With each of the visions in Daniel 7-12 there is a narrowing of focus. The first vision in chapter 7 is very broad but now the focus narrows to the Greek period which would involve a period of tribulation after which God would intervene and deliver his people. It is referred to as “the time of the end” in the sense that God would put an end to the hostility against his people at that time. More detail will be given about this period in chapter 11. These events, however, are exemplary of a pattern in Scripture. It seems that God allows and even incites his enemies to attack his people in order to draw the evil one into defeat. We see it in the case of the Egyptians chasing Israel into the Red Sea and in many other cases right up to the ultimate victory against evil foretold in Revelation 19. It was predicted in Genesis 3:15 that Satan would strike at the heel of the children of God, but as a result he would have his head crushed. You should therefore expect the same pattern to appear in your life. God will allow times of great onslaught in which you will be sorely tested. He will allow Satan to “sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31) as he did with Peter but he will do this in order to draw Satan out so that you can overcome him by God’s power. And this is the key. Never try to pull through these times in your own strength. As Gabriel said to Daniel: “He will be destroyed, but not by human power.”
Ask for God to lead you through whatever area you are being tested in.
Read Daniel 8
