AN EXISTENTIAL FEAR
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The second “Do not be afraid” in Daniel 10 was a precursor to the visions he would see in the next chapters of the book. It addressed a more existential fear—the underlying fear that marks the relationship between God and humanity. God was not against Daniel and his people. He was not a threat to them; He was for them. The visions of Daniel 7 through 12 portray a large scope of world history, the rise and fall of empires, the battles between competing beliefs and ideologies, and the fierce conflict between good and evil. In all of this, God’s people often appear as victims or, at best, collateral damage. The empires are portrayed as beasts that would continue to trample and persecute God’s people. But God was with His people.
God saw their distress, and God, with them, would ultimately be victorious. This was the larger “Do not be afraid” of Daniel’s visions. In his own lifetime and in his experiences of working close to the center of power in successive empires, he had experienced some of the best and the worst of political and military power. But he had also witnessed God at work on the largest stages of world history and in many of the individual lives he encountered there. By the time that Daniel was entrusted with the task of writing out these visions, much of his work was done, and he could rest in the assurance that God was with him and would continue to work out His plans in the larger world. “As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance” (Daniel 12:13).
