Chapter one sets the masterfully sets the stage for the story of Esther to unfold by providing the context for the message of perceived versus actual power.

Esther is the story of God’s protection of his people from the brink of imminent destruction through the invisible, almost imperceptible, hand of providence.

The last part of Daniel’s book ends not with specifics of when all things will be brought to a close, but with a promise that they will be fulfilled and a call to perseverance in faith.

God foretells a great conflict on earth within the Greek Empire to demonstrate the reality of a cosmic conflict and to teach us about the unseen reality.

The vision of the Seventy Weeks proclaims the prophetic timeline from 539 bc to the consummation noting, in particular, the establishment of the New Covenant at the cross and the end of the Old Covenant with the destruction of the Temple in 70 ad.

The vision of the Seventy Weeks proclaims the prophetic timeline from 539 bc to the consummation and comes through the use of figurative language that evokes imagery of restoration and blessing to God’s people.

Daniel recognizes Israel’s culpability before the Lord as Law breakers and confesses the sins of the nation, asking not for justice, but for mercy.

The little horn of Daniel chapter 8 is to be identified with Antiochus Epiphanes IV and is an anticipation of the antagonism of the final little horn.

Daniel 7 focuses on the period between the first and second coming of Christ and organizes it around a little horn who is identical with the beast of Revelation and persecutes the church until the final judgment on the Last Day.

Though unjustly conspired against and sealed in death – Daniel is delivered and the wicked are judged.