A Very Bad Dream, Indeed
Notes
Transcript
A Very Bad Dream, Indeed
Daniel 7:1-7, 15-23, 28
I. Intro: The Complexity of Visionary Literature
Can we all agree on one thing? Visionary literature in the Bible is hard to
understand! This morning we are entering the heart of the book of Daniel.
Daniel chapter 7 is recognized by all as the centerpiece of the book, both
literarily and theologically. We’ll get the setting before us in just a few
minutes, but let me make a couple of introductory remarks about how we’re
going to approach this difficult passage. First, we’ll be looking at this chapter
for the next three weeks, including today. This morning, I will seek to provide
an overview, of sorts, and we’ll make sure we get the main message of the
chapter. The message of Daniel 7 is: God rules over the beastly kingdoms of
the world, and he will judge the wicked and establish his kingdom for his
people through the Son of Man, even as persecution of God’s people
increases.
Second, for today’s message, I am going to avoid most of the controversial or
debated parts of the passage. Next Sunday, we’ll approach the fourth beast
and the little horn and wade into the weeds of debate, while at the same time
hoping to get at a clear understanding of this aspect of the vision. For this,
we’ll be exploring a lot of other Scripture, as well as considering a bit of
history outside of Scripture along the way. Then, on Easter Sunday, we’ll
hone in on the central and most important part of the vision, the heavenly
throne room and the arrival of the “one like a son of man.” We will see how
fitting it is to celebrate the victorious coming of the Son of Man on Easter
Sunday.
Third, and finally, I have worked hard to understand the ins and outs of this
passage as it stands in Daniel; I have worked hard to fit my understanding of
the passage with other Scripture; and I have worked hard to understand the
fulfillments of this prophetic vision. I do not pretend, however, to kid myself
into thinking that I will say “the last word” or provide “the definitive
treatment” of this passage over the next few weeks. I believe my
understanding is coherent and fits with the words of Scripture, and I will seek
to persuade you to see things the way I do. But let me remind each and every
one of us, including myself: we are individually responsible for our
understanding of Scripture. I am accountable to God for how I understand his
Word, and so are you. I hope you’ll listen and consider carefully, but may the
text of Scripture hold its sway over all of us. If you don’t see the pieces fitting
together the way I do, that’s okay. Be patient with me. I promise, I’ll be
patient with you. Many of you know why I am saying these things, but I’ll
seek to be as plain and clear as I can. When it comes to the fulfillment of this
prophetic vision, on key points I see things differently than most of you have
probably been taught before. On key points, I disagree with popular Bible
teachers such as John MacArthur, Chuck Swindoll, Chip Ingram, and David
Jeremiah. These differences will become plainer and more frequent as we
continue in the book of Daniel from here on out. Our disagreements are not
because of any difference of belief about the authority, inerrancy, or
infallibility of the Scriptures. As I hope will become clear, our differences
come because there are genuine difficulties, ambiguities in the text itself. This
passage is hard!
So, without further ado, I’d like to read the whole passage first. My exposition
this morning will focus primarily on verses 1-7, 15-23, and verse 28, but let’s
get the whole thing in front of us. Follow along in your Bible. Daniel chapter
7:
II. The Impact of the Vision on Daniel (Dan. 7:28)
I want to begin at the end for just a moment and consider the impact of the
vision on Daniel, as he records it in verse 28. He was disturbed and sickened
by the vision. We’ll see Daniel the prophet having similar reactions to his
visions throughout the rest of the book. Here, it’s unclear whether he
understands the vision’s meaning. For later visions, it will be clear that Daniel
does not understand. The one whom God used to interpret the visions and
mysterious messages from God to pagan kings is not given direct insight into
the meaning of his own visions! Daniel testified to the pagan kings that he
didn’t have the ability to interpret dreams; rather, he trusted God to provide
the interpretations when they were needed. But, for Daniel’s own dreams, he
will require the assistance of angels, and even with that assistance, he still
won’t always understand. I draw our attention to this fact just to temper our
expectations of being able to fully understand these visions. We do have a
couple of things Daniel didn’t have, however. We have the Holy Spirit living
in us as Christians, who enables us to gain understanding of what’s been
recorded in Scripture. We also have the benefit of historical hindsight; some
of Daniel’s visions have been fulfilled in history, and we can analyze the
details with hindsight. And, for some of the details at least, we have Spiritinspired Scriptural comment on the fulfillment of these things. Nevertheless,
feel Daniel’s discomfort!
Now, let’s back up and consider the setting of the vision in verse 1.
III. The Setting of the Vision (Dan. 7:1)
We talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but, when we readers come to
chapter 7, we’ve got to remember that the chronology has shifted. We’re
actually jumping back about 15 years, to about 553 BC, the year the
Babylonian king Nabonidus made his son Belshazzar vice-regent. This is an
interesting fact to know because this may provide a rationale of sorts for why
God delivered this message to Daniel right at this point. As we’ll see, the main
feature of the dream is a son becoming vice-regent of a kingdom. To spoil the
ending, we see in this chapter God the Father naming his Son vice-regent over
all things and all people. Seeing that historical reality unfold before his eyes
with Nabonidus and Belshazzar might have provided Daniel a little insight
into the meaning of what he sees in the vision.
We should also recall that this chapter is written in Aramaic. Daniel started
writing this book in Hebrew in chapter 1, and then, in chapter 2, switched to
writing in Aramaic, and he’s been writing in Aramaic ever since, and he’ll
return to writing in Hebrew in chapter 8, through the end of the book.
Recognizing this language shift, we can see the complex structure of the book,
as outlined on this slide. Chapter 7 does double-duty as the conclusion to the
Aramaic section and the introduction to Daniel’s visions. Daniel has
composed the Aramaic section with these parallels, so that the dream of King
Nebuchadnezzar, recorded in chapter 2, lines up with Daniel’s vision,
recorded in chapter 7, and their contents and meaning are similar.
I want to take a moment and provide some comparison and contrast between
those two visions, however. Both visions depict four kingdoms which are
replaced by a fifth kingdom, which is the kingdom of God. Nebuchadnezzar’s
dream depicted the four kingdoms as metals in a massive statue; Daniel’s
vision depicts the four kingdoms as beasts. The difference may have to do
with the perspective reflected in each vision. For the pagan king, God chose to
communicate in a way that would line up with his values and his
understanding of human kingship and empire-building. The kings and
kingdoms are unified in a pagan idol, reflecting the idolatry inherent in all
human kingdoms, which would have been a good thing from the pagan
perspective. But to Daniel, God communicates the divine perspective. The
kings and kingdoms of history are like aggressive beasts, and the fourth
kingdom in the vision is a horrific monster, unlike any known animals on
earth.
In both chapter 2 and chapter 7, God’s sovereignty over human kingdoms is
emphasized. In chapter 7, the passive voice is used to bring this out, what is
often called “the divine passive”—using the passive voice to point to God’s
action without stating it outright. You can see this with the first beast in verse
4—“its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up…and made to stand…and
the mind of a man was given to it,” all by God—the second beast in verse 5—
“it was raised up on one side…and it was told, “Arise, devour much flesh”;
God is the one who elevated one side and gave the command to get up and eat
more—then, for the third beast in verse 6—“dominion was given to it” by
God. We see the same feature in verses 11-12: “the beast was killed, and its
body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the
beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a
season and a time.” Then, with reference to the little horn’s war against the
saints in verse 25, “they shall be given into his hand.” Likewise, the judgment
of the king represented by the little horn in verse 26, “his dominion shall be
taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end.” All those passive
voice verbs refer to God’s sovereign action. God is, as always, the main actor!
A contrast to note between chapter 2 and chapter 7 has to do with the
depiction of the fourth kingdom. I, like most students of Scripture, believe that
chapter 2 and chapter 7 depict the same sequence of four historical kingdoms,
and I believe the fourth kingdom is the Roman Empire. In chapter 2, the
fourth kingdom’s weakness was highlighted with the mixture of iron and clay
in the feet. But in Daniel’s vision of chapter 7, the fourth kingdom’s strength
and ferocity are emphasized. So, the fourth kingdom, which is only important
because it provides the historical context for the arrival of God’s kingdom, is
viewed from different perspectives. In chapter 2, its weakness is highlighted,
but not much else is said about it, but in chapter 7 Daniel wants to know more
about this fourth kingdom, and he is granted some extra information. So, we
should expect that chapter 7 will tell us more than chapter 2.
One final contrast to notice: the way God’s kingdom is depicted. In chapter 2,
God’s kingdom is depicted as a small stone that utterly destroys a giant
metallic statue. That’s surprising, shocking even! In chapter 7, the arrival of
God’s kingdom is illustrated by the arrival of a single human being. That a
single human being could be the cause of the judgment of these beasts, at one
level, is just as surprising. Consider who wins between man versus lion, man
versus bear, man versus leopard, or man versus supernatural monster.
However, biblically speaking, this is exactly what should happen. Part of
what’s being depicted here is how wrong the world has become since the fall
of Adam. The four beasts reflect fallen humanity’s rule of this world. But, in
Genesis 1, God grants ruling authority to humanity over all beasts! God
commanded Adam and Eve together, in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of
the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that
moves on the earth.” Adam and Eve were to be God’s vice-regents ruling over
this world. How did they fall? Instead of exercising dominion over the
animals of the world, they obeyed the one that spoke to them! From that time
on, human expression of authority has been twisted and broken, monstrous
even. Thus, the vision is depicting a human being taking his rightful role as
vice-regent to rule over this world forever.
Now, as we begin to look at the details, let’s consider a possible key to
understanding this vision: the correlation of heaven and earth.
IV. The Correlation of Heaven and Earth
We’ve read the chapter, which is made up of Daniel’s description of what he
saw in the vision and an angel’s interpretation of what Daniel saw. We will
need to pay close attention to the angelic interpreter’s explanation and follow
his lead for understanding the details. However, there is a feature of visionary
literature that is often overlooked but that is very relevant for understanding
this particular chapter. Sometimes, a vision depicts something going on in
heaven and also something happening on earth. A helpful question to ask is
what’s the relationship between the two things.
The other day, while I was writing this sermon, I was watching Eliana playing
with her toys. She was running around the room, picking up toy food and
arranging it on the coffee table. As I was watching her, I also saw Tamara
moving furniture around and cleaning up other areas of the room. Now, those
two things were happening at the same time. But I can’t describe both events
simultaneously; I have to describe them to you one at a time, in sequence. I
can clue you in that they were happening at the same time, but you can’t hear
about them happening at the same time. You have to receive my re-telling of
what happened in sequence.
Something like that appears to be happening with Daniel here. He’s seeing
two things happening all at once. He does clue us into this, but our English
Bibles don’t always bring this out consistently. Daniel uses a specific phrase
nine times throughout the passage. We see it first in verse 2. The ESV just
says “I saw,” but the phrase is exactly the same as we find again in verse 4,
“as I looked.” It’s a very interesting phrase in Aramaic, and reading it out loud
in Aramaic, it’s almost like he’s punctuated the whole passage with this
phrase. A more literal translation would be, “As I was looking.” Then, he uses
the phrase “in the night visions” to draw attention to the things he wants to
emphasize, namely the fourth beast and the arrival of the one like a son of
man.
But the key thing to notice is that verses 9-10 are introduced with the words
“As I was looking,” and then in verse 11 he indicates that, while he was
seeing the heavenly throne room, he was still hearing the great words of the
little horn. So, the key point to recognize here is that the heavenly reality
being depicted here overlaps with the earthly reality associated with the little
horn’s activities.
Now, let’s consider some of the details. First, we can look at Daniel’s
description of the beasts, verses 2-7.
V. Daniel’s Description of the Beasts (Dan. 7:2-7)
First, notice the backdrop of the vision in verse 2. Daniel saw wind swirling
from every direction, a wild hurricane, “stirring up the great sea.” For Daniel,
that would’ve been the Mediterranean Sea, but more importantly the sea has
symbolic associations with chaos, seemingly untamable power, destructive
danger for human beings, and ultimately the sea becomes an image for the
mass of fallen, sinful humanity. Daniel could’ve made this association from
his knowledge of Isaiah 57:20:
But the wicked are like the tossing sea;
for it cannot be quiet,
and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
In the book of Revelation, John sees a vision of the New Creation, and he
observes in awe, in Revelation 21:1, “and the sea was no more.” The reason
it’s such good news that there is no sea on the new earth is not because there
will be no bodies of water, which I highly doubt is the point; rather, all the
negative connotations that the sea had for ancient people will be no more in
the New Creation. No more chaos, no more sin, no more brokenness. Daniel,
by contrast, sees wicked beasts come up out of the wicked sea.
Look again at verses 3-7: 3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea,
different from one another. 4 The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings.
Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the
ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was
given to it. 5 And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised
up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told,
‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ 6 After this I looked, and behold, another, like a
leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads,
and dominion was given to it. 7 After this I saw in the night visions, and
behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had
great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left
with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had
ten horns.
The first three beasts are like animals that Daniel knows: a lion, a bear, and a
leopard. This particular trio of animals, however, would’ve probably drawn
Daniel’s mind to his Bible. In an announcement of judgment against the
northern kingdom, Israel, through the prophet Hosea, Yahweh had said, in
Hosea 13:7-8:
7
So I am to them like a lion;
like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
8
I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
I will tear open their breast,
and there I will devour them like a lion,
as a wild beast would rip them open.
Thus, Daniel’s initial thoughts, upon seeing these grotesque distortions of a
lion, a bear, and a leopard, would’ve perhaps turned to God’s usage of foreign
nations to judge and punish God’s people. Moreover, notice that each of the
first three beasts, though somewhat like animals Daniel could identify in
nature, each of them is carnivorous, and the first and third are hybrids, land
animals with bird wings. Each of them would’ve been considered unclean
abominations to the Jews and thus to Daniel.
With the first beast, having eagles’ wings plucked off by God, being made to
stand upright by God, and receiving a human mind from God, it’s hard to
imagine that Daniel would not have been reminded of King Nebuchadnezzar’s
experience of being restored to power over the Babylonian Empire, after
God’s judgment of him for his pride. With the second beast, we notice the
unevenness of the bear; Daniel describes it as propped up on one side in some
way, and then a voice, presumably God’s, commands the bear to continue
devouring much flesh. Then, the four-headed, four-winged leopard doesn’t get
any elaboration, other than that God grants dominion to it, which already hints
at the truth that these beasts refer to kings and kingdoms.
The fourth beast is unlike anything Daniel knows from nature; he has nothing
in his experience or knowledge to compare it with. Daniel notes its distinction
from the other three beasts, namely, it has horns. The first three beasts did not
have horns, but the fourth beast has ten horns. Now, I’m going to briefly
summarize what Daniel describes through the rest of verses 8-14; we’ll look
more closely at the details over the next couple of weeks. As Daniel focuses in
on these horns, he observes an eleventh horn, described as “little,” coming up
and God ripping out three of the original horns. The eleventh horn is weird;
it’s got human eyes and a loud human mouth. Apparently, Daniel heard what
the horn’s mouth was saying, but he did not record that for us.
While the horn was speaking, Daniel’s attention is diverted to a heavenly
scene. Daniel sees God sitting on his throne in heaven preparing to announce a
verdict of some kind. Then, Daniel shifts his description back to the little
horn’s speaking. Suddenly, Daniel sees the fourth beast being slaughtered and
its carcass being burned. But then, in verse 12, he parenthetically backs up to
describe what had happened to the first three beasts. All we need to notice
right now is that they are treated somehow differently than the fourth beast;
rather than being destroyed, God removes their authority but allows them to
keep on living.
Then, Daniel returns his gaze to the heavenly scene, where he sees a human
riding the clouds! This would’ve been shocking! In all of the ancient world,
and everywhere else in the Bible, only gods ride clouds! We have here a
figure that Daniel can only describe as looking like a human but acting like
God! I hope you can appreciate how difficult all of this would’ve been for
Daniel to process. He’s got no categories for much of what he sees in this
vision. This human approaches God sitting on his judgment seat, and God
grants universal and eternal dominion to him. The sovereignty that has
repeatedly been ascribed to God and to God alone throughout Daniel is here
being handed over to a human being! To understand what is going on in these
crucial verses, the most important in the chapter, we must wait until Easter to
explore in detail.
Now, let’s press on into verses 15-18 and pick up Daniel’s initial response and
his request for help.
VI. Daniel’s Initial Response and Request for Help (Dan. 7:15-18)
15
“As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my
head alarmed me. 16 I approached one of those who stood there and asked him
the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the
interpretation of the things. 17 ‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall
arise out of the earth. 18 But the saints of the Most High shall receive the
kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.’
Anxious and alarmed! Fearful and disturbed! The prophet is overwhelmed by
what he has seen, and he doesn’t understand the message. So, just as
sometimes you and I actively participate in our dreams, so Daniel is a
participant in this vision. He asks one of the angels standing around the throne
in heaven to explain what he just saw. Verses 17-18 provide the angel’s
summary statement, and it provides us with the main message of this chapter.
The four beasts that Daniel saw come up out of the sea represent four kings
that arise from the earth. Notice that the angel doesn’t specify which kings
these beasts represent. Thus, we step into the realm of speculation when we
seek to specify. Nevertheless, given the larger context of the book of Daniel,
and with support from history, we can pretty confidently line the four beasts
up with the four kingdoms represented in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of chapter
2, and there are clues in the descriptions of the first three beasts that can be
recognized to support our historical speculations.
The first king is Nebuchadnezzar, and, as will become clear with the fourth
kingdom, the beasts represent not merely a single king but the entire kingdom
that each king represents. As we saw earlier, the eagles’ wings being plucked
from the lion’s back could’ve been a hint Daniel would’ve recognized
connecting it with the Babylonian king and his empire. The second king is
probably Cyrus, the first king of the Medo-Persian Empire. The lopsided
nature of the bear could reflect the elevation of the Persian kingdom under
Cyrus’s rule, becoming dominant in its partnership with the Median kingdom.
When Daniel sees this vision, the merger between the Median and Persian
nations is developing, and in about a decade, Cyrus would lead the MedoPersian armies to conquer Babylon. The ribs in the bear’s mouth could
represent the nations they had already conquered by Daniel’s day, and God’s
command to the bear to devour more flesh could represent God’s intent that
the Medo-Persian Empire would continue its expansion, including
overcoming the Babylonian Empire. The third king is probably Alexander the
Great and the Greek empire. The speed of a leopard would be multiplied with
four wings, and having four heads could indicate its ability to move rapidly in
all directions, thus symbolizing the speedy conquest of Alexander establishing
an empire geographically more extensive than any previous empire.
When Daniel asks about this fourth beast, the angel explains it in terms of a
kingdom, rather than a single king. Given the historical progression and given
the parallel with the statue of chapter two, which Daniel might’ve noticed in
the unusual iron teeth of the beast, we’re probably on solid ground to say that
the fourth kingdom is the historical Roman Empire. Understandably, Daniel
wants to know more about this fourth kingdom, and if commentaries
throughout history are any indication, so does everybody!
But, before we look at what the angel says about that fourth kingdom, notice
again verse 18. The true focus of the vision and its meaning, the positive
message of the vision, is that “the saints of the Most High shall receive the
kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.” How emphatic!
Where Daniel had seen “one like a son of man,” a single human figure,
approaching the throne of God in heaven, here the angel speaks of the saints,
God’s holy people. Curious. On Easter Sunday, we’ll flesh this out more.
Now, let’s review Daniel’s extra description of the fourth beast and the
angel’s comments regarding this fourth kingdom in verses 19-23:
VII.
Daniel’s Extra Description of the Fourth Beast and the Angel’s
Comments (Dan. 7:19-23)
19
“Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was
different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and
claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what
was left with its feet, 20 and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the
other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had
eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its
companions. 21 As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed
over them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the
saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the
kingdom.
23
“Thus he said:
‘As for the fourth beast,
there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth,
which shall be different from all the kingdoms,
and it shall devour the whole earth,
and trample it down, and break it to pieces.
Daniel adds a detail to his description of the fourth beast; here, he mentions
for the first time “claws of bronze.” Then, he adds an assessment of the little
horn that he hadn’t mentioned earlier; at the end of verse 20, he says that this
little horn “seemed greater than its companions.” It’s little, but it seemed to
Daniel’s perception greater in some unspecified way than the other horns.
Note also that Daniel describes what happened to the three horns differently
than he did at first. Back in verse 8, he had said that as the little horn came up,
“three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots,” using the passive voice
probably to indicate God’s uprooting of these horns. Now, in verse 20, he
simply says that the three horns “fell” in the presence of the little horn. More
on that next week. But the most important addition is in verse 21: “As I
looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them.” Daniel’s
initial description of the little horn focused on its loud-mouthed boasting, but
here he indicates that he also saw this little horn somehow successfully
assaulting the saints.
I want to belabor this point for just a moment. Up to this point, Daniel has not
mentioned that he saw the saints, God’s holy people, in his vision. The angel
was the first one to mention the saints, in verse 18. It’s almost as though when
the angel mentions the saints, Daniel gets to sort of rewind the tape, back up
the vision and get a second look, and now he notices the presence of the saints
in the vision. Or there’s something else going on. Daniel had seen the arrival
of “one like a son of man” who then received ruling authority from God in
heaven, but the angel didn’t refer directly to “one like a son of man.” Where
we’d expect him to mention this figure, instead he speaks of the saints. We’ll
wrestle further with this connection in two weeks, on Easter Sunday, but it
does seem from Daniel’s comment in verse 21 that he did, in fact, see the
saints in distinction from the “one like a son of man” in his vision, and he saw
the little horn warring against them on earth.
But this warfare has a specified end date, a time limit. The warfare that Daniel
saw in the vision only continued, verse 22, “until the Ancient of Days came,
and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came
when the saints possessed the kingdom.” So, Daniel has taken the angel’s
explanation from verse 18 and understood the significance of the “one like a
son of man” receiving the eternal kingdom of God as being a judgment, a
verdict pronounced for the saints. We’ll tease out the significance of these
things over the next couple of weeks.
For now, let’s consider what further information the angel provides about the
fourth kingdom, and then we’ll close our time together this morning
considering some application of the big picture we’ve sketched out so far.
Hear again the words of the angel in verse 23:
Thus he said:
‘As for the fourth beast,
there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth,
which shall be different from all the kingdoms,
and it shall devour the whole earth,
and trample it down, and break it to pieces.
The angel doesn’t add much to our understanding of the fourth beast. He does
specify that it refers to a fourth kingdom, without focusing on a specific king,
until we get down to the horns. And contrasting it as “different from all the
kingdoms” leads us to our proper understanding that the three previous beasts
were not merely representing individual kings but also their kingdoms, their
empires that would endure long after the particular kings were dead and gone.
But I want to focus our attention on one point that has relevance for our larger
biblical understanding of end times theology. Notice that the angel says, “it
shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces.”
First, we recognize that the angel is still using beastly metaphor to describe
the actions of the fourth kingdom; he’s not interpreting the metaphor.
Devouring, trampling, and shattering is not a literal description of what the
fourth kingdom will do to the whole earth. Second, the reference to the whole
earth should also be taken as a figure of speech. We should not conclude from
this reference that the fourth kingdom will be a global empire, or, as is often
suggested, that the Bible teaches that there will be a one-world government at
the end of history, ruled by a figure the Bible refers to as “antichrist.” We’ll
talk more about this next week. The phrase “the whole earth” is the same
exact phrase we saw in Daniel 2:39, referring to the third kingdom, the MedoPersian Empire, which Daniel said “will rule over all the earth.” Historically,
we know that this was not literally true. Now, this is also the phrase we saw in
Daniel 2:35, speaking of “the stone that struck the image,” which “became a
great mountain and filled the whole earth.” Knowing that this is God’s eternal
kingdom, we can indeed take that literally!
Let me say one more thing about this fourth kingdom, as it’s described here.
This goes back to something we saw earlier, how Daniel might’ve recognized
the prophetic words of Hosea in the background of this vision, which
would’ve helped him see that the rise of these four kingdoms, in all their
beastly violence, is ultimately the work of God pouring out his wrath against
sinful humanity, using one nation to judge and punish other nations, including
and especially his own people. The image of “devouring the whole earth” is
used several times in the prophets to describe God pouring out his wrath,
God’s judgment against sinful people. The very judgment of Judah through
Babylon is described with this language in Jeremiah 8:16-17:
16
The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;
at the sound of the neighing of their stallions
the whole land quakes.
[And that phrase, “the whole land” is the same exact phrase translated “the
whole earth” in other places, but here it’s clearly directed against the land of
Judah.]
They come and devour the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
17
For behold, I am sending among you serpents,
adders that cannot be charmed,
and they shall bite you,
declares Yahweh.
But the prophet Zephaniah pushes the point further and universalizes the
message, using the same image of “devouring the whole earth,” and I’m pretty
sure Daniel would’ve known the words of Zephaniah as well. Consider
Zephaniah 1:18:
Neither their silver nor their gold
shall be able to deliver them
on the day of the wrath of Yahweh.
In the fire of his jealousy,
all the earth shall be consumed [same word as “devoured”];
for a full and sudden end
he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Daniel must’ve understood the angel’s words as an outworking of God’s
judgment through this fourth kingdom, not just on Judah but on other nations
as well. But, of course, the vision reveals God’s judgment of the fourth
kingdom as well. Just as God had used Babylon to bring judgment against the
wicked Jews and then God used the Medes and Persians to bring judgment
against the wicked Babylonians, so also God would use the Romans to
continue holding the Jews under his judgment and also execute historical
judgments against other nations. This is the way God works through the
movements of nations and political powers in this world.
Next week, we’ll take a closer look at the horns of this fourth beast, and we’ll
consider how the book of Revelation re-uses Daniel’s vision and what it all
might mean. But to close this morning, let’s consider how we must follow the
way of the Son of Man and not the way of the beasts.
VIII.
Conclusion: Don’t Follow the Way of the Beasts
The world around us is quite beastly, wouldn’t you agree? No nation or people
group in history has lived out the calling of Adam, to be fully human,
representing God’s rule in this world. Many individuals and groups of people
have exercised dominion, have attained and utilized power in the world, but
none has done so the way God designed. Some nations, like ours, have had
just laws, on paper; some nations, like ours, have sought to define good and
evil according to God’s Word. But no nation, including ours, has actually
developed a just society. No nation, including ours, has ever reflected the
image of God as God intended in the beginning. Even our nation is showing
its animalistic nature ever more clearly. Fallen humanity cannot help but
descend into beasthood.
But the warning comes to the church as well. We Christians can follow the
way of the beasts; we Christians can act quite beastly ourselves. In fact, the
apostle Paul warns us of the danger of acting like wild animals. In Galatians
5:15, we read, “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are
not consumed by one another.” We use this kind of imagery to describe our
conflicts sometimes, don’t we? A wife complains that her husband is “barking
orders” at her, metaphorically implying that he’s a vicious dog seeking to
intimidate her. Or, a husband might refer to his wife as “bull-headed,”
comparing her stubbornness to the way a bull prefers to stay put. Or, we refer
to our teenager’s room as a “pig-sty,” implying that our teenager’s a dirty pig
that likes to wallow around in filth.
I also find it interesting that in this country our two major political parties are
commonly symbolized by animals. Some of you probably know the history of
how those symbols developed, but just consider: what’s the first thing that
comes to mind when you see the Democratic Donkey? In what ways do you
think Democrats are like donkeys? And what’s the first thing that comes to
mind when you see the Republican Elephant? In what ways do you think
Republicans are like elephants? Do you tend to interpret that symbolism as
positive for the party of which you are a member, but negative for the other
guys? It seems that both symbols were originally intended to criticize “the
other party,” but then the symbols stuck when the Democrats found something
endearing and valuable about the donkey and the Republicans found
something endearing and valuable about the elephant, and both parties now
seem to accept the symbolism for themselves, to one degree or another.
The apostle Paul was reflecting on the state of the Galatian churches, which
had been filled with some measure of conflict and dissension because of some
teachers who had come in seeking to lead them astray from the true gospel.
Paul will have none of that. While he wants the Galatians to stand firm against
the false teaching, and he wants the false teachers to go away and experience
the judgment of God themselves, he doesn’t want to see the churches breaking
into factions, disunified and arguing, biting and devouring each other.
Famously, Paul gives a host of “one-another” commands to believers
throughout his letters that positively characterize how Christians should treat
each other. Here is one place where the “one-another” command is a warning
of how relating together as Christians can degenerate into beastly, destructive
actions.
In the context, Paul is highlighting the nature of Christian freedom, and he
perceives a danger that Christians, in the name of personal, individual
freedom, could become hostile toward other believers. Christians can give in
to an aggressive desire to protect oneself, to protect “my” perceived rights,
that leads them to being overly critical, gossiping about other Christians’
behavior or preferences, and pridefully puffing out their chests about their
own preferences. This has happened in churches over the issue of wearing
masks, restructuring gatherings, and attempting to respect governmental
guidance. I’m grateful that I haven’t seen much of that here.
But, I do want to say a word of warning that will become ever-more relevant
as we continue through Daniel. Let each of us beware of having a cherished
perspective on how the future is supposed to unfold, so much so that we’re
willing to bite or devour those who might hold to different understandings.
Painting a complete picture of what the Bible teaches about the future is
complicated, and we need to extend grace to those who put the picture
together differently. I will seek to be clear on what I believe, and I am not in
any way suggesting that we shouldn’t talk about these things. Some, halfjokingly I hope, say they’re “pan-millennialists,” because they believe it will
“all pan out in the end,” and the implication seems to be that the details don’t
really matter that much. At one level, I agree; I want us to recognize that
certain aspects of the future will remain unclear to us until they happen. But,
at another level, I strongly disagree. God has revealed certain clear things to
us about the future, and we should seek to understand what he has revealed, to
the best of our abilities, relying on the Spirit’s illumination, in conversation
with other believers, with a heavy dose of Spirit-empowered humility. We
don’t want fights and quarrels about theology; we do want healthy
conversations about what the Bible says. Don’t let the pendulum swing too
far; to avoid devouring each other, surely we don’t have to avoid talking to
each other at all about these things, right?
What does Paul command as the alternative to following the way of the
beasts? Galatians 5:14, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall
love your neighbor as yourself.’” Or, as Jesus said repeatedly, “Love one
another as I have loved you.” You must recognize already that the “one like a
son of man” that Daniel sees in his vision is Jesus. So, instead of following the
way of the beasts, we follow the way of the Son of Man, the truly human way,
of self-sacrificial love for one another. The only way to truly reflect the image
of God in this world is to be “renewed in knowledge after the image of” Jesus,
to borrow a phrase from Colossians 3:10. To be truly human, to be delivered
from our tendency to go the way of the beasts, we must be rescued from the
power of the beasts. There is one human being who has lived a life untainted
by beastly properties, and he laid down his perfect life as a sacrifice to pay for
our failures to live fully human lives. He lived as a man but then died like an
animal, a lamb slain on an altar, giving his life out of love for beastly sinners.
He is the Last Adam, and he has come to subdue the beast of sinful humanity
and to execute the final defeat of the beast that talked like a human in the
garden of Eden, the serpent that led the first Adam and his bride into sin and
ultimately to their death. And this sacrificed man has risen from the dead;
death could not hold the sinless man, and he has proven his victorious death,
his sacrifice accepted by God in the place of sinners, and he now sits on his
royal throne, exercising his sovereign rule, his everlasting dominion over the
beastly kingdoms of this world. We now wait for his final execution of
judgment against the beastly kingdoms when he returns. In the meantime, the
only hope for human beings caught up in following the way of the beasts is to
follow the way of Jesus, to trust him, to believe that his death and resurrection
were effective for you, to renounce permanently the way of the beasts in
repentance, and to live forevermore as one of the saints, the people set apart as
holy for service to God and to the Lamb. “Who would have thought that a
lamb could rescue the souls of man?” Or as another older hymn says, “And
somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory! Oh victory in Jesus, my
Savior forever; he sought me and he bought me with his redeeming blood; he
loved me ‘ere I knew him and all my love is due him; he plunged me to
victory beneath the cleansing flood.”