God Beats Four Beasts

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in Daniel chapter 7 tonight. Daniel chapter 7. As we’ve been going through this study of the book of Daniel, we’ve been dealing largely with stories, historical stories, where Daniel records, this is what happened, this is what so-and-so said, this is what they did, this was the response.

Things kind of switch gears in chapter 7 and go into more prophetic matters. Not pathetic, but prophetic, where he’s bringing a word from God. Now, there’s been some of that in the previous chapters where we’ve dealt with dreams and visions and writing on the wall and all of it coming from God as these messages, but they were true stories that involved those things.

In chapter 7, there’s not really any story involved. Daniel just starts telling the vision that he had. And as a matter of fact, he goes back in time to do this.

Up to now, things have kind of gone in chronological order. They’ve kind of gone in the order that they happened. But starting with chapter 7, things jump around a little bit.

A few weeks ago, in chapter 5, we talked about King Belshazzar. He was the one that was there when the handwriting was seen on the wall and God said, your kingdom’s finished. And he was overthrown that very night.

And then in chapter 6, we see Daniel in the den of the lions, having King Darius having been tricked into putting him there. And Darius is the one who came to the throne after Belshazzar was overthrown and killed. In chapter 7, we’re back to Daniel saying, and this happened during the reign of Belshazzar.

So he’s now looking back in time at what happened, and he’s had this really bizarre dream. And I don’t mean to be disrespectful to what God’s Word says, but it is a bizarre dream. There are many times that the things that are recorded in prophecy just sound.

. . I mean, there are things that don’t happen every day.

That’s why, and I’ve talked about here, the sign of the Messiah. Now, one of the signs of the Messiah would be that a virgin would bear a child. That doesn’t happen every day.

Contrary to the modern liberal interpretation that that word means a young woman in Isaiah 7, 14, that’s not much of a sign. Young women give birth every day. But a virgin giving birth, now that’s a sign.

That’s unusual. A lot of what happens in prophecy is stuff that stands out as unusual. And so Daniel says in chapter 7, verse 1, he says, In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matter. So he woke up and he wrote down what his dream was.

Most of us can’t remember our dreams, or we don’t remember most of our dreams, I’ll say. I will sometimes wake up with those dreams that I think that was really upsetting or that was really weird. What was it?

And it’s gone. The ones that I can remember, though, are very bizarre. But Daniel was sure to remember these because it was a message given to him by God.

And so he wrote down, you know, when he got up, he wrote down everything that had happened. And not only that, but he wrote down the sum of the matters. Daniel was very good at knowing what God was trying to say through a dream.

And Daniel spake and said, here’s the account he gives of the dream. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. In other words, were there literally four winds in the dream?

I don’t know. But a lot of times that phrase, from the four winds or from the four corners of the earth, we know the earth doesn’t have corners. That just means coming from everywhere.

So there might have been literally four, or he may just be saying here, the wind was blowing here from every direction and striving upon the great sea. So we’re looking at a big storm waves in his dream. And four great beasts came up from the sea diverse from one another.

So it’s crazy enough that he’s having this dream about this big storm and four beasts come up out of the water, but on top of that, they’re all different from each other. These are all different kinds of beasts. And he says the first was like a lion and had eagle’s wings.

So picture that for a minute. A lion with the wings of an eagle, I think, isn’t that what they used to call a griffin in Greek mythology. Somebody help me out here.

Charlie, is that what it was? No, that was a human and a lion. Okay.

Anyway, it was a lion with wings like an eagle. That doesn’t happen every day. And he said, I beheld until the wings thereof were plucked.

So not only is there this giant beast that came out of the water, and it’s a lion with eagle’s wings, but it gets even weirder when somebody comes and rips the wings off of the lion. And it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon the feet as a man. So this lion now is walking around on two legs, standing as a man.

And I know sometimes four-legged critters can do that. My dog can walk around on two legs for a short period of time when he’s wanting a treat or Charles making him dance for his supper. But they don’t just walk around like that, like we do.

But he says in this dream, in this vision, the lion stands up on two feet and walks around like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. Or in some translations, a man’s mind was given to it. And whether it’s the heart or the mind, we’re talking now about a lion standing as a man and having some of the faculties that we as human beings have.

So that’s a strange thing to dream. But then he goes on to the second beast. And behold another beast, verse 5, a second like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side. So this bear comes up, but he’s on one side coming up.

And when he turns around, it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it. So he’s carrying three ribs in his mouth, this bear. And they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.

Who is they? We don’t really know. But somebody tells this, apparently this bear that seems to have had a stroke on one side and is carrying ribs in his mouth, go devour much flesh, eat as much meat as you can.

And after this, verse 6, After this I beheld and lo another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl. So we have another cat with wings here. It’s a leopard with four wings on it.

The beast also had four heads. and dominion was given to it. It is a four-headed, four-winged leopard.

And it’s okay that you all laugh. I laugh as I’m describing this. Just know that I’m not making fun of God’s word.

It’s just one of those things. Sometimes you laugh when you don’t know how else to react. But it’s a cat with four heads.

And it says, and dominion was given to it. And after this, I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible. So the other three he’s reasonably okay with.

What does that tell you about the fourth beast? It is a bad critter. If I see a lion with the wings of an eagle getting them ripped off and walking around like a man and I see a bear that rises up on one side and carrying bones in its ribs in its mouth and a four-headed leopard, I’m going to be terrified.

How bad does the fourth beast have to be that I’m looking at those three and going, yeah, they’re okay. I wouldn’t mind having one of those. But he says the fourth beast was dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly.

And it had great iron teeth and it devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it. So everything it could, it devoured and broke with its teeth and its claws and everything that it couldn’t do that with, it stomped around and destroyed the rest of it, stamped the residue with the feet of it. And it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it.

It was different from all of them. And it says it had ten horns. And I considered the horns, verse 8.

He’s still not done with his description of this fourth beast. I considered the horns and behold, there came among them another little horn. So there were ten horns on this beast. And yet up out of nowhere pops up another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. So this little horn comes, and when it does, it gets rid of three of the ten that were already there.

And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. Now, I don’t think that these visions were given to Daniel by God that he could have imaginations of scary animals. These dreams that God gave Daniel or gave Daniel the interpretation of when they were other people’s dreams always meant something and always told him something about what was going to happen in the world, especially with the world he lived in, which was Babylon.

And this dream ties in with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue. Do you remember that from weeks and weeks ago, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue with the four parts, and it had the gold head, and it had the silver torso, and the bronze legs, and the iron feet, and the tin clay and iron toes. These tie in together.

And he talks about the toes being broken off of the statue. And the interpretation of that, talking about the Roman Empire, talking about Jesus coming and defeating the Roman Empire. Well, in verse 9, he says, I beheld until the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit.

Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean cast down, like I’m taking the thrones and I’m toppling them over and I’m getting rid of them. He’s talking about them being placed, put in place. He said, I sat there and I watched until the thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days did sit.

The Ancient of Days is talking, I believe, about God the Father. And he did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool, his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. Okay, and as I’m first reading through this, I assume the Ancient of Days is talking about Jesus.

But we always want to look at things in context, because somebody else shows up on the scene. It says in verse 10, a fiery stream issued and came forth from him. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.

The judgment was set and the books were opened. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words, which the horn spake, I beheld even until the beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

Okay, so he’s painted this picture for us of these four scary monsters, and they all represent something. And then he gives the vision of God sitting on his throne. And everything about that is designed to help us to understand the power and the majesty of God.

That he sits on his throne and it’s like flames shoot out. I mean, that’s, I’m thinking that’s more terrifying than these monsters, than these beasts. And not in the sense that we need to be terrified of God, but we also need to have a healthy fear and respect of him and his power.

that no matter how big these monsters, and this is a theme that we’re going to see all throughout this passage, that no matter how big these beasts are, no matter how big and tough and scary these monsters are, God is still stronger. And each of these beasts is defeated. This one, this fourth beast is slain, the word says.

It’s killed, it’s destroyed. The other three have their judgment, have their right to rule taken away. They have their power taken away, but their lives are spared for a little while.

See, God even gets to make these decisions, these big powerful beasts. God looks at them and says, yeah, I say what you get to be in charge of. I say what you get to do.

And thousands and thousands serving him, and 10,000 times 10,000, they are using some of the biggest numbers that they can imagine and trying to tell us it’s even more than that. This is the power of God, that he has the control and the dominion and the sovereignty over these huge powers. And everybody they can see is serving him.

And he says in verse 13, I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man. See, this is where I started realizing, oh, the Ancient of Days is not Jesus. Because here comes the Son of Man, which is what Jesus called himself.

One of the many titles that Jesus used for himself. 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, nations, and languages should serve him.

This fits perfectly with what the New Testament talks about with Jesus being given all glory and honor and dominion by God the Father. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Jesus Christ will reign forever and ever.

It’s one of the promises that God made to David was that his seed, his descendants, would rule on a throne that was everlasting. If we’re just looking at a human interpretation of that, a human fulfillment of that, well, the last kings of Judah were kicked off the throne in the 500s BC, and the seed of David isn’t running Israel today, and it’s not a monarchy. But there’s coming a future fulfillment where Jesus, not only in the promise given to David, but here in the prophecy of Daniel, and in what it says in the New Testament, Jesus will sit on this throne forever and rule as the successor to David in a never-ending kingdom.

So Daniel has looked at all of this, and he’s very troubled by it. I don’t think that indicates a lack of trust in God. I think any of us would look at something like that and we would wake up and we would shudder from it.

But he says in verse 15, I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by, so he’s participating. He is participating in what’s going on in the vision.

Excuse me. He’s not just seeing it. He’s able to go and interact with people.

I came near unto one of them that stood by and asked him the truth of all this, so he told me and made me know the interpretation of the things. these great beasts which are four are four kings which shall arise out of the earth this is where it fits in with the with the dream that Nebuchadnezzar already had about the statue great kings that shall arise out of the earth but the saints of the most high shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever even forever and ever so there are these great kings that are going to rule over the earth they’re going to be incredibly powerful but even they in all their power are going to be subdued by God, and the saints of God are going to rule over them with the Son of Man. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.

I don’t know how you could get more emphatic than that. Forever and even forever and ever. That’s pretty much eternity.

That’s forever. I think he meant forever. And it’s not that the saints of God are so powerful that we take over the world.

We can’t even get good people elected to Congress half the time. I don’t know how we’re expected to take over the world. Jesus, in the final day, subdues the powers of darkness and gives the earth as a gift to his followers, to his people.

He says in verse 19, Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast. He said, but I wanted to know a little bit more about the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others. It was different. There was something different about it.

Exceeding dreadful. It was even scarier. Whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass, which devoured, break in pieces and stamped the residue with his feet.

All these things that we’ve already talked about. And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up and before whom they fell, even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. He said, I wanted to know more about that fourth beast. I get it.

These are all kings. These all represent kings that are to come. Tell me more about that fourth beast. And he begins to describe it again as he’s asking the question.

I want to know what those horns are. I want to know what that mouthy little horn is that the Bible said that in the dream he’s arrogant with his words. He said, I want to know all about this.

In verse 21, he says, beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them. So he sees in this vision of things to come in the future, he sees this little horn, this malady, arrogant little horn, is making war on God’s people and prevailing against them. But it’s just a temporary victory.

He says, until the Ancient of Days came. Until the Father stepped in. You can mess with the Cubs, but don’t mess with the Big Bear.

And I don’t mean that to be disrespectful. I mean that in the same way I describe myself and my children. I am a very, I’m almost too laid back sometimes, I think.

And being married to someone as organized as Charla gives me that opportunity to be more laid back than I would otherwise be. But when I see someone mess with my kids, I turn into a completely different person. I turn into the Papa Grizzly.

and we’ll be at Chick-fil-A looking at the play place and looking at a kid fight going on and Charles says, you can’t go in there and whoop those other people’s kids. Okay. You can mess with the cubs but you better step back when the Papa Bearer comes in.

So this little horn is making war on God’s people and getting away with it until the Ancient of Days shows up. Until God steps in. Until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High.

So now, now these saints of God who were getting kicked around are suddenly the ones standing in judgment. 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 kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth and shall tread it down and break it in pieces. And the ten horns, verse 24, pardon me. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are the 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. So this little horn is going to come up and take out three of the other kings and take their place. And he shall speak great words against the Most High.

He’s going to come and blaspheme God. He’s going to come just like Satan did and think, I’m better than God. I’m more powerful than God.

You should worship me instead of God. He’s going to come in that kind of attitude. and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and to think, excuse me, and think to change times and laws and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

So he says he’s going to come in, he’s going to think he’s greater than God. This changing of times and laws, he’s going to think that he can change God’s laws and that God’s people owe him obedience instead of God. And he’s going to be given the upper hand for this phrase, a time and times and the dividing of time, or time and times and half a time.

That word is usually interpreted to mean years. So a year and two years and half a year, that’s three and a half years. And I realize that there’s disagreement in the end times among believers.

There may be disagreement about the timeline of the end times, even in this room. It’s one of those things that I think we can disagree about and still love each other, still be brothers, still be part of the same church. There are a lot of things about the end times I don’t understand.

And I have said before, not as a cop-out, but I’ve told churches that were looking at me as the pastor when they wanted to know where do you stand on end times theology. And I’ve told them, and I absolutely do not mean this as a cop-out, that I am pro-millennial, meaning whatever God is going to do, I’m in favor of. I know he’s going to work it out however he wants.

I’ve heard other people say as a joke that they’re what was it, pan-tribulationists it’s all going to pan out in the end I don’t know absolutely with certainty that I have all of this nailed down I will tell you that I tend toward believing in a pre-tribulation rapture and I do tend to believe in a pre-millennial second coming however however, that doesn’t mean I don’t have questions that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that I don’t understand. That doesn’t mean that I’m not open to being persuaded from the scriptures that I’m wrong about those things. But in the end, what I do know is that Jesus Christ is coming back.

What I do know is that one day he’s going to set all things to right, and what I do know is that one day we’re all going to reign with him for eternity. And the timeline just really doesn’t matter to me all that much. But I will say that this passage begins to take on a flavor and characteristics that sound a lot like the pre-tribulation and pre-millennial stuff that I was taught growing up.

And later on looked at and said, wait a minute, is this really true? When he’s talking about three and a half years, that’s half of the tribulation. If you look at a seven-year tribulation.

So it’s entirely possible that that’s what he’s talking about. Saying that these saints, apparently people who’ve gotten saved during the tribulation, are being kicked around for three and a half years by this little horn, this part of the fourth beast, until God steps in. And he’s going to think that he’s as powerful or more powerful than God.

And he’s going to think that he can do whatever he wants until God steps in and reminds him. And see, that’s the same thing Satan did too. Satan thought, I can be better than God until God reminded him.

Then Satan came and tried to convince Adam and Eve, hey, you can be just as good as God. And God had to remind him. Well, fortunately for Adam and Eve and for us, God has been more gentle in his reminder to us than he was to Satan or will be to this fourth beast because there’s grace for us.

Jesus purchased that. but there’s this time and times and half a time and he says in verse 20 but the judgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end so even this fourth beast and his mouthy little horn will be judged and the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high whose kingdom is an everlasting dominion and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Hitherto is the end of the matter.

Daniel’s just so matter of fact about this. He was so troubled about it, but it’s one of those things that I’m so anxious about it, but now that I got it out, I feel better. He’s so matter of fact here at the end.

Hitherto is the end of the matter. That’s the end of the story. That’s all, folks.

He says, as for me, Daniel, my cogitations, my thoughts much troubled me and my countenance changed me, but I kept the matter in my heart. So to go back and tie this in, these four beasts represent four great world kingdoms. And they’re the same great world kingdoms that God described to Nebuchadnezzar in his vision, in his dream. The lion with eagle’s wings.

I’m fairly certain that I’ve seen that, that very picture portrayed in Babylonian artwork. And it seems that that was a theme in Babylonian culture. Now, don’t quote me on that, but I tried briefly to look and see if I could find the picture and print it off.

I didn’t have time to finish it, but I’m fairly certain I’ve seen that. But this seems to represent Babylon, and in particular, to represent Nebuchadnezzar, this lion with the eagle’s wings and the wings were torn off. Nebuchadnezzar was flying high as the king of Babylon and his wings were clipped.

When he got too big for his britches and God said, and we talked about that story as well, when Nebuchadnezzar was turned into somebody who thought he was an animal. For years he thought he was an animal until he humbled himself before God because God said, we’ve got to teach you some humility. And so his wings were clipped. But then after that, God restored him just as he promised.

He went from somebody whose fingernails looked like claws and whose hair looked like feathers because he was out there in the dirt and in the grass like an animal for seven years. And God put him back in his right mind, stood him up and made him the king of Babylon again. And he was restored to somebody who walked as a man and thought as a man after God clipped his wings.

This first beast seems to be pointing at Babylon, the country that Daniel was living in when this was written, when he had the dream. Then there’s the bear with three ribs in his teeth. The bear seems to represent the Medo-Persian empire.

You know, when Belshazzar was going to be overthrown in a few years, and Darius was going to come in and bring his lion’s den with him, those were the Medo-Persians, the Medes and Persians. excuse me, that was two countries that got together and said they’re going to form an empire. If you’re familiar with the history of World War I, I almost said familiar with World War I, but I don’t want to imply that anybody was there.

If you’re familiar with the history of World War I, which we’re looking at just being right around the 100th anniversary of America’s entry into that, so it’s been talked about a little bit in the media, one of the countries we fought was the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austrians and Hungarians, two strong countries that said, let’s get together and form a big empire. Instead of being two strong countries, let’s be one massive empire.

The Medes and Persians did that as well. But as this bear raised up on one side, it kind of indicates that one country was dominant in the mix. See, there’s one country that we still know of today and was called Persia until the 1930s, called Iran now.

But Persia was dominant in this relationship. So the bear raises up on one side. The three ribs are thought by commentators to be the major countries that they conquered.

Lydia, which is now in Turkey, Egypt, and Babylon. Because Babylon, this first beast, was conquered by the Medes and Persians. The third one, the four-headed leopard with the four wings.

There aren’t many things that are faster than a leopard. I couldn’t outrun one. Well, I couldn’t outrun much, but I definitely couldn’t outrun a leopard.

This is a fast animal. And they’re talking about a country here that was incredibly rapid in conquest. We’re talking about the blitzkrieg of their day. Blitzkrieg before you had gunpowder and airplanes. And there was a country that spread across the known world with unbelievable speed and conquered everything in their midst, was given dominion just like this four-headed leopard and then split in four different directions.

And that was Greece, which happens to be the third country from the statue. That Greece was going to come and conquer the known world. Alexander the Great took over most of the land that anybody knew about and did it when he was a very young man.

And then when he died, he died so unexpectedly. He didn’t have a successor in place, didn’t have an heir apparent. Four generals split his country, his empire, in four pieces because they thought nobody but Alexander could manage this.

And we don’t want to have a civil war to see who gets to come out on top. Let’s just divide it in four. And they had the Ptolemaic Greeks in Egypt.

If you’re familiar with Cleopatra, she was a Ptolemy. She was a descendant of them. She was actually Greek, not Egyptian.

There were the Seleucid Greeks in Syria, who the fellow that I talked about a few Wednesday nights ago who came and sacrificed the pig on the altar in the Jerusalem temple was one of them. There were the Adalic Greeks in what’s now Turkey and the Antigonid Greeks in Europe in what we know of as Greece. So this massive country had conquered really quickly and then split in four.

And then there’s the fourth beast which seems to represent Rome. Now there are some that say this was already fulfilled in the past. Most of the compelling arguments that I could find even with my lack of expertise, seem to point out that this is talking about something that was fulfilled partly in the past and will be partly fulfilled in the future. Rome, and I don’t want to speculate.

I’m not one of these guys who says, well, look at my chart and I’ll show you exactly when Jesus is coming back. No, I don’t get into that. And I don’t want to speculate.

I’ve heard people say, well, the European Union could become a renewed Roman Empire. I don’t know how all this works. Excuse me, we’re going to have to wrap this up.

But this fourth beast represents Rome in some form or fashion. Now how it’s going to be fulfilled, when it will be fulfilled, I don’t know exactly. But it hints to a future time, in my understanding, where this will all be fulfilled in total. Now you may be wondering, why is he telling us all this about beasts and timelines and countries and history?

There’s a reason for it. Because God gave people in Daniel’s day these dreams so they would know that he was at work and had plans. Because when the Jews were stuck in Babylon, they didn’t have a country.

They were completely at the mercy of these countries that had taken them over. They were completely at the mercy of the Babylonians. When the Persians took over, they would be completely at their mercy, and they’d get to go home.

But even then, their home was going to be taken over by the Greeks one day. under the Seleucids and Ptolemaic Greeks who would fight it out. And then eventually the Romans were going to be in charge.

From this point on, the Jews were not in control. Daniel’s people were not in control of their own destiny as they walked in a world that was hostile toward God. And they very much needed a reminder that even though they weren’t in control of the world and even though it seemed like things were out of control, that God was still in control.

that these huge countries that seemed to oppress them, that seemed to fight against everything they valued, that seemed to war against God, no matter how strong they became, no matter how overwhelming they looked, that God was still in control and God could strike one down and move on to the next at any

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