1“At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. 2Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3Those who are wise will shine as the brightness of the expanse. Those who turn many to righteousness will shine as the stars forever and ever. 4But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many will run back and forth, and knowledge will be increased.”
5Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on the river bank on this side, and the other on the river bank on that side. 6One said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be to the end of these wonders?”
7I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever that it will be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have finished breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things will be finished.
8I heard, but I didn’t understand. Then I said, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?”
9He said, “Go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. 10Many will purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined, but the wicked will do wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.
11“From the time that the continual burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there will be one thousand two hundred ninety days. 12Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred thirty-five days.
13“But go your way until the end; for you will rest, and will stand in your inheritance at the end of the days.”
Daniel was a remarkable man who lived in a vortex of world conflict. He witnessed the fall of three great empires: Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon. He witnessed the rise of two superpowers: Babylon and Persia. He survived the destruction of his own nation, Judah, where he belonged to a noble or even a royal family. The Bible states that he was handsome and intelligent. Yet he suffered deeply and personally. His compassionate faith and uncompromising ethics were a beacon to his fellow exiles and a thorn to his rivals.
Captured by foreign enemies at about twelve years old, he survived brutal treatment and, over sixty-nine years, advised three great rulers: Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar of Babylon and Darius the Mede. He walked with kings but never lost the common touch. God loved him especially and gave him sweeping visions of generations yet unborn and understanding beyond the scope of ordinary men. His visions were so conceptually vast that they sometimes exhausted Daniel’s imagination and physical strength.
Daniel foretold the political events of the ancient Middle East across 542 years with pinpoint accuracy. His clairvoyance so astonishes that attributing it to human agency stretches credulity beyond the breaking point. Cold, logical analysis of Daniel’s prophecies points to an amazing conclusion: Daniel wrote through supernatural insight, or, simply put, God showed him the future.
The times in which Daniel lived and the events that unfolded in the years about which he prophesied are history worth knowing. They are a vivid drama of man’s failed attempts to rule the world and assume divine prerogatives. Repeatedly, God intervened, steering history on the path He plainly had foretold centuries before. Over the vast ambitions of men and empires He purposefully fashioned and founded the prophesied Messianic Kingdom not made by human hands.
The thesis of Daniel is consistent: God, not man, is sovereign over human events. All history points to a glorious apex: the advent of Messiah the Prince. Daniel’s prophecy pinpoints the Year of the Cross, in which Jesus was anointed, “cut off,” atoned for sin, ascended to the Father, and established His eternal kingdom.