Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 33: Friday

Friday’s Bible reading is Daniel 7–12. The first six chapters of Daniel for the most part record events during Daniel’s life, and the visions are those of Nebuchadnezzar. The chapters in the second half of Daniel are largely concerned with Daniel’s visions, and in some cases their interpretations, during the reigns of Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus.

Daniel 9:1–19 records Daniel’s prayer regarding the return of the Babylonian exiles to the land God had given to them.

Gleason Archer gives this prayer the apt title of “Daniel’s persistent, promise-based prayer.”¹ Daniel read that God promised through Jeremiah to return the Babylonian exiles to their land seventy years after Jerusalem was laid waste in judgment (Jeremiah 25:8–12, 29:10–14). He had been among the first exiles in 605 BC, and with the beginning of the reign of Darius in 539 BC, he knew the time was approaching for the end of their exile, and so he prayed.²

Daniel was indeed praying because of God’s promise to restore the exiles, but notice his attitude as he prayed. He was not claiming a promise to force God’s hand. Daniel was coming to God in humility and repentance, asking God to hear his prayer not because of who he was, but because of who God is.

Daniel’s prayer is a reminder for us to read God’s Word and pray His promises. Rodney Stortz writes, “when we plead the promises of God, we know that what we are asking for is God’s will.”³ Daniel’s prayer is also a model for us in how to pray, as we see his attitude in prayer.

Daniel is one of the most important prophetic books of the Bible because of its scope of history. John Walvoord writes:

“Among the great prophetic books of Scripture, none provides a more comprehensive and chronological prophetic view of the broad movement of history than the book of Daniel… Although other prophets like Jeremiah had much to say to the nations and Israel, Daniel brings together and interrelates these great themes of prophecy as does no other portion of Scripture.”⁴

Edward J. Young comments:

“The only work which may justly be compared with it is the NT book of Revelation.”⁵

To help you keep in perspective the study of prophecy, here are some wise words from Robertson McQuilkin:

“All of our rigorous Bible study must be for the purpose of making the application to life, transferring the truth into day-by-day living.

“For example, take the Bible doctrine of prophecy. The Bible tells us why prophecy was given—clearly not for the use commonly made of it. “I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it comes to pass, you may believe that I am He” (John 13:19; italics added). “And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass, you may believe” (John 14:29). That is clearly the purpose of prediction after it has been fulfilled. But what about the great mass of unfulfilled prophecy—does it have any purpose for today? Prophecy is primarily forth-telling God’s message, not fortelling [sic] the future. Of 164 predictive passages in the New Testament (excluding the book of Revelation, which is devoted exclusively to the subject), 141 are directly related to conduct, and apparently given to affect conduct—not to increase knowledge. Only 23 passages seem to be given primarily for information concerning the future.

“The study of Bible prophecy should be, then, primarily for two pur­poses: (1) the study of fulfilled prophecy to confirm our faith, and (2) the study of unfulfilled prophecy to influence our conduct.”⁶

Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan divides the book of Daniel into only two days, and it’s beyond the scope of these posts to compare the vari­ous views and interpre­tations of Daniel’s visions. Instead, I want to give you a broad over­view of Daniel’s prophecies from Rodney Stortz.

“Note in particular that the focus of the prophecies is limited in scope. Daniel does not prophesy about many different things, but rather about three main things that are repeated several times. He prophesies the first coming of the Messiah  [Daniel 2, 9], the coming of Antiochus Epiphanes [Daniel 8, 11:1–35, 12:8–13], and the second coming of the Messiah [Daniel 7].

“Each prophecy relates to one of these three. Both times the Messiah enters our world it will be preceded by a severe time of persecution for God’s people. The first time the Messiah came [Daniel 2] was preceded by the coming of Antiochus Epiphanes [Daniel 8, 11:1–35, 12:8–13]. The second time the Messiah comes [Daniel 7] will be preceded by the coming of the Antichrist [Daniel 7, 12:5–7].

“You will notice the cyclical nature of Daniel’s apocalyptic literature. He first speaks of the Antichrist [Daniel 7], then he introduces Antiochus [Daniel 8]. Next he tells us more about Antiochus [11:1–35] before he tells us more about the Antichrist [Daniel 11:36–12:4]. Then Daniel switches the order one last time as he asks a question about the Antichrist [Daniel 12:5–7], followed by one last question about Antiochus [Daniel 12:8–13].

“If the reader will keep these three main characters in mind—Antiochus, Messiah, and Antichrist—the prophecies of Daniel will be much easier to understand.”⁷

I’ve excerpted these chapter divisions from Stortz’ outline⁸ regarding these prophecies:

Daniel 2 Nebuchadnessar’s dream of the statue of the four kingdoms

THE MESSIAH COMES THE FIRST TIME
THE KINGDOM OF GOD ENTERS OUR WORLD

Daniel 7 Daniel’s prophetic zoo of four kingdoms

ANTICHRIST PREDICTED
THE MESSIAH COMES THE SECOND TIME
THE KINGDOM OF GOD COMES IN ITS FULLNESS

Daniel 8 Daniel’s vision of the ram and goat

ANTIOCHUS PREDICTED

Daniel 9 Daniel’s vision of the seventy weeks

THE MESSIAH COMES THE FIRST TIME

Daniel 10 Daniel’s vision of the “son of man”

THE MESSIAH APPEARS TO DANIEL

Daniel 11:1–35 Daniel’s vision of the kings of the south and north

ANTIOCHUS PREDICTED

Daniel 11:36–12:4 Daniel’s vision of the Tribulation and resurrection

ANTICHRIST PREDICTED

Daniel 12:5–7 Daniel’s question about the second great crisis

ANTICHRIST PREDICTED

Daniel 12:8–13 Daniel’s question about the first great crisis

ANTIOCHUS PREDICTED

Now admittedly that is a very broad overview, but it’s important to keep the big picture in front of us before looking at the details.

I opened this post by quoting Daniel 11:32.

As you finish reading the book of Daniel, remember the integrity and courage he and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, displayed in a strange land in the midst of people hostile to God. Their lives encourage us to grow in our knowledge and under­standing of God, so that we, too, in the midst of the circumstances of our times will be immoveable in our faith and honor God with our lives.

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Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Daniel’s Vision of the Four Beasts: engraving by Matthäus Merian: Public Domain.
¹Gleason L. Archer, Jr., “Daniel,” A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Moody Press, Chicago IL: 1966, 1974) 378.
²Kings & reigns from The New International Inductive Study Bible (Harvest House Publishers, Eugene OR: 1993, Precept Ministries) IISB-45–IISB-46.
^3,7,8Rodney Stortz, Daniel: The Triumph of God’s Kingdom (Crossway Books, Wheaton IL: 2004) 148, 12–13, 13–14.
⁴John Walvoord, Daniel: The Key to Prophetic Revelation (Moody Press, Chicago: 1971, paperback ed. 1989) 7.
⁵Edward I. Young, “Daniel,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds., (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1970) 688.
⁶Robertson McQuilkin, “Coherence of Truth,” Understanding and Applying the Bible (Moody Press, Chicago: 1983, revised ed. 1992) 222.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.

Copyright ©2011–2023 Iwana Carpenter