Shalom everyone,
As we continue this study, I’ll be focusing on Daniel and his picture of the resurrection and its connection with Yeshua (Jesus).
Dan 6:2 and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss.
Dan 6:10 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.
So Daniel prayed three times a day, as his custom was — and we’ve seen previously how often the number 3 is connected to the resurrection.
Dan 6:4 Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.
Mat 26:59 Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death,
Mat 26:60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward.
Luk 23:4 Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man.”
As Daniel, a Jew, was brought before Darius a pagan king, so was Yeshua, a Jew, was brought before pagan ruler to be executed. In both the lives of Yeshua and Daniel, there was no fault found in them!
Dan 6:5 Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”
Joh 19:7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.”
Notice also the satraps used the “law of his God” to execute him, just as the “pharisees” used the “law” to execute Yeshua!
Dan 6:6 Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever!
Luk 23:2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
Joh 19:15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
Just as the “satraps” peddled their trap in disguise as “oh King”, the Pharisees plotted against “Jesus” by claiming they had no King but Caesar!
Dan 6:7 All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.
Mat 26:15 and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.
Notice the “satraps” of Daniel’s day — plotted as how they could destroy Daniel — just as the Pharisees did in Yeshua’s day. Connected to the plot to destroy Daniel was the number 30 — just as 30 was connected to the plot to kill Yeshua.
Dan 6:13 Then they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”
Dan 6:14 Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him.
Dan 6:15 Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.”
Mat 27:17 So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?”
Mat 27:18 For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.
Joh 19:12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”
Darius knows the reason the men delivered Daniel was because of ‘envy’ and Darius didn’t want to execute Daniel in his heart. Just as Pilate knew it was out of envy the High Priest delivered up Yeshua to be crucified, and Pilate didn’t want to execute Yeshua and said, “My hands are clean”.
As Daniel is thrown into the lions den — it’s a death sentence, yet this picture of death becomes fully understood as Daniel emerges and later is a picture of resurrection!
Dan 6:16 Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!”
Mat 27:43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.'”
As Darius tells Daniel, may the Lord deliver you — the same words are uttered before Yeshua.
Dan 6:17 And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.
Mat 27:65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.”
Mat 27:66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
The tomb of “Daniel” is sealed with the King’s signet, so was the tomb of Yeshua!
Dan 6:18 Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him.
Darius could not sleep and was troubled by Daniel in the Lion’s den.
Mat 27:19 Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.”
Pilate’s wife was troubled in her sleep because of Yeshua’s death.
Dan 6:20 As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”
Dan 6:21 Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever!
Dan 6:22 My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”
Dan 6:23 Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
Dan 6:25 Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you.
Dan 6:26 I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end.
Dan 6:27 He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”
Dan 7:13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.
Dan 7:14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
Rev 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,
Rev 5:10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
Rev 5:13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Rev 12:10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
And finally the thematic connection to the “resurrection” is its connection to the Kingdom of God! For His is a Kingdom that shall never be destroyed!
Your brother in the Lord with much agape love,
George