Mark begins his Gospel by rooting it in God’s promises and actions in the past. He also introduces several important themes that will be developed throughout the rest of the book.
You can find many stories on the Internet or in the pages of church history about “prophets” who claimed to know when Jesus would return or when the end of the world would come. So far, they have all been wrong! God has revealed enough about the future so that we have confidence in his wisdom,
While Daniel was praying, an angel came to him, interrupted his prayer and gave him a message. He also explained why Daniel had waited three weeks for God’s response to his prayer. For just a moment, the curtain is removed between our visible world and the invisible world of angels and demons.
The conquest of Babylon by the Medes and the Persians was no surprise to Daniel. God had already revealed that the head of gold would be replaced by the chest and arms of silver (chapter 2) and that the bear would conquer the lion (chapter 7). What arrests Daniel’s attention is a prophecy