End of the study of the Book of Daniel

It took a few months, but my friend and I completed our study of the book of Daniel this week.  Some things that really stood out to me were:

1. God is sovereign.  Over angels and demons; over all of human history - including the rise and fall of Gentile nations; over His people, Israel, Whom He chose, chastened, yet still loves; over kings, and over His holy prophets;  And in the end, it is His divine plans and purposes that prevail.  
2. God has a plan.  And it is unfolding.  
3. This world is headed to an epic time of trouble.  God revealed to Daniel that the rebellion against God's authority and a refusal to honor Him as God grows to the time of the end.  Man's rebellion will reach its zenith under the reign of an unholy one, the Anti-Christ.  But he will be brought to a sudden end!
4. Christ is coming.  He will assume the throne of David, and His kingdom shall fill the earth.  "And He shall reign for ever and ever."  King of kings, and Lord of lords.  
5. Man is a speck.  An insignificant little "nothing," that must come to realize his place in light of the Great God.  The Lord God is great and awesome, a revealer of mysteries, and alone is worthy of glory, honor, and praise.
6. Daniel was a great man of God.  He was a stalwart example of a person who, from the time of his youth, made a conscious choice (and series of choices) to not defile himself with the things of this world, but rather to follow God wholeheartedly with devotion, obedience, and humility.  God honors this with a promised allotted place in the age to come.  His prayer life humbled me.  His character challenged me.  His life inspired me.  
7. God loves Israel.  Though He is angered by their stubborn refusal to follow Him, He will "deliver" a remnant in the end times.  While the 'time of indignation' did not end at the end of the 70 years of exile,  God has not forgotten His covenant with the fathers of Israel.  All He has promised, will come to pass, for He has loved his 'first born son' with an everlasting love.  
8. The Church is a witness for NOW.  In the time of the end of this age, the Church is strikingly absent.  The Lord will again turn His attentions (and affections) towards Israel.  Though the latter will suffer horrendously, some will "shine like stars of heaven," dying for their faith in their God and in His Son.  It was exciting to see the end, in spite of the recognition that what will precede that is a time of terrible persecution and suffering at the hands of Anti-Christ.
9. Christians have only "now" to be what we ought.  For me, the biggest thing was to see that God expects His people to glorify Him and to be a witness to His Person when it is their time to do so.  Israel had the statutes and the covenant.  They had met with God personally at Sinai.  They were then responsible to follow the Lord in humble obedience that the world would see that the God of Israel IS God.  They failed.  As I pondered that, it struck me:  How much more culpable, then, is the Church?  We have the entire revelation of the Word of God.  We have lived in light of the Incarnation, and Christ's death and resurrection.  God has come to dwell within us by His Spirit!    If we fail to glorify Him, in spite of His grace and mercy, are we not guilty of the same rebellion as Israel?  I think we will be held very accountable to the LORD.  "For to whom much is given, much more will be required."  If God punished Israel this severely (and for this long) for failing to uphold His glory, then perhaps Christians (all of us) would do well to consider our own lives . . . and shudder.  Have we grown lax because we have been saved by grace, through faith?  Should not the recipients of such mercy be MORE holy than Israel?  More bent on glorifying God?  More obedient?  More faithful?