Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Thank God we can learn something as time goes on! Have you ever noticed how many times we find the word "understand" in the Book of Daniel? And yet it is probably the least understood book in the Bible!
Look first at what Jesus says: "Whosoever reads [Daniel], let him understand," the only Bible book that He singled out for special study (Matt. 24:15). In Daniel 8:16, God Himself commands Gabriel, "Make this man understand the vision." And then Gabriel told the prophet, "Understand, son of man" (vs. 17).
In 9:13 Daniel laments the lack of understanding among his people. In 9:22 the angel says, "I have now come forth to give you skill to understand," and in verse 23 he tells Daniel, "Consider the matter, and understand the vision." In verse 25 he again urges Daniel, "Know therefore and understand." In 10:11 he tells Daniel, "O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you."
In the next verse he assures him that "from the first day that you set your heart to understand … your words [prayers] were heard." And two verses later he's at it again, "I have come to make you understand" (vs. 14). And in 11:33 the angel explains how happy he is that "those of the people who understand shall instruct many" so they can understand too! However, in 12:10, the angel teacher strikes a note in the sad minor key, "None of the wicked shall understand." Apparently there are eternal consequences in this matter of understanding or not understanding Daniel!
But now at last a happy note in the end of the Book of Daniel: "The wise shall understand." Do you understand the Book of Daniel? Can you open its pages and verse-by-verse "instruct" a neighbor, or a teen? Jesus says you must understand! This is not a command to do something difficult, but to open your heart to hear, to see, to learn, to receive truth. "Be of an understanding heart," Jesus says (Prov. 8:5).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 22, 2000.
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