The Purpose of Prophecy

Why does God give us hints about the future, especially when he doesn’t reveal exactly when it will all happen? It seems like he just whets our appetite, and then withholds the crucial information we crave. We can identify with the disciples who asked Jesus just before His ascension, “Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? Is this the time?" His somewhat disappointing answer told them to focus on the present and on how they could serve God’s kingdom today:

He told them, "You don't get to know the time. Timing is the Father's business. What you'll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world."

- Acts 1:6-8, The Message

It seems that God provides glimpses of what’s to come for a number of reasons. First, he wants to remind us who’s “on the throne”. God is in charge of history; he alone is sovereign. He doesn’t have to consult anyone in order to make a decision. He brings empires to power and he deposes them when he sees fit, and he has chosen mankind’s final day. So even when things seem chaotic, he is in control, although he is never the author of evil. He may allow evil men to have power temporarily, but it won’t last.

Second, he wants to encourage us to “hang in there”. Ask yourself, what is the most common setting for prophetic literature? Times of crisis. Ezekiel and Daniel prophesied during Israel’s Babylonian captivity, when the nation was “lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut”! And again, at the end of the first century when Christians were being used as lion bait in Roman sporting events, God gave the book of Revelation. These were times when believers could easily feel that God had abandoned them, that he was unable or unwilling to intervene.

Thirdly, he wants us to “long for his appearing” (2 Timothy 2:14). The followers of Jesus “wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13) While we may not be able to predict who the antichrist is, or what day the Greta Tribulation will begin, we live with the urgency that it could be today.

Limited Old Testament Perspective

Not all prophecy gives us the entire story. Three things are important to keep in mind. First, God gives us “progressive revelation” in the Bible. What this means is that things tend to get clearer the farther along in the Bible that they appear. For instance, we have a very fuzzy picture of the Messiah as far back as Genesis 3. We see hints throughout the Old Testament (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Malachi 3), but when Jesus is born in the gospels, we hear his name for the first time, and by the book of Revelation we see him as the glorified Son of God. Likewise, prophecy “adds up” throughout the Scriptures.

Second, one of the most difficult things for Old testament believers to foresee was the Church Age, in which we now live. To them , it looked as though the Messiah would come and immediately vanquish all his foes and bring in an era of peace and tranquility. When Jesus died and thousands of his followers suffered, it was hard to reconcile these seemingly inconsistent facts. However, the “mountain range” illustration is helpful: a person looking along a mountain range from one of the mountains simply sees the biggest peak in the distance, and the ridge between is foreshortened in his view. However, if that same person looks at the entire range from the plains, he can see the different peaks and valleys in between clearly. In the Old Testament, the prophets looked ahead and saw two events as one “mountain”, although there was an invisible (to them) valley in between. The two events were the first and second coming of Christ; he came initially to die for us, he will come again to judge the world. That is clear to us now, but it wasn’t clear to those living before the first century.

Third, in a similar way, the book of Daniel uses a technique known as “foreshadowing” wherein a “type” of the ultimate person to come appears on the scene and exhibits some, but not all, of their characteristics. For example, Joseph in the book of Genesis, is a “type” of Jesus in that he is taken to Egypt, appears sinless, is misunderstood and persecuted unjustly, and in the end provides physical “salvation” (in the form of food during a drought) for his own people. In the same way, the historical person of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (see the Special Focus study later in this introduction) is so evil and bent on the destruction and humiliation of Israel that he (in Daniel 11:21-35) “prefigures” the antichrist (Daniel 11:36-45).

What information does Daniel supply?

We are told many things related to the future in this book. Here are just a few:

First, Daniel lived during a time when pagan nations pretty much had their way with Israel, to the point of destroying Jerusalem and the Temple and banishing its people. The hard-fought “Promised Land” had been taken away. Israel, which had been strong and influential in its “Golden Age” of David and Solomon, suddenly felt puny and inconsequential.

In Daniel, however, we see a different perspective. God knows what’s ahead. He brings down the Babylonian empire in Daniel’s lifetime and gives power to the Medo-Persians, but he reveals that their time, too, will be limited. Greece will come, but their days as world rulers are numbered as well. The only kingdom that will not end is the final kingdom of God’s own Messiah:

"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”(Daniel 7:13,14)

Second, God shows that he deals not only with the “big picture” of whole empires, but he deals with their leaders as well. Daniel watches in amazement as Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man of earth, is repeatedly brought to his knees by God’s awesome power. God wants the king to personally grasp the fact that God of Israel is the one true ruler of the earth.

Third, while God cares about pagan nations, he focuses especially on Israel. The book of Daniel outlines inter-testamental Middle Eastern history, as it related to Israel, in a way that is so precise that liberal scholars claim it must have been written after the fact.

Fourth, Daniel portrays the figure of the “antichrist” repeatedly and in great detail; he is an evil person who will be further described in the book of Revelation.

When will the world end?

- Josh McDowell, More Evidence that Demands a Verdict, p.8