Daniel

The book of Daniel might very well be called the Apocalypse (unfolding) of the future of Israel from the time of the Babylonian Captivity to the arrival of the Messiah on earth.  The book deals with King Nebuchadnezzar and different dreams he has.  The first dream that Nebuchadnezzar has is a dream of a large enormous dazzling statue that is awesome in apperance, with a head of gold, a chest and arm of silvers, a belly and thighs of bronze, and its legs and feet partly iron and partly baked clay.  Then all of these broke into pieces all at once.  Daniel informs Nebuchadnezzaar that the dream symbolizes the power of the babylonian Empire in ruling over the whole earth, then it symbolizes the inferior kingdom which was that of the Medo-Persians.  After that a third kingdom of bronze representing the Macedonian/Greek Empire would rise up and would rule over the whole earth.  The a fourth kingdom that was made of iron would break and smash everything.  This kingdom would be a divided kingdom which is referring to the Roman Empire which used a governing system of Tetrarchs which they learned from the time of Hellenization.  Then, a rock cut into all of this representing the hand of the one true God as superior to all the kingdoms mentioned by Daniel above.  In chaoter three, Nebuchadnezzar makes an image of gold, and sets it up in Babylon.  He summpned his government officials and issued a decree that whoever does not fall down and worship this image will be thrown into the fiery furnace.  The government officials then let Nebuchadnezzar know that there are three Jews- Shardrach, Meshach, and Abednego who have not followed the decree to worship the gold statue.  Therefore, they are thrown in the fiery furnace.  As they are in the furnace, they pray that God will come to their aid.  The atrologers watched the furnace the whole time and noticed that there were four men walking around in the furnace and one of them looked like a "son of the gods."  Whom they saw was the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  Notice that when thrown into the fire, the three Jews prayed to God for deliverance.  They probably had a different perception of deliverance.  While indeed they did survive, they also experienced the trauma of the fiery furnace. This is symbolic of the fact that through the triuals of life, God might not safe you from experiencing the trauma of the matter, but he will voluntarily go through the fire with you.  After the Jews manage to come out alive, Nebuchadnezzar acknolwedges their God by issuing a decree that the people who speak against the god of the Jews be cut into pieces and have their houses turned into rubble.  After going through the fire, Nebuchadnezzar promotes all three Jews into higher offices in the province of Babylon.In chapter four, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream of a tree in which it is stripped of its branches and its leaves.  Immediately, he consults Daniel(Belteshazzar) for the interpretation of the dream.  Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that the tree that was strong but would have it branches cut off represents the king himself who would eventually be overthrown by his enemies and knocked out by another empire and then nebuchadnezzar would live among the wild animals and there he would acknowledge that the Most High God is sovereign over all the universe and would come to faith in the God of the Jews.  Later in the chapter, the account is given of the fulfillment of the dream.  Notice that Daniel heeded the words of Jeremiah by praying and keeping in mind those whom were not familiar with his culture and being a witness to those who imprisoned him.  Through following this command, he led a once brutal and viscious king known as the Adolf Hitler of Old Testament times to faith in God.  In chapter five, a new era has beguun in Babylon as Nebuchadnezzar's son Belshazzar is on the throne.  Daniel warns Belshazzar of the fall of the kingdom while he is partying however Belshazzar goes on with this great party he has planned and thus his empire was taken over by the Persians.  Darius kept Daniel in the position of prime minister, of which Nebuchadnezzar had elevated Daniel to after his interpretation of his dreams.  However, the officials under Darius set up a trap by having Darius issue a decree that anybody within the kingdom that that worships anything, being, or person as God other than Darius over the next thirty days would be thrown into the Lion's Den.  Knowing that the decree is issued, Daniel shows his willingness to serve God as he prays with the window wide open and the officials come and get him and Darius reluctantly puts his prime minister in the Lion's Denn.  In the Lion's Den, Daniel prays to God and thus is delivered as the lions mouths are shut.  After Daniel is gotten out of the den after his overnight stay, Darius acknowledges the God of Daniel.  Many people like to disassociate chapters 1-6 of Daniel from chapters 7-12  to say that it is more comprehensible to read them as two different books and time spans.  For the simple-minded people this may indeed help them gain a better comprehension.  However, by doing such you miss the message that is within the transition from chapters 6-7.  The message is that if you show your willingness to serve God even to the point of being sentenced to the Lion's Den, you exhuberate the characteristic necessary to play a major part in spiritual warfare and God will elevate you to a higher calling in which you will serve him.  In chapter seven, Daniel has a vision of four beasts- a lion who had the wings of an eagle, a bear, a leaopard, and finally just a beast that was terrifying.  The lion with eagle's wings represents the Babylonian Empire, the leopard represents the Medo-Persian Empire, the bear represents the Macedonian/Greek Empire, and the beast creature represents the Roman Empire.  Some scholars will take this passage eschatalogically and say that the Lion represents the tribe of Judah restored to its land by the eagle which would be the US.  The bear would represent Russia.  The leopard would represent modern Greece, and the beast would represent the revived Roman Empire in the last days.  However, that comes only from an eschatalogical interpretation of the book of Daniel.  95 percent of Daniel is defineitely not eschatalogical in my opinion because it refers to prophecies that have already been fulfilled.  In chapter seven, the Ancient of days takes his throne as Daniel has a vision.  One portion of Daniel which is believed to refer to the tribulation is the last part of chapter seven where it refers to a leader who persecutes the saints of the Most High for three and a half years.  The passages referring to a small horn many presume are in reference to the Antichrist. However, I think this passsage refers to Antiochus Epiphanes King of Aassyria of whom I will tell you about below.  In chapter 8, Daniel has a vsiion of a Ram which represents the Medo-Persian Empire.  He also has a vision of a goat which represents Alexander the Great setting up his kingdom in 336 BC which started the process of Hellenization of which you could learn a lot about if you would go to Dr. James D. Tabor's website.  In chapter 9, Daniel prays to God and is praying very intensely out of repentance of sin.  He pleads to God in prayer, sackcloth, and ashes.  Then the Lord reveals to him about seventy sevens being decreed for his people.  Now it is unclear what the seventy sevens represent.  If there was ever any argument that those who believe in the pre-trib rapture of the church, then the seventy sevens is the only idea that has kept that theology alive.  The view for those who believe in Dispensational Premillenialism is that the rapture will take place prior to the tribulation because the seventy sevens in Daniel represent 490.  The first 483 years are believed by them to have started in 457 Bc which would put it coming to an end in 26 Ad when jesus is believed by several to have begun his ministry.  However, you have to remember that the seventy sevens are broken up into seven sevens and then 62 sevens and then one seven.  Personally I think it is referring to the time from the initial Babylonian conquests all the way to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes king of Syria who made the seven year peace treaty with Israel as is mentioned in chapter 9 and in the middle of the seven years broke the treaty and set up a statue of Zeus on the altar of the temple as an abomination that causes desolation, then sacrificed a pig on the altar and had sex with his mother on that very same altar.  The prophecy could be twofold, but I see no reason why it has to be since everything in Daniel mostly refers to the time of the past.  In chapter ten Daniel prays and has the vision of a heavenly being.  Verse 12 of chapter ten is very significant as the archangel Michael who contrary to popular opinion is the restrainer in the book of II Thessalonians comes to Daniel and tells him that he would have been there to answer Daniel's prayer three weeks earlier but he was detained when he had a battle with the forces of Satan.Chapter 11 once again refers to a mighty who will appear which is in reference to Alexander the Great.  Chapter 11 talks about an alliance between the King of Syria and the King of Egypt which comes about in the late third century BC.  Daniel 11:36 through the end of the book can be seen as the eschatalogical (end time prophecy) portion of Daniel as it refers to a king who exalts himself.  This king is spoken of as showing nor regard for the god of the desire of women, which is the biblical God Tammuz of which was a God of which women consulted for sexual favor.  This probably means that the antichrist will be a homosexual.  Chapter twelve speaks of the time of the end being when travel and knowledge are greatly increased.  However, that is as far as Daniel is allowed to go with the
time of the end because Michael, which is in this passage distinctly identified as the restrainer, tells Daniel to tells him to seal up the vision because it is of a time to come in the distant future.