These are some confusing chapters, and they bring to mind Revelation, which has some obvious similarities (obvious = confusing, sounding a little crazy, etc.).

I want to step back and take this at a really high level, at least in this first read-through.  What we are seeing is God in communication with Daniel through visions and dreams, as we later see God doing with John in Revelation.  So many people have ventured to try to understand this stuff, and there is just so much symbolism and so much imagery and so many dates and details that it actually makes it very difficult to fully nail down the exact events being discussed.  But it also points out something to me - that we are just not equipped as humans to fully understand what God is up to in this world.  What if part of the purpose of these messages from God is simply to help us to grasp the scale on which God is working?  In fact, I would argue that this is precisely ONE of the purposes.

Today, I am going to keep it simple, as I tend to try to do when I get deep into the weeds.  First, I am going to go ahead and pause and go through my time of prayer.  Doing that now.

So, my prayer today is simply that God would show up for me, and give me clarity around his calling for me life.  I pray that God would help me to understand my purpose; that God would help my faith develop to deeper and deeper levels as he did with Daniel, and that I would have to courage to continue to step into that faith as Daniel did.