A Prophetic People (Part 1): What does God reveal? Daniel 2 and 7

A defiant and rebellious soldier

Picture some soldiers in the front lines on a cold winter’s day, snow covered landscape with dark trees towering the field.

These men seem excited as they are in the enemy’s territory believing victory is not far long. In the background is the voice of their leader encouraging them to press on the attack as they have the upper hand in defeating their enemy.

Morale of the company of men seemed high and all are preparing themselves for the advance.

But, there is one lone man who did not see their side winning this war, his faith reveals to him that all this effort would lead to their annihilation if they continued on this advance.

Such belief would cost him his life, the belief of fighting a losing battle would disrupt the morale of the company and soldiers. Such a belief would be considered treason which would result in death.

This soldier didn’t volunteer to fight this war but was drafted in, this soldier didn’t want to go into the front lines he had no choice. However, this soldier had something that many of those soldiers may not have and that is his faith in the Bible.

The man’s name is Franz Hasel, and it was this man’s faith in the Bible that saved him and a few of his men from being captured or killed by the Soviets when the eastern front fell.

How you might ask that saved Frans Hasel from the plight that was to befall the German Eastern Front?

It was Franz understanding of the prophecies found in the book of Daniel that helped him see the result of this war, he believed Hitler could never unite Europe and establish the third reich.

He believed in God and His Word, and for that he was saved.

The prophetic journey of Daniel

Before we get started with the series of Daniel and Revelation, we need to get an idea of what has happened to Daniel to get to this point.

‘Daniel’ in Hebrew means ‘God is my Judge’ and God was indeed Judge when He cast judgement on the children of Israel.

God in times past, has constantly told His people through the prophets that calamity would fall on them if they continued to disobey Him.

Time and time again the children of Israel would sin and abandon their True God that lead them out of captivity, through the wilderness and into freedom in a land that was flowing with milk and honey.

Time and time again, when the prophets came to tell the people of their sins, they would shut their ears and kill those that did not speak to their hearts desire.

The Israelites would rather listen to a lie rather than the truth, they would rather follow the gods of stone, silver, or gold rather than their Redeemer that saved them from slavery.

Does that sound like today’s world? Are we hesitant in listening and worshiping Jesus? Or would we rather listen to this world?

This book (the Bible) is the witness and a testament of God’s plan for these last days and the book of Daniel and Revelation will reveal to us how it happens.

Calamity and Providence

So, Daniel’s home, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians during the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah. The destruction of Jerusalem was permitted by king Nebuchadnezzar and happened in 605 BC.

Jehoiakim was ruler over Judah starting his reign at the age of 25, he was made king of Judah by Pharaoh as puppet for Egypt. The scriptures say that 2 Kings 23:37 “…he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.”

Because of king Jehoiakim’s disobedience as well as the disobedience of the past kings of Judah that led God’s people go astray. Jerusalem is sacked and its young children taken away to serve in the king’s palace.

Daniel and some others from the tribe of Judah were selected and taken to Babylon.

Now, scholars are debating whether Daniel and the rest of the children of Israel were castrated to become eunuchs as there is no mention of it in Scripture of their castration. However, there are hints such as the person who took them captive who was the master of eunuchs; Ashpenaz.

Another hint can be found in 2 Kings 20:18 as Isaiah was speaking to king Hezekiah after he showed off his treasures to the Babylonians was informed that “…they shall take away some of your sons…and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

And there is no recorded evidence to show that Daniel had any offspring or a family of his own, which would be usually the case for someone who was held captive in a foreign land, an example would be Joseph.

But Daniel and his companions would remain faithful to the Lord despite their circumstances. These young men would continue serving the Lord despite being in captivity in a foreign land to serve a foreign tyrant king.

What would you have done in those circumstances? How strong is your faith in times of crisis? Would you remain true to your duty as a Christian?

No future, your home destroyed by a foreign pagan king, your mother and father would have been slain by these marauders, where was God in all of this? Why didn’t he answer their prayers?

How strong would your faith be if you were put in a situation like this? Would you remain true to your duty as a Christian? Would God still be your refuge despite the circumstances?

So, how does God reveal Himself, especially when it comes to Daniel 2 and Daniel 7?

What does God reveal?

Daniel 2

In Daniel 2, it was king Nebuchadnezzar that dreamt of a statue having 5 different materials; head of gold representing the kingdom of Babylon (605-539BC), body of silver representing the kingdom of Medo-Persia (539-333BC), then we have the thighs of bronze representing the kingdom of Greece (333-31BC), then comes the legs of iron representing the Roman Empire (31BC-325AD), and followed by the feet of iron and clay representing Western Europe and remains until the stone that is cut without human hands representing the kingdom of God which smashs the feet and bringing down the image into dust with the stone becoming a mountain for eternity.

Daniel 7

Daniel 7 is similar with a bit more detail, however, it isn’t the king that is having this dream, this time is it Daniel who is seeing visions of beasts coming out of the sea. The first beast is a lion having eagle’s wings, the wings were plucked out and made to stand on two feet like a man and it was given a man’s heart, this we understand to represent the kingdom of Babylon which was also the head of gold.

The second beast arose from the sea in the form a lopsided bear having three ribs in its mouth. These ribs are to represent other beasts that it devoured or conquered; these three kingdoms were Lydia, Babylon and Egypt. This lopsided bear represented the kingdom of Medo-Persian, the reason for it’s lopsidedness was because Persia was greater than the kingdom of Media in their alliance but they were united in conquering and ruling the known world.

The third beast was like a leopard with four wings and four heads, this represented the kingdom of Greece, God saw fit to describe Greece as a leopard as it’s leader then, Alexander the Great, conquered the known world in just 13 years, from Greece to northwestern India. Eventually, he would die at a young age and his four generals (represent the four heads) would rise up in his place; Cassander controlling Macedonia and Greece, Ptolemy controlling Egypt, Seleucus controlling Persia and parts of Mesopotamia, and Antigonus controlling Asia Minor, Lebanon and Israel. This kingdom would be represented as the thigh of Bronze in Daniel 2.

The fourth beast can only be described as dreadful, terrible and exceedingly strong. It had iron teeth that devoured and was trampled the ground causing chaos, Daniel was astonished with this beast but his attention turned to the beasts head which had ten horns. Daniel 7:24 reveals that these ten horns are ten kings/kingdoms, but Daniel’s attention is drawn as he sees a little horn coming up among the ten horns and remove three of them; these three kingdoms were the Heruli, the Vandals and the Ostrogoths, these three kingdoms were of Germanic origin. This fourth beast represents Western Europe as represented as the feet of iron and clay, however this little horn represents the Roman Papacy.

But Daniel’s vision doesn’t end there, because we are then introduced to the Ancient of Days and judgement day on all who oppose God. Here Daniel is shown the court was seated and the books were opened, we see the fourth beast slained and given to the burning flame.

Daniel’s attention is then drawn to the Son of Man, coming to the Ancient of Days, to receive His dominion, glory and kingdom for all that are saved and it will be eternal and never be destroyed. This of course is the stone that is cut without hands that will come crashing down on the feet of iron and clay and destroyed everything into fine dust. This is the kingdom of God that will be eternal.

Daniel’s response

Now, to anyone the thought of the second coming of Jesus should bring great joy and happiness. Jesus is coming my friends and these prophecies reveal what is to happen to these kingdoms and nations. These prophecies that I have shown you can read at your own leisure but they have predicted 100% what has happened and will reveal to us what is about to happen and that is these kingdoms, these nations; Australia, Indonesia, China, USA, Canada UK and so on will not last when Jesus returns.

Also, guess what, where are we in these visions of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7? The next kingdom to come is Jesus, and this should give us great joy and happiness.

But have a look at Daniel’s response to the whole vision? Was he dancing and happy?

Daniel 7:28 NLT

28 That was the end of the vision. I, Daniel, was terrified by my thoughts and my face was pale with fear, but I kept these things to myself.

Let’s have look at Daniel’s condition at this time, in Daniel 7:1 we are revealed that it is Belshazzar’s first year as king of Babylon, this would have been in 556BC, now the Israelites were to be in exile for 70 years according to Jeremiah 29:10 which would have started in 605BC or 586BC at the destruction of the temple.

Either way, we’re looking at the completion of the 70 years to end around 535-516BC. So, to Daniel and the many captives, they would return back to their home in about 20 years or so, Daniel was hoping to see that the Israelites would have learnt their lesson see Jerusalem be established as a influential kingdom bringing the goodness of God to the world.

But this revelation that Daniel witnessess was more kingdoms fighting and his people facing more persecution, he sees the destructive power of the fourth beast as well as the little horn and its pompous words and how the saints were given to the little horns power.

He saw the destructive power of humanity’s allegiance with the devil and its opposition to God’s people, Daniel was troubled, Daniel was terrified and saddened of humanity’s outcome.

God revealed to Daniel the future, filled with conflict and death, he saw the future through the eyes of what God sees, Daniel saw the rebellion of God’s creation.

Our response

Friends, although we are at the home stretch awaiting for the return of Jesus, how many of us are looking from God’s perspective of His people and the various conflicts?

You see, Daniel himself was looking forward to returning home back to Jerusalem but this vision terrified him and there could be countless of many reasons why this vision terrified him as we’re not told.

Yet for us in this day and age, spare a thought for what God wants to reveal to us through this prophecy.

1 Corinthians 14:1–5 NLT

1 Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy. 2 For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious. 3 But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them. 4 A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church. 5 I wish you could all speak in tongues, but even more I wish you could all prophesy. For prophecy is greater than speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets what you are saying so that the whole church will be strengthened.

Paul here encourages us to use prophecy to strengthen, encourage and comfort not only to the church but to all, and we’re going to go through these series on how this prophetic book helps strengthen, encourage and comfort us before Jesus returns.

But our response to Daniel 2 and 7 should encourage us to see how we can help people prepare for His soon return. Like Franz Hasel as he saved some of his men from the Soviets we should let people know of the impending doom that awaits those who rebel against Him.

I encourage you, go through the book of Daniel 2 and 7 and consider for yourself, what is God revealing to you? Are you ready to see these prophecies from His perspective?