Daniel 7:1-12

Why Do The Nations Rage?

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on March 12, 2017 at Beacon Church

Moving from the unusual story of how God protected Daniel when he was thrown to the lions for disobeying a decree of Darius, the Median King of Babylon, that happened sometime around the year 539BC, Daniel turns the page next to write about a prophetic vision God gave him in the year 552BC, the first year in which Belshazzar was King of Babylon. So this prophecy came to Daniel at a time when Babylon was still the greatest empire on Earth, meanwhile, about 1000km to the East, Cyrus the Persian had only been king of Anshan for 7 years, and would not even take over his grandfather’s kingdom in Media for another 2 years. And the Persian overthrow of Babylon, mentioned at the end of Daniel ch.5, wouldn’t happen until 12 or 13 years after Daniel had this vision. And you might ask, “So what?”

The prophet Jeremiah prophesied to the Jews about God’s promise that 70 years after their kingdom of Judah was destroyed by Babylon, God would punish Babylon and bring the Jews back to Jerusalem (c.f. Jer 25:11-12, 29:10). And Isaiah had long ago prophesied that God would raise up a King named Cyrus to free the Jews and order Jerusalem and the Temple to be rebuilt (Isa 44:28). But we might tend, like the Jewish believers at that time, to see good promises from God in the Bible—promises of blessing and comfort and restoration—and make the mistake of thinking those promises belong to us even if we keep on disobeying God. We might begin to presume that God will only be generous to us even while we keep on neglecting him and taking him for granted. But then why does the Bible say in Proverbs 3, “My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights”? We talk like we would obey God and love Him if only He did good things for us. But when He does, we don’t. We just use Him and forget Him, or at least take Him for granted. We need to learn, like those ancient believers exiled in Babylon, that we are not the centre of the Universe. God is. He does not exist for our benefit; we exist for His glory. But even in church, where we say we believe in God and sing songs about praising Him, if people could see inside our hearts, what they would find there would not be all that different than what God sees in the hearts of people who hate Him. This prophecy in Daniel 7 aims to change that.

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.  2 Daniel declared, "I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. (Dan. 7:1-2 ESV)

Four times in these first 7 verses Daniel is startled by what he sees in his vision and cries out “behold!” to point out to his readers one frightening event after another. The first is in verse 2, when he is shown a great sea being whipped and churned by “four winds from heaven”. Jesus uses these roaring seas as a metaphor for the uproar of the nations of the Earth: “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.” (Lk. 21:25-26 ESV) So then God’s people, seeing what is happening in the world, are frightened and ask “What’s God doing?”

Everybody’s afraid of wild animals

850 years before this, God promised Israel through Moses that if they would obey God and worship Him, “I will give you peace in the land… none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land” (Lev 26:6). But that if they kept on disobeying God and turning away from Him, “I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children… and if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins” (Lev 26:22-24). That was to be taken literally, not symbolically. But you can imagine, then, how this vision of four wild beasts would strike fear in the hearts of God’s people when they first heard about this prophecy and remembered what Moses said about God sending beasts because of their people’s disobedience! This is what God was doing:

3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.  4 The first was like a lion and had eagles' 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.  5 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.' (Dan. 7:3-5 ESV)

Later following verse 16, Daniel is told what these symbols of beasts mean and he finds out they each represent a Kingdom that rules on the Earth, one after another. But only the fourth kingdom gets a detailed interpretation. But because this vision is parallel to the dream King Nebuchadnezzar had in Daniel 2, we have Daniel’s own interpretation to get us started: the first kingdom, the Lion that starts out with eagle’s wings, is the Kingdom of Babylon that was ruling at the time Daniel had this vision. The Lion’s wings get plucked—meaning it’s rapid conquests under Nebuchadnezzar come to a sudden end--and it is lifted up by a divine power to stand up and think like a man: this is very obviously referring to the seven years when Nebuchadnezzar was made to act like a beast and then his mind returned to him and he believed in God and worshipped Him. To become like a human in these visions is to worship God; to be like a beast is to do the opposite.

The second beast is introduced with the word, “behold!” to show that its entry is sudden and surprising: The bear represents the Empire of the Medes and the Persians. The bear is raised up on one side to represent the way the Medes were more powerful and at first ruled over the Persians, but then the Persians gained control later on under Cyrus the Great. The three ribs in the bears mouth show that before God sent Cyrus to overthrow Babylon, he had already “devoured” Persia (southern Iran), Media (Northern Iran today into eastern Turkey), and Lydia (western Turkey).  The bear is told by God to go and consume: and that’s what the Medo-Persian Empire did—after conquering Babylon, they were the largest empire the world had ever known—and their appetite was scary. In their wars against Greece raised huge armies—it is recorded that the Persian King Xerxes sent more than a million soldiers against Greece in the Battle of Thermopylae.[i]

Again Daniel cries out, “Behold!” in verse 6 as he sees the third beast rise up out of the sea: “After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.” (Dan. 7:6 ESV). Each beast is less noble and admirable than the one before because each, like the gold, silver, then bronze of the statue, is more hostile to God’s people. This Leopard has four wings, showing its incredible speed to conquer, “and dominion was given to it”, meaning it ruled over the whole domain ruled by its two predecessor Kingdoms. Alexander the Great of the Greek Empire threw off Persian rule and rapidly conquered everything from Greece to Egypt and East to India. And it had four heads—the four generals who divided the empire after the death of Alexander: Generals Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy. The one vast Greek Empire split up into four Greek kingdoms—under four Greek heads.[ii]

It will get much worse before the end

Instead of a natural, wild beast, in his vision Daniel is horrified by what he sees next: “behold!” a fourth beast, a monster. “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,” (Dan. 7:7 ESV). Unstoppable, insatiable, unmerciful. It eats and crushes with iron teeth and crushes everything. And instead of 2 horns like we find in nature, it has 5 times that number. The Empire that overthrew the Greeks was the Roman Empire. Our sermon series has the subtitle, “what if this is the end?” When Jesus stood with his disciples looking at the impressive Temple buildings, they hoped He was going to finally restore Israel’s Kingdom and throw off the Romans. But Jesus knew that was a long way off. The Jews were weary of being disciplined by God, but they stumbled over the Cornerstone, they rejected God’s salvation when He came to them, and so Jesus knew the Gospel was about to be sent to the Gentiles instead—all the nations of the Earth would hear it! And the Jews would continue to harden their hearts toward God for a long time still… In Luke 21:24 Jesus sorrowfully announced that many of them would fall by the sword and be scattered among the nations, and that “Jerusalem would continue to be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Rome was just then in its prime. The times of the Gentiles that began with Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon would not be over for many centuries yet. Jerusalem would one day be free, but the rebellion of the Gentiles would get a lot worse first…

Daniel first notices the monster, its teeth and trampling, and then last of all sees its 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,” (Dan. 7:8 ESV). He sees the horns not like a photograph, but as a movie: and “behold!” from the middle of the 10 horns another shorter one rises up and grows and pushes out 3 of the other horns.[iii] And this horn shocks Daniel more than any of the other frightening scenes in this bizarre vision. We will take the time to look at what the ten horns and the little arrogant horn all mean when we get to the angel’s interpretation to Daniel following verse 16. But Daniel’s bewildered amazement runs off the page here: when he saw the four winds driving the seas wild, he said, “behold!”; likewise each time when he saw first the Medo-Persian “bear”, the Greek “leopard”, and the Roman Empire “monster”. But when he saw the little horn, Daniel is so astounded that twice in the same scene he exclaims, “behold!”

First because of how the vision focuses his attention on the way the little horn rises up out of the body of the fourth beast, but more than that because of the features on the horn:  Not with a mind like a man's (c.f. the Lion), but with eyes like a man’s, making a contrast with the four beasts. All animals have eyes. But as Daniel sees this little horn in his vision, he is shown that the eyes of this horn are not animal eyes, but human-like in their focus, thoughtful attention, and intelligence—all those qualities that distinguish the eyes of a human from the eyes of pets and wild beasts. Then Daniel notices what the mouth of this horn is saying…

We find out later in verse 25 that the “great things” the little horn speaks are hostile to God Himself. The human mouth speaking "great things" indicates arrogance, meaning great things about itself, claiming greatness and exalting itself against God. The allusion is to the way in which Nebuchadnezzar, while he still had his sanity stood looking down on his kingdom and boasted that he had built "Babylon the Great", and that she, the city, displayed his own glory and majesty. Of course, the truth was that as soon as he said those things God drove him into the fields where he lived like a beast for seven years until he learned that only God deserves glory, that God rules over all kingdoms and appoints rulers and kings according to His own purposes. How should people who love God react when they see something like this Little Horn boasting and bragging like Nebuchadnezzar, exalting himself as if he is god? Should we jump up and say, “Stop it!” Should we pray for fire to fall from Heaven? Should we stay quiet because we ourselves have thought some of the same things? Unlike King Nebuchadnezzar, what happens to this little horn is not a second chance; it's not a time of discipline so that he would repent… We see Judgement Day.

God Will Have the Last Word

Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matt. 12:34-37 ESV)

When I was a kid we lived on a property with forest around it, that I used to love to explore with my brother. The property next to us was overgrown and mostly forested, and uninhabited, but I remember how weird it was one day to find a foundation of a very old house mostly overgrown with blackberry bushes. It looked so strange by contrast with nature! We had bears on that property, but as far as I know there were no lions or leopards! But imagine running through the forest being pursued by these four wild beasts, only to stumble out of the trees, not upon the old remains of civilization, but into the civilized splendor of a royal court, complete with a Judge in all his robes, lawyers, witnesses, and above it all a massive throne on which the Judge was just taking his seat. That’s what Daniel saw next as the vision of wild beasts gave way to the eternal glory, divine majesty, and infinite power of God Himself convening the Day of Reckoning.

9 "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.  10 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.  (Dan. 7:9-10 ESV)

The animal-appetites and irrational ferocity of the beasts is no match for this vision of God! The thrones show us who is ultimately ruling, not just watching but ruling, over the affairs of the whole world—this is still future, so God’s rule here oversees every great power from Babylon to Britain and beyond. And there is no defying this Judge! The white clothing suggests He is entirely righteous to judge; the white hair, that He is entirely wise in all His ways, the fiery throne that He is entirely holy to convict, and the fiery chariot wheels, that He is entirely powerful to destroy and to act with finality. Verse 10 gives a mere glimpse of scope of his jurisdiction and holy purity surrounding His presence. It is this majesty of the Ancient of Days that impresses us so deeply and stirs our hearts, which makes the rebel sounds of the Little Horn’s blasphemy that much more offensive when once our knees have bowed before this Judge and our own excuses have been shut up in our throats:

11 "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 over to be burned with fire.  12 As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. (Dan. 7:11-12 ESV)

Judgement is passed, but it is not the end.

The last and most amazing, “behold!” Daniel gives us is in the next verse, when we begin to read about what comes after Judgement Day: the Kingdom of God and the King He has appointed to rule forever. The King is Jesus the Messiah. So if it is true of you and me that our hearts are not really all that different from God’s enemies, when it comes to the pride and lusts we have allowed to grow where nobody else can see, this vision is meant to change that. So that we would fall on the mercy of the Court and ask for the Good Saviour-King to rescue us. As Psalm 2 exclaims, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed…” But the psalm ends with an invitation: “0 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” (Ps. 2:10-12 ESV)