Well, good morning. Welcome to
our continuing Bible study in the book of Daniel. And we're
in chapter 7 today. And a few things we might just point
out that, as Timothy pointed out last time, we just went through
a litany of all these kings that kind of came and went during
Daniel's time, and how many of them were assassinated, and there
was all kinds of plotting going on, and eventually the ones came
to power that God had ordained from before the foundation of
the world according to his purpose. And, you know, we think back
to a scripture like in Exodus where God said, for this purpose
have I raised thee up, talking about Pharaoh. And he had a specific
purpose in mind for him, and he has a specific purpose for
these kings that were to come into power. And in Nebuchadnezzar's
dream, remember he had the head of gold, he had a vision of this
image, that he didn't understand. It was a head of gold and the
chest area was silver and the belly was brass and the legs
were iron and clay. The interpretation of it was
given to Daniel by God. He said, well, you are that head
of gold, but you're going to be replaced by a kingdom of silver,
which is inferior. And then that kingdom is going
to be replaced by a kingdom of brass, which is inferior. And then that kingdom is going
to be replaced by one of iron and clay. And so we have the
picture of the Babylonians with the head of gold, the Medo-Persians
come in, or the the inferior kingdom of silver, then we had
the brass kingdom represented by Greece and Alexander the Great,
and then we had the Romans come in as the iron, the legs of iron
and clay, and really there's a series of visions that Daniel
has And they're pretty much all about the same thing. There's
a thing in scripture that we see quite often that we have
an overview, like in Genesis chapter 1, God created the heaven
and the earth. And then in chapter two, that
gets fleshed out a little bit. And we see the same thing here
in Daniel. He gets a little bit more information and a little
bit more information. And it's from God's viewpoint,
how he sees things and how he's causing things to happen, all
for the redemption of the church, all leading up to Messiah the
Prince being cut off. at the appropriate time. And
Daniel wouldn't live to see that physically, but he was told about
it, and he looked forward to it. And I like Daniel chapter
7. If we'll just go there and we'll
read that. It's an interesting chapter,
and it takes us back to Belshazzar, was a prior king. Remember how
we said that Daniel was not really chronological, but Daniel's reflecting
here, and he writes this vision in Daniel chapter seven,
beginning in verse one, in the first year of Belshazzar, king
of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon
his bed, and he wrote the dream, and then he told the sum of the
matters. And you know what the sum of
the matters is? The victory of the Lamb. That's what this is
all about. It's not a bunch of scary stuff
that's put in metaphorical or symbolical language that God
uses to show Him what's going to happen. But it's all metaphorical
language that's has a spiritual purpose. In verse 2, Daniel spake
and said, I saw in my vision by night, behold, the four winds
of heaven strove upon the great sea. And many times we find that
the great sea is pictorial of the Gentiles or of the people
of the world as a whole. He said, and four great beasts
came up from the sea, diverse from one another. This is just
the same thing that Nebuchadnezzar saw, only different metaphorical
language. The first was like a lion, and
it had eagle's wings, and I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked."
That means this beast was flying high and he was doing good and
then all of a sudden his wings were plucked and he was no longer
able to do what he had done before. And it was lifted up from the
earth and made to stand upon the feet as a man. And a man's
heart was given to it. And behold, another beast, a
second like unto a bear, and it raised up itself on one side
And it had three ribs in the mouth of it, between the teeth
of it. And they said thus unto it, Arise,
and devour much flesh. And after this I beheld, and
lo, another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four
wings of a fowl, and the beast had four heads, and dominion
was given to it. And after this I saw in the night
visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible
and strong and exceedingly. And it had great iron teeth,
and it devoured and breaking pieces and stamped the residue
with the feet of it. And it was diverse from all the
beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. And I considered
the ten horns. And behold, there came up among
them another little horn, before whom there were three of the
first horns plucked up by the roots. And behold, the horn,
this horn, there was eyes like the eyes of a man and mouth speaking
great things. So, he has this vision, it's
like, we might call that a nightmare almost. It's pretty scary sounding. But really, it's just the same
thing that Nebuchadnezzar saw only in different versions and
a little bit more information is added to it. And then, in verse nine, we come to the, when
Daniel says, the sum of the matters. An eye beheld till the thrones
were cast down. Now, when we think of that, we
think of perhaps, maybe, and it could be these were thrones
that were cast down and then the Ancient of Days did sit.
But I like the NIV translation of that. He says, as I looked, thrones
were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. I like
that. And then we have a description.
Whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was
like pure wool, and his throne was like the fiery flame, and
his wheels as burning fire. It kind of conjures up images
like God had wheels, but it actually describes kind of a vortex whirlwind
kind of a thing. It's a metaphorical expression
of this dazzling display of fire from the ancient of days. And
it kind of, fire, we often find pictures, the judgment of God. It says, a fiery stream issued
and came forth from before him. Thousands, thousands ministered
unto him, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The judgment
was set, and the books were opened. Well, that's not an exact count
of 1,000, 1,000, 10,000. It's just a picture that there was
a large group there. And I beheld then, because of the voice of the great
words which the horn spoke. And I beheld even until the beast
was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame."
What a picture of how God takes care of things. He raised him
up for his purpose and then he says, oh, by the way, that one
was slain and destroyed and given to the burning flame. And as
concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken
away. Don't worry about it, Daniel. You're going to see these things,
and maybe you won't see all of them, but you'll see some at
that point, because back when Belshazzar was still the king,
remember he took the vessels of the temple and had a big drunken
party and the Persians were outside the gate and they came in and
killed him that very night. And then Darius the Mede came
in and received the kingdom from Cyrus the Great. And Cyrus had
been told of in Isaiah, he said, my servant Cyrus, I will raise
up and he will restore Jerusalem. 400 years before this all took
place. So he said, they had their dominion taken
away. They were there for a purpose and then when their time was
up, according to my purpose, their dominion was taken away.
Yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. And
then in verse 13, I saw in the night visions and behold, one
like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came
to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him and
there was given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom that
all people and nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion
is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in His kingdom,
that which shall not be destroyed." Well, if we look at that in terms
of everlasting, and a lot of times because we're linear folks
and we think of things in a linear fashion, we think of eternity
starts like now and goes in a forward direction. But everlasting means
eternal, and eternal is a non-linear concept as far as God is concerned. And so it wasn't a kingdom that
just started right at this point in prophecy. It's an everlasting
kingdom. It's an everlasting dominion
which shall not pass away. and his kingdom, that which shall
not be destroyed. And we'll kind of look at that
in a little bit more in depth here in just a minute, but suffice
to say that that is a concept that has been misunderstood from
day one, even through the disciples who said, hey, will thou at this
time restore the kingdom unto Israel? So, That was all straightened out
by Jesus. But in verse 15, Daniel was grieved
in my spirit and in the midst of my body and the visions of
my head troubled me. Well, I would be troubled if
I had a dream like that. I came near unto one of them
that stood by. And so we understand by that
there were some heavenly messengers standing by in charge of the
gospel and asked him the truth of all of this. And so he told
me and made me know the interpretation of the things. These great beasts,
which are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. Okay,
and we looked at those previously. But the saints of the Most High
shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever
and ever. Okay, that's a CliffsNotes of
everything that we just read. Then he says, okay, I want more
information. Then I would know the truth of
the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others. exceeding
dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and nails of brass, which
devoured and break in pieces, and stamped the residue with
his feet. And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of
the other things which came up, and before whom three fell, and
even that of the horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake
great things, and whose look was more stout than his fellows,
and I beheld And the same horn made war with the saints and
prevailed against them until the Ancient of Days came. And
judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time
came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, the
fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth, which
shall be diverse from all the kingdoms and shall devour the
whole earth and shall tread it down and break it in pieces and
the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise,
and another shall arise after them, and he shall be diverse
from the first, and he shall subdue three kings, and he shall
speak great words against the Most High, and he shall wear
out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and
laws, and they shall be given into his hand until a time and
times and a dividing of times, but the judgment shall sit, and
they shall take away his dominion. to consume and to destroy it
unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion
and the greatness of the kingdom unto the whole heaven shall be
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and
obey him. Hitherto is the end of the matter.
As for me, Daniel, my cogitation's much troubled me and my countenance
changed in me, but I kept the matter in my heart. So after
the fact, a lot of these things become really clear and as we
said in each one of these visions he has later on in chapters eight
and going on, they really concern kind of the same thing and each
time we have another layer information brought forth. And in the next,
in chapter eight, we find out that one of these kings is called,
he's called a goat. Imagine that. This Gentile king
is a, he's a goat, a ram goat, stouter than his fellows. And
it turns out he's the Prince of Grecia, Alexander the Great.
And he's going to conquer just most of the known world at that
time and then die at an early age. And then his kingdom will
be divided up among his generals, four generals that he had. And then they squabbled and fought
and killed each other and so on. So hint about next chapter
8's lesson. But I just want us to concentrate
today on the sum of the matters. Daniel says, here's the sum of
the matters. And the sum of the matters was the victory of the
Lamb. Every time that there's something
brought up that sounds scary and horrible, well, their dominion
was taken away by the Ancient of Days and dominion was given
to the saints, given to the Son of Man coming in the clouds. whose kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. And so we have this false notion
that the Jews, and most of religion has it, based on their interpretation
of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and this notion that prevailed in
the time of the disciples, and even unto now, that the nation
of Israel would be physically restored and their eternal position
secured. I like what Norman said this
morning, he says, I'm paraphrasing here, but he said, you know,
the amount of time that they actually had control of the kingdom
was like nothing. They just had a few years where
they weren't being conquered by the Egyptians or the Assyrians
or the Mesopotamians, Babylonians, and the Romans. But they had
this, oh, We're going to have the kingdom
back, and it's going to be just like we imagined it. It would
always be in our physical minds, and we won't be under the thumb
of those Romans or the Babylonians. I think it was in Ezekiel, he
says, I was by the river, and all the captives were along the
river, and they were all mourning, The Babylonians said, hey, you
Jews, sing us a song. Sing us a song of Jerusalem.
And they said, how can we sing? of that happy time when we're
so depressed because we're slaves. But that was how they thought.
Fleshly thinking, and it's just a constant caution here against
natural inclination to apply physical or fleshly thinking
and expectations to spiritual issues. And it just never, never
works out. And that's what, we mentioned
this verse in this block of scripture quite a bit in John chapter three,
where Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus and Nicodemus is trying to apply
this physical thinking to a spiritual problem. And Jesus says, that's
not the issue. The issue is, you must be born
again. He says, unless you're born again, you can't see the
kingdom of God. He says, unless you're born again,
you can't enter the kingdom of God. So there's this issue. He said, the flesh is flesh,
and the spirit is spirit. And those two things don't interact. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and you can only expect fleshly things out of it. That
which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, John 3, 6. And then, even after the Lord
was crucified, and He reappeared, Norm has been covering this in
Acts, as he's been going through Acts in our Sunday morning servants. In Acts chapter 1, verse 6, when
they were come together, the disciples were come together,
and Jesus appeared to them after the resurrection, they asked
Him, saying, Lord, will it at this time restore the kingdom
to Israel? Again, they had the fleshly thing,
but it wouldn't be long before the Spirit of God straightened
all that out for them, and they understood the spiritual aspect
of what was really going on and transpiring. You know, this dream
vision of Daniel actually dispelled that notion and reiterated what
was revealed in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, that these kingdoms
are going to come and go to accomplish God's purpose. And it was the
Romans that God determined would be the implementers. of the punishment
of his son in the behalf of his elect, in the behalf of his people.
And the next several visions are just basically amplifications
of that original vision and add additional information as we
mentioned that we find that that technique used in the scriptures
in Genesis and so on. So we have two revelations about
God that are just wonderful in this text here in Daniel chapter
seven. We find the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man. And we should
really pay close attention to these descriptions of both. You
know, the Ancient of Days in the form of Jehovah, the eternal,
self-existing God Almighty, the Ancient of Days. And He's called
that in other scriptures. And then we have the Son of Man
who came with the clouds of heaven. And we've seen that. In Luke
chapter 21, 27, then shall they see the Son of Man coming in
a cloud with great power and great glory. Acts 1, 9 says,
while they beheld, he was taken up in a cloud, received him out
of their sight. And they said, ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye, gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus which
is taken up from you into heaven shall come in like manner as
you've seen him go into heaven, in this cloud. These visions, along with their
close follow-up in Revelation are usually presented as a kind
of a scary image, and it's usually falsely promoted by religionists
seeking to enlarge the roles of heaven by fear and scare tactics. And when reality, it speaks of
the sovereignty of God who is the King of kings and sets up
kings on the earth according to his purpose in the redemption
of the church. And the truth is, The truth is,
he has victory over all of these interlopers that come to power
and they think it's by my might. Nebuchadnezzar said that. Look
what I have done. I have just built this mighty
kingdom and we have the seventh wonder of the world was the city
of Babylon with the huge walls and the great 60 square miles,
like, I can't remember how many, 20 times the size of Jerusalem
in dimensions, and full of temples to pagans, and all kinds of gardens,
and it was just considered one of the seven wonders of the world
there for a long time. But really, we find all of this
is according to God's purpose, and He raised each one of those
up, so I'm going to bring the Babylonians over, They're going
to take you captive for 70 years. And then I'm going to have Cyrus
come up that we found out in Isaiah 28, and he's going to
send you forth to restore Jerusalem. And all of these things, according
to his purpose, the truth of his victory, and who in the end
shares the only true kingdom, with his beloved, making them
kings and priests. That's what the scripture tells
us in Revelation chapter one, starting in verse five, Revelation
one, five, and from Jesus Christ, who's the faithful witness, the
first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth,
unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.
I like that hymn we sang this morning. I couldn't sing it very
well because it's beyond my range, a lot of it. And I have no skill in that. And He's made us kings and priests
unto God and His Father and to Him be glory and dominion forever
and ever. Amen. Behold, He cometh with
clouds. and every eye shall see him,
and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth
shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which
was and which is to come, the Almighty." What a beautiful description
we have here. And it really echoes what we've
learned in Daniel chapter seven and eight. And even in the previous chapters,
and what we'll learn more about as we go through the rest of
Daniel, as we get closer and closer to Daniel 9, 25, Messiah
the Prince shall be cut off, but not for himself. And so,
if we compare Daniel 7, the vision, and the understanding given of
it, we kind of come to the understanding
that the incidents recorded in scripture are not isolated or
unrelated incidents, but are, in truth, all speaking of the
same thing, which is the victory of the Lamb of God in redeeming
the church given him by the Father in the covenant of grace, and
redeemed, in fact, by his victorious substitutionary sacrifice of
himself satisfying the righteousness of God. I beheld until the Ancient
of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most
High. And I beheld, and one came like the Son of Man coming in
the clouds." And so we find with Daniel a
troubling dream, but the truth of the matter was kept in his
heart. Because they said, here's the
truth, here's the sum of the matter. Don't worry. And I wanted to spend just a
couple of minutes talking about the symbolism of two prominent
elements that we find in this fire and cloud seen here in Daniel
and throughout scripture actually. And, you know, back as far back
as Exodus chapter 13, verse 21, we find as the children of Israel
came out of Egypt and they're wandering in the desert and the
wilderness and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar
of a cloud, to show them the way, to lead them the way. And by night, a pillar of fire,
to give them light, to go by day and night. So we have these
two elements that not by accident, the Lord could have probably
chosen anything to accomplish these two things, but He chose
fire and a cloud. in Exodus 16, it says, And it
came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of
the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness.
And a lot of times the wilderness speaks of the world and how we're
in it as we come in by our nature. And they looked toward the wilderness
and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud. And
fire oftentimes symbolizes the judgment of and by God. Remember, Norm has been teaching
us in his lessons about how the unbelievers, the Baal worshipers,
they set up their altars in their groves and poles and things and
tried to sacrifice their They're bullocks and nothing
happened. And when Elijah set up his, this
fire came down from heaven and consumed everything. Judgment
came down and consumed the whole thing. And so fire displayed
God's consuming of the sacrifice in judgment of sin. Fire, which
fell upon the son of man and consumed him as Norman has declared
time and time again. And clouds symbolize satisfaction
with that sacrifice. He cometh with clouds. The rainbow,
a token of grace, is set in the cloud of satisfaction. If we
look at Genesis chapter nine and verse 13, the Lord said,
Genesis 9, 13, I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be
it for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And
we looked at that, we spent time looking at that rainbow and how
it's seven primary colors, but really there's an infinite spectrum. of color and light that's beyond
our capability as people to see in our natural state. We can
only see the seven colors and the variations in between them
to some degree. But we can't see an infinite
spectrum of colors and light that way and that way and this
way and that way. They go everywhere. because in
our physical form we just are not incapable of that. But it
is such a picture of the infinite wisdom and grace of God in that
rainbow. And it's set in this cloud, this
cloud of satisfaction that says, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Revelation 10, one says, and
I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with
a cloud, and a rainbow was on his head. And his face was as
it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. What a picture. What a picture of grace, the
judgment that we're saved from. Back when we studied Luke, quite
a while ago we were in Luke chapter 9, Remember they went up on the
Mount of Transfiguration and Jesus and a couple of disciples
in Luke chapter 9 verse 33, and it came to pass as they departed
from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to
be here. Let us make three tabernacles,
one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias, not knowing
what he said. And while he thus spoke, there
came a cloud. and overshadowed them, and they
feared as they entered into the cloud. And this, I just love
this part, and there came a voice out of the cloud saying, this
is my beloved son, hear him. All these fears that we conjure
up, all these things, they say, ooh, this cloud's coming over
us, and we're not gonna be able to, all these physical worries
that we have, but yet the voice comes out, fear not, this is
my beloved son, hear him. In Luke 3, verse 22, it's written, which said, Thou art my beloved
Son, in thee I am well pleased. This baptism of Jesus and this
voice that came indicating that this picture of baptism, this
picture of the death and the burial and the resurrection of
Christ, satisfying the righteousness and justice of God, quenching
the fires that were, what is in store for those that are the
unbelievers taken care of, this cloud that says, this is my beloved
son, hear ye him. And so back in Daniel, in the
symbology that we have here in Daniel chapter seven, verse nine,
he said, I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the ancient
of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow. and the hair
of his head like pure wool, and his throne was like fiery flame,
and his wheels as burning fire. And we read that NIV translation
of that, where the thrones were set in place, and the Ancient
of Days took his seat, the Supreme Almighty God, sitting where he
was eternally enthroned. And his thrones were flaming
with fire, and his wheels were all ablaze, And then Daniel in
chapter 7, verse 13, and it says, I saw in the night visions and
behold, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven
and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before
him. It makes me think back to that verse in, I think it's in
Isaiah 8, 18, where he says, behold, I and the children whom
thou has given me, I have paid the price. I have been the propitiation. I have atoned for all of their
sins. The ancient of days was satisfied. That's what it tells us in Isaiah
53. he shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. And by his sacrifice shall many
be justified, made righteous. And there was given to him dominion
and glory and a kingdom that all people and nations and languages
should serve him. And his dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away in his kingdom, that which
shall not be destroyed. You know, when he was having
this discussion, when he was here on the earth, They're always
bringing up this worldly, fleshly notion about how they thought
things should be. And many, many places in the
New Testament scriptures, we find him setting that straight. My kingdom is not of this world. Why aren't you fighting? They
said, where's your sword? Where's your army? You're supposed
to be the messiah, the king, messiah, the prince. Where's
your stuff? He said, my kingdom is not of
this world. If it were of this world, then
I would fight. But it's not of this world. And all this stuff
is according to God's purpose. And physically, it doesn't. not anything to get upset about,
nothing to worry about. And then in his prayer, in John
chapter 17, he says, he identifies with his elect
in his prayer and he prays for us and he says, they're not of
the world, even as I am not of the world. They're in the world,
but they're not of the world. All mine are thine and thine
are mine. Thou has given them me." All these things that he
tells about. And then he says, I've taken
care of it. And the Son of Man goeth as it's
written. He's going to be betrayed. He's going to be arrested. He's
going to be crucified. Gonna be buried, gonna raise
again the third day, and he's gonna come in the clouds. Picture
the satisfaction of that ancient of days with the fiery justice.
What a wonderful gospel narrative we have here in the book of Daniel
chapter 7. So until next time, be free in
the Son of Man coming in clouds.