Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.1UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.1UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.63LIKELY
Sadness
0.23UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.65LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.41UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.93LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.77LIKELY
Extraversion
0.15UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.3UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.72LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
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.
There were stories that showed the grace of God in pursuing the hearts of pagan kings.
They were stories that demonstrated God’s power, his ability to govern in the nations of earth, and God’s capacity to know and order the future of mankind.
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 chapter keep in mind that there is a little different purpose involved in this kind of prophecy:
God is revealing Himself in these visions.
Watch out for the characteristics and actions of God.
These visions are an extension of the truth that pervades Daniel’s Story — God is the Almighty God of Heaven that rules on earth.
God’s purpose is not to provide every details so we can plot out every future event.
He gives us these prophecies so that we can look back at them and realize that God really does know the future.
Because we know that God’s Word has come true, we can look to the future with confidence, knowing that God is in control.
God wants us to know enough about the future to prepare our hearts and lives for His plans.
In the next three chapters of Daniel we’re going to explore time-sensitive prophecies.
These apocalyptic prophecies require us to think and study carefully.
Here are three good principles for interpreting this kind of prophecy:
Let the Bible tell you the meaning of the symbols
Apocalyptic prophecies are grounded in time that almost always begins in the time of the prophet and extends long ages into the future—usually to the time when God sets up His kingdom.
Time itself is symbolic — a day = a year
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.
I have a possible timeline on the screen.
If you go online you’ll find most scholars would disagree with me, but it all comes down to who you think Belshazzar is.
I won’t bore you with the details, so the short version goes like this.
Some people think that Belshazzar is the son of Nebuchadnezzar, Evil Murdoch.
But in the early 20th century that was disproven by documents discovered in Babylon that show 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, 539 BC, Babylon was conquered by the Persians, we can trace Daniel 7 to 541 BC.
The year isn’t critical to the purpose of the chapter, but it does ground the prophecy in time and place.
And it underscores the point we made earlier that the prophecy will usually begin in the time of the prophet.
Let’s look at these facts.
What was this vision that Daniel saw?
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 dicipher every symbol and understand every possible detail.
That’s a good idea, and something you should do at some point.
Why a lion?
What are the wings?
What does it mean that it stands on its feet or has the mind of a man?
All these are good questions, and the Bible has answers for each of those questions.
But today we’re going to go the other direction and look at the big picture rather than all the minutia.
What is the overall theme and message of this prophecy?
What direction does the interpreting angel take when he gives Daniel the interpretation?
Let’s keep reading and make sure we’ve got the whole picture before we jump to any conclusions:
We almost have all the players now.
Keep them in your mind—a lion, a bear, a leapard, a strange beast, 10 horns, a little horn, and then… The Ancient of Days:
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 audibly different because the scene has changed.
We were first talking about an earthly scene with beasts, but now we look up and see 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 that serve Him.
Just so there is no doubt about who the ancient of days is, read Psalm 90:2
Daniel is looking up at this heavenly courtroom scene with judges and the Ancient of Days and record books.
And then his attention is diverted by some words that he hears down here on earth:
Notice how the words change again.
They’re no longer in a poetic form.
Now we’re back 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, he sees that BECAUSE of the words of this creature, it is destroyed and the other beasts are conquered and beaten down as well.
In verse 13 the scene changes back to heaven for the final scene of this vision:
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
What does this all mean?
We could brainstorm about these symbols and try to figure it out, but that’s not what Daniel did.
The Bible says that he was troubled and alarmed.
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:
Now, if you were to go to Revelation you’d discover in Revelation 17:15 that the sea or waters that the beast came from are peoples and nations and languages.
But that’s not too difficult to grasp 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 from the earth ruled the land around the Mediterranean Sea.
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:
Daniel was a little worried.
The stuff he saw in his vision was troubling him.
And prophecy sometimes troubles us.
Adventists, as well as many other Christian traditions, have a preocupation with prophecy.
We pay attention to the details and we care about the minutia.
We try to figure out how each piece fits into history.
And that’s not bad.
God intended for us to have prophecy so we could be prepared for what will come.
But His point isn’t just preparation.
His point in telling us the future is so that we’ll trust him.
“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,
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.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9