Daniel
Faith in the Belly of the Beast
Daniel is a unique book, blending court tales of survival in a hostile empire with wild, apocalyptic visions of the future. It is traditionally attributed to the prophet Daniel in the 6th century BCE during the Babylonian exile, though many scholars date its final compilation to the 2nd century BCE when the Jewish people faced brutal persecution under a Greek king.
Either way, the book's purpose is fiercely consistent: to reassure people facing overwhelming, state-sponsored pressure that God is still sovereign over human history. The first half reads like an ancient survival guide for navigating corrupt systems without losing your soul, while the second half uses symbolic dreams to pull back the curtain on the violent rise and fall of empires.
For modern readers, Daniel isn't just a puzzle of end-times timelines to be decoded. It poses a very grounded challenge: How do we live faithfully in a culture that demands our total allegiance, and how do we maintain hope when the worst powers of the world seem unstoppable?
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