Daniel’s Dream - When the Spiritual and Material Worlds Collide
1 Corinthians 1
7 Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
8 He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.
1 Corinthians 2
12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.
14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
15 Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.
16 For,
“Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?”
But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
Prayer of Consecration:
- Holy Spirit, I consecrate - set apart, give my mind and attention to You, Lord.
- I give You my thoughts, my focus, and my attention.
- I give You my memory and recall, my understanding and imagination.
- I consecrate to You, Lord, the interpretation and understanding of Scripture as You bring Your Word to shape my life.
- I dedicate the life of my mind to You, Lord God, and to You alone.
Dale R. Davis: Daniel - His Kingdom Cannot Fail
“I would say that biblical apocalyptic is a sort of prophecy that seeks to enlighten and encourage a people despised and cast off by the world with a vision of the God who will come to impose his kingdom on the wreckage and rebellion of human history—and it communicates this message through the use of wild, scary, imaginative, bizarre and head-scratching imagery.”This is a look back and forward for us, many of us glaze over when it comes to history, ugh, I didn’t like that class in school.
- But listen, “you have to live in the stuff, so you need to know what it will be like and if you are one of God’s people, how you will endure and how God will keep you.”
Daniel 7
Earlier, during the first year of King Belshazzar’s reign in Babylon, Daniel had a dream and saw visions as he lay in his bed. He wrote down the dream, and this is what he saw.
2 In my vision that night, I, Daniel, saw a great storm churning the surface of a great sea, with strong winds blowing from every direction.
3 Then four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others.
4 The first beast was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off, and it was left standing with its two hind feet on the ground, like a human being. And it was given a human mind.
5 Then I saw a second beast, and it looked like a bear. It was rearing up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And I heard a voice saying to it, “Get up! Devour the flesh of many people!”
6 Then the third of these strange beasts appeared, and it looked like a leopard. It had four bird’s wings on its back, and it had four heads. Great authority was given to this beast.
7 Then in my vision that night, I saw a fourth beast—terrifying, dreadful, and very strong. It devoured and crushed its victims with huge iron teeth and trampled their remains beneath its feet. It was different from any of the other beasts, and it had ten horns.
8 As I was looking at the horns, suddenly another small horn appeared among them. Three of the first horns were torn out by the roots to make room for it. This little horn had eyes like human eyes and a mouth that was boasting arrogantly.
Dale R.Davis:
“In my view, therefore, the kingdoms are Babylon (lion), Medo-Persia (bear), Greece (leopard) and—presumably—Rome. I say ‘presumably,’ because that is the most natural identification for post-Daniel folks to make: Rome was the next dominant empire after Alexander’s Macedonian-Greek regime. But I am a bit chary about identifying the fourth beast in Daniel 7 with historical Rome. The writer seems to bend over backwards to say the fourth beast cannot be categorized. To be sure, all the ‘beasts’ are different from each other (3), but the fourth beast is in a class all by itself, different from the preceding three (7), different in its viciousness and voraciousness (19), different apparently in the scope of its domination (23), just as the ‘little horn’ that comes from it is different from rulers that precede it (24). He is saying, ‘The fourth kingdom is like nothing you’ve ever seen before.’”Veldkamp
“To use non-metaphorical language, we could say that the fourth empire to be established on this earth will be a true universal empire that will make all other empires look pale and insignificant by comparison. This empire will conquer all other kingdoms and states, whether they be great or small, neutral or belligerent. It will be an empire without parallel in power and ruthlessness [and, we might add, in persecution, 21, 25].”What this Scripture and Jesus’ Olivet discourse as well as Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians and Revelation of course tell us is that the fourth beast is ‘The Different Kingdom’ and to “understand it as the last human kingdom, the one in which human evil and rebellion will reach its apex.”
Daniel: His Kingdom Cannot Fail:
“Verses 1–8 are saying to us, now don’t be naïve about human history; don’t be so gullible as to think that some new regime or new ideology or new party will instigate some form of cosmic therapy. At the close of The First Salute, her book on the American Revolution, Barbara Tuchman makes a very perceptive comment: ‘Revolutions produce other men, not new men.’ And the fearful face of history seems to confirm that.”And here at v9 is where history and future are brought into absolute submission to God.
- We’re waiting for more of this unspeakable beast and instead we are now suddenly “Watching a throne judgment scene.”
- Here’s where our eyes and heart must be fixed; we don’t allow the wicked governments of the world to lull us to sleep, or to woo us to put our confidence in them, or even to suffuse our lives with nightmares of speculation.
- God is on the Throne.
- Look for ‘I watched’, ‘I continued to watch’, and ‘as my vision continued, I continued to be seeing (saw)’.
Here’s The Three Scenes:
The Ancient of Days (9-10)
Little horn / beasts (11-12)
One like a Son of Man (13-14)
Daniel 7
9 I watched as thrones were put in place and the Ancient One sat down to judge.
His clothing was as white as snow, his hair like purest wool.
He sat on a fiery throne with wheels of blazing fire,
10 and a river of fire was pouring out, flowing from his presence.
Millions of angels ministered to him; many millions stood to attend him.
Then the court began its session, and the books were opened.
11 I continued to watch because I could hear the little horn’s boastful speech. I kept watching until the fourth beast was killed and its body was destroyed by fire.
12 The other three beasts had their authority taken from them, but they were allowed to live a while longer.
13 As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence.
14 He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.
- Note that the Son of Man has a kingdom of absolute authority, honor, and sovereignty over all.
- He stands in contrast to the first three beasts - they’re ‘like’ a lion, bear, leopard.
- He is a human likeness over against them.
- They come from the roiling sea; He comes from another world.
- JA Emerton says:
“The act of coming with clouds suggests a theophany of Yahweh himself. If Daniel 7.13 does not refer to a divine being, then it is the only exception out of about 70 passages in the Old Testament.”
Mark 13
24 “At that time, after the anguish of those days,
the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light,
25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
26 Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory.
Daniel 7.15
The Vision Is Explained
I, Daniel, was troubled by all I had seen, and my visions terrified me.
16 So I approached one of those standing beside the throne and asked him what it all meant. He explained it to me like this:
17 “These four huge beasts represent four kingdoms that will arise from the earth. 18 But in the end, the holy people of the Most High will be given the kingdom, and they will rule forever and ever.”
19 Then I wanted to know the true meaning of the fourth beast, the one so different from the others and so terrifying. It had devoured and crushed its victims with iron teeth and bronze claws, trampling their remains beneath its feet.
20 I also asked about the ten horns on the fourth beast’s head and the little horn that came up afterward and destroyed three of the other horns. This horn had seemed greater than the others, and it had human eyes and a mouth that was boasting arrogantly.
21 As I watched, this horn was waging war against God’s holy people and was defeating them, 22 until the Ancient One—the Most High—came and judged in favor of his holy people. Then the time arrived for the holy people to take over the kingdom.
23 Then he said to me, “This fourth beast is the fourth world power that will rule the earth. It will be different from all the others. It will devour the whole world, trampling and crushing everything in its path.
24 Its ten horns are ten kings who will rule that empire. Then another king will arise, different from the other ten, who will subdue three of them.
25 He will defy the Most High and oppress the holy people of the Most High. He will try to change their sacred festivals and laws, and they will be placed under his control for a time, times, and half a time.
26 “But then the court will pass judgment, and all his power will be taken away and completely destroyed.
27 Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be given to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will last forever, and all rulers will serve and obey him.”
28 That was the end of the vision. I, Daniel, was terrified by my thoughts and my face was pale with fear, but I kept these things to myself.
2 Thessalonians 2
15 With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter.
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, 17 comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.
