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A PROPHET FOR OUR TIME
The memo said, âtop secret.â Every person in the Oval Office had been given orders to arrive promptly at 8 a.m. No one must know, especially CNN, that the president of the United States, the vice president, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security Council, congressional leaders, and selected members of the cabinet had been called for this executive briefing. The object: to hear a futuristic projection of the rise and fall of our planetâs major countries and their leaders. This was not a strategy meeting. This was to be the unveiling of the destiny of the world.
The president never looked more serious. He sat facing his advisers, men and women of keen intelligence whom he had entrusted with decisions that could affect millions of lives. With his fingers pressed together under his chin, he looked like he was praying. Considering the state of the world, his attitude was logical. When he signaled to an armed guard, the door was opened to allow one man to enter. The man hesitated for a moment and glanced at the illustrious gathering of military and political might. The president pointed to a chair directly in front of the polished executive desk. The man took his seat and faced the leadership advisers of the most powerful nation on earth.
The secretary of state cleared his throat. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs wiped his forehead nervously. The secretary of defense looked at his polished shoes. Tension was high.
âGentlemen,â the president said soberly, âyou are about to hear the future of the world as we know it. Listen carefully, for your very lives are at stake.â
WHO WAS THIS MAN?
Is this an imaginary scenario, or could it happen someday? What is fiction today may easily be fact tomorrow.
This scene did occur in another country with different players. One man, divinely inspired, accurately prophesied the rise and fall of empires and their rulers. Scholars have scoffed and doubters have discredited, but history has substantiated his words and the future will verify his predictions. Believing or disbelieving what this man said could change our lives forever.
Who was this man? Some of his critics say he wrote his book of history and prophecy after the fact. They might compare him to the members of the modern-day Procrastinators Club, who predicted on January 1, 1992, that the Persian Gulf War would be over in 1991, that Gorbachev would topple, and the Soviet Union disintegrate. âWe just now got around to our predictions,â the president of the club said.
Daniel is the man. Yet no matter how his critics have tried to discredit him or belittle the book that bears his name, they have failed miserably. Their names are forgotten, and his name lives on as a man of intense integrity and profound piety.
We cannot pass him off today as just the man in the lionsâ den or a dreamer of surrealistic dreams. To know Daniel is to learn how to live today and look at the future with confidence.
This is not merely a biography of someone we should know, but an outline of our future. Itâs not the images in a crystal ball or the babbling of a clairvoyant, but the truth contained in the Book of books.
DANIEL ON THE WITNESS STAND
The prosecutors of Daniel are the liberal scholars who find he is an embarrassment to them. They level their energy in trying to destroy his credibility. He has been under attack more than the book of Genesis. According to his critics, prophecy is an impossibility. There is no such thing as foretelling events to come; therefore, a book that contains predictions must have been written after the fact. They claim his book is fiction written like prophecy in order that it might be more interesting to the readers.
When the prosecution presents their case before the jury, they use, whether they realize it or not, the conclusions of a man by the name of Porphyry who lived in AD 233. He wrote fifteen books with the revealing title Against the Christians. Porphyry became a polytheist, which means he embraced many gods and worshiped them. One of his favorite targets was Daniel. He did everything he could to prove that this book was written about 165 BC, and that all the events the book of Daniel prophesied were written after they had already come to pass.
TESTIMONY OF DANIELâS CONTEMPORARIES
When Ezekiel takes the witness stand, he is very sure of Danielâs existence and writing, for they were neighbors in Babylon. If the prosecution does not believe Daniel, then they have a problem with Ezekiel also.
If the prosecutors canât deal with Daniel, they will have to call Noah and Job to the witness stand too.
In Ezekiel 28:3, God was speaking to the prince of Tyre, and He said, âAre you wiser than Daniel?â He didnât say Solomon, who is generally named as the wisest man who lived, but He named Daniel, which shows what God thought of him.
TESTIMONY OF THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS
If the prosecution cannot discredit the witness, then they search for contradictions in his testimony. The first and second verses of Daniel say that Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of Babylon, took vessels from the temple at Jerusalem and brought them into the treasury of his god.
âNever heard of such a thing,â says the prosecuting attorney. âThat was a completely unknown custom. We canât find any reference in ancient history to such a practice.â
Suddenly the archaeologists burst into the room, brushing the dirt from their hands and placing their shovels and sieves in front of the judge. They have discovered an inscription that proves Nebuchadnezzar always put his choicest spoils into his house of worship. Just one of those peculiar habits of the king.
In the first chapter of Daniel there is reference to a fellow by the name of Ashpenaz, who was master of the eunuchs. The prosecution says, âNo one ever heard of this fellow. He was just another fictional character out of Danielâs fantasy.â
During the last century, the name Ashpenaz has been found on the monuments of ancient Babylon. It says, âAshpenaz, master of eunuchs in the time of Nebuchadnezzar.â
If the prosecution can trip the defendant on details, he can cast doubt on his credibility. The opponents of the Word of God love to say, âBut the Bible contradicts itself.â
In the fifth chapter of the book of Daniel, the story is told of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, who is said to have been slain during a drunken feast on the night Babylon fell. Secular history says the king of Babylon at that time was Nabonidus. Who is right? No one knew how to reconcile these two accounts until Sir Henry Rawlinson discovered an inscription on a cylinder found in the Euphrates River. It cleared up the problem. There were two kings of Babylon during Danielâs later life, a father and a son. Nabonidus, who occupied a stronghold outside the city, had his eldest son, Belshazzar, as co-regent. He allowed him to use the royal title. Belshazzar was slain while defending the city; Nabonidus was spared. This detail explains Daniel 5:29, where it says: âThen at Belshazzarâs command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.â
Daniel was the third ruler because there were already two others, Nabonidus and Belshazzar. So the prosecutor returns to his seat and searches for more incriminating evidence to indict Daniel.
THE STAR WITNESS
When this Person takes the stand, the prosecution is at a loss. In Matthew 24:15, Jesus said, âSo when you see standing in the holy place âthe abomination that causes desolation,â spoken of through the prophet Daniel.â
Jesus said that in the Old Testament scriptures, Daniel the prophet wrote about the abomination of desolation. He said Daniel was for real. With that testimony, I know I can go through the book of Daniel and dig out its truth with full confidence that I have Godâs word in my hands.
The defense rests.
DANIELâS THEME
When God wants His work to be done, He turns to His children. Jesus said, âLet your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heavenâ (Matt. 5:16).
Most of us love praise. We display our trophies, blue ribbons, and awards on the wall. We love the applause of an audience. Nothing wrong with that. But Iâm reminded of Corrie ten Boom, who found it difficult to accept all the adulation that came to her after the success of her books and the movie of her life. Then she prayed about it, and âthe Lord showed her a beautiful way of using the tributes and accolades: each one would represent a beautiful flower, and then, at night, she would collect them into a beautiful bouquet and give them back to Jesus, saying âHere, Lord, they belong to you!ââ1
In the same way, Daniel did not look for personal recognition, although he was intelligent, perceptive, strong, and sensitive. His book reveals much of his character, but the theme is not his greatness; rather, it is that âthe Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishesâ (Dan. 4:25).
The book of Daniel has a high and lofty view of the sovereignty of God. The theme is: there is a God in heaven. The book repeats that He is the great God, He is the God of gods, the King of heaven. When we understand that prevailing theme, we are able to understand how God may use some people for His purposes, even when they are not His own children. For instance, we read in Daniel 1:1â2: âIn the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand.â
Nebuchadnezzar thought he captured the city. The Babylonian Daily News probably headlined, NEBUCHADNEZZAR CONQUERS KING OF JUDAH. No, he didnât. God gave him that victory.
When Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzarâs dream, he said, âYou, O king, are the kings of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and gloryâ (Dan. 2:37). How did Nebuchadnezzarâa wicked, despotic kingâcome to the throne of Babylon? It is simple. The God of heaven gave it to him.
Later, Daniel was speaking to Belshazzar and said, âO king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendorâ (Dan. 5:18). Sometimes God uses even the worst of men to carry out His will. Later we will meet Cyrus, king of Persia, another corrupt man who was also a tool of Godâs (see also Isa. 44:28).
Daniel praised the God of heaven and said:
