Author: Danny Panter

Re:Verse passage – Daniel 12:1-13 (day six)

¹³ “As for you, go your way until the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days, you will rise again to receive the inheritance set aside for you.” Daniel 12:13

What I find comforting in this encounter, is not only a reassurance of a secure future, but also God’s personal word for Daniel…for the now. Much of the time Daniel is caught up in sweeping visions of apocalyptic proportions, but not in verse 13.

As for you…

These three simple words remind us that we are not lost in the crowd of humanity’s history or future. God knows us, and even more, has a word for us that is relevant now.  While God guides all of human history to its end and new beginning, he loves us still…personally. He knows. He cares. He loves. He redeems. He provides.

God is big, and He is small. He spoke the universe into existence, and He whispers to us.

It’s personal. He’s personal.

Re:Verse passage – Daniel 11:1-45 (day six)

“The king’s demand is impossible. No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they do not live here among people.” -Sorcerers, Magicians, and Chaldeans. Daniel 2:11 (NLT)

There are many Old Testament scholars who argue that Daniel is not real history simply because the historical details match up too nicely. No one could have written with that kind of detail in the sixth century BC, they would say.

They draw the same conclusion as Nebuchadnezzar’s sorcerers and magicians, gods don’t reveal mysteries to men. Their practical atheism deny God’s ability to handle the details of human history. The irony is, the purpose of Daniel is to prove the opposite; the only true God is the revealer of mysteries and riddles.

God is in all the details, present and distant future, guiding them to certain ends.

Righteousness forever more.

Re:Verse passage – Daniel 10:1-21 (day six)

13 But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Daniel 10:13

The Enemy has one tactic: keep the world in darkness, to disrupt the advancement of God’s truth (the Gospel), to perpetuate untruths clothed in the guise of reason, to twist the truth of God enough to rob it of its power.

God’s angels have a clear goal too: clear a path for the advancement of the Truth!

While all that is unseen, it is no less real or close. Daniel prayed and God sent an angel, or two. He was a prayer warrior in a spiritual battlefront.

So, if the Church is the infantry, God’s messengers, or angels, are the air support, called in from the ground to clear a path to advance the Truth.

Let’s keep calling.

Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:23-27 (day six)  

Let’s be honest, the best we can do is an educated guess as to the meaning of 70 sets of seven. We can devote all our time to its study and still understand no more than we when we began.

And that’s okay. We are in good company.

Re:Verse passage – Daniel 9:1-23 (day six)

On what grounds did Daniel pray? Daniel makes it very clear that his appeal for mercy is not based on his righteousness. He has none, nor the people of God. They all had gone their own way. Daniel’s prayer hinged on God’s character, not his own. If it was not for God’s righteousness, there would be no grounds for Daniel to pray at all.

What was true for Daniel, is true for us too. We pray in Jesus name because we come to the Father in His righteousness, not our own, otherwise we have no privilege to come to God at all.

This keeps us humble and bold. Humble because it reminds us we have been given so much, and bold because it reminds us we can freely approach the throne of grace without fear.

It’s an odd thought but true; Jesus died so Daniel could pray too.

Re:Verse passage – Daniel 8:1-27 (day six) 

And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king’s business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it. Daniel 8:27

The little horn became the face and hand of evil against God’s presence among his people. This ruler would defile the temple in Jerusalem, the symbol of God’s presence, His covenant, and His mercy

The wickedness of humanity is not ambivalent to God. Every kingdom of earth will by its very nature find its way to the same place, trampling the truth of God and his people. This is precisely why Jesus said, “they are in the world but not of the world.” It’s why the Apostle Peter calls us aliens, citizens of a better Kingdom.

If the little horn tells us anything it’s this, we are not of this world!

So like Daniel, be restless, be sickened, grieve wickedness’ curse, then get up and be about God’s business.

Re:Verse passage – Daniel 7:1-28 (day six)

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. -Jesus, John 15:15

The one like a son of man (Jesus), called them friends.

Maybe there is more to Daniel than God’s sovereignty over human history, something even deeper. Could it be that these visions are a call into a divine friendship with the King of Kings?

There is nothing superficial or insincere going on here. Being known is the basis of friendship. Trust, love, hope, and even eternal life (John 17:3) are its fruit.

God has not withheld from you what He is doing; He has made himself known to you. Oh, son and daughter of the King, rejoice because you are also called friend.

Re:Verse passage – Daniel 6:1-28 (day six)

The disciples did not even bother rushing to the tomb the next morning. Jesus was dead, and the tomb was sealed. It was final; hopeless.

But Darius arose in haste to see if Daniel’s God had indeed delivered him from the lions. Even Darius knew that while he, the king, was unable to rescue Daniel, God was able.

Isn’t that the Easter story; the good news?

When there seems to be no way, God is able. When our hands our tied, God is able. When it looks like the enemy has won, God is able. When it looks like death is the victor and the tomb is sealed, God is able.

The disciples would soon discover the able-ness of God for themselves, and they would never be the same.

May we live and rest in the able-ness of God. That’s Gospel kind of living.

Re:Verse passage – Daniel 5:1-31 (day six)

Though sorrow may last for the night, joy comes in the morning! -King David, Psalm 30:5

On the eve of Babylon’s destruction (the Persians just walked into Babylon without a fight) the king had a drunken party with his rich and powerful friends; debaucherous worship of the gods of gold, silver, iron, and wood. Adding fuel to fire they willfully drank and ate from vessels normally used for special offerings in God’s temple in Jerusalem. It was the proverbial fist to heaven, the height of wickedness.

They were partying as if everything was just fine. It wasn’t fine. Nothing was fine. God’s hand of judgment was literally knocking on the front gate.

I certainly don’t think any of us are acting as if everything is “just fine;” we are not oblivious to the suffering existing in our world, especially now in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we can forget that human suffering comes at the hands of our own sin, wickedness (personal, national, and global) and brokenness.

As we approach Easter, let us lament our sin and brokenness. Look what it has done.

And then let us rejoice! For we have a God not content to leave us where we are but forgives us and redeems us from our pit!

“What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”– Paul, Romans 7:24-25

Re:Verse passage – Daniel 4:1-37 (day six)

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Psalm 67:4

Why bother telling Nebuchadnezzar’s story at all? I believe God is painting two pictures in these first four chapters, detailing a complex relationship between a king and four faithful Hebrew men. The first is of God’s providence in all of human history; there is no earthly kingdom or king greater than Daniel’s God. The second is of God guiding every nation, tribe and tongue into eternal gladness.

That’s what we begin to see in Nebuchadnezzar’s story, a glimmer of hope for every nation. His story will be their story.

In Babylon God used four Hebrew men, today He uses His church. What they did for Nebuchadnezzar, we now do for the whole world.

“All authority, in heaven and earth, has been given to me. Now go make disciples of every nation…” -Jesus