Daniel 7
Amen. Turn to Daniel chapter
seven. As you’re making your way there,
I’ll point out to you that we’re in the center of the book, maybe
not by chapter numbers, but we’re in the center of the book. And
we move from Daniel’s firsthand accounts of, or some of the firsthand
accounts of Daniel’s life in Babylon under several different
leaders. Tonight in chapter seven, we’re
back to the time under Belshazzar, I think last week we were under,
oh, I’ll just pull it back and look in chapter six. We were
back to King Darius, who was after Belshazzar, so we’re skipping
back chronologically. But this is the first of one
of the strange visions that we find in the book of Daniel. And
I’ll just go ahead and tell you from the outset, I do not get
into end times madness. I don’t get into all the wacky
Bible prophecy, messy stuff. I think the Bible is rather straightforward.
And when the Bible means to encourage saints, you do not have to interpret
it through the Russians and through the, Iranians and Iraqians and
all the rest because that interpretation would not have helped the original
audience, right? We have to understand these sorts
of things were written to an original audience and this was
meant to encourage them and so it’s also meant generations later
to encourage us to So if you’re hoping for some crazy, wacky
Bible prophecy, won’t get it here, but I think you’ll get
something worth pondering and being encouraged by. So with
that, let’s give our attention to Daniel chapter seven. And
it says this, in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon,
Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in the
bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.
Daniel declared, I saw in my vision by night and behold the
four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great
beasts came up out of the sea different from one another. The
first was like a lion and had eagle’s wings. Then, as I looked,
its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground,
and made to stand on two feet like a man. And the mind of a
man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a
second one, like a bear, was raised up on one side. It had
three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and it was told, Arise,
devour much flesh. After this, I looked and behold
another like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back.
And the beast had four heads and dominion was given to it.
And after this, I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth
beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had
great iron teeth that devoured and broken pieces and stamped
what was left with its feet. It was different from all the
beast that were before it, and it had 10 horns. I considered
the horns and behold, there came up among them another horn, a
little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked
up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were
eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things. As I looked, thrones were placed. and the ancient of days took
his seat. His clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head
like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames,
its wheels were like burning fire. A stream of fire issued
and came out from before him and a thousand thousands served
him and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court sat in
judgment and the books were opened. I looked then because of the
sound of the great words that the horn was speaking, and as
I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given
over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts,
their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged
for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions and
behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of
man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before
him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that
all people’s nations and languages should serve him. His dominion
is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom
one that shall not be destroyed. As for me, Daniel, my spirit
within me was anxious and the visions of my head alarmed me.
I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the
truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known
to me the interpretation of the things. These four great beasts
are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. But the saints
of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom
forever and ever. Then I desired to know the truth
about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest,
exceedingly terrifying with its teeth of iron and its claws of
bronze and which devoured and broken pieces and stamped what
was left with its foot. And about the 10 horns that were
on its head and the other horn that came up and before which
three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that
spoke great things. And that seemed greater than
its companions. As I looked, this horn made war
upon the saints and prevailed over them, till the Ancient of
Days came, and the judgment was given for the saints of the Most
High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.
And he said, As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth
kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all kingdoms.
It shall devour the whole earth and trample it down and break
it to pieces. As for the 10 horns, out of this
kingdom shall 10 kings arise, and another shall arise after
them. He shall be different from the former ones. He shall put
down the three kings. He shall speak words against
the Most High, and he shall wear out the saints of the Most High,
and shall think to change the times and the law, and they will
be given into his hand for a time, times and half a time. The court
shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away
to be consumed and destroyed to the end, and the kingdom and
the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole
heavens shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most
High. Their kingdom shall be an everlasting
kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Here is the
end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts
greatly alarmed me. and my color changed, but I kept
the matter in my heart.” Amen, this is the word of the living
God. I can’t think of a better situation, and I say this with
fear and trepidation, I also say this with a heavy heart,
but I can’t think of a better situation contemporary to us
than our fellow saints in Afghanistan. who no doubt are living in great
fear for their lives. They had relative peace, we might
say, until recently. And in the last couple weeks,
that peace and all has been utterly destroyed. I know they lived
in hard times before, but this is no doubt the worst of the
times. I think of a brother in Christ
who some years ago escaped from the country of Eritrea, one of
the most persecuted nations on the face of the earth. I think
Afghanistan maybe comes in second, China, North Korea, and others.
But imagine what this passage means to them. Now, pause there
for just a moment. What does a passage like this
mean to American Christians? Well, it means the left behind
series. It means exciting reading and exciting television because
we have never lived in a time, this generation of us, we who
sit here, we’ve never lived in a time where there was nothing
left in us but absolute trust. We love fanciful movies. We love
fanciful tales. We love all the hype and bells
and whistles that Christianity has to offer. But think about
our brothers and sisters now in Afghanistan or China or in
prison or wherever in hard times. They don’t get the pleasures
of retail Christianity. They need to know the nitty gritty.
And so, who knows what will face us as Christians in America in
the years to come. We might find ourselves in a similar spot with
the way our culture is heading, who knows. But here’s the bottom
line. A Christian living under a wicked
regime, A Christian living in very sin-filled times, and not
where it’s around you and you just don’t cruise through the
wrong neighborhoods, but where it is daily impacting your living,
your ability to live. but most especially your ability
to live and worship. This would be a passage where
the rubber would meet the road. And so how does God mean to encourage
his saints? How does God mean to encourage
the exiles from Jerusalem who are stuck in Babylon? How does
he mean to give them sanity? How does he mean to explain reality
to them? How does it help us to know historical
events like this and even the ones around us? How does it help
us and give us endurance? Well, let me explain or break
this story apart into both a timeline, but also give you some pictures
of the events taking place. Now, if we put Daniel aside for
a moment and think of the book of Revelation, lots of similarities.
Maybe even a similar situation, it’s just, oh, say 400 years
later, the church is under great persecution at the end of the
first century. John, the apostle, pastor at Ephesus is on the Isle
of Patmos because he’s been preaching the word and faithful to God.
And he’s discouraged, the saints of God are discouraged. God wants
to give a revelation, a letter, a word, now a book of our Bible
to the people. And so what does God show his
saints in history through Daniel, through revelation, through other
ways of encouragement? He shows them the realities of
the spiritual realm. What is taking place in the throne
room of heaven? What will take place in human
history that can encourage us, give us sanity, give us encouragement? So let me paint the scenes right
quick, and then we’ll look at the timeline of this. All right,
you’ve got four beasts. You’ve got four beasts and a
description of them. You’ve got the throne room of heaven with
the Ancient of Days. You’ve got around the throne
of the Ancient of Days, that’s God the Father, of course. You’ve
got 1,000,000 servants serving. You’ve also got around the throne
of glory, 10,000 times 10,000 saints worshiping around God. You start to see parallels here
to the book of Revelation, don’t you? So you got these four beasts,
they’re rulers on earth. You’ve got the throne room of
heaven, the Ancient of Days with 1,000,000 servants and 10,000
times 10,000 saints And then at some point you have
the Son of Man, Christ, coming on the clouds. and he receives
the kingdom, he receives the dominion, he receives the glory,
and then you have the saints sitting on thrones with God and
with Christ in judgment. So these are the big scenes. You’ve got the beast, the ancient
of days in the throne, the people around the throne, and the son
of man. Let’s think for just a moment about the beast. Now,
I’m not gonna say too much about them because we could get bogged
down, but there’s a beast that looks like a lion. There’s a
beast that looks like a bear. There’s a beast that looks like
a leopard. And then there’s a fourth beast. And if you noticed, as
we were reading through Daniel chapter seven, several times
it uses the phrase about the fourth beast, it was different. There’s not an animal description
of the fourth beast. There’s a lion, there’s a bear,
there’s a leopard, but what is the fourth beast? It’s just a
fourth beast that’s different. And really we are given a description
of what that fourth beast does. But you can imagine the lion
and the bear and the leopard, they’re terrifying and they have
wings and other things. They have feet, they stand, they
have minds like a human, they speak. Their feathers get plucked
off. The bear has a rack of ribs in
its mouth. You get the idea. These are powerful
nations. These are powerful beasts and
what they do is not good. They terrorize. But this fourth
beast, if you look at the description that begins in verse seven, I
saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast terrifying
and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth,
it devoured and it broke in pieces. and it stamped what was left
with its feet. It was different from all the
beasts that were before it. It had 10 horns. I considered
the horns and behold, there came up among them another little
horn, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by
the roots. And if you skip down to verse 19, I desired to know
the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all
the rest, exceedingly terrifying with its teeth of iron and claws
of bronze, which devoured and broken pieces. It stamped what
was left with its feet. And about it, the 10 horns were
cast on its head. The other horn that came up,
before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a
mouth and spoke great things, seemed greater than its companion.”
So you got four beasts, three of them might say a regular old
beast, right? This fourth one, pretty significant. And then you have this little
horn popping out of the fourth beast. Well, it’s pretty much
understood and you can get off the beaten path if you’re not
careful, but these would be the great empires of the day. There would be Babylon and there
would be the Medo-Persian kingdom. There would be Greece and then
Rome. And this falls right in line
with history leading up to the coming of Christ, you know, the
Jewish population under Roman authorities. Before that, the
Greek control under some of those wicked kings that ruled over
Israel before the coming of Christ. And then you back up and you’re
at the time of Daniel. And so that’s pretty easy, right?
You got powerful beast, they do bad things, and they represent
the kingdoms of the earth that come right up before the coming
of Jesus. Well, this fourth beast, terrible
and terrifying, different and big and bad and does difficult
things. Well, there’s a fifth beast that
comes out of this fourth beast. You got the 10 horns, the three
that broke off and fell down, but there’s the little horn.
And maybe you’ve heard people talk about the little horn of
Daniel. Who’s the little horn of Daniel? Well, probably the
antichrist, the man of lawlessness. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians,
he has the eyes of a man and his mouth speaks great things. He seemed greater than the other
horns, greater than the other beast. So in this grand picture
of what’s taking place in human history, powerful, wicked beast. And what’s the purpose of these
beasts? They make war on the saints.
Now pause there and put on your Wednesday night Genesis hats. Ever since the creation of the
world and sin entering in this world, what have the people of
God and the wicked people of this earth struggled against?
They’ve struggled against one another, the worship of God,
the glory of God, the coming of the Savior. And what have
wicked kingdoms always sought to do? Stamp out faithfulness,
stamp out Christianity. And we see it in the culmination
of Satan taking Jesus into the wilderness and saying, hey, have
all the kingdoms. be one of the beast, rule with
a heavy hand and an iron fist in this world. We see over and
over and over the seed of the serpent from Genesis and the
seed of the woman from Genesis at war with one another. And
so here’s maybe a culmination of it, this last great and wicked
beast and under God’s sovereignty, he is given power, this beast
is given power to make war on the saints. And our passage tells
us in verse 25, he shall speak words against the most high,
he shall wear out the saints of the most high. About that,
come to faith in Jesus, all your problems go away. The beast shall
think to change the times and the law, and they shall be given
into his hand for a time, times and half a time. And then in
verse 26, there’s that great biblical word, but, but the court,
shall sit in judgment and his dominion shall be taken away.
So, a message of sanity, a message of encouragement, a message of
hope for those oppressed by wicked rulers in this world. And that
takes us to the second vision. And it’s the throne room of God.
And who sits on the throne? It’s the Ancient of Days. And
his throne has fiery flames. It has wheels of fire. And it’s
among other thrones, this Ancient of Days. Our God is dressed in
white. His hair is pure wool. It shows
his righteousness, his wisdom, his agelessness, his eternity. And around him are 10,000 times
10,000 saints. Around him are a thousand thousands
that served him. We know of the angels, we know
of the heavenly beings, but we also know of the redeemed saints
who are there. And not only does God sit on
a throne, there are thrones for the saints of God. And at some
point we, will sit in judgment and open the books. And even
this great and powerful wicked beast, this little horn and the
other beasts before and after him will be judged by the saints. And so there will be war on earth
and the saints will be prevailed upon. We sing hymns of the faith
at times. We sing of heresy. We sing of
the church under duress. But God always has a people. He always provides for them. The beast will ultimately fail
and fall. But one of the things that we
have to have great hope in is that coming on the clouds into
this throne room of glory is a son of man. And this is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he will, well, he already
has been at his ascension. We’re studying that in our study
of Luke. Isn’t it helpful to be in Daniel and to be in Luke
and Acts and Genesis all at one time in the life and teaching
and ministry of the church? It helps us understand the Bible
better. But the son of man, Jesus Christ, is presented to the ancient
of days. And as he is presented to the
ancient of days, he comes on the clouds and he receives his
kingdom. He inherits his kingdom, which
he won in his acts of redemption. He has given dominion, he has
given glory, and it is an everlasting dominion and glory. These beasts
won’t last long. Gives us a little word of caution,
doesn’t it? America is so great in many of our eyes, but will
it last forever? Oh no, it will self-destruct.
And it’ll self-destruct just like these other kingdoms under
the plan and sovereignty of almighty God. But the son of man, sits
on an eternal throne with an everlasting dominion, with everlasting
glory. He will be served by all nations,
peoples, and languages as the gospel is preached. Even with
the war on the saints, we still preach, we still proclaim, we
still bear light. And what’s the hope of heaven?
What’s the hope of new life in Christ Jesus? It’s that we will
be gathered into the presence of God. The redeemed of God will
inherit the kingdom as well. We are joint heirs with Jesus,
right? We will also rule and reign with
Jesus, and we will sit with Christ on the thrones of judgment. And
so you think of this while you endure hardship, and maybe your
hardship in America is low level, but wouldn’t this encourage the
Afghans or the Chinese or others? The tables will be turned. And
while they rule you, and while they dominate you, and even while
they may take away your life, The tables will be turned and
you will rule them and they will be cast away into everlasting
darkness. And so how does God provide sanity
and encouragement and hope for his saints? He gives these strange
visions. And Daniel says, here is the
end of the matter. As for me, my thoughts greatly
alarmed me, my color changed, but I kept the matter in my heart. That’s our posture, I do believe. We keep this matter in our heart,
and as we listen to the news, as we shed tears over the hardships
of others, we keep these matters in our heart, because this is
the only thing that won’t make us go nuts, go insane, lose hope. God is on his throne. The son
of man has inherited and received the kingdom. And not only will
he sit in judgment, we will sit with him. So let’s be encouraged. Pray with me. Our Lord, we thank
you for this grand picture of the sanity of heaven and the
wickedness of this world. And we see that one prevails
for a time, but one will last forever. And so let us be encouraged
and let us have hope in the midst of strange times for we need
it greatly. And we thank you for this, your
word in Christ’s name. Amen.