“Daniel in Old Testament Salvation History”

Based on James M. Hamilton Jr.’s “With the Clouds of Heaven: The Book of Daniel in Biblical Theology”

The message of Daniel in one sentence: “Daniel encourages the faithful by showing them that though Israel was exiled from the Land of Promise, they will be restored to the realm of life at the resurrection of the dead, when the four kingdoms are followed by the Kingdom of God, so the people of God can trust him and persevere through persecution until God humbles proud human kings, gives everlasting dominion to the son of man, and the saints reign with him.”

The points of contact between Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Jeremiah include the following:

1. When Israel is exiled, the land will enjoy its Sabbaths (Lev. 26:34).

2. In exile, Israel will seek Yahweh and find him when they search for him with all their heart and all their soul (Deut. 4:29).

2. These things will come upon Israel in the latter days (Deut. 4:30), and, following Moses, Jeremiah also addresses the latter days (Jer. 23:20; 30:24; 48:47; 49:39).

3. Jeremiah prophesies seventy years for Babylon (Jer. 25:11–12; 29:10), and a later biblical author, the chronicler, interprets these seventy years as the years the land kept Sabbath (2 Chr. 36:20–21; cf. Lev. 26:34).

5. Jeremiah promises those in exile that, as Moses said, they would seek Yahweh and find him when they searched for him with all their heart and all their soul (Jer. 29:13; cf. Deut. 4:29).