Daniel

The book of Daniel is the foremost book of prophecy in the Old Testament. What the book of Revelation is to the New Testament canon, the book of Daniel is to the Old Testament canon. The prophecies of Daniel reveal more future events, in exceptional detail and in greater concentration, than any other book of the Bible.

Daniel explains how God's plan for Israel, God's plan for the Gentile nations and God's plan for His coming Kingdom unite in history. In fact, without the book of Daniel, it would be literally impossible to understand the rest of biblical prophecy, much less God's program for history; therefore, a proper understanding of all prophecy hinges on obtaining a proper understanding of the book of Daniel.

Daniel is particularly important for its comprehensive unveiling of the political future of the major powers on the earth. The book accurately predicts the rise and fall of world empires spanning thousands of years of human history. Its predictions about coming world empires were so accurate that biblical critics in the 18th century concluded the book must be a forgery.

These men (who denied the existence of prophecy in the Bible) proposed that Daniel was written during the Maccabean period, years after the events in the book had already come to pass, but the book's undeniable historical accuracy is not the result of a human hoax.

It's the power and wisdom of God revealed through a prophet, because when your source happens to be the Author of human history, perfect accuracy is to be expected. The Lord wanted Daniel to relay his perfect insight to us, so we might understand God's purposes in appointing the rise and fall of nations.

The book is like a roadmap, explaining historical signposts and intersections of peoples. Daniel is also our “decoder ring” for interpreting Revelation, as these are the only two apocalyptic books in the Bible. Daniel explains many critical events of the end times not addressed by any other book of the Bible which explains why Daniel is the most-quoted OT book of prophecy by the NT authors. Finally, Daniel contains more fulfilled prophecies than any other book of the Bible.

Daniel's choice to use different languages also tells us that the book was written to two audiences. At the time of Daniel's writing, Judah was living in captivity in Babylon, so the Jewish people learned both languages, but the Babylonians could only understand their native Aramaic. Daniel was the only Jewish prophet who delivered his prophecies to a Gentile employer, rather than directly to the Jewish people. We can conclude that the chapters written in Aramaic were intended by Daniel to be understood by both Jews and Babylonians, while the Hebrew chapters were directed to the Jews alone.

The book has two messages:

Daniel explains God's future plan for Israel in delivering the promised Kingdom, but only after a period of judgment. Daniel demonstrated how God's people are to live in faith even now while they await the Kingdom.

The book has two themes:

The first theme is the sovereignty of God, as evidenced by His control over the rise and fall of earthly powers according to His timetable. God will ultimately triumph over evil, even if for a time, it appears that evil has the upper hand.

The second theme is God's grace for His people, as evidenced by His response to their prayers and His faithfulness to His promises.

-At various points in the book, God responds to prayer, reminding us that even as God is writing history, He gives attention to our place within it-