The Judge in the Judgment 2025
Daniel's Story • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
So far in Daniel’s Story I’ve retold historical events. They have been stories that illustrate the relationship God has with His faithful people in times of crisis.
Today we’re going to shift gears with Daniel as he begins telling us some of the strangest visions in the Bible. The kind of language in these next chapters is different than the language in the first six chapters. Instead of story-telling we shift to something called apocalyptic prophecy.
As we begin studying this section of Daniel’s Story we need to recognize a shift in the purpose. Apacolyptic prophecy is given to:
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To Reveal God's Character and Purposes
To show that God is King of Kings and rules on earth
To show God's work in the past so we can trust Him in the future
To show us God's plans so we can prepare our hearts for the future
The Vision
The Vision
Let’s open up our Bibles to the book of Daniel, chapter 7.
Daniel 7:1 (NKJV)
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon...
This first statement gives us a strange timeline. Daniel 1-6 have been consecutive—each story following some time after the last ending in the time of Cyrus, king of Persia. But now in Daniel 7 we’re drawn back in time to the first year of Belshazzar, before the Persians took over.
timeline
I have a possible timeline on the screen that show the dates for the first 8 chapters of Daniel.
In the early 20th century historians discovered documents in Babylon that showed that Belshazzar was Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, and the son and co-regent with the last kind of Babylon, Nabonidus. With that bit of info, and the knowledge that at the beginning of Belshazzar’s 3rd year as co-regent in 539 BC, Babylon was conquered by the Persians, we can trace Daniel 7 to 541 BC.
We don’t need to know this time in order to understand this prophecy, but remember, apocalyptic prophecies begin in the time of the prophet. If Daniel received this vision in 541 BC, then Babylon is still the most powerful empire, and the first elements of the prophecy will likely be about Babylon.
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts.
Let’s look at these facts. What was this vision that Daniel saw?
Daniel spoke, saying, “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 from the sea, each different from the other.
The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
There are a couple direction we could go as we try to figure out this prophecy. The first option is to dig in and try to decipher every symbol and understand every possible detail. What does the wind represent? Why were there four winds? What about he wings? Why were they plucked off? What does it mean that it stands up like a man… Etc. What does each and every symbol represent? That’s a good idea, and something you should definitely do. I could give you a start.
Think of four winds as the forces that stir up conflict on the earth that come from the four directions of the compass. Check out Zechariah 6:5, Revelation 7:1, Psalm 104:4, Psalm 107:25, and Ezekiel 37:9 for a few comparison references to wind in the Bible. You could even add in Mark 4:39 where Jesus calms the winds that stirred up the sea.
If you want to understand prophecy you have to compare scripture with scripture. Let the Bible interpret itself. Today we don’t have enough time to study through every single symbol mentioned in this prophecy, so we’re going to get the highlights with enough detail to gives us a framework for this prophecy. One thing to look out for is what the interpreting angel chooses to focus Daniel’s attention on. That’s going to be the overall theme and focus of this prophecy.
Let’s keep reading and make sure we’ve got the whole vision in view and then see what the main focus is:
“And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’
“After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.
“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.
We almost have all the pieces now. Hold these characters in your mind—a lion, a bear, a leopard, a terrible beast with 10 horns, a little horn, and then… The Ancient of Days.
Let’s keep reading in verse 9:
“I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him;
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.
You might find this little section in your Bible is formatted differently. Daniel wrote this section in a poetic style. It’s meant to be visually and literarily different because the scene has changed. We were first talking about an earthly scene with beasts, but now we’re looking up and seeing the Ancient of Days — the beginning and the end — the first and the last. He sits down on a wild throne with flaming wheels. He has millions and hundreds of millions of angels that serve Him.
Just so there is no doubt about who the ancient of days is, read Psalm 90:2
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Daniel was looking up at this heavenly courtroom scene with judges and God himself, and some sort of record books were opened. And then his attention was diverted from heaven by some words that he heard down here on earth:
“I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame.
As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
Notice how the formatting in your Bible changes again. It’s no longer in a poetic form. Now we’re back to earth, talking about the beasts and horns—specifically that final horn that speaks pompous words and harms the saints of God. But in the middle of this courtroom scene, Daniel sees that BECAUSE of the words of this creature, it is destroyed.
In verse 13 the scene changes back to heaven for the final scene of this vision, and you’ll probably notice another shift in the formatting in your Bible:
“I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.
That’s the vision. It ends with the character Daniel calls the “Son of Man” being introduced to the Ancient of Days in this courtroom scene. The conclusion of the court gives the Son of Man the authority to come to earth and take over the dominion of the whole earth. And the promise is that His reign will never end, and his kingdom will never be destroyed.
Interpretation
Interpretation
The Bible says that Daniel was troubled and alarmed by the vision. You might say he was curious with a touch of dread. So, he stepped up to one of the angels who were showing him these things and asked, “what does this mean?”
The very first thing the angel told Daniel clears up the mystery quite a bit:
‘Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth.
Now, if you were to go to Revelation you’d discover in Revelation 17:15 that the sea or waters that the beasts came up from are peoples and nations and languages. It’s good to have the additional Bible reference for comparison, but we can also see that right here in Daniel. The Great Sea that Daniel talked about would have been the only sea Daniel was likely to have visited in his lifetime—the Mediterranean sea. And the nations that the angel describes as rising up each ruled the territory around the Mediterranean Sea—one after the other. A populated place that dominated the world at the time of Daniel.
I like that the angel doesn’t immediately go to describe the nations, because that’s not really the point. We’ll find out what they represent, but before we do the Angel needs to show us what the point of this whole vision is:
But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.’
The point is that God’s people will posses the kingdom—they will survive and live in God’s kingdom that He will soon set up. Prophecy sometimes troubles us. Many Christian denominations are preoccupation with prophecy, including the Adventist church. We try to figure out how each piece of prophecy fits into history. And that’s a good thing. God intended for us to have prophecy so we could be prepared for what will come. But God’s point isn’t that we know every detail. His point is that we will learn to trust him with our future.
“I’ve got you.” He says. “This future stuff may look scary, but don’t forget that I’m the one who overrules evil for the good of all those who love and trust me.”
But Daniel was a little like you and me, he wanted to know the details. So he pressed for more information, especially about the 4th beast that got so much attention in his vision:
“Then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured, broke in pieces, and trampled the residue with its feet;
and the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows.
What’s interesting about Daniel 7 is that it is part of the bigger story of the rise and fall of nations. The beasts are easily identified by comparing this progression of nations with the first progression of nations in Daniel 2.
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We’ll use this chart again as we consider the various visions in Daniel. The left column lists the broad strokes of world history that each of the prophecies in Daniel cover. The top row shows the different visions in Daniel by their chapter.
Early on in Daniel’s Story we heard about him interpreting the dream for Nebuchadnezzar. Each piece of metal on the image of Daniel 2 represented a new kingdom—Babylon, then Medo/Persia, then Greece, then Rome, then divided Rome in Western Europe, then God’s final kingdom. But there’s something new in Daniel 7.
In chapter 2 we only saw the divided feet of iron and clay with its ten toes before the stone came from the mountain of God and crushed all the kingdoms of men and the kingdom of God spread throughout the whole earth. In chapter 7 we get added details. Every piece of this story is expanded, with more details added at each stage. And there’s a brand new feature in Daniel 7 before the kingdom of God comes—a little horn and a courtroom judgment.
Next time we’ll discover that Daniel 8 adds to the story and expands even more on the little horn and the judgment. Then Daniel 9 builds specific dates into the picture. Daniel 10-12 will add even more features about the little horn and the judgment. Each vision approaches the same period of time with more information and detail. We call this kind of prophetic repetition,
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REPEAT and ENLARGE.
With this knowledge we can look at the lion of Daniel 7 and connect it with the head of gold from Daniel 2 and confidently say, this is Babylon. It even looks like the winged lion carved into the gates of Babylon.
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We can connect the Bear in Daniel 7 to the Chest and Arms of silver in Daniel 2 and conclude that the bear represents the combined forces of the Medes and Persians who, history tells us, conquered Babylon. But the alliance was stronger on the Persian side, and so the bear is pictured with one shoulder lifted higher than the other. And to become the greatest nation on earth, the Medo-Persian army had to plow through three nations—Lydia, Egypt and Babylon—thus the three ribs in its mouth.
Just as one nation followed another in Daniel 2, the third beast represents a third kingdom—Greece. Like Psalm 18:10 “He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.” Greece sped through the world with its army, conquering so much territory in such a little time the king is called Alexander the Great. When he died he didn’t have any children, so he left his kingdom to his four generals. And that’s the reason for the four heads. The head is a symbol for power and authority in the Bible. These four heads were the four regions of Greece after Alexander the Great died.
These nations were all known to Daniel, and they line up perfectly with what God revealed to Daniel in symbolic vision form in Daniel 2 and in Daniel 7.
But the details the Daniel 7 vision adds about the fourth beast make it very concerning. And so Daniel was naturally more curious about that beast than any of the others.
Notice the words that the angel uses to describe this nation: exceedingly dreadful, iron teeth, devoured, broke in pieces, trampled. Rome, a nation that Daniel didn’t know anything about, came in with their iron weapons and decimated the armies of their enemies. It was so uneven a fight that it didn’t seem fair. And Rome devoured up the nations of the earth—packing them together under one law—Pax Romana—the Roman Peace.
One thing that you should put in your notes is that all of these empires were connected in some way to God’s people. Babylon took Judah captive. Medo-Persia sent them home to Jerusalem. Greece tormented the Israelites in the time of the Macabean rebellion. Rome ruled over Jerusalem in the time of Jesus.
But the prophecy isn’t over with Rome. There was an end to Rome, but not a hard stop like with previous empires. It broke into factions—east and west—and the western faction broke up even more into ten waring tribes that each claimed their piece of what was the Roman empire.
If you like history, then this is probably interesting to you. And don’t worry, next week I’ll provide additional evidence to show you why we can be so confident from the Bible about what nations these beasts represent. For now, let’s stick with the big picture. The real question we need to be asking is, “what does this tell us about God?”
That’s what the angel is focused on. He’s pointing our attention forward to the little horn that comes up from among the ten divisions of the dying Roman empire.
The little horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke pompous words is the key to understanding why God gave this vision to Daniel. This history lesson isn’t just about world-dominating empires. This is about God’s people. How will God preserve His people? What are the great issues at stake in the battle between good and evil? And how will God bring an end to the problem of sin?
Keep reading from Daniel 7:21:
“I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.
The little horn, which the angel clarifies in verse 24 is a small nation that would end up dominating the world, is making war on and winning against God’s people.
Until...
And that’s the whole point of this prophecy. Until the Ancient of Days came with his court and judgment was passed.
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I was listening to an evangelical pastor teaching on Daniel 7, just so I had a clear idea of what many Christians believe about this chapter. He taught that these nations were exactly as I have described, until he came to the ten horns and this little horn and the judgment scene. He put the ten horns and the little horn down at the end of time, just before the coming of Jesus. Then he said that the courtroom scene was the scene after the coming of Jesus. The vast majority of Christians say there is no judgment before the second coming of Jesus.
Maybe the reason they don’t want there to be a judgment is the same reason you and I are often afraid of the judgment. It has been portrayed as a fearful scene where you and I stand before the judgment seat of the Almighty. Our lives are compared against the impeccable law of love. We know that all our hidden secrets would be exposed by those record books. We know that the comparison of our lives with the law of God would mean our ruin. Judgment would be passed and we would be condemned. Or maybe we just think about the natural disasters and wars that Jesus talked about in Matthew 24 and we are afraid for our safety. Either way, it seems that fear has been a primary factor in interpreting this vision. But fear shouldn’t be our interpreter of prophecy.
Notice that Daniel’s angel tells about a religious-minded political power that speaks blasphemous words against the Most High (see verse 25) and attempts to mess with God’s law. It’s a power that tortures and abuses God’s people for 3 1/2 prophetic years according to verse 25.
He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time (iddan) and times and half a time.
Notice that this little horn power is seeking to change times and laws. It lifts its voice against the Most High, so these times and laws it seeks to change must have to do with God’s law and God’s time. We’ll come back to that in a minute.
I want to point out a couple things that throw off the popular, tribulation interpretation. The first is that there is a persecution of the saints who have yet to receive the kingdom of God until AFTER the Son of Man comes.
Second: It is the time phrase: time, times and half a time that make many Christians think this prophecy is connected to an end-of-time, 7-year tribulation. We’ll talk more about that 7 year period when we look at Daniel 9, but I’m pretty confident that this time, times and half a time have nothing to do with a 7 year period.
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The word translated “time” in this passage is the Aramaic word “iddan,” which refers to a set period of time or a season, and is broadly thought by theologians to represent a year. This is the most referenced prophetic timeline in scripture. Daniel 12:7 refers to the same time, times and half a time. And then Revelation 12:14 brings it up again as a time, times and a half a time. But in no place does the prophet use the literal word “year,” instead he leaves it as a “period of time.” There are a couple additional references but they don’t use that same pattern of a time and times and a 1/2 a time. In Daniel’s day a Jewish year would have been 360 days. So a year, two years, and a half a year would be 3 1/2 years, which is 42 months, or 1,260 days. You’ll find Revelation 11:2 and Revelation 13:5 both mention a 42 month period of persecution of God’s people. Revelation 11:3 and 12:6 point to a 1260 day prophetic time. And then Daniel 12:11-12 add a few days to this prophecy to make it 1,290 and then a 1,335 day prophecy.
When you read these prophecies about Lions and Bears and Leopards and terrible beasts with iron teeth, do you think those animals are real animals, or do you understand them to be symbolic of something else?
Yes, they’re symbolic. In fact, the Bible itself tells us to see these beasts as nations. So, now when we read about a horn speaking blasphemies about God and tormenting God’s people, we know that we’re looking at a small political power that takes on religious prerogatives. Why then would we look at the 3 1/2 years as a literal period of time if everything around it is symbolic? Wouldn’t it also be symbolic of something?
In fact, the Bible repeatedly uses a day as a symbol of a year. In Numbers 14:34 God chose to send the Israelites wandering through the wilderness for 40 years—a year for every day the spies who gave the evil report had spied out the land of Canaan. In Ezekiel 4:5-6 God told Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days and then on his right side for 40 days. Each day represented a year of punishment for Israels and Judah’s rebelliousness. The most logical application of this 3 1/2 years is a symbolic, day-for-a-year application. All this figuring simply means that we’re not talking about the first half of a 7 year tribulation. We’re talking about a prophetic 3 1/2 years or 1,260 days — which would be 1,260 literal years. You can’t fit 1,260 literal years inside an end-time 7 year tribulation.
Let’s check ourselves to see if there is a case for a long-duration persecution of God’s people. Is there a place in the Bible that suggests God’s people will be tortured and persecuted? If you’ve got 1,260 years of this little horn torturing and persecuting God’s people, then surely the blood of those martyrs would be calling up from the ground like the blood of Abel in Genesis begging God for justice. And that is exactly what we find in Revelation 6:9-10 where we read:
When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
How long until you JUDGE AND AVENGE? Can you see what this judgment in Daniel 7 is about? It’s about the horrors of this little horn power. What will God do to solve the problem? What will he do to bring an end to it?
The courtroom judgment scene in Daniel 7 is God’s answer to the little horn. A divine courtroom is set up and the trial commences. The punishment may seem slow, but in the end justice will be served, and a positive outcome will be handed to God’s people.
Remember Daniel 7:22, “ judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.”
The angel repeats this point over an over again. Let’s read it in verse 25 to 27
He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time.
‘But the court shall be seated, And they shall take away his dominion, To consume and destroy it forever.
Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.’
What a relief for Daniel as he listened to the horrors that would come on God’s people. The judgment of the Ancient of Days was a blessing. The Most High God would one-day come, and God’s people would be delivered from their oppressors.
I also want you to notice that the judgment happens after the oppression of God’s people, and before God’s people possess the Kingdom of God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
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Let’s do a quick review:
God predicted four kingdoms would rise and fall.
Then the fourth kingdom, Rome, would break into the smaller, divided kingdoms of Western Europe. Then, from among them, a smaller kingdom would rise up. This one with strange features intent on blaspheming and taking the place of the Most High God.
That’s a scene that the first several chapters of Daniel foreshadow. We found nations legislating worship on penalty of death. And we found that God brought justice on those who harmed His people. Thankfully, God’s justice was mixed with mercy and He was able to save a hardened, pagan king.
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But this little horn nation will not turn to God like Nebuchadnezzar. The Bible indicates they will be more like Belshazzar in his rebellious defiance of God when he mixed the worship of idols with the emblems of God’s temple. The little-horn power overthrows three other nations after the breakup of the Roman empire. It rises to a strange religio-political sphere of power. It implements laws to enforce worship and persecutes God’s people who don’t comply for 1,260 years. And it makes an attempt to change God’s laws and time.
We’ll come back to this subject again as we explore the next couple chapters in our study. I believe there is little doubt as to which little nation this little horn and it’s 1,260 years of persecution are pointing to.
This is the Roman Catholic church of the papal Roman Empire that has ruled from its seat of power in the city of Rome over the nations of Western Europe and beyond. At its will the governments mobilized armies and established inquisitions. Under its tutelage millions and millions of Christians were led to worship before and pray to pagan idols like the pagan idol of Jupiter which they modified and called Saint Peter. It led sincere people to believe they could buy God’s grace with their money and purchase it with their acts of penance. It’s popes claimed to stand in the place of God on earth and have the power to both interpret and change God’s holy word according to their will. One of its defining acts, the one that it claims proves above all else that it is the Mother church and that it has authority over God’s word was it’s change of the biblical Sabbath to the pagan day of the sun.
This religio-political power ruled Europe with unbending control from 538 AD when Justinian handed the civil authority of western Rome over to the Bishop of Rome until 1798 when Napoleon yanked the pope off his throne and his cardinals and bishops out of the parliaments of Europe, ending 1,260 years of religious persecution. Millions and millions of sincere Christians who sought to follow God’s Word were martyred at their hands. Some say as many as 50 million.
But the little horn’s reign of terror would not be forever. It would only last until the Ancient of Days came and the judgment was set up.
We’ll talk more about the timing of this judgment when we get to Daniel 8, but for now let’s bring things to a conclusion with this thought from Daniel 7:13-14 —
“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 peoples, 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.
Up until this prophecy the title “Son of Man” was just a name given to human beings. There wasn’t anything special about it until this vision of Daniel 7 gave the title to an exalted, conquering King. Who is this “son of man?”
Jesus told us in,
…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
He’s not just saying “I’m one of you—I’m a human.” Jesus is pointing back to Daniel 7 and claiming the title of the conquering king. He adds this in:
For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
When the little horn was changing times and laws and forcing Christians to abandon the Biblical Sabbath, Jesus, the son of man, standing in the judgment hall of heaven said, “I am Lord of the Sabbath!” No government or religion can change God’s laws.
Notice the warning that Jesus gives this little-horn power in Matt 24:
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
and
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
The Son of Man will come soon, riding on the clouds of His glory.
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But we’re not there yet. What Daniel 7 reveals about our time today is that we’re in the middle of a judgment scene. The little horn has, at least for the moment, received a deadly wound. It’s judgment has started, but we know it’s not finished yet because the Bible says that at the end of this judgment scene the Son of Man will come down to earth, end earthly kingdoms and set up his forever kingdom. That hasn’t happened yet, so we’re still in the middle of this judgment scene.
Praise God we’re still in the judgment—the end has not come yet. which means there is mercy left for me and you. The Son of Man has stretched out his arms on the cross so that the judgment will end in something good for you and me. He has called us his children and literally promised us the world!
And because he came as the lamb the first time, the exalted Son of Man has the right to return in power and great glory and put an end to the evil perpetrated on humans from Abel to Armageddon.
The end will come.
Jesus, the king, will reign forever, and ever.
And all his children will finally live at peace.
That is the promise of this apocalyptic prophecy.
Daniel ended his vision with this statement:
“This is the end of the account. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly troubled me, and my countenance changed; but I kept the matter in my heart.”
Maybe you don’t fully understand the prophecy we’ve talked about today. Daniel certainly didn’t when he received it. It troubled him. And maybe it should trouble us too. I think Daniel’s challenge to you and me is to keep these things in our hearts. Well keep adding pieces to this puzzle to make it clearer, but for now, keep this idea in your head:
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You can trust the Judge in the Judgment
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Please stand with me and lets sing a song to the Son of Man, the Lamb of God.
Worthy, Worthy is the Lamb
