Daniel: God is my Judge

The Book of Daniel, is sometimes referred as the “Apocalypse of the Old Testament” , it represents a great deal of prophecies which the Lord revealed to Daniel during his lifetime. The book Daniel is one of the few books of the bible that not only illustrates his life but also tells us that Daniel is the author of the book it’s self. Throughout the book we can find verse after verse explaining the fact that Daniel himself is the writer of the book. Even Jesus in Matthew 24:15 confirms Daniel’s authorship of the book. Daniel’s life and ministry connects to the entire 70- year period of the Babylonian captivity. He gets deported to Babylon at the age of sixteen, and hand picked to work for the government. During that stage of Daniel’s life he becomes God’s prophetic voice to the gentiles and Jewish people by declaring God’s present and eternal purpose for the world.

The book itself is divided into two sections. The first one consists of chapters 1-6 which are items of History and the second portion consists of chapters 7-12 these chapters talk more about the Prophecies some that have come to pass and others that have yet to do so. If we look at the first chapters 1-12 we can notice that Daniel is mentioned doing something or being shown something from heaven. For example, in chapter 5 he interprets the writing on the wall and in chapter 9 he‘s at prayer. The fact that Daniel was interpreting and praying brings us to the topic of this paper and that is how Daniel’s name bares witness to the purpose of this book.

It’s amazing as I research on the meaning of Daniel’s name I have concluded that most of us know more about Daniel the man than we do of any other Prophet. Due to the fact that he has given us a personal account of his life from the time he was carried away captive to Babylon around 605 B.C. until the time he is an old man. At the beginning of the book he is a teenager and at the end of it he is about 80 years old. Great things are always said about Daniel and the life he lived. We see the honor God had upon him through the scriptures in the New Testament, as stated earlier even Jesus Christ knew about the “Prophet Daniel”. It is understandable that as human beings we all go through challenges and struggles but everyone has a story and a journey to fulfill. Personally, as a Christian I believe that there is a great deal of purpose in why God chose Daniel to be as successful as he was. The reason for this is that Daniel “made the most of the 70 year exile, successfully exalting God by his character and service to the Lord”.

The name Daniel means the “Judge of God” or “God is my Judge”. During his life time we see the Lord’s favor upon Daniel, the Lord exalts him and gets him out of positions that he never thought he would be in. We can clearly see the examples throughout the book when Daniel and his three friends almost get killed by fire due to the fact that they were not going to bow down to a false god. How exciting are these events that took place in Daniel’s life, only to be an example for us to follow.

There are two lessons we can learn from his name and the first one is that “Daniel was God’s REPRESENTATIVE on earth at that time. He was God’s mouthpiece in the midst of heathendom”. The second one is that Daniel knew that man was not his judge. The final word was with God, not man”. According to Daniel 1:7 the King was changing everyone’s name and Daniels’ name was changed to “Belteshazzar” meaning “Prince of Bel”. The change of name from “Judge of God” to “Prince of Bel” did not change either his heart or his life. Daniel loved God. This is a great example of basically someone being trained from the time of his or she youth in the service the Lord. Even if they depart from the God for a season, there is seed that has been planted in their lives that they can not run away from.
We see through out the book that God even more honors him not only by making him the prophet of the “times of the Gentiles” with dealing with the craziness of God’s people Israel, but also Prophesying in the rise and fall of Gentile kingdoms.

Basically, because Daniel lived during this time, he suffered due to the sins of others. His fathers had sinned and instead of being a prince he was now a slave. Author William Heslop states, “Sin makes paupers out of princes whereas grace and holiness make princes out of paupers.” Daniel was a true prince. He was a man of three things: a man of purpose, a man of prayer, and a man of prophecy.
“He was a man of purpose ( Da. 1:8, 6:10) because when the king made a decree that everyone had to eat the same thing, he decided along with his friends that they were not going to disobey. He was a man of prayer (Da 2:17-23; 6: 10). There are several incidents recorded in the book about Daniel’s prayer life. By the way, prayer got Daniel into the lion’s den. How about that for answered prayer? Well, also miraculously saved him from the lions. He was a man of prophecy. The book divides itself as stated earlier into two parts history and prophecy. He gives us the skeleton of prophecy on which all prophecy is placed”.

Even through during Daniel’s time the book was written to encourage the exiled Jews by revealing God’s sovereign destiny for Israel during and after the period of gentile domination, it is clear that this book is for us today. God is our Judge and the Judge of the world; He will and He can direct the forces of history to not desert His people. These are the people that are living for him, who are walking in obedience to His word, people who love Him for who He is. Daniel’s life is our example. It was Sir Isaac Newton that once said, “To reject Daniel is to reject the Christian religion.” The character that Daniel had and the life he lived is for us today. We can not forget the time he lived in; because it is to our help that this was done. We follow the example stand up for the One True Living God regardless of the cost and sacrifice. Daniel paid the price to be closer to God, our Savior Jesus also paid the price, and if they did it we can do it also.

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Copyright by Celeste Polanco 2009