Daniel 7 “Daniel, the Man”

As I have studied through the first six chapters of this book of Daniel, he has become my favorite Bible character. Even as I’m typing these words, I’m marveling that nearly 39 years ago, the Lord moved Joan and me to name our son Daniel! I see the Lord has that little smile. “Ah, now you get it,” He says to me! Our Daniel is and always has been everything any father could ever dream his son would be. Now here on the latter end of my life, the Lord leads me into this relationship with the Daniel of the Bible and I see the circle closes! What a fine man our Daniel is! (You can decide which one you think I’m talking about!).

I know I’ve said this before, but it absolutely floors me to know this man Daniel (in the Bible) who was drug away from home as a young man and inserted into the absolute worst possible culture on the face of the earth. Babylon. The mother of harlots. He was taken from Jerusalem, the City of God, and dropped into Babylon, the very epicenter of evil in this world, the City of the devil. He was enrolled in Babylon U., where he was forced to learn the craft of a warlock, a necromancer, a soothsayer – an occupation for which, back in Israel, he would have been put to death. In Babylon, he was lured by every temptation known to man. Riches, pleasures, power, immorality – they were all rubbed in Daniel’s face all day every day.

And yet, how did he do? “At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally, these men said, ‘We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to with the law of his God’” (6:4,5). How did he do? Sterling integrity. “Blameless and harmless, a child of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom he shined as a light in this world” (Phil. 2:15).

Our man Daniel teaches us all that we can do it. No matter when or where we live, no matter where we work, who we work for and who we work with. NO matter even what our occupation is. No matter how much temptation is literally rubbed in our face, we can do it. Daniel did and you and I can too.

How encouraging is that?

Now what amazes me is to come to this chapter 7 and once again, sit back and observe this man Daniel. As I’ve noted earlier, here in the “first year of Belshazzar” (v.1), he is about 67 years old. I just turned 66, so basically, he and I are the same age as he writes. Here he gets to see the entire sweep of human history from his day all the way to the Second Coming of Christ and the eternal kingdom! He actually gets to see God sitting on His throne surrounded by “thousands and thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand” (v. 10). He gets to see the Son of Man given “authority, glory and sovereign power” with “all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiping Him” (v.14). He gets to see the beast “slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire” (v. 11). He even gets to personally ask angels to explain the vision to him!

Notice how it all affects him: “I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me” (v. 15). “I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself” (v. 28). Can anyone else see, according to our modern evangelical theology, that is not supposed to be the script? That is not how the story is supposed to go. Daniel just saw a vision of heaven itself. He got to see how, in spite of this world’s unspeakable evil, yet, in the end, God wins! He’s supposed to break out into almost uncontrollable praise and head back to work with a big smile, right? Why doesn’t this Daniel follow our script?

Could it be because he was far more mature than we are? We have this notion in our heads that, the more we grow, the more we know God, the closer we get to Him, the more we’ll be one of those people who is just always happy, always serene and peaceful. We think we’ll trust God so much that we will simply rise above this world and all its troubles and just enjoy an ethereal, imperturbable relationship. Daniel would teach us to step back and take a second look. Oh, he would be the first to remind us Isaiah said, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon Thee, (26:3). It is true the Lord says to us, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). And yet, maturity would remind us that Jesus Himself was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). What does knowing God do for us? It makes us like Christ. So if I become more and more like Him, what will be true of me? It means I’ll become “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Kind of like Daniel.

What I’m saying of course totally offends our modern conceptions of Christianity. No doubt, many would accuse me of being negative or even morose. Personally, I don’t care. I’m going to get my theology from the Bible, not from our half-baked, unstudied, immature perceptions of who God is and what we should be. I personally find these observations from Daniel to be wonderfully liberating. This is exactly what I am finding in life. The closer I get to God, while that in itself brings wonderful peace and joy to my soul, yet it gets harder and harder just to be here in this world. The more I know God, the more clearly I see my own sin and sinfulness, the more I see just how broken our world is, the more I see the self-destruction, the cruelty, the corruption. It just gets more and more painful. You’d think I was becoming “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief!”

Daniel teaches me that’s okay

I ask us all, how could that not be true? How could it not be true that the more I know the Lord the more this world’s sin grieves me? How could Daniel see the evil of thousands of years of earth history, see beasts that “crush, and devour, and stamp the remainder with their feet,” and not be grieved by it all, even though he got to see that God wins in the end? Yes, God wins in the end, but in the meantime, the horror of sin is unspeakable. How could anyone not be grieved to see that?

Daniel, the man, and his example grants to you and me the freedom to actually have a real relationship with God. He’s been encouraging me ever since chapter 1. He’s still doing it. Lord, help me to be like Daniel, the man. 

Daniel 7 “Reality and Our Response”

Daniel begins relating his vision by telling us, “There before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea” (vv.2,3). I am amazed how many times I’ve read these words never really realizing what they would teach us. I fear it is almost universally true that we believers come to the Lord and hear His many, many promises of peace and love, then expect ours should be a world of quiet and tranquility. Oh, of course, we know there will be troubles – just not bad ones, right? Because the Lord is on our side, we think we won’t have to face the sometimes horrific calamities others have to face.

We get it in our heads that somehow we will be insulated from truly fiery trials. We (older) Americans were privileged to grow up in a country where the government was truly instituted to do us good. All my life, it has made sense to me that the Lord exhorts us to pray for “kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives …” (I Tim. 2:2). That’s what governments should do – provide for “we the people” a world of peace and security where we can confidently raise our families and conduct our businesses, knowing our justice system will protect us from criminals and our military will protect our borders.

Hmmmm. So we expect to live relatively carefree, quiet lives under a government that does us good. What would Daniel teach us to expect? The four winds of heaven blasting the sea into a horrible tempest, only to see four ravenous beasts rise out of it! Daniel would teach us that the governments of men will not resemble God’s Lamb. They will rather resemble a great red dragon! Daniel’s vision would warn us this world is not a place where the powers that be are working for our good. Instead they will be selfish, cruel tyrants who keep our whole world churned up like a raging ocean while they fight each other – each beast struggling to conquer the others.

Then, if I may be so morose, may I suggest these images will be true anywhere humans possess power? We see the same thing in business. Big corporations present themselves with smiling models to tell us what nice, caring people they are – while they all slit each other’s throats, pay their employees chicken scratch, and sell products they know are killing people. Everywhere we look, people fight for power and keep our world in continual turmoil, even down to the local garden club.

Daniel warned us. We shouldn’t be surprised. Jesus Himself came into our world for no other reason than to do us good and where did it get Him? Murdered. Of course He warned us, “In this world, you shall have trouble” (Jn.16:33). I’m not so sure I’ve ever realized just how serious He was!

This teaching is critical for us from at least two different perspectives. The first is, as I’ve been describing, our expectations. We believers, of all people, need to be realistic. We already know from our Bibles what to expect. Then we need to address the issue of God’s sovereignty in it all. He has promised us – “the court will sit. The beast’s power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom…” (vv.26,27). In our future, “One like the Son of Man” will come. The “stone cut without hands” will strike the image and utterly destroy it. However…in the meantime, the little horn will “wage war against the saints and defeat them, until the Ancient of Days comes” (v. 21,22). Even as we nurse on the promises of heaven, we must constantly remind ourselves this world is not it.

I like what John Calvin said clear back in the 1500’s: “[God’s people] must not indulge themselves in the hope of rest and joy, but rather prepare themselves for sustaining the rush of the fiercest winds, as the world would be everywhere agitated by different storms. They might perhaps suspect God of not performing His promises…Again God came to meet their temptations lest their courage should fail, by teaching them that the method of their redemption was not quite so easy as they had previously conceived…lest it should break down the courage which would be required to meet such great afflictions.”

He then goes on to observe, “The greatest kingdoms are the greatest robbers…kings are mostly tyrants, full of cruelty and barbarity, and forgetful of humanity” and yet he notes “the prophet marks the vice as springing from themselves and not from the sacred ordinance of God.”  

He concludes his comments on these verses with the following prayer, which I believe sums up our own response to all of this:

“Grant, Almighty God, since Thou exposest us to various distresses in this world, for the purpose of exercising our faith and patience; Grant, I say, that we may remain tranquil in our station, through reliance on Thy promises. When storms gather around us on all sides, may we never fall away and never despond in our courage, but persevere in our calling. Whatever may happen, may we recognize Thee as carrying on the government of the world, not only to punish the ingratitude  of the reprobate, but to retain Thine own people in Thy faith and protection, and preserve them to the end. May we bear patiently whatever changes may happen to us, and may we never be disturbed or distressed in our minds, till at length we are gathered into that happy rest, where we shall be free from all warfare and all contests, and enjoy that eternal blessedness which Thou hast prepared for us in Thine only begotten Son—Amen.”

 

Daniel 7 “His Script”

As I explained in the last post, this chapter will be different than my usual course of study. I believe the entire chapter must be studied as a single unit. In my last post, I provided my translation of the entire chapter, so I will not be repeating it, but it is there for anyone’s interested perusal.

As I enter this study, first of all I want to repeat what I said back in chapter 2, that in my opinion these four kingdoms are obviously Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. I realize a lot of authors offer a lot of other interpretations, but I’m reminded of John Eadie’s words: “Interpretations are generally false in proportion to their ingenuity.” Once again, to me, "If the plain sense makes good sense, then why make any other sense?” Basically, what I’m trying to say is that I have no intention of spending much time even considering all the other “ingenious” interpretations which have been offered.

What is interesting to me is to consider the chapter from the perspective of what Daniel knew and didn’t know versus what we today know and don’t know. I’m sure it was obvious to Daniel that the first beast was Babylon, The Babylonians were commonly represented as a lion with wings (v.4) and the reference to its wings being torn off then standing up and being given the mind of a man is clearly referring to Nebuchadnezzar and his experience in chapter 4. One can only wonder if he was watching the rise of Medo-Persia and already had a pretty good idea they would be the bear raised up on one side (v.5). Beyond that, unless he was told more than he wrote down, he would probably not know that the leopard with four wings (v.6) would be Greece and the terrifying beast (v.7) would be Rome. Daniel was living in the kingdom of the very first beast and it is likely the entire rest of the vision would be dark and mysterious to him, even with the angels’ explanations.

For us who live in the 21^st century, it is easy to see Medo-Persia in the bear lifted up on one side, since we look back and know that the Persians were the more powerful of the alliance. Then it is easy to see the leopard with four wings and know that was Alexander who literally flew from Greece to India conquering everything before him. Also, we know that upon his untimely death, his kingdom was divided between his four generals, explaining the beast’s four heads (v.6).

Then we would have no trouble seeing Rome in the terrifying beast with great iron teeth that stomps and destroys everything in its path. Rome couldn’t just conquer Carthage. Once they had breached the city wall, history tells us they killed everyone, then leveled the city itself. As we know, Rome was famous for the practice of crucifixion, one of the most cruel forms of execution ever devised by man. In the slave rebellion known as the Third Servile War (ca. 70 BC), they crucified something like 6,000 of the slaves lined for miles and miles along the Appian Way.

All of that may be obvious to us, but starting there, the mystery resumes for us as well. Somehow, Rome morphs into the ten kings (v.7 and 24). The European Union is clearly at least an embryonic version of this revived Roman Empire, but it is not yet in any way a union of ten kings. That is somehow yet future even for us. Then, of course, there is the little horn which will arise from the ten, displace three, then actually oppose God Himself. Adding on the further prophecies of Daniel and especially the book of Revelation, we know this horn to be none other than the AntiChrist. We don’t know how far away his actual reign will be, but everything is very quickly forming into the very world which the Bible describes embracing him.

Then there is Jesus. In v.13, Daniel introduces this one he calls “the Son of Man” who is introduced to the Ancient of Days, but then “given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped Him.” I do not doubt that to Daniel this person was obviously the promised Messiah of Gen. 3, "the Seed of the woman" who would "crush the head of the serpent." What intrigues me is how even this simple statement begins to reveal the Trinity. Clearly the Ancient of Days is God Himself, but then this Son of Man is being “worshiped.” One could dismiss that, since the word could be used of people’s obeisance to human kings, but then we note how in both v. 14 and v.27, we’re told His kingdom will be “everlasting dominion that will not pass away and a one that will never be destroyed.” In v.27, however, it is specifically the kingdom of “the Most High.” The “Son of Man” has become “the Most High,” clearly telling us that somehow the Messiah would be God Himself. How much of this Daniel understood, we don’t know, but certainly for us, on this side of the Cross, it is easy for us to read it all and see our Jesus in it.

Isn’t it interesting that, like Daniel, we’ve had this prophecy to read again and again, but, after some 2,500 years, we now see much of it as recorded history! Who could have possibly written a prophecy in 500 BC predicting the flow of human history from then until now – and got it right??? As you and I would read and study it (and the rest of the completed Scriptures which we now hold), we can look back and see so much of this prophecy literally fulfilled. Just like Daniel, we have to simply trust the rest will be just as literally fulfilled. Daniel lived in the first kingdom and into the second. Here we are on the tail end of the fourth!

What it all tells us, of course, is Daniel’s simple truth, “the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men.” As we live in this chaotic, troubled world of constantly shifting political fortunes and wars, we believers can rest assured our God is completely in charge. While He grants to us humans the dignity to make our own choices (and those choices seem too often to be bad ones), yet in the infinity of His sovereign wisdom and power, this world follows His script.