Volume 2, Issue 1
22 Sep 2016
 In this issue of Piecing Together Bible Prophecy, we are beginning a new study of an important prophetic text. Like in our last study, a study of the Two Witnesses of Revelation, we will use this publication to walk you slowly through the text. In each issue we will offer our interpretation in bite-sized spoonfuls, so as to make this study more easily digestible to you the reader. Profound prophetic text, like the one under consideration in this study, can prove to be overwhelming if not dissected in small and simple increments.
The important prophetic text being taken up by us in this new study of Bible prophecy is Daniel Chapter 2. The Book of Daniel has been called the Old Testament’s “Book of Revelation.” It is, without doubt, the Old Testament’s most important prophetic book, as well as the most important prophetic book in the Bible, with the lone exception of the Book of Revelation. It is even argued, and I believe rightly so, that you cannot understand the New Testament Book of Revelation without first understanding the Old Testament Book of Daniel.
Sir Isaac Newton, who is called “the father of modern-science,” was a Christian and serious student of the Bible. He actually invented calculus to perform computations he hoped to use to solve the puzzle of Bible prophecy. Speaking of the importance of the Book of Daniel, Newton wrote, in his book, Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, “Whoever rejects the prophecies of Daniel does as much as if he undermined the Christian religion, which so to speak, is founded on Daniel’s prophecies of Christ.”
Now that we’ve addressed the importance of this prophetic book of the Bible, let’s identify this important biblical prophet. Daniel was a young Jewish captive taken to Babylon by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. Once in Babylon, thanks to the obvious evidence of God’s favor upon him, Daniel was elevated to service in Nebuchadnezzar’s royal court. He continued to serve in Babylon’s royal court throughout the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian successors. In fact, the Bible teaches us that he was still serving in the royal court at the time of Cyrus, the Persian king who conquered Babylon. All in all, Daniel’s service in the royal court of Babylon, as well as his simultaneous and important prophetic ministry, lasted over an extended period of about 70 years.
When it comes to the prophet himself, he is portrayed by Scripture as a chosen servant of God who was “greatly beloved” by Heaven (Daniel 9:23; 10:11, 19). He is also portrayed by the Bible as a man of such impeccable character that even his enemies could find no fault with him (Daniel 6:4-5). In order to bring accusation against him to the king, they had to resort to trickery that forced Daniel to choose between his devotion to the king or to his God, knowing that Daniel would choose the latter rather than the former, because of his paramount, and therefore easily predictable, faithfulness to God (Daniel 6:6-23).
In Daniel Chapter 2, we are told about a reoccurring nightmare being suffered by King Nebuchadnezzar. In the nightmare, the king sees a terrifying image. He summons all the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and wise men of Babylon to appear before him. He then commands them not only to interpret his dream, but to tell him what he is dreaming, which is obviously intended to keep them from making up some fanciful interpretation. When they protest that no man alive can do what the king is demanding, the king decrees that they all be cut to pieces and their houses reduced to rubble.
When men are sent to execute Daniel and his friends, who are numbered among the wise men of Babylon, the prophet asks Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, what capital offense has been committed to precipitated such a “harsh decree” from the king. When Arioch explains what has transpired, Daniel requests a reprieve from his execution in order to have some time to seek his God about a possible interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmare. Granted the reprieve, Daniel and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, begin earnestly petitioning Heaven for mercy and divine revelation. That night God mercifully answers their prayers and reveals to Daniel not only the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, but its meaning as well.
After receiving and answer to their prayers, the Prophet Daniel goes to Arioch and asks that the execution of the wise men be called off and that he be taken immediately to the king in order to interpret for him his dream. When Arioch quickly ushers Daniel into the king’s presence, Nebuchadnezzar asks the prophet if he is able to tell him his dream, as well as its meaning. Like the wise men, astrologers, magicians, and soothsayers before him, Daniel also insists to the king that his royal demand is not just unreasonable, but humanly impossible. However, unlike the wise men, astrologers, magicians, and soothsayers before him, Daniel goes on to add that what is impossible with man is possible with God. Whereas no man on earth could do what the king was demanding, “there is,” according to Daniel, “a God in heaven,” who not only “reveals secrets,” but had also made “known to Nebuchadnezzar,” through his reoccurring nightmare, “what shall be in the latter days.”
As Daniel informed Nebuchadnezzar, and the Scripture clearly instructs us, only God can predict the future. Since it is by divine providence that the future unfolds, it is God alone who can foretell the future. Having predetermined it according to His will, He alone can predict it in His Word. As God declared to us Himself through the ancient Prophet Isaiah: “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’” (Isaiah 46:8-10 ESV)
In our next issue of Piecing Together Bible Prophecy, we will begin to explore all that God has made known to us about the latter days through the nightmarish image of King Nebuchadnezzar.
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Don Walton
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