Inquiring Minds… Daniel’s Very Bad Vision

Part 2

Tim Moore: Our text for today is Daniel 7, followed by Daniel 10-12. Alright, Nathan, so we’re going to dive into these bad visions that Daniel had, and we’re not talking about some kind of a psychedelic trip. The Lord gave him visions that troubled his heart and perplexed his mind, which is why we’re still inquiring about them today. So what do we find when we open up Daniel 7?

Nathan Jones: Well, you think that Daniel had a big old pepperoni pizza before bed because it sounds like a fever dream. But actually, you know, we went through the Daniel 2 prophecy of the great statue that represented the time of the Gentiles. So when we get to Daniel 7, we’re going to have another time of the Gentile’s vision. But this time, instead of given to the king, it’s given directly to Daniel to prophet himself. And it deals with four great beasts.

Tim Moore: Four great beasts. So he has these great beasts that are coming up out of the sea. And we’ve talked many times about how the sea itself represents the Gentile peoples, whereas the land, referring obviously to the Promised Land, would oftentimes be a motif for the Jewish people. So these beasts are coming out of the Gentile empires of the Earth, and the first one he sees is a lion with wings of an eagle followed by a bear raised up on one side with three ribs in his mouth, and then a leopard with four wings of a bird and four heads, and then a dreadful and terrifying beast, extremely strong with large iron teeth and 10 horns. And even of those 10 horns, another little horn with the eyes of a man arises, displaces 3 and begins to magnify itself and begins uttering great boast. So who are these beasts that Daniel is seeing?

Nathan Jones: Well, in chapter seven, you have to skip past verses 1 through 8 to verses 15 through 28 for the interpretation. So like Nebuchadnezzar saw that great statue with the head of gold, which was Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar himself, the lion with the wings of an eagle would also represent Babylon, a great empire fierce as a lion, powerful in wings. And matter of fact, a lot of the Babylonian motif is the lion with the wings. So Daniel would’ve been able to figure that out pretty easily.

The second would be a bear, but raised up on one side with three ribs in its mouth. Now, the empire of silver that we see in Nebuchadnezzar’s statue is represented here, the Medo-Persian empire where one side, the Persians, was much more powerful than the Medes, hence the bear up on one side. And the three ribs are the three empires that the Medo-Persians conquered: Lydia, Egypt, and Babylon.

Tim Moore: Right, and then we get to the leopard, which has four wings and four heads. And we know that a leopard is a very quick or fast-paced beast. And so the leopard represents Greece. Who would sweep into the world of that day and age overthrowing the bear empire, the Medo-Persian empire. And we know that is none other than Alexander the Great. Alexander is considered one of the greatest military commanders in all of history because even at a very young age, he understood strategy. And so with forces that were often far outnumbered by his foe, he would win victory after victory. And he swept toward the East; he swept down toward Egypt. And of course his kingdom was divided upon his death. And there are questions about their circumstances of his death. But, nevertheless, his four leading generals divided his kingdom. And we know that one of those generals took possession of the region around Judea.

Nathan Jones: And that’s where we get this four wings or four heads. In other words, his empire would be divided into four regions. And you could read in the intertestamental period where Israel was stuck between two of those generals. You had Seleucid up in the North Syria and Ptolemy down in Egypt. And as the two battled for power for over the 100 years leading up to Jesus’ birth, Israel was always trapped in the middle there.

But this leopard would be replaced by a fourth beast, a terrifying, powerful beast. And because we have the ability to look back in history, it’s obvious that’s the Roman Empire, overthrew the Greek empire in the first century, leading up to Jesus’s birth there, very strong, very powerful, fearful beast that just trumped everything. And we know Rome was a militaristic nation. And for 1,000 years, it conquered everybody that it came across.

Tim Moore: It surely did. And we know that the, even the reference to iron, Rome itself ruled with an iron fist. And so it did not allow any dissension. It crushed everybody who came into its path. We’ll talk about Alexander in just a moment and how he actually relented in terms of really oppressing the Jewish people when he heard some of the prophecies that had been made about him.

But the Romans, they either said, “Get on board with us, become our subjects, and you can actually participate in the empire, or we will crush you.” Well, those Jews, being stiff-necked and stubborn, didn’t want to get in line. And so, over and over, they were crushed. But that would lead in Daniel’s vision to another manifestation of the kingdom with these 10 horns that would be eventually replaced by a single horn.

Nathan Jones: And you look at Daniel 2, that great statue, the two legs, the legs of iron. In other words, the Roman Empire would divide into east and west, would eventually become 10 toes that are partly brittle and partly strong because it’s a mix of iron and clay. Likewise, this great beast has 10 horns. And really what this is projecting is that we think, “Okay, well, the Roman Empire was destroyed when it was separated, when the Ottoman Empire fell in about the 1500s.” And so there’s no Roman Empire.

But according to the Lord, that even though the Roman Empire fell, it would continue on through the little countries that would make the European continent and eventually be reborn or revived as the European Union. And from there it would go out and separate the world or divide the world into 10 regions. So it’s a prophecy that’s passed for us. But this segment, that 10 toes is still future. The Bible prophesies that one day the world will be divided into 10 regions, 10 horns, 10 toes. And that out of that a rebellious, boastful, proud, anti-Christ would overcome three, and he will set up, the kings will raise him up to power for a short time.

Tim Moore: For a short time. Now we’re going to get to the intercession that Daniel sees. But let’s just contrast. We know that Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of a statue was exceedingly magnificent. He, being the golden head, that kind of went to his own head. But it was a very impressive vision. And now Daniel’s vision is very troubling because it is of beasts and they are of increasing ravenous nature, increasingly dreadful and terrifying. And so why are there two different perspectives on really the same series of kingdoms?

Nathan Jones: Well, it’s all about the times of the Gentiles. In other words, when the Jewish people disobeyed God, generation after generation after generation, Moses back in Deuteronomy 28-30 had told them that you would face eventually exile. And that would be when the scepter would part from the Jewish people, waiting for the day when a descendant of David the Messiah would pick up that scepter and rule. And that’s where we get this time of the Gentiles.

We are living in the time of the Gentiles, where Israel isn’t the prime nation of the world, that Jesus Christ rules and reigns from the Messiah. That’s still future. So we’re living in this statue. We’re at the feet though. We’re at the bottom. Or you could say that we’re at this fourth dreadful beast at the 10 horns, and we’re coming to the end. And, you know, it’s interesting, it was such a dramatic thing, so powerful to Daniel. Verse 28 says, “And my thoughts greatly troubled me and my countenance changed, but I kept the matter in my heart.” Isn’t it interesting that this, it wasn’t just some fever dream. It was, he knew it meant something, and yet he hadn’t quite connected it to his interpretation of Daniel 2 quite yet.

Tim Moore: No, he had not. And yet in the midst of this vision, which I think comes from a heavenly perspective, so obviously Nebuchadnezzar saw a great statue from the perspective of man, it was very glorious, grand, and more and more impressive as you went higher, in other words, from the origin down to less impressive toward the feet, but still a mighty statue. But from the perspective of Heaven, these ravenous beasts were not magnificent and glorious. They were increasingly dreadful and terrifying and caused Daniel himself to have great terror.

Nathan Jones: That’s an excellent point, because when you look at the statue from man’s, from the Gentiles perspective, it was amazing. Oh, it’s made up of all these precious metals. Matter of fact, Nebuchadnezzar was so enamored by it, he built his own giant statue of himself and demanded the people worship it. But from Daniel’s perspective, from God’s perspective, the holy people’s perspective, it’s just a bunch of monstrous evil beasts. It’s like kaiju in some Japanese anime, you know, monsters coming out of the sea, destroying everything. That’s how the Jewish people were supposed to look at the Gentile world, not as something to be enamored with, but something to greatly fear.

Tim Moore: Something to greatly fear. And yet much like Revelation itself, as a book, right in the midst of this terrible, dreadful vision, that Daniel is perplexed by and very worried about, the Lord also gives him a perspective from Heaven. So he keeps looking. He tells us in Daniel 7:9, “and then he sees a heavenly scene where thrones are set up, and the Ancient of Days.” And he’s using this phrase to talk about Almighty God “takes His seat, His vesture was like white snow, the hair of His head like pure wool. The throne itself was ablaze with flames. Wheels were burning around. A river of fire flowing out from beyond or before Him. And thousands upon thousands attending Him, myriads upon myriads standing before Him, the court sat, and the books were opened.

So he sees Heaven about to pass judgment, if you will, on these earthly succession of kingdoms. And yet as he watches, it is a mysterious figure, at least mysterious to Daniel, who comes forward. “And in his night vision, he sees with the clouds of Heaven, one like a Son of Man coming up to the Ancient of Days, being presented before Him and being given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the people’s, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” Daniel doesn’t know the name of this Son of Man, but we know one who took that title upon Himself and seemed to relish that very title.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, it’s interesting. Daniel 7 is actually not one vision, but three. We got a vision of the throne room of God, the Father Himself. We’ve got the Son, a pre-incarnate revelation of Jesus Christ, and then Daniel’s vision of the four beasts, which shows the Gentile world powers. Daniel would’ve talked to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when Nebuchadnezzar had sought–thrown them in the fiery furnace and one like the Son of Man was in there.
Well, here in verse 13 of chapter 7, he gets to see what this Son of–because, you know, Daniel was missing in that story, but he gets to see it in his vision. And then John the apostle would later see it in Revelation 1, the Jesus Christ in all His glory, the one who’s going to defeat those Gentile world kingdoms and set up His kingdom, He was coming.

Tim Moore: I love the preview, if you will, of the glorious ascendancy of Christ and the fact that His kingdom will be everlasting, His dominion is everlasting, and He is coming. And so, folks, even as we talk about the visions that Daniel had, some of which he couldn’t completely fathom at the time, we have the hindsight, and yet we also have other resources for you as you study the Word of God.

So we’ve been pointing you throughout our Daniel series to our friend Todd Hampson’s book, The Non-Prophet’s Guide To The Book Of Daniel. We also have, for young people you may know, a tremendous Non-Prophet’s Guide to Prophecy for Young People, including many of the visions and the prophecies in Daniel itself. And then if you want the whole overlay of how Jesus Christ appears throughout Scripture, we have a wonderful resource called The Christ in Prophecy Study Guide, by Dr. Reagan. Any of those can be yours here at Lamb & Lion Ministries.

So obviously, Nathan, tremendous resources as we seek to gain understanding, which is what Daniel himself wanted to do. But now we turn our attention to yet another vision that he found very distressing. And he specifies that in the third year of Cyrus, the King of Persia, he saw a period of great conflict, this beginning in chapter 10.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, we read the vision of the glorious man, a vision where other people didn’t see, but he could see it. And of course, you know, he had that giftedness that very few people in human history have had; the ability to see visions and dreams, but also to see angels. What he’s going to see is the Angel Gabriel coming to give him a future prophecy message.

Tim Moore: As a matter of fact, the Angel Gabriel comes. But this is something that would play into even our modern era. The Angel Gabriel said he was sent to reveal to Daniel certain understanding. And we know that in Daniel 9, Daniel had humbled himself. He had taken on himself responsibility for the sins of his people. And he had shown a penitent heart, great humility before the Lord God.

And so Gabriel testifies that he was sent to reveal certain things to Daniel, but he was prevented to come because as he reveals in chapter 10:13, the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withholding me or withstanding me for 21 days until Michael, one of the chief princes, in other words, one of the chief angels of God, came to help him.

So even then, this demon that was ruling over the kingdom of Persia, and we know is still ruling in what is now modern-day Iran, was preventing Gabriel from fulfilling the call of God to go and reveal to Daniel certain things.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, it’s Ephesians 6 brought to light, the fact that behind the rulers of the governments of the fallen world are demonic influences. And so Satan has generals all the way down to local magistrates, you know, and he’s the one that’s over it all. But there’s a satanic realm behind the fallen kingdom realm. We’ve been talking about these great beasts. Why are they so terrible and dreadful? Because they’re satanic.

Tim Moore: Yes.

Nathan Jones: It’s Satan behind this. And so even we see–I love it because it peels back that layer, that veil of the spirit world and says, “Yeah, you know, I’ve tried to get to you, but I had to fight this guy, this demon for 21 days, and I needed the archangel himself to come help me.” So that’s why some people believe maybe that this demon over Iran could have been Satan himself as the more powerful demon. But now needless to say, we know then that behind all these evil in the world, all these evil realms, Satan’s kingdom is battling God’s kingdom. There’s angelic warfare all around us.

Tim Moore: There’s angelic warfare all around us, and it bears into our lives. But Satan still is trying to distract, delay, and discourage even the elect. And, folks, let me just be very clear, he’s trying to distract, delay, and discourage you, even if you are a follower of Christ. If you’re not a follower of Christ, I guarantee you he was working overtime to keep you from coming to Christ in believing faith. So we have to say, get the behind-me Satan, we know one who is more powerful than our ephemeral foe. And so clearly there are facts established in history that will come to play out, but we have to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and not be distracted even in this dark age.

Nathan Jones: Absolutely. And then so, clearly there are historical facts recorded by God long before they played out human history. And we have the benefit of looking back. And, you know, we read earlier that Daniel was very perplexed; confused. Later, you know, he will ask Gabriel to explain it. And Gabriel’s like, “There’s no way you could understand it. Too many things have to happen first.” And so it’s interesting that the Bible says that we have the information that the prophets of old long to understand because we have that hindsight.

Tim Moore: But, you know, we also recognize that God wrote this down long before it played out, even in Daniel’s day and still today. In chapter 10:21, Gabriel reveals that he is going to describe to Daniel what was written down in the writing of truth. And I’m reminded of the line that Yul Brynner kept citing in the movie, Ten Commandments, “So let it be written. So let it be done.”

Well, God has written it down in a book that only He has access to. The angelic realm is given enough information to share at His command with the servants of God. But it is written down, and it will come to pass just as He has prerecorded because He is God. So that brings us to chapter 11 where Gabriel actually begins to explain these various conflicts that will arise in Persia and in the coming empire of Greece.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, you have to go back to another vision that Daniel interpreted, is the difference between the ram and the goat. So it’s a prophecy about the destruction of the Medo-Persian Empire by the Greek Empire. Greek is Alexander. He flies in, he just tramples the ram, and the goat, and then the goat’s horn splits into four, the four kingdoms as we just read about earlier with the leopard. And so what we’ve got here is that these kings, you had one up in Syria, which was the Seleucids, and one down in Egypt with the Ptolemies. And they would battle back and forth for control of the land. So what we get in chapter 11 is a play by play as each of the kings battle over 300 or so years. And, you know, Tim, we could go into detail, but that would take multiple shows to do that.

But I’d recommend, years ago when I was in Bible school, I listened to this audio series by John MacArthur called “Israel and Bible Prophecy.” And he went to the trouble of taking you step by step through each of the prophecies in chapter 11 and showing you in history where they were fulfilled. This is why people discount Daniel and say, “Well, Daniel must have been written in 200 BC or something like that because there’s no way that the step-by-step play through chapter 11 could have been written beforehand.” Yes, it can.

Tim Moore: Yes, it can.

Nathan Jones: If God who sees the future, writes it down. It is amazingly detailed in all the different battles that have happened over those few hundred years.

Tim Moore: You can see the same thing in Todd Hampson’s book, The Non-Prophet Guide. But the Lord did record in advance. So if you even turn back to chapter eight, the ram that you mentioned is given an identity in verse 20, the ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia. And then verse 21, the shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece. And large horn, that is between his eyes, is the first king, that being none other than…

Nathan Jones: Alexander the Great.

Tim Moore: Alexander the Great. And so we know that when Alexander came and defeated the empire of Persia, he read these prophecies, they were shown to him. And he was so amazed that Daniel, the Jewish prophet, had recorded prophecies very specific about him, that he came to Jerusalem, met the Jewish high priest and decided not to put an overseer over the Jewish people. He allowed them to continue worshiping. And he basically didn’t even charge them tribute. They didn’t have to pay a tax to him. So he gave them relief because he respected the ability of the God of Israel to reveal ahead of time that he would be the king, the first king of Greece, to conquer Persia.

Now we know his generals that we talked about, the Seleucids, the Ptolemies, they didn’t have the same reservations, and so they led to other follow-on kings and rulers that desolated the Temple itself, desecrated it. And so it didn’t work out so well for the Greeks over time. But Alexander believed these prophecies because when he came, they had already been written. And Josephus records that in his writings about when Alexander came to meet with the high priest.

Nathan Jones: Oh, yeah. And matter of fact, the prophecy that Gabriel gave Daniel would even go up to Antiochus Epiphanes who would be an antichrist type character. There’s a weird shift in chapter 11 and 12 where, okay, he’s finally getting you through the battles between the Ptolemies and the Seleucid. And it comes eventually to Antiochus Epiphanes, an antichrist type character, who was a real historical character. He came in, he desecrated the Temple, he sacrificed a pig, he put up a statue of Zeus that the people are supposed to worship. And the Jewish people are supposed to look at that when the antichrist eventually comes and does the exact same thing. And there’s a huge time leap too because chapter 11 then will leap from Antiochus up to the future for us, which is the Antichrist.

Tim Moore: Which is the Antichrist. You know, but there’s still great application to us because Daniel as he’s seeing these prophecies, we’ve heard about how the previous dreadful prophecy caused him to have great fear. But Gabriel’s admonition to Daniel still rings true for us today. He said in chapter 10:19, “He says, ‘O man of high esteem, do not be afraid. Peace be with you. Take courage and be courageous.’ Now as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength and said, ‘May my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me.'”

You know, the Lord is still telling those of us who follow after Him, who have accepted Christ, be strong and courageous, that’s the same word given to Joshua, be strong and courageous. And that takes us toward the end of all this interpretation in chapter 11 where Daniel is told in verse 32 that the Antichrist will use smooth words to quickly turn to godliness, those who act wickedly toward the covenant.

But then he says this, it’s almost a throwaway line, but it’s so important. But the people who know their God will display strength and take action. That’s always been true, Nathan. Those of us who know God are supposed to display strength and take action. What is the action? To be faithful to the Lord God and to obey His commandment, to share the Good News with those who are perishing.

Nathan Jones: Right. He first tells Daniel, “If you don’t understand, go to God. Ask for the wisdom and understanding.” We go to the Holy Spirit asking for wisdom, understanding. Once we get that understanding, we’re supposed to do something with it. Go and use it. Unfortunately, though, Daniel being a prophet, all this history is history to us, but future to him. When you get to chapter 12, and he’s like shaking his head and he’s scratching, he is like, you know, “Can you tell me what it is?” And the angel’s like, “No, no. Daniel, just go your own way.”

Three things have to happen in the End Times before people understand this: a great increase in knowledge, a great increase in travel, and a great increase in understanding prophetic literature. Tim, we are living in that day.

Tim Moore: We certainly are. And so the reality is some of us may go our own way. You know, Nathan and I, if the Lord Terry’s another 20 years, Terry’s another week, we may go to be with Him before He comes. We hope not because I’m looking forward to seeing Him burst from the heavens and gathering us all up. But some of us may go our way to our eternal reward. But just as with Daniel, there is a great blessing for choosing to be strong and courageous and to live expectantly. Why? Well, Paul tells us the answer to that, in 2 Timothy 4:8. We get to get a crown of righteousness because we have eagerly anticipated the Lord’s coming.

Nathan Jones: Absolutely. I love 1 Corinthians 2:9. “Things which eyes has not seen, an ear has not heard, and which has not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” God, we might not understand everything. The Bible isn’t the complete revelation of God. It’s what God wants us to know at this time. But one day, all things will be made clear. It’s like a mirror dimly. We will finally see clearly the face of Jesus Christ and all His glory, the Father sitting on His throne. And we will finally understand God’s plan for the ages.

Tim Moore: We certainly will. So in the meantime, we need to be strong and courageous. We need like Daniel to act as exemplars or role models for those around us, serving faithfully even in an increasingly pagan kingdom, but having confidence that there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. And even if we go our way to my dying breath, I will be looking for the Lord Jesus Christ and not being distracted or discouraged by the evil wiles of the devil because Christ has already guaranteed the victory, He’s already demonstrated through His prophetic Word, that it has been written and it will be done.

Closing

Tim Moore: You know, many Christians read Bible prophecy and have the same reaction Daniel initially did: they are filled with dread and fearful of what lies ahead.

Nathan Jones: But we need to realize that God chose to reveal the future to Daniel because he had humbled himself and sought to understand. Such revelation is meant to be a blessing, not a burden.

Tim Moore: And certainly the revelations of God are a blessing to those who have believed in Jesus Christ. In Him, all the prophecies of God are yes and amen because the very spirit of prophecy is a testimony of Jesus Christ, in that it points to Him and is ultimately fulfilled in Him. Since that is so, we should not be afraid but emboldened.

Nathan Jones: Having said that, for those who do not have Christ, the revelations of God’s prophetic Word pronounce a fate that is literally worse than death. Eternal separation from God as those unwashed by the blood of Christ perish in their sins. For those who reject Jesus’s Savior, the righteous, indignant wrath of God abides on them.

If you know Jesus as Savior and worship Him as Lord, we pray that you are warning those around you, who do not know Him, to flee from the wrath to come and into His loving arms. Time is of the essence. Jesus is coming very soon. Your friends and family stand at the precipice of eternity.

Tim Moore: Our consistent message at Lamb & Lion Ministries is that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and He is coming soon. If that message in our teaching is a blessing to you, we’d invite you to join us as a prophecy partner. Help us share this message of warning and hope while there is still time. We’ll be back next week with another episode of Christ in Prophecy that will emphasize the encouragement we can offer one another as we see the day drawing near.

Until then…Godspeed!

Announcer: As Lamb & Lion Ministries commemorates our 45th year of spreading the good news of the Gospel and Jesus’s soon return, we hope you’ll join us to expand the kingdom of God. God’s prophetic Word offers hope to every believer as we eagerly await our Blessed Hope. But it also conveys a stark warning for unbelievers who don’t yet know Him, urging them to flee from the wrath to come and into the loving arms of our Savior before it’s too late. God has raised up individuals around the world who share our love of the Lord and look forward to a soon return.

These Prophecy Partners pray for us and provide the financial means for us to broadcast Christ in Prophecy on both television and radio, and publish our bimonthly Lamplighter Magazine and other books and resources. For a commitment of at least $25 a month, our Prophecy Partners receive the Lamplighter, regular ministry updates, and special offers throughout the year. If you’ve been blessed by Lamb & Lion Ministries and would like to extend that blessing to others, we hope you’ll partner with us to share the exciting message that Jesus is coming soon!

Christ in Prophecy is made possible through the faithful and generous support of viewers like you. Please consider making a donation to Lamb & Lion Ministries so that we can continue broadcasting the message of Jesus’s soon return. Thank you and God bless you.

End of Program