Wrapping up Daniel this morning. You gotta like this guy. As a young man witnessed the destruction of his nation . . . was taken from his family (if they had survived) to a foreign land . . . and there determined not to defile himself with the ways of the new land he was ordered to learn about and participate in. The hand of God was on him from the beginning . . . special gifting . . . special calling . . . resulting in a meteoric rise to the top. A seat in the government . . . and not just through one administration, but through decades under various rulers . . . and yet always in touch and submitted to THE RULER. And as I read this final vision given to Daniel, it’s not the prophecy revealed that catches my attention . . . but rather how the prophet is addressed.

And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you” . . . And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.”   (Daniel 10:11, 19 ESV)

Man greatly loved . . . that was Daniel. And the sense here is not “greatly loved” in that God had always loved Him as evidenced by the manner in which God had worked in and through him . . . but that God was crazy in love with this man because of how Daniel had allowed God to work through him. The idea of the word “greatly loved” is that of being delighted with . . . of being regarded of value and beauty . . . of being precious to someone (NLT) . . . of being highly esteemed (NIV).

Daniel had gone through it all . . . had spoken what need to be spoken . . . had stood fast when standing fast was required . . . had endured what needed to be endured . . . such that king after king recognized that Daniel’s God was the God above all gods . . . that Daniel’s God was the establisher of thrones and the Sovereign over every rule. Talk about living to the glory of God . . . and as such he was a man greatly loved by God.

You know, my tendency so often is to take the great characters like Daniel and project myself into their lives . . . to set them up as examples for how I should live. But I was challenged recently to see these great servants of God in the Old Testament as being foreshadows of the greater Servant, Jesus. Jesus is the greater Moses . . . Jesus is the greater David . . . and I’m thinking this morning of how Jesus is the greater Daniel.

Sent from heaven’s glories to earth’s darkness to be light. Divested of the “clothing” of His heavenly home and instead robed in flesh . . . the Creator taking on the form of the creation . . . and in essence submitting Himself as a servant. In the world, but determined not to be of the world . . . amidst the defilement but with spot . . . eating with publicans and sinners yet never participating in the way of publicans and sinners. Walking the dusty paths of earth yet never detached from heaven . . . just as Daniel prayed three times a day, so the Son of Man would find time alone to commune with the Father. Standing before the thrones of those with earthly power . . . revealing truth . . . yet thrown in the lion’s den. But unlike Daniel, He did not emerge without a scratch . . . instead He bore the stripes for my sin . . . He endured the suffering to atone for my shame . . . He suffered death that I might not fear it. And though He suffered, yet, like Daniel who emerged from the lions den, my Savior rose from the grave . . . left behind the grave clothes . . . was resurrected in glorious power.

My Lord and Savior, Jesus the Son of God, is a man greatly loved . . . by the Father . . . and by this sinner saved through wondrous grace.

To Him be glory alone . . . amen?