should be punished.

But here in Dan. 12.2 is a clear statement of resurrection. We can see something new being revealed by God. The doctrine that is the basis of Christian faith had begun to be grasped by the time of Daniel. Job has asked the question, “If a man die will he live?” (14.14), and the Lord had said to Isaiah, “Your dead will live. Their dead bodies will arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is as the dew of lights and the earth will cast forth the dead” (Is. 26.19). And now in Daniel we find that Jews will indeed be raised from the dead to eternal life.

V. 3 recalls to our minds Dan. 11.33-35, where we saw that during the great tribulation there will be those who have insight who give true direction to the Lord’s people. Many of these will pay with their lives for their faithfulness to God. Now v. 3 says that when the resurrection of Jews occurs after the tribulation and final battle, these who were faithful teachers during the times of distress “will shine as the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever.” Faithfulness to God in difficulty will lead to a rich, eternal reward.

Daniel is told in v. 4 to conceal and seal up what has been revealed to him. That is, what is written in the book of Daniel is not to be understood until the times of its fulfillment. It is obvious that what was revealed to Daniel could not have been understood at that time. So many events of world history were not revealed that are necessary to an understanding. But there does seem to be an opening of the book of Daniel and other prophecies in the last couple of hundred years, leading to the belief that the end is indeed near.

There have been at least two interpretations of the statement that knowledge will increase. One is that man’s knowledge in general will grow, and that has certainly been the case. The knowledge explosion is such in our day that what one knows is almost obsolete by the time he knows it, and sometimes professionals cannot even keep up with the discoveries in their own fields: there is not time to read everything that comes out.

The other understanding of this statement is that it refers to the prophecies of Daniel themselves. What has been sealed up will be opened at the end and understanding of the prophecy will increase. That, too, has been the case. Over a hundred years ago, for example, long before Israel returned to her land or was even thinking about it, students of prophecy began to see that that must take place before the end could come. In our day that has taken place and we have a greater understanding of it than people could have before this truth became clear. There are things that the Bible predicts that seem impossible of fulfillment to us today, but just as the return to Israel occurred, so will events change to make those predictions not only possible, but actual. We cannot judge the Bible by what we understand today. Some of it is concealed and will be revealed only when it is the time for the events to occur, or even after they occur. Then those who know the Bible will say, “Ah, now I understand. That is what that passage meant.”

Vs. 5-6 reveal to us an interesting truth about the angels: they do not know everything either. They had to ask another angel, and what they asked was how long the events in the vision would last.

The answer to their question is given by the angel speaking to Daniel in v. 7, and is in two parts. First is the temporal reference, that they would last for a time, times, and half a time, that is, 3 ½ years, a period we have already seen in Dan. 7.25, and one that is repeated in Rev. 12.14. That is the time of the great tribulation.

The second part of the answer shows us the purpose of these tribulations: they will last until “they have completely shattered the power of the holy people.” Certainly one reason for the tribulation will be God’s judgment on wickedness, but in addition, as we saw in Zech. 13.9, and perhaps more importantly, it will be a time of God’s final refinement of his people. The fires of tribulation will be purifying fires.

The problem of the Jewish people all through their history has been their reliance on their ability to gain God’s favor by works of righteousness. When Moses first gave the law, the response of the people to his commands was, “All that I AM has spoken we will do and we will be obedient” (Ex. 24.7). They did not confess their inadequacy and throw themselves on the mercy of God. They said, “We can do it,” and their entire history has been the record of their failure to do so and their unwillingness to turn from self-reliance. They are still depending, those who believe in God, and many do not, on their own works of righteousness. One of the purposes of the great tribulation will be to shatter “the power of the holy people,” this confidence in the ability of the flesh to please God by good works. The tribulation that is designed to shatter their confidence has been going on all through Jewish history, ever since Nebuchadnezzar came onto the scene in 606 B.C. right through the tribulation of our era, but it will take the tribulation such as has never been before and never will be again to break the stiff neck of the Jews and show them their need of grace. When that moment comes they will recognize and acknowledge their Messiah and a fountain of cleansing will be opened to them. They will be washed in the blood of the Lamb, and that will be life from the dead (Zech. 13.1, Rom. 11.12, 15). May the Lord hasten that day!

In 10.1 Daniel told us that he understood the vision he had, but now in 12.8 he says that he could not understand, so he asked what will be the final end. Apparently he means that what he understood was that there would be Gentile rule over his people, characterized by war and persecution and climaxing in a final king motivated by the greatest evil in human history, but what he did not understand was the final outcome. Daniel was told in chapters 2 and 7 that an eternal kingdom of righteousness would succeed that of the final wicked king, but he was not given any details, so he appears to be searching for more comprehension of what would take place after the events revealed in this vision. But the angel said that these events were sealed up till the end, a repetition of v. 4. Daniel was told primarily about God’s dealings with the Jews during the seventy weeks, not about the church era that came between the sixty-ninth and seventieth or about the millennium.

V. 10 shows us a process that goes on all through history and in each individual’s life that will be intensified at the end, that of purifying. The fires of God always burn. Those who are wicked are destroyed by them. The righteous are refined. Every individual Christian can testify to that truth in his own life. We can see it applied to the Jews of the Old Testament: what was the Babylonian exile but God’s judgment on sin and refining of the remnant? We see it in the New Testament applied to the church. The church is baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire, that is, the Holy Spirit as the life and power of God, but also as the purging fire of God on sin in his people. That process will reach its climax in the great tribulation. The wicked will not understand what is going on and will be destroyed by it, but the people of God will understand, and they will lift up their heads, for their redemption draws near.

Vs. 11-12 have long been a mystery. There is a reference to 1290 days and 1335. We are familiar with the 1260 days, the last 3 ½ years of this age. But there is no explanation in the Bible of the 1290 and 1335, which add thirty days and forty-five days to the 1260. There is a possible answer. In his book The Pre-wrath Rapture of the Church, Marvin Rosenthal writes that thirty days is the normal mourning time for the Jews. In Num. 20.29 we read that when Aaron died, “And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, all the house of Israel.” We see the same in Dt. 34.8, “And the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days.” Zech. 12.10 tells us that when the Lord Jesus returns, “I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication, and they will look to me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” The faithful remnant of Jews will mourn for what they have done when they recognize the Lord coming in the clouds. Rosenthal believes that there will be a thirty-day period of mourning.

Then we have forty-five extra days. We have dealt with the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes and the coming desecration by the antichrist. Hanukkah is not a biblical holiday for the Jews, but after this desecration, when the temple was cleansed and sacrifice restored, Hanukkah was created and celebrated seventy-five days after Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Rosenthal believes that this historical cleansing of the temple, seventy-five days after Yom Kippur, will be repeated when the Lord returns. The thirty-day mourning period plus and an extra fifteen days for the cleansing of the temple make the forty-five days, equaling 1335 days. The final 1260 days of the final seven years, plus 30 is 1290, and the extra fifteen making a total of forty-five is 1335. I do not know that this can be proved, but it seems very plausible to me. There are other possibilities that do not carry weight in my opinion. This is an opinion, not known fact. It may be that these two numbers are sealed up, as Dan. 12.9 says, and will be understood only when they are about to take place, or maybe they have already taken place and we don’t know it, but that does seem to me to be the case. As one of my favorite writers says, “The day will tell.”

Daniel closes with an admonition and a promise of great comfort. This old man of God, perhaps eighty-five or ninety years old, who has served God faithfully for all of these years, is told to go his way. That is, he is to go on doing the will of God just as he has done for the remainder of his days. Then he will enter into his rest, the rest of death, but, probably unknown to Daniel, in the Lord’s presence, only to rise again to receive his reward at the end. This man of God who was one of the few in the Old Testament to have even an inkling of the idea of resurrection is told that he himself will rise, and that he will receive what the Lord has for him. What a fitting conclusion to a life lived for God, and to a book that records the visions given to one who lived such a life. May the Lord give us the grace to learn the spiritual lessons Daniel learned, to live as faithfully as he lived, and to know the same promises as he knew, resurrection and eternal reward. Above all, may our lives count for God as Daniel’s did.

Copyright © 2021 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any part of it.

Old Testament quotations are the author’s updates of the American Standard Version.

Quotations from the New Testament are the author’s translations.