A CONCLUDING WORD
Now that we have come to the end of the Life-study of Daniel, I would like to give a concluding word.
The book of Daniel shows us a man whose heart is one with God and is set absolutely on the destiny of his people, Israel. Apparently, the destiny of Israel is in the hands of the human government, the power of the nations. Actually, the destiny of Israel is in the economy of the God who has chosen them and who rules over all the human government with the heavenly authority. The human government began with Babylon, represented by Nebuchadnezzar, and will end also with Babylon, represented by Antichrist, who was typified by Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria and Titus of the Roman Empire.
Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s move in the divine economy. Christ was crucified to terminate the old creation and germinate through His resurrection the new creation. He is the excellent and precious One in the appreciation and expectation of God’s chosen people. He will receive the eternal kingdom from God and appear to end and smash all the human government from its toes to its head and become the enlarged kingdom of God throughout the whole earth.
In His divine economy God will perfect Israel to be His priests, and He will prepare His created and restored (not regenerated) nations to be His people. In addition to this result of the manifested part of His economy, in the hidden part of His divine economy God will complete the building up of the church as the Body of Christ to be God’s royal family to rule as kings in the new heaven and new earth. Eventually, in eternity in His eternal kingdom God will have His kings, His priests, and His people forever.
(Life-Study of Daniel, Chapter 17, by Witness Lee)
