Living Courageously and Confidently

How can we remain faithful to our God in a world that rejects him? Is it even worth standing firm and obeying him, when his kingdom often seems so very far away? How can we live courageously and confidently in nations that do not seek to live under God’s rule? And is it possible to be a blessing to our nations, and show the power and goodness of our God, even in a time such as ours?

Those are pressing questions for those of us who live in contexts where to be a Christian is no longer the norm (if it ever was) and is increasingly to be misunderstood, maligned and even mistreated. And since this is the context in which Daniel found himself, the book that bears his name is a book that will reassure, challenge and thrill us as we read it today.

In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Daniel is placed in a section of books that recount Israel’s history. In your Bible, however, you will find it located among the Old Testament prophetic books. This difference does not surprise us as we read through Daniel, because there are two kinds of literature within one single book. Chapters 1 – 6 are historical narrative—they are stories, narrating the historical highlights of an Israelite named Daniel who served in the king’s court at the time of the Babylonian exile. Chapters 7 – 12, on the other hand, are a series of visions—they are best described as apocalyptic literature, because these visions take Daniel to days beyond his own, to the coming of God’s kingdom.

With these two distinct types of literature, the broad structure of Daniel is revealed. It is divided evenly into two parts. For the first six chapters, the phrase At Home in Babylon works well as a kind of summary title. After all, these chapters taught those early post-exilic readers (small Jewish congregations who had no king and who had not had a very good run), and now us, how to be at home in this present world. Through Daniel and his friends, we, as followers of God in Christ, begin to learn what we can rightly expect out of this life. And as we will come to see, it’s not all bad!

Through Daniel and his friends, we, as followers of God in Christ, begin to learn what we can rightly expect out of this life.

With the apocalyptic visions of chapters 7 – 12, though, we find a clear change in tone and emphasis. Those early Jewish readers would have learned that their ultimate longings to be delivered, to have their exilic condition ultimately removed, would come with great cost. Things would not be easy. For even after seventy years of exile, Daniel learned that seventy sets of seven remained for God to accomplish his kingdom work. Salvation required more than a simple trip back across the wilderness to Jerusalem. It was not even really a matter of geography. Rather, the visions showed that the kingdom God promised comes only after considerable time and difficulty for God’s people and God’s anointed. In fact, Daniel began to realize that the end of their 70 years in Babylon was only a precursor to the years needed for their final deliverance and salvation. As such, Getting Home from Babylon is a phrase that captures the second half of the book. It describes something of the required and prolonged season of suffering while God’s people come to terms with life after the exile. While God’s promises of a king and kingdom were clear and known, the hour of their complete fulfillment remained opaque, like a figure in the distant shadows.

The Emphasis of Daniel
If the book of Daniel were a piece of sheet music, it would be impossible to read it without hearing the themes of kings and kingdoms prominently placed along the melodic line. These important notes appear in every chapter and, together, they form a tune that is pulled through the book from beginning to end. More particularly, the emphasis of the book will reveal God’s design in establishing his own everlasting King and kingdom in the world.

The value of seeing this theme is not merely to see that God is sovereign over all things (which of course he is), but it includes seeing God install his King and kingdom in the world for salvation. This aspect of Daniel—that God’s King is Savior, and that God’s kingdom brings salvation—has been often overlooked. As a result, the connections between Daniel and the first coming of Christ, complete with his death and resurrection, receives little to no attention by most commentators.

The words of Jesus on the road to Emmaus provide a more balanced guide to approaching the Old Testament in Luke 24:25-27:
“And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

In fact, even the apocalyptic visions of Daniel 7 – 12 are meant to reveal the sufferings of Israel as a necessary preparation for the suffering Servant, the Anointed, the Christ, who alone brings salvation to his people through his death and resurrection.

This is an edited extract from David Helm's new book: Daniel for You