Daniel Lesson 14 - Fairhaven Baptist Church

Daniel Lesson

Text: Daniel 7:1-8

Review,
1. Prophecy’s filled, and to come,
  1. We are crossing a barrier,
    1. between ch.6&7 there is a change in the book of Daniel.
      - The first 6 books of Daniel are historical,
      - the last are Prophetic,
    2. they are not however in chronological order.
  2. Order of Daniel,
    1. ch.1- the deportation and training of the captive, 605-605 B.C.
    2. Ch.2- The dream of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, 602 B.C.
    3. Ch.3 The Fiery Furnace (Daniel is missing) sometime after 602
    4. Ch.4 The Great tree dream of Nebuchadnezzar, (lesson on pride)
    5. Ch.5 The Fall of Babylon- the handwriting on the wall 539 B.C.
    6. Ch.6 Daniel in the Lions Den, at this time Daniel was getting to be an old man
    7. But Daniel 7&8 actually fall between ch.4&5,
      - notice vs.1 in the first year of Belshazzar,
      - Nergal was the actual king, but chose to enjoy life while leaving the kingdom to be ran by his son Belshazzar.
        
        Remember he offered to Daniel the 3^rd in the kingdom
    8. then Ch.9 falls between 5 & 6,
    9. then 10-12 after ch.6
  3. Why Split it up this way?
    1. There are a couple of reasons,
      - first, the language changed,
      - ch.1-7 was written in the Aramaic
      - ch.7-12 was written in Hebrew
      - Second, one is an historical overview, the second books of prophecy.
        
        Imagine if we were to split the book of Daniel into two parts,
        
        I Daniel, & II Daniel.
        
        It would make it a little easier for us to see this
    2. The third reason,
      - this is according to a lot of scholars,
      - the first 6 books were in the most part written to Gentiles (therefore the language)
      - the second 6, even tho it is a history of the world is largely written to the Jewish people.
        
        How it is going to affect them.
2. The 4 visions of Daniel,
  1. The times of the Gentiles,
    1. the sea mentioned in vs.2 “the great sea”
      - often in the bible this refers to the Mediterranean Sea,
        
        and it could mean that here as well, considering all the beast that we will look at come form around this region.
      - But it should also be pointed out that sea is also used as a metaphor to mean mankind.
    2. It should also be mentioned here that the word for wind is also the word for spirit.

1. 1. 1. - This is a parallel to
        
        Genesis 1:2 “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. ”
      - There is nothing that is not under a watchful eye of God, and that He has His hand in the mix, we will see this in vs.6 (see if you can find how the hand of God is directly involved with it)
    2. Vs.3 speaks of the 4 beast coming out of the sea,
      - and each one is diverse form the others,
        
        remember in Daniel 2, the statue was well delineated, form God to silver to bronze, to iron
      - each of these kingdoms are different and unique from one another.
      - Something else to keep in mind, they were “diverse” but then in vs.7 the fourth beast is diverse from the others
2. Beast one,
  1. Babylon, Like a lion,
    1. notice the imagery here, the lion with the feathers of an eagle,
      - this was a prominent picture in Babylon. The winged lion
    2. it was like a lion, not a lion, and it was made to stand on it’s feet.
    3. It is worth mentioning here that there are many who believe that Nebuchadnezzar was saved,
      - and one of the reasons is here, that he was given a mans heart.
      - Ezekiel 36:25-27 “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”
3. Beast two,
  1. Med-Persian, Like a Bear,
    1. notice that a bear is stronger than a lion, but not as regal. (gold compared to silver)
    2. it comes out, but then raises it’s self to one side.
      - The second kingdom was made up of two, the Meade and the Persian
      - and the Persian would be the dominant side, and consume the Meade.
      - We see this in the arms of Nebuchadnezzar dream
      - we see it here how it shifts to one side.
    3. And it had three ribs in it’s mouth,
    4. the Persian empire was established by three major conquest:
      - the Lydian victory, the Egyptian victory, and then Babylon.
    5. It also consumed much flesh,
      - the Persian army was made up of around 2.5 Million men.
        
        Compare this to 1.5 million in the modern U.S. Military
4. Beast three,
  1. Grecian, Like a Leopard,
    1. on it’s back four wings.
      - The idea of wings is the speed which it moved.
        
        A leopard (fast) with wings (very fast)

1. 1. 1. - the Greek empire was a fast moving empire.
        
        It is one of the things that separated them. The Persian army was strong, but it was slow.
      - Daniel 8:5 “ And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. ”
        
        the speed was like he wasn’t even touching the ground.
      - Alexander was a fast empire,
        
        in fact it was said at the age of 29 that he cried saying there was no other worlds to conquer.
  2. And Dominion was given to it,
    1. this is in contrast to the way men usually think.
      - We think they took it of their own power.
    2. Daniel 2:21 “And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:”
    3. Daniel 4:17 “This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.”
    4. Daniel 4:25 “…till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. ”
    5. Romans 13:1 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God”
      - all of these kingdoms were given to them because of the will of God.
  3. Four heads,
    1. On the deathbed of Alexander, he was asked who does the kingdom belong to.
      - He replied to the strongest,
    2. it however was divided between the 4 generals of Alexander:
      - Cassander, Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Seleucus
      - Cassandra took Greece, Romania the far north west kingdom
      - Ptolemy took Egypt and Israel, the southern western area
      - Antigonus took Turkey and around the black sea
      - and Seleucus took the middle east, Iraq, Iran, all the way to India.
    3. We will see more of this in the four horns of ch.8
      - how the one main one fell off and was replaced by four more.
2. Beast four,
  1. Rome, A Dreadful and Terrible,
    1. vs.7 Daniel describes as Dreadful and Terrible.
    2. Notice the wording of the others, it is not saying they were lions, bears or leopards, they were like them.
      - Daniel has a reference to compare the other three beast to. But he has no beast to compare the fourth one to.
    3. This is a comparison to how ruthless the fourth empire was.
      - Rome took pride in what they destroyed.
        
        Notice in vs.7 this empire is diverse form the others.
        
        The difference is the others would utilize the people they conquered.
        
        Nebuchadnezzar took the best people to Babylon in order to train them to be part of their country.
        
        Cyrus utilized Daniel and respect other religions.
        
        Alexander would actually set up refuge city’s for Jewish people.
      - But, Rome took pride in destroying.
  2. The Evolution between The Fourth and Fifth Kingdom.
    1. Look back at the legs and feet of the statue in Ch.2
      - where each kingdom went from one material to another,
      - the fourth and fifth, legs and feet, there is no distinct material change.
        
        The feet was still iron, only mingled with clay.
    2. We see a similar situation in Gentile empires,
      - we see the end of each, except the roman.
        
        Yes it did end, but the elements that made the government still exist in much of the world today.
      - We see the transfer in these verse 8 with the ten horns, such as the ten toes in ch.2
    3. at the end of vs.7 it had 10 horns, and in the beginning of vs.8 there was one horn that came up among them,
      - of the original 10, there are three that don’t go with the program, and see what happens to them.
    4. At the end of vs.8 we see the eyes and the mouth of the horn.
      - And of all the identities of the Antichrist, one of mouthy is an accurate one.
        
        He is always speaking threatening, defiling.
    5. Next week we are going to look more at the Antichrist and the Judge found in vs.9