DANIEL: THE EXILE WHO SAW THE KINGDOM COME

Scripture presents Daniel as a youth carried into exile under judgment, who lived his whole life in foreign courts and never returned to Jerusalem, and who received visions of kingdoms rising and falling until a kingdom comes that is never destroyed (Dan 1:1-6; Dan 2:44; Dan 7:14). The book bears his name, and its arrangement is its argument: exile, court, dream, humiliation, writing on a wall, lions, beasts, prayer, seventy weeks, resurrection. In that order the text declares that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will (Dan 4:17,25,32; Dan 5:21). Christ is the center as Scripture sets it, for beginning with Moses and all the Prophets He interpreted in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27), and the Scriptures bear witness about Him (John 5:39). From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things (Rom 11:36).

TAKEN INTO EXILE, YET KEPT APART BY THE HAND OF GOD

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it (Dan 1:1). The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God, and he carried them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god (Dan 1:2). Exile was not accident. It was the judgment God had spoken through the prophets, that Judah would serve Babylon because the people had not kept His law (Jer 25:8-11; Jer 29:10; 2 Chr 36:15-21). Daniel arrived in Babylon as part of that judgment, among youths of royal offspring and of the nobles, without defect, skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, able to stand in the king's palace (Dan 1:3-4). The king ordered them taught the learning and the language of the Chaldeans, and appointed them a daily portion of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, to be nourished three years (Dan 1:4-5).

Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, of the children of Judah (Dan 1:6). The prince of the eunuchs gave them new names: to Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego (Dan 1:7). The renaming was an act of empire, an attempt to remake identity in Babylon's image. Daniel's refusal was not rebellion against the king's service, but separation from defilement. The text records, in verified words: "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank" (Dan 1:8). He requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself (Dan 1:8). The next verse assigns the outcome to God, not to Daniel's strategy: God made Daniel find kindness and compassion in the sight of the prince of the eunuchs (Dan 1:9). After ten days on vegetables and water, their appearance was better than the youths who ate the king's food (Dan 1:12-15). God gave Daniel and his companions knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams (Dan 1:17). At the end of the training, the king found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom (Dan 1:20). Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus (Dan 1:21). The exile lasted a lifetime, and the favor lasted with it, because both came from God.

THE GOD IN HEAVEN REVEALS MYSTERIES, AND THE STONE KINGDOM COMES

In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, the king dreamed dreams that troubled his spirit (Dan 2:1). He summoned magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and Chaldeans to tell him the dream and its interpretation, and threatened death when they could not (Dan 2:2-12). The decree went out to kill all the wise men of Babylon, and Daniel and his companions were sought to be killed (Dan 2:13). Daniel went to the king and requested time, then went to his house and told Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning the mystery (Dan 2:16-18). The mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven (Dan 2:19-23). He declared to the king that there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries (Dan 2:28). Wisdom and might belong to God, who changes times and seasons, removes kings and sets up kings, gives wisdom to the wise (Dan 2:20-21). No man by his own will uncovers what God has hidden. God reveals, or the mystery stays shut.

The dream was an image of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and iron mixed with clay, struck by a stone cut out without hands (Dan 2:31-34). The stone struck the image on its feet, broke it in pieces, and became a great mountain and filled the whole earth (Dan 2:34-35). Daniel interpreted the parts as successive kingdoms, each lesser than the one before, until the days of those kings when the God of heaven would set up a kingdom which would never be destroyed (Dan 2:36-44). That kingdom would break in pieces and consume all the other kingdoms, and it would stand forever (Dan 2:44). Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and worshiped Daniel, and said that Daniel's God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries (Dan 2:46-47). Daniel was made ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief governor over all the wise men, and at his request Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were set over the affairs of the province (Dan 2:48-49). The pattern is fixed early and never breaks: human kingdoms rise in splendor and fall by decree, and the kingdom of God stands because God sets it up.

THE MOST HIGH RULES, AND THE PROUD KING IS BROUGHT LOW

Nebuchadnezzar later made an image of gold and commanded all peoples to fall down and worship it, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused, were cast into a burning fiery furnace, and walked unharmed in the midst of the fire with one like a son of the gods beside them (Dan 3:1-25). The king blessed their God and decreed that no one might speak against Him (Dan 3:26-30). The court learned again that no king's image stands against the God who delivers. Daniel himself is not named in that chapter, but the three who stood with him in chapter 1 stood the same ground in chapter 3, and the same God delivered.

Then the king dreamed of a great tree reaching to heaven, cut down by a holy watcher, its stump bound with iron and bronze (Dan 4:10-17). Daniel, called Belteshazzar, was dismayed, and told the king that the tree was the king himself, whose greatness had grown to heaven (Dan 4:19-22). The decree of the watchers was that the king would be driven from men, dwell with the beasts of the field, eat grass like an ox, until he knew that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will (Dan 4:24-25,32). Twelve months later, as the king walked on his palace and boasted of Babylon built by his mighty power for his glory, a voice from heaven declared that the kingdom had departed from him (Dan 4:28-31). The word was fulfilled at once (Dan 4:33). At the end of the days, Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes to heaven, his understanding returned, and he blessed the Most High, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and whose kingdom is from generation to generation (Dan 4:34). He confessed that all the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and God does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say to Him, what are You doing (Dan 4:35). The proud king did not choose humility. God took his reason, then restored it, and the confession followed the restoration.

THE WRITING ON THE WALL, AND A KINGDOM WEIGHED AND DIVIDED

Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's successor, made a great feast and drank wine from the vessels taken from the house of God in Jerusalem, praising gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone (Dan 5:1-4). The fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall (Dan 5:5). The king's countenance changed, his thoughts troubled him, and none of his wise men could read the writing or declare its interpretation (Dan 5:6-8). The queen mother reminded him of Daniel, in whom was the spirit of the holy gods, who had shown light and understanding and excellent wisdom in the days of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 5:10-12). Daniel was brought in, refused the king's gifts, and read the writing: numbered, weighed, divided (Dan 5:17,25-28). God had numbered the kingdom and finished it, the king had been weighed in the balances and found wanting, and the kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and Persians (Dan 5:26-28). Daniel reminded Belshazzar that he knew what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar, yet had not humbled his heart, but had lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven (Dan 5:22-23). That very night Belshazzar was slain, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom (Dan 5:30-31). Judgment does not wait for a man's permission. It arrives on the night God appoints.

THE LIONS' DEN, AND PRAYER THAT DOES NOT BEND TO A DECREE

Darius set Daniel over the whole kingdom, and the other presidents and satraps sought to find a charge against him concerning the kingdom, but could find no error or fault, because he was faithful (Dan 6:1-4). Finding nothing in his conduct, they framed a law against his prayer: for thirty days no man might petition any god or man except the king, on pain of being cast into the den of lions (Dan 6:5-9). When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went to his house, where his windows were open toward Jerusalem, and knelt three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had done before (Dan 6:10). The men found him making petition, reported him, and the king, though displeased with himself and laboring until sundown to rescue him, could not change the law of the Medes and Persians (Dan 6:11-15). Daniel was cast into the den, a stone laid on its mouth and sealed, and the king fasted through the night (Dan 6:16-18). At dawn the king hurried to the den and cried out whether Daniel's God, whom he served continually, had been able to deliver him (Dan 6:19-20). Daniel answered in verified words: "My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm" (Dan 6:22). The king commanded Daniel taken up, and no harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God (Dan 6:23). The accusers, with their families, were cast in and broken before they reached the bottom (Dan 6:24). Darius then wrote to all peoples, nations, and languages that men should tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God, steadfast forever, His kingdom shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even to the end (Dan 6:25-26). A pagan decree had tried to stop prayer. A pagan decree ended by proclaiming the living God. Both decrees served the same sovereignty.

THE BEASTS FROM THE SEA, AND ONE LIKE A SON OF MAN

In the first year of Belshazzar, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head on his bed, and wrote the sum of the matters (Dan 7:1). Four great beasts came up from the sea: a lion with eagle's wings, a bear raised on one side, a leopard with four wings and four heads, and a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, with iron teeth and ten horns (Dan 7:3-7). A little horn came up among the horns, speaking great things, making war with the saints and prevailing against them (Dan 7:8,21). Then thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days took His seat, His clothing white as snow, His throne like fiery flame, thousands of thousands ministering to Him, and the judgment was set and the books were opened (Dan 7:9-10). The beast was slain and its body given to burning flame (Dan 7:11). Then Daniel saw, in verified words: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him" (Dan 7:13). The same verse continues: "There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed" (Dan 7:14). The interpretation was given to Daniel at his request: the four beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth, but the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever (Dan 7:17-18). The horn would wear out the saints for a time, times, and half a time, but the judgment would sit, his dominion would be taken away, and the kingdom under the whole heaven would be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom (Dan 7:25-27). Daniel's spirit was troubled, his countenance changed, but he kept the matter in his heart (Dan 7:28). The vision does not end with beasts. It ends with a Man brought near, given what beasts seized, and a kingdom given to saints who did not take it for themselves.

In the third year of Belshazzar, Daniel saw a ram with two horns and a male goat, and heard of a king of fierce countenance who would destroy the holy people, take away the daily sacrifice, and cast down the sanctuary, until the sanctuary would be cleansed (Dan 8:1-14,23-25). Gabriel told him the vision concerned the time of the end, and that the king would be broken without hand (Dan 8:17,19,25). Daniel was astonished at the vision, but none understood it, and he was sick for days, then rose and did the king's business (Dan 8:27). The visions of empire end the same way every time: a power rises, it magnifies itself, and it is broken without human hand. The stone in chapter 2, the judgment in chapter 7, and the breaking without hand in chapter 8 speak one sentence: God ends kingdoms, and no kingdom ends God.

THE PRAYER OF CONFESSION, AND SEVENTY WEEKS TO FINISH TRANSGRESSION

In the first year of Darius, Daniel understood by the books the number of years for Jerusalem's desolations, seventy years, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah (Dan 9:1-2; Jer 25:11-12). He set his face to seek God by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (Dan 9:3). His prayer is confession, not claim. He confessed that God is great and awesome, keeping covenant and mercy, and that Israel had sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and departed from God's precepts (Dan 9:4-6). He confessed that righteousness belongs to God, and confusion of face belongs to Israel, to its kings, princes, and fathers, because they had sinned against Him (Dan 9:7-8). He pleaded not on Israel's righteousness but on God's great mercies, for the city and the people are called by His name (Dan 9:18-19). While he was speaking, Gabriel, whom he had seen in the vision at the beginning, came swiftly and told him he was greatly beloved, and gave him understanding (Dan 9:20-23).

Gabriel's word was seventy weeks decreed on Daniel's people and on the holy city, to finish disobedience, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy (Dan 9:24). From the command to restore and build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, would be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, built again in troubled times (Dan 9:25). Then, in verified words: "After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off, and will have nothing" (Dan 9:26). The people of the prince who would come would destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end would come with a flood, and desolations were determined (Dan 9:26). The text sets a cut-off Anointed One at the center of the weeks, and reconciliation and everlasting righteousness as their goal. Daniel does not explain the cutting off by his own theology. The later Scriptures take it up: the Anointed One is cut off, and by that cutting off reconciliation is made, for Christ bore sins in His body on the tree (1 Pet 2:24), and God made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in Him righteousness would be given (2 Cor 5:21). The weeks end where the cross stands, and the cross stands where Daniel's prayer confessed that mercy belongs to God alone.

THE LAST VISION, THE BOOK, AND THE AWAKENING FROM THE DUST

In the third year of Cyrus, a word was revealed to Daniel, and the word was true, concerning a great conflict (Dan 10:1). Daniel mourned three full weeks, eating no pleasant bread, until a man clothed in linen, with a face like lightning and eyes like flaming torches, touched him and strengthened him (Dan 10:2-6,10-19). The messenger told him of princes contending behind earthly kings, of kings of the north and south rising and falling, of a contemptible person who would exalt himself against God, pollute the sanctuary, and take away the daily sacrifice (Dan 10:20-21; Dan 11:2-45). The visions grow darker as they go, and Daniel is told that at that time Michael, the great prince who stands for the children of Daniel's people, shall stand up, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation (Dan 12:1). At that time Daniel's people shall be delivered, everyone found written in the book (Dan 12:1). Then the book speaks of resurrection in verified words: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan 12:2). Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse, and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever (Dan 12:3). Daniel was told to shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end (Dan 12:4). He heard but did not understand, and asked what the outcome would be (Dan 12:8). The answer was to go his way, for the words were shut up and sealed until the time of the end, many would be purified and made white and refined, but the wicked would do wickedly and none of the wicked would understand, while the wise would understand (Dan 12:9-10). The final word to Daniel was to go his way until the end, rest, and stand in his allotted place at the end of the days (Dan 12:13). The book closes with a man told to rest, not with a man told to explain everything. The sealed book waits for the time God appoints.

THE LATER WITNESSES TAKE DANIEL UP BY NAME

The later Scriptures do not leave Daniel as a private figure of the exile. Ezekiel, prophesying in the same exile, names Daniel alongside Noah and Job, and says that even if those three men were in a land under judgment, they would deliver only their own souls by their righteousness (Ezek 14:14,20). The same prophet says to the prince of Tyre, in irony, that he is wiser than Daniel, and no secret is hidden from him (Ezek 28:3). The naming matters: Daniel was already known among the exiles as a man of wisdom and righteousness before his book closed.

Jesus takes Daniel up by name. Speaking of the end, He said that when the disciples would see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, those in Judea should flee (Matt 24:15). The same discourse that cites Daniel also speaks of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Matt 24:30). At His trial, Jesus answered the high priest that from then on they would see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven (Matt 26:64). The title is Daniel's title, from the night vision of chapter 7, and Jesus takes it as His own name. The one like a son of man who was brought near to the Ancient of Days and given everlasting dominion is the Son who stands before the council and claims the clouds.

The resurrection Daniel saw in chapter 12 is the resurrection Jesus proclaims. Jesus said that an hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29). Daniel saw sleepers awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame (Dan 12:2). Jesus names Himself as the voice that wakes them. Faith in that voice is present possession, not a future bargain: he who believes has eternal life (John 6:47), and he who hears Christ's word and believes Him who sent Him has eternal life and has passed from death to life (John 5:24). Evidence is corroboration, never foundation: the testimony of God concerning His Son is greater than the testimony of men, and he who believes God has the testimony in himself (1 John 5:9-10). Daniel's book ends sealed. The Son opens what Daniel sealed, because the Son is the one to whom the dominion was given.

DANIEL STANDS AS A WITNESS THAT GOD GIVES, AND MAN DOES NOT TAKE

Daniel's whole arc teaches one sovereignty from beginning to end. God gave Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar's hand (Dan 1:2). God made Daniel find favor (Dan 1:9). God gave knowledge and understanding (Dan 1:17). God reveals mysteries (Dan 2:28). God removes kings and sets up kings (Dan 2:21). God humbled Nebuchadnezzar and restored him (Dan 4:34-37). God numbered Belshazzar's kingdom and finished it (Dan 5:26). God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths (Dan 6:22). God gave dominion to one like a son of man (Dan 7:14). God decreed seventy weeks to finish disobedience and bring everlasting righteousness (Dan 9:24). God told Daniel to rest until his allotted place at the end of the days (Dan 12:13). At no point does the book teach that Daniel earned favor by an act of free will. Men are slaves either to sin or to God, not free from both (Rom 6:16-22), and the heart is deceitful above all things (Jer 17:9). God commands what is impossible for man, to expose inability, for with men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible (Matt 19:25-26). Daniel purposed in his heart, and the text immediately says God made him find favor. The purpose and the favor belong together, and the favor belongs to God.

Daniel was carried into exile, renamed by empire, set over provinces, cast to lions, shown beasts and weeks and resurrection, and told to rest. He did not see Jerusalem restored. He did not see the Anointed One cut off. He did not see the kingdom fill the earth. He saw it in vision, confessed it in prayer, and was told to stand in his place at the end. The kingdom he saw is the kingdom that comes without human hand, that is never destroyed, that is given to one like a son of man, and that raises sleepers from the dust, some to everlasting life. The book that begins with vessels carried into the house of a foreign god ends with a man told to rest until the end, and the end toward which it moves is the wedding of the Lamb, where Christ presents to Himself a church without spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish (Eph 5:25-27,32). Daniel rests. The Son reigns. The dominion given in the night vision does not pass away, and the kingdom given with it shall not be destroyed (Dan 7:14).