“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28
In reading the book of Daniel, there are some themes that thread the entire story together. Here are a few examples:
- God’s people should be faithful because our God is faithful. Throughout Daniel, God is faithful. In response to God’s faithfulness, Daniel is faithful to God.
- God is in control of who is in control. God sovereignly rules the past, present, future, and eternity. There is no one, no thing, no place, and no time that is beyond His ultimate rule and reign.
- God’s people can forget the importance of getting the message of Jesus to the world. This was the case in Daniel’s day when God’s people stopped living for God, stopped telling the nations about God, and forgot that believers are to be missionaries.
- Sometimes innocent people suffer. For 490 years, God’s people did not obey His command to let the ground rest every seventh year. Then, God had them exiled for 70 years to repay every year they did not rest the land. When judgment came, Daniel was only a teenager, likely not a land owner, and not responsible for the sins of others. But he and his godly friends were caught up in the judgment of their entire nation. Sometimes, innocent people suffer because they are part of a rebellious people or simply live in a broken, fallen world.
- Whatever kingdom you are under, there is a Kingdom over it that will crush that kingdom and last forever. Daniel speaks of four major world empires: Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Each has come to an end, but the Kingdom of God continues to march forward until it is fully established when Jesus Christ returns.
- Much of the spiritual testing of your faith will happen on the job. Over and over, it is on the job where Daniel’s faith is most pressured. The spirit of Babylon continually seeks to get him to deny or defy his God for the sake of winning at work.
- What feels like abandoning is really preparing. Over and over in the story of Daniel, what could have felt to him like God abandoning him was actually God preparing him for the next test, trial, and temptation. God is with Daniel throughout his entire life, and that good God uses every hardship, struggle, and crisis to prepare him for faithfulness.
Tomorrow, we will look at the three different kinds of people in the book of Daniel.
Which of these themes have you experienced in your own life? How did it test or strengthen your faith in God?
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