Daniel 7 Series: (Part 1) The Kingdom of God is Here

Today we begin a 6 part series that will cover Daniel chapter 7, as well as lay some important foundational groundwork for studying eschatology and understanding how the Kingdom of Christ operates in this world.

To do this we will be covering some very popular and interesting topics to most Christians, and even to some non Christians.

Daniel 7 opens up the conversation about the Antichrist, the tribulation, judgement and the suffering of the saints, the second coming of Christ and the Millennial kingdom.

I know I can speak for the other elders who will share this series, that we do plan to teach the Scriptures with conviction, and at times will perhaps even seek to persuade you when that seems appropriate, but we would never want to turn an open-handed issue into a gospel issue. The most important aspect of this series is that we grow in Christ, that we believe His Word, and have an unshakable hope in the Gospel.

So what’s my task today, other than that introduction?

I want to talk to you this morning about Kingdom Theology. Knowing what the Kingdom of God is will help you handle the remaining subjects we will cover, and the rest of Daniel for that matter.

Let’s look at Daniel 7 and get some context...

Daniel 7 open up with a timestamp.

He receives this first of 3 dreams in the first year of Belshezzar’s reign. So, we’re no longer in a chronological narrative of history, but have made a complete switch to prophetic writing - which I’ll just clarify one thing, is that these prophecies are written in the 6th century BC, not anywhere near the last 2 millennia,

They are definitely future from Daniel’s day, but not necessarily future from our time. That’s important.

Daniel sees 4 distinct beasts rising up out of a sea, all of which are symbolic creatures that represent something. Looking ahead at v17, Daniel asks the Angel for the meaning of all this, and the angel says “These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth.”

So, that’s the basic interpretation of these symbols, that they represent specific kings over earthly kingdoms.

Daniel has already interpreted a dream for us in Chapter 2; that great statue which Nebuchadnezzar saw in His dream, with the head of gold, and then inferior metals in value, but successively greater in strength as you move down the statue.

What is clear in Daniel 2 is that Daniel interprets these as 4 kingdoms or empires in succession to one another.

Now in Daniel 7, he has a dream while the Babylonian empire is still in power. Belshazzar is the last king before the Medo-Persian empire.

He dreams of 4 kings, or kingdoms. Each more ferocious than the last, depicted by these crazy beasts.

it would seem based on the text that these kingdoms are parallel to the Daniel 2 statue.

Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece, and the Roman empires.

How do we know this?

Well the head of gold was already interpreted clearly as Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon.

Compare that with verse 4 in Daniel’s dream and we see some parallel- Daniel 7:4...The first beast 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.

Remember in chapter 4 we read about Nebuchadnezzar’s glory and sanity being stripped away from him, kind of like wings being plucked off his back. But then v34 of that chapter describes his restoration. Daniel 4:34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,

Now we compare that to Daniel 7:4 again. It goes on to say that though the Lion’s wings were plucked off, it was lifted up from the ground, made to stand like a man, and the mind of a man was given.

That was Babylon, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar.

As we work our way through the depiction of each beast, you can see that each one has parallels to the 4 kingdoms already mentioned

Real briefly, and try to keep up.

The Medo-Persian empire is represented by the bear, raised up on one side. Some scholars believe this means that the bear is in stride, moving forward and ready to devour (lifted up on one side). Others see this as representing the dual nature of that kingdom, with the higher side representing the Persian side that rose to greater prominence over the Medes.

It had three ribs in its mouth which means it’s a hungry bear.

No, remember these are kings over kingdoms, so it has to be speaking of its military conquests to devour the beast before it, or the kingdom before it, overpower it and achieve dominance.

Wouldn’t you know it? The Medo-Persian empire had three major conquests during its time...Babylon (539 B.C. during the reign of Belshazzar), Lydia (546 B.C.), and Egypt (525 B.C.).

Daniel 5:28 You kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians, and that night, Belshazzar was dethroned and murdered.

Then the Leopard with four wings. So we have an already swift creature, made even more swift with the addition of 4 wings, and to top it all off, it is four headed.

What a picture.

This is the next empire in line. We see this play out in history as Greece, but you’ll see in a moment that God is the one who called it. One commentator said this: Greece is aptly represented by this flying leopard, for its conquests were carried out with lightning speed, and it had an insatiable lust for territory. Alexander the Great invaded Asia Minor in 334 B.C. and within ten short years (by the age of thirty-two) had conquered the entire Medo-Persian Empire to the borders of India. According to legend, he then wept because there were no more lands to conquer. - Miller

What about the four heads? Interestingly enough, history shows that after Alexander died in 323BC, the kingdom was split into 4 parts with four rulers.

Then Daniel Chapter 8 contains another vision of successive kingdoms on the earth, and in that chapter it is confirmed that Greece succeeds Medo-Persia.

And the dream all culminates with a beast far more dreadful than the first three, with iron teeth, and 10 horns, and a mysterious little horn which get’s much observation and attention from Daniel. (That will get covered in another part of the series.)

This is parallel to Daniel 2:43 As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings,

That’s a key

the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.

In the days of what kings? The 10 toes.

The view which I hold to is that this could be none other than ancient Rome, because it was into the turmoil of Rome, and all Rome’s mighty military conquests, and it’s unmatched and unstoppable crushing power by which they subdued and oppressed like no other, that Jesus Christ came into the world in a manger in Bethlehem.

He was that stone from heaven, carved out without human hands. He was the stone which Israel rejected. That stone was Christ, and the way he would conquer was not through physical force, but by His own death and resurrection, and by the preaching of His rule and reign, that He is God, and that He is the Way, to establish on this earth an everlasting Kingdom in which righteousness dwells.

This is where confusion and disagreement can enter in. How one interprets this final beast has far reaching implications. How one interprets that stone which is thrown from heaven to crush the statue, has great implications.

Does he rule today, or are we waiting still?

This is relevant to us because we live in world similar to Daniel, in that the inferior kingdoms of man still seem to have dominion. We’ve had empires in our history so ferocious, and so evil, bloodthirsty men ruling in this world that hate the righteousness of God and his Son Jesus.

When we look at the theology of the Kingdom of God in Scripture, what we see is a plan that begins with God and unfolds perfectly over time.

Daniel 2 told us that in the days of those kings a rock would crush the culminating work of 4 evil empires, influenced by Satan, and that that Rock would become a great mountain and fill the earth.

When did that happen?

Daniel 7, being a parallel dream, which most biblical scholars would agree, gives us such a hopeful and optimistic view of God’s Kingdom, and I believe confirms that this was already fulfilled in Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension.

Read beginning at Daniel 7:9

This is the throne room, and God the Father, the Ancient of Days, is seated, and He’s surrounded by millions of angels, and he judges that final beast, and that little horn who spoke blasphemous words, along with the other three beasts.

There is a view that sees this as the final anti Christ, and a new Roman Empire that is still in our future. I don’t see it this way, and the reason is because I believe this text can be interpreted by the timing of the Kingdom of God, and when is Christ, the Messiah, given dominion?

If he does not yet have dominion, then this is still in the future.

But if he does have dominion, and if He is the Sovereign ruler, the enthroned King of kings right now, then it is very fitting to say that this has already happened.

Look at v13, which is really the pinnacle of this dream.

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.

I'm persuaded from Scripture that this is none other than the coronation of Jesus after the ascension, when He enters the throne room of His Father, the Ancient of Days, and was seated at his right hand.

This is the very Scripture that Jesus himself quoted when standing before the high priest before his crucifixion.

Mark 14:62 Jesus said, "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."

But where is he coming to? A popular view is that he’s referring to his return to earth at the second coming. But Daniel says he came “to the ancient of days.”

When was he given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom...

In other words, when was He recognized as King over His Kingdom? It was after he conquered sin at his death and resurrection.

Do remember what he said before ascending to the Father? Matthew 28:18-20 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Daniel 7:14. 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.

Scripture doesn’t just give us one pinpointed definition of what the Kingdom is.

Is it present, or is it future, is it within us. Is it the people of God?

Yes, yes, yes, and yes...

The Hebrew word for kingdom is first defined as a rule or power, and then can be interpreted as a place, or territory, or a people.

But it is first the rule and reign of a king.

The Kingdom was the primary message of Jesus Christ while he was here. But he wasn’t speaking about territory, or time.

John 3:3 Jesus answered him, (Nicodemus) “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Not a place, but a rule and reign.

John the Baptist, the prophet and forerunner of Christ came on the scene and preached:

Matthew 3:1-3 Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

make his paths straight.’ ”

Jesus is the Kingdom of heaven in the ultimate sense, because He left heaven and came to earth to suffer and die, and be coronated as king.

He came to accomplish the mission of the kingdom, which was to purchase for himself a people, a bride - a church that would build his kingdom here on earth. Not a quick establishment, but a slow and steady one.

One that is more like a small mustard seed that grows, or leaven that fills the doe slowly until in overtakes the batch, or like a stone that grows into a mountain to fill the earth.

So, what is the Kingdom of God? It is God’s sovereign rule and reign over all the heavens and all the earth.

King Jesus at this very moment has dominion, and he has called us, His church, to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Where is God’s sovereign rule obeyed the most? In heaven, with the myriads and myriads of the angels of God doing His will and worshiping Him.

And we have been instructed to pray that His rule and reign be realized here. That happens as we each live obediently to the King, and teach new disciples, discipling all nations, to observe the kings commands, to observe the kings ways, to forsake worldly and sinful ways, to come under the loving and gracious rule of Christ at admit that HE IS KING!

But we must learn to live in a now and not yet mentality. Christ is King at this very moment. The inauguration has taken place, but we still wait for the consummation of the Kingdom. That day when Christ returns with the New Jerusalem, and sets his feet on this earth again, and we enter that final eternal state, THAT day will come.

Until then, we wait as priests of our God!

Revelation 1:6 “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”

When he established His reign he also established his commission, and the people to carry it out till the end.

Mom’s, dad’s, grandparents, career people, single people, teens…in every city, every neighborhood, everywhere you go, you go with His authority. You have no need to be timid, or fearful, or reluctant, or ashamed.

There will be hardship. Evil is still at large, but it’s on a leash. The Kingdom is growing.Jesus is your King, and he rules from Heaven.

Those who have already surrendered to the King are his Church, His plan A for spreading the good news of the Kingdom to the world. MAY THIS change our outlook on the world today…not to see the gloom and darkness as the final answer, but to remember the Rock from heaven that crushed the statue and brought it to nothing, and to live in that reality today!

Empires have risen and fallen, and there will be many more attempts. BUT JESUS IS KING. HE REIGNS. And a day will come when the last enemy will be destroyed, physical death itself, at the final resurrection, and so shall we ever be with the Lord!