The Coming Kingdom of Christ, Part 1
Daniel 7
Take your Bible, if you will, and let's look together at the book of Daniel. We're having a wonderful time studying this wonderful prophecy, the book of Daniel. Tonight we come to the seventh chapter of Daniel, a great and historic chapter in the Old Testament. Daniel 7.
We're going to begin tonight to study the seventh chapter. But it is so packed full of prophetic truth that we'll not exhaust in in one session, but look forward to continuing our study two weeks from tonight when our pastor's conference is complete. But we'll begin tonight. And I'm so excited about the things that we see in this tremendous chapter.
This is a chapter of pure future prophecy. It sweeps all the way from the life of Daniel to the return of Jesus Christ and touches the great epochs of history in between. It is one of the chapters that lays out for us God's incredible, unchangeable, redemptive plan for human history.
And I have to say at the very beginning that one of the great verifications of the authenticity of the Bible is this element of fulfilled prophecy. I'm convinced that beyond any other means of verification, the Bible is most singly verified through fulfilled prophecy. We could talk about the fact that the Bible is true because it touches experience and experience verifies its truth.
We could say the Bible is true because there are scientific statements made in the Bible such as, "He hangeth the earth on nothing," such as, "The earth is turned as clay to the seal," like rotation on an axis. Things that science hadn't even discovered. And we could say that a book that makes those kinds of scientifically accurate statements must be true. We could say the Bible is true because of its archaeological verification, how its history is verified in extra biblical archaeological findings. We could say the Bible is true because of the uniqueness of the person of Jesus Christ.
But more than anything else, the verification of Scripture that stands out as the most incontrovertible of all is the fulfilled prophesy. What the Bible says will come to pass does come to pass. And only God, an omniscient, all-knowing, all-seeing God, an all-powerful, omnipotent God, could both know and bring to pass the things that are predetermined.
McIlvaine says, "Prophesy is a declaration of future events such as no human wisdom or forecast is sufficient to make. It depends on the knowledge of the innumerable contingencies of human affairs, which belongs exclusively to the omniscience of God. So that from its very nature, prophecy must be divine revelation."
Prophetic portions of Scripture are the infinite mind of God on display. For example, in Isaiah 46, 9-10, the Scripture says, "I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done." Only God at the beginning can declare the end.
Now this is precisely what we find in the seventh chapter of Daniel. The most comprehensive, the most pervasive, the most panoramic prophesy of the future world in the entire Old Testament and perhaps even in the New Testament, at least in one chapter. Now Daniel is the first of what we call apocalyptic books. It is the first book that gives a message through signs and symbols, a prophetic message of the future through signs and symbols.
We've already seen something of the dreams and the visions of Daniel in the first part of the book. And we'll see even more of that now as we enter the second part, the last six chapters. You might look at it this way. The first six chapters of Daniel are mostly history with a little bit of prediction. The last six chapters are mostly prediction with just a little bit of history.
So we come then to the dividing point at the beginning of chapter 7. And here in this one chapter, mark this for your thinking. We have in this one chapter the outline of the sweep for the whole history of the future of the world. Then in chapters 8-12, the individual elements are dealt with. So the panorama comes in chapter 7 and the individual features are dealt with in the following chapters.
Now the predictions are given for the most part through four different visions that come to Daniel at the close of this book. And the first vision comes in chapter 7. And as I say, it is the most comprehensive, covering the entire period from Daniel's life to the return of Jesus Christ.
Now the question always arises, and I just want to touch on this, as to why God revealed this to Daniel? Why do we wait until we get to Daniel before we get this massive apocalyptic picture of the future? Why doesn't it come much earlier? Why does it come now and what is God's purpose for it?
Well, I believe that the answer is that Daniel was, you'll remember, God's prophet in a time of Israel's captivity. And all up until Israel was taken into the Babylonian captivity, they had believed that God had special purposes in mind for them as a nation. They were convinced that God had set them apart and that God would enrich them, and bless them, and bestow His loving kindness on them forever. And that they would inherit the earth and they would reign in a kingdom. And all would be theirs.
And in the midst of all of that anticipation and hope, they had been taken captive because of their sin. And now they were languishing under the ruling of a pagan monarch. And now they were mingling in a pagan society. Their land was in a shambles. Their temple was destroyed. Their walls of their city were broken down. They were really almost a nonexistent nation.
And the question naturally comes to the mind has God forsaken us? Has God violated His originally promises and intentions? And are we now being set aside? From the human perspective, I know that it looked to them as though God had set them aside and was through with them. Jeremiah 33:24 pensively says, "Hast thou cast them off?" Is this the way it's going to be, God? Have you just turned your back on your people?
But God was not through with His people. There had to be a 70-year purging. There would have to be some time of restoring and rebuilding. But God wanted them to know in the midst of their deepest hour of trial that He had not permanently set them aside. And so He gives them in the midst of this time the word through Daniel that there is yet a glorious and marvelous future for them.
And by the way, years before this, as many as 40 years before this, early in their captivity, He had given already the dream to Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2 which Daniel interpreted which also gave them hope that they were still in God's future.
And now in chapter 7, there is a reiteration of that promise in a much more explicit and comprehensive way. And what God is saying to them in this prophecy in chapter 7 and then in 8-12 is that I am not only not through with you, but I have an incredibly glorious future yet in store for you. There's coming a time when the world will run its course, when Messiah will come, when He will establish His kingdom on earth, when He will free you from not only physical but spiritual bondage, and when He will establish a powerful, glorious earthly empire in which you will reign as His people. So it's a great wonderful message for them. And Daniel is the agent.
Now even the timing, I believe, is so very specific. The visions at the end of the prophecy of Daniel were given to Daniel after Nebuchadnezzar had ruled. Now you'll remember that Nebuchadnezzar was a brilliant genius of a monarch. And under Nebuchadnezzar, things went well for the Babylonian Empire. And I'm sure when they got the vision or the dream of Nebuchadnezzar filtered down to them, the Jewish people thought, "Boy, that's great. Things are gonna be well for us." The promise has come through that dream that God has a future for His people and that there is coming a stone cut out without hands who will destroy the world empires and His kingdom will fill the whole earth. And they must have had some hope.
But by now, Nebuchadnezzar is dead. And when Nebuchadnezzar died, the whole kingdom began to fall apart. And it wasn't nearly as secure as it might have been. And by the time these visions come, Belshazzar is reigning. And Belshazzar was a very evil man. And no doubt, they're beginning to question whether or not God is going to be able to pull off the salvation of His people. And how will it happen that they'll be rescued from this land because the land is rapidly falling apart?
The first two visions then of the four were given during the time of Belshazzar. And the second two visions were given during the Medo-Persian period just after it began. So it was right at the moment, two before and two after, the fall of Babylon, when the whole thing seemed to be disintegrating and they would have to have been asking the questions about whether or not they were really going to see their land again.
And so God comes at that very critical time at the close of their captivity and gives them a vision of the future. It is unique. There are some common denominators between this vision and that in chapter 2. We know there are the same four nations, the four world empires that we saw in chapter 2, but they're seen in different ways, under different figures, and different signs, and different symbols. And so this carries a tremendous and powerful message all its own.
Now let's look at verse 1 in order to affirm and establish the setting for this first vision. Daniel 7:1, "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 matters."
There are so many critics. And I've been reading some of the critical writings on Daniel which deny the whole book of Daniel. There are so many critics who say the whole thing is a fairy tale. It isn't true. It's just the musings of some mind. But it always amazes me how God has a way of sort of nailing things down to historical reality. And that's precisely what He does in verse 1.
"In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream." An historical reality is thrust upon us at the initial moment as we enter this seventh chapter. We are dealing with something that really happened, in real space, in real time. This is an historical event. Nebuchadnezzar had been dead for several years. The succession of monarchs who had followed him were, to say the least, ineffective. The Jewish captivity was becoming more and more fearful, wondering whether they would ever be restored to their land. And it was in this very moment that God speaks to Daniel in a vision.
Now notice again in verse 1 that Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed. Prior to this, somebody else always had the vision and he interpreted it. But now God is giving the vision through His own Prophet. And Daniel receives it in a night vision. Apparently while he slept, God turned his dream into a revelatory vision and gave him this tremendous perspective.
And then it says at the end of verse 1 that he wrote the dream, put it in writing, and told the sum of it. And that means the essence of it. Not only did he write it down so there would be a record, a historical record, but he went around immediately telling it to people. So there would be public knowledge of the essential features of this great vision.
Now what is the theme of the vision? What is the heart and soul of the vision? Simply this, and mark it. The thrust, the theme, the major point of this vision is the coming of the King and the establishment of His eternal kingdom. That's the theme of the vision. That there is coming a final monarch, a glorious King who will establish a glorious kingdom. And His kingdom and his kingship will be unlike anything they have ever known or unlike anything the world will ever experience. The kingdom is the key.
Now you'll find it if you look at verse 13, the middle of the chapter, and verse 14. "I saw in the night visions and behold one like a 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," what? Kingdom.
Now there, people, is the major thrust of this passage. Daniel sees one like a son of man coming to receive from the ancient of days a kingdom. That's the theme.
Now I want to share with you three aspects of the kingdom that are in this chapter. First, the coronation of the King. Secondly, the character of the kingdom. And thirdly, the chronology of the kingdom. The coronation of the King, the character of the kingdom, and the chronology of the kingdom.
Let's begin with the coronation of the King. This is a fabulous picture that Daniel sees. And we're gonna kind of pick and choose as we go through the chapter in order to see it in this fashion. The coronation of the King.
This answers the question who. This answers the question who. The character of the kingdom answers the question what. And the chronology of the kingdom answers the question when. When we talk about the coming kingdom of the Messiah, we have in the seventh chapter of Daniel the who, the what, and the when. And we also have the where, which is everywhere. "For He'll reign over the whole earth."
Let's begin with the who, the coronation of the King. We find the scene in this chapter of the coronation. It is a very glorious, magnificent, crowning scene. And it is set in several key verses that we need to look at first. And that will be in verse 9, verse 13, and verse 14. Here we find the coronation of the King. This beloved is the absolute apex of history. This is the crucial moment in the history of eternity. This is the greatest event in all of God's time and eternity. The coronation of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
And by the way, this is not a new theme in the Bible, either. Do you know that the theme of the coronation of the King is as old as the book of Genesis? Do you know that you can go all the way back to the 49th chapter of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, and you will find the promise made that one will come named Shiloh. And Shiloh means the one whose right it is. And when Shiloh comes, he will take the scepter. And anybody knows that a scepter belongs to a king. So in Genesis 49 there will come one whose right it is to take the scepter.
In 2 Samuel 7, God gave a message to David. David has great desire in his heart to build a temple for the Lord. David lived in a magnificent palace of cedar. He was incredibly wealthy. And he was living in this sumptuous, glorious, magnificent palace. And God was living in a tent, as it were.
And David went to the prophet Nathan. And he said, "Nathan, I cannot tolerate God living in that while I live in this. I will build a house for the Lord." And Nathan said to him, Nathan, the prophet, "Good idea, David. You ought to do that."