This morning we will be in the book of Daniel. Will you please turn to Daniel?
Daniel 1:1.
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.
And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: and he carried them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god.
And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring in certain of the children of Israel, even of the royal seed and of the nobles; youths in whom was no blemish, but well-favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and endued with knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability to stand in the king’s palace; and that he should teach them the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
And the king appointed for them a daily portion of the king’s dainties, and of the wine which he drank, and that they should be nourished three years; that at the end thereof they should stand before the king.
Now among these were, of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
And the prince of the eunuchs gave names unto them: unto Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, Shadrach; and to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-nego.
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s dainties, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
Now God made Daniel to find kindness and compassion in the sight of the prince of the eunuchs.
Daniel 1:17.
Now as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
And at the end of the days which the king had appointed for bringing them in, the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.
And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.
And in every matter of wisdom and understanding, concerning which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his realm.
And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.
Let us turn to the last chapter, Daniel 12. We will read from Daniel 12:4.
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Then I, Daniel, looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on the brink of the river on this side, and the other on the brink of the river on that side.
And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my lord, what shall be the issue of these things?
And he said, Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end.
Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but they that are wise shall understand.
And from the time that the continual burnt-offering shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in thy lot, at the end of the days.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, as we continue in Thy presence, we just look to Thy Spirit to open Thy Word to our hearts, that we may be drawn closer to Thee and to Thy will. We do offer ourselves to Thee for whatever Thy will may be for this earth, and may Thy name be glorified throughout all the earth. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Daniel means, “God is my judge.” Our God is Judge.
He was born during the reign of King Josiah. We remember that King Josiah was a good king, but he died in battle with Necho, king of Egypt.
After he died, his son Jehoahaz continued on the throne for just three months and was deposed by Necho, king of Egypt. Necho made Jehoiakim king instead. So Jehoiakim was a vassal to the king of Egypt.
But in the third year of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came. He defeated Necho and besieged Jerusalem. So King Jehoiakim surrendered to him.
Even though Nebuchadnezzar allowed Jehoiakim to continue as king over Judah, he did take hostages. Out of the royal families and the nobles, he took hostages and brought them to Babylon, with the idea that Jehoiakim would not rebel against him.
Among the hostages was a young man named Daniel. Daniel evidently came from the royal or noble family. Probably, when he was taken to Babylon, he was around twenty years of age.
He lived through a few years as a teenager under that wicked king Jehoiakim. But thank God, Daniel remained faithful to the God of his fathers.
Now, we must remember one thing: when Daniel was taken as a hostage to Babylon, the whole world situation was beginning to make a great change.
We know that in the past, God called Abraham, and through Abraham He raised up the nation of Israel. He was King to that nation, and to that nation He gave the government of the world.
But in the third year of Jehoiakim, when Jewish people began to be taken as captives, that was the beginning of a tremendous change in the economy of God. Israel, or Judah, would very soon be destroyed. Jerusalem would be destroyed. The temple would be destroyed.
From then on, during the Babylonian captivity, we find that God was addressed as the God of heaven, rather than as the God of heaven and earth. On earth, He had no testimony. The city to which He had put His name was destroyed. The temple where His name was set was destroyed. So He had no testimony upon this earth.
The government on this earth passed from the hand of the chosen people of God into the hand of the Gentiles. As a matter of fact, you find that the times of the Gentiles began with Nebuchadnezzar, with Babylon. A tremendous change was coming upon this earth.
But even though God was no longer addressed as the God of heaven and earth, and the world seemed not to recognize God as God over all, yet God had not left Himself without witnesses.
Daniel was raised up during that critical time to be a witness to the world: even though God did not seem to have any visible testimony upon this earth that He was the God of earth as well as the God of heaven, yet God had not given up His right.
In other words, He is still the God of heaven and earth. Even though, in appearance, the government of the earth had passed into the hands of Gentiles who did not know Him or recognize Him, God was still ruling over the affairs of men. That is the testimony entrusted to this man Daniel.
Daniel lived at a time of tremendous change. We know that his contemporaries were Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, and Obadiah.
Jeremiah remained with the people in Judah, and later we know that he went to Egypt. His burden was with the people, and he was with the chosen people to the very end.
Ezekiel was also taken into captivity in the time of Jehoiachin. He was with the people in captivity, and his burden was with the temple of God because he was a priest.
Here we find Daniel. Even though he was taken into Babylon as a hostage, he did not live with the captives. Instead, he lived in the royal palace and served in the governments of the world. Therefore, you find that he was concerned with the city, or the kingdom, of God.
It is interesting to know that even though in our English Bible Daniel is listed with the so-called major prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel—and even in the Greek Bible it is the same, in the Hebrew Bible Daniel was not listed among the prophets.
The Hebrew Bible is divided into three sections: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Daniel was listed in the Writings. The Writings are composed of people such as priests, seers, and others.
Why is Daniel not listed among the prophets, but rather in the Writings? The reason probably was that even though Daniel was given prophetic utterances, he did not really fulfill a prophet’s office like the other prophets.
He did not live with the people, and he did not prophesy to the people. He lived in the palace, and his prophecy was concerned with the nations of the world, as well as with God’s chosen people.
So, in a sense, he did not fulfill the function of a prophet in the strictest sense. He was more a seer than a prophet. For this reason, we find that he is listed in the Writings instead of among the Prophets.
Daniel lived about six hundred years before Christ, in the sixth century before Christ.
In the Old Testament, Ezekiel mentioned his name. In Ezekiel 14:14 and Ezekiel 14:20, Ezekiel named three righteous men: Noah, Daniel, and Job. Then again, in Ezekiel 28:3, he mentioned Daniel’s name in connection with wisdom: “Wiser than Daniel.”
In the New Testament, our Lord Jesus mentioned his name in Matthew 24:15: “Daniel the prophet.” Even though the Lord did call him a prophet, and he is a prophet, he did not fulfill that prophet’s office in the ordinary sense.
So Daniel is a very real person, testified to both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
When you read the book of Daniel, you find that it is written in two different languages. From Daniel 2:4 to the end of Daniel 7, verse 28, it is written in Aramaic, the language of the Chaldeans. But the rest of the book was written in Hebrew.
Even though it was written in two different languages, it is one book; it is one unit. It is clear that Daniel himself is the writer of this book. Even though in the first part he did not use the personal pronoun “I,” and began to use it in the second part, it is evident that he is the one who gave us this book.
The book of Daniel is roughly divided into two parts:
As you look into these chapters, you find that Daniel 1–4 are concerned with things that happened in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar; Daniel 5, in the reign of Belshazzar; Daniel 6, in the reign of Darius; Daniel 7 and Daniel 8, in the time of Belshazzar; Daniel 9, in the time of Darius; and Daniel 10–12, in the time of Cyrus.
So, when you read the book of Daniel, you find that, timewise, there is a very clear chronology in the book of Daniel.
The first part of Daniel is historical; the second part is prophetic. We say the prophetic part of Daniel is apocalyptic because it gives us a series of supernatural visions that must be interpreted. This is what apocalypse means: the unveiling of truth.
It is like the book of Revelation, or parts of Ezekiel and Zechariah. The book of Daniel is very, very important because it is the key to the interpretation of the Olivet Discourse of our Lord Jesus—that is, Matthew 24 and Matthew 25—and also the key to the book of Revelation.
So, in order to understand the Olivet Discourse and the book of Revelation, and to see the comprehensive view of prophecy, Daniel is the key.
But, brothers and sisters, I am afraid that when we study Daniel, we are more interested in his prophecy than in his person. In other words, his prophetic utterances are fascinating, and that is the thing that really attracts us.
But oftentimes we forget Daniel as a person. You find in the book of Daniel that half of the book is concerned with that person—his history—and part of the book is his work, his prophecy.
In the sight of God, the person is always more important than his work. Now, we look at it differently. We think of the work as more important than the person. As long as the work is done, it does not matter what kind of person you are.
But that is not the way with God. God is deeply interested in the person. He wants the man more than the work. In Daniel, I think this is very evident.
So we need to pay more attention to Daniel as a man of God than to the prophecies that God used Daniel to give to us.
God is called the God of Daniel.
In the Scripture, there are a few places where God is called the God of a particular person, such as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is called the God of Daniel.
There must be something very special there. Of course, in a general sense, God is our God. God is your God, and God is my God. But for God to be called the God of Daniel, or the God of some particular person, I think there must be something very special.
When God is called the God of a special person, it shows that in that person God has given to the world a special revelation of Himself. In other words, through that person we are given a new knowledge of God.
So you see how important that vessel is. God is called the God of Daniel because in Daniel, God made Himself known to the world in a very special way, a way that could not be known otherwise.
If you read the book of Daniel, you find how true this is. Even the Gentile kings, one after another, had to recognize that the God of Daniel is the God of gods. He is the living God. He is the One who rules over all the earth. He is the One who sets kings up and puts them down.
He is the ruler of all the earth, in spite of the fact that the government on earth was in the hand of the heathen, the Gentiles. God still rules and reigns over all. He is sovereign. He is the ruler of all the earth, not only of heaven but also upon this earth.
This is the testimony that God has given to the world through this man Daniel.
Brothers and sisters, does the world see in us that our God is the God of Daniel? Does the world see in us that God truly is sovereign, that He truly rules not only in heaven but also upon this earth?
I think this is a great testimony that the church has to give to this world, just in the way that Daniel testified for God.
Daniel is a man greatly beloved by God. Again and again, you find the Scripture says he is a man greatly beloved.
In a general sense, we are all beloved of God. We are beloved in the Beloved Son. But that is too general. Among the beloved, there must somehow be those who are greatly beloved, like Daniel.
God is not partial in any way. But why is it that with Daniel God could say that he was greatly beloved, even though God loves all? There must be something there.
When Daniel was taken as a hostage, he was about twenty years of age, or perhaps younger.
On the one hand, I think it was a very traumatic experience for him. As a young man, he was born and raised in a noble family, perhaps in royalty. He was probably ambitious, as a young man, to serve his nation for God.
Then suddenly he was taken as a hostage, away from his home, away from his own country, into a foreign country. That was a very tragic thing for a young person.
But then you find that providence played a trick upon him. When you think that he was taken as a hostage, you would think he would be in a terrible situation. But Nebuchadnezzar chose among the young people he took as hostages from different nations the best young people of all the world—those who were handsome, skillful, teachable, and promising.
He set them apart, trained them for three years, and gave them his own food and drink so that they might be trained to stand before him in the royal court.
Suddenly, it seemed that luck had come to him. As a hostage, he was a prisoner; but now suddenly there seemed to be a bright future because he was given all these opportunities.
Suppose you were that young man or young woman. When such things suddenly happen to you, will you lose your head? Will you forget your own nation, your own people, and your own situation, and simply seize the opportunity, saying, “Now I have a chance”?
Probably most young people would do that. But not Daniel.
Somehow, you find that his parents must have been among the godly people during the reign of King Josiah. From his youth, somehow, something was built up within him.
Even though he was in that strange situation, the Bible says Daniel purposed in his heart. In other words, this young man determined in his heart that he would not be defiled by anything, because he wanted to keep himself pure for God.
Here was a young man whose life was devoted to God, in the worst situation you can think of. In the royal palace of Babylon, you find all kinds of evil things going on: luxury, wickedness, treachery, and every kind of corrupt thing.
Yet Daniel was situated right in that environment, and he purposed in his heart that he would not be defiled by anything. He wanted to keep himself pure for God. What a purpose that must be.
It was a very difficult situation. On the one hand, humanly speaking, he had no choice. He was given the opportunity, and he could not reject the opportunity.
Perhaps you say, “I want to keep myself pure, so I will reject the opportunity. I will not even learn. I will refuse to learn the Chaldean language. I am a Jew.” Well, can you take that kind of position? You cannot, because he was not free.
On the other hand, he could have said, “Now the opportunities are open to me. I will enjoy them to the uttermost.” But not Daniel.
On the one hand, he was levelheaded. He would learn everything. He would take the opportunity to learn everything, but not for himself—for God.
He might not have known yet how God would use him in such a situation, but he was prepared for God. He made the most of everything for God, and yet he would not be defiled by anything.
So he approached the prince of the eunuchs and said, “Do not give us the king’s food and the king’s wine. Just give us plain food.”
Why did he do that? Of course, there might be various reasons. One reason is that, in the old days, the king’s wine and food would first be offered to idols. To eat that food and drink that wine, which had been offered to idols, would defile you, as if you were having something to do with those idols.
Probably you cannot understand it, but I can understand it because when I was young, I had the same problem. I came from a Buddhist family, a great family with generations living in one house.
Every year at New Year, we would have a family reunion. There might be one or two hundred relatives there. All the food, before we ate, was offered to our ancestors and to the idols first.
After I became a Christian, it became a real problem to me, and I had to refuse to eat those things. Fortunately, my aunt heard about it, so she prepared some food for me.
But anyway, in Daniel’s time this was a real thing. In partaking of that food, you were partaking with idols. Daniel could not do that because he wanted to keep himself pure for God.
That might have been the chief reason, but there might have been other reasons.
Brothers and sisters, if we as Christians want to live a life for God, we should not enjoy ourselves with all the things of the world that are given to us.
Sometimes we think, “Well, I did not steal it. It is just my portion. It just happened that these things were given to me, so why should I not enjoy them to the fullest?” No.
Because if you do, somehow it will lead your heart astray from God into the things of this world. We Christians should live a simple life.
We should eat that we may have a healthy body to serve God, but not live in luxury.
That is the reason. A luxurious life is not conducive to Christian living.
Probably there is another reason. If Daniel should enjoy all the king’s food and drink, he might get drunk. It would affect his life before God. So he would rather live a simple life in order that he might glorify God.
Brothers and sisters, especially young people, how we need a purpose in our heart—the same purpose.
Because Daniel had that desire, God honored his purpose and opened the way for him. He was able not to defile himself with the king’s food and the king’s drink.
God rewarded these young men. God gave them wisdom and understanding, and Daniel even knew how to interpret dreams and visions. In judicial matters, these young men were ten times better than the magicians and enchanters in the whole country.
God honored Daniel and his friends.
Daniel kept himself pure before God, and because of that he lived such a transparent life before God that he was able to interpret visions and dreams.
Daniel was a humble man. Even though God gave him great wisdom, and he could interpret dreams that none could interpret, when he stood before King Nebuchadnezzar and the king asked, “Are you able to do that?” he said, “No, I am not wiser than anybody else. It was God who wanted to reveal the secret to you.”
Daniel never tried to take any glory to himself. He knew that all glory belonged to God. He was simply a vessel in God’s hand. The humility of Daniel was something commendable and pleasing to God.
Of course, Daniel was righteous. The righteousness of Daniel is proverbial, like Noah and Job. Of all the people in the world, Noah was the only one who was righteous before God—of course, by the grace of God. Daniel was a righteous person.
He stood before God and man without fault. Even his enemies could not find any fault in all his work.
Remember, he was almost like the prime minister of the greatest nation in the world, the Medo-Persian Empire. He had to manage countless affairs of great importance, and yet his enemies could not find any fault in anything he did.
They said, “If we want to find any fault with him, we have to find it in his relationship with God.” Think of that. Such a righteous person—not only righteous before God, but righteous before man.
Because he was such a righteous person, he could even advise Nebuchadnezzar, saying, “You had better break off your sins by righteousness, and show mercy to the poor, that your days may be lengthened.” He could tell Belshazzar, “You knew all the things that happened to your father, but you did not humble your heart.”
Daniel was a faithful person. How faithful he was to God and to all the things entrusted to his hand.
He was so faithful to God that even though there was a royal decree that, within thirty days, no one could ask anything from any god or man, Daniel knew about it. Yet he was faithful to God. Three times a day, with his window open toward Jerusalem, he knelt before God. He was faithful even unto death.
Because of his faithfulness to God, God was faithful to him. Because of his faithfulness to the things entrusted to him, he was able to serve through dynasties—not just one empire, but two empires.
Furthermore, we find in Daniel the persistence of Daniel. He continued from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the first year of King Cyrus. We know that he lived through the seventy years of captivity.
Sometimes, brothers and sisters, we may begin well. But can we continue? Daniel continued for over seventy years.
He had an excellent spirit in him. The Spirit of God was in him.
Brothers and sisters, Daniel lived in a very transitional time, a very critical time—a time when the times of the Gentiles began and God was not recognized as the God of the earth.
Daniel lived in such a time, and he was a witness raised up by God to stand before the world for the righteousness and justice of God, to prove to the world that God reigns and that He reigns over the affairs of men.
Daniel’s name is, “God is my judge.” I wonder whether you would like that name if you knew what it means.
You may like to say, “God is my Savior. God is my Helper. God is my Comforter.” But to say, “God is my Judge”—do you dare to stand before God as your Judge?
What kind of life must you live? Daniel must have lived a highly disciplined life because he stood before God with God as his Judge. God judged him in everything he did, in every thought he thought, and in every word he spoke.
Brothers and sisters, that is Daniel: God is my Judge. He judges me. To be justified before God and to be beloved by God—what a disciplined life he must have lived.
Because God is my Judge, therefore God is Judge of the whole earth. That is Daniel’s testimony.
May God raise up many Daniels today. We are living in a world that does not recognize God as the ruler of this earth. We are living in a time when the testimony of Jesus is shattered and broken up. God’s people are all broken up.
We are living in a very wicked and perverse world, as if God does not exist.
May God raise Daniels as His witnesses to this world: that God still lives, that He still reigns, and that He still rules over the affairs of men, because He first rules over me.
May God raise up many Daniels today. God needs such witnesses today.
Now, of course, the second part of Daniel is prophecy.
Daniel’s prophecies are the most comprehensive prophecies ever given because he prophesied over the whole history of the world, from the beginning of the times of the Gentiles to the second coming of Christ and the establishment of the kingdom of God in the millennium.
He prophesied over the destiny not only of this world but also of God’s chosen people. He prophesied to the very end of the times. That is Daniel’s prophecy.
If you read the prophetic part, it is roughly divided into three sections.
Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 contain prophecies and visions given to Daniel, with their interpretation, in the third year of King Belshazzar.
Daniel saw in a vision a great sea, and the four winds blew upon the sea. In other words, there was such a storm, a raging storm, with all the confusion and turmoil. Then he saw four wild beasts coming up one after another.
We know that Daniel 7 and Daniel 2—the dream God gave to King Nebuchadnezzar and the vision God gave to Daniel—are actually the same thing. They tell us of all the times of the Gentiles.
In world history, the times of the Gentiles began with Nebuchadnezzar, and they will end with the second coming of Christ.
To Nebuchadnezzar, a Gentile king, world dominion was like a tall, gigantic, brilliant, bright, imposing image of a man. Man thinks of this world as a huge man, full of brightness: a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet and toes partly iron and partly clay. Like a gigantic man—terrible.
But in the sight of God, world history, or world dominion, is like beasts—wild beasts: cruel, wicked, terrible.
In Daniel 2, the dream was given to Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel was the interpreter. In Daniel 7, the vision was given to Daniel, and the angel was the interpreter. But they were the same.
Oftentimes, we think of the great image in Daniel 2 and the four beasts in Daniel 7. But, brothers and sisters, the emphasis is not there.
The emphasis of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, even though he saw the great image, is on the stone that was not cut by man. That stone will fall upon the toes and break the whole image. Then that stone will grow into a great mountain and fill the earth.
That is the emphasis. In other words, world empires will come and go, and one day they will all be finished. The kingdom of God will be established upon this whole earth. That is God’s message to the world.
The world empires will not last forever. They will be gone. The kingdom of God and of His Christ shall rule over all this earth. This is our hope.
In Daniel 7, you find the same thing. The emphasis is not on the wild beasts. The emphasis is that a throne was set up, the Ancient of Days was sitting on the throne, and One like the Son of man came and took the kingdom, dominion, power, and glory.
You find that the beasts will all be destroyed, and the saints of the Most High will possess the kingdom. That is the message.
Dear brothers and sisters, the times of the Gentiles that began with Nebuchadnezzar are drawing toward the end.
We know, if our understanding of prophecy is correct—and of course, in prophecy, you can never be dogmatic because God is longsuffering—that the times of the Gentiles will be ended when Jerusalem will no longer be trodden under the feet of the Gentiles.
We know that this has already happened. So we know that we are toward the end. We are probably now in the stage of forming the ten toes. Thank God, His kingdom is coming.
Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 speak of all the times of the Gentiles. Now, in Daniel 9, you find that Daniel was praying.
It was during the first year of King Darius. Daniel, in reading Jeremiah—Jeremiah 25 and Jeremiah 29—found that the Babylonian captivity would be for seventy years, and there were only two more years to the seventy years.
When Daniel read and knew about the prophecy, he gave himself to fasting and prayer that God’s promise would come to pass. As he was praying, God answered his prayer by sending an angel to him.
God gave him an answer far surpassing his prayer. Daniel was praying concerning the seventy years because, in two more years, the seventy years of captivity would be over. He was praying for his people and for the city of Jerusalem.
But when God answered his prayer, God gave him seventy sevens. The word “weeks” is a translation that should not be there. It should be “sevens.”
Daniel was concerned with seventy, but God said seventy sevens. Why? God showed him the whole history of the recovery of God toward His chosen people. As it were, in history, God set apart seventy sevens to complete His work with His own chosen people.
In one sense, it was through the prayers of Daniel that, in the first year of Cyrus, the decree was issued for the children of Israel to go back and rebuild the temple. But on the other hand, God gave Daniel something more: seventy sevens.
We do not have time to go into the details. He said that the seventy sevens would begin with the decree that Jerusalem, the city, should be rebuilt.
The seventy sevens would be divided into three parts: seven sevens, sixty-two sevens, and one seven. The seven sevens represent the time when Jerusalem would be rebuilt as a city.
We know that in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, in 454 BC, the order was given to Nehemiah to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was rebuilt in troublous times. It took forty-nine years to complete the rebuilding.
Then from that time, 454 BC, if you compute the time to the Messiah the Prince, it is exactly sixty-nine sevens—four hundred and eighty-three years.
If you want to be more exact, when was Christ proclaimed as Messiah? It was at the time He entered into Jerusalem for the last time. But He was cut off.
The prophecy says that the Messiah will come, but He will be cut off. “Cut off” is a violent term. In other words, He would meet a violent death, even crucifixion.
Then you find there is a gap. The last seven is still in the future. Jerusalem would be destroyed; the prince of the people, that is the Roman prince, would destroy the temple; and there would be war unto the very end.
The reason there is such a gap is that this is the church period, the dispensation of grace.
But then you find the last seven, the last seven years. The Antichrist will come and make a peace pact with God’s chosen people to give them security. But in the middle of the peace pact, he will break it and show his real face as the Antichrist.
That will be the great tribulation of Jacob’s trouble. But at the end, the desolator will be destroyed by the coming of Christ. So that is Daniel 9.
Now, Daniel 10–12 were given when Daniel was already over ninety years of age. Do not think that an old man has no use anymore.
Daniel was over ninety years of age at that time. He had lived through the seventy years of captivity. If he was taken as a hostage when he was twenty, then after seventy years he was ninety years old. In the third year of King Cyrus, he must have been ninety-two or ninety-three.
But the greatest vision was given to him at that time. He was given the vision of the time of the end, according to the Scripture of truth.
The remnant had already returned to Jerusalem in the first year. They had started to lay the foundation of the temple, but the work was stopped.
In the third year of King Cyrus, Daniel knew what had happened in Jerusalem. God had said He would restore the temple and the city, but it had not happened. The people returned, the foundation was laid, but the work was stopped.
So Daniel fasted and prayed for three weeks before God. He was seeking God. He wanted to know what would happen—what had happened to the seventy sevens.
As he was seeking God, because he was one greatly beloved, God showed him the time of the end.
Wonderful prophecies—prophecies that would be fulfilled in detail. No prophecy in the Bible is given in such detail.
Daniel 10 is more like an introduction. Daniel 11:2–35 covers the period from Darius to Antiochus Epiphanes. We cannot go into details because there is no time.
Then, from Daniel 11:36, there is a sudden turn. Because Antiochus Epiphanes is a type of the Antichrist, the prophecy suddenly turns to the Antichrist. It shows us what the Antichrist will be doing, how the world will be in turmoil, and finally how the time of the end shall come.
Of course, even Daniel did not understand fully, but he was told that it was reserved to the end. When knowledge is increased, communication will be increased, and people will begin to understand.
Today, as a matter of fact, the book of Daniel is no longer a sealed book. It is an open book to us. We know that the time of the end is in view.
Let those who are clean be refined and kept pure and white before God.
Brothers and sisters, these are very difficult times. But we, by the grace of God, should be kept pure and white before God, that at His coming we will be able to see His face without being put to shame.
Daniel had to go to rest until the time when he would be raised up and receive his reward. We who are still living—how we need always to be ready, waiting, praying, and preparing to meet the coming King.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, Thou hast given us this book of Daniel that we may be prepared. We praise and thank Thee that Thy Word is true. We see that all things are coming to an end according to Thy Word.
We do praise and thank Thee that this world will soon be over, and Thy kingdom shall come upon this earth.
During this period, O Lord, we do pray that Thou wilt raise up many Daniels who will be witnesses to Thee, who will bear testimony that Jesus is King, that His kingdom is the everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is forever.
Lord, we do ask Thee that this book of Daniel will not be just a matter of curiosity to us, but that it will truly stir our hearts to give ourselves over to Thee, pure as Daniel, to be Thy witness and Thy testimony.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.