Daniel

Purpose & theme

Daniel is the great book of God’s sovereignty over the kingdoms of men. Written for God’s people living under the power of pagan empires, it proclaims with unshakable confidence that “the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (4:17). Through the true stories of Daniel and his friends, and through sweeping visions of the future, the book assures a discouraged, exiled people that no king, empire, or persecutor is outside God’s control, and that God will preserve His people and, in the end, establish an everlasting kingdom that shall never be destroyed.

The book has two matching halves. The first (chapters 1-6) tells stirring narratives of faith and courage under pressure (refusing the king’s food, the fiery furnace, the writing on the wall, the lions’ den) in which faithful believers honor God in a hostile culture and God vindicates them. The second (chapters 7-12) records apocalyptic visions of successive world empires, a coming persecutor, and, above all, “one like a son of man” who comes with the clouds of heaven to receive an everlasting kingdom (7:13-14), and a resurrection of the dead to everlasting life (12:2). From beginning to end, Daniel calls God’s people to faithful endurance in the confidence that history is in God’s hands and His kingdom will triumph.