In the first scene, heavenly winds are employed to whip up the sea from which the four beasts emerges. Our deliverance from the power of sin and the penalty of death has been accomplished by our Lord, who suffered in our place. This vision was an interactive vision, as Daniel was not only present in the vision but was able to approach one standing by to ask the meaning of what he saw. It is virtually the opposite of the term beast. The expression, Son of man, is not new to Daniel. The use of the word time in Daniel is understood to be years. His vision in chapter 4 should have produced more distress than it did. The king knew that Daniel spoke the truth. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it. During the times of the Gentiles four empires, Daniel was told, would rise and rule over the land and people of Israel. Our attention should be given to what is clearly and emphatically said. Daniel 2:24-49 New International Version Daniel Interprets the Dream 24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, "Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. The dream vortex dies with her, and Rose awakens with her brother, Jed, sleeping next to her. 16 At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him. 75 Everything in chapter 7 is on a world-wide scale, the empires of the beasts, the judgment, and the nations that worship and serve the one like mortal man. It seems safe to assume the interpreter was an angelic being; at least this is the case in chapter 8 (8:15-26). In the verses following our lesson text, the vision is explained (Daniel 7:21-27). Daniel was an intelligent young Jew living in Jerusalem during the late 600s B.C. (13) In some sense, the last kingdom is still on-going. Consider these lessons as we conclude. So they came and stood before the king. But in the end, God will judge the wicked and establish His kingdom for His saints. In Daniels dream the Greek empire and Alexander the great were represented by the four-headed, four-winged leopard. The saints must believe and behave according to what God has promised about the future the righteous will possess the kingdom of God forever. He had endured the training of the Chaldeans and he had lived his life in the service of a foreign king, at first the foreign king who had overthrown his country. He would rise from the dead (12:40). The next portion of the statue in Daniel 2 was the chest and arms of silver which represented the Medo-Persian Empire which was even larger than the Babylonian empire. Two weeks ago, we covered the first 14 verses, Daniels summary of his dream. A revelation from God in his sleep discloses future events which Daniel finds most troubling. Robert L. (Bob)Deffinbaugh graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with his Th.M. Let us listen then, and be sober, enduring the sufferings and trials sent our way, looking expectantly and certainly for His kingdom to come. There is fairly strong inferential evidence that Nebuchadnezzar was represented by the first beast, the winged lion. Chapter 7 - In the first vision Daniel sees the same kingdoms, but this time he sees them as beasts. The fourth beast receives greater attention and is of the most interest to Daniel. Daniel described the beast as having iron teeth and that it devours, crushes, and tramples under its feet all that stands in its way. According to our text, the prophecies of Daniel 7 will not be fulfilled for a considerable period of time. (19-26) Daniel explains the rise and coming fall of Nebuchadnezzar. 11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. 31-35). The precise meaning of the symbols of the raised side and the three ribs is illusive. What God says, He will do. Daniel 7 indicates in the clearest way that prior to the coming of the kingdom of God the saints will suffer at the hand of the final horn and even be overpowered by him. Time: refers to one year, times is understood in Aramaic (the language this chapter was originally written in) to mean a dual or two, so times refers to two years and half a time refers to one half of a year. So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. We need to be waiting and prepared for His return. Two weeks ago, after studying Revelation 13 and seeing how much it relates to Daniel 7 I decided we needed to go back and review Daniel 7 which we have not looked at since 2011. Before long, Daniel was explaining the dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar. The latter prophecy of Daniel 7 adds many more details than were revealed in chapter 2. Two weeks ago, we quickly looked at the description of the beast that John sees in Revelation 13 and he described it as a composite of the first three beasts, the body of a leopard, the feet or paws of a bear, and the head and mouth of a lion. These kingdoms go from bad to worse. (10) Daniels preoccupation is with the last beast, rather than the first three. Peter reminds us of Gods patience, but His patience has a determined end. The expression is used in the Psalms in a more pregnant way, in reference to the coming Messiah. She makes it clear in a rather public fashion that she finds him desirable. 16 At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him." (2:14-16) Notice Daniel's calm in the face of the king's rush to judgment. The revelation of the writing on the banquet hall wall, already described in chapter 5, actually happened later, on the last day of Belshazzars life. Daniel 2:1-13 - Nebuchadnezzar's Dream. The angel goes on to describe what the Antichrist will do: He will speak out against the Most High, he will be boastful and arrogant, he will deny that the Most High is God, he will deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Daniel returned to his house and explained the situation to his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. (6) None of the kings or the kingdoms are identified. The prophecy of this chapter is divinely interpreted. We do not walk by sight, but by faith. The subject of the vision in chapter 2 seems to be taken up again in chapter 7. See John F. Walvoord, Daniel: The Key to Prophetic Revelation (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 149. The ten horns are of interest to him, but most of all that final horn which arose, surpassing and replacing three others and speaking boastfully. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. So the king spoke, and said, "Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation trouble you." The last kingdom has at least eleven kings. Yet, his emotional response was valid and changed little after the vision was explained more fully. His disciples were promised that they would share in His reign as King (19:20). When Jesus came, He embraced this expression as a designation for Himself, giving the term meaning vastly beyond that previously held by any Jew. The angel says the Antichrist will seek to make alterations in times and in law. Thus he said: The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. Daniel, a godly prophet and a man of unshakable faith, has been steadfast in his daily walk of fellowship with God throughout the first six chapters of the Book of Daniel. He gave Daniel a general summary of the dream, These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth. It was said ( ch. The First Vision is a dream of the king that is interpreted by Daniel. Verses 1-14 contain the vision which God gave to Daniel. That dream was read as our Scripture reading this morning. Then He said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you! (Ezekiel 2:1). How easily we turn from what is revealed to speculate about what has been concealed (see Deuteronomy 29:29). These were represented by the image of a statue. In verse 1 Daniel indicates his vision came to him in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar. We should not spend a disproportionate amount of time and energy trying to fill in the blanks God has left. The only human things mentioned of the fourth beast are his eyes and his mouth. 17 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. God will establish His kingdom, and that kingdom, unlike the kingdoms of men, is eternal. That was bad enough, from the religious leaders perspective, but the way in which He answered them was the last straw. In his vision, Daniel observed the sea being stirred up into a raging storm by the four winds of heaven. This signifies that the events which follow have been ordained by God. The Son of Man had the power to forgive sins, as well as to heal a paralytic (Matthew 9:6). The king called for his magi to interpret the nightmare. The chapter falls into two major parts. Nevertheless, Daniel tells no one, keeping the matter to himself and suffering a quiet agony over the future events God has revealed to him. Neither is prophecy written to make us happy or to feel good. I believe some in Babylon, like their king, came to a genuine faith in God. The visions explanation was not thorough enough to satisfy Daniel. Would Belshazzar toast the gods of gold, silver, wood and stone with the sacred temple vessels? This angel responded and gave Daniel understanding into his dream as he interpreted it for him. All of this is by divine design. He intends to make changes in time and in law. 16 I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. Four kings will establish four kingdoms, and some of these kingdoms have a number of kings. Daniel said the king's dream was about a giant statue that was destroyed by a stone cut out of a mountain. (1) Prophecy is necessary because God has chosen to settle His accounts with men slowly. Then the time had arrived for the saints to take possession of the kingdom. For the time, it was these Jewish leaders who were beastly, arrogant, and blasphemous, and because of this they would suffer divine judgment. In more detail, the outline would be as follows: (2) The Divine Interpretation verses 15-28. (3) The finest commentary on the prophecy of Daniel 7 comes from our Lord Himself. (8) The four beasts are all different, with the last standing apart from the first three. A person should not take credit for what God does through him. (1) Daniel 7 is the last chapter written in Aramaic in the Book of Daniel. Alexander the Great's empire and its divisions after his death were predicted long in advance in Daniel 11. His declaration, which resulted from the deliverance of the three Hebrews, made it unlawful to hinder the worship of the Jews; his decree recorded at the end of chapter 4 went much further. He had lived through the overthrow of his people, his nation, and his hometown by a foreign power, he had been torn from his family and carried off into captivity. Chapter 7 reveals in broad terms what the future holds. The winged lion was a symbol of Babylon, in any history museum that has a Babylonian section you will find artifacts of a winged lion. In the euphoria of this grand event, someone might well conclude the kingdom of God was to be established within the lifetime of those returning to Israel. Rose withdraws the power from her chest, which takes the form of a ruby heart that then cracks as Unity dies peacefully in her sleep. The angel that Daniel was talking with gave Daniel greater detail concerning the fourth beast; he described this fourth beast as a fourth kingdom coming from the earth, it will be different from all the rest, this kingdom will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. Yet Gods covenant to David (2 Samuel 7:16; Psalm 89:14) stands and will ultimately be fulfilled. 81 See Ezekiel 29:21 for a similar use of the imagery of making a horn grow to describe a kings promotion to power. Chapter 2 - The original dream describing the future kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greek, Roman, kingdom of God. Daniels vision ends here, but its impact on him does not end. He is more beastly in the beginning and more human in the end, paralleling the character of Nebuchadnezzar. God stirred up the sea, and from its foaming, raging waters came forth four horrifying beasts. Just a few years later Alexander died, and his empire was divided into four parts and his four generals became the monarch of a quarter of the Greek empire. These saints are the believing Jews of the tribulation, not the believers of the Church Age. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. We do not act on what we see so much as on what God has said. He had interpreted dreams for this king and yet this dream caused Daniel to be alarmed and to feel physically sick. However, it must have been in the latter part of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. The other seven will then likely submit out of fear or a sense of the unavoidable consequences of resisting represented by this little horn growing larger than the seven. (4) This is the first prophecy in the book revealed directly to Daniel. Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. The beasts are hardly worthy of prose, but the court of heaven deserves a description of the finest words. 79 Compare Jeremiah 49:14-22, 28, where Nebuchadnezzar is compared to a lion and an eagle. As we shall show later, the content of the prophecy of Daniel 7 is very closely related to the reign of Belshazzar. I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. We will deal with the meaning and application of Daniels vision later on in our questions and answers. Even those portions which we believe have been fulfilled, students of prophecy differ about the way of their fulfillment. The exact meaning of the symbols of the reign of Belshazzar very closely related to the Messiah. 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