THE PROPHET DANIEL

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible…. 

Daniel 10:19 NKJV

¹⁹ And he said, “O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!”  So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.” 

Three times Daniel is addressed as the man “greatly beloved”, 9:23; 10:11; 10:19.  It is not as if God’s love for Daniel as a believer or a prophet is unique.  The Scriptures are replete with the assurance that God loves His elect.  It is that this is a peculiar way of God addressing one of His servants. 

Daniel was beloved by God in whom he believed and served.  Calvin on 10:11 writes “I (incline to think) him so called through the force of his desires, because he was dear and precious to God.” 

In the whole of Daniel’s faithful service to God there is never a moment in which he appears as a common or ordinary man.  Daniel is always in that position and character that sets him apart. 

Daniel could have been ordinary.  He certainly had the opportunity to be.  Compare Daniel with Elijah who was translated in the body to heaven.  Elijah had some very ordinary days - but Daniel, never.  Compare him to Jonah, who holds a most important and extraordinary position among the prophets.  But Jonah had some very ordinary days - but Daniel, never.  So Daniel is addressed as one greatly beloved. 

But Daniel was greatly beloved by those heathen kings he served.  Nebuchadnezzar’s confession in Daniel 4 is one of the high points of the Old Testament.  The king was a disciple of Daniel. 

There is a picture painted in Daniel 6 that so expresses the heathen King Darius’ love for Daniel that I never read it without deep emotion.

Daniel 6:18-23

¹⁸ Now the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; and no musicians were brought before him. Also his sleep went from him. ¹⁹ Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions. ²⁰ And when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The king spoke, saying to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”

²¹ Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! ²² My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.”

²³ Now the king was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God.

After reading Darius’ anxious concern for Daniel it is easy to say about those he served, he was greatly beloved. 

What about among his peers?  Was Daniel well thought of among the people of his time?  Ezekiel refers to Daniel three times, Ezekiel 14:14, 20, 28:3. 

In the first two references he places him in the company with Noah and Job.  These two men are both painted in scripture as those whom God had chosen and had shown special favor.  These two men had lived in very difficult times.  They had served God under trying circumstances and were known for their faithfulness to God.  The statement God madeto Satan about Job emphasizes this, Job 1:8 “There is none like him on earth.”  This is not poetry but by God’s judgment a fact. 

Ezekiel again in 28:3 speaks of Daniel’s wisdom.  As Ezekiel condemns the pride of the King of Tyre, he accuses him of thinking that no secret could be hidden from him.  In the context of 28:3 it should be understood that Daniel’s great wisdom lay in that no secret he needed to know was hid from him.  This is the inspired judgment of Ezekiel. 

Daniel was beloved by his masters, his fellow servants and God whom he loved and trusted.

This should draw our minds and hearts to God’s love for His church.  Paul, writing to the Roman church to encourage them in faith and service, can and does assure them of God’s love.  In 1:7 he addresses them and us as “beloved of God”.  We find this strain continued in 5:8.  But it is when we reach the close of chapter 8 that Paul overwhelms us with the Divine answer to the all- consuming question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”  His answer is a conclusion that both warns and assures every believer, “no created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Have you ever really considered the heroes and models sacred history has given as, “of whom the world is not worthy”?