The book of Daniel is intentionally complicated: it tells 6 stories over the span of 70 years, is written in 2 languages — Aramaic and Hebrew — and is filled with eschatological visions of the future.
Daniel’s complexity is a reminder to us that we live in a difficult world overseen by an omnipotent God. With all of the challenges we have in life, we need God to be anything but simple. Through story, visions and promises, God unfolds a picture for us in Daniel that supersedes the book’s time period and the world as we know it.
God shows us how He is present and interacting in His world so that we may never come to the conclusion: God is not here.
God does so in such a way that we are forced to view the world through His lens. Paul House describes the arc of Daniel this way:
The [book] takes readers slowly and systematically from Judah’s loss of kingdom, to the promise of God’s everlasting kingdom, to the necessity of long-standing perseverance, to the promise of resurrection, the means by which faithful ones inherit God’s everlasting kingdom. God’s kingdom rises continually, and will reach its goal in God’s time.
While nations rise and fall, God’s rule is never challenged. He is working to bring His people into His presence, under His lordship. He will accomplish all He has set out to do. Even in exile, His people can have great HOPE.
1 | Daniel 1:1-21 | HOPE in self-denial
2 | Daniel 2:1-49 | HOPE in prophecy
3 | Daniel 3:1-30 | HOPE in persecution
4 | Daniel 4:1-37 | HOPE in humiliation
5 | Daniel 5:1-31 | HOPE in punishment
6 | Daniel 6:1-28 | HOPE in the den
7 | Daniel 7:1-14 | HOPE in God’s dominion
8 | Daniel 7:15-28 | HOPE in an everlasting kingdom
9 | Daniel 8:1-27 | HOPE in restoration
10 | Daniel 9:1-27 | HOPE in atonement
11 | Daniel 10:1-27 | HOPE in God’s presence
12 | Daniel 11:1-45 | HOPE in the temporary
13 | Daniel 12:1-13 | HOPE in the end