The closer we get . . .

In a study from the Book of Daniel in Grace School of the Bible, Jordan says, “Once you get to chapter 11 of Daniel you can read what it says and yet it isn’t all clear yet. The reason it’s not clear is that the Lord hasn't opened it up yet. It isn’t all there yet.

“Chapter 10 lays the groundwork and tells you how Daniel got the vision he gets in chapter 11 and 12.

“When this vision takes place, Daniel is about 90 years old. He’s not a spring chicken anymore. He’s had a busy life of service for the Lord and for his king and his government. He started out in chapter 1 between 14-17 years old. Then he goes through the 70 years captivity and that puts him between 84-87 and you add another three years here and he’s between 87-90 years old.

“One of the questions you try to understand when you study the book is when Cyrus king of Persia took over in Ezra 1, he gives a decree for the people to go back to Jerusalem—the 70 years captivity is over with. And only a very small number, less than 40,000 of them, went back and it was a real heartache. And the question arises sometime, ‘Why didn’t Daniel go back?’

“When you get to chapter 10 here and you see Daniel is fixing to get another vision—no doubt one of the most critical, if not the most critically vision in his book, then you understand the reason Daniel doesn’t go back into the holy land in Palestine is because God had further revelations to give him in Babylon.

“So Daniel stays because God has some more things to give him. Daniel 10:1 says, ‘In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision.’

“In other words, Daniel got this thing and it was crystal clear to him what it meant.

“Chapter 12:4. Daniel is told to seal the thing. The prophecy here is sealed up. That is, it’s fixed so people can’t get it and clearly understand it until the time of the end.

“Now the reason you and I can’t put a lot of this prophetic stuff together all the time is because, folks, we don’t live in the times when these things are to be fulfilled.

“As that time comes onto the scene, and the closer you get to it, the more and more people will be able to understand these things, and the people for whom these things are written and intended for over in the prophetic program over in that tribulation period, they’ll be able to get it.

“The wise, chapter 11 says, will understand and God’ll show it to them. So for us, the time element is here.

“Chapter 10:2 says, ‘In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks.’ There’s no indication what he’s mourning after, but no doubt it’s the condition of Israel like in Nehemiah 1 and 2 when Nehemiah heard about the condition over in Israel and how bad it was and was real sorry and sad in the king’s presence.

“There’s no doubt it’s something like that. In verse 3 he says, ‘I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.’

“That verse is funny to me because that means he didn’t eat and he didn’t take a bath for three weeks. I guess that’d be a guarantee he wasn’t married!

“There’s a point here. Daniel’s retired and he’s up in years, but you notice his spiritual activities haven’t diminished; they’ve increased. Here’s a fellow on a three-week fast. That’s a long time when you’re 30 years old, much less 90!

“A three-week fast and he’s so engrossed in prayer and fasting and seeking the Lord’s face, according to the program he lived under, that he doesn’t even attend to personal needs for three weeks. Tremendous spiritual activity this man has.

“Folks, you ought to take example from that. When you retire, you ought not retire from the things of God. When you retire from public employment, and from making a living and from a retirement program, then you’ve got time to really get out and serve the Lord! You’ve got some free time that you don’t have to go work 40 hours a week.

“I’ve told you about Brother Flemings down in Nokomis, Florida. I heard him one time say, ‘I’ve been preaching 65 years!’ I thought, ‘Man, most people are ready to retire and quit when they’re 65 and he’s just going like a house of fire!’

“Verse 4 says, ‘And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel.’ Hiddekel is another name for the Tigris River. The Tiger and the Euphrates is where Babylon was. And you notice he gives you the exact date.

“The critics say the Book of Daniel was written at a very late date and yet they never notice the fact that anybody that puts dates in there like that . . . Daniel dates the month and the year and it’s not a late date; it’s the captivity. It’s not something that took place 50-100 years before Christ. So the people who doubt the dates of Daniel just have to doubt the text.

“The passage goes on, ‘Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz:
[6] His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.
[7] And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Then I lifted linen gird fine gold beryl polished.’

“That individual he sees there is different than anybody he’s seen before and that individual he’s seeing is really the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Come over to Revelation 1 and compare the vision John had with the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. You’ll see that the two visions parallel and something’s really interesting here with regard to what Daniel is seeing.

“Daniel is getting a vision and he sees the Lord Jesus Christ but he sees Him in a very special way. He sees Him like nobody else in the Old Testament ever saw him. He sees Him like John sees Him in Revelation 1.

“Rev. 1:12 says, ‘And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks.’ You compare that with Daniel 10 and you’ll see they’re almost identical. In Daniel 10 He’s called ‘a certain man’ and in Revelation He’s called ‘the son of man.’ He’s got a girdle of gold in Revelation too, and Daniel says His face was lit up and had the appearance of lightning. Revelation says His head and hair were ‘white as wool.’ Light makes things white. His eyes were as a flame of fire.

“Why is it significant that what you see in Daniel is a comparison to what John sees? Think for just a minute. Was Daniel the only person who ever saw the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament? No, other people saw Him. Other people saw Him in a pre-incarnate appearance, if you’re familiar with that.

“You see, what Daniel’s seeing here, if you compare that with what John saw in Revelation; did John see a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ in Revelation? He saw the glorified Christ. He saw the post-resurrection appearance of Christ. And what Daniel does here is he sees the transfigured post-resurrection appearance, as it were, of Christ. He sees the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ that matches the glory that John sees in the Book of the Revelation. And it tells you something.

“It tells you there’s a connection between what Daniel is fixing to get here, and this information he’s going to get, and where you’re going to go when you go to Revelation. The last vision in the Book of Daniel starts out and it comes from the glorified Son of God in a post-resurrection appearance.

“Daniel had already seen Him crucified. Daniel 9:26 says, ‘And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.’

“And then in the next chapter and the next vision he sees Him resurrected. He has this resurrection appearance, that when go through it, it ushers you right into the beginning of the Book of the Revelation that carries you on through to the 70^th week of the Book of Daniel over there in Revelation. What you got there is the sort of connectors that connect together the two books.”