We have followed the life of Daniel in this book from when he was about fourteen years old. We have seen that the Spirit was at work in him in such a way that the Lord was everything to him. That is why he did not want to abide by the food regulations of King Nebuchadnezzar, even though this was a very dangerous choice. Several times Daniel stood alone with his friends, precisely because obedience to the Lord was at stake. The Lord protected Daniel as his faithful child and servant. At the end of this book, he is about ninety years old.
The Lord was always with Daniel with his protection and he made sure that with all the changes at the court, Daniel could stay there. In this position Daniel was serving God’s kingdom and God’s people. The Lord was then using Daniel to keep the way open to the coming of Christ.
Daniel has seen in the prophecies that the people would return to Canaan, to the Promised Land. He has been able to witness that this return has also become a reality because King Cyrus gave permission for it. Daniel has also seen in the prophecies that God’s returned people would have a difficult time. He has seen that the Lord will give his people the strength to endure in faith until the end. He has been allowed to see that the believers who are oppressed, beleaguered, persecuted, killed, and attacked will one day reign as kings with Christ. No matter how much God’s faithful people are tempted and attacked, the reality is what Christ has said, And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock (Petra) I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it
(Matthew 16:18). Daniel has witnessed how the Lord preserves his work and therefore his church against all attacks. The persecutors of the church will perish.
Daniel can die in peace because of what the Lord has shown him. The day of his death is now near. He may then rest from all his work that he did in the service of God’s kingdom. He then receives the rest of which we read in Revelation 14:13, And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!
Daniel may even look beyond the return of God’s people to Israel. When he will die now, he knows that he will come home to his heavenly Father. He knows that on the day of God’s great judgment he will rise with a new and glorified body. Then his life also reaches that glorious goal: to live to God’s glory in perfection on the new earth. That is his eternal inheritance. That is what Jesus Christ earned for him too.
Everyone who is united with the Lord through the same faith may live and die in that sure expectation. Then Christ is your comfort in life and death with the assurance that a wonderful eternal future awaits.
God’s people of all times regain courage and continue to have hope as they faithfully read what the Lord reveals to us, also in the book of Daniel.
13 But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.”