Undefeatable Supremacy (Daniel 7)

Intro - I was on a Zoom call with Keith Martin the other night… we were praying for one another...

And Levi and Katy were watching Star Wars in the other room...

And as Keith was praying for me, I’m listening and trying to focus and pray along with him… and I start to hear these grotesque sounds of some Star Wars battle… and these alien beasts are making these horrible dying noises as blasters go off all around them...

And even though I had my headphones in and I was trying hard to focus, these noises were competing for my attention against Keith’s prayer...

As I thought about that moment and as I thought about studied Daniel 7 this week, I came to realize that my experience of distraction was a lot like living as God’s people in exile...

As believers in Jesus Christ, we live scattered as exiles among nations that have very godless rulers… and those rulers can be kind of grotesque sometimes… they can act kind of beastly when you compare them to the beauty and character of our God.

They can ruthlessly stand opposed to God and his ways… they can try to subvert God’s purposes.

And not only the human rulers… but like we’ve been memorizing in our fighter verses in Ephesians 6 these past few weeks (I’d encourage you to do that with your family, by the way, if you are not)… we aren’t just living among godless HUMAN rulers of flesh and blood… but we are in an all out WAR with the rulers and authorities in the HEAVENLY places…

with Satan and his demons who influence and work through the beastly rulers of the nations…

But if we stay focused on the One who sits on the throne of heaven… the One whose kingdom is coming... we see that all the rulers of this world are really powerless against him.

We have been studying the book of Daniel for the past 6 weeks in our series called “Indestructible Kingdom”…

And through these chapters we’ve seen that godless rulers and earthly kingdoms will demand our attention… demand our affection and our devotion… but God is ZEALOUS for the undivided allegiance of his people...

That our greatest good is found in giving our undivided allegiance to his indestructible kingdom...

So far, the chapters we’ve covered included all the stories of the book that are more well-known… Daniel and the Lion’s den… Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego… Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams...

Today we are going to go where few people dare to tread… we are starting on a journey beyond the made-up gate that hides Daniel 7-12 from Daniel 1-6.

We’re going to see that these last six chapters are VERY different than the first six in style… and even in how understandable they are because we are moving from narrative (stories) to apocalyptic literature (symbols and signs).

A lot of times they seem SO confusing to us that we settle for understanding the first six chapters, and they throw up our hands and walk away once we get to chapter 7.

But I want to challenge you to lean in the rest of this summer.

I’m taking up a personal challenge in this… let’s just say my study took me considerably longer than usual this week.

And so don’t leave me alone in this journey… use the reading plan.... I’d encourage you… pick up a copy of the Bible Knowledge Commentary to help you… there are a few around the church here… and dig in.

And if you are going through our reading plan, not only are you going to dig into Daniel… you are also going to dig into the book of Revelation, because there is a TON of overlap here both in imagery and theme.

The chapter we are going to study today really condenses all of what is in the book of revelation into a much shorter vision, and I think it will be helpful to study them together.

Ultimately, we want to study these last six chapters of Daniel because they are part of how God chose to reveal himself to us…

And because they take us deeper into the themes Daniel was establishing through his personal stories of his time in Babylon.

I believe these chapters, if we allow them, will seal the deal for us to live with undivided allegiance to God’s indestructible kingdom.

And so as we look through Daniel’s eyes at his vision of the Ancient of Days today, we will learn that living with allegiance to God means that we...

Big Idea: Endure the stormy seasons of beastly rulers by looking upon the undefeatable supremacy of God.

Look at Daniel 7:1 [read]

Explain: So we have a time marker in verse 1… the first year of the reign of Belshazzar… this takes us BACK in time between 14-15 years or so from the events of chapters 5-6.

Daniel is probably in his late 60s in Daniel 7, and a guy named Belshazzar, who was either the son or the grandson of King Nebuchadnezzar has just taken the throne.

You might remember Belshazzar from chapter 5… he’s that party-boy king who drinks too much… he’s the one that got out the temple dishes that Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from God’s Holy Temple in Jerusalem and used them to drink to his own gods… and at that party, Belshazzar literally sees the writing on the wall that tells him he’s going to die that night. So 14 years before THAT was the first year of Belshazzar’s reign.

In chapter 7, we can know from history that the year is 553 BC… we know it’s been a rocky decade since Nebuchadnezzar died… in fact, Belshazzar is now the 5th king to take the throne in Babylon in the last 9 years.

There have been assassinations… untimely natural deaths… military threats to deal with…

And all this time, Daniel has held down a steady job as a top official in the Babylonian courts.

He is a God-Fearing Jewish exile in a prominent government job in a godless foreign nation that has experienced a TON of political turmoil.

That’s a tough place to be, isn’t it?

And if that wasn’t hard enough, God has used Daniel to reveal the interpretation of some pretty difficult visions for the previous king of Babylon.

He’s already interpreted two visions for Nebuchadnezzar in this book… visions of kings and kingdoms rising and falling… he’s had to look hard and long at things that are confusing… and to rely upon God for the answer.

And so in chapter 7, he has a vision of his own.

And this vision, we are going to find out, is disturbing and awe-inspiring at the same time… it’s a vision that reflects the vision of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2 that he interpreted over 45 years earlier…

and he wrote down the vision for the people who were still in exile with him… to encourage them that God was STILL on the throne.

“Yes, we’ve been in exile a LONG time, but God still has a plan!”

And God preserved that vision in Holy Scripture for us to read and understand today…

I believe that God inspires Daniel to write down this vision to help his people… in every age… to endure the stormy seasons of beastly rulers by looking upon the undefeatable supremacy of Jesus.

Let’s look at this first part of the vision...

1) The Stormy Seasons of Beastly Rulers (v. 1-8)

[Read Daniel 7:2

Wind coming from every direction is stirring up the seas… this is a perfect storm.

Sea = masses of humanity… the nations… Sea also = chaos… stormy seas = extreme, unpredictable chaos…

Read v. 3 -

Principle: Whenever possible, interpret symbols according to the way the text interprets them, or with clues the text gies you.

In v. 17, the beasts are identified as four great Kings of the earth, and then in v. 23, they are associated with the kingdoms of those kings…

Read v. 4 -

Beast 1) Lion (think Scar, not Mufasa) with Eagles Wings - Regal (in a beastly sort of way)... but Temporary… Nebuchadnezzar/ Babylon (Jeremiah)… Head of Gold

Important for interpreting part of the vision later too.

Read v. 5 -

Beast 2) Bear with a Raised Side, Devouring flesh - Powerful... but clumsy… Cyrus/Medo-Persia… Shoulders and Chest of Silver

Read v. 6 -

Beast 3) Leopard or a Panther -Stealthy... but subjected (dominion was given to it)… Alexander the Great/Greece (with 4 subsequent rulers and empirical goals)… Middle and Thighs of Bronze

Read v. 7a, b -

If beasts 1, 2 and 3 are Babylon, Persia and Greece, then the next kingdom is obviously... Rome and its emperors…

Rome was ruthless in subduing the nations it conquered to create a peaceful empire.

This is the legs of iron in Nebuchadnezzar’s statue…

But the tricky part about Rome is that there is no corresponding identification for what comes next....

Read 7c-8

the 10 horns or the one little horn that conquers three of the horns…

Once again.. if we can see a physical, governmental fulfillment in actual kingdoms for the first three beasts… and then the fourth is naturally Rome… we can get a sense of how the symbols are meant to be interpreted.

They are physical Kingdoms on earth that represent the features of REAL governments…

So if the vision of 10 horns lacks a literal fulfillment, then either the whole vision is wrong (not likely given that we have hundreds of years of specific fulfillments that have already come to pass)

OR we can expect that this is part of the vision that is still to come.

This was what we said was also true about Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the statue… the feet which represented some sort of mixture of Roman government and something else was still in the future… even for us here today...

Here these ten horns and this little horn are still in the future.

They represent the reiteration… a repetition... of this beast in the last days… Pobably some form of Roman like government mixed with something else…

This will be the government of the Antichrist… who deceives the nations and tortures God’s people like we see in Revelation 13.

We talked about this in chapter 2.... it’s like there are 2 Mountains in Daniel’s Prophecy [show picture]… The first coming of Jesus is the mountain nearest the prophet… and from his perspective, it concealed the second mountain of Christ’s second coming to such a degree that it looked like one event to them…

The prophets couldn’t see that there would be a period of 2000 years or more between the two advents of the Messiah.

I believe you could view it this way: Jesus INAUGURATES his kingdom at his first coming… but he CONSUMMATES and establishes his Kingdom at his second coming.

And prior to that second coming, a Roman-like beast… that we read about in Revelation 13...

One who has the characteristics of all these beasts of Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome… will come and he will deceive the nations and he will persecute the saints…

And these 10 horns and the little horn are symbolic of that time in the future just before Jesus returns.

So there are specific identities that we can see from history for to each of these beasts… specific rulers and kingdoms they represent… specific governmental systems they set up...

But when we take these beasts as a whole vision, we can see that they are all quite similar… and quite representative of nations that have come and gone all over the world.

I think of the many dynasties that governed China and India throughout the millennia…

I think of the beastly rulers of Hitler and Stalin and Lenin...

I think of some of the beastly rulers even of our own country who have had little concern for the true ways of the Lord except to use his name and his people for their own political gain.

And I was struck this week by the fact that these four particular beasts all are pictured arising out of a stormy sea.

Did you ever notice that beastly rulers emerge when the seas are the stormiest? When the world gets chaotic, their true colors show?

Did you ever notice that the natural upheaval of a fallen world tends to give the powerful more power?

Chaos tends to breed chaos when flesh-driven leaders are in control.

Illustrate: Certainly stormy winds are stirring up the seas of our fallen world even today...

A global pandemic...

Terrorism...

Racial tensions that are being felt all around the world...

Increased persecution of the church worldwide...

Plagues and famines on the continent of Africa that give prime opportunity fro ruthless governments to opress people.

The seas are stormy to the four corners of the earth. And few leaders know how to (or even want to) calm the storm.

Most leaders are eager to use the chaos to emerge with more power… more control… more wealth.

Jesus acknowledged that this happens… he said, “The rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over [their people]...” (Matt 20:25)

That’s the typical M.O. of earthly rulers.

And when that happens, it can be scary… it can be unsettling… it can be frustrating.

Why are they taking advantage of the little guy in this situation????

Why do they have so much power???

God, are you going to do anything about this???

Apply: Have you ever been terrified by considering the power certain leaders hold? Have you ever seen a ruler take advantage of a chaotic situation in order to gain more power or to oppress more people? How do you respond when that happens?

We shouldn’t be surprised when it happens… it’s been the mark of every empire that ever rose on the face of the earth: to take advantage of chaotic situations for personal or political gain.

These times are bound to come... in fact, they will only increase up until the time when Jesus returns… and they create the NEED for endurance in God’s people.

Remember… Daniel is seeing this vision as a man in his late 60s who has lived most of his life in exile and is only part-way through the FIRST of these beastly kingdoms.

HE is going to need endurance… God’s PEOPLE are going to need endurance…

So HOW can we endure?

Well, we don’t endure by fighting against these rulers in the flesh.

Remember Ephesians 6… our battle is NOT ultimately against flesh and blood…

You take out one ruler, you will have another rise in its place because ultimately there are spiritual rulers influencing them.

So we don’t endure by fighting against these rulers in the flesh…

We don’t endure by trying to take control ourselves like we are sometimes tempted to do.

God actually calls us to SUBMIT to beastly rulers in Romans 13… like David Parker mentioned last week, the exiles were called to SEEK THE WELFARE of the city into which they were called into exile...

So we don’t try to take over control in order to endure…

We endure the stormy seasons of beastly rulers by looking upon the undefeatable supremacy of Jesus.

That’s what we see in the next verses...

2) The Supreme Authority of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man (v. 9-14)

The chaos of the vision now gives way to neatly ordered poetry as Daniel sees something completely different.

Verses 9-14 make up the climax of the vision… you have prose… then poetry… then mostly prose again...

[Read and Explain v. 9-14]

Explain: In this vision, we see the Supreme Authority of God… to be more specific… of two persons of the Godhead: the Father and the Son.

We worship a God who is Triune… meaning he eternally exists as ONE GOD in THREE Persons. It’s an incredible, mind-blowing, worship-producing mystery… but here, the vision comes with a distinction between two of the persons...

The Father… called here the Ancient of Days… and the Son… called here “one like a son of Man.”

We know this refers to the Messiah… to Jesus Christ…

1) Because he is Divine… he comes down on the heavenly clouds...

2) He is human… he is LIKE a son of Man… he has form… he has body…

3) And third, we can tell he is the King… the KINGDOM is given to him… this is the Messiah… the Savior King that Israel expected would come to sit on David’s throne forever.

And 4) Jesus used this term over 50 distinct times in the Gospels… he did it, not just to emphasize his humanity… but to identify with this one in Daniel’s vision who is given Dominion over all the earth.

Peoples, nations and languages serve him.

This is an incredible glimpse of God the Father and God the Son.

And between the two visions, we see at least...

Seven Ways God is Supreme

(Gospel Community Leaders, this would be a GREAT Scripture to guide your GC through a worship-based prayer time the next time you’re together)

1) Supreme in Purity (clothing white)

2) Supreme in Wisdom (hair like pure wool)

3) Supreme in Capacity (wheels)

Daniel is seeing the same chariot throne that Ezekiel saw… and the wheels symbolize the capacity for this throne to move wherever God wants it to be.

So in Ezekiel, he saw the chariot throne of God leave Jerusalem’s temple and it was devastating… but he also saw the same throne it by the shores of the Chabar canal in Babylon...

So the wheels demonstrate God’s capacity to be anywhere he wants to be in order to comfort, judge, and to act without delay or hassle)… this makes him supreme in capacity.

No earthly ruler can do that!

4) Supreme in Judgment (fire)

Fire= Glory, holiness, purity… and out of that perfect character, he judges perfectly.

Fire refines and fire consumes. And God can use his fery glory to judge and purify his people just like he can use it to judge and consume his foes.

5) Supreme in Worth (multitude of angelic servants)

6) Supreme in Authority (clouds of heaven… dominion, glory and a kingdom)

7) Supreme in Endurance (everlasting dominion given to the Son of Man)

THAT is UNDEFEATABLE SUPREMACY!

When you have that combination of attributes, who can stand against you??? And that is OUR GOD.

But right in the middle of these two heavenly visions of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man, there’s this little pipsqueak horn making noise on earth…

And Daniel was so CAPTIVATED by the Ancient of Days… but his attention was again called to earth by the noise of a beastly ruler…

I don’t want to minimize that.

This ruler is stirring up the nations… we are going to see that he will cause some REAL problems for God’s people.

It can be hard to focus on God when the chaos is swirly around you… even when God is the centerpiece of your vision.

But God will deal with this Antichrist… swiftly… and surely.

And our attention can once again return to the Son of Man.

When the noise of earthly rulers demands your attention, endure by looking upon the undefeatable supremacy of God.

Apply: But how can we do that? Practically speaking, how can we stay focused on Jesus when the cares and concerns of life in a fallen world distract us away?

I would recommend we take our cues from the ones around the throne. We see them doing two things… serving and standing.

Serving is a picture of participating in his reign. We get about the kingdom business of God.

If you find yourself anxious about the rulers of this world, maybe it’s because you are serving this world.

When we serve the Kingdom of God… when we get busy about his work… we stay focused on who the ultimate king really is.

Serve the Ancient of Days… participate in making known his coming kingdom so that more and more people can join in!

The second thing we see the saints around the throne doing is Standing… Standing is a picture of worship… of honor…

If you find yourself anxious about the rulers of this world… if you find yourself in knots about how chaotic it is… believe me, I can relate...

And what you need to do… in that moment… is take some time WORSHIPPING GOD.

Maybe stand to your feet in honor of his position as king...

Or fall on your knees in humility before him...

And then start praying… singing… acknowledging the supremacy of his purity, wisdom, dominion, judgement, worth, authority, and endurance.

Serve him and stand in worship.

Because our God is the Ancient of Days.

And God the Father sent God the Son… over 2000 years ago… to take on flesh and blood… to become a son of Man...

To live as God in the flesh… in supreme perfection… and in supreme humility...

And then to die in our place for our sin… the Son of Man was lifted up on a cross to die...

And as we look upon him… believing that he was hanging on that cross in OUR PLACE… paying for sin he did not commit...

We can be saved.

And then the Son of Man was lifted up in a different way… he would rise from the grave… in bodily form… and he ascended through the clouds to take his seat at the right hand of the Father…

And he will return, coming on the clouds of Heaven… first to rapture his church before the Great Tribulation and the little horn starts to reign.... and then WITH his church to defeat the beast and to establish his throne on earth.

And the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man is worthy of your worship. Even in the midst of whatever chaos you are going through.

Even when beastly rulers take advantage of that chaos for their own personal gain.

Jesus is still reigning now… and he will ultimately rule with a rod of iron then… and nothing can stop him.

If you want to endure beyond the beastly kings and kingdoms of this earth… turn from worshipping the gods of this world and worship Jesus instead.

And then look upon his undefeatable supremacy every day.

This is something we need to keep doing... Daniel continues to be troubled and distracted by this fourth beast even though he has seen the Son of Man reigning in purity...

Look at verse 15 [Read v. 15-17]

Daniel was troubled… the vision of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man was great… but he also remembered just how terrible those four beasts were… and in order to endure, he needed to know...

3) The Sure Future of God's Saints (v. 15-28)

One of the ways God produces endurance in us is by giving us a glimpse into the future THROUGH the scriptures… even right now through Daniel’s vision.

Understand: End Times prophecy is not just so that we can know what’s going to happen… it’s not so we can make all kinds of guesses about who is who and what is what… it’s not so we can fill up our mind with all sorts of numbers and symbols and get distracted from the true purpose of God’s people… it’s not so that we can start prepping for the apocalypse...

It’s so that we can faithfully endure the ever-changing kingdoms of this world.

The hope of our eternal future is meant to produce enduring faithfulness today.

So Daniel asks one of the Angels around the throne… and he’s happy to explain… remember, God is interested in revealing things to Daniel, not concealing them… this is his summary statement:

[Read v. 18]

The four beasts are Four Kings/ kingdoms (v. 23)... Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome

The Saints will be vindicated and they will possess the kingdom.

Awesome! We have a sweet short, sweet, happy ending… a quick answer to all our problems… let’s go home!

But Daniel is still really bothered by this fourth beast with the ten horns and the little horn.

[Read and explain v. 19-27]

[-Ten Kings... then an 11th that devours 3 of them... deterioration and division (the feet of the image in chapter 2)

-More details about the little horn... Blasphemy, Persecution, Redefinition of History and Redefinition of Morality... 3.5 years (see Revelation 13:5-10)

-The Court Shall sit in Judgment (Second Coming of Christ)]

Specifically we are talking about the Millennial Kingdom of the Son of Man.. the Messiah… followed by the eternal state...

We see in MANY places throughout the scriptures that Jesus gives his people a PARTICIPATION in his kingdom...

He gives them a measure of delegated authority… his saints rule in his kingdom as his representatives.

We believe that this is going to start with the nation of Israel… Remember… Daniel is writing down this prophecy as an encouragement for the Saints of Israel that there is still a future for them… that God has not given up on his promises to them…

We believe that even today God is going to fulfill all of his promises to TRUE Israel… to Faithful Israel… and that the throne of Jesus is the throne God promised to David and the nation of Israel.

We believe that during the tribulation… while the little horn is working against God and his Saints, the people of Israel will come to see Jesus as their true Messiah…

And they will be Martyred for him by the beast… but they will be raised to new life and given the kingdom.

But we also see throughout the scriptures that the blessing of reigning with Jesus is given… secondarily... to Gentile believes in the Church...

That while Israel and the Tribulation Saints take first priority, there will still be a place for us in the Kingdom.

Believers… we have been made fellow citizens with the saints of Israel… we have been grafted into their vine…

Paul wrote to Timothy, “The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;” (2 Timothy 2:11–12, ESV)

Once again… the sure future of the saints is meant to produce ENDURANCE now..

If we ENDURE, we will also reign with him.

If we deny him, he will also deny us.

When John was writing about this same beast that we see in Daniel 7 in his vision in Revelation 13, he said, “This is a call for the endurance of the saints.”

He meant the saints… not only of the future tribulation… but the saints of the church he was writing to now.

Church… we are called to endure.

Our vision at Oak Hill is to Equip SERVANT who FAITHFULLY abide, grow and ENDURE in Jesus. Endurance is essential.

The rulers of this world… those with power and privilege will act beastly… because they are following the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

It’s to be expected.

And it will sometimes wear us out. [Read v. 28]

Sometimes this chaotic, fallen world and it’s beastly rulers are alarming… concerning…

I don’t want to minimize that chaos by just saying, “Just look at God… what’s your problem???”

Obviously Daniel had a sufficiently hard time doing that.

He is worn out by what he saw.

And maybe you are feeling that too.

Maybe you are worn out by what you are seeing going on in our world...

Maybe you are anxious and troubled and tired...

I want to call you to hope this morning. There is hope for you to endure. And his name is Jesus.

The question is NOT, “Is the chaos of this world really that bad?”

The answer to that question is CLEARLY YES.

We don’t get anywhere by denying that.

But the real question… the ultimate question is, “Can we endure???”

And the answer to that is also yes. If we keep our eyes on the undefeatable supremacy of God, we will endure.

Apply: How would it change your daily walk with Christ to remember that he is coming again, that he will have the final victory, and that you will reign with him forever if you put your faith in him today? What are some ways you can keep the future reign of Jesus in focus this week?

We already mentioned serving him like his angels do...

Worshiping him, like those standing around his throne do...

I’d encourage you to keep reading Daniel… keep reading Revelation… and see there the undefeatable supremacy of God...

and then go live like it is your sure future hope.