From former pastor and professor Dale Ralph Davis, this replacement volume in the Bible Speaks Today Old Testament commentary series offers a reliable exposition of the visionary book of Daniel for pastors and lay commentary readers. Explaining the background to Daniel, he sifts through interpretive issues and then offers a faithful exposition of the book's message.

In many corners of the world these days the climate of hostility hangs over any overt Christian faith commitment. Any kind of Christian commitment is now assumed to imply intolerance and often prompts reactions that range from a low-grade hostility and exclusion in the West to the vicious and murderous assaults on Christian believers in Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Syria and Iraq and elsewhere. Such issues are not new. Christians have faced them ever since Nero’s lions, and even before that. Jews also have faced the same questions all through their history, most tragically sometimes enduring horrendous persecution from states claiming to be Christian. So it is not surprising that the Bible gives a lot of attention to these questions. The book of Daniel tackles the problem head on, both in the stories of Daniel and his friends, and in the visions he received. A major theme of the book is how people who worship the one, true, living God—the God of Israel—can live and work and survive in the midst of a nation, a culture, and a government that are hostile and sometimes life-threatening. What does it mean to live as believers in the midst of a non-Christian state and culture? How can we live “in the world” and yet not let the world own us and squeeze us into the shape of its own fallen values and assumptions? The book was written to encourage believers to keep in mind that the future, no matter how terrifying it may eventually become, rests in the hands of the sovereign Lord God—and in that assurance to get on with the challenging task of living in God’s world for the sake of God’s mission.

This is often the question of skeptics, scoffers, and even troubled souls. Trials and tribulations of one sort or another crowd our personal lives, while corruption, conflict, and catastrophe command the world scene. Indeed, where is God in all of this? Asking the question is fair enough. Answering demands caution. God’s Unfailing Purpose: The Message Of Daniel is a cautious and biblical answer to that question. This book focuses on the heavenly throne from which God rules according to His perfect will and unchangeable, unfailing purpose. God is in absolute control of all things: the big issues of the world, as well as the seemingly bigger issues of our lives. Daniel’s view of history and prophecy shows that God’s kingdom is coming and that God’s will is being done on earth as certainly as it is in heaven. Daniel’s message is simply, “Not to worry–everything is under control.”

In his #1 New York Times bestseller Agents of the Apocalypse, noted prophecy expert Dr. David Jeremiah explored the book of Revelation through the lens of its major players. Now, in the much-anticipated follow-up, Agents of Babylon, Dr. Jeremiah examines prophecy through the eyes of the characters in the book of Daniel, explains what the prophecies mean, and helps us understand how these prophetic visions and dreams apply to our lives today. Written in the same highly engaging half dramatization, half Bible teaching format as Agents of the Apocalypse, Agents of Babylon is not only an in-depth exploration of the characters and prophecies contained in the book of Daniel but also a dramatic retelling of Scripture that is sure to bring ancient prophecy to light like never before.

Did Jesus claim to be the "bridegroom"? If so, what did he mean by this claim? When Jesus says that the wedding guests should not fast "while the bridegroom is with them" (Mark 2:19), he is claiming to be a bridegroom by intentionally alluding to a rich tradition from the Hebrew Bible. By eating and drinking with "tax collectors and other sinners," Jesus was inviting people to join him in celebrating the eschatological banquet. While there is no single text in the Hebrew Bible or the literature of the Second Temple Period which states the "messiah is like a bridegroom," the elements for such a claim are present in several texts in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea. By claiming that his ministry was an ongoing wedding celebration he signaled the end of the Exile and the restoration of Israel to her position as the Lord's beloved wife. This book argues that Jesus combined the tradition of an eschatological banquet with a marriage metaphor in order to describe the end of the Exile as a wedding banquet.