"There is a man in your kingdom" Daniel 5:11
Harry Foster
THE previous article dealt with the first four chapters of Daniel, describing events which took place during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the great Chaldean king. The rest of Daniel's prophecies tell of his experiences in the reigns of his successors. The chapters are not given in any chronological order and, since Chapter 5 marks the end of Belshazzar and Chapters 7 and 8, describe what happened before then, it is clear that we must consider these two chapters next.
No doubt at the end of Chapter 4 Daniel was on a "high" of spiritual expectation. Things looked good, not only for him but for God's people as a whole and for their pending release from captivity. We know that behind Daniel's acceptance and execution of his post of honour at the court lay his supreme concern that the captives should be sent back to rebuild Jerusalem. How greatly, then, must he have welcomed Nebuchadnezzar's conversion and goodwill, imagining that this boded hope for the future.
But now, Nebuchadnezzar had died. We are not told of this, but we observe its effects in the loss of status for Daniel who clearly was seconded to some insignificant post in the palace, to find himself ignored and far from the corridors of power. A little hint of this can be found in that with Nebuchadnezzar it was stated that Daniel came in to his presence (4:8), whereas he only saw the new ruler Belshazzar at the end of his reign and then it is said that "he was brought before the king " (5:13). The chief trouble, however, was that this later ruler was a dissolute blasphemer from whom nothing good could be expected. What about Jerusalem and God's people now? [94/95]
This may well have been an all-time "low" for Daniel. Life is like that. Prayer is answered, things seem to be developing in marvellous ways and we are full of expectations. Then the whole scene changes. Perhaps it was at such a time of question and dismay that Daniel was given some visions to steady him and inspire him to go on.
Chapters 7 & 8
Our studies are concerned with Daniel as God's key man and not with the elucidation or explanation of the many predictions found in his book. I therefore propose at this point not to attempt identifications but just to mention a few of the lessons given to him, lessons which are also important for us in a way that mere predictions of future events would not necessarily be.
1. Daniel was told not to be so obsessed with personal problems as to lose sight of larger issues. His concern was about Jerusalem, and rightly so; just as our main concern may well be our own sphere of witness. He had taken up the spiritual problems of God's city in succession to Jeremiah and Ezekiel who had spoken much about its needs and its future and prayed earnestly in this connection. His was a heavy burden, calculated to overwhelm him by its very magnitude.
It seems that the Lord planned to give him some relief from his own immediate and local problems by occupying his thoughts with the larger issues of His eternal purpose. In the arrangement of this book we find that Chapter 6 and Chapter 9 are concentrated on Jerusalem, but here in between them we have two chapters in which the city is not mentioned. It can sometimes be a help to us to turn for a moment from our own immediate problems and concerns and be led out by God's Word into the larger spiritual issues of His purposes, not to divert us from our personal responsibilities but to give them a wider setting.
In Chapter 7 Daniel was confronted with the vast subject of the two kingdoms, that of the world and that of Christ. Set over against the dream of Chapter 2, when he interpreted the kingdom of this world as an imposing and shining image, he now sees that while it may look like that to men, in God's eyes they are seen as ferocious beasts. I fear that a majority of the captives only saw the glittering aspect of Babylon. When eventually the decree of release was given, a majority of the Jews were so prosperous under the gold and silver of this world's kingdom that they did not want to leave it, being content to let only a remnant return to the city of David. This, in principle, is all too often the attitude of God's people in our own days. It is not always easy to turn one's back on personal comforts and venture all for God but that was what the remnant that returned were ready to do. It may be that through Daniel's ministry they were delivered from being deceived by the flashing metals of this world's kingdom and, being able to see with God's eyes, they were enabled to comprehend something of the ugliness and futility of it all.
For the moment Daniel was able to look beyond the immediate problems which concerned the cities of Babylon and Jerusalem, and to see them in the much larger setting of the age-long conflict between the two kingdoms. For us the New Testament concentrates all the time on our need to see our own personal problems in their relationship with the vast implications of God's eternal purpose in Christ.
2. Daniel was not permitted to get mentally involved with world events until he had received a fresh and bigger vision of God's King (7:15-28). We must continually turn our eyes upon Jesus before we begin to look around at this ugly world. Daniel had been given a quick sight of the unfolding world empires, and seems to have been especially intrigued by the fourth beast, but as he looked on he saw all those thrones cast down (7:9). In a dark and unpromising situation, the Lord drew his attention to the glorious ultimate of it all, as though saying, "First take a good look at My chosen King and My purposes in and through Him, and after that it will be all right for you to get involved in merely human history". There is no need here for an exposition of the vision of the Ancient of Days and of His entrusting of His eternal and universal Kingdom to the Son of Man. The New Testament enlarges on this eternal purpose and it is vividly illustrated in the book of the Revelation. [95/96]
Daniel 7 is an important chapter. Evidently the Lord Jesus paid great attention to it, as is evidenced by the way in which He quoted it to the high priest at a most critical moment: "The high priest said to him, I charge you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Yes, it is as you say, Jesus replied, But I say unto all of you that in future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:63-4). What is more, most commentators conclude that it was from this very Scripture in Daniel that Jesus chose His unique title, the Son of Man, which was never used by His disciples, with the exception of Stephen who was being given a glimpse of Christ's Second Coming. Clearly we are meant to live and die in the light of Christ's Day of glory.
3. Daniel was informed that although God's saints must suffer, their trials are preparing them to share in the kingdom of Christ: "the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom" (7:22).
Daniel doubtless saw a great deal of violence when Jerusalem was attacked and his people taken into captivity, but the references here to the crushing and wearing out of the saints (7:21 & 25) do not apply to those incredible cruelties which the nation suffered then and has suffered throughout the ages, though these horrors and injustices are a solemn and grim reminder of the inevitable fulfilment of God's Word: "Just as it is written in the law of Moses all this disaster has come upon us" (9:13). Happily in that case Daniel could argue that "To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses ..." (9:9), so that there was hope for Israel then as there still is now.
In this case, however, Daniel was being told of the ongoing experiences of God's true people through the years and especially in the last days. His larger vision extended right through to the end of the age and to that great climax when these same persecuted saints will possess the kingdom. Entry into the full values of God's kingdom inevitably involves many hardships as Paul told the early believers (Acts 14:22). The spiritual implication of Daniel's vision is ratified by the New Testament; we are told that "if we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him" (2 Timothy 2:12).
The horrors were so real to Daniel that they left him sick and exhausted (8:27), but he had already been told that God has a purpose in it all. The light shines through the dark patches of these two chapters and it shines right through the darkness of the world in which we live. Suffering for Christ is not purposeless; it is already foreseen by our God and calculated to prepare us for a great destiny, even the sharing with our Lord of His eternal kingdom. This is very far from that rather cheap triumphalism which promises believers unending ease and prosperity if only they have the right kind of faith. To Daniel some of the issues were "beyond understanding" (8:27), as indeed they are to us, but the cheering truth is that we will share Christ's ultimate triumph and that then God's strange ways with us will all be vindicated. After the first visions Daniel kept the matter in his heart (7:28) for two full years, and then came further visions concerning the mounting tide of evil until the matter is settled by this kingdom being broken "without hand" (8:25).
Chapter 8 is largely occupied with a detailed account of how evil will come to its climax "at the appointed time of the end" (v.19) and belongs to a distant future time (v.26), but it was all so real to the prophet that it made him quite ill. We can never take Satan's kingdom lightly, even though we be sure of the final outcome. One imagines that he rose from his sick bed to take up again his job in court affairs because he had no option, but in any case the servant of the Lord can never be a mere visionary but show his faith in God by a practical application to daily duties. Some of the Thessalonian believers were so carried away by the hope of the Second Coming that they failed in this very matter, so Paul had to command them to devote themselves to honest work even while they looked for the Saviour (1 Thessalonians 4:11).
In Daniel's case something sensational was about to happen and that very soon. This is what we will see as we turn back to Belshazzar's end. [96/97]
Chapter 5
The Lord's arm is not shortened. At His own right moment He was well able to deal with this matter of Daniel's seeming eclipse. In fact it did not need His arm, nor even His whole hand to transform Daniel's situation. It was all done by a few fingers: "in the same hour came forth the fingers of a man's hand, and wrote words over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace" (v.5).
Those fingers did all that was necessary to rid the empire of a troublesome ruler and to restore Daniel to a new place of authority in the land. The actual battle which virtually brought the Chaldean regime to an end was already fought and lost, but in His own wonderful way the Most High let this dissolute deputy-ruler go on just long enough to ensure that when his end came the Lord's appointed key man was placed securely where God needed him. The whole occasion was governed by those few fingers. They turned a conceited braggart into a cringing coward, frightened out of his life by this evidence of another world, and at the same time rescued Daniel from his obscurity and restored him to his place of influence.
I have already described what had happened to Daniel as a case of his being seconded, but it is probably more exact to say that he had been demoted and forgotten. It took the old dowager queen to remind Belshazzar of his existence: "There is a man in your kingdom ... in the days of your father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him ... king Nebuchadnezzar made him master of the magicians ... Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation" (vv.11-13).
The story of the writing on the wall is a familiar one and the phrase a matter of common usage. It came at a time when evil was on the throne and the sacred vessels of the temple were being debased to the vilest uses. Its cryptic form served not only to frighten Belshazzar but to make it necessary for the reinstatement of Daniel who alone could give the interpretation. Just the sight of those writing fingers had completely unnerved the king, who was now ready to offer everything in his power to know what it all meant. He called aloud for help and offered unlimited promotion to any who could help him but there was an impasse until the unknown Jew was brought in. "Are you Daniel?", Belshazzar asked, since this was the first that he had heard of him, but he listened to what the prophet had to say and, rather strangely, was ready to substantiate his offer of promotion to third rulership in the kingdom, he himself being only a deputy.
It was his last action. There was a dramatic reversal of affairs, and it happened "that very night" (v.30). So often God tests our patience and makes us wait as He did in Daniel's case, but when His moment comes it can all happen at once. The blaspheming monarch was slain -- apparently the only casualty in an otherwise bloodless coup -- and the prominent person confronting the invading general was Daniel, the new deputy, who was clothed with purple and had a golden chain of office about his neck. Once again the Most High had intervened in this world's affairs to keep His key man in position.
One imagines that the military commander looked around for a suitable civil administrator to take care of the immediate situation and found to hand the officially arrayed ruler who had the advantage in his eyes of not being a Chaldean and perhaps the only one who was sober. In any case, he appears to have ordered Daniel to carry on. Such are the wonderful ways of our living God! What is more, we may be sure that one of the first orders given by this newly appointed official, Daniel, was that those defiled vessels of the temple should be recovered, cleansed and restored to the king's treasury. In this connection he was indeed God's key man. When the time came for the captives to return, Cyrus was reminded that they were there and himself gave orders for them to be returned to Jerusalem (Ezra 5:14-15).
Daniel had not grasped at the idea of promotion in the kingdom of Babylon. In fact he disclaimed the rewards which Belshazzar offered him and made it plain that he would faithfully interpret the mystic words on the wall without any personal demands (v.17). There seems to be almost a principle in this connection; when we pray selfish prayers for our own advancement we are likely to be disappointed, but when we seek to be true to God just where we are, we find that God opens new doors of opportunity in His service. At least that has been my experience. [97/98]
Chapter 9
This chapter apparently follows on after Chapter 5. The prayer here recorded was made in the first year of the reign of king Darius, whereas Chapter 6 describes Daniel as now a trusted and greatly appreciated confidant of the King. Such a relationship takes time. I therefore presume that here we are told of that earnest prayer vigil now maintained by Daniel which is later challenged according to the account in Chapter 6. The prophet was not so busy doing the kings business that he neglected God's Word. Far from it! This is an autobiographical section of his book and it begins with his account of illumination from the study of Scripture. The main theme of the book is emphasised as we find God's key man fully extended in intercessory prayer. However much God may or may not need His servants to work for Him in other ways, it is certain that He calls for the co-operation of prayer. He Himself has chosen to use His people's prayers as a basis for His working.
Some might argue that there was no need for Daniel to get himself worked up in such a way about Jerusalem since he knew very well from his Bible that seventy years was the period determined by God and from his calendar that those seventy years were almost completed. This may sound logical but it is not spiritual. Indeed it is the revelation of God's will in His Word which forms the basis of true prayer. We cannot pray without the Word, but a sincere understanding of the Word will do for us what it did for Daniel who reports: "So I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications..." (v.3). The man of God is not a fatalist, waiting for the inevitable and ready to dogmatise about it. He is a worker together with God, and his main task is prayer: "You that are the Lord's remembrancers, take no rest, and give him no rest till he establish, till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth" (Isaiah 62:6-7).
When others spoke about God in the rest of the book, they used a variety of titles for Him. They did not and could not know His personal name. In those circumstances Daniel used the same titles, but in the hidden place of prayer he addressed himself directly to God by using the special, personal name of Yahweh or Jehovah. And he used it seven times! In our Bibles this is rendered in capital letters, LORD. For Daniel it kept in view the covenant faithfulness of the One to whom he was praying.
This put him on to sure ground, but it did not admit of any superficial attitude. Far from it. In fact the first part of the prayer was devoted to sincere contrition. Happily with all his confessions he was able also to appeal to the Lord's reputation for great mercies, and also to argue that his request was not merely personal but associated with that reputation: "O Lord hear; O Lord forgive; O Lord hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake ..." (v.19).
God loves to hear our confessions and our praises but He really does want to know what it is that we request. Daniel left Him in no doubt about that. He wanted Jerusalem to be rebuilt. It is a sad feature of our praying that we tend to begin intercessions for others only to turn to subjective prayers about our own spiritual state. I have known many a prayer meeting to be diverted in this way. It may seem spiritual, but it often means that we have been deflected from the objective purpose of our prayers.
Daniel, however, was a man who had his windows opened towards Jerusalem. The actual location was a very long distance away and was in any case a mass of ruins. Maybe Daniel recollected Solomon's great prayer which foresaw a captive people turning to the Lord in penitence and looking again to God's chosen city (2 Chronicles 6:38). If so, though he might be standing alone, he at least was seeking God's glory there with all his heart and soul from the land of his captivity. Perhaps his prayer represented a priestly function on behalf of others with a like concern. Or perhaps he was alone in his praying. It did not matter. He pressed home his appeal to the Lord to cause His face to shine in mercy upon the desolate sanctuary.
And his prayer was accepted. What is more, it was accepted at the time of the evening oblation. All our prayers have a direct connection with Calvary. He was told that Jerusalem would be rebuilt though it would be in troubled times -- a prediction which Ezra and Nehemiah found to be true enough. This categorical assurance came, however, almost like an aside in its much larger setting of the "seventy sevens" (v.24). His own request had not been overlooked -- far from it -- and he could be sure that there would be a decree to restore and [98/99] rebuild Jerusalem. But God had bigger issues. He always has.
Daniel's prayer spanned the centuries. It embraced the coming and sacrificial "cutting off" of the Christ and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness by His resurrection. It went beyond that and reminded the prophet of that earlier reference to the vision of "the time of the end" (8:17) when all vision and prophecy would be sealed up at the Coming in glory of God's most holy Son (9:24). How much or how little Daniel understood of events far off in the future we do not know. We are by no means clear ourselves about some things. For instance, the abomination of desolations mentioned here (v.27) and also foretold in 11:31 & 12:11, is identified as various events by different commentators and yet it was indicated by the Lord Jesus to be associated with His Second Coming (Matthew 24:15). The great thing about this chapter is that it shows us the divine ambassador faithfully doing his work on behalf of the heavenly kingdom. His prayer marked a turning point in history. It was a link in the golden chain of prayer, received from the earlier prophets and passes on to Ezra and Nehemiah. (It is interesting that in their case, as with Daniel, the prayer is recorded in the ninth chapter of their books!)
Chapter 6
This brings us to Chapter 6 which clearly comes after Chapter 9, since by now Daniel was obviously a favourite of Darius and now marked out by him to be the future administrator of the whole realm (v.3). It gives us the story of a diabolical attempt to stop the prayer or destroy the intercessor. His earthly status provoked human opposition by jealous colleagues, whereas his spiritual activities aroused the antagonism of the satanic kingdom, shaken by the powerful praying of God's man. Between them they hatched a plot which put Daniel in a similar quandary to that which had earlier been engineered against his three friends. Like them, he found that there was no need to compromise for the Lord really is the Most High.
As a true prayer warrior, Daniel had put on the whole armour of God. He was girded with truth and in every phase of his daily life he wore the breast plate of righteousness, so that his enemies had to confess that it was not possible to bring a charge against him. He also had his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace as he walked home to his prayer chamber.
It is clear that we have passed from the golden feature of the image to the inferior silver of a new empire. No-one would have dared even to suggest to Nebuchadnezzar that he must be bound by his own decrees. Poor Darius, however, once he had been tricked into signing his order against prayer, was reminded that even he could not countermand it: "The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot he repealed" (v.12). So the uncompromising Daniel had to face the den of lions.
There is something dignified and even contemptuous about his reaction to the threat: "When Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows were opened towards Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed giving thanks to his God as he had done before" (v.10). He could, of course, have ordered the windows to be closed, for he was master in his own house. That, however, would have represented defeat. He could have given up praying just for the time, since the edict only specified thirty days. I suggest that anyone who gives up praying for a month will find it hard, if not impossible, to recover his spiritual standing. Our Bible tells us that "Yet shall the righteous hold on his way" (Job 17:9). That was Daniel's Bible too, and he did just that.
And even while he prayed he gave thanks. Poor Darius did not know Yahweh so he spent a miserable day and an even worse night At first light he hurried to the pit and enquired after Daniel with "a lamentable voice" (v.20). It is reasonable to presume that such worries did not rob Daniel of sleep. He could not himself get out of the den but he could stay there with God's angel. What a difference it makes to know Yahweh, to know Jesus, especially in the lions' den!
It seems likely that this experience confirmed Daniel in his standing at the court, though this is not mentioned. However the chapter does conclude with the comment that he prospered on into the reign of Cyrus the Persian, confirming my view that Daniel's counsels as well as his prayers played a part in the release of the captives. This had been determined by God from the beginning (1:21). [99/100]
There are many lessons to be learned from this familiar story of the prophet in the lions' den, a matter which is referred to in Hebrews 11, but without mention of the name Daniel. To me a most heartening fact is that God did not allow even one prayer session to be missed. Since Darius postponed his decision till after sundown, we may presume that Daniel had already offered his third prayer for that day before he was arrested and put in the den. Moreover since it was at the first light of dawn that Darius came and ordered him to be freed to go home we cannot be far wrong if we conclude that his first action was to kneel again before those open windows for the first thanksgiving and prayer session of the new day. It had been a double miracle; not only was he safe -- an astounding wonder -- but also the prayer ministry had not been hindered. This is an example of the sovereign power of the living God -- Daniel's and ours -- who first provided Himself with a prayer instrument and then proceeded to answer the prayers which had been prayed.
From now on the scene was set for the fulfilment of Daniel's great objective. Chapters 7, 8 and 9, had already passed and between Chapter 6 and Chapter 10, Cyrus the Persian had come to the throne and issued his edict for the release of those who should return to re-build the temple in Jerusalem. Before the coming of Cyrus Daniel had been delivered and advanced in the kingdom. Once again the threat of destruction was made the occasion of promotion. We might have thought that Daniel's story would have ended there but no, there are still three more chapters.
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