All Scripture is Profitable, even Daniel 7-12
August 4, 2022 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments
Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement
This Sunday at Oak Hills we will be entering the second half of our sermon series on Daniel. Preachers and Bible studies often focus on the first six chapters, but skip over the second six chapters of Daniel. The first half contains all the well-known stories: Daniel’s diet, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and humility, the fiery furnace, the lion’s den, and the writing on the wall. The second half, well, gets a bit strange: other-worldly beasts trampling the earth, angelic beings wrestling with demonic beings, and cryptic prophecies with various number formulations. Unfortunately, some avoid such portions of Scripture as if they are not profitable.
The apostle Paul, however, says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). So, how should we hear the second half of Daniel as profitable?
Part of the challenge is understanding the genre of Daniel 6-12. Bible scholars call this portion of Scripture (along with the book of Revelation and portions of Ezekiel and Zechariah) apocalyptic literature. If you do a Google search for the word Apocalypse, you’ll see images of destroyed cities, links to dooms-day movies, and references to Revelation. The word simply comes from the Greek word for revelation, it literally meaning a revealing. But there is more to the word when it is used to describe a genre in the Bible.
Iain Duguid defines this genre in his commentary on Daniel. He writes, “Biblical apocalyptic is a revelation of the ending of this present age, which is an age characterized by conflict, and its replacement by the final age of peace. It shows us ahead of time the end of the kingdoms of this world and their replacement by the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. This revelation is unfolded in complex and mysterious imagery, and has the purpose of comforting and exhorting the faithful” (Daniel: Reformed Expository Commentary, page 107).
Dale Ralph Davis adds, “I would say that biblical apocalyptic is a sort of prophecy that seeks to enlighten and encourage a people despised and cast off by the world with a vision of the God who will come to impose his kingdom on the wreckage and rebellion of human history – and it communicates this message through the use of wild, scary, imaginative, bizarre and head-scratching imagery” (The Message of Daniel, page 93).
These two definitions of the apocalyptic genre help us prepare to hear Daniel 7-12. Let me draw out the highlights:
- Apocalyptic Scripture focuses on the cosmic struggle between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. While our focus is often on the visible realities of human rulers and kingdoms, there has been a spiritual conflict raging since the Garden of Eden. Satan seeks to destroy the works of God (Rev. 12:17), and his ways often manifest themselves in human history. Paul plainly states, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…” (Eph. 6:12). Apocalyptic Scripture pulls back the curtain for us to see the spiritual struggle behind human history.
- Since this struggle continues to the end of this age, Apocalyptic Scripture often is future oriented, looking ahead to God’s final victory. In God’s providence, he has allowed Satan to have influence in this world until the second coming of Christ. In his first coming, Christ conquered Satan on the cross and greatly limited his effectiveness so the gospel can go forth to all the nations. When Christ returns, Satan’s work will finally be brought to an end. Apocalyptic Scripture draws attention to that decisive victory in Christ and the sure hope of final judgment at the end of this age.
- The purpose of Apocalyptic Scripture is to comfort and exhort God’s people caught in the middle of the struggle. While the struggle continues, the saints of God will be targeted by Satan (Dan. 7:25; Rev. 12:17). Apocalyptic Scripture is given to the saints to comfort them with the surety of Christ’s final victory and to exhort them to persevere even in the midst of persecution and hardship.
- Apocalyptic Scripture often employs symbolic imagery to communicate the message. In his wisdom, God has not chosen to reveal all the specific details of the future struggle. The symbolic imagery is used to direct our attention to the central message: Christ has conquered, Christ reigns, our hope is in Christ. If we get caught up in trying to decipher specific details for human historical events from the apocalyptic imagery, we are at risk of missing the message God wants us to hear.
As we come to the second half of Daniel, I pray that we would have ears to hear the profitable message God has inspired for us. I pray we would be equipped with the comfort found in Christ and exhorted to persevere in faith and trust in our risen Savior and Lord.
