Patricia Higton looks at the Prophet Daniel.

Daniel and his three friends, Jews of the nobility in exile, had been chosen for high position in the service of Nebuchadnezzar, the pagan Babylonian emperor, who autocratically ruled the world of the Middle East.

It would have been understandable if the four young men had curried favour with the king, who had power of life and death over his subjects and captives. The first test came early on in their training for service, when food from the royal table was set before them. Every good Jew knew that this raised issues of defilement and idolatry.

It would have been so easy to compromise, but Daniel clearly realised that here was a question of lordship -was he primarily a servant of the emperor, or of the God of Heaven and Earth? He passed the test, perhaps with no idea that God was training him for higher things.

Sadly, many fall at the first hurdle and can only limp along after that unless they repent and seek the Lord afresh. So few Christians, who are highly placed in government, or the world of business and finance, or senior positions in the professions, make a real impact for the Lord. Doubtless those who do make choices early on to follow God's way, resisting all pressure to compromise, let alone conform to our post-Christian society.

God Honours Obedience

In two later, separate, incidents, it seemed that all was lost for Daniel and his friends. Their contemporaries must have wondered what was the point of sticking to principle, if the end was to be a den of lions or a fiery furnace. But the words of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego echo down through the centuries: "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O King. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Daniel's first test came early on in his training for service: was he primarily a servant of the emperor, or of the God of Heaven and Earth?

In their case, one "like a son of the gods" first came to them in the midst of the furnace, before they were rescued from it (Dan 3:17, 18, 25-28). In the New Testament account of the early Church and in stories of persecuted Christians down to the present day, there have been similar tales of deliverance. There are also accounts of many thousands who were not delivered in this life, but whose sacrifice was not in vain. The blood of the martyrs has continually been the seed of the Church.

Although we know from Scripture that God always honours faith and obedience, he never blesses compromise. It is a cause for shame that there are so few Christian leaders, particularly in the comfortable Western Church, who are prepared to uphold biblical principles, even at cost to their reputation and aware that there may be no vindication until the next life.

God's Sovereign Purpose

The principal theme of the book of Daniel is God's sovereignty over the rise and fall of kings and nations. It is helpful to question why God should have given such highly detailed and accurate messages about the future, either to Daniel directly, or to the emperors for Daniel to interpret. The answer must surely be that these powerful rulers were being given an opportunity to revere God, who so impressed them as "the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries" (Dan 2:47). God is a God of mercy and compassion, who withholds just judgment when men repent.

Later, Paul was to take the Gospel of salvation to the Roman Empire, though it would be nearly 300 years before an emperor responded positively. For since the time of Christ, God's purpose has been that "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matt 24:14). Primarily, the world needs the message of the Gospel of salvation and judgment.

Contemporary prophetic messages will be delivered principally to the Church, and will be concerned with the Church or the world. But the days are coming when it will be important for prophets to interpret to the world as well as the Church prophecy in Scripture as yet unfulfilled, including that found in the books of Daniel and Revelation.

We know from Scripture that God always honours faith and obedience, but he never blesses compromise.

As we see nation after nation in the post-Cold War world now threatened less by nuclear annihilation than by terrorism or internal disintegration, we learn from the book of Daniel that God has been and is totally in control of all historical and future events. He knows the end from the beginning. Events which may seem arbitrary to us are turned by the Creator, Saviour and Judge of the whole world to serve his purposes, whether of salvation or judgment.

Belshazzar, who set himself up against the Lord of Heaven, was weighed on the scales and found wanting. His kingdom divided and given to the Medes and Persians (Dan 5:26-31). Nebuchadnezzar, on the other hand, was told that his kingdom would be restored when he acknowledged that heaven rules (Dan 4:26).

Daniel's Intercession

God's intention was not for his people to stand by, helplessly watching events unfold. We have a significant part to play. Daniel was used by God to challenge those in authority, not only in the gifts of interpretation and prophecy, but also in intercession, to pray prophetic scriptures into being. He had been in training, praying three times a day (Dan 6:10) even at risk to his life (Dan 6:13), but it is in chapter 9 that we see the depth of his intercession.

This impassioned prayer of penitence and petition undoubtedly played a part in the eventual deliverance of Daniel's people from exile. Many praying people have since taken up his cry, "O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your name" (Dan 9:19).

But intercessory prayers can be less effective if they are not based on a true diagnosis of the severity of a situation leading to confession of corporate sin. By contrast, Daniel's prayers were so effective that Gabriel himself was sent to answer them.

The End Times

Much of the book of Daniel is taken up with prophecies about the empires of Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. But throughout it all is woven amazing insight about the rule or kingdom of God, which begins as a hewn rock but becomes a huge mountain, filling the earth (Dan 2:35).

Even as we have been made aware of the sovereign rule of God over nations, so from first to last the message of Daniel is that God's sovereignty, far from being limited to the rise and fall of earthly kingdoms (Dan 4:32), in fact extends to the establishment of a Divine kingdom that will never be destroyed (Dan 2:44). It is an eternal dominion, enduring from generation to generation (Dan 4:34-35).

Although believers may now be marginalised or even persecuted, the future holds out the certain hope that "the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heavens will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High" (Dan 7:27). Again, "The saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it for ever" (Dan 7:18). Sadly, this will come about only after a time of intense persecution and seeming defeat by "the horn" (Dan 7:21), a prophecy which many believe to have had an initial fulfilment in the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes (168-164 BC) who tried to destroy the Jewish religion.

God's intention is not for his people to stand by, helplessly watching events unfold. We have a significant part to play.

The Book of Daniel helps us at this point to understand that there is frequently both a partial fulfilment of prophecy which is now history, and one which is yet to come. This comprehension helps us in interpreting, for example, the predictions of Jesus or those in the Book of Revelation. We learn that a time of distress or tribulation is yet to come, before the end of all things, when "multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will wake: some-to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt" (Rev 12:2).

Yet to Come

We would be foolish to ignore any prophecy as yet unfulfilled, because those which have come to pass show the predictions in Daniel to be astonishingly accurate.
Unable to believe in such accurate prophecy, some argue for a late date for Daniel but cannot actually push that date to later than the mid-second century BC. That still leaves such sceptics to explain prophecies about the Roman Empire and, of course, about Christ. There is an amazing prophecy about his coming and his death. Many scholars believe that the timescale incorporated in this prediction is literal, not symbolic, and was perfectly fulfilled (Dan 9:24-26).

There is also a specific prophecy of the second coming in Daniel 7:13, where we are given an awesome glimpse of the future:

In my vision of the night, I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

Finally, we may note a verse that can encourage us today to witness to our faith as much as it did nearly 2,500 years ago: "Those who lead many to righteousness" (Dan 12:3) will shine "like the stars for ever and ever."

Originally published in Prophecy Today, Vol 12 No 1, January 1996. Revised November 2016.