Chapter 7 provides another look at these world empires. This time Babylon is shown as a lion with eagles’ wings. The Medo-Persian empire lumbers in as a bear, raised up on one side (the Persian dominance) and with three ribs in its mouth. Alexander and Greece are depicted by a leopard with four sets of wings and with four heads. Rome is represented by another beast described as terrifying, dreadful, and exceedingly strong. This beast had ten horns out of which came a little horn with “eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things” (7:8). As in chapter 2, the dominions of all the beasts are taken away, and God’s kingdom will remain.
Whenever we find two such similar depictions, telling basically the same story, the first thought that should cross our minds is whether this is a chiasm. A chiasm is a structure of parallel points that progress from the outer points to the inner points. The first point and the last point are parallel. The second point and the second to last point are parallel. This parallelism can continue for only a couple levels or several. The structure is as follows:
Point A1
-----Point B1
----------Point C1
----------Point C2
-----Point B2
Point A2
As we examine the structure of the first several chapters of Daniel, we do indeed find a chiasm revealed in chapters 2 through 7. Take a look at the following:
Chapter 1 – Introduction (not part of the chiasm)
Ch 2 – God’s Judgment over the World’s Empires (aspiration w/o God)
-----Ch 3 – God’s Provision – Fiery Furnace
----------Ch 4 – God’s Control – Nebuchadnezzar’s Insanity
----------Ch 5 – God’s Control – Belshazzar’s Handwriting on the Wall
-----Ch 6 – God’s Provision – Lion’s Den
Ch 7 – God’s Judgment over the World’s Empires
These six chapters reveal God’s interaction with the world—his judgment, his care for his people within the world order, and his control of events to bring about his desired conclusion. These six chapters, specifically dealing with world empires (as opposed to God’s people), happen to have been written originally in Aramaic—the language of the world empire of that day.
The last five chapters, focusing more on the effects on God’s people, were appropriately written in Hebrew. These chapters also form a chiasm, but this time according to vision, not chapters.
Ch 8 – God’s Control amid Empires and Wisdom (seeking understanding – 8:15-17)
-----Ch 9 – God’s Provision for His People
Chs 10-12 – God’s Control amid Empires and Wisdom (understanding – 10:1; 12:5-13)
There is much in Daniel on which we could reflect. The details of chapters 8 and 11 especially follow the Grecian empire and the effect on the Jews. But our overall purpose is simply to set a base for our approach to Revelation. Therefore, we are detailing only those points that have the strongest ties to our subject. But before we leave Daniel, I want to make sure we understand what we do see and what we do not see.
God created humanity for his glory through the relationship that we would have with him. That relationship requires faith. Biblical faith includes an understanding of our powerlessness in relation to his power. It also includes recognition of God’s control through who he is. By that statement, I mean that God not only acts in love, justice, nobility, righteousness, grace, etc., he in fact is love; he is justice; he is those qualities. Those qualities do not have an existence of their own, and God seeks to be virtuous in acting according to those qualities. Rather, he is the embodiment of those qualities. Faith, then, includes a recognition that God controls by his very nature of truth, beauty, and goodness. Finally, faith in relation to God recognizes and appreciates that through his power and control he will provide for the faithful. To make that easier to remember, let’s organize it.
Three elements of faith in relation to God:
1. Accounting – Recognition of one’s own powerlessness in relation to God’s power
2. Acceptance – Recognition of God’s control through who he is (truth, beauty, goodness)
3. Appreciation – Recognition that in acknowledgement of (1) and (2), God will provide for the faithful
Adam and Eve sinned because they removed faith from God. By examining Eve’s thoughts in Genesis 3 we find that she rejected God’s control through his righteousness and assumed that for herself. She rejected God’s power over her, wanting equality. In losing recognition of those elements, she failed to acknowledge that God’s provision was her sustenance. The fall added a new dimension to faith in relation to God. In item 1 – Accounting, we must add sin and repentance.
1. Accounting – Recognition of our powerlessness in relation to God and of our sinfulness (leading to repentance)
Those three elements regarding accounting, acceptance, and appreciation are the necessary ingredients of faith in relation to God. And it is that faith that all of Scripture highlights for promise of everlasting blessing. The everlasting blessing is relationship with him. Without faith, God’s judgment is the result. When we read the Old Testament, this thought must inform and control our understanding. And it must do so even—or rather, especially—in the prophetic portions.
This is what we see in the book of Daniel. Those three elements of faith are exactly what we find in Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9. And Daniel finds favor with God, and God answers his prayer, precisely because of that faith. The structure of the book, as we’ve just discussed, also shows those elements of God’s control and provision. The details of each chapter show God’s control and provision for the faithful.
Most importantly, the promise or reward or favor of God focuses specifically on Christ. The focus is on Christ because it is Christ’s first advent work that accomplishes salvation. It creates the way for access and everlasting relationship. Everlasting relationship is the prize! That is the victory! That is the ultimate promise of God! And it is all through Christ. The faith of the OT saints recognized (maybe not clearly how, but surely with confidence) that God would provide for everlasting relationship. Hebrews 11 tells us over and over that the OT saints looked for a city whose designer and builder was God (11:10) and for a better country, that is, a heavenly one (11:16). And indeed, the right understanding of the 70 Weeks of Daniel takes us to Christ and the way of life.
This is the point that I fear is so damaging in the dispensational, pretribulational viewpoint. It redirects the OT view from Christ’s accomplishment, uplifting rather a dominant “hope” for Israel of the physical or material. And this was exactly OT Israel’s fault! They looked for earthly fulfillment. They idolized the temple and the sacrifices. And for that God sent judgment. Yet today, dispensationalists seemingly call for that same concentration on the material rather than on that which the physical represents and that to which it points—Christ and his salvation for restored relationship. We will see that further as we touch on Ezekiel and Isaiah.
Before leaving Daniel, however, there are a couple verses that provide for some interesting postulations. Daniel 12:11-12 read “And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days.” What exactly is this blessing to be received 45 days after the 1290 day period? Pretribulationists understand the 1290 days (about 3.5 years) to be the second half of a future 70th Week of Daniel that coincides with the Great Tribulation. At the end of the 1290 days, Christ returns in triumph. Thus, they say, the extra 45 days are the required time to somehow administratively handle the setting up of Christ’s kingdom. This seems a strange explanation not only because of its vagueness, but also considering the 2nd coming of Christ is not mentioned with blessing—although he is here on earth, blessing comes only after he “sets up” his kingdom?
The amillennial answer requires some background. Please be patient; to flesh this out fully, we’ll have to make several stops along the road to understanding.
Stop #1: The day Christ was crucified
The first stop seems an unlikely one, but our study will eventually tie these stops together. On what day of the week was Christ crucified? The traditional answer is Friday, a postulation based on an expression recorded in all four Gospels. Since John provides more detail then the others on this point, we will look at what he says.
John 19:31 “Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.”
The soldiers broke the legs of those being crucified in order to hasten their deaths. While hanging on a cross, a person could breathe only by pushing up with his legs to allow the rib cage to expand. If his legs were broken, obviously he would suffocate.
Pertinent to our discussion, however, is why the Jews asked to hasten the deaths. The Sabbath was approaching (remember that the Jewish day started in the evening), and the Jews did not want the crucifixion to continue into the approaching Sabbath. Since the Sabbath day is Saturday, so the reasoning goes, Christ’s crucifixion must have occurred on Friday.
A significant problem, however, occurs with this calculation. Jesus specifically told the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 12:40, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” And since Jesus mentions that this three day and three night event will serve as a sign to them, it would appear that He is not merely suggesting some vague amount of time, but rather specifying three days and three nights. While we could figure three days if the crucifixion took place on Friday (part of Friday, all of Saturday, and part of Sunday), there is simply no possible way to count more than two nights.
Some people have insisted on a Wednesday crucifixion for the simple reason that since Jesus said three days and three nights, He must have meant three complete days and three complete nights. However, there is an important reason for discounting this reckoning. The Bible comments several times on the timing of the resurrection:
Matthew 16:21 “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Luke 24:21 “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.”
Acts 10:40 “but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear.”
1 Corinthians 15:4 “. . . that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”
The Luke 24 passage is especially noteworthy. Jesus is walking alongside the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus had been resurrected that morning, and the disciples mention that it was at that time the third day. Therefore, Jesus was resurrected not after three entire days, but rather on the third day. Since eastern usage of the term “day” meant any part of the day, it is legitimate to assume a part of a day for the day.
But what of the Jews’ request for a hastened crucifixion on the basis of the approaching Sabbath? The term Sabbath was used not only to refer to the weekly seventh day of rest, but also to refer to any holy (or high) day during which work was suspended. The Sabbath referred to in this case (as noted in John 19:31) was a “high day” or special holy day, i.e., the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This feast began the day after Passover and lasted seven days. According to Leviticus 23:6-8, the first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread were considered holy or high days—Sabbaths.
A Wednesday crucifixion, then, would require too long an interval until Christ’s resurrection on the third day. With Wednesday as too distant and Friday too close, we turn our attention to Thursday. Thursday easily provides three days and three nights when we assume the common eastern reckoning of partial days and Scripture’s insistence of a resurrection on the third day.
Stop #2: The analogy to the sacrifice
God gave direction for the Passover process while the Israelites were enslaved to Egypt. Moses and Aaron had confronted Pharoah with their demand to leave the land, but Pharoah repeatedly gave permission only to rescind it upon relief from each plague. At this point, God tells Moses that the tenth plague will force Pharoah to let them leave. The tenth plague will take the lives of the firstborn in each family, but God would protect those who trust in Him.
Moses records the explicit instructions for Passover in chapter 12 of Exodus. God realigned their calendar so that their current month (Nisan) would from then on serve as the first month of the year (12:2). On the 10th of the month, they were to choose a lamb for a sacrifice (12:3) and keep the lamb designated and separated until the 14th of the month. During that time (Nisan 10th through 14th) they had to ensure that the lamb was a suitable sacrifice, without defect (12:5). On the 14th, everyone was to kill his lamb at evening—in other words (remembering the Hebrew day order), at the beginning of the day on the 14th (12:6). The lamb’s blood would be placed on the doorposts and lintel of their houses (12:7). And, having roasted it, they would eat the lamb that night (12:8). As God’s angel came to carry out the plague of firstborn death on the land, he would “pass over” (Hebrew pesach) those houses whose doorframes were marked in blood.
Notice, then, that from the presentation of the lamb on the 10th of the month, through the examination of the lamb to ensure that it was undefiled, to the preparation of the lamb, its killing, and the Passover on the 14th of the month, five days elapsed. Fast forward to Christ’s Passion Week. According to John’s Gospel, on the fifth day from and prior to the Passover, Christ entered Jerusalem on the donkey. His entry occurred on Sunday, the 10th of the month, picturing the presentation of the lamb from Exodus 12:3. This Lamb was examined through the questioning of the religious leaders of the day, including the chief priests, scribes, elders, Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees (Mark 11:27-12:27). The Lamb was prepared by Mary’s anointing (Mark 14:3-11). And our Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, was sacrificed on Thursday, the 14th of the month. Thus, the span of time from triumphal entry to death was a period of five days, mirroring the Passover preparation and execution.
Stop #3: The analogy to the resurrection
The Exodus analogy, however, does not end with the sacrifice. In Exodus we discover that during the very night of Passover (the 14th of the month), Pharoah, overwrought with grief at the death of his firstborn child, ordered the Israelites away (Exodus 12:31). The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth and made camp for the rest of the night. During the next day, they traveled from Succoth to Etham and camped there in the evening. The next day they traveled from Etham to Pi-hahiroth and camped there in the evening. That evening, with the Egyptians in pursuit, God divided the Red Sea and the Israelites escaped through it on dry ground (Exodus 14:20-22). In the morning the Egyptians pursued them into the sea bed, but were swallowed up as God returned the water to its course (Exodus 14: 24-30). Thus, Israel received final deliverance in the morning exactly three days following Passover. In exact correspondence, Christ died on the cross on Passover, the 14th of the month, and rose again to seal our redemption three days later on the morning of the 17th of the month—resurrection Sunday.
Final Stop: The Blessing
Later in the travels of the Israelites, God gave Moses a number of ordinances regulating the conduct of their lives. He also marked certain days as Sabbaths—days of holy convocation in which they were to rest and reflect. One such day was called Pentecost, a day of celebration for the new harvest. According to Leviticus 23:15, from the day following the Sabbath of Passover week, the Israelites were to count the next seven sabbaths, and then present a new grain offering on the next day after that seventh sabbath. This was the day of Pentecost. Actually, a simpler calculation is provided in verse 16: they could count 50 days after the Sabbath of Passover week and that would be Pentecost.
Now we come back full circle to our initial questions from Daniel 12. What do the 45 days of waiting signify, and what is the blessing for those who wait? Daniel 12:11 mentions two events that must occur to initiate the 1,290 day period. These two events are the cessation of the daily sacrifice and the setting up of the abominations that lead to desolation. The coming of Christ as priest ended all other sacrifices. Christ’s “coming as priest” began at the inception of his earthly ministry with his baptism of consecration. The Jews, however, did not recognize him as Messiah and continued to present their sacrifices according to the Law. God was not pleased. In fact, ignoring Christ to bring other sacrifices was indeed an abomination in the sight of God. Those continued sin offerings, those abominations, were dealt with in judgment as God brought desolation to those people, the temple, and the city. The exact fulfillment of these prophecies occurred in A.D. 70.
The angel of Daniel 12:11 said that the 1,290 days were to commence at the time the regular sacrifice was abolished and the abomination of desolation was set up. As we just reviewed, that point of cessation of sacrifice and the Jews’ abomination occurred at the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry. If we calculate 3.5 years of ministry, we find that it includes 1,278 days. At that point, Christ was presented as the Lamb for sacrifice. That was the 10th of Nisan. The Passover (the day of his crucifixion) was on the 14th of Nisan. Seven days followed the Passover celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread (representing delivery from captivity—in this case, from sin). Thus, from Christ’s entry into Jerusalem to the conclusion of the feast representing delivery from captivity, twelve days passed. Adding those 12 days to the 1,278 days of ministry, we reach the 1,290 days mentioned in Daniel 12:11.
But, according to Daniel 12:12, another important event was to occur that brought great blessing on the 1,335th day. Remember that the day of Pentecost was to be determined by counting 50 days from the day following the Passover week Sabbath. The following chart should help us keep all these dates and calculations straight.
By the chart we can see that exactly 45 days after the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (symbolizing delivery from captivity of sin) we reach the 1335th day of blessing – the day of Pentecost. And what happened that particular year on Pentecost? Acts 2:1-4 tells us: “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. . . .” Lay this passage alongside the angel’s words in Daniel 12:11: “Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days.” The filling of the Holy Spirit on that 1,335th day was indeed great blessing!
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