Daniel lives as an exile (like Esther) among the Babylonians (like Ezekiel). Like Esther and Mordecai, Daniel experiences both the danger of serving God faithfully in a foreign land and God’s deliverance. Like other prophets, God will reveal the future to Daniel, demonstrating that God alone is the writer and ruler of history.

God protects his people while revealing the future (chs. 1–6), and God reveals the future (chs. 7–12) while assuring his people that he will protect them, ultimately bringing all of human history to its culmination and vindicating his people. To put it a bit more concisely, Daniel presents a God who protects, reveals, rules and vindicates.

Much of the material in this sermon is based on Paul House, Old Testament Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 327–45, and Michael Barrett, God’s Unfailing Purpose: The Message of Daniel (Greenville, SC: Ambassador-Emerald, 2003).