Delve Into The WritingsSýnishorn

DAY 16 – DANIEL

The first part of the book of Daniel presents six stories of how God preserved, protected, and promoted four Judeans who were taken into exile in Babylon as young men. These Judeans were Daniel, the book’s main character, and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Because they were faithful to God and refused any compromise with idol worship, God miraculously delivered them from deadly perils and gave them special abilities. Daniel was given the ability to interpret dreams, and this earned him a valued place in the royal court of Babylon. The stories tell how he later served in the court of the Persian Empire as well. 

The book then becomes a different kind of writing: apocalyptic (which means “unveiling”). It describes four revelations that Daniel received from God through angels about the future in the later years of his life. Three of these were explanations of visions Daniel had just seen; the other communication came in response to Daniel’s fervent prayer for the return of his people to their land. Daniel’s visions, just like a king’s dream that he interprets in one of the earlier stories, trace the succession of empires after Babylon and Persia. Their particular concern is the eventual emergence of an arrogant and ruthless ruler who will seek to end the worship of the true God in Israel. The angels promise Daniel that while this will be a time of great suffering, God ultimately will deliver all those who remain faithful. 

Although these visions are presented in cryptic language and symbolic terms, the outlines of Near Eastern history from the time of the exile forward are discernible within them: the empires of Babylon and Persia; the conquests of Alexander the Great; and the recurring strife between two successor dynasties of Alexander’s empire, the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria. From this perspective, the evil ruler anticipated in the visions would be the Seleucid emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who, in one of the great crises of Jewish history, desecrated the Jerusalem temple in 167 BC. This led to the Maccabean revolt, which eventually restored the nation’s independence and preserved the worship of the true God.

But the visions in Daniel can also be understood to anticipate the coming of conditions that will prevail at the end of human history, and to indicate that this will be a time of a definitive conflict between the people of God and their enemies in this world. Both the visions and the stories in the book of Daniel therefore offer a message of challenge and consolation to those who are reflecting on this coming time. They particularly challenge and console those who are already living in situations where they’re suffering for their faithfulness. When they’re intimidated and tempted to compromise, readers of the book are meant to say, with the same confidence that the young Judeans did, “The God we serve is able to deliver us... but even if he does not... we will not serve your gods.” They can be assured, from the book of Daniel, that God’s kingdom is “an everlasting kingdom,” and that one day “all rulers will worship and obey him.”

PRAYER: You are truly a great God, able to save.