tribe church

Series: “Elisha to Jesus,” back half of the Old Testament
Part 2, installment 3: two prior weeks on Daniel (last week: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego)
Today: Daniel and the lion’s den, plus apocalyptic literature in Daniel’s second half
Upcoming: Scott Habib next week, then Esther/Ezra/Nehemiah, then Pastor Taylor Foster on August 8th

Daniel serves Nebuchadnezzar faithfully, interpreting dreams and visions, despite the king’s wickedness
Chapter 4: Nebuchadnezzar’s tree dream
- Daniel interprets it as Nebuchadnezzar’s coming downfall, then urges him to repent and show mercy to the poor
- Neb goes mad, eats grass, lives in his own zoo for seven years
- Restored after acknowledging God as the only true king
Chapter 5: Belshazzar’s feast
- Neb’s grandson drinks from Jerusalem’s sacred vessels, praises demonic gods
- A disembodied hand writes on the wall (“writing on the wall” originates here)
- Daniel, now in his late 70s/80s and largely sidelined, is recalled by the queen mother
- Daniel reads the message: kingdom found deficient, will be taken away that night
- The Medo-Persian army, having redirected the Euphrates to wade under Babylon’s walls, kills Belshazzar that same night

Darius (likely same person as Cyrus) makes Daniel one of three presidents over the empire
Jealous rivals trick Darius into signing a 30-day law: no prayer to anyone but the king
Daniel prays toward Jerusalem three times a day anyway, knowing the cost
Darius, deeply reluctant, has no choice but to enforce the law and throws Daniel in
God sends his angel (likely Jesus, the “angel of the Lord”) to shut the lions’ mouths
Daniel emerges at first light, unharmed

Both Jesus and Daniel were arrested during prayer
Neither had anything bad recorded against them (Daniel sinless in narrative; Jesus literally sinless)
Both condemned by political leaders who didn’t want to kill them (Pilate/Darius)
Both had a stone rolled over what was meant to be their grave
Both emerged at first light through a miracle
The “angel of the Lord” in the den is likely Jesus, spending the night in fellowship with Daniel
- Septuagint (LXX): 70 scholars translating Hebrew to Greek; their rendering supports the angel being visibly present with Daniel

Visions in Daniel’s second half are not chronological with the narrative chapters
Apocalyptic = God pulling back a veil to reveal what is hidden; imagery must be decoded through the Holy Spirit
Daniel 9: Daniel reads Jeremiah’s prophecy of 70-year exile, then prays and fasts into it
- Key principle: receive a prophetic word, then actively pray it in (“pray the boat to the shore”)
Daniel 7: four beasts from the sea (nations in chaos)
- Lion with eagle’s wings: Babylon/Nebuchadnezzar (lost his mind, got it back)
- Bear: Medo-Persian Empire
- Leopard with four wings and four heads: Alexander the Great’s Grecian Empire, divided among four generals after his death at 32
- Dreadful fourth beast: Rome
- Little horn: Antiochus Epiphanes, who desecrated Jerusalem and prefigures the antichrist
Daniel 7:9: the Ancient of Days
- Seated on a flaming throne, dressed in white, white hair
- White hair as image of suffering: the Father watched his Son suffer; the detail is intentional
Daniel 7:13: the Son of Man
- Presented before the Ancient of Days, given an everlasting dominion over all peoples and nations
- Jesus calls himself “Son of Man” ~80 times in the Gospels, pointing directly back to this passage
- His claim to be the Son of Man was the core of the blasphemy charge against him
Daniel prophesies the year of the crucifixion in coded “weeks and days” language
Three prophetic windows in Daniel: human history, Jesus in that history, the end of the age and new creation