His Career
Before we can understand and appreciate Daniel, we need to take a look at a prophet who preceded him, Jeremiah. We are not afforded any indication of how Jeremiah viewed his own “career” as a prophet for God to Judah. Did he die a discouraged man? Did he take his place among the great men of faith who were content to leave everything with God? Was his lament over his existence and service what marked him at the end of his days (Jer 15:10)? We do not know.
What we do know is that after forty years of faithfully proclaiming and portraying the truth of God to the nation, he had seen perhaps two “converts” who took sides with God and with Jeremiah against the nation. There was no great revival, no turning to God, not even a feeble attempt at reform. An efficiency expert would have called his efforts fruitless and poorly designed to engage his society and build bridges. He was definitely not a “user-friendly” prophet. He must not have been in touch with the times. Old linen girdles, earthen pitchers, and claiming that his unmarried state carried a message for the nation – all this seemed very foreign and irrelevant to the nation. It is likely that he was condemned for what most would call his “negative” ministry.
In the end, he was carried off to Egypt with a scraggly, scared, struggling band of survivors. Jewish history tells us that he was martyred in that land, ending his career for God. So much for Jeremiah. Evil triumphed and his voice was silenced. Or was it?
His Character
But Jeremiah served faithfully, undeterred by public opinion and by public ridicule. Princes and kings mocked and scorned him, imprisoned and humiliated him. He knew the public stocks and the mire in the prison. But he continued to preach and proclaim the truth of God to his generation. His life was in jeopardy. Even those from his own home village of Anathoth plotted against him (Jer 11:21). Despite public shame and reproach, danger and peril, he remained faithful to God and to the nation.
Long after Jeremiah was off the scene and the nation had been carried captive, there was a man in Babylon named Daniel. This Daniel had himself known opposition. In his case it was born of envy and ethnic hatred. But he, also, served God faithfully in his captivity.
His Communication
Jeremiah had prophesied and written in the closing days of the seventh century B.C. It may have been about 606 B.C. He wrote of the 70 years of captivity that God had required of the nation, reaping the 490 Sabbaths they had failed to keep while in the land (Jer 25:11-14; 29:10-14). In 596 B.C. the Babylonish hordes had come and carried the nation away to begin their captivity.
Among those taken was a young teenager named Daniel. He was a faithful Israelite in a foreign land but remained faithful to Jehovah. He passed test after test, and was so renown for his righteous life that a contemporary linked him with Noah and Job for his righteous life (Eze 14:20). This was no mean commendation seeing he was a young man living in Babylon.
But now it is 538 B.C. and Daniel is an aged man, very possibly 85 years old or older. He likely had known the den of lions prior to this moment or shortly thereafter. He had proved faithful to God and God was now going to use him in a mighty and unique manner. One cannot help but wonder if Daniel 9 would have ever been possible if Daniel had not passed the test of chapters 1- 6!
Daniel, as part of his daily habit, was reading the Word of God. He was reading that day in Jeremiah. We must first notice how carefully the date is recorded. The Spirit of God does not want us to miss the timeline He is about to give. It is the first year of Darius.
We must not miss, as well, that Daniel, as an aged man, is still poring over the Scriptures. Here is a man who could well have assumed that he had served his generation and did not need to continue his habits of daily reading and prayer. But Daniel was not content to merely coast the remaining years. He wanted to continue to know God. His diligence challenges us all!
As he is reading, he finds Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning the 70 years of captivity. Please do not miss the import of all of this. One man in captivity, an aged man, reading the Word of God, finds words written years prior concerning the city of Jerusalem and the people of Israel. Jeremiah’s prophecy was going to become the impetus for Daniel to pray. His prayer would be the fulcrum God would employ to bring about not only the recovery of the nation but a far more significant and comprehensive prophecy contained in Daniel 9.
Jeremiah had been off the scene for a number of years. His words and writings seemed to have little influence on the nation during his lifetime. One king actually used his penknife to carve up Jeremiah’s message because he did not like what it said (Jer 36:23). Yet, here was God vindicating His prophet by displaying the value of his message.
Then there is Daniel, an aged prophet in captivity in a foreign land, still searching the Scriptures, intent on knowing God and His will.
The Lord brings these two mighty servants together to provide the background upon which one of the most significant prophecies in the Old Testament will be given. Dare to be a Daniel, but dare to be a Jeremiah as well!
