The book of Daniel

The book of Daniel is a fascinating story of how a young man taken into captivity from Judah to Babylon withstood all the odds stacked against him to remain devoted unto the God of his fathers contrary to the environment he found himself in. Undaunted by his circumstances, Daniel even flourished in the palace courts of heathen kings and rose into the office of a prophet. As a youth removed from the familiar surroundings of Judah, it would have been effortless to throw caution in the wind and live recklessly, with the king’s delicacies being at his disposal, but Daniel’s unwavering faith in the God of his fathers was a marvel to behold as together with his friends defied odds and remained resolute to their religion.

The unflinching nature of Daniel and his friends’ faith came to the fore when Nebuchadnezzar issued an ultimatum to slay the wise men of Babylon on account of the failure to interpret the king’s dream. With Daniel and his friends still in their apprenticeship stage in learning the culture and language of the Babylonians, the challenge could not have come at a more inopportune time. As divine interruptions would have it, the downfall of the wisemen of Babylon became the very crest upon which Daniel and his companion rode on as their earlier resolution not to indulge themselves in Babylonian food and culture. God in his infinite wisdom orchestrated their promotion which would save as a prima donna to the king of Babylon, lest in his unbridled pride he would dare to think that the arm of his gods was mightier than of the people of Judah he conquered.

Even after Daniel’s interpretation of the king’s dream, a prevailing air of invincibility still prevailed in the king’s palace as made gigantic statue and compelled all men to worship it. If God had be introduced by Daniel’s interpretation of the king’s dream, in saving the three Hebrew young men from a fiery furnace, his stock and estimation could only rise higher, Babylon was getting acquainted with the true and living God. With Nebuchadnezzar failing to take heed that divinity had stepped into his palace courts, a chilling lesson awaited him when had another dream of a huge tree that birds of the air nestled in and provided shelter for the beasts of the field. When Daniel interpreted the dream and frankly warned the king the dream was about him and his unbridled ego being brought down and even advised him to amend his ways, the king’s characteristic flaws remained largely untouched. After the abasement of Nebuchadnezzar through insanity and feeding with beasts, his dominion was restored when his sanity returned after seven years. The message finally sunk home of who called the shots in governing of nations.

Belshazzar the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, later fell into the same trap of treating holy vessel as to celebrate his gods and once again the divine hand was seen scribbling the sentence of the king of Babylon and his kingdom which was handed over to the Medes and Persians. In furore that transpired as king’s knees knocked against each other and his visage astonished, it was again Daniel who had by now retired from politics by reason of age who came to deliver to the king that his executioners were on the threshold of his kingdom. These divine acts of judgment by God using Daniel as the conduit of delivering and interpreting them, exonerated God’s character in handing over Judah to the Babylonians.

Aside from the historical events in place courts, Daniel 7 begins a series of visions which Daniel saw of the rise and fall of kingdoms. Beginning with the Babylonian empire, the Persian, the Greek and the Roman, Daniel saw these empires portrayed as beasts each succeeding the other. Attention shifted to heaven as Daniel beheld the Messiah being brought to the Ancient of Days (God the Father) to receive a kingdom, glory and power which we encounter in the New Testament as the Kingdom of heaven. In the final Gentile kingdoms portrayed by the ten horns in the 7th chapter, a little horn emerged which toppled three of the ten horns which denotes the emergence of the Antichrist whose kingdom shall be the last Gentile kingdom to oppress Israel before the Messiah establishes His kingdom on earth for a thousand years. The eighth chapter expounds on two of the four beasts (kingdoms) in the 7th chapter, namely the Persian and the Greek empires.

The 9th chapter reveals the concern of Daniel about the restoration of Judah, the temple and his people following the expiry of the 70 years of exile decreed by Jeremiah the prophet. The angel Gabriel came to elucidate to Daniel what would befall his people to the later days. In the 70 weeks of prophesy that were decreed on Daniel’s people, an astonishing demonstration of God’s foreknowledge was displayed in predicting the day in which the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem as king in the triumphal entry. The death of the Messiah at the end of the 69th  week not for Himself, being followed by a parentheses of 2000 years in which the Gospel went to the Gentiles until the fullness of Gentiles have come into the kingdom of Christ. The 70th week will be defined by the feature of the Antichrist who will make a treaty with Israel for 7 years which he breaks in the middle of that period. Persecution of Israel will then follow in the remainder of that period until the Messiah annihilates the Antichrist and his forces at the battle of Armageddon.

From the 10th to the 12th chapters, Daniel received revelations of the great wars that were to be fought primarily between Syria and Egypt in which the land of Israel was caught up in the feuds as some of these battles were fought in their territory and influenced who controlled them. The last 3 ½ years of the 70th week of Daniel’s prophesy shall bring great distress upon the nation of Israel termed in Jeremiah 30:7 a time of Jacob’s trouble. In that time, Michael the archangel and prince of Israel will protect Israel as they flee from their land following the setting up of the Abomination of desolation in the 3rd Jewish temple by the Antichrist. The book of Daniel concludes with the death of the Antichrist and the number of days of mourning and burying the dead that will follow before the setting up of the Messianic kingdom on earth.

This is an incredible read for anyone who would like to delve in deeper into understanding the mysteries revealed in the book of Daniel.