Daniel: Part 2
More Visions
If you were with us last week, you know that we are on our final Major Prophet, Daniel. We discussed the first six chapters of this book and how they will ultimately shape the last six. To review, we talked about how Daniel and his friends were now enslaved to Babylon and how they were being forced to disobey the Lord in multiple ways. These four men often refused the laws of evil kings, and God by His grace, saved these men from various attacks. But the biggest aspects of this book that we have been looking at, are the prophetic dreams that God gave the evil King of Babylon for David to interpret. Soon after the prophecies of these visions come true, a new king takes over Babylon, Darius. This King also had dreams that needed interpretation which Daniel was able to fulfill and Darius rewarded Daniel for his services. This story is what leads to Daniel and the lion's den at the end of chapter six. And this is exactly where we pick up in chapter seven. Daniel has done much great work for the Lord by interpreting the dreams of wicked kings and telling them what is in store for the future. However, just as we discussed last week, the vision mentioned in this book doesn’t just tell of the future of Babylon, but also of the end times. These are the visions that we will be seeing take place in the second half of Daniel. To show us just how crucial these visions are, The Bible Project tells us, “We finally come to chapter 7, the center of the book of Daniel, where all the themes come together. The focus of the story is another dream, but this time it’s Daniel’s.” The dreams that Daniel now has will reveal much to us about what is to come. With this in mind, let’s dive in.
The Great Beasts
To start, we see in a dream that Daniel has in chapter seven, that four great beasts are represented. These beasts as we later find out represent four kingdoms that will be dreadful for the whole earth. This fourth beast that Daniel sees, however, is very different from the rest. When questioning about this beast, Daniel is told in Daniel 7:23 “This is what he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth which will be different from all the other kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth and trample it down and crush it.” This vision obviously terrifies Daniel, but there is more yet to come. Daniel has interpreted dreams thus far that have to do with the future of kingdoms and the future of many kings, but nothing that has to do with the end of the world! Beyond all of this, Daniel has been used to interpret dreams, he often hasn’t been the one having the dream. But for this purpose, God intended for Daniel himself to be the one having a prophetic dream, and the interpreter was no longer Daniel, but God. Daniel now knows of the coming doom that will take place when the world comes to its end and is very burdened by this.
Not only is there more to this vision, but God comforts Daniel with these harsh visions He is giving him and helps him interpret more of what will ultimately come for the fate of humanity. This is where chapters 8 & 9 come into play. In Chapter 8, Daniel receives another vision that our Lord interprets for him and chapter 9 we see Daniel praying for answers that God also provides. Let’s start in chapter 8. This vision starts with Daniel seeing a ram and a goat, but nothing about these two seems ordinary. The size and quality of the horns on their heads seem to be unusual as well as the land that these two came from as well. In the interpretation of this dream, Daniel is told in Daniel 8:20-22 “The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia. “The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king. “The broken horn and the four horns that came up in its place represent four kingdoms which will arise from his nation, although not with his power.” Now this may not seem to be important to the end of days, and maybe Daniel is thinking the same thing, but the rise and fall of these kingdoms will be very crucial to the end days indeed.
The Coming End
After seeing all of this, Daniel prays for his people and for himself because of the terrible visions that he has just witnessed. He asks for forgiveness but he also asks for understanding in these situations so that he may know how to go about them. It is at this point in Daniel 9 that Gabriel the angel comes and shares the answer to Daniel’s prayer that he had been looking for. Gabriel tells Daniel in Daniel 9:22-24 “Daniel, I have come now to give you insight with understanding. “At the beginning of your pleas the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, because you are highly esteemed; so pay attention to the message and gain understanding of the vision. “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.” Woah… Is this Gabriel telling Daniel exactly when the world will end?! Not quite. Before I go any further, I would greatly encourage you to read expositions on this book and on the book of Revelation to further your understanding of this topic since we won’t be able to address it all here. At the bare minimum, I would at least encourage you to read this chapter in its entirety so that you may get the full story. Not only is math required to understand this chapter, but more numbers come at the end of this book which is important to note.
So in short, Daniel is given a timeframe of when the Messiah will gather up His people and how long the people will have to repent and turn to Him. Now if the previous visions didn’t stress Daniel out, we can certainly guarantee this one did. This is why chapters in 10-11, Daniel is comforted and told of his standing before God and how all of this will be for His glory. To conclude all of this, Daniel has one final vision of a man in linen who speaks to him one final statement. This man states in Daniel 12:9-10 “Go your way, Daniel, for these words will be kept secret and sealed up until the end time. “Many will be purged, cleansed, and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.” What a momentous statement. This is quite a lot to fit into just 12 chapters, but one thing that is for sure is that Daniel’s life was certainly not lacking in any way. So what are we to do with all of this? Most of the Major Prophet’s prophecies had to do with God’s people in that particular time frame. How are we supposed to handle a prophecy that hasn’t even come to pass that we don’t even fully understand?! We are told exactly how we are supposed to handle this. Remember the man’s parting statement to Daniel, ‘Those who have insight will understand.’ Study this book and the book of Revelation and see what God has made available for you to understand through His Word. This may all seem hard to understand, but God has not required all of this to be written down for nothing. May we take advantage of this great work and apply what we know to better serve God with the days we have left.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] BibleProject. (2024, August 8). Guide to the book of Daniel. BibleProject. https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-daniel/#chapter-7-summary
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