Daniel has come to the court of King Nebuchadnezzar as a boy of about fourteen. He stays in the court of various kings for a very long time, growing old as he serves these kings. This verse indicates that he even has an important position when Cyrus becomes the ruler. Cyrus defeats the Babylonians and Daniel even serves this Persian-Median king. Kings come and go, but the Lord ensures that Daniel stays. Daniel lived from the beginning of the exile of the kingdom of the two tribes and is still alive and active during the first year of King Cyrus. This is the year when Cyrus gives permission for God’s people to return to Israel to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (see 2 Chronicles 36:22; Ezra 1:1).
For a period of approximately seventy years of the exile, from 605 to 538 BC, Daniel is in the court of kings. Daniel is, therefore, about eighty-two in the first year of Cyrus. All this time the Lord keeps him to serve for the protection and preservation of his people in exile. Daniel is allowed to witness King Cyrus’s decision to grant God’s people to return to Jerusalem. Daniel, therefore, sees with his own eyes that the Lord is faithful to his promise, that after the predicted seventy years he allows his people to return from exile (see also Jeremiah 29:10; Jeremiah 25:11–12). The Lord demonstrates that he is building his kingdom according to his promise. Here we can already see the truth of what the Lord Jesus later says to his disciples, that the gates of hell [the kingdom of death] shall not prevail
over his church (Matthew 16:18).
21 And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.