Dale Ralph Davis - The Message of Daniel

THE BIBLE SPEAKS TODAY describes three series of expositions, based on the books of the Old and New Testaments, and on Bible themes that run through the whole of Scripture. Each series is characterized by a threefold ideal:

• to expound the biblical text with accuracy

• to relate it to contemporary life, and

• to be readable.

These books are, therefore, not commentaries, for the commentary seeks rather to elucidate the text than to apply it, and tends to be a work rather of reference than of literature. Nor, on the other hand, do they contain the kinds of sermons that attempt to be contemporary and readable without taking Scripture seriously enough. The contributors to The Bible Speaks Today series are all united in their convictions that God still speaks through what he has spoken, and that nothing is more necessary for the life, health and growth of Christians than that they should hear what the Spirit is saying to them through his ancient yet ever modern Word.

ALEC MOTYER
JOHN STOTT
DEREK TIDBALL
Series editors

There are a number of good reasons not to write an exposition of Daniel. For one thing, going into print on the book of Daniel makes it too easy for readers of whatever stripe to assign ones lot among either the kooks or the nincompoops. The book is an interpretive minefield and wherever one comes down on various questions he is sure to disappoint people one fails to take an obvious view here or finds the data too uncertain to take a firm one there. However, with a kind invitation from Alec Motyer it seemed only right to overcome reluctance and begin. I felt it was like eating my oatmeal it would be good for me.

I had taught Daniel before in several venues, but two years before I left Woodland Presbyterian Church, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I decided to preach through all of Daniel. That was unusually helpful at least to me. There is nothing like having to go through the agony of preaching to help one grab the message of the text. Preaching forces one to digest, simplify (hopefully without distorting), popularize, omit, conceptualize and a whole host of such torturous tasks that are part of the torment of preaching. (I speak of the torment the preacher goes through at this point I am not concerned with what he does to his hearers.)

Which brings me to a dedication, which is to John Burnam, Allen Hawkins, Norman Rowe and Chuck Young, our elders at Woodland, who were always so encouraging about my writing up biblical expositions. It was not uncommon to hear the question raised at a session meeting: Are you getting enough time to work on the commentary? Some pastors might kill for elders like that; I am simply very grateful for these dear brothers. And deep thanks as well to Liz Frazier, my former secretary, who was most forbearing in putting up with a nearly always preoccupied preacher.

DALE RALPH DAVIS

Where these books are cited in the notes, it is by author only.

Archer, G. L., Jr, Daniel, in The Expositors Bible Commentary, vol. 7 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985).

Baldwin, J., Daniel, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Leicester: IVP, 1978).

Calvin, J., A Commentary on Daniel (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1995 reprint).

Collins, J. J., Daniel, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993).

Duguid, I. M., Daniel, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 2008).

Ferguson, S. B., Daniel, Communicators Commentary (Waco: Word, 1988).

Fyall, R., Daniel (Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 1998).

Goldingay, J., Daniel, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, 1989).

Harman, A. M., A Study Commentary on Daniel (Darlington: Evangelical Press, 2007).