The Times of the Gentiles

I. Introduction

Daniel 2:31-45; Dan 7; Dan 8

These visions were given in the Babylonian captivity.

Ch 2: Second year of Nebuchadnezzar: 603BC.

Ch 7: First year of Belshazzar 556 BC.

Ch 8: Third year of Belshazzar 553 BC.

Structure

Subject matter overlap

Ch 2 & 7 are in Aramaic. Ch 8 is in Hebrew.

Ch 2 is Narrative. Ch’s 7&8 are apocalyptic.

Daniel is a youth in Ch 2. He is an old man in Ch’s 7 & 8.

These visions cover the same themes:

Four Earthly Kingdoms

Rebellion against God

Judgement of the Earthly Kingdoms by God

Eternal Dominion of God’s Kingdom

II. Body

Four Kingdoms in three visions

Dan 2:31-43.

A statue of four metals.

Each metal decreases in value but increases in strength.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon is overtly mentioned as the head of gold.

The last kingdom

overtly has two phases: legs and feet with toes.

One of iron, one of iron mixed with clay.

Divided into ten parts, unstable.

Shiny valuable metals, even the iron, looks good. This is a human view of the kingdoms.

Almost unanimous interpretation:

Head of Gold: Babylon (explicit).

Arms and chest of silver: Medio-Persian Empire

Explicit in Ch 8.

Two components (Media, Persia)

Middle and Thighs of Bronze:

Greek Empire under Alexander the Great

Explicit in Ch 8.

Legs of Iron: Rome

Logical interpretation, although never explicitly named.

Two legs: Eastern and Western

Second (future) phase under Antichrist

10 toes also a feature of other prophetic passages.

In what way does the clay and expressed instability play out? Not sure.

Dan 7:1-7.

Four beasts, instead of metal. These are ferocious and deadly. Divine perspective.

Originating out of the sea. Universally seen in the Ancient Middle-East as the source of evil and chaos.

These could be (and are interpreted this way most of the time) the same four kingdoms, but nothing in the text is explicit.

Majority opinion:

Winged Lion: Babylon.

Very frequent national symbol.

Wings plucked off: Nebuchadnezzar’s madness (Dan 4).

Made to stand upright with a heart of a man: Restoration of Nebuchadnezzar and declaration of faith in Daniel’s God.

Bear laying with one side raised up and ribs:

Medio-Persian Empire.

One side raised up: Media not as influential or powerful as Persia.

Three ribs: Major conquests that formed the empire:

Lydia (546 BC)

Babylon (539 BC)

Egypt (525 BC)

Leopard with four heads and four wings:

Very fast. Alexander conquered in 3 years.

Four generals divided up his empire after him.

Ptolemy I Soter. He received Egypt, where he established the Ptolemaic Kingdom dynasty, which lasted until the Roman conquest.

Cassander. He took control of Macedon and Greece, founding the Antipatrid dynasty.

Seleucus I Nicator. He gained command of the eastern territories, including Babylonia and Persia, and founded the powerful Seleucid Empire.

Antigonus I Monophthalmus. He initially received a large portion of Asia Minor (Phrygia, Lycia, and Pamphylia) and sought to reconstitute the entire empire, but was eventually killed in the Battle of Ipsus (301 BC) by the other generals. His son later established a smaller Antigonid dynasty in Macedon.

Fourth terrifying beast with iron teeth.

Rome, which swallowed almost all of the Greek Empire except for the far East and then went beyond to the north up to Scotland!

Different from all the others: because it will come again? Two phases?

Again, a division of 10.

We are told that these are 10 kings who will arise out of the fourth beast (vs 24).

Not looking for an organization of 10 nations now.

Daniel 8:1-8.

Daniel is no longer in Babylon, but in Susa, the second capital city of Babylon. It would become the main city of Persia.

Only focusing on the middle two kingdoms of the series of four.

Ram with two horns:

Media and Persia, with one stronger than the other.

Becomes great and powerful, then falls.

Explicitly Media-Persia (vs 20)

Male Goat from the East.

Moves so quickly that it doesn’t touch the ground. Rapid conquest of Persia.

One horn: Alexander.

Explicitly ATG and his four generals (vs 21-22).

Earthly Rebellion

Dan 2 does not have much to say here.

Dan 7:

Daniel 7:8 “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.”

An organization of the fourth kingdom with 10 regional leaders.

THEN another leader arises, and deposes 3.

Mouth speaking great things.

Dan 7:23-25.

Speaks against God.

Fight against the “Saints of the Most High.” Jews or Christians?

“Change times and the law.”

Parallel in Dan 9:26-27.

Jewish ritual observances

Jewish holidays.

Ultimately, this speaks of the Antichrist to come, but Titus was an early type that was at least a partial fulfillment of this prophecy.

Dan 8:9-14.

A ruler who emerges in the aftermath of the Third kingdom, the Greeks.

Not the same as Ch 7’s horn, which was during the fourth kingdom.

This horn does not uproot anyone.

Attacks the Jewish people.

Takes away the sacrifices.

Persists for 2,300 evenings.

This, quite universally, is seen as Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who desecrated the temple in 167 BC.

This even triggered the Maccabean revolt, which lasted 6 1/2 years, or 2,300 evenings.

Antiochus Ephiphanes IV was a very clear type of Antichrist. (1 John 2:18)

Both the 3rd and 4th Kingdom types of Antichrist point forward to an eventual fulfillment talked about in Rev 13:1-8.

The Judgement and Kingdom of God.

Dan 2:34-35,44-45.

The Kingdom of God comes to earth with violence and judgement, although the sin that is being judged is not in view.

The Kingdom of God starts small, in the midst of the fourth kingdom, but grows to fill the whole earth.

It will swallow all the other kingdoms and beyond.

Jesus identified himself as the stone that breaks other kingdoms in Matt 21:42-46.

Dan 7:9-14.

God arrives in judgement.

Ancient of Days. A title only found in this chapter, but that has appeared in Babylonian texts referring to the highest of the Gods, the one referenced in Dan 2:11.

God arrives on a wheeled chariot. Remember Ezekiel 1?

The beast is killed and its body destroyed in fire, but the remnants of human government persist.

Beast killed in Rev 19:20

There is still human government under Christ’s authority during the Millennial Kingdom.

Rev 20:4 is John’s account of this same event.

Jesus’ prediction fits as well. Matt 19:28.

The Father is seated in Judgement, but it is the “Son of Man” who gets the kingdom.

Psalm 2:5–6 “Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.””

Psalm 110:1 “The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.””

Jesus recounted this exact vision at his trial before the Sanhedrin, which is what directly led to his execution. Mat 26:64-66.

Dan 8 does not lead to the setting up of the divine kingdom because it focuses on the Greek empire, not the final, Roman empire.

Only that the offerings will be re-established as they ought to have been after 6 1/2 years, which they were.

God will be involved in the events (Dan 8:25). He was—Hannukah

III. Conclusion/Application

Kingdoms of man will always grapple for power and control, but ultimate Authority is the Lord’s.

All the evil and rebellion of man will be judged.

The utopian life that all of our hearts long to know will be realized when Jesus comes to reign.