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[0:00] yeah um before we read from Daniel 7 I want to um just tell you about a news story uh that I came across we all know that there's you know the the growing hostility that's that's happening with the war in Israel but there's also another growing hostility in Israel that uh there's there's been some sort of uh religious hostility if you if you'll say and and it's it it happened this past July but this past July is just sort of kind of indicative of this thing that happens basically a group of people were headed to one of their religious services and they were you know just trying to do their own thing and a group of young uh religious extremists were outside protesting and as they're protesting they get kind of physical with it and they begin to spit on people and hit people as they're going in they're trying to keep them from going in and it's that sort of environment that the people of God have been in for for years right you know you go through the

[1:09] Old Testament you look at them in this exile moment they are in hostile territory now they're in hostile territory because they're being disciplined by God right because they were worshiping idols and so he took their land from them and brought them into exile but though they're in exile though this is a discipline he still loves them and he is still you know using them and working with them at this time and so Daniel writes his whole book remember we said this is wisdom literature now it has prophetic elements to it and Jesus calls Daniel a prophet so it has the prophetic to it but its primary emphasis was written to the people who were in exile so however we decide this is what this means we have to always go back to how would they have understood it because if it if it wouldn't bring comfort to them if it wouldn't help them as they're there in exile then it's probably a wrong thing and so we've just got to keep that in in mind and so let's let's read then from Daniel chapter 7 and I just want us to go ahead and read the whole chapter it's a little bit lengthy but I'll read I'll read down through say verse 12 and then I'll have somebody pick up there verse 13 and we'll go from there so beginning in chapter 7 verse 1 in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter Daniel declared I saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up out of the sea different from one another the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings then as I looked its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man and the mind of a man was given to it and behold another beast a second one like a bear it was raised up on one side it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth and it was told arise devour much flesh after this I looked and behold another like a leopard had four wings of a bird on its back and the beast had four heads and dominion was given to it after this I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong it had great iron teeth it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet it was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns I considered the horns and behold there came up among them another horn a little one before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things as I looked thrones were placed and the ancient of days took his seat his clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool his throne was fiery flames its wheels were burning fire a stream of fire issued and came out from before him a thousand thousands served him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the court sat in judgment and the books were opened I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking and as I looked the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given

[5:14] over to be burned with fire as for the rest of the beasts their dominion was taken away but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time you want to pick up sure okay I continued watching in the night visions and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven he approached the ancient of days and was escorted before him he was given dominion and glory and a kingdom so that those of every people nation and language should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed as for me Daniel my spirit was deeply distressed within me and the visions in my mind terrified me I approached one of those who were standing by and asked him to clarify all this so he let me know the interpretation of these things these huge beasts four in number are four kings who will rise from the earth but the holy ones of the most high will receive the kingdom and possess it forever yes forever and ever then I wanted to be clear about the fourth beast the one different from all the others extremely terrifying with iron to be a one different from all the others and the other one different from all the others and the other one different from all the others

[6:32] I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up before which three fell the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke arrogantly and that looked bigger than the others as I was watching this horn waged war against the holy ones and was prevailing over them until the ancient of days arrived and a judgment was given in favor of the holy ones of the most high the holy ones of the most high for the time had come and the holy ones took possession of the kingdom this is what he said the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth different from all the other kingdoms it will devour the whole earth trample it down and crush it the ten horns are ten kings who will rise from this kingdom another king different from the previous ones will rise after them and submit three kings he will speak words against the mostNINGNINGNINGNINGNING and laws, and the holy ones will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time.

[7:37] But the court will convene, and his dominion will be taken away to be completely destroyed forever. The kingdom, dominion, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be given to the people, the holy ones of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will serve and obey him.

[7:57] This is the end of the account. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts terrified me greatly, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself.

[8:08] Wow. So much fun. So much fun. So let's think of a couple of things that we need to talk about. One, let's talk about the setting of where this is taking place or when. It's in the first year of Belshazzar. Do you remember who Belshazzar is?

[8:37] What? Nebuchadnezzar's son. Right. He was called Nebuchadnezzar's son, probably a grandson. Right. So Belshazzar is the one who's in chapter 5, and you'll remember chapter 5 is the night that his reign ends. He's co-regent with his father, Nebotanus, and his father is in some other city, and the Medes and the Persians, they sack Babylon, and they kill him. They kill Belshazzar that night. He's been ruling as co-regent for about 12 to 14 years, somewhere in that neighborhood, right? So Daniel 5 takes place in about the 14th year of Belshazzar.

[9:21] This vision is from the first year of his reign. Okay. So the setting is such that his father, Nebotanus, was ruling and reigning, but because his theological convictions about the Persian gods was different from all the priests in Babylon, he appoints his son to be co-regent while he's kind of driven away to rule from a distance. Okay. So you can imagine God's people now have a new king in front of them that they have to live with on a daily basis, Belshazzar. And as we saw in chapter 5, he's not a good guy. I mean, this is the guy who in absolute arrogance is living off of Nebuchadnezzar's successes. He's taking the vessels from the house of the Lord and partying it up. So that's the end of his reign. The people of God are looking at this going like, what is going to happen? Because they kind of probably know about the whole dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had. When is this going to end? Right? So as he comes to the throne, Daniel gets a dream. So before Daniel comes to chapter 5, he already knows how history is going to go. Second thing is remember we talked about the idea of a chiastic structure where you had bookends of things that were repeating and they come together. And you'll remember that chapter 5 and chapter 6, those are parallel with one another because it's a judgment on a particular king.

[11:02] You've got Belshazzar chapter 5, you've got Darius chapter 6. Well, you move backwards, right? And you just keep moving backwards. No, it's not 5 and 6. It's 4 and 5 and 6 and 3 because it's throwing in the pit. That's it. Sorry. Sorry. But 7 and 2, chapter 7 and chapter 2 are parallel with each other.

[11:23] Individually. Yeah, I know. I should have put that up here. It would have helped me too. So what happened in chapter 2? It was a vision that Nebuchadnezzar had. He had a dream.

[11:40] Is that before he went crazy? It's before he went crazy. Okay. You think you're going crazy? A statue. Okay. What is the statue made out of? Do you remember?

[12:07] Gold, silver, bronze, and then iron. That's right. And we were told that that was four kingdoms. So chapter 2, chapter 7 are parallel with one another. So whatever we say about chapter 2, it's the same thing in chapter 7. Okay? And we're going to kind of see that as we go.

[12:31] We also need to remember that this is apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature means that somebody sees a vision. The vision is in all kinds of symbols. So the first thing we do is we get the vision right, right? We just make sure we understand what's happening in the vision.

[12:48] We don't press the details. So details that they don't talk about are not details that we're going to live with, right? Like for instance, in the statue, even though it has 10 toes, it doesn't really do a lot in terms of explaining 10 toes. As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure it mentions 10 toes. We just assume there are 10 toes. And that's okay to assume. But we don't want to press that and say, what are the 10 toes? Because they don't tell us what the 10 toes are. Like in this one, it talks about bronze claws. Well, do we need to figure out what a bronze claw is? No, not really. Not really, because there's nothing that tells us what that is. So you don't press all the details. You get the big picture. The other thing is that this is still in Aramaic. Chapters 2 through 7 are in Aramaic, but this is no longer a narrative story like chapter 2 through 6. This is now vision. Chapter 7 through 12, these are all visions. As a matter of fact, most commentators say that there's four visions that will take place. To me, it looks like there's five, but okay, we'll go with four if that's what you want to say. So we have to read apocalyptic literature correctly. We get the vision right. We try to look for clues about what things in there mean, and then we begin to draw our conclusions from there. Okay? So then, this talk about the beasts, the four of them as a whole, a couple of things about them. Number one, the beasts come up from the sea, right? Yeah, they come up from the sea, and the sea is controlled by the four winds, and these beasts are hybrids, right? They're hybrids. It's a lion with eagle wings. It's a bear with two completely different sides of him, right? Some sort of split bear. It's a leopard and a bird, and then you got this monstrosity of the fourth beast that it doesn't even tell us what it's like, but these are sort of hybrid type things.

[14:52] It also says that they are like a lion, like a leopard, like a bear. So it's not a lion, but it's like a lion, and that's important because that just gives us, it's just symbolic, right? It's just all these symbols. What are we looking at? And then the fourth thing is that in the interpretation that the guy gives to Daniel, this is what he says. He says, these great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth. That's what they are. They are four kings that arise from the earth. Now, you remember that the word king in Daniel can be king or kingdom, and sometimes kingdom can stand for king, okay? So Daniel chapter two, Nebuchadnezzar, he says, is represented by the head of gold. He says, you are that king, but the idea was that it's the whole of the Babylonian empire. With the beast coming up out of the sea, the sea is a place of chaos.

[15:58] In scripture, the sea is always a place of chaos. It's also a place of the nations, and these kingdoms are beastly in nature. They are beastly, right? They're monstrosities. This is what the kingdoms of men are like. The kingdoms of men are not humane and in the image of God, but they're beastly.

[16:25] That's the idea you're supposed to have, because then you have one like a son of man who comes. And so you have that comparison going on where these kingdoms, because of sin, are beastly kingdoms, but this kingdom, because of the son of man, is not. Does that make sense, that comparison there? Okay. All right. So let's talk then about each of the beasts separately.

[16:51] Okay. Let's talk about the lion first. Verse four, verse four, it's a lion. It has eagle's wings.

[17:02] Its wings are plucked off. It's lifted up from the ground. It's made to stand on two feet like a man, and it's given a human mind, or in some translations it'll say human heart, right? The idea is that the center core of this beast becomes less beastly. Like it was beastly, but it becomes less beastly, right? It's a ferocious beast. It destroys. And so the question is, is which kingdom is this?

[17:39] Which kingdom is this? Now I think that this kingdom is Babylon. Okay. I think it matches the head of gold of the statue. The first kingdom was the head of gold was Babylon. The first beast here that represents a kingdom, I think it's also Babylon. And here's a couple of reasons why. First of all, in Daniel chapter two 38, just to show you the head of gold, you are the head of gold. This is Daniel talking straight to Nebuchadnezzar. You are the head of gold. So we know that the first kingdom is Babylon.

[18:12] And the only question we have to ask is, is this supposed to match that? I think it, I think it's supposed to. That's the way it's kind of written with the chiastic structure, right? However, there's a couple of other things. There are several passages in Jeremiah and Ezekiel and those kinds of books, some of the prophets that actually call Babylon a lion. And in some places, an eagle. I wrote those verses out for you so you can go chase them out later if you want to. Let me just encourage you.

[18:40] You'll have to read large amounts of context to kind of see sometimes who it is because the word Babylon may not be in that verse, but you'll find it later or ahead. The other thing is there's archaeological evidence that shows that one of the symbols of Babylon is the lion with eagle's wings.

[18:58] This right here that's on the screen was found on the gates of Ishtar, which is the city of Babylon. Okay? So that was their emblem. And what happens to this lion is almost exactly what happens to Nebuchadnezzar, right? He becomes beastly and he's covered with what looks like feathers, eagle's feathers, but then that's taken from him and he's made to have his mind back to him.

[19:29] So I think those are the clues that point us in the direction that this particular beast is the kingdom of Babylon. Okay? Make sense? Any questions about that?

[19:41] Now what, have you heard that this is a different kingdom than Babylon before from anybody? Okay. I just think that's what it is. Babylon. Okay? So there we go. All right. Let's talk about the bear. Let's talk about the bear. The bear. Oh, let me show you this. This is the kingdom of Babylon kind of on the map. This is sort of the area that they took control of. And I'll show you a map for each one of these kingdoms that we're going to look at because you can see that their kingdom expands each time, right? Okay. Let's talk about the bear. It's in verse five. It, it resembles or it's like a bear.

[20:19] Now who, what have you heard about the bears? I can tell you what most people say about the bear. Most people say the bear is Russia. You ever heard that?

[20:31] Russia. Russia. It's like, that is, that is the most convoluted thing I've ever heard. Like, how do you get Russia? Russia wasn't even a country at this point. You know? So anyway. So it's raised up on one side.

[20:48] What that, what is, what that's signifying is that this thing is sort of split in half. There's one part of it that's either larger or one side of it that's, um, uh, stronger than the other, but it's trying to show that it's sort of a one composite image made up of two parts.

[21:06] That's the idea that they're trying to get at. It has three ribs in its mouth. Here's the, here's the difficult. It says three ribs in its mouth between its teeth.

[21:19] Now that almost looks like between the top and bottom teeth, right? Like I was hanging out, but this word, this is the, this is, this was terrible.

[21:30] This word rib can mean either ribs or tusks. Tusks. Like a bear with tusks. That's just weird.

[21:41] So I don't, I, I'll just tell you, I have no idea what the ribs are and neither does anybody else. Okay. There's some guesses because of what kingdom they think this is, but that's okay.

[21:52] Um, the beast is commanded to arise and devour much meat. Well, so what kingdom is this?

[22:03] If we go back to the kingdom of the statues and we look at the silver, right? The verse says after you, after Nebuchadnezzar, there will arise another kingdom inferior to you than another third bronze, which will rule over all the earth.

[22:21] So the, the other one is silver. It's inferior to Babylon, but it arises after Babylon. In history, the kingdom that arises after Babylon is the Medo-Persian empire.

[22:33] The Medo-Persian empire is an empire made up of two parts. The Persians who were way stronger than the Medes.

[22:45] We talked Daniel chapter six last week about how Darius is probably Cyrus the Great. And he has Darius, which is his Mede name and Cyrus, which is his Persian name.

[22:59] And so he represented the Medo-Persian empire. And so, so if, if we take this and we kind of say, okay, the second kingdom is going to be Medo-Persian empire.

[23:10] Do we have anything else that kind of helps us to say, yeah, maybe this is it? Well, in Daniel chapter eight, which I know we're going ahead of ourselves here. There's this vision that Daniel sees.

[23:20] It's another one. And it's a vision that he's having there by the canal. That's what this verse here, verse two is talking about. Then he says, I lifted up eyes and looked and behold, a ram, which had two horns was standing in front of the canal.

[23:34] Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other with the longer one coming up last. Okay. Now that's the picture he's giving us.

[23:45] It's a, it's a composite image with two halves and one half is bigger than the other. Okay. So just take that. And then we see in chapter eight, verse 20, the ram, which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Medea, Medea and Persia.

[24:03] So he tells you that that's what the ram is. So I'm making the jump and saying that the bear, that's a composite image with two halves and one bigger than the other kind of matches that image.

[24:16] And in time in history, Medo-Persia empire would be the next empire after Babylon. So what I'm saying is that the bear is the Medo-Persian empire.

[24:30] Okay. And this is, this is their kingdom. They actually took part of Egypt and Africa here. They took more of the land up here and more of the land out that direction as a, as a whole empire.

[24:43] And so, so the kingdom gets a little bit bigger. Okay. They're not as, the thing about them is that because they're silver, the, the, the inferiority that they had to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar, it's just the fact that Nebuchadnezzar prospered his kingdom so much that, you know, gold and silver was plenty.

[25:02] And it's just not quite the same with the Medo-Persians. Okay. Any questions about the bear? Okay.

[25:13] Let's talk about the leopard then. First of all, anything that's like a leopard, that's a pretty fast animal, right?

[25:24] That's one of the things to think about. It has four wings on its back, or you could say back or sides. I'm not exactly sure what that would, you know, look like. With it being a leopard and it having wings, that's going to be extra fast, right?

[25:45] He also has four heads. That's a problem. This is certainly not a normal leopard. Like, he's got problems. He's been to Chernobyl or something, right?

[25:55] Dominion was given to him. Dominion was given to him. And the question is, what kingdom does this represent? And so, we just want to ask ourselves, well, is there anything that helps us understand this?

[26:11] And I will go back to Daniel chapter 2. Where's my verse? No. Okay. So, I didn't put this verse in there.

[26:24] So, Daniel chapter 2, verse 32 gives us the next medal. It's bronze with two legs. Okay. But the very next kingdom after the Medo-Persian Empire was Greece.

[26:39] Right? Alexander the Great. So, let's go to, yeah. So, back in chapter 8, the ram with the two horns gets confronted by a shaggy goat.

[26:51] Okay. This shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece. So, for chapter 8, the Medo-Persian Empire gets attacked by Greece, the shaggy goat.

[27:05] And one of the things it says about this shaggy goat, not in the verses that I have here, but, yeah, is the idea that this goat was, his feet weren't touching the ground.

[27:16] It was moving swiftly. Now, why is that swiftness a part of this? Does anybody know anything about Alexander the Great and his conquering the world and the idea of swiftness?

[27:27] He was known for moving his troops quickly to any destination he desired. How long did it take him to conquer the known world? It's like 10 years.

[27:38] Now, that doesn't seem like a long time for us, but that was fast. He conquered and put troops and ruled over the known world in 10 years.

[27:51] And here's the interesting thing. Once he accomplished that, he died. And his kingdom was split into four parts.

[28:03] Four parts. You had the Ptolemies, who were Egypt and part of Israel. You had the Celesties. You had the Lysomitius, Cassiander.

[28:17] I can't say these names. But you can see that kingdom was split into these four regions, right? So, the time period between the Old Testament and the New Testament, Ptolemy, that kingdom, rules over part of Israel.

[28:36] And if you go to the first, second, third, fourth Maccabees, books from the Apocrypha, they speak about the war that happens with the Jews, the Jewish war. You could read Josephus.

[28:47] It's war that they fought with this kingdom here, okay? But what he's saying here is that the next kingdom, the third kingdom that will arise from the earth, is going to be Greece.

[28:59] And it's a kingdom that has four heads. Four rulers, if you will. Four parts to it. So, there again, we've got Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece.

[29:14] Now, most commentators will say to this point that that's sort of what it is. There's some that will change that up a little bit, but that's pretty much it.

[29:27] It's this next beast that really is the one that gives everybody trouble, okay? So, this fourth beast. First, the first thing about this is that we would not know nearly as much about this fourth beast if Daniel hadn't been like, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

[29:43] I really want to know more. Give me some more information here. Verse 19 through 22 is where Daniel comes up and says, no, no, no, no, no. Give me a little bit more information. That is not enough, okay?

[29:54] So, here are some things we know about the fourth beast. It's the fourth one. And that's important because if what we've done so far in tracking, that's Babylon.

[30:07] What was the next one historically? Medo-Persian. That seems to be the next one. Okay, what was the next one historically? Greece. Okay, that seems to be the same thing. Then what's the next one that comes up after Greece?

[30:18] Rome. Rome. So, if that tracks, if the historical accounts and what's going on in Daniel is following the pattern, then this kingdom is Rome.

[30:32] So, let's see some things. It's dreadful. It's terrifying. It's extremely strong. It's got large teeth. It's iron teeth.

[30:45] Now, let's pause about iron for just a second. Where else have you seen iron? In the statue. Which part of the statue? The legs and the feet.

[31:00] It was, was that the fourth part of the statue? Yeah. The head was gold. Babylon. Lion.

[31:11] The chest was silver. Medo-Persia. Bear. The belly and thighs. Bronze.

[31:23] Grease. And, um, that's the leopard. And then the iron feet. Rome. And this beast with the iron teeth.

[31:36] The fourth beast. So, so to me, it tracks. Uh, it trampled down the remainder. I don't know remainder of what. Um, it's different from the other three beasts.

[31:46] There's something about it that's different. It has ten horns. Which it says are ten kings. But remember, king can be kingdom. So, what should we take there?

[31:58] Right? I'm not exactly sure about that. In Daniel chapter seven, he says, 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.

[32:09] And tread it down and crush it. As for the ten horns. Out of this kingdom. Ten kings will arise. And I think that language is interesting.

[32:22] Because it's like this kingdom could exist without the horns. But at some point, the horns come into play. Whether they're kings or kingdoms. Right? And then, it goes on.

[32:33] Where three of these horns. Get pulled up. And another horn comes in its place. So, this fourth kingdom. It's going to be.

[32:47] It's going to have to be Rome. I think there's just no way around it. It's going to have to be Rome with all the things. You can go back. And you can look at a couple of things.

[32:58] Like the statue. Well, here's the Roman Empire. Right? So, it's conquered more here to the west.

[33:09] What? You just stopped smiling. Okay. So. I know it's coming. I'm excited for you to get to the next part about what happens in the Rome.

[33:21] Let's do this. Oh, my goodness. Okay. In chapter two, it says, Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things. So, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all of these pieces.

[33:35] In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom, but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay.

[33:46] As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.

[34:05] The point is that as you look at that and then you think about this fourth beast, there's so many similarities with its devouring, with its crushing, and its destroying everything, the iron as a part of its teeth, the tin maybe, maybe the tin horns, tin toes, I don't know, maybe that's a stretch.

[34:25] But it's going to be this kingdom that then is shattered by the coming of the kingdom of God.

[34:36] That's the thing that's interesting also. In Daniel 2, the statue is destroyed by the stone coming and hitting the feet, right?

[34:47] And so the kingdoms of men come to an end because the kingdom of God comes. Then in Daniel 7, you have the fourth beast is slain by God and then the kingdom of the son of man comes in.

[35:04] So you see the images are the same, right? They point to the same realities. So with all of that said, let me just pause and see if you have any questions and then I want to make some application.

[35:21] Kind of a comment. Yeah. How many places in the Bible is Christ talked about as a stone? Mm-hmm. Stone not cut out with hands. Right.

[35:34] Like the cornerstone and the stone that the builders rejected. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Anything else?

[35:45] Anybody else? And the time, just to keep the timeline, Daniel was writing this when Babylon was still ruling. That's right. And so none of this had... No, this had happened yet.

[35:56] There weren't even any inklings that there were Medo-Persians or anything like that. No. So, and remember, he's giving them wisdom. He's predicting the future, but he's giving them wisdom.

[36:09] It's so hot here. He's getting more of that. We've got a rainbow sweater.

[36:22] I'll buy you one. You're a panel shirt. Oh. There we go. So, here's the thing.

[36:35] Okay. The application I'd make of this is what Daniel was telling the exiles is this. I know this is rough, but God is in control of the flow of history.

[36:50] Yes, this is a new king. Yes, we have no idea what's going to happen to him, but this one's coming to an end. And then there'll be another, then another, then another, and then the Messiah comes.

[37:00] And so he's giving them hope. He's helping them to see God's in control of this ark. God's in control of this account, this story, this flow of history.

[37:11] And that's important because what's happened is that as the kingdoms of men arise, and as the kingdoms of men do the things that they do, which are terrible, how do you live in such a place?

[37:24] You have to live with a hope, and that hope has to be the truth. And the truth is that God is in charge of all things. The truth is that God is in control of history. At a cosmic level, it means that nothing happens on planet Earth that God has not already decreed to happen.

[37:44] Yes, that means that Hamas has attacked Israel by God's permission. Yes. God is not just a God of love.

[37:56] He is a God of justice. In all of these kingdoms, one of the things that happens is that they attack each other. The Medo-Persians come in and they deal with Babylon.

[38:06] Why is that? Because Babylon, God is using one kingdom to punish the previous kingdom. Right? That's just what he does.

[38:17] The book of Habakkuk is all about that. Because Habakkuk is going like God. How could you use an evil kingdom to punish and be your discipline stick? And God says, I can do what I want to.

[38:33] And so why, for instance, think about Babylon, what Babylon was doing. Babylon was punishing Israel. God was using Babylon to punish Israel for their idolatry.

[38:49] Why is Hamas attacking? Now, I don't know. I'm not God. But I'm going to float an idea. Just not because I think this is the truth, but just going to float an idea.

[39:01] Because I think that we need to be thinking that we don't understand and we don't know. But one idea would be this. The story I told you at the very beginning of the thing. Do you know the religious group that was trying to go in for worship were Jewish and Gentile Christians.

[39:19] They were gathering together this past June, July, for a worship service, singing worship songs to Messiah Jesus in Hebrew. And the religious people outside protesting were Orthodox Jews.

[39:33] Here. Maybe. Maybe because. And you can watch the videos.

[39:43] You go look it up on YouTube. Whatever. You can see Christians walking through the street carrying a cross or in their garb. And here come Orthodox Jews. And even their children will look over and spit at the Christians.

[39:55] Because they can't stand them. Now that's not all Jews. You know. But here's another thing for you. The Calgary Herald.

[40:07] Probably a very well thought of newspaper. It's a Canadian newspaper. The Calgary Herald. Wrote an article in 2011.

[40:21] About Tel Aviv. Calling it the most gay friendly city in the world. Did you know that gay rights in Israel far surpasses where we are as United States?

[40:40] That it's more accepted. It's a more progressive nation than we are. So when people say things like, you know, I stand with Israel unequivocal.

[40:53] Unconditionally. I'm like, hmm. Not everything. And I'm not saying that Hamas is God's punishment upon them. I'm saying I'm floating that idea. Because in history God has worked that way.

[41:04] And that could be. But I'm not God. I can't read his mind. But what I'm saying is God is in control of history. And he's allowed that to happen. And Israel is going back at them. It was a horrific thing. And Israel, I believe in just war.

[41:15] Right? They have a right to protect themselves. And I'm glad that they're doing that. But my point is, is that as we look at the flow of history, we don't need to get all upset going like, oh, what's going to happen?

[41:26] What's going to happen? It's like, I mean, if this attack on Israel means the end times are coming, great. God's in control. I'm ready to go home. You know?

[41:37] If it means that we've got three short years, then let's do it. Let's do it with gusto. But listen, what if it means that Jesus isn't coming back for another thousand years?

[41:53] Great. Then that means we've got so much time to be able to share the gospel until we die. We've got so much time to learn about him so that when we do die, we go to heaven with so much more knowledge.

[42:06] I mean, I do believe, because we will know as we have been known, that all the knowledge you gain here from God's word, you take with you when you go. I don't think you lose that.

[42:18] So, like, man, I want to know as much as I can before I get there, right? I don't want to have to go to the remedial class and catch up. But here's the thing.

[42:30] I wonder who will teach that remedial class. Do what? I wonder who will teach that remedial class. Paul. You know, I might go. If it's Paul, I might just go, you know? It's like, Paul, why in the world did you write so crazy?

[42:42] But anyway, that's a whole other thing. So here's the thing. I want to point out something to you about all this. In verse 1, Daniel is given the dream.

[42:52] Who gives him the dream? God does. Verse 2, the four winds of heaven stirred the great sea. Who's in charge of the winds?

[43:05] God. So it is God who, in stirring the seas, who brings these kingdoms up. In verse 4, who plucked the feathers off the lion?

[43:17] God. God. In verse 4, who gave the lion the human mind so it could walk upright? God. In verse 5, who commands the bear to devour much meat?

[43:31] God. In verse 6, who gives the leopard dominion? God. God. In verse 7, against whom is the little horn speaking blasphemes and great things?

[43:46] Against God. God. God. See, as the Israelites would read this, they would have understood, God's in control of all of this. I don't have to worry.

[43:59] I don't have to fret. it's not as though there's an accident it's not as though God stepped off his throne and all of a sudden what am I going to do with this he is sovereign in control of all things you can imagine Belshazzar comes to the throne the Jews are a little bit scared and so Daniel and his writings helping them understand listen God's in charge it's going to be okay now bring that into our own lives and you can think of it in three ways number one God's in charge of what's happening to Israel in kind of this cosmic scale and the way the flow of history and the enemies that are against them and you can look at our enemies who are against us in one way you can look at our enemies and we can say who's our enemy Satan, sin and the world right this whole world system it's against us it doesn't want us to live the Christian life it doesn't want us to follow after God sin, our sinful nature is constantly trying to lead us astray and do something we shouldn't

[45:08] Satan is always against us right he's shooting flaming darts at us trying to seek who he can devour which by the way gives you an idea of why he's called a lion if you think about the beastly kingdom that's just a whole other thought God's in charge those enemies cannot do to us anything that God has not already planned and so he's in charge of that but you can think of it you can think of it on the cosmic scale for us as Christians I mean you look at James Coates who was arrested because he would have church services in the middle of COVID you can look at the young man who was arrested outside of a a gay pride drag story hour preaching the gospel basically just reading from the scriptures and this 18 year old kid was arrested for doing that in America you can look at the lady who's fighting because she was silently praying outside of an abortion clinic in the UK and she was arrested and charged with hate crime it's like the enemy's out there and what's going to happen to us what's going to happen in our nation

[46:23]  I mean the election's coming who knows what's going to happen with that right who knows how much worse it's going to get but are we going to fear no because God is in charge God is in control and the third way I would look at it is this that means that even the things that I go through that are difficult the sufferings that I go through he's in control he hasn't lost control I know it feels like it sometimes and sometimes it's difficult to trust sometimes in the middle we know with our head he's in charge of all things this thing hurts so much and we just sort of freak out right here because we just can't seem to trust I just want you to know that's the whole reason that the fifth kingdom is coming the whole reason the fifth kingdom is coming is because I can't always believe that truth and I need to be saved from my sin and as Christ comes he not only sets up his kingdom here on earth and takes over everything but he sets up his kingdom in our heart and rules and reigns over us and cleanses us of our sin so let the picture of these monstrous beasts and the fact that God's in charge of all of it be an encouragement to you and I pray that your hope would be just increased by knowing that he's in charge so let's take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that as we begin to take a look at that