Daniel | Prophetic Visions and Unshakable Faith: Unlocking the Book of Daniel!

• What is the main message of the book of Daniel?
• How did Daniel remain faithful in Babylon?
• What are the prophecies in the book of Daniel?
• Did Nebuchadnezzar convert to Christianity?

Daniel is one of the most prophetic books in the Bible, revealing God’s sovereignty over history, kings, and kingdoms. It follows Daniel, a young Israelite exiled to Babylon, who rises to influence while staying faithful to God. From his commitment to prayer to interpreting dreams and visions, Daniel’s life exemplifies honoring God in a hostile culture.

Daniel’s life models faithfulness and wisdom as he serves kings like Nebuchadnezzar and Darius. Despite pressure to conform, he and his friends refuse to worship false gods. His integrity earns the respect of rulers, leading to moments where even pagan kings recognize God’s power. He navigates an anti-God empire without abandoning his beliefs, trusting in God’s sovereignty, leading to miraculous rescues and divine interventions.

Daniel’s prophetic visions are among the Bible’s most detailed. His interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream outlines the rise and fall of world empires, culminating in God’s eternal kingdom. Later visions expand on this, describing historical events so accurately that skeptics question their authenticity. His prophecies foreshadow Jesus’ coming and the ultimate triumph of God’s kingdom over all earthly powers.

A key lesson from Daniel is the power of prayer. His prayer in chapter 9 reveals humility and deep scriptural understanding. His consistent prayer life, even under threat of death, highlights the importance of spiritual disciplines. His ability to interpret visions was a divine gift used to reveal God’s power to rulers. His story encourages unwavering faith in uncertain times.

Ultimately, Daniel is a powerful reminder that God is in control, even when earthly rulers seem dominant. It urges believers to stay faithful, trusting that God is fulfilling His purposes. Whether through miracles, prophecy, or devotion, Daniel’s life is a blueprint for standing firm in faith. His story reassures that, in the end, God's kingdom will prevail, and His people will not be shaken.

#BibleStudy #BookOfDaniel #GodsSovereignty #Prophecy #Faithfulness #EndTimes #BiblicalHistory #ChristianLiving #TrustInGod #SpiritualGrowth

Transcript

 GWS- Daniel

GWS- Daniel

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, you're listening to God's Whole Story. This year, we're taking a book by book journey throughout Scripture to see how God uses the story of Scripture to accomplish His purposes. If you enjoy the content, we would love to partner with you. Look at the show notes to see how you can do that, and we hope you enjoy this episode.

Welcome back. This week, we are doing a Deep ish dive into Daniel. It doesn't feel fair to call it a deep dive, because you can also look at our old episodes and go chapter by chapter if you want. Chapter by chapter ish. And we should probably even go deeper than that. I'm sure we could go, but uh, if you enjoyed Ezekiel, you're in a treat for Daniel.

Again, we're just tracking through the way the books are written, so we're jumping here into Daniel. Daniel is gonna jump around a little bit as well. Um, Daniel is Um, similar to Ezekiel actually, he's, he's writing from being in exile and you know, a lot of us are familiar with Daniel because of Daniel in the lion's den, uh, but there [00:01:00] is in fact many more things covered in the book of Daniel than just the lion's den.

Not to, not to take attention away from the lions, but there's some other things that are worth paying attention to in this book as well. Yeah. I think Daniel is, um, Like we get a few glimpses into Daniel's life, but it's actually pretty amazing. Daniel has a very long ministry. Uh, there is no hint of scandal, uh, in Daniel's life in the pages of scripture, which that's rare.

Uh, so we want to call it out, um, but so much of why Daniel's able to do what he does is probably because of everything that's not written, uh, that he is faithfully serving a pagan king in Babylon, and it gets him in, he is there in the midst of things when God says, Hey, now, now is a moment for you to interpret a dream or for you to do something.

Um, but it's the day in and day out faithfulness. to someone who wasn't a Christian, uh, someone who didn't worship the God that Daniel did, but he is [00:02:00] faithfully serving here, uh, and it, it enables him to be used by God. Uh, so Daniel is similar to Ezekiel in the sense that, uh, he is in Babylon, where Ezekiel is by the river with the exiles.

Daniel's in the palace. Daniel and his three friends are taken captive there. They are Babylonian ized, uh, they are taught the religion of the Babylonians. They are meant to eat the food of the Babylonians, which they refuse to do. Um, they, yeah, they're given Babylonian names, actually. Um, interestingly enough, we refer to Abednego by their Babylonian names.

Uh, but Daniel by his birth name. That's so odd, but that is definitely a thing. It doesn't make sense to me, but that's how we do it. And, uh, they, he is there in the palace serving literally the most powerful man on planet Earth at this time. Uh, the Babylonian king at this time would be Nebuchadnezzar. Uh, and Daniel [00:03:00] is in his service.

He is a government worker. He, he is in, serving in an anti God government. Uh, in so many ways, like Daniel helps us see how we're faithful. In the midst of an anti God government or an anti God nation, uh, which is what Babylon was, that he shows how you survive, uh, in the, in the midst of this. What's interesting is that he does so seemingly without any compromise related to his faith.

And so he is able to serve with distinction. You don't end up in the roles that Daniel was in, uh, without being. Kind of a big deal like like, you know, well, I mean God's hand was clearly on Daniel and his sovereignty was leading Daniel But Daniel served he he served in the kingdom. He was a valuable piece of the kingdom and yet refused to compromise on his faith and I think Going back to the the lion's den story Was known for [00:04:00] being completely unwilling to compromise on honoring God Which ultimately ends up being a thing that really holds the attention of everybody around him Yeah.

Uh, and I think it gave him the influence. He had, um, you know, he studied the Babylonian religion, so he became knowledgeable about it, but it didn't mean it worshiped it. Um, he learned the language, but it didn't like, it didn't alter his faith. Uh, so in some ways he was, he was a good missionary. Um, he learned a lot about the culture so that he could be used by God in it.

Um, and Daniel, uh, he just gets some absolutely incredible, uh, visions. Uh, Daniel chapter 2 is, uh, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He sees a statue. And he's trying to get interpretation of it. And eventually Daniel's the one who interprets it. Uh, and it's very clear, like scripture tells us very, very clearly what, uh, this is a vision of.

And Daniel sees a succession of kings and kingdoms all throughout history. [00:05:00] And the amount of detail that Daniel predicts the future in or Daniel, God predicts the future and Daniel interprets. Uh, is it's unbelievable. Uh, and so this statue, it even, it starts with Nebuchadnezzar, who is the kingdom of Babylon.

It says, after your kingdom, another will arise. That's the kingdom of Greece. After that, a, a kind of joint kingdom comes, that's Media and Persia, and then the final kingdom is Rome, and Daniel even sees that in the time of Rome, a kingdom that will never end will be established. Hello, has anybody read the Gospels lately?

That's when Jesus came and the kingdom was established. Daniel sees a five hundred year walkthrough history and it happens so much so that people have questioned the authorship of this saying, you know, that did Daniel write this or was it a later person? Because some of the detail in here is just unbelievable.

Chapter [00:06:00] 11 is full of like incredible amounts of detail and people have attributed to a later author because it's so accurate. They would say it can't be prophecy, it had to be written later. Okay, but it's also, Isaiah also, isn't it Isaiah that talks about Cyrus like way before Cyrus? And so this is We've seen this before.

Yeah, this is not an isolated incident where there is a prophecy that can be tracked by actual history. And that's what you're calling out. Like what Daniel sees and what Daniel explains, you can track it. Straight through actual history. Um, it, it makes sense that people question the authorship because it is.

Like there's obviously either something supernatural going on here or a forgery going on here We know that a forgery is nonsense Because this is not an isolated incident. There are you know multiple prophets that have given shockingly clear [00:07:00] Examples of what history is gonna unfold before it unfolds.

So this should affirm our faith. It should strengthen our faith It should not cause us to be afraid of it or question it And I think it's important to note the these kings and kingdoms, which probably if you were to summarize a theme here is that God raises up kings and he takes them down. Oh, yeah, for sure.

These kings and kingdoms are anti God kings and kingdoms. Like this is not just like Christian rulers, right? Kind of like hearing God's do say this and do it. But it's. Like, it's a picture of God knowing the future, it's a picture of God knowing history, and it's, wow, what an incredible sense of peace and security and safety this brings to us as Christians, that we serve a God that He's hundreds of years into the future.

It's pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah, Daniel is very cool. Obviously, one of the themes I would say of Daniel is the fact that God has his sovereign hand on [00:08:00] Daniel's immediate life. He's putting him in places where he doesn't really belong, doesn't really make sense that he's at the table. But at the same time, God's sovereign hand is on those king's lives and on those kingdoms.

Uh, rules and reigns and lives, I guess you don't really have lives of kingdoms, but, um, God's hand is all over this, um, leading what's going on. And Daniel has like a front row seat to as it happens. Yeah. Uh, and I think Daniel has an incredible amount of influence. We even see the most powerful man on the planet at this time.

King Nebuchadnezzar, uh, has some interesting encounters in it. And it seems like, uh, actually has some encounters with God. Um, you know, Daniel chapter four is Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and Daniel interprets it and then it says this dream is actually fulfilled that Nebuchadnezzar is driven from society for a period of time and kind of made to eat grass and his hair grew long and his nails grew long.

Basically, like [00:09:00] he, he became a beast, um, that he was kind of driven away from human society. And as a result of this, he makes some pretty powerful declarations about God, um, that are pretty biblical. Uh, and so there, there is a, I think a legitimate question here, like did Nebuchadnezzar meet God? Did Nebuchadnezzar have a, a revelation of who God was?

Um, he, he speaks some very accurate theology. Um, and, uh, so I think that's something that that's. Interesting that did Daniel's faithfulness actually potentially turn Nebuchadnezzar to point him towards a revelation of who God was, um, we'll know in eternity, but it is kind of an interesting thing to speculate about.

Do you have any thoughts on that, Ryan? Uh, I just think that. What happens in Nebuchadnezzar's life is incredibly powerful. Um, he does seem [00:10:00] to return with an understanding of who God is, I think that's fair. Um, and Darius does a very similar thing. Darius is the, the, the Ruler in the lion's den story. Uh, he doesn't go out and grass like a cow.

Um, but he does make a very firm declaration about who God is, I would say, and he honors God as God. And so one of the really interesting things around Daniel's life is that he's surrounded by these godless rulers, uh, who somehow end up. honoring God as God. And again, I think it's, it's a powerful statement about how God uses people who are faithful to him, uh, in situations where they don't belong.

It doesn't make sense on paper. Um, but it's, it's, um, God is using these faithful people who refuse to compromise on their, on their values, on honoring God with their lives, um, to speak to some of these People in power and and you know, they're not standing. They're not standing out front of the palace with billboards, and they're not blasting them with Bible studies, they're just [00:11:00] living God honoring lives And when you get when you live a God honoring life around godless people it tends to get their attention honestly So, I just, there's a lot of powerful things about Daniel.

Some people think, you know, that this story might be a myth or, or just even, you know, something made up. Did he really kind of turn into a beast, so to speak? Uh, it is interesting, Daniel does refer to this time that his Nebuchadnezzar was driven away in chapter 5. When he's dealing with Nebuchadnezzar's son, uh, who is walking in the same pride his father did, um, and he kind of says your father didn't humble himself and he was driven away from society, uh, you, uh, are actually going to lose the kingdom today, uh, and that very day, Babylon fell, um, chapter five kind of alludes to it, and there's even, uh, an interesting piece of historical background that Babylon kept pretty good records of their kings, And there was a, about a two year period of time that Nebuchadnezzar was not seen in public.

He wasn't [00:12:00] out fighting battles. He wasn't out doing things. Um, it, it never really says like he became a beast. He was meeting God, like anything like that. There is a gap kind of in the activity of the king of Babylon at that time, uh, that could potentially coincide with this. This time that he was driven away from society.

So all of that is just, uh, you know, interesting little things that can build our faith, uh, ultimately though, I still do take scripture at face value. And, uh, you know, it, it seems like Nebuchadnezzar, uh, had a, an encounter that he was humbled and had somewhat of a revelation of God. Uh, it'd be interesting to someday learn how much of a revelation that could have been, um, All kinds of interesting things here.

Uh, the second half of the book is a little bit harder to, to interpret just, uh, because of, uh, there's some different. Variations on that [00:13:00] chapter seven is very similar to the the chronology of kings and kingdoms chapter eight is largely focused on Greece talks about Alexander in here. I think that could even talks about someone during the time of the Maccabees called Antiochus Epiphanes in chapter eight.

And then we we do eventually get to chapter 11 we'll talk about some of the other ones, right, if you want to talk about 70 weeks we can. But then chapter 11 just In the, the line of kings and kingdoms, um, chapter 11, some people look at this as an incredibly detailed walk through history, uh, that it is prophecy, but you can, you can really harmonize it starting with, um, the, the, the time that is mentioned here with the Greeks going through the Seleucids and the Ptolemies and all these different powers through the time in the Maccabees all the way up until the time of Christ.

There is, uh, an incredible amount of detail [00:14:00] that's Seems to be able to be coincided with a walk throughout history, which would be the context of this book that this book is about kings and kingdoms is about the kings and kingdoms leading up to the kingdom of God. And so that is one approach. There are some that that really look at chapter 11 as kind of a end times prophecy with things that will happen in the future.

The kings of the north, the kings of the south and there. There actually were, uh, northern and southern kings, uh, in a period of history. They were called the Ptolemies and Seleucids, uh, and so there is, you do have to decide if you're going to see it as fulfilled throughout history. That would be consistent with the book eventually does get to Jesus and and some glimpses of the second coming But I don't think Daniel is primarily about the second coming It does seem to be God raises up Kings that takes them down as he is moving towards [00:15:00] establishing this eternal kingdom But just so you know, some of those those things are out there Again, uh, we mentioned this, if you heard our Ezekiel episode, you don't always have to harmonize current events with some of the passages in the Old Testament.

Chapter 11 is a chapter that people try to harmonize a lot of current events with. And I don't know that that's the way it was intended. Um, so some, some may disagree with us. We might get some letters about this, but, uh, uh, those are some of the views that are out there. If you're going to send us a letter.

It seems like a lot of work. Just just send an email. Uh, you can send us an email. It's fine Yeah, because I don't know how you'd find our postal address. It's not like we have a home office. Yeah, that's true Please don't dox us Um, okay Daniel nine. I love daniel nine. Yeah Um back to a really beautiful chapter that we can kind of see who daniel is and some of his heart I super love it because Daniel 9, so what I like to tell people is like, okay, the Daniel and the lion's den, obviously the story is that they, they make a [00:16:00] law that you can only pray to the king.

Daniel says, I'm not going to pray to the king. He just goes to his regular prayer time and bows down and praise. I think it's very likely that if you want to know what that, that prayer time looked like or that time with God looked like Daniel 9 could give you a window into what that time looked like.

Do you think it's fair, Chris, or do you think I'm just saying crazy stuff to make a sermon sound cool? No, I think it's fair. So like, to me, that brings a lot of, um, interest to Daniel nine. One of the cool things you'll see in Daniel nine, uh, I think I can just actually. Uh, read it here. This is Daniel. I'll just start in verse one in the first year of Darius, the son of Asherus by descent Amid, who has made king over the realm of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign.

I, Daniel perceived in the book, the number of years that according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, the prophet must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years. Now that's. Kind of wordy, um, and you can get lost in the wordiness, but essentially what it means is Daniel [00:17:00] Apparently sat down with a copy of the book of Jeremiah and was studying the book of Jeremiah and realized oh my goodness We're gonna be in exile for 70 years.

Wait a minute. Let me count up the years We're coming close to the end of that. And so when he, he's studying the book of Jeremiah, he realizes that the end of the exile is coming soon and he bows down and praise, and he praised this incredible prayer for forgiveness for his people, recognizing the sins of his people.

Um, and ultimately I think looking forward to that time of restoration, but, but I think humbling himself. And one of the things I think is really cool is when I was a little kid and I imagined this flannel graph Daniel praying before God, it was like, Hey, thanks for my food and thanks for my friends and help me have a good day tomorrow.

Um, but actually Daniel is one studying scripture on a regular basis. He's reading God's word, um, received through the prophet Jeremiah. And two, uh, he's applying it to his life. He's like, Hey, here I [00:18:00] am. I'm a faithful man, uh, faithful to God, living in exile. When's this exile going to be over? Well, maybe God's word will reveal that to me.

And it does. And he intercedes on behalf of his people and ultimately we do know that they were restored. Like they, the people did return. They unfortunately built a janky second temple. Um, but they. God did what God said and Daniel was able to discern what God was doing by like sitting down with God's word.

I think it's, I think it's really powerful when you realize that, because sometimes Daniel can have kind of this mystic pull to it. And I, I, I a hundred percent believe that God was revealing things to him and the Holy spirit was helping him to understand visions. I'm not against those things, but he also was just spending good old fashioned time in God's word, um, trying to hear the word of the Lord.

See what it meant for his life. So I think this is, I think this is very cool. I really liked it if you haven't felt it already, but yeah. And as you mentioned, he is praying like for the people, for the city [00:19:00] and for the sanctuary, like that's some of what he's praying about. And, and it does seem like God answers him.

Uh, it is, the answer is a bit cryptic, uh, with the 70 weeks, but he is pointing towards some of their return from exile. Uh, and then he he's. Challenging Daniel in many ways to dream bigger that it's not just about going back to the city and rebuilding a temple, but it's actually like the goal of what God is trying to do is he's trying to put an end to sin.

He is trying to fix this problem permanently. Uh, and so much of what Daniel sees is actually pointing towards that coming kingdom, the kingdom of God with the first coming of Jesus that. This whole book has been about that kings and kingdoms shall come and they shall go, but there will be a kingdom that will come and that will be an everlasting kingdom.

That's where you put your hope. Uh, and, and so I think Daniel is even, even seeing a glimpse that of what's to come without all the details. He he's seen that the first coming is going to happen, which [00:20:00] what an incredible picture for, for a faithful guy here. It's incredible. It's one of my favorite things about so much good stuff in this book.

Yeah. Um, yeah, I encourage you dive in. It's a lot more manageable to dive in and read some of then other books like Ezekiel or Jeremiah. Daniel is only 12 chapters. So that would be one that you could do a little extra credit homework on. There you go. So yeah. Hey, it's been fun talking about this book.

Daniel is one of my favorite. Hope you've enjoyed this. Uh, come back next week. We are going to start the Minor Prophets. We're going to be in the Book of Hosea, uh, which has some pretty cool messages as well. So, we'll see you then. Bye.