Daniel

Daniel is not what I expected. I remember all the sunday school stories that came out of it. So first off, I figured it would be a long book since I'd always heard so many things from it. No so. It's only twelve chapters. Secondly, I had no idea that there were a bunch of prophetic visions in here. So I was a bit surprised. But I liked the book a lot. It was a pleasant surprise.

Chapters 1-6 of Daniel consist of six stories about Daniel during the Babylonian, and then Persian, captivity. The stories told are Daniel and his friends refusing to defile themselves with the kings food as young men, Daniel interprets Nebuchanezzar's first dream, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, Daniel interprets Neduchanezzar's second dream, the hand writing on the wall for Belshazzar, and Daniel and the lion's den.

All the stories are different but they seem to come in two different forms. The first form is Daniel or his friends being faithful to God to show His glory (chapters 1, 3, and 6). Chapters 3 and 6 result in the king praising Yahweh because of the faithfulness of His servants and then His saving power for them (3:28; 4:1-3; 6:25-27). The second form is Daniel interpreting something that tells the kind of God's control (chapters 2, 4, and 5). These stories continually show that God is in control over the kingdoms of men and especially who rules them (2:21, 37-38; 4:17, 25, 32; 5: 21). All of these stories have the same purpose, shown by the reaction to each one. That purpose is for the name of the Lord to be praised.

Now it looks like later in life Daniel was given these prophetic visions. To tell you the truth these were amazingly confusing. My mind was barely working in chapters 11 and 12 because I just had no clue what was going on. But it was very encouraging because I can see that these are extremely detailed visions. Especially the last one which has no pictures of beasts or animals or anything. It is plainly talking about kings and people. I actually recognized some of this stuff from history class. It seemed obvious to me that the goat in chapter 8 and the Greek king in 11:3-4 has to be Alexander the Great. It's a Greek king who has powerful wrath and dies when his power becomes its greatest (8:7-8, 21). Then his kingdom is divided among four (8:8, 22) but "not to his posterity" (11:4). I don't know this stuff, but that one jumped out at me. Anyway, I would love to come back to this stuff with a history book next to me and see what comes of it. The stuff in chapters 11 and 12 is so detailed that I think it would be really cool to look at. But for now I must move on to Hosea.

I really did enjoy Daniel. Now I am into the minor prophets and I don't think I have a book over fifteen chapters the rest of the way. I'm really looking forward to these last twelve books because I love reading books that are compact. They are forced to get to the point because there is not a lot there. Anyway, I hope that this peaked your interest a little in Daniel. I sure didn't know this stuff was in there so maybe some of you didn't either. As always I hope this challenges you to get into the Word more and see what God has given to us.

All for His glory,

Mitchell