THE REVELATION OF DANIEL

The Revelation of Daniel Chapter 6

IN THE LIONS’ DEN and THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL

IN THE LIONS’ DEN

All these things are prophetic revelations of the spiritual realm and of their daily operation, we as humans should wisely note, for we will shortly be intimately aware.

Reading about how Darius’ proclamation to not approach other gods but himself with the penalty being death points to a future time. The Anti-Christ will proclaim himself to be due divine honors and worship, with the penalty of resisting also being death. That both Christians and Jews will be faced with these same circumstances is clear from Daniel chapter 7, where it is seen that the horn wears out the saints for the last part of the Tribulation. That is for 3 ½ years until the Coming of the Son of Man and the taking of His Kingdom. This should be understood with Revelation 14:12. (Read) The Word says that they who “keep the faith of Jesus” must be Christians. This can also be understood quite simply by New Covenant statements such as this one by Christ Himself: “Let both grow together until the time of the harvest.” That being at the end of this age. [Read in Matthew 13:30.] And then there’s the clear word that the fullness of the Gentiles must be brought in before the restoration of Israel. Then what happens is the salvation of Israel.

Also, Matthew 24 assumes some of His Church to be here upon the earth until He comes in manifest glory, and destroys the wicked. And what of those who faithfully endure till the end of those horrific days? [Matthew 24:13, Mark 13:13] They shall also be delivered from physical death in the Harvest just before the great winepress of the wrath of God. [Revelation 14:15-20, Matthew 13:43, Daniel 12:13, Luke 13:28] As well as all those who were faithful unto death during that tribulation period, at the same time, will be found worthy to have a part in the Kingdom of Christ. They will be raised up from that deeper Lions’ Den with the shout of the Arch-Angel to a more noble and greater height of glory than Daniel in Darius’s kingdom. It is in “…the kingdom that will not be destroyed…” which the story of Daniel types and has in view. (The resurrection of 1Thessalonians 4:16,17: and 1Corinthians 15:51-54.)

Here we should see the fate of the Anti-Christ typed in that of the Pharaoh’s. His is unlike Darius or Nebuchadnezzar, as he did not relent, but he then suffers the full consequences of his unrelenting ways. To which the vials are in answer to and will completely swallow up Christ’s and Israel’s adversaries. The like picture of deliverance and judgment are seen starting in Revelation 15 in the deliverance and in chapter 16 the final judgments are seen.

Are there not two types of miraculous deliverances? One being like Daniel who was physically protected by the Angels, and the other miraculous deliverance being those who were kept by the Spirit/spirit from doubt in God and any bitterness towards man, even unto the loss of their physical bodies. As the Word declares, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord..” Is that not even a greater deliverance yet, to be a part of the first resurrection? [Revelation 2:10, 6:9-11, 14:13, 20:4] Daniel is that example in his time of the character and qualifications of a sure place in the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ. “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him.” [Psalm 34:7] This gospel of the fear of God is the Gospel of the last of the Tribulation. (See Revelation 14.) As someone has said, “And of all things within human reach, there is nothing that can so bless, enrich, compose, and ennoble its possessor as the genuine fear of the Almighty.”

The forces of evil “could find none occasion for fault, forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault in him.”  [Daniel 6:4] Against their will they were obliged to admit and conclude, “We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.” (This, in like manner was Balaam’s final conclusion in the pursuit of cursing the redeemed of Israel. In type, Darius takes the place of God in Balaam’s diabolic strategy. Which is that of satan in the larger scheme, that if he may bind the king to his irreversible and unalterable word, even if it is to his own hurt, he will be forced to honor it.)

Daniel is the closest example to Heaven’s truth and virtue-filled piety, save Jesus Christ.

And like Daniel, the rulers of Israel, having been given such example, in that after having the manifest Witness of Truth and Righteousness perfection set before them, should have warranted a repentance on their part. But on the contrary, it deepened their animosity and with united jealous intent, they were yet determined to find fault with Him. Which after years of scrutiny they failed to do. And becoming more desperate, and having satan’s greater encouragement through the traitorous disciple, the religious hierarchy resorted to manufacture his fault.

This gives us the truest state of depraved man’s heart, both governmentally and religiously. In that they are most willing to follow the god of this World even in the face of a truer proven example of a more virtuous alternative. (Even that virtue and honesty to which they clearly recognize in this One, and would no doubt welcome such honest allegiance of character in the government and advancement of their own self serving kingdom.) It was not necessary that Christ “stay on His toes’, for His selfless dedication to God’s Word that insured the imbuement of Spirit/spirit filled character. That’s what afforded Him the protection of true wisdom and practical righteousness that guarantees a faultless walk and certain favor of God Almighty. He need not close his windows. He need not argue His own case. He need not change His assertion that He was the Son of God. Although it gave the one advantage to His enemies, and that after all their other assertions were thwarted. For in His greater understanding He trusted His life into the unfathomable plans of God. [1Corinthians 2:8]

And just as Jesus Christ was thrown into the “Lions’ Den” (1Peter 5:8), surely as His assassins and satan rejoiced in the success of their dastardly plan of ridding the earth of this most Righteous One, this stood in the way of their most sinister way of world government. But soon their just doom is fully realized in the dumbfounding reality of God’s continued honor in Hades and His being gloriously resurrected up from among the dead, wherein in the knowledge of their complicity many repented. [Acts 2:22-36] As did Darius, (unlike his antitype who will be in complete alliance with the destruction of all righteous ones of which Revelation 13 fully reveals.)

Daniel’s enemies who having been confronted with his “resurrection” proclaimed it no miracle. They said it was because of the king’s reluctance, and that he had pre-fed the lions so that when Daniel was cast down unto them, they had no appetite and let him be. And all arguments in the end to no avail, for which the king wisely and justly determined that if that was the case they should have no fear. As he would test their protests with the doubling of the meat allowance to the Lions before his casting of them into the den. And having done so, the Lions yet crushed their bones. This is typical of satan’s stop-gap measures on the human level, of conspiring with the religious leaders to throw slant upon Jesus Christ’s deliverance from among the dead to nothing more than the clever stealing away of the body by the disciples in the midst of the night.

Where is an example of satan’s demise, the Anti-Christ and the false prophet, the falsely religious of Mystery Babylon, and the nations of the World? How very dangerous then is pride/vainness that is subtly presented to us as acceptable. In that we are entitled to the worship of self-determination. For it is but for “30 days”, after which we will worship God. Its design is to keep you actively and willingly captive to the corrupt system contrary to that of God’s, which in the end steal the opportunity of the first resurrection.