Daniel 7
Scroll to 25:07 for the sermon in the You Tube video below
Scroll to 25:07 for the sermon
Daniel 7: Daniel’s Dream
Chapters 7 through 12 are a little more challenging to understand and look at because they’re prophecy, they’re dreams and visions. And we’re going to look at that, Daniel chapter 7 this morning. Did you know that about 27 to 30 percent of the Bible is prophetic? In other words, it’s written about the future.
And for Daniel chapter 7, most of Daniel chapter 7 was all prophetic and future for Daniel. He was living in the times of the Babylonians. We have the privilege of looking back on Daniel chapter 7. A lot of it has already been fulfilled, but not all of it.
And so Daniel chapter 7 contains these prophetic dreams and visions. And I think you have a handout in your bulletin, and we’ll give you a little overview of what we’re going to look at this morning. This one right here, Daniel chapter 7, the times of the Gentiles, that’s what Jesus referred to the time period between the Babylonian captivity and when Jesus returns.
It’s the time of Gentile domination that is going to come to an end someday. And so this is what we’re going to look at this morning. This was Daniel’s dream in Daniel chapter 7. And it’s interesting when we begin to think about what theologians call eschatology, it’s the study of last things, that there’s great disagreement on genuine people who love the Lord and study the Bible about eschatology and the future.
For instance, the rapture. First Thessalonians chapter 4 talks about the rapture of the church. And some people say, well, that’s going to happen before the tribulation period, this seven-year period when God’s going to pour his wrath out on the world.
Some people think it’s going to happen midway through, three and a half year period. There’s a new position about 30 or 40, maybe 30 years ago by Marvin Rosenthal, and he called it a pre-wrath rapture position. There’s the millennial kingdom, a thousand-year rule reign of Jesus, and there’s different opinions on that.
There’s premillennialism, postmillennialism, amillennialism. These are all positions that genuine people who love the Lord study and come up with a system of understanding of the future. And so we need to understand that.
Where does our church stand? Well, I looked up in our Constitution where it lays out our doctrinal beliefs, just a brief paragraph. We believe in the blessed hope, that’s the second coming of Christ, the personal, imminent, that means it could happen any time, pre-tribulational, premillennial coming of the Lord Jesus for His redeemed ones. So we look at the second coming of Christ as twofold.
The rapture, He doesn’t come all the way down to earth. There’s a meeting in the air, and He captures believers up. He comes for His saints.
Second coming, He comes with His saints. Jesus’ feet actually touches the Mount of Olives, and I think that’s Zechariah chapter 11, and He comes a second time, and that’s a personal coming. So here’s the thing, on all these matters, we can agree to disagree.
It’s not bullet theology. It’s not something we’re going to die for, but they’re just differing opinions of the doctrine of last things. I’m sure I’ve shared this little story before, but a man was on his way to church, and as he was driving on his way to church, he encountered a man on a bridge who was about to jump.
So he stopped his car, and he got out, and he says, don’t do it. But the man that was about to jump said, but nobody loves me. I said, God loves you.
Do you believe in God? He said, yes. I said, are you a Christian or a Jew? He said, a Christian. I said, me too.
Are you Protestant or Catholic? He said, Protestant. I said, me too. What denomination? He said, Baptist.
I said, me too. Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist? He said, Northern Baptist. I said, me too.
Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist? He said, Northern Conservative Baptist. He said, me too. Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region? He said, Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.
I said, me too. Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879 or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912? He said, Northern Conservative Baptist General Great Lakes Region Council of 1912. And I said, die heretic.
That’s a funny story, isn’t it? So there are places where we can agree to disagree, but we’re gonna we’re gonna jump into Daniel chapter 7, and I thought rather than reading the whole chapter, I came across a little YouTube video that pictures worth a thousand words. So this is about five or six minutes long, but here’s the date of when all this is happening. This is 553 BC, Daniel’s 67 years old, and he has a dream.
And here’s the whole chapter visualized for you, and then we’ll jump into it. And so we’re going to try to unpack what all that means in the next 20 minutes or so. And so let’s look at this whole matter of Daniel’s dream that he had.
And as I mentioned, we know the year that this happened, because Daniel chapter 7 verse 1, it says, in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream. So what we need to understand is the book of Daniel, it’s not in chronological order, because chapter 7 happened before chapter 5. At the end of chapter 5, King Belshazzar is killed, and the Medo-Persian Empire takes control. And so this is not in chronological order.
Daniel’s dream: Daniel 7: 1-14
This chapter 7 happened before chapter 5. So the year is 553 BC, when Daniel had this dream. As I mentioned, most of what he saw was all yet future, was all prophetic. And so what does he see? He sees this vision while he’s laying in his bed at night, and he gets up and he writes down this dream, this vision.
It says, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me were four winds of heaven churning up the great sea, and four beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea. Now some commentators say that sea refers to the Mediterranean Sea, where all these kingdoms all arose around the Mediterranean Sea. But chapter 7 verse 17, the interpretation that Daniel got in verse 17, the four great beasts are four kings that will arise from the earth.
So the sea is symbolic of the earth. Sometimes we talk about a sea of humanity. So there’s going to be four beasts that represent four kingdoms that arise, and what we need to understand in looking at this dream is, if you study Daniel chapter 2, the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, and Daniel chapter 7, they’re parallel.
I remember the head of gold and the statue and the dream in Daniel chapter 2 represented Babylon, and then the body represented Medo-Persia, and the legs represented Greece, and the feet represented Rome, and then there was a rock that came and smashed the feet of that statue. When we look at Daniel chapter 7, Daniel’s dream, it’s really parallel. Daniel 2 perhaps looks at these coming kingdoms from the Gentile perspective.
Commentators say Daniel 7 looks at the same context from a Jewish perspective. From the Jewish perspective, these kingdoms are oppressive, and they’re represented by these beasts. And so Daniel has this dream, and as you see in your handout, the first one’s a lion with wings, the second one’s a ferocious bear raised on one side, the third one is a leopard with four wings and four heads, beast number four is an unidentified beast, but it’s more ferocious and terrible than the first three with iron claws and ten horns.
And so what are these beasts representing? Well, the first one, the lion with the wings, represents Babylon as the statue of head of gold did in Daniel chapter 2. The first was a lion and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it. What’s that referring to? Well, commentators think that’s referring to King Nebuchadnezzar.
Remember that God judged King Nebuchadnezzar because of his pride and his arrogance, and for seven years it was called Boanthropy. He went around on all fours, he was like an animal. Then God restored his mind and he came back to his senses as a human being, and some commentators think that’s what’s pictured here when it says that he finally stood on two feet like a human being and the mind was given to it.
The bear represents the Medo-Persian Empire. It’s raised on one side because in that combination empire, the Medes and the Persians, the Persians were the more dominant controlling empire between the Medes and the Persians. And so it says that this bear is raised on one side and it has three ribs in its mouth.
That’s a reference to the Medo-Persians three major conquests. They conquered three major areas to gain world dominance and world power. It was Egypt, Babylon, and Lydia, and that’s what the three ribs in its mouth represents.
Beast number three, this one that looked like a leopard, four wings like those of a bird, four heads given authority to reel. The next dominant Empire was Greece. So Greece conquered the Medo-Persians and commentators think that this picture of the leopard and the four wings represent the swiftness of the Greek Empire.
Remember it was Alexander the Great that in a very short time conquered the world. And so beast number three represents the Greek Empire. That says this beast had four heads and was given authority to rule.
After Alexander the Great died, the kingdom was divided between four of his generals. So now there’s another, there’s another beast here and this is not given a name, it just says it was a terrifying, frightening beast. It had large iron teeth and it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot wherever it was left and it had these ten horns and that’s Rome.
Rome became the next world power after the Greeks and the Romans ruled with an iron fist. And so here are these, this picture of this frightening beast and it has ten horns. I remember Daniel chapter 2, the statue had ten toes.
So there’s this parallel here and let’s look at verse 8. I know we’ve already had it read to us but verse 8 says, while I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them and three of its first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully. So here is this little horn that comes up among the ten horns.
The little horn is what the Bible refers to as the Antichrist. And so the last world power that ruled was the Roman Empire when the Gothics defeated the Roman Empire, came down from the north. There’s, since then, there’s not been a dominant world power.
But most commentators think a lot of this is yet future. In the end times there’s going to be a ten-nation Confederacy. Some people call it the revived Roman Empire that’s going to come to power.
I remember back in the maybe 70s or 80s as following Scripture and following world events and what was developing over in Europe, there was something called the Common Market. And it was a group of nations that came together to form an economic power. And I remember when the Common Market number of nations was ten, people started to say, oh there it is, there’s the Bible prophecy of that ten nation.
Well the Common Market now has about 23 nations. So we don’t quite know what this looks like, but in the end times there’s going to be a ten nation kings, heads of state, that will rule over what’s looked at as a revived, realigned Roman Empire. And then as one commentator writes at some point during that ten king Confederacy, another Gentile or head of state will emerge.
He’ll defeat three of the others. And this is, some people call it the Antichrist. There’s other names in Scripture.
Second Thessalonians 2 calls him the man of lawlessness. Revelation chapter 13 calls this person the beast. Dr. Michael Rodelnik, who’s the professor of Jewish studies at Moody Bible Institute, likes to call this person the false Messiah.
And I think that name kind of characterizes him better than some of these other names. This is this false Messiah. It says he has a mouth that speaks boastfully in verse 8. And this false Messiah will arise in the end times called the Antichrist.
And here’s how Revelation 13 verses 5 through 8 describes it in the context of being called the beast. Verse 5, the beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and exercises authority for 42 months, three and a half years. It opens its mouth to blaspheme God and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.
It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and conquer them. It was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast.
All whose names have not been written in the Lamb Book of Life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. And so here’s this false Messiah who’s going to come in the end times and he’s going to be captivating, he’s going to be charismatic, and he’s going to oppress God’s chosen, God’s people. And he’s going to speak blasphemy against God.
In fact, he’s going to demand that people worship him. Now in Daniel chapter 7, Daniel now switches to this future judgment scene. And we saw it portrayed on the video and it’s a beautiful scene of the Ancient of Days.
This is God the Father sitting on a throne and here’s multitudes and multitudes of people and it’s a judgment scene. The books are open and we realize, and here’s the encouraging part of Daniel, is that the fifth world kingdom, the fifth kingdom that’s going to come, is God’s kingdom. That ultimately God’s going to come and he’s going to set up his kingdom and he will rule and reign forever and ever and ever.
And that’s what Daniel is picturing here. He talks about the Son of Man coming, verse 13, with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days, was led into his presence, given authority, glory, and sovereign power.
All nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. And so there’s the encouraging part of Daniel’s visions.
As we see these four world powers, ultimately there’s a fifth one. It’s God’s kingdom and it will last forever. And so just to briefly summarize the rest of Daniel chapter 7, we’ve already heard it read.
Daniel’s very troubled, so he has to ask for the interpretation of the dream, which I find interesting because all throughout Daniel, Daniel’s the go-to guy to, what, interpret dreams for Nebuchadnezzar and the handwriting on the wall for King Belshazzar. But Daniel here has to go and ask the question, what does this dream mean? So the person, perhaps an angel, describes the meaning of the dream. And I’m just going to read a brief summary here.
In summary, the little horn that Daniel sees is the Antichrist, a world leader who rises to power from within a league of ten future kings. This little horn will blaspheme God and persecute God’s people during the tribulation right up until the second coming of the Lord. Let me just read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 4, speaking of the Antichrist or the man of lawlessness, he will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped so that he sets himself up in God’s temple proclaiming himself to be God.
So here’s this charismatic end-time leader that’s going to come and he’s going to demand that people worship him. Well, Daniel’s dream showed us that when Christ comes back the Antichrist power will be taken away, completely destroyed forever, and Jesus will establish his kingdom. The reign of the Antichrist is limited, 42 months and no more, Revelation 13 5. The little horn will lose his war against God, his boastful and blasphemous and wanton violence is temporary.
The reign of Christ is eternal. And so Daniel chapter 7 closes with these last three verses, let me just read them for you, but the court will sit, that’s God’s court of judgment, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever, that’s the power of the Antichrist. Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High.
His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all rulers will worship and obey him. This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself.
Well, here’s this weird dream, but really it’s a dream that God gave to Daniel and it pictures the end of the story, it pictures all of human history until Christ returns. I had a professor in Cedarville University, he’s actually a retired missionary, his name was Dick Durham, he’d spent his life serving the Lord in the Philippines as a missionary. Cedarville needed a professor to teach one of their courses and so for a couple years he was on staff and he had a saying after his lectures, he would say, clear as mud, right? Sometimes when we look at this it’s like, clear as mud, right? But God has given us this scripture to understand what the future history is.
So let’s just think about three life lessons here quickly. Here’s the first one, and we’ve already mentioned it, the last chapters of human history have already been written. The book of Daniel, the book of Revelation tells us how the world will end.
God’s got a plan. God’s already written the last chapters of history and history is what? It’s his story. What do we need to know? The sovereign God is in control.
No matter how bad this world gets, no matter how discouraging the news seems to be, no matter how it seems in our culture, things just seem to be going spiraling downward from bad to worse. I wake up on New Year’s Day and I check my phone and check the news and read about a horrific act of pure evil in New Orleans. Someone is just out to kill.
And you think about all the evil in our world and sometimes it can be a little discouraging and perhaps this is why Daniel was a little troubled because in this vision he’s like, oh man there’s there’s a lot of stuff yet to come that’s maybe not so good. But the fact of the matter is the last chapters of human history have been written. I and I last night were with some couples that we’ve known for years from the area.
We get together once a year to celebrate Christmas and couldn’t fit it in before Christmas so we’re together last night. There’s about three or four couples around the table. We’re just talking about the condition of the world and the future and what that means for our kids and our grandkids.
And one of the spouses said, I just keep reminding myself and saying over and over, God is sovereign. God is in control. And that should bring some peace and comfort to our hearts.
Here’s the second thought. We need to realize that rulers and world powers and kingdoms are temporary. Are temporary.
Here’s how the prophet Isaiah describes it in Isaiah chapter 40 beginning in verse 22. He, God, sits enthroned above the circle of the earth. Its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes or rulers to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground that he blows on them and they wither and a whirlwind sweeps them like chaff.
And it says, to whom will you compare me or who is my equal, the Holy One? What’s that verse saying? All rulers, all kings, all presidents are what? Are temporary. And there’s one kingdom that will last forever. That’s God’s kingdom.
That’s how Handel finished his great musical piece, The Messiah. You know, and he shall reign what? Forever and ever and ever. Rulers and world powers are temporary.
God’s kingdom lasts forever. And that’s reinforced in Daniel in several places. We’ve already read these, but verse 14, his dominion is what? Everlasting.
It will not pass away. His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. That’s verse 14.
Verse 27, his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom. And so, God’s kingdom, when God ushers in his kingdom, is the final kingdom and it will last forever and ever. Here’s the third one, and I think it’s an encouraging one, is this.
There is a day coming when every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There’s a day coming when everybody’s gonna have to acknowledge who Jesus is. And Daniel writes about that in in verse 14.
He says, all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. Last part of verse 27, his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all rulers will worship and obey God. What kind of world is that where every person acknowledges Jesus Christ is the King of Kings, Jesus Christ is the Lord of Lords? All rulers, all kings, all authorities will worship God and will obey him.
That’s God’s kingdom. And perhaps that’s what the Apostle Paul had in mind in Philippians chapter 2, a very familiar passage talking about Jesus. It says, therefore God exalted him to the highest place, gave him a name that is above every name, that what? At the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Someday that’s gonna happen when Jesus is on the throne and he rules and he reigns forever and ever. Remember in the Roman Empire that when the Roman Empire was ruling, people had to say what? Caesar is Lord. They worshiped Caesar.
That was part of the Roman way of living. And Paul writes to those believers and says, no, we need to acknowledge what? That Jesus is Lord. I’m so thankful for Romans chapter 10 verse 13 when Paul’s writing the way of salvation.
He simply says this, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord realizes who God is, that he’s the Messiah, that he’s our Redeemer. They shall be saved. So there’s a day coming when everyone will worship him when Christ is on the throne.
And so I hope this brief picture of how the world ends is encouraging to you. As we live in this world that seems to be getting worse and worse, there’s hope. And the only hope, true hope for our future, it’s not Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s not in our bank account, but it’s in who God is.
He’s got a plan. Someday we will be ruling and reigning with him forever and ever. All people will worship him and declare that he is Lord.
I trust that you’ll acknowledge that today. I look forward to that in the future. Let’s pray.