There are many passages that are supposed to be prophecies about Jesus that, when read in their context in the Old Testament, sure don’t seem to be about Jesus. Even the ones that kind of sound like Jesus, how do we know that’s what the prophecy was really about? It’s not just skeptics who ask these questions; believers do, too. It’s the latter I want to address. Skeptics will not be convinced by anything we can say, but to doubting believers we can offer one simple explanation.
What made the apostles think these passages applied to Jesus? Jesus.
No one likes being the bearer of bad news. When everything seems to be going well, bringing bad news is not going to make you popular. When you’re already unpopular, the natural inclination is to just keep your head down and try not to be noticed. You don’t want to stand out. You don’t want to attract attention to yourself. You certainly don’t want to tell people something they don’t want to hear. But sometimes we have to.
For our next Lesson from Babylon, let’s look at the time when Daniel had to bring bad news to a king who was on top of the world.
A common complaint from non-believers and Christians alike is that it’s hard to reconcile the God in the Old Testament who seems so angry, impatient, and unforgiving with the kind, loving, and forgiving Jesus (and by extension his Father) of the New Testament. Our picture of Jesus is of him carrying a lamb on his shoulders; our picture of the OT God is like the Far Side cartoon where his finger is hovering over the “smite” button. How do we explain this personality shift between the testaments? Moreover, what do we do with that angry OT God?
We all love a story where the hero shows up in the nick of time to rescue his beloved from danger. What if he doesn’t though? That story is usually less fun.
One danger of studying the book of Daniel is we may get the idea that God promises to rescue us from any danger. He doesn’t. For our next Lesson from Babylon, we’ll see what the book has to teach us about facing the times when he doesn’t swoop in and save the day.
