Daniel: Living a Life of Integrity (2)

Announcements: Prayer on Tuesday from 5 to 6; Small Group from 6-7; Oct. 31st Fall Festival here at the church.

Well good morning; we are in the last couple weeks of our series on Daniel. Who has 2 thumbs and though this series would never end? THIS GUY. I mentioned this the first week, that the book of Daniel is divided up into 2 main sections.

Chapters 1-6: Daniel and his friends personal stories and accounts (Teenage Daniel to Elderly Daniel)

Chapters 7-12: Prophecy concerning Israel and the Last days. (Begins with teenage Daniel)

Over the first 6 weeks of this series we have covered the first section, Chapter’s one through 6. This section, beginning in Chapter 1 starts with Daniel as a teenager, but by the time we get to Chapter 6, Daniel was an elderly man in his 80’s. As we now move into the 2nd section of Daniel, beginning with Chapter 7, we go back in time to Daniel (once again) being a teenager.

Daniel 7 Outline:

I. The Vision (vs 1-14)

A. The Four beasts (vs. 1-8)

B. The Ancient of Days (vs. 9-12)

C. The Son of Man (vs. 13-14)

II. The Interpretation (vs. 15-28)

A. The Four Beasts (vs. 15-17)

B. The Promise to Israel (vs. 18)

C. Details of the 4th Kingdom (vs. 19-28)

The Request (vs. 19-20)

The judgment on the beast (vs. 21-22)

Scope of the beast’s kingdom (vs. 23)

The ten horns and the little horn (vs. 24-25)

The promise to Israel (vs. 26-27)

The response of Daniel (vs. 28)

I am fully aware that this is a rather involved outline…so, if you want to simplify it in your mind, just think about Daniel 7 being split into 2 main sections, the vision and the interpretation. That is much more manageable. However, I did want to include my whole outline because it took me forever....LOL. Another reason for the bigger outline is that it helps to break the chapter into easier to digest sections.

All that said, today, I am going to be skipping around a bit. We will end up covering everything though.

If you have read the chapter already then you know what we are in for today. If you haven’t read it, or even if you have, but you have no idea what is going on, then allow me to do a brief summary as part of point number 1.

Daniel’s Dream Part 1

I. The Vision ( 1-14)

I already mentioned that chapter 7 is not a direct continuation after chapter 6…we are going back in time to when King Nebuchadnezzar’s son took over Babylon, but before Babylon was defeated by the Medo-Persian Empire…and King Darius took over.

Daniel 7:1 “In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream with visions in his mind as he was lying in his bed. He wrote down the dream, and here is the summary of his account.”

This dream would have taken place when the events in chapter 5 took place…somewhere around there. As indicated by my outline, there were 3 parts to Daniel’s dream. The beasts, the ancient of Days and the Son of Man. Let’s just go ahead and dive right in, starting with the 4 beasts.

The beasts, the ancient of Days and the Son of Man

A. The Four beasts (vs. 1-8)

Instead of reading all 8 verse in this section at once, we will start with verses 1-3

Daniel 7:1–3 “In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream with visions in his mind as he was lying in his bed. He wrote down the dream, and here is the summary of his account. Daniel said, “In my vision at night I was watching, and suddenly the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea. Four huge beasts came up from the sea, each different from t he other.”

All throughout Daniel Chapter 7 we are going to see a direct correlation to both Daniel chapter 2 and to numerous passages in the book of Revelation. I will talk about Daniel chapter 2 in just a bit, but to give you an example from revelation let’s look at

Revelation 7:1 “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, restraining the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.”

Daniel 7:2–3 “Daniel said, “In my vision at night I was watching, and suddenly the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea. Four huge beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.”

I will not be pointing out every reference in Revelation, so, I put the entire list on your handouts. Instead of Daniel interpreting someone eases dream, here in Chapter 7, we see for the first time, Daniel having his own dreams. From the very outset of the dream, we get an idea of the scope of the dream, or, how big the dream is. What I mean is, imagine you have a dream where you are standing on a stage, or are late for an important meeting, or something like that…that dream only involves you and maybe a few other people…On the other hand, if in your dream you all of a sudden see the vast sky and endless oceans with 4 strange looking, but enormous sea monsters coming out of the ocean…that is a dream where you are merely an observer and it seems that the intended meaning us much more broad. That dream is much larger in scope. So, if the first dream is the size of a golf ball, the second dream is the size of a basketball.

Let’s read a bit about these beasts.

Beast 1:

Daniel 7:4 ““The first was like a lion but had eagle’s wings. I continued watching until its wings were torn off. It was lifted up from the ground, set on its feet like a man, and given a human mind.”

So, the lion/eagle was the first one. The winged lion was and still is a favorite image in Ancient Babylon and even still today in that region, in the various museums, you will see such images. The unique part about this beast is the fact that it stands on its hind legs, like a man. We will get into what these beasts represent in just a little bit.

Beast 2:

Daniel 7:5 ““Suddenly, another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up! Gorge yourself on flesh.’”

The second beast is similar to a bear. The bear had three ribs between his teeth, sticking out of his mouth…perhaps like a toothpick. Of course, bears have 4 legs, just like lions. The bear is neither standing on its hind legs, nor it is on all 4’s. It is “raised up on one side,” which is kind of difficult to picture. It almost sounds like the bear would not be very steady.

Beast 3:

Daniel 7:6 ““After this, while I was watching, suddenly another beast appeared. It was like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back. It had four heads, and it was given dominion.”

The third beast looks similar in nature to a leopard. Unlike the first two beasts, a leopard is known for its speed and agility, rather than its brute strength. It had 4 wings and 4 heads. Before we get to the 4th beast, it is important to note that throughout scripture, when God spoke to people through dreams and visions, the images were generally some sort of hybrid between animals or even humans and animals. This sort of imagery was very, very common back then. If you have ever seen Egyptian hieroglyphs, you know that hybrid animals were very common to that culture.

Pictures of Ancient hybrid animals.

The 4th beast is different from the first 3. Let’s take a look at beast number 4.

Beast 4:

Daniel 7:7–8 ““After this, while I was watching in the night visions, suddenly a fourth beast appeared, frightening and dreadful, and incredibly strong, with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and it trampled with its feet whatever was left. It was different from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns. “While I was considering the horns, suddenly another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. And suddenly in this horn there were eyes like the eyes of a human and a mouth that was speaking arrogantly.”

After the first 3 beasts appear in Daniel’s dream, a new appears. Daniel does not use the image of an animal this time…yet he does refer to it as a beast. It is clear that this 4th being is the meanest and scariest looking of them all. It has iron teeth…which was the strongest metal back then. Today it would be tungsten or titanium. This fourth beast goes on a rampage and destroys the other 3 beasts. This beast also, originally has 10 horns, but then the horns begin changing. A new one grows out, “uprooting” 3 of the original horns. Then, to cap all that off, just in case that wasn’t creepy enough for you, the new horn has human eyes and a mouth that speaks.

This is like a scene straight out of a high-fantasy movie…like the chronicles of Narnia, or harry potter, but we won’t mention that one. Now, before we move on to verse 9, I want to skip ahead a little bit and talk about who and what these beasts represent, then we will back up and discuss the 2nd and 3rd part of Daniel’s dream.

Interpretation of Daniel’s Dream

One of the many things Daniel is known for is the ability to interpret dreams. 3 times in the first 6 chapters did Daniel interpret dreams or visions. Twice for Nebuchadnezzar and once for Neb.’s son, Belshazzar. However, in chapter 7, when Daniel is the one with the dream, he struggles with the interpretation

Daniel 7:15–16 “As for me, Daniel, my spirit was deeply distressed within me, and the visions in my mind terrified me. I approached one of those who were standing by and asked him to clarify all this. So he let me know the interpretation of these things:”

Not only did Daniel not know what the dream meant, but he was deeply troubled by what he saw in the dream....to the point where Daniel exclaims that it “terrified” him. If you recall, back in chapter’s 2 and 4, when Neb. was also greatly troubled by his dreams…but for a different reason. Nebuchadnezzar was troubled for selfish reasons…he was worried about himself or his hold on power. Daniel, on the other hand is not troubled because he is afraid something will happen to him, rather, he is troubled because he fears for his people and the Kingdom of Israel in general.

Verse 16 says that Daniel “approached one of those who were standing by,” asking this being to help him understand the dream. This is a fairly vague statement, however, later on in Daniel we find out that it may be the angel Gabriel

Daniel 9:21 “while I was praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the first vision, reached me in my extreme weariness, about the time of the evening offering.”

The angel then begins to explain to Daniel what these 4 beasts represent.

Daniel 7:17–18 ‘These huge beasts, four in number, are four kings who will rise from the earth. But the holy ones of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forever, yes, forever and ever.’”

The angel then tells Daniel that these strange looking beasts represent 4 kings or kingdoms. As a side note, the 4 beasts in Daniel’s dream and it’s interpretation align perfectly with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2. If you recall, King Nebu had a dream of a large statue…each part of the statue represented 4 kingdoms.

NEB. statue

Daniel’s dream is widely believed to be the same thing, only with more detail. It is also very telling that in Neb.’s dream, these kingdoms were represented by metals, yet in Daniel’s dream, they are beasts. Could it be that Nebuchadnezzar’s dream represents how man looks at earthly power, as something valuable, but Daniel’s dream is how God views corrupt earthy power…as beasts who devour.

We will talk about what is meant by the “holy one’s of the most high in a moment. But for now, Daniel is not done asking questions about these beasts.

Daniel 7:19–22 “Then I wanted to be clear about the fourth beast, the one different from all the others, extremely terrifying, with iron teeth and bronze claws, devouring, crushing, and trampling with its feet whatever was left. I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three fell—the horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke arrogantly, and that looked bigger than the others. As I was watching, this horn waged war against the holy ones and was prevailing over them until the Ancient of Days arrived and a judgment was given in favor of the holy ones of the Most High, for the time had come, and the holy ones took possession of the kingdom.”

Alright, let’s do a quick summary, as it is easy to get lost. Daniel had a dream, in that dream he saw 4 strange looking beasts. According to the Angel, these beasts represent 4 Kings who rule here on the earth…everyone with me so far? OK, Although all of the beasts were strange, it is the 4th beast that really caught Daniel’s attention. This one was more ferocious than all the others and it (basically) crushed the other animals or kings. We get the notion that this 4th beast was very arrogant…the horns on its head began to change. It’s easy to get lost in the details of the horns…so just keep in mind that this 4th beast represents a very powerful individual who begins to wage war against …and again we see the phrase

“The Holy Ones Of The Most High”

However, before this 4th Beast or king can claim victory, we see someone or something new come into the picture. Daniel refers to this being as

“The Ancient of Days.”

This being, TAOD saves the day and the THOOTMH end up taking over the kingdom that is being fought for. So, who are these Holy Ones of the most high that will be rescued and will end up taking possession of this kingdom? For that, let’s look really quick back in chapter 3. This is the story of Shad. Meschach, and Abednego. Remember, they were thrown into the furnace…but the King looks in and sees a 4th person in the furnace. The king then calls out to the men:

Daniel 3:26 “Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and called, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God—come out!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire.”

Most believe that the Holy ones of the most high refereed to in Daniel are those who believe in Christ as their savior. There are those who believe that the dream’s interpretation only concerns the Jewish people and the land of Israel…that Christians have nothing to do with it. I’ll address this more when we wrap up.

So, we have gone through the 4 beasts in Daniel’s dream and we know, according to the Angel, that they represent 4 Kings/Kingdoms. Now that we’ve go that covered, now let’s back up and take a look at the 2nd and 3rd part of Daniel’s dream…then I’ll bring it all together.

Daniel’s Dream Parts 2 & 3

A moment ago we were introduced to the being refereed to as “TAOD” This is the being that rescues the holy ones of the most high after the 4th beast wages war against them.

B. The Ancient of Days (vs. 9-12)

Daniel 7:9–10 “As I kept watching, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white like snow, and the hair of his head like whitest wool. His throne was flaming fire; its wheels were blazing fire. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from his presence. Thousands upon thousands served him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was convened, and the books were opened.”

Ancient of Days Image

It is very interesting to compare the description of the 4 Beasts/Kings vs the being called the ancient of days. Both could be described as terrifying, but for completely different reasons. The beasts can be easily describe as scary or even evil looking. They have a sort of menacing quality to them…aside from the fact that the 4th beast is prideful. The Ancient of Days, on the other hand, while certainly terrifying, it is not because the description is scary or menacing. Rather, the reason I would call it terrifying is almost out of awe or inspiring. Something can be terrifying, but not be scary. Terrifying simply means that it grabs our attention and causes the person to react.

The term “Ancient of Days” is only mentioned in the book of Daniel, and only here in chapter 7. However, the same being is described all through the book of Revelation. It becomes clear when comparing the passages here in Daniel with those in Revelation, that the Ancient of Days is Ya-whew, The God of Israel.

The third and final part of Daniel’s dream begins in verse 13, let’s take a look.

C. The Son of Man (vs. 13-14)

Daniel 7:13–14 “I continued watching in the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him. He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.”

First in Daniel’s dream we had the entrance of the 4 beasts, the 4th beast crushes the other 3 and begins to speak with selfish pride and wage war on the people of God, or The Holy One’s of the most high…the battle is being won by this beast until, out of nowhere, with a flaming throne, approaches the ancient of Days, God himself, to wage war with this beast, delivering victory. Next, comes the son of man, riding on the clouds, and he approaches the ancient of days. The ancient one then hands over all dominion and all glory, along with this kingdom that was just snatched from the mouth of the beast. All people then, recognise and serve the son of man in a kingdom without end.

The last few verses in Daniel, 25 to 28 continue to talk about the fourth beast and how he will oppress God’s people, but eventually, he will be defeated.

And that, in essence, was Daniel’s dream…although the angel did interpret it, it still remains opaque to say the least. Here are the things we know for sure, without using much speculation, taking into account what we know from all of scripture:

Various kingdoms will rise and fall

One kingdom will give rise to the anti-Christ (the horn on the 4th beast)

The “Beast” will strike a bargain with “God’s People,” promising peace, but will betray them.

God will arrive and deliver His people from destruction

Christ will be rule and reign, with everyone recognising His authority.

People speculate about which kingdom will give rise to the anti-Christ, what that will look like…will the church, meaning non-Jewish believer be left on the earth to witness all of that, or is it only about Israel? The truth is, we do not know. God has given us a rough, top-down, outline of what the future holds…the most important of which is that Christ will reign supreme.

I will tell you why I do not speculate about this stuff. In order to speculate you must take, what was a dream, but claim that we can interpret every phrase and number of a dream as something super meaningful. It is from the book of Daniel that we get most of our modern day Eschatology, or end-times theology from.

OK, I want to end today by drawing your attention to something very important that we see here in Daniel Chapter 7 that is often overlooked because of our focus on the end-times stuff and because we now have the N.T., so it is easy for us to draw lines from the O.T. to the N.T. The Jews didn’t have that though. You see, I believe that Daniel Chapter 7, while it certainly is about the end-times, it is also much more than that. I believe it was a prophetic message to the Jews about both, the divinity and humanity of the coming Messiah…one that they missed.

The Son of Man

Daniel 7:13 “I continued watching in the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him.”

The O.T. phrase

son of man means: like a human being

Highlighting weakness In Job 16:21, 25:6, and 35:8, the phrase is used to highlight human weakness. Euphemism for human In Isaiah 56:2 and Jeremiah 50:40 and 51:43, the phrase is used as a euphemism for human. Contrasting humans with God In Numbers 23:19, the phrase contrasts the "son of man" with the God who does not lie or repent. Contrasting foreign nations with Israel The phrase is used to contrast foreign nations, often represented as animals, with Israel, which is represented as human.

In the book of Daniel, the writer uses this same phrase, to indicate that what he saw looked like a man…unlike the images of the beasts or even the ancient of days. Daniel says “suddenly, one like a son of man” appeared, riding on the clouds” This image is much different than that of God, or the Ancient of days. Fast forwards hundreds of years to the earthly ministry of Christ. Jesus now uses this same Aramaic phrase to describe himself

John 9:35–37 “Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out, and when he found him, he asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” “Who is he, Sir, that I may believe in him?” he asked. Jesus answered, “You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.””

When you and I say the phrase “son of man” we think Christ, or at least Christians associate Christ with that, as Jesus is refereed to as the son of man multiple times in scripture…but that is not how the Jews would have viewed the phrase. It wasn’t until Christ arrived on the scene did that phrase become associated with Divinity. Jesus, I believe, was using this phrase to try and communicate that he is the one in Daniel’s vision

The gospel writers clearly understood this, as they used that same phrase to describe Jesus

Matthew 26:64 ““You have said it,” Jesus told him. “But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.””

Matthew was clearly alluding to Daniel’s vision, letting us know that Christ is the son of man in Daniel’s vision. Lastly, fast forward to After Christ left the earth…God was giving John visions, which he wrote down in what we call Revelation

Revelation 1:7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So it is to be. Amen.”

Revelation 1:13 “and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man, dressed in a robe and with a golden sash wrapped around his chest.”

Revelation 14:14 “Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and one like the Son of Man was seated on the cloud, with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.”

By the time John writes Revelation, we have a full understanding of who this “son of man” is. Jesus wasn’t exactly hiding the ball when he used this phrase to describe himself. I believe God was using Daniel to give the Jews insight into both, the humanity and divinity of Christ…as the term slowly came to represent something new over time.

For me, when I see things like this, it is a faith builder. No man could have planned progression of the term son of man of the course of hundreds of years. So, I do not have a typical ending for today’s sermon, where I challenge you to work on a specific area. What I do want to do though is to encourage you. It is real easy when talking about O.T. prophesies and the end times to become either afraid or have an almost delight that God will finally punish all those people that I don’t like. I would tell you today, neither of those is the point of end-times prophecy. Be encouraged that regardless of what is happening in the world, over in Israel or whatever is going on, not one ounce of it surprises the Ancient of Days. We do ourselves a disservice when we listen to voices that speak negativity into our hearts.

John 10:10 “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.”

We have victory through Christ. World events do not change that, the current state of America does not change that, our current circumstances does not change that one bit. Be encouraged with that today

PRAY

PARALLEL PASSAGES

Daniel 7

Da 7:2 || Re 7:1

Da 7:3 || Re 11:7 || Re 13:1 || Re 17:8

Da 7:4–6 || Re 13:2

Da 7:7 || Re 11:7 || Re 12:3 || Re 12:17 || Re 13:7

Da 7:8 || Re 13:5

Da 7:9 || Re 1:14 || Re 20:4

Da 7:9–10 || Mt 19:28 || Re 20:11–12

Da 7:10 || Re 5:11

Da 7:13 || Mt 26:64 || Mk 14:62 || Lk 21:27 || Re 1:7 || Re 1:13 || Re 14:14

Da 7:13–14 || Mt 24:30 || Mk 13:26

Da 7:14 || Mt 28:18 || Lk 1:33 || Jn 12:34 || Re 10:11 || Re 11:15 || Re 19:6

Da 7:18 || Re 22:5

Da 7:20 || Re 13:5

Da 7:21 || Re 11:7 || Re 12:17 || Re 13:7

Da 7:22 || Lk 21:8 || 1 Co 6:2

Da 7:24 || Re 17:12

Da 7:25 || Re 12:14 || Re 13:5

Da 7:27 || Re 20:4 || Re 22:5