Daniel
Author: Daniel
Daniel serves in the courts of Babylon and Persia and is shown kingdoms that rise and fall.
Outline
The court tests (1–6)
Four young men keep faith in Babylon, and Daniel is delivered from the lions under a later king.
The beasts and the son of man (7)
Four beasts come from the sea, and one like a son of man receives a kingdom that will not pass away.
The ram, the goat, and the kings (8–11)
Visions trace empires and a king who exalts himself, and Daniel is told the vision is for many days.
The end of the days (12)
A time of trouble is followed by deliverance, and Daniel is told to rest until the end.
Key verses
Daniel 2:44
Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that God will set up a kingdom that shall not be destroyed.
Daniel 3:18
The three men say they will not serve the image even if God does not deliver them.
Daniel 7:13–14
One like a son of man comes with the clouds and is given dominion that will not pass away.
Daniel is taken to Babylon with the vessels of the temple, in the first wave of exiles, before Jeremiah’s city has finished falling. He is trained for the king’s service. The book’s first half is the story of that service. Daniel and his three friends refuse the king’s food and are found healthier than the rest. Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a statue of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay, and only Daniel can say what it means. The kingdoms will follow one another, and the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will not be left to another people. The king acknowledges Daniel’s God and then builds a golden image and demands worship. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse. They tell the king their God is able to deliver them, and that even if he does not, they will not serve the image. They are thrown into the furnace and come out. A later dream humbles Nebuchadnezzar until he knows that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. Belshazzar drinks from the temple vessels, and a hand writes on the wall. That night his kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians. Under Darius, a law is aimed at Daniel’s prayers. He prays toward Jerusalem anyway and spends the night with the lions. The court stories are not fables detached from the visions. They train the reader to believe the claim the visions will make: human thrones are temporary.
The second half is dated by kings and received in visions. Four beasts come up from the sea. The fourth is dreadful. A horn speaks great words. Thrones are set, and the Ancient of Days takes his seat. One like a son of man comes with the clouds of heaven and is given dominion and a kingdom that shall not pass away. The interpretation says the beasts are kings, and that the saints of the Most High receive the kingdom. A ram and a goat in the next vision are named as Media and Persia and as Greece. A little horn grows toward the pleasant land, and the daily sacrifice is taken away for a measured time. Daniel is worn out and appalled. He does not leave the vision as a puzzle he has solved.
Chapter 9 is a prayer, not another statue. Daniel reads Jeremiah’s seventy years and confesses the sin of kings, princes, and fathers. Gabriel comes while he is speaking and speaks of seventy weeks decreed upon the people and the holy city, to finish transgression and to anoint the most holy. The prayer had asked about the end of the exile. The answer stretches farther than the decree of Cyrus. The following vision is a long account of kings of the north and the south, of a contemptible person who prospers by intrigue, and of the abomination that makes desolate. Daniel is told that the words are closed and sealed until the time of the end. Many will purify themselves. The wicked will not understand.
The last chapter says Michael stands up, there is a time of trouble, and Daniel’s people are delivered, everyone found written in the book. Many who sleep in the dust awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame. Daniel asks what the outcome will be and is told to go his way. The words are sealed. He will rest and stand in his allotted place at the end of the days. The man who interpreted empires for kings is not given a date he can publish. He is told to be faithful until the kingdom he described has actually come.