13.7- Additional note to Daniel 10 verses 2 and 3

In Daniel 10 verses 2 and 3 it says: “At that time I was mourning for three weeks. I did not eat any rich food or any meat, drink any wine, or comb my hair until the three weeks were past”…. 

Real love never leads to resigned suffering, but to fighting for the life of the beloved. This is what Daniel does for his people. And he does this because of his deep compassion for them, ready to intercede intensely…. This is also what we should do when necessary in order to be able to understand God’s will. His prayers and his fighting go by Daniel together with fasting and great sacrifice.

What is fasting?  It is not to try to “relent” and “persuade” God, but to show Him that His Plan with this world, and with His people are for us of all importance. This fasting is done with great determination and temporary denial of important necessities. 

This prayer and fasting, with all our heart, is the guarantee for God’s promises to become true. See Jeremiah 29 verses 12 to 14: “Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you.  You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart. Yes, I say, you will find me, and I will restore you to your land. I will gather you from every country and from every place to which I have scattered you, and I will bring you back to the land from which I had sent you away into exile. I, the Lord, have spoken”…………. And at the same we are showing Satan that Jesus will be victorious in the life of the person for which we are interceding. This will make the devil withdraw. (See Matthew 17 verses 14 to 21, the story where Jesus Heals a Boy with a Demon. At the end this text says: “…..I assure you that if you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this hill, ‘Go from here to there!’ and it will go. You could do anything”).  When we pray and fast in this way, than God’s answer is coming.  This is also what Daniel experiences after his prayer here in this chapter. 

13.6- Brief overview of Daniel Chapters 11 and 12

As has been mentioned before, Chapters 10-12 consist of one revelation, namely: “the truth” of God’s plan of salvation through much battle (See verse 2: “And what I am now going to tell you is true”).  Described here is that what still had to occur at the time of Daniel, but for us we may recognize it as precise fulfilments of prophecies made at that time.

Chapter 12 shows the “Great tribulation” and destination of God’s people.  It discusses the Climax and End of the battle between the kingdom of God and the empire of the evil one.  This is when the angel-prince Michael throws Satan, on the earth (See Revelation 12 verse 7-12: “The huge dragon was thrown out—that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now God's salvation has come! …………And so be glad, you heavens, and all you that live there! But how terrible for the earth and the sea! For the Devil has come down to you, and he is filled with rage, because he knows that he has only a little time left”). This action is the sign for the beginning of “Jacob’s trouble”, (See Jeremiah 30 verse 9: “My people do not be afraid; people of Israel, do not be terrified. I will rescue you from that faraway land, from the land where you are prisoners. You will come back home and live in peace; you will be secure, and no one will make you afraid”). The secret for remaining standing is to search the scriptures and to believe in them. (See verse 12 of this chapter: “Happy are those who remain faithful”). This searching of the scriptures gave to Daniel the power to continue his spiritual battle until the end. (See verse 13 of this chapter: “And you, Daniel, be faithful to the end. Then you will die, but you will rise to receive your reward at the end of time”). 

13.5- Brief overview of Daniel Chapter 10

This chapter shows the despair of Daniel about the future of Israel. It forms an integral part with chapters 11 and 12.

For the Jews, their homeland was there where they could live well and where their needs were satisfied. Their homeland was not, in the first place, there where God called them.  Therefore they remained in Babylon. Daniel's grief because of the small portion of Judah that returned to Jerusalem, and in addition the knowledge that they had to face many setbacks and hostility, brought him to three weeks of fasting and prayer.

God puts angel-princes in action, against the princes of the dominions of evil (from Persia and Greece). These are wicked spirits, who influence the opinions at the court and of the public, against God and his people. 

Also today there is a battle going on between the angel-prince, Michael (Israel's guardian angel), against the powers of the prince of Babylon = the evil powers that put themselves against Jerusalem.   See verse 21 of this chapter: “Now I have to go back and fight the guardian angel of Persia. After that the guardian angel of Greece will appear. There is no one to help me except Michael, Israel's guardian angel”. 

13.4- Brief overview of Daniel Chapter 9

The subject of this chapter is continued confession and persistent intercession, and obtaining insight in God’s will by doing this. Here it concerns the spiritual battle for the salvation and future of Israel, and to understand its future.  There are two weapons in this battle: first the intense listening to God’ Word and Promises. (See verse 2:

”I was studying the sacred books and thinking about the seventy years that Jerusalem would be in ruins, according to what the Lord had told the prophet Jeremiah”).

This knowledge is the material for the second weapon: the prayer.

This is being used by Daniel intensely in humble confession and intercession for all of Israel, close by and far. (See verses 7 and 11: “……….This is true of all of us who live in Judea and in Jerusalem and of all the Israelites whom you scattered in countries near and far because they were unfaithful to you………… All Israel broke your laws and refused to listen to what you said……”.)

God’s answer to this humble intersession is to show His love for the intercessor. (See verse 23: “When you began to plead with God, he answered you. He loves you, and so I have come to tell you the answer. Now pay attention while I explain the vision”.)

Intercessors are friends of God. Examples are Abraham, Moses, David, Job (See Job 42 verse 10: “Then, after Job had prayed for his three friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had had before”.) and Daniel. 

Daniel receives answer to his prayer: ¡There will be salvation and recovery! (See verse 24: “Sin will be forgiven and eternal justice established, so that the vision and the prophecy will come true, and the holy Temple will be rededicated”). 

13.3- Brief overview of Daniel Chapter 8

This chapter gives a view of the end time, (verse 17: “The vision has to do with the end of the world”) looking into the far future, (verse 26: “because it will be a long time before it does come true”).

Although it first speaks about the kingdoms of the Medians and Persians and of Greece, (539-175 BC) we see that the “small horn”, Antiochus Epiphanes, of verse 23, is projected onto the brutal and godless ruler at the end time: the antichrist.  We read that he will install a service of disobedience and blasphemy. See verse 12:

“It even defied the Prince of the heavenly army, stopped the daily sacrifices offered to him, and ruined the Temple. People sinned there instead of offering the proper daily sacrifices, and true religion was thrown to the ground. The horn was successful in everything it did”. However God protects his people, because, as it says in verse 25, “he will be destroyed without the use of any human power”. 

See also 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 8: “Then the Wicked One will be revealed, but when the Lord Jesus comes, he will kill him with the breath from his mouth and destroy him with his dazzling presence”.

13.2-  Brief overview of Daniel Chapter 7

The bible shows in this chapter a depiction of the rise, decline and fall of Satan's kingdom, but also the rise and eternal glory of God's kingdom.

In a nutshell, the whole world history is here being described, from Daniel's time until the end time, culminating in eternity. God's spirit (the four winds) drives this all. He himself brings the nations (the great sea) into uproar and calls on the world powers (the four large animals) to the judgment over their wickedness and rebellion against Him. This big Day of Judgment will mean the restoration of God's Kingship, and that of his people, which includes all the twelve tribes of Israel.  See Revelation 7 verse 1-12: “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds so that no wind should blow on the earth or the sea or against any tree. And I saw another angel coming up from the east with the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels to whom God had given the power to damage the earth and the sea.   The angel said, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we mark the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.” And I was told that the number of those who were marked with God's seal on their foreheads was 144,000. They were from the twelve tribes of Israel, twelve thousand from each tribe: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph, and Benjamin.

After this I looked, and there was an enormous crowd—no one could count all the people! They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language, and they stood in front of the throne and of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.  They called out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb!”  All the angels stood around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures. Then they threw themselves face downward in front of the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might belong to our God forever and ever! Amen!”

¡What a promise and comfort to God's people! 

13.0- Additional notes.

13.1- General note

This "Revelation to Daniel" we should read together with the "Revelation to John."

Together they give us a more clear understanding of the time we live in namely: “the End Times”, in which we now find ourselves.

After Daniel, - and especially during the last centuries -, many people (including Pablo, already in the first century) have thought that the "time of the end of the world", and / or the return of Christ was near. Until 1948 all of them had made their calculations and predictions without realizing that the Bible clearly says that Jesus will return amongst his people and He will descend on the Mount of Olives.. See Zechariah 14: 1-4: “The day when the Lord will sit in judgment is near. Then Jerusalem will be looted, (This indicates that the people of Israel must have returned to Jerusalem) and the loot will be divided up before your eyes. The Lord will bring all the nations together to make war on Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half of the people will go into exile, but the rest of them will not be taken away from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past. At that time he will stand on the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem. Then the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west by a large valley. Half of the mountain will move northward and half of it southward”…. We know that, - since the siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD -, the Israelites possessed their country again for the first time in 1948, when the state of Israel was officially recognized internationally. By not having returned the Israelites in their promised land before this date, the time of the second coming of Jesus Christ could not be until after 1948. And more precisely after 1967, when the Israelites conquered Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives became part of its territory.