Those who do weekend sailing on a very wide body of water have a way of charting their course. They keep their eye on a distant, fixed object on the shore. No matter how whimsically the wind blows, no matter how tricky the cross-currents in the water, they can keep their direction by that immovable landmark at the water’s edge. Otherwise, they would be swept far off their course by the wind and the waves, although they might think that they were headed in the right direction. That distant landmark keeps them on course.

The book of Daniel in today’s lesson held up a distant landmark for readers who were sailing through rough waters. God’s people were being harassed and sorely persecuted under the rule of an occupying power headed by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. This was about 165 years before Chr…